The
name of the exhibition is Riverine and it was organised by Alice Mcdowell and
Maurice Gunning, an Irish, in collaboration with Dr Isatou Touray.
The
official opening of the exhibition is on Friday, 27 January and it will last
till 1 February 2017.
The
exhibition is designed to focus on female health and sexuality, particularly
female genital mutilation (FGM) which affects about 78 per cent of girls and
women in The Gambia, according to WHO statistics.
The
practice varies from one tribe to another and it is usually done to girls
during adolescence as part of a coming-of-age ritual, a celebration of
womanhood.
In
an interview with this reporter yesterday at Alliance Français, Alice Mcdowell,
the brain behind the exhibition, said they traveled all the way from Ireland to
have an exhibition in The Gambia featuring nine Gambian women.
“Since
we exhibited in many places in Ireland, we now really want to bring the
exhibition back to The Gambia because there is a very important issue to
celebrate and it would be great to all Gambians to know about the work,” she
said.
The
nine women featured in the exhibition are circumcisers and they came from
different regions like Upper River, Central River and Lower River.
“Each
of the women had made the decision to abandon the practice of female
circumcision, something that they inherited from their mothers and grandmothers
and now they have stopped,” the Irish said.
“All the nine women have new life and great stories to tell.”
