these genital mutilations are not acceptable. Only men can reach their African counterparts on this subject - especially since sexuality is involved, to teach them the biological facts in a persuasive way and from their own experience. Unfortunately, no one has ever really tried to reach African men who make all the decisions in each family about the truth regarding female genital mutilations. Men also have been left out where family planning programs are concerned - which are all imported by Development and Population experts. As a result, family planning in Africa has and is failing.

It is up to the male development and health advisers and all those who have contact with African men - for instance, the way many students from Africa at Western Universities - totalk to them about excision and infibulation and to explain to them why these genital mutilations are unacceptable. But unfortunately, such educational programs have not been tried.

African women have now started to organize to fight against these terrible genital mutilations in a systematic way. The Inter-African Committee was created in 1984, five years after the ground-breaking seminar, organized by WHO, on the "Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children" held in Khartoum, Sudan.

As a temporary adviser to WHO - the sponsor of the meeting - I provided an overview of female child genital mutilations around the globe. This meeting opened up the international discussion on female genital mutilations, which had been a taboo subject until then. That was in 1979. The seminar attracted world-wide attention with