Circumcision Ceremony

The circumcision ceremony is an important part of most of the traditional South African cultures. It has recently become a controversial topic in the news as there have been a number of deaths associated with the ceremony. However, many boys still participate, as we were witness to in the first few weeks in our villages. Depending on the culture, number of eligible boys, and village events, the ceremony takes place once every 1-4 years. All interested boys (7-24 years old) of the village will go into the mountains for 2-3 months to learn how to be a man and to live off of the land. Towards the end of their training they are circumcised. At the conclusion of the training, the group returns to their village in traditional clothing where the villagers throw them a huge party and they are officially accepted into the community as men. The parties consist of all-night singing and dancing and sometimes the men receiving money. No one in our host family has done this because they are Christians and they don’t believe in it. However, in some cultures, a boy is never considered a man, or taken seriously, if he does not go through this initiation. On one of our first nights in South Africa hundreds of young men were marching down the dirt road outside the youth center chanting with great passion, energy, and sole with booming voices that filled that chilled evening air. It was an amazing experience that we will not soon forget.