Wings for the butterfly The day my life newly began

Book excerpt: Wings for the butterfly, the day my life newly began is a journey; a long and hard one inside a woman’s life who travelled far away from her own country and also inside herself to find a meaning to her existence and get back the integrity that she had lost at a young age. Today female mutilation is still practiced in various parts of the world, and many young girls who undergo FGM live in Africa. FGM is most prevalent among ethnic groups like Samburu, Maasai, Somali…The author is a victim of this cruelty, and through her book wants to raise awareness among young African girls, and more, against a brutal practice that changes their lives forever. The book starts with a description of a simple but happy life, until the mutilation day comes and Ntailan’s existence changes completely. The way she loves herself and her body, the way she sees her parents who are guilty of allowing that, her feelings towards men and life, everything is discombobulated. So, the journey starts, through sorrow, and through a long spiritual and psychological path of healing, in order to find her real identity and roots. From pain, confusion and loss, through a long period of wandering and discovery, to eventual happiness – this is her story. Ntailan Lolkoki is a Maasai-Samburu living in Berlin. She is a painter, dancer and writer but most importantly she is an activist against FGM. Her biography was first released in Germany under the name of Fluegel fuer den Schmetterling, der Tag Mein Leben neue Began. It explains her life through FGM and the transformation thereafter. Her life is dedicated to inspiring many others with the same or similar cases of FGM, to rise and stand for themselves, facing and accepting their traumas as well as forgiving their perpetrators. She has given talks in Germany and in Kenya on the subject, to say no to FGM. She has written three books, all of them with a message to girls and women against FGM. One of her books is known as the Kingdom of Watetu and Songaland. It is an African Fairy Tale about a Princess who discovers as a child that FGM was wrong and went against it at the cost of almost losing her life. In the end her sacrifices paid off as she managed to save the girls of her tribe and reunite two neighbouring tribes at war because of FGM. Her third book is known as Life After Reconstruction, My Life After FGM Reconstruction. In it, she also continues to raise awareness against FGM.