Demba Diawara

Some activists used explicit images and they condemned the traditions and those villagers who had, in good faith, observed them for generations.

If you truly want to bring about widespread change ... they must all be involved[7]"Diawara had to raise a delicate subject and persuade the local social network.

On 14 February 1998 fifty representatives from thirteen villages met at Diabougou near the border with Mali to end the tradition of Female Genital Cutting (FGC).

This agreement resolved the problem identified by Diawara because it meant that girls and boys could find partners from other villages.

[9] Weeks after the Diagoubou declaration Hillary Clinton (and her husband who was then the president) gave a speech against FGC on 2 April in Senegal which attracted international coverage.

[10] Diawara's approach to communicating with his social network was later used as a model by the anti-FGC charity Tostan in their training of activists.

Diawara's approach grew and in 1999, another multilateral declaration involved 105 villages with an estimated total population of 80,000 people.

The Senegalese government outlawed the practice, but laws may not effect a whole village's traditions in the same way as Diawara's persuasion.