Los Angeles ? Elizabeth Yaba’s book ?Kajeemah, Female Circumcision, My True Story? tells her story about growing up in a village called Sukudu, located in a remote part of Sierra Leone, where female teenagers are circumcised at 15 years old (a tribal custom of cutting the female clitoris). Sukudu is headquarters to all witchcraft activities.
Yaba takes the reader inside her tribe, as she describes the brutal process of female circumcision and shares, in detail, the process of this secret society of becoming a Bondo Girl.
The word ?Kajeemah? is a word from Yaba?s hometown language, Kono. It means, ?My head is full, I?ve got to tell it?.
?Absence of the Clitoris dictates brutal honestly with your feelings. The coping mechanisms highlighted in my book, ‘Kajeemah,’ are great ways for circumcised women to have a joyful love life; which I discovered by trial and error, broken relationships etc., Yaba says, adding, “This is my way of giving back to that community, the educational awareness for the fresh teenage girls and even how to avoid being circumcised!”
In explaining her personal experience as a circumcised woman Yaba says, ?the sexual feeling for a woman is gone?If you get in a situation of debating whether you have feelings for them or not, you will never feel sexy?.
She also goes into detail about her remarkable journey to America and the amazing story of her rise and fall as she continues on her spiritual life path.
Yaba says her life changed when she met civil rights activist James Meredith and his wife Judy, who sponsored her trip to America.
On becoming an American Yaba says, ?One thing I initially battled with when I landed in the United States of America was, since I was born in the headquarter of witchcraft activities, how do I get successful with all the evil surrounding my background? I had to recite to myself several times per day, “America is the land of the free and home of the brave, and I am now an American. I can make it, all I need is some education, accurate strategy and lots of success driven energy.”
That success, Yaba contends, came when she founded Yaba TV and Radio.
The Foreword to ?Kajeemah, Female Circumcision, My True Story? is written by Dr. Cheyenne Bryant, NAACP President, San Pedro/Wilmington. Yaba says that Bryant is a young African-American woman who truly believes and is in favor of Kajeemah and Yaba?s plight to save lives and improve lifestyles.
It is Yaba’s belief that ?There is so much power in media and with the most influential voices, America can change the world of female circumcision to celebrating girls untouched just as they were born, thus celebrating the natural lives as God intended for it to be, uncircumcised!
One of Yaba?s dreams after her book is read is that a corporate team will visit Africa, one country at a time, beginning with Sierra Leone.
Yaba TV’s goal is to have a television show in Sierra Leone and other parts of Africa highlighting a woman’s natural right to have and keep her clitoris.
?Kajeemah, Female Circumcision, My True Story? is available via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and yabamedia.com
For additional information on Elizabeth Yaba and her various projects visit: www.yabamedia.com
