US Professor exposes deceit on Ghana

AN AMERICAN Professor of African History has criticised Marie Clairea, news magazine in the US, for its campaign to secure asylum for Adelaide Abankwah. Adelaide sought asylum on grounds that she was escaping for punishment of female genital mutilation for breaking her virginity.
In a letter to Glenda Bailey, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, dated September 22, and copied to the Chronicle, Professor Jean Allman said no where in Ghana is female genital mutilation used as punishment against those who have lost their virginity.
Following is the text of the letter:
Dear Glenda Bailey:
I am writing to express my outrage at MARIE CLAIRE'S coverage of the Adelaide Abankwah case. Surely a magazine of your stature employs investigative reporters capable of fleshing out the facts of a story.
Let me make it clear that my response to your coverage is not motivated by support for the antiquated and racist immigration policies of the United States government, but from a long-term association with and love for Adelaide's home country. I have lived off and on in Ghana for nearly twenty-three years and am currently finishing up a 9-month research stay there. I oppose US immigration policy which restricts the number of immigrants allowed into the country. I absolutely abhor the idea that those caught in the INS's red-tape are incarcerated for ridiculous lengths of time. I am also absolutely opposed to violence against women of any sort, including genital mutilation.
That said, I am disgusted that your magazine has made Adelaide into a cause celebre when there is every indication that her story is contrived. Female genital mutilation is not only NOT practised in the area of Ghana from which Adelaide claims to come, but NEVER has been. While there are, unfortunately, a few scattered groups in Ghana's far northern areas that still practice FMG, it is not found anywhere in or near the Central Region. Nowhere in Ghana and, in fact, nowhere on the African continent, is FMG used as a punishment against those who have lost their virginity. Her claims are preposterous and any glance at any relevant literature or a conversation with any one of the Ghanaian immigrants in NYC, or the Ghanaian Consulate, would have made this clear, is a felony offence in Ghana. Anyone who had the wherewithal to make it from Ghana's Central Region to NYC would certainly have had no difficulty reporting her case to the authorities in Ghana - were there indeed a case to report.
I am enclosing one of several articles which have appeared in the Ghanaian press in response to the coverage in the US that Adelaide has received. I hope that you read it closely. It appeared in one of Ghana's most reputable newspapers. By failing to investigate this story, your magazine has contributed to the perpetuation of exoticized images of African women and of Africa, generally. Once the facts of Adelaide's case are made public, and they surely will be at some point, you will have also made it increasingly difficult for women who have REAL reasons to flee their homes to receive asylum in the United States.