Diabougou is a village in the Thiès Region of western

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

. The village was the site of the "Diagoubou Declaration". This was the first multilateral announcement to renounce the practice of

female genital cutting Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

in Senegal.

Description

FGC

The village of Diabougou came to international notice in 1998 when it was the site of a public declaration by a group of villages to end the local tradition of what is known as

Female Genital Cutting Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

(FGC). The first declaration had been organised by the Senegalese imam

Demba Diawara Demba Diawara (born c. 1931) is an imam and village leader of Keur Simbara in Senegal. He is known for his leadership in encouraging village communities to abandon the tradition of female genital cutting. He knew of the first declarations at the S ...

and the American charity worker

Molly Melching Molly Melching is the founder and Creative Director of the Tostan Community Empowerment Program (CEP). Tostan (meaning "breakthrough" in the Wolof language) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Dakar, Senegal whose mission is t ...

. Diawara chose Diabougou to make the "Diabougou Declaration". Diawara had invested a lot of his time in persuading other communities. On 14 February 1998 fifty representatives from twelve nearby villages met to commit to this change. The thirteen villages involved contained an estimated 8,000 people and this was the first time a number of villages had made a commitment to end FGC. Diawara knew that two villages

Malicounda Bambara Malicounda Bambara is a village (pop. 1,555) in the M'bour Department of the Thiès Region in western Senegal, located approximately 85 km from the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Founded in 1902 by migrants from neighboring Mali in search of ...

and Nguerigne Bambara had already decided to renounce the practice of FGC but he and his village of Keur Simbara had identified a problem. He realised that girls from a village making a unilateral move to stop FGC would find it impossible to find partners in nearby villages. The multilateral declaration was intended to address the problem identified by Diawara.UNICEF/Tostan. ''La Décennie qui a fait reculer l'excision.'' UNICEF: 2008, p. 26. The declaration by these villages followed a first declaration made by the village of

the year before. The agreement was written in the

Wolof language Wolof (; Wolofal: ) is a language of Senegal, Mauritania, and the Gambia, and the native language of the Wolof people. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. ...

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

visited Senegal and in support of the villages who had abandoned FGC publicly. Her speech on 2 April highlighted the "Diabougou Declaration". Local leaders became heroes and Aissa Tou Sarr who had been the woman who carried out the FGC for $8.60 had bravely chosen to end what had been her skill and contribution.

References

Populated places in Senegal Populated places in Thiès Region {{Senegal-geo-stub