Mae Azango Naughton image by Jake Naughton
Mae Azango was in Toronto recently to receive an award for courageous reporting from Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. Azango’s undercover expose of female circumcision in her home country of Liberia has resulted in death threats and forced her into hiding and her nine year old daughter into the care of relatives.
In Liberia, reportedly, 10 of 16 tribes are believed to practice Sande, a ritual believed to promote purity and prevent promiscuity and which usually takes place in the bush without doctors. Azango tried for two years to gain access to the secret society and finally she received a call telling her of a Sande graduation party in the town of Todee. She took a 3-hour taxi ride to the village where, posing as an aunt of one of the girls, she was able to write an eyewitness account of the ritual backed up with photographs. Her article was published in Front Page Africa on March 8, 2012 – International Women’s Day. Death threats began pouring into the newspaper office – two arson attempts occurred and 24-hour security guards were hired. An outcry from the international community including the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Amnesty International and the Columbia School of Journalism caused Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to promise to investigate the threats and order an indefinite suspension of all Sande activities.
