29. Duchess of ATHOLLasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that a pre-marriage initiation rite is practised on young girls among many African tribes 443 that this rite in its most severe form consists of actual mutilation and causes great suffering and subsequent most serious injury to health; and whether any steps are taken to repress this custom?
§ Dr. SHIELSThe answer to the first two parts of the question is in the affirmative. Considerable caution is necessary in interfering with native customs of this kind, and the policy followed up till now by the Colonial Governments concerned has been to bring persuasion to bear upon the tribes which now practise the rite in its more brutal forms to return to the traditional and less harmful form of it. I am glad to say that a number of the local Native Councils in East Africa have in fact passed resolutions making illegal the severer forms of the operation. My noble friend proposes to go further into the matter with the Colonial Governments concerned.