When Culture Becomes Political Currency: Who Is Protecting Sierra Leone’s Girls?
By Ishmeal Alfred Charles
Humanitarian, Child-Rights Advocate, Anti-FGM Campaigner
Female genital mutilation is often discussed as a cultural practice. But what happens when culture intersects with political ambition, money, traditional authority and the struggle for votes? In Sierra Leone, the question is no longer simply why Bondo continues to exist. It is whether the political establishment is prepared to protect girls even when doing so may threaten powerful interests.
The million-dollar question
There is a question that Sierra Leone must confront honestly, courageously and without political interference:
Why, at a time when the world is mobilising to end female genital mutilation, are reports of mass Bondo initiations raising questions about the involvement, encouragement or sponsorship of political actors?
If politicians are sponsoring mass initiation drives into Bondo where FGM is performed, what motivates them? Is it a genuine commitment to cultural preservation, a search for political loyalty, an investment in traditional power structures, or a calculation that the support of influential traditional leaders will translate into electoral advantage?
These questions deserve answers supported by evidence, transparency and public accountability.
It is important to distinguish between Bondo as a traditional institution and the cutting of girls and women associated with some initiation ceremonies. Not every Bondo initiation necessarily involves FGM. Indeed, Sierra Leone has already seen initiatives demonstrating that cultural initiation can take place without cutting. The question is whether political leaders are supporting the preservation of culture in ways that protect girls, or helping to perpetuate a harmful practice under the protection of tradition.
The distinction matters because culture should never become a convenient shield against scrutiny, particularly when the bodies, dignity and futures of children are at stake.
A global crisis that demands local courage
Female genital mutilation is not an isolated Sierra Leonean problem. It is a global human-rights and public-health crisis.
According to UNICEF’s 2024 global estimates, more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM. The affected population includes more than 144 million people in Africa, over 80 million in Asia and approximately six million in the Middle East. The practice is also found in diaspora communities across the world.
The World Health Organization estimates that more than four million girls are at risk of undergoing FGM every year. FGM has no health benefits and can cause severe bleeding, infections, urinary difficulties, chronic pain, sexual-health complications, psychological trauma and complications during childbirth. In some cases, it can be fatal.
The international community has committed itself to ending FGM by 2030 under Sustainable Development Goal 5.3. Yet UNICEF warns that the pace of progress must accelerate dramatically if that ambition is to become reality.
These figures represent more than statistics. They represent childhoods interrupted, bodily autonomy violated, and girls exposed to risks they did not choose.
Sources: UNICEF, Female Genital Mutilation: A Global Concern (2024); WHO, Female Genital Mutilation (2025).
Sierra Leone: A country at a crossroads
Sierra Leone occupies a particularly important place in this global conversation.
The country’s 2019 Demographic and Health Survey found that approximately 83 per cent of women and girls aged 15–49 had undergone FGM, down from 90 per cent in 2013. That decline offered evidence that change is possible, even in a society where the practice is deeply embedded in social relationships, traditional institutions and expectations surrounding womanhood.
However, an overall decline must not create complacency. A prevalence rate of 83 per cent remains extraordinarily high. It means that millions of personal histories, family relationships and social expectations may be connected to the practice.
In many communities, Bondo initiation is understood as a passage into womanhood. It may involve cultural instruction, community belonging, social recognition and the transmission of traditional knowledge. For many families, the institution carries a profound cultural meaning.
But acknowledging that significance does not require accepting every practice associated with it.
The central human-rights question is whether a girl can grow into adulthood without being subjected to a procedure that risks her health and violates her bodily integrity. No cultural institution should be beyond constructive reform, and no girl should have to surrender her rights to secure acceptance in her community.
The challenge for Sierra Leone is not to humiliate traditional communities or dismiss their heritage. It is to protect girls while working with communities to preserve the positive elements of cultural identity.
When politics enters the initiation ground
This is where the politics of FGM becomes especially important.
In societies where traditional authorities hold considerable social influence, politicians may have strong incentives to maintain relationships with influential traditional leaders. Such relationships can be entirely legitimate when they support development, education, healthcare and community welfare.
But they become a matter of public concern when political support, money or influence is allegedly used to encourage activities that expose girls to harm.
Reports and allegations of politicians sponsoring mass Bondo initiations therefore deserve serious, independent scrutiny. Who provides the money? Who organises the ceremonies? Who decides whether girls are old enough to participate? What safeguards exist? Are any public resources involved? And what conditions, if any, accompany such sponsorship?
These are questions of public interest, not attacks on a particular political party or ethnic community.
A responsible investigation must establish the facts before assigning blame. Financial records, credible eyewitness accounts, organisers’ statements, public announcements and other verifiable evidence should be examined before any individual is accused of wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, the absence of a completed investigation must not become an excuse for political silence.
If a politician funds an initiation ceremony, the public has a legitimate interest in knowing whether that funding supports cultural education, a bloodless rite of passage, or a ceremony involving FGM. The distinction should be clear and verifiable.
The million-dollar question remains: if political sponsorship is occurring, what does the sponsor hope to achieve, and who bears the cost when the ceremony exposes a girl to harm?
The economics of tradition
There is also an economic dimension that deserves attention.
In June 2026, Sierra Leone’s Awoko newspaper reported warnings from the National Ceremonial Chairman of the Council of Traditional Healers that some Bondo initiation practices were increasingly being driven by financial gain. The report included claims about substantial fees associated with initiation and training.
Those claims require careful verification, but they raise an important issue: what happens when a traditional practice becomes a source of income for the people who organise it?
Where livelihoods, payments and social status depend on the continuation of a practice, abandonment can become economically and politically complicated. People who might otherwise support reform may fear losing income, influence or community standing.
This does not mean every traditional leader is motivated by money, nor does it mean Bondo should be reduced to a commercial enterprise. It means that effective reform must examine the economic incentives that sustain harmful practices alongside the beliefs and social expectations that perpetuate them.
If the elimination of FGM is to succeed, governments and development partners must support alternative livelihoods, community education and dignified cultural practices that do not depend on cutting.
The law must not stop at child marriage
Sierra Leone has taken an important legislative step through the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2024, which prohibits child marriage and provides legal protections for children.
However, the country continues to face a major legal gap: the sources reviewed for this article indicate that Sierra Leone has no comprehensive law explicitly criminalising FGM as a practice in itself.
This distinction is critical. Preventing child marriage does not automatically prevent FGM. A girl can be subjected to FGM without being married, and a ceremony can expose a child to harm even when no marriage follows.
Legislation must therefore address the specific risks associated with FGM, protect girls and women, provide accessible reporting and referral mechanisms, and ensure that survivors can obtain appropriate medical, psychological and social support.
Law reform must be accompanied by enforcement, public education and safeguards against intimidation. Laws that exist only on paper cannot protect girls who face pressure from family members, community authorities or influential individuals.
The government, Parliament, the judiciary, law-enforcement institutions and child-protection agencies all have responsibilities. Traditional leaders and political representatives also have an opportunity to demonstrate that cultural leadership and children’s rights are compatible.
What our book, The Politics of FGM, seeks to expose
Our book, The Politics of FGM, examines female genital mutilation beyond the narrow boundaries of tradition and individual choice. It interrogates the intersection of FGM with political power, child marriage, legislation, international assistance and the responsibilities of elected representatives.
At its heart, the book challenges the tendency to treat FGM as a problem that exists only inside traditional communities while overlooking the wider systems of influence that can sustain it.
It asks readers to consider whether governments and political institutions are doing enough to protect girls, whether legislation adequately addresses the realities they face, and whether international aid and development commitments are producing meaningful change on the ground.
The book also invites a difficult examination of the relationship between political promises and practical action. A leader may publicly endorse children’s rights while remaining reluctant to confront powerful constituencies whose support is politically valuable. Where such contradictions exist, they deserve scrutiny.
The purpose is not to condemn an entire culture or to portray every politician as complicit. It is to insist that no political leader, traditional authority or institution should be exempt from accountability when the welfare of children is at stake.
The central argument is straightforward: FGM cannot be ended sustainably if the social, economic and political systems that protect its continuation remain beyond examination.
This is why the question of political sponsorship is so important. If evidence establishes that political money or influence is being used to facilitate ceremonies involving FGM, those responsible must explain their decisions and face the appropriate legal and public scrutiny.
Bondo without blood: An alternative is possible but only as a step to the main goal.
The debate need not be framed as a choice between abandoning cultural identity and continuing FGM.
Sierra Leone has already witnessed an alternative. Reporting by Politico SL documented an initiative in Port Loko District in which approximately 70 young initiates participated in a Bondo ceremony without the cutting ritual. The initiative involved traditional practitioners who pledged to stop performing FGM.
This example demonstrates that reform need not erase cultural identity. Traditional instruction, community belonging and the celebration of a girl’s development can be retained without subjecting her to genital cutting.
Such initiatives deserve evaluation and expansion as a mean to the end of FGM not for it sustainability for another lasting initiation but as a route to the final end of FGM.
Questions Sierra Leone must answer
The debate over FGM sponsorship demands clear answers to several questions:1. Are politicians or political organisations funding mass Bondo initiations, and what documentary evidence establishes the nature and purpose of that funding? 2. Where public money is involved, what safeguards ensure that it does not finance activities involving FGM? 3. What protections are available to girls who are pressured or coerced into initiation? 4. Why has Sierra Leone not yet established a comprehensive legal framework explicitly prohibiting FGM? 5. What practical support is being provided to traditional practitioners willing to abandon cutting while preserving positive cultural education? 6. Will political parties publicly commit to ensuring that no campaign, public programme or political donation supports FGM? 7. What independent monitoring and reporting mechanisms will enable communities to report risks without fear of retaliation?
These questions should be put to all political parties, not only those currently in government. The protection of children must transcend electoral competition.
A call to political conscience
As a humanitarian, child-rights advocate and anti-FGM campaigner, I believe the debate must move beyond condemnation without solutions.
Governments must invest in prevention, protection, survivor-centred healthcare, education and economic alternatives. Parliament must address legal gaps. Civil society must continue to document abuses and support affected communities. Journalists must investigate claims responsibly. Traditional leaders must be included in reform, and men must accept their responsibility to challenge harmful practices rather than treating FGM as an issue that concerns women alone.
International partners must also ensure that their programmes are measured by their impact on girls’ safety and rights, not merely by the number of meetings held, campaigns launched or funds disbursed.
Most importantly, politicians must decide whether their legacy will be measured by the loyalty they secure from powerful constituencies or by the futures they protect for the country’s children.
If a mass initiation is organised without cutting, with informed and voluntary participation, appropriate age safeguards and genuine protection for girls, it can become part of a constructive cultural transition. If, however, sponsorship is used to encourage FGM, silence critics or shield harmful practices from accountability, it becomes a matter that demands urgent investigation.
The million-dollar question cannot be buried
Sierra Leone has an opportunity to show that tradition can evolve, political leadership can be accountable and girls can enjoy both cultural belonging and bodily autonomy.
But that future requires honesty about the forces that sustain FGM. It requires asking who benefits, who pays, who makes the decisions and who is left to live with the consequences.
The question is not whether Sierra Leone should preserve its cultural heritage. It should.
The question is whether preserving that heritage must come at the expense of a girl’s health, dignity and fundamental rights. It must not.
And so we return to the million-dollar question:
If politicians are sponsoring mass Bondo initiation drives in which FGM is practised, why are they doing so and who will hold them accountable?
The answer must be established through credible evidence, independent investigation and public transparency. Until it is, political leaders should be expected to declare their position, disclose their involvement and demonstrate, through their actions, that protecting girls is more important than securing political advantage.
Every girl deserves the right to grow up safe, educated, healthy and free to determine her own future. No political calculation, cultural expectation or financial interest should outweigh that right.
The politics of FGM must finally become a politics of protection.
Because no tradition is worth a child’s suffering, and no political ambition is worth a girl’s bodily integrity.
About the author
Ishmeal Alfred Charles is a Sierra Leonean humanitarian, child-rights advocate, author and anti-FGM campaigner with nearly two decades of experience in humanitarian and social-development work. A former child soldier, he has dedicated much of his life to protecting vulnerable children and challenging practices that threaten their safety and dignity. He is a Community Voice volunteer with GAMS and continues to advocate for the abandonment of FGM, community-led reform and the protection of girls and women.
Selected references● UNICEF (2024), Female Genital Mutilation: A Global Concern. https://data.unicef.org/resources/female-genital-mutilation-a-global-concern-2024/ ● World Health Organization (2025), Female Genital Mutilation. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation ● Sierra Leone Demographic and Health Survey (2019), FGM prevalence findings. ● SierraLII, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2024. https://sierralii.gov.sl/akn/sl/act/2024/5/eng%402024-07-11 ● Awoko, “FGM Has Become Big Business – Traditional Healer Sounds Alarm” (28 June 2026). ● Politico SL, “Sierra Leone Initiates Bondo Without FGM.” https://politicosl.com/articles/sierra-leone-initiates-bondo-without-fgm
