Holistic Parenting from the Pan-Afrikan Perspective

Circumcision (BOOK EXERPT)

Many Afrikan parents in the Diaspora have their sons circumcised in the hospitals. Circumcision is pretty much routine. In some cases this procedure is chosen by the parents because they are of a particular religion or culture. Most Afrikans in the United States choose circumcision because they have simply been conditioned to do so. It is not something many parents think of questioning. Some parents believe that circumcision promotes cleanliness and decreases the transfer of sexually transmitted diseases. These ideas however are untrue. Many Afrikan parents are unaware of the history of circumcision and the Afrikan man. Afrikan males were targeted more than their White counterparts due to racism. The incidence of the operation also varies within racial groups. Schrek and Lenowitz demonstrated that early circumcision is more frequently performed in Negroes than in white men.6 It was believed that Afrikans were over sexed and more prone to sexually transmitted diseases. These are obviously racial stereotypes that are not based on research. Oddly, many people today believe there is a link between STDS and the foreskin. The American Academy of Pediatrics found that there are not enough benefits of circumcision to advocate the practice for all newborn infants.

Today, the circumcision rate in the United States has dropped to below 60 percent - and as low as 34 percent in Western states, according to the National Center for Health Statistics of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.7 Circumcision will not decrease urinary tract infections, STDs, or penile cancers. An uncircumcised penis is clean and should not be considered as bad hygiene. As stated earlier the Afrikan man was especially targeted for circumcision. Western society has always had an obsession with the Afrikan penis. Superstitions and myths were created about the size of the Afrikan man's penis and his sex drive. Even today he is blamed for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. White men believed and still believe he has to protect the White woman from this diseased and over sexed Black buck.

Dr. Eugene Hand wrote about the "promiscuous" Afrikan male: Circumcision is not common among Negroes. When done it often is later in life and frequently is due to recurrent venereal disease. The sex education of most Negroes is meager. They tend to accept venereal disease with less fear or social taboo than do most Jews and gentiles. Many Negroes are promiscuous. In Negroes there is little circumcision, little knowledge or fear of venereal disease and promiscuity in almost a hornet's nest of infection. Thus the venereal rate in Negroes has remained high.8

In the late 1800s, Dr. Peter Charles Remondino was one of the vocal advocates of circumcision. Doctors such as himself wanted to enforce the circumcision of all Afrikan males to protect white women from rape. He believed circumcision would also be a means of keeping the Negro clean because he was too ignorant to understand hygiene. Remondino wanted to make it a law that all Afrikan males be circumcised.

The Maryland Medical Journal agreed with Remondino stating: He has observed that whilst male Jews are noted for their strong sexual proclivities, such a character as a Jewish rapist is never heard of. He attributes this fact to the practice of circumcision, and he now suggests that the legal enforcement of circumcision among the Negro race would effectually remedy the predisposition to aping inherent in this race.9

Many might wonder how the medical industry convinced parents to get their children circumcised regardless of their religious or cultural beliefs.

Dr. David Chamberlin explains that: Circumcision originated at least 6,000 years ago as a tribal and religious identity symbol in Semitic cultures. The ballooning of the practice in 20th century America was the work of pediatricians and obstetricians who gave it new status as a "medical" procedure. Circumcision also received a big lift from a wealthy layman, John Harvey Kellogg, founder of the cereal company, who was obsessed with the evils of masturbation and advocated circumcision as the solution. Kellogg's book, Plain Facts for Old and Young, urged parents to have their boys circumcised without anesthesia--because the pain would have a "salutory effect upon the mind"--and was as common in American homes at the time as his corn flakes.10

Cited

6.) Patel, Hawa. “The Problem Routine Circumcison.” Canadian Medial Association Journal 95 (1966): 576-581.

7.) Omara, Peggy. Natural Family Living. New York: Pocket Books, 2000.

8.) Hand, Eugene. "Circumcision and venereal disease."Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology 60 (1949): 345-6.

9.) "Circumcision for the correction of sexual crimes among the Negro race." Maryland Medical Journal 30 (1894) : 345-6.

10.) Davis- Floyd, Robbie, and Dumit, Joseph, eds. Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots. Oxford: Routledge, 1998.