South Africa: How Safe is Traditional Circumcision?

Posted by Rachel Harvey on September 24, 2008 
Filed Under Class discussion

maleIn South Africa, a debate about the practice of male circumcision provides a thought-provoking addendum to this week’s assigned reading. In certain groups, such as the Xhosa, South African men around 18 years of age enter into a month of seclusion with other members of their age group for an initiation consisting of traditional method circumcision and the imparting of teachings. Participation is prevalent among both rural and urban dwellers as this is the critical step in being considered a man and readied for marriage. Although defended for cultural significance, male circumcision practices are contested publicly for health concerns such as irreparable damage to the penis, infections leading to death, and the transmission of HIV via the cutting instrument.

Insightful participants’ points of view are on-line as are photos. One Xhosa man writes: “The option of staying uncircumcised is impractical if you live among Xhosas because they won’t take you seriously. Even in his book Long Walk To Freedom, Nelson Mandela comments on how a Xhosa man who has not been circumcised is a paradox, because he is still viewed as a boy.”

In recent articles, Lousie Vincent reports:

“Ritual male circumcision is among the most secretive and sacred of rites practiced by the Xhosa of South Africa. Recently, the alarming rate of death and injury among initiates has led to the spotlight of media attention and government regulation being focused on traditional circumcision. While many of the physical components of the ritual have been little altered by the centuries, its cultural and social meanings have not remained unchanged…”
Vincent, L. “‘Boys will be boys’: traditional Xhosa male circumcision, HIV and sexual socialisation in contemporary South Africa.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 10.5 (June 2008): 431-446.

“Since 1995 more than 6,000 boys have been admitted to Eastern Cape hospitals, more than 300 have died and 76 have had their genitalia amputated due to botched circumcisions. The state has responded by putting in place a variety of mechanisms to regulate the practice, most recently in the form of the 2005 Children’s Bill which gives male children the right to refuse circumcision and makes those who circumcise a child against his will guilty of an offense punishable by imprisonment. Attempts by the state to regulate traditional practices have been met with outrage and resistance in some quarters.

Rituals are commonly identified as mechanisms contributing to social order in all societies, maintaining the organization of groups into hierarchies, specifying the performance of roles linked to factors such as age and gender, renewing group unity and a means for the transmission of values across generations. But in a society so deeply penetrated by colonialism, apartheid and industrialization, as South Africa is, what role do these rites play in the contemporary context?…”
Vincent, L. “Cutting Tradition: the Political Regulation of Traditional Circumcision Rites in South Africa’s Liberal Democratic Order.” Journal of Southern African Studies 34.1 (Mar. 2008): 77-91.

Notably, other southern African tribes do not have a tradition of male circumcision at any time in the life cycle. And it is recently announced that male circumcision may reduce the transfer of HIV from women to men by 60%, an important finding for a global area with extremely high infection rates.
Discussion: Considering the particpants’ and scholar’s comments, what is your take on this issue? How should one (or the state) balance concerns for human welfare with respect for critical traditional practices? What if you were the parent of a boy of Xhosa heritage, how would you decide whether to go through with this ritual?

Comments

5 Responses to “South Africa: How Safe is Traditional Circumcision?”

  1. Siviwe on September 25th, 2008 6:20 pm

    As a Xhosa men who went through the circumcision, i must admit we are facing health promblems which are causing permanent injuries and deaths. We are slowly losing our culture and traditions and circumcision is the only tradition which is still going strong. For me circumcision school is the only tradition which i´m sure the next generations will still perform there old traditional way.

  2. Monika Todd on September 25th, 2008 11:11 pm

    Though circumcision can be potentially hazardous to a Xhosa male’s health, I believe that certain aspects of one’s culture are critical in maintaining tradition and unity within his nation. To qualify, health and culture are equally relevant in different ways. Resolution can be found through sanitary medical practices; because other cultures do not understand the significance of another culture’s rituals, is it fair for them to determine what is allowable? However, a culture can find ways to aid the Xhosa people by fiscal means, which would ultimately aid them physically.
    As a parent of a Xhosa male, I would allow my son to choose whether he wanted to take a chance by being circumcised in an unsanitary facility or face ridicule from society.
    It isn’t exactly a “win-win” situation, but when has life ever been fair?

  3. Ron Low on September 26th, 2008 9:34 pm

    Of course circumcision is a terrible idea, and the many dead boys every year attest to the obsolescence of traditional circumcision

    Circumcision excises half of the sensual pleasure-receptive nerve endings, takes away the protection from drying and abrasion for the glans and mucosa, and eliminates the exquisite frictionless rolling/gliding mode of intimate interaction.

    Foreskin feels REALLY good. HIS body, HIS decision, NO coercion.

  4. Danielle on September 27th, 2008 11:37 pm

    This video clip from National Geographic shows how Xhosa circumcision is performed. I watched it and it was very interesting to hear a Xhosa man’s viewpoint on the procedure he went through.
    I highly reccommend this, as well as the other clips on the national geographic “taboo” library

  5. linda Massie on October 24th, 2008 2:51 am

    Monika Todd asserts her male child may risk death and choose circumcision if he wishes rather than face ridicule in society. I wonder if she had a female child she also support her if she wished to be circumcised.

    I cannot understand a parent who feels like this with the claim that life is not fair.

    The only thing that’s not fair is that people still accept the deaths of males from circumcision and not females.

Leave a Reply