To improve their looks, people worldwide are getting increasingly under the knife. In Benin, as in other parts of Africa, the knife creates, or at least used to create, tribal identity through facial scars. Held down by her mother on a bed of leaves, the poor little girl was only four. But she needed the many dozens of sharp lines on her face to look like a Somba. And what a valiant little girl she was! She did not even cry.
