South African authorities have suspended several initiation schools following deadly circumcision ceremonies.
Over twenty boys have died in recent weeks during the circumcision rites.
The country’s religious and cultural commission said the schools in different areas of the Eastern Cape would be suspended for a year.
Every year, tens of thousands of initiates aged between 15 and 17 spend time in seclusion in the bush where they are taught about how to be upstanding men in society.
Ukwaluka, or traditional initiation, is seen as a necessary part of the passage from boyhood to manhood by some of the country’s largest ethnic groups, including the Xhosa and Ndebele.
But sometimes things go terribly wrong with some initiates dying or left disfigured from a botched circumcision.
Most of the deaths have been as a result of dehydration and wounds going septic, pointing to a lack of proper care and ill-treatment of initiates.
When young Xhosa boys are aged between 15 and 17, their families prepare to take them to an initiation school – where they will be under the care of an “ingcibi”, a traditional surgeon, and an “ikhankatha”, a traditional nurse.
The surgeon performs the circumcision, while the traditional nurse looks after treating the wound as well as the initiate’s daily needs, including food.
More than 400 boys have died from botched circumcisions in South Africa since 2012.
Source: Africafeeds.com
