Female circumcision is the best kept secret in today's Africa. One can travel even with the credentials of a journalist without ever learning any of the facts that are described here. Female circumcision, which everyone you ask will tell you "does not exist here"-or "perhaps it is still practiced in a few remote areas"-according to a conservative estimate, affects the health and blights the lives of upwards of 20-25 million women in Africa today. Of course, nowhere do any records exist. Not even immediate fatalities of the operations are ever registered. By not keeping any records, health departments can claim that these practices do not exist.