Harmful traditional practices, (male circumcision - Electronic Thesis ...

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‘they’ who threatened to kill them referred to by Makhoba were the fellow
initiates at the circumcision school.
In another similar incident, 5 accused appeared in the Khayelitsha magistrate’s
court during the week of the 2 nd of April 2005 for forcefully circumcising a 45-
year old man. 219 According to Xhosa culture, people who had passed the age of
initiation could be forcefully circumcised as a way of rehabilition. 220 Before a
Xhosa boy is considered to be a man by other members of his tribe, he has to go
through the initiation of the Khwetha, or circumcision lodge when he is
approximately 16 years old, otherwise he would still be considered a boy. 221
In the case of virginity testing, testers used fear as their primary weapon in their
fight against the loss of sexual chastity. 222 The fear of shaming one’s family and
failing the test had caused young girls to do things that put their health in
further danger. 223 Since it was well known that virginity testers looked for
something resembling a white veil (an indication of an intact hymen) in the
vaginal canal, some girls resorted to inserting toothpaste or freshly cut meat into
their vaginas to make the vagina appear ‘tight’, and so mimic the white veil
effect. 224
Press reports in the Sunday Times of 17 May 1998 and Saturday Independent of
13 June 1998 depicted girls and boys as young as six years of age being
pressurised to partake in virginity testing conducted by teachers at schools in
219 Author unknown, “Wife held after husband’s forced circumcision” – originally published on
page 4 of The Saturday Argus on April 2, 2005. Available online at
http://www.circumstitions.com/News17.html. p9 Accessed on 8 April 2006.
220 Ibid, p 9.
221 Author unknown, “Circumcision practices around the world” at 1. Available online at
http://www.circumcisioninfo.com/circ-world.html#cworld3. Accessed on 27 August 2006.
222 Leclerc-Madlala S, “Protecting Girlhood? Virginity Revivals in the Era of AIDS,” in Agenda 56,
2003, at 21.
223 Ibid at p 21.
224 Ibid at p 21.