Review: "I Will Scream to the World" by Jaha Marie Dukureh

I Will Scream to the World by Jaha Marie Dukureh
Published December 2024 via Dafina
★★★

In another time and place, Dukureh's story might have been simple. She grew up with a fair amount of privilege in The Gambia, and for the most part the odds were in her favor. Except: her community practiced female genital mutilation (FGM),* and when she was pushed into an arranged marriage at the age of 15, she learned just how devastating the results could be.

I've read a reasonable—not huge—amount about FGM before, and I always appreciate memoirs that are by people who are working to change things within their own communities; there's nothing wrong with a well-done outsider memoir, but truths hit differently when they're written by people who have lived them. And Dukureh has done a lot with her life: after not one but two child marriages (in the US, it should be noted, lest you think that this is not a western problem), she started speaking out to raise awareness of, and laws against, FGM and more generally to improve the lives of girls in her communities. I'll note again that the issues she talks about are not unique to one region, and that she did not get the support she needed as a teenager: When I told the school guidance counselor...in New York City what was going to be done to me, she did not believe me. (loc. 445**)

The material is gripping and the activism powerful. The writing and the structure of the book are neither of those things. Dukureh is not a trained writer, of course, and sometimes it's worth it to just tell the story anyway, but I think a ghostwriter could have helped here. Significant events are covered in rapid fire, often with litanies of awards bestowed and important people met; there's a chapter in the middle that would be better suited as part of an Acknowledgements section; the structure shifts between chronological and thematic; we hear over and over how grateful Dukureh is to have received so many accolades...and just, I'm not that interested in awards received and famous people befriended. I'm interested in the work that she's doing, and the conversations that she's having, that get skimmed over in the book.

I'd also have loved to see more discussion of what it means to ban FGM vs. what it means to end FGM; Ashley Judd notes in the foreword that there is a shocking prevalence of FGM even in [the United States], despite the fact that FGM is illegal here (loc. 57), but most of the discussion in the book is more about what it takes to ban FGM elsewhere, not what conversations have to be had with the people and communities practicing it to get the community support to end it rather than just pushing it deeper into the shadows.

This wouldn't be high on my reading recommendation lists, but I expect to hear more about Dukureh in the future—she has ambitious plans.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Some sources prefer the term "female genital cutting" (FGC) in the interest of keeping lines of dialogue open with those who support the practice; for the sake of this review, I'll follow Dukureh's lead and call it FGM.

**Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.