The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life [Paperback]

Kim Manresa (Author), Isabel Ramos Rioja (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 1999

This is the moving photostory of a 4 year old African girl named Kadi, who is subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) in accordance with the traditions of her community. Black and white photographs document the activities of the day in which she undergoes this operation and an explanatory text details exactly what FGM entails. This is a unique book, being the first photo documentation of the practice. The story is personal and emotive, and the photographs, although confronting, depict the events with delicacy and are of very high quality. Significantly, the book focuses on the immediate experience of a child undergoing FGM, separating it from other recent accounts which have been written from the perspective of adult females looking back on their childhood.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This slim volume packs as much controversy between its covers as any weighty political tome. In a series of emotionally stirring and sometimes disturbing black-and-white photos, photojournalist Manresa documents the practice that he and Rioja term "female genital mutilation." Therein lies the controversy. Across various countries and cultures, the actual cutting and removal of sexual organs is a tradition that predates the emergence of Christianity and Islam. Meanwhile, critics of the tradition, including many Westerners like novelist Alice Walker in her video Warrior Marks (Video Reviews, LJ 11/15/94), speak out against its continuation. Manresa's photos of Kadi's painful experience leave no doubt that he and Rioja strongly oppose this practice. This photodocumentation adds considerably to discussion on the issue, though its graphic depiction will assail some senses. Strongly recommended for most libraries.
-Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon Libs., Eugene
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Spinifex Press should be congratulated for having the courage to publish this book..." -- Louise Ajani, Healthsharing Women

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Product Details

• Paperback: 50 pages
• Publisher: Spinifex Press (March 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1875559744
• ISBN-13: 978-1875559749
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 10.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,632,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Done, but EXTREMELY GRAPHIC! DISTURBING & SICKENING!, June 10, 2005

By 

benbrattlover (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life (Paperback)

I checked this book out from the library, and even though I knew that it was about female circumcision, otherwise known as F.G.M. or female genital mutilation, I had NO idea how graphic this book really was!

This book, "The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life", by Kim Manresa, is a horrifying photo book detailing the day when a young girl in a sub-Sahara region of Africa, is circumcised in the most unsanitary, unhygienic, unsterile, and torturous way possible.

It is heart-wrenching to know that in the 21st Century, this kind of cruelty is going on, every single day to babies, and little kids all over the globe, but particularly in Africa, and the Middle East. It's so easy for those living in America & protected from awful kinds of tortures like this to ignore the suffering of less fortunate people on the other side of the world.

But a book like this certainly opens your eyes to just how fortunate we all are to be living in a free society like the United States. Women, especially, should thank their lucky stars that we are not born in countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, the Sudan, Togo, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Egypt, and other countries.

This book is extremely disturbing, showing in pictures from start to finish, a young girl named Kadi, having her genitals mutilated, without anesthesia, or even any sterile equipment, and then not even being allowed to cry, forced to keep silent by the evil monster who had just finished torturing her. It was just sickening!

My heart was ACHING just looking at this book. It hurt so bad, that I wanted to just reach through the pages before poor Kadi was circumcised (tortured and mutilated), pull her out of the book, and bring her to live under protection in the United States.

Alas, that is not possible, and day after day this horror goes on and on, despite being outlawed in many countries. There has to be some way to help end this barbaric and cruel practice. F.G.M is WRONG, and it has NO religious basis. Like "honor killing", and the veiling and seclusion of women, it is not sanctioned by ANY religion, Islam or otherwise.

This book is VERY well done, but as I have said before, it is EXTREMELY graphic! It is very disturbing, and it took me several hours of TV to get this book's awful photos, out of my head. Even to this day, I still have this terrible knot in the pit of my stomach, from the pictures fleeting through my mind.

But if there is one thing that this book has done, it has made me grateful every single day that I am an American citizen (albeit an Indian-American) and that I was born and raised in the United States.

It has also made me want to join in the effort to help do whatever it takes to eradicate this cruel and barbaric practice forever.

The media needs to shed more light on this torture that little girls and women are subjected to on a daily basis. This country and other developed nations need to band together to put an end to this ancient and brutal tradition.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get out the tissues. You will cry yours eyes out., March 14, 2007

By 

Linda Rae Smith "Linda Rae Smith" (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life (Paperback)

This book was so sad and so shocking. But a must read. If enough people would get involved maybe this horrible practice would be stopped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cried through most of the book . I'm so angry that Africa, and a few other countries will cut all the babies genitals off . They do this as early as age 1 year old. This woman's story tells oh how at age 6 , she her 3 yea old sister and 1 year old were all deprived on their vaginal parts..together, all in same day. They use knives, scissors, dirty filthy tools used over and over till completely dull. Some even use their teeth!
This is a much needed book to read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extremely effective argument against FGM, among other things., June 24, 2008

By 

Lisbeth Cheever-Gessaman (Itinerant Traveler) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life (Paperback)

Female Genital Mutilation.

Even the term is terrifying to the ears of western women. And in the stunning and controversial book The Day Kadi Lost a Part of Her Life, Kim Manresa, who won several awards for this book including the Silver Medal for Photojournalism, the Visa d'Or for L'Image del Festival International du Photojournalisme in Perpignan and the Human Rights Award for the International Week of Photojournalism and Isabel Ramos Rioja fully and explictly document not only the historicity of the process, but actual visual representation of it.

I first became aware of FGM back in the nineties when one of my favourite musicians, Johnette Napolitano, wrote a song covering it (which I also highly recommend, but that perhaps for another article). After researching it, I was horrified to discover that this was a common practice in several countries around the world and embarked to become as involved as possible in educating others in order to eventually bring it to late in hopes of eradicating it entirely.

Some background: Every year, over two million girls and women undergo FGM. The practice, which removes all or part of the female genitalita by generally one of three procedures:

Clitoridectomy, amputation of sections of, or all of the clitoris;

Excision, amputation of the clitoris and the labia minora;

Infibulation, also known as pharonic circumcision, is the most drastic form of FGM practiced, which includes excision and further cuts being made to the labia majora to cause raw surfaces which are then sewn or clipped together to cause the two flaps to join allowing only a small opening for the purposes of urination, menstruation and intercourse.


It is practiced in over 28 African nations and reported among Muslim populations in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malayasia, although there are no absolute figures as to how widespread it is within those countries. It is performed without benefit of anesthetic or medical tools, is a tradition that spans centuries and predates both Islam and Christianity. It is important to note that the majority of Muslims as well as Christians are vehemently opposed to FGM.

The prologue, penned by Olayinka Koso-Thomas's, details that it is "typical of every little girl who lives in a community where to be loved, married, and held in high esteem requires you to be genitally mutilated. Failure to undergo the operation leads to harassment, ridicule, abuse, trauma, and eventual ostracism from one's community".

When I first picked up this book, there was nothing in the cover that would indicate the horror that lay within. It begins with photographs. of Kadi, showing her as a beautiful, smiling four year old girl awaiting her `initiation'. The reader is drawn in as the tale becomes devastatingly clear - one woman holding her down while the other slices away at her genitalia. Each picture tells its own story, unfolding into a horrific event that will leave the reader disturbed for longer than it takes to read the book.

Much, much longer. Even now writing this, I cannot shake the violence of the assault on my own feminine sensibilities. I defy even one woman to view this book and not become infuriated by the last page. And I think that was exactly the point of Mancesa - to show, rather than tell. Pictures in this case being more than anything words can ever tell. The choice of black and white pictures as opposed to color do nothing to lessen the impact of horror upon the reader.

I recommend this book, not for its somewhat exploitative nature - I have to imagine Kim Manresa possesses a heart of stone to have been able to stand still to photograph these scenes - but for the very shaking and horrific images that it unseats within the viewer. I think after everything I have reads regarding FGM - this book alone was what really brought it home. The last image of the book, with Kadi standing alone in a hut where she is not allowed to cry or weep, and where she must stay until her wounds are healed, may be even the most disturbing image of all.

The book is published by Spinifex Press, with part of the proceeds dedicated to the London based non-government organisation FORWARD (the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development) who work internationally for the elimination of female genital mutilation worldwide.

A final note: one review on Amazon.ca notes this book as 'A must for every coffee table". I wouldn't go that far - this is not something you would ever want anyone (let alone a child) to stumble upon. But as far as bringing a horrific vision to life in a way that only pictures ever can, this book will singularly change your perspective on the horror that FGM is, if not your life.