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South Africa Traditional Circumcision Deaths Prompt Bans, Debate

Anita Powell

   JOHANNESBURG - For hundreds of years, teenage boys and young men from
   South Africa's Xhosa and Ndebele groups have followed a sacred, secret
   coming-of-age ritual that culminates in ritual circumcision by a
   traditional surgeon. Initiation, as the practice is called, is part of
   the rich fabric of South African society.

   But in recent years, as dozens of young men have died during the
   process each year -- most from exhaustion and dehydration, but some
   from botched surgeries -- it has also become a legal and cultural
   minefield.

   Both the practice's traditional defenders and those agitating for
   reform agree on one thing: No more boys should die. But how exactly
   they will get there is a question no one can answer.

   This year, amid reports of more than 25 deaths during the recent
   initiation season, South Africa's Commission for the Promotion and
   Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities called for
   the immediate suspension of initiation schools in the Eastern Cape
   province, where most of the deaths occurred.

   That call has earned the ire of the gatekeeper of this tradition, the
   Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa. The group's president,
   Kgosi Mathupa Mokoena, said he agrees that schools that have seen
   deaths should be investigated, but that a ban is not just foolhardy,
   but futile.

   "We totally disagree with the call from the CRL, because unfortunately,
   we were never consulted when they made this call," he said from South
   Africa's eastern Mpumalanga province. "Unfortunately for them, even if
   they had made a call or even forced parliament to legislate to do away
   or ban the running of initiation schools, unfortunately it is not
   enforceable. Therefore we'll just advise them, nicely, to say, 'come,
   let's sit down and talk about this.' Because If you legislate on
   something you cannot then enforce, it is as good as wasting public
   funds."

   'Life is more important'

   While the independent, government-funded group has called for
   suspensions in previous years, this year their call was backed by a
   powerful men's group. Ntando Yola is Chairman of the South African
   National AIDS Council's Men's Sector. The organization supports the
   suspension, and is pushing for an open conversation about the practice.

   But, he stresses, he isn't against the ritual itself.

   "It's a practice that is held in high regard, that a boy grows up
   looking forward to doing that," he told VOA from Johannesburg. "And I
   think that is fine. I have gone through that myself and I went through
   it willingly. However, we have got to put measures to make sure that it
   does not cost life. Life is more important -- is equally important as
   the ritual."

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