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File photo: Every year some initiates die from botched circumcisions and theres disagreement over who should be responsible for overseeing this coming-of-age ritual.
On Sunday night I was on the SABC3 show Interface, where we discussed the issue of forced circumcisions.
There are few issues more sensitive to the Xhosa nation than circumcision. It is almost as sacred and secretive as the papal conclave.
Before we even delve into circumcision, there is the issue of it being taboo to talk about in public.
Traditionally, the only people who could discuss it were circumcised men – and then only to one another.
I can understand that because of these complexities, many Xhosa men might have been reluctant to appear on the show to discuss the issue.
A staunch traditionalist might argue that there are already three contraventions Xhosa prince Manene Tabane, who is also the chairman of the Congress of Traditional Leaders in Gauteng, and I made:
* Talking about it in public.
* Talking about it in public to uncircumcised men.
* Talking about it in public to a woman.
On the issue of talking about it in public, we have to deal with the fact that the deaths we witness every year have made it an issue of public interest. No culture or tradition supersedes the law of the land and the constitution.
First, I was glad a person who is a leader of traditional leaders had no qualms about talking about circumcision to a woman (the interviewer) or about discussing it in public. This means our traditions are beginning to evolve.
The way I have always understood the nature of Xhosa circumcision is that the choice to go to the bush was always self-made.
There were two choices: you go or you stay and don’t become a man but instead remain a boy for the rest of your life.
Going does not automatically make you a man in the first place, but the lessons you learn and put in practice make you one. If you decide not be circumcised, you make the choice to be excluded from a lot of things. If there is a traditional ceremony, you will eat with the boys – even if you are 50, you can’t hang out with the men.
No one will represent you when you want to negotiate lobola, because boys cannot get married, only men have the privilege, according to Xhosa tradition. One who decides not to go to the bush makes these choices. This is harsh but that is how it is.
No one was ever forced to go to circumcision school.
In fact, in my experience, boys always looked forward to going to the bush, not because they were worried about exclusion, but because they were looking to being counted among the men.
Therefore, I will be so bold as to say that it is un-Xhosa to force someone to go to circumcision school; they have to make the choice while understanding the benefits and the consequences of not going.
We live in a free country, after all. Forced circumcision is wrong. You can’t and shouldn’t force someone to do something to themselves they clearly do not want done.
The issue of forced circumcision goes beyond just what is traditionally correct. It goes to the heart of the law.
What happens when I am taken by force to be circumcised? Can I report the case to the police? Can I press a charge of kidnapping, assault and grievous bodily harm? Of course I can.
There is a larger question for me, and it deals not just with Xhosa culture, but with the preservation of African culture within the context of the 21st century.
All African cultures are under severe strain. Most Africans want to have it both ways – lead Western lives while not leaving our customs and practices behind. How do we marry the two?
This is the challenge.
* Khaya Dlanga is a social commentator and author of In My Arrogant Opinion.
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