Efua Dorkenoo

Efua Dorkenoo, OBE (6 September 1949 – 18 October 2014), affectionately known as "Mama Efua", was a Ghanaian-British campaigner against female genital mutilation (FGM) who pioneered the global movement to end the practice and worked internationally for more than 30 years to see the campaign "move from a problem lacking in recognition to a key issue for governments around the world."

Early years She was born on 6 September 1949 in Cape Coast, Ghana, where she attended Wesley Girls' High School. She was a staff nurse at various hospitals, including the Royal Free,

Campaigning work She joined the Minority Rights Group and travelled to various parts of Africa to gather information for what was one of the earliest reports published on FGM in 1980. She began working with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1995 and was the acting director for women’s health there until 2001. She was Advocacy Director and, subsequently, Senior FGM Advisor for Equality Now (an international human rights organization). and with Gloria Steinem, who wrote an introduction to Dorkenoo's 1994 book Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation. In 2012, she was made honorary senior research fellow in the School of Health Sciences at City University London, and in 2013 she was named one of the BBC's 100 Women.

Dorkenoo's Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation (1994) was selected by an international jury in 2002 as one of "Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century".

Dorkenoo died of cancer in London at the age of 65 on 18 October 2014, survived by her husband Freddie Green, her sons Kobina and Ebow, and her stepchildren.

Selected publications Cutting The Rose: Female Genital Mutilation the Practice and its Prevention (Minority Rights Group, 1994). Report of the First Study Conference of Genital Mutilation of Girls in Europe/ Western World (1993) Child Protection and Female Genital Mutilation: Advice for Health, Education, and Social Work Profession (1992) Female Genital Mutilation: Proposals for Change (with Scilla Elworthy) (1992) Tradition! Tradition: A symbolic story on female genital mutilation (1992) As Stella Efua Graham with Scilla McLean (eds), Female Circumcision, Excision, and Infibulation (Minority Rights Group Report 47, 1980)