Uvulaectomies...why are they performed?

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I am a public health grad student and one of my professor's (also a
medical doctor), told me about a wierd "custom" that seems to be centered in
the African country of Chad. Doctors there apparently perform a lot of
"uvulectomies", that is the removal of the uvulae, that thing that hangs
down in the middle of your rear palate. He said the figures indicate it is
done on more females than males.
Is anyone familiar with this? Since this is a part of the world that also
has high incidence of female genital mutilation, we wondered if there is
some conscious (or prehaps unconscious) connection.

Also, I would appreciate information about whether it is believed TB existed
in pre-contact Hawaii....
Any ideas?
Julie in Honolulu

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