IMPERIAL CONCERNS AND WOMENS AFFAIRS - STATE EFFORTS TO REGULATE CLITORIDECTOMY AND ERADICATE ABORTION IN MERU, KENYA, C. 1910-1950

Through an analysis of state campaigns to regulate clitoridectomy and eradicate abortion, this paper examines the contradictory and gendered nature of the colonial state's efforts to fulfill the 'moral obligati ons' of imperial rule and secure local political control. In the wake of the 'female circumcision controversy' of 1928-31, officials in Lond on and Nairobi abandoned efforts to criminalize clitoridectomy and ins tead adopted a policy of gently discouraging the practice through educ ation and propaganda. Administrators in the politically peripheral are a of Meru, however, vitiated this policy by enforcing initiation at an earlier age in order to combat abortion. European officers believed t hat in transforming the pre-nuptial process of female initiation into a pre-pubescent rite, they could eradicate unwanted pregnancies and ab ortions by eliminating the period when sexually mature (but unexcised) girls were 'customarily' prohibited from conceiving and giving birth. They eventually convinced some African officials that abortion was, i n fact, a moral and demographic threat. Over the disapproval of most i n Meru, European officers and African officials implemented a series o f measures to lessen the severity of clitoridectomy and lower the age of female initiation. Their reliance on police-organized mass excision s,and women's clandestine performance of second excisions illustrate t he forceful character yet superficial scope of colonial authority in r ural Kenya. In the process perhaps of preventing some abortions, state interventions surrounding female initiation enabled male administrato rs to partially subvert the authority of women's councils and to situa te themselves as guardians of 'the Meru'.