It's June, the month of the initiation schools.. It is toward the end of this month that the newspapers will feature stories of young boys who go to the initiation schools to participate in the rites of passage into manhood especially Xhosa boys ... the Abakwetha. At the height of this rite is performed the act of circumcision (Ukwalusa).
On 30th of June 2010, for example The Daily Sun recorded a count of deaths among these boys as 40 in that month alone _ with dozens more lying wounded in hospitals. The blame is placed on 'ligcibi' traditional surgeons , the men who perform the circumcision. Many the newspapers say are "untrained and greedy ".
City Press of 27 June 2010 also records " initiates have filled up the hospital wards" - many have had to have their penis's amputated to save them.
According to MSN ZA News by SAPA 2010/12/03, Four brothers took revenge against such a bogus traditional surgeon. They stabbed and circumcised him.
Everything is being done to ensure that health regulations and proper procedures are followed initiation schools. Officials say they will close down initiation schools that do not comply with rules and regulations governing them because ignoring the requirements put the children at risk ( Traditional Affairs Minister 28 June 2010) But yet these unfortunate deaths and wounds continue and similar reports appeared last year 2011
It's June and time for the initiation schools.
Hospitals and now especially opened clinics perform circumcision. ( the clinics are a bid to reduce infection of HIV and AIDS, as research supports circumcision as a inhibiting factor in the spread of the disease.) But parents and boys want to go through the entire traditional rite to manhood. And you can't blame them ""it's our culture".
Ethical questions then arise for professional child and youth care workers in Africa.
What will you say and do when you have boys in your program and when they and their parents insist on the full rite, in the remote hills, in the traditional way.?
What will you say and do?
It is an ethical dilemma that comes out of the tensions that frequently exist between professional ethics and culture in Africa.
Here are some more:
Virginity testing.
A father in your program insists that his daughter of 14 year also in you care, serves him at table by entering the dining area from the kitchen with a plate of food whilst on her knees and shuffles on her knees across the room to hold out the plate of food to him.
A young unmarried Zulu mother in your program with a new-born child tells you that the child is particularly restless and constantly crying.She intends having the baby cut with 'elevenses'. This procedure involves the baby being cut around the naval with four sets of two parallel cuts that look like the number 11. This, she says will settle the child.
A young male in your care approaches you and tells you that his family want him to participate in the Ukweshwama Harvest Festival. He wants to do this because his father really wants him to participate in the ceremony. It has to do with his manhood in the Zulu traditional culture. It will win his father's approval which he has never otherwise had.. You find out that in this ceremony about 20 Zulu youths slaughter a bull with their bare hands. You also learn that witnesses have reported that the eyes of the bull are gouged out, the tongue pulled from its mouth, the genitals twisted and soil pushed into its mouth to suffocate it to death.
Ethical dilemmas that come out of the tensions between culture and professional ethics.
When it is... 'our culture'....... What will you say and do as a child and youth care worker in Africa ?
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