In South Africa, a mass circumcision ceremony has led to the decapitation and disfiguring of 39 boys and numerous others, respectively, due to an unprofessional tribal ‘initiation’ procedures.
While authorities closed unlawful schools, the Minister for the Department of Governance & Traditional Affairs established a goal of zero deaths in registered schools by 2025.
Eighty per cent of initiates who die or are mutilated are victims of illegal schools, according to Sipho Mahlangu, a tribal chief and the deputy chair of the National House of Traditional Leaders. The government has promised that by 2029, there will be half as many unlawful schools preying on teenagers as there were in the past, following being forced to abstain from alcohol in order to avoid urinating following circumcision, the majority pass away from extreme dehydration.
Most of them died due to severe dehydration after being forced not to drink to prevent urination after circumcision.
The ceremony, known as Ulwaluko, is typically carried out by Xhosa people and marks the transition from boyhood to manhood. Boys generally undergo the centuries-old ritual between the ages of 16 and 26.
Gruesome complications in 2024 led to 11 penis amputations after unskilled traditional ‘surgeons’ used old spears and razor blades to perform the eye-watering rituals.
