This paper is a critical appraisal of NGO activism against female genital cuttin g ( FGC) practices among Ejagham communities in Southwest Cameroon. The paper argues that by framing female circumcision as a ‘‘harmful traditional practice’’ , local anti - female circumcision activists (NGOs and their external allies), using educational, health, legal awareness and human rights - based approaches, have produced mixed results, thereby re - inforcing resistance among cultural hardliners. Their demonizat ion of culture and failure to address the local context of these practices tends rather, to reify and re - inscribe the practice as central to Ejagham cultural identity, personhood and femininity. Although t ension is absolutely central not only to any attemp t to stop the practice but probably to the processes involved in the practices themselves, I maintai n that a community - led, ‘Positive Deviance Approach’ could be a way forward towards the eventual eradication of FGC

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