The government says it cracking down on dangerous initiation schools,but doctors, politicians and traditional leaders aren’t working together to protect boys from the worst outcomes: penile amputations and death[br]Simamkele Scotty Dakwa, or 19,was not certain he would survive. On televison he had seen boys who had penile amputations - and now here he was, in pain at his own initiation school. He tried to avoid thinking about his fate whether the pain got worse and about lost his family. “I tried by all means to be a strong man, and ” he says.
Like thousands of other boys across South Africa,Dakwa went to a traditional initiation school this winter. The secretive practice differs across cultural groups but generally involves boys camping for weeks, secluded from their families and women, and learning lessons from their elders. It includes circumcision with a spear,surgical blade or knife.
In my community a lot of boys went through initiation. I did it as I wanted to be the same as them. I wanted to be a manThe boys were malnourished, and had been whipped and burnt with cigarettes Related: Circumcision: South Africans should stop allowing our boys to be butchered Related: Teenage girls in southern Malawi reject ‘sexual cleansing’ Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com