Initiation rites are seen as fundamental to human growth and development as well as socialization.
They function by ritually marking the transition of someone to full group membership. These rites of passage take different shapes.
One of such initiation rites is s*xual cleansing, a common practice in several African countries where a woman is expected to have s*x after her first period, after becom
ing widowed, or after an abortion, as a cleansing ritual.
For young girls, s*xual cleansing is considered a rite of passage and a form of initiation of young girls into womanhood. It is known as Kusasa Fumbi.
Kusasa Fumbi li
terally means “brushing off the dust” and can be interpreted as shaking off inexperience in s*x by actually practising it. It is a common practice in parts of Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Ivory Coast, and Congo.
In some villages across southern Malawi, girls as young as ten are taken to a secluded camp where they would be initiated. At the initiation camp, the girls are instructed on respect for elders, cooking, good manners, decency, cleanliness, proper s*xual behaviour and fertility.
To round off the initiation process, the girls are made to have s*x with a paid s*x worker who is known as “hyena”. The hyena is a traditional position held by a man who initiates young women into adulthood through s*x.
The hyena also “cleanses” widows. Newly bereaved widows are seen as unclean and made to have s*x with a s*x worker or the deceased’s relative. Widows who are not cleansed are
ostracized and discriminated against. Widow cleansing was outlawed in Kenya in 2015.
Hyenas are chosen for their moral character and are believed to be incapable of catching diseases such as HIV/AIDS. This is however false as many of them have the disease.
On 26 July 2016 Eric Aniva, a hyena was arrested on the orders of Malawian President Peter Mutharika. He was sentenced to two years in prison for having s*x with mor
e than 100 women and girls and not disclosing his HIV status.
A week before his arrest, Aniva had featured in a BBC broadcast the 27-minute radio report ” ‘Stealing Innocence’ in Malawi,” in which he bragged about having being paid to sleep with more than 100 young girls and women, some as young as 12 years old.
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