 | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with Africa and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(March 2023) |
A sexual rite of passage is a ceremonial event that marks the passage of a young person to sexual maturity and adulthood, or a widow from the married state to widowhood, and involves some form of sexual activity.
In some regions of Malawi (mainly Chikwawa, Nsanje, and Salima Districts) a ceremony of ritual purification known as kusasa fumbi (lit. 'brushing off the dust') is performed. [1] [2] [3] In it, girls have sexual intercourse following menarche. [4] This ceremony may also be performed after an abortion or becoming a widow. Kusasa fumbi is also practiced in parts of Angola, Congo, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. [5]
Prepubescent girls (aged twelve to seventeen years old) are sent to a training camp where women known as anamkungwi, 'key leaders', teach them how to cook, clean, and have sexual intercourse in order to be good wives. [6] At the training camp the girls are told that they should sleep with a man in order to get rid of child 'dust' or else their body will become diseased. [7] After the training, a man holding the traditional position of hyena (not to be confused with the animal) performs the three-day cleansing ritual for a sum of money ($4-7 per girl in 2016). [4] [6] [8] Sometimes girls are required to perform the chisamba, a bare-breasted dance at the end of her initiation in front of the whole community. [5]
The practice can place young girls at risk of HIV infection, since the hyena has sexual intercourse with all the girls without wearing condoms, as the ritual requires the exchange of sexual fluids. [1] [2] Traditionalist Malawians claim that the rite prevents disease; hyenas are usually selected for their reputed good moral character and are often erroneously believed to be incapable of being infected with diseases such as HIV/AIDS, [4] though HIV-positive men have been documented to perform the duties of a hyena. [9]
Chinamwali is a three-month ritual performed in Eastern Province, Zambia. Female initiators known as alangizi teach sexual practices to girls as young as twelve years old. Afterwards, they are sent to an older man from the community who 'tests' their sexual skills and decide whether they need to go back for more training. The practice is underreported, as those who undergo it are sworn to secrecy. [10]
Sexual initiation rites of pre-pubescent boys as young as seven years old are or were practiced in many cultures and usually involves sexual acts with older males. For example, in the New Guinea Highlands, among the Baruya, Etoro, and Sambia peoples, fellatio and the ingestion of semen is performed; the Kaluli practice anal sex to 'deliver' semen to the boy. These rites are often based on the belief that women represent cosmic disorder. [11] Similar rites of ‘boy insemination’ used to be practiced by societies of indigenous Australians, in ancient Greece, and in Japan during the Edo (Tokugawa) period. [12]
The sexual cleansing of widows is a tradition that requires widowed women to have sexual intercourse as a form of ritual purification. It is practiced in parts of Angola, Congo, Ivory Coast, Malawi (where it is known as kulowa kufa), [13] Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. It has been suggested that the practice might be based on the idea that a man might die as a result of witchcraft performed by his wife. [14] [15]
The three- to seven-day ritual can be performed by the deceased husband's brother or other male relative, [14] or even a sex worker. Typically, after intercourse, the widow burns her clothes and the man who had performed the purification shaves her head. This is often done outside so that the neighborhood can witness that the widow is now cleansed. Finally, a chicken is slaughtered.
The ritual is often forced upon a widow by the family of her deceased husband and the wider community, who may physically harm the uncompliant woman and her children. Widow cleansing was outlawed in Kenya by a 2015 bill against domestic violence. [16]
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term virgin originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern and ethical concepts. Heterosexual individuals may or may not consider loss of virginity to occur only through penile-vaginal penetration, while people of other sexual orientations often include oral sex, anal sex, or manual sex in their definitions of losing one's virginity.
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role. Examples of initiation ceremonies might include Christian baptism or confirmation, Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, acceptance into a fraternal organization, secret society or religious order, or graduation from school or recruit training. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, such as those depicted in these pictures, is called an initiate.
Tantric sex or sexual yoga refers to a range of practices in Hindu and Buddhist tantra that utilize sexuality in a ritual or yogic context. Tantric sex is associated with antinomian elements such as the consumption of alcohol, and the offerings of substances like meat to deities. Moreover, sexual fluids may be viewed as power substances and used for ritual purposes, either externally or internally.
Ritual purification is a ritual prescribed by a religion through which a person is considered to be freed of uncleanliness, especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may also apply to objects and places. Ritual uncleanliness is not identical with ordinary physical impurity, such as dirt stains; nevertheless, body fluids are generally considered ritually unclean.
Dry sex is the sexual practice of having sexual intercourse without vaginal lubrication. Vaginal lubrication can be removed by using herbal aphrodisiacs, household detergents, antiseptics, by wiping out the vagina, or by placing leaves in the vagina besides other methods. Dry sex is associated with increased health risks.
Widow inheritance is a cultural and social practice whereby a widow is required to marry a male relative of her late husband, often his brother. The practice is more commonly referred as a levirate marriage, examples of which can be found in ancient and biblical times.
As of 2012, approximately 1,100,000 people in Malawi are HIV-positive, which represents 10.8% of the country's population. Because the Malawian government was initially slow to respond to the epidemic under the leadership of Hastings Banda (1966–1994), the prevalence of HIV/AIDS increased drastically between 1985, when the disease was first identified in Malawi, and 1993, when HIV prevalence rates were estimated to be as high as 30% among pregnant women. The Malawian food crisis in 2002 resulted, at least in part, from a loss of agricultural productivity due to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Various degrees of government involvement under the leadership of Bakili Muluzi (1994–2004) and Bingu wa Mutharika (2004–2012) resulted in a gradual decline in HIV prevalence, and, in 2003, many people living in Malawi gained access to antiretroviral therapy. Condoms have become more widely available to the public through non-governmental organizations, and more Malawians are taking advantage of HIV testing services.
Gut are the rites performed by Korean shamans, involving offerings and sacrifices to gods, spirits and ancestors. They are characterised by rhythmic movements, songs, oracles and prayers. These rites are meant to create welfare, promoting commitment between the spirits and humankind. The major categories of rites are the naerim-gut, the dodang-gut and the ssitgim-gut.
Malawi is primarily a source country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced labor and forced prostitution within the country and abroad. Most Malawian trafficking victims are exploited internally, though Malawian victims of sex and labor trafficking have also been identified in South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, and parts of Europe. To a lesser extent, Malawi is a transit point for foreign victims and a destination country for men, women, and children from Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe subjected to conditions of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Within the country, some children are forced into domestic servitude, cattle herding, agricultural labor, and menial work in various small businesses. Exploited girls and women become "bar girls" at local bars and rest houses where they are coerced to have sex with customers in exchange for room and board. Forced labor in agriculture is often found on tobacco plantations. Labor traffickers are often villagers who have moved to urban areas and subsequently recruit children from their original villages through offers of good jobs. Brothel owners or other prostitution facilitators lure girls with promises of nice clothing and lodging. Upon arrival, they charge the girl high rental fees for these items and instruct her how to engage in prostitution to pay off the debt. South African and Tanzanian long-distance truck drivers and mini-bus operators move victims across porous borders by avoiding immigration checkpoints. Some local businesswomen who also travel regularly to neighboring countries to buy clothing for import have been identified as traffickers. Reports of European tourists paying for sex with teenage boys and girls continue.
The Simbari people are a mountain-dwelling, hunting and horticultural tribal people who inhabit the fringes of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, and are extensively described by the American anthropologist Gilbert Herdt. The Sambia – a pseudonym created by Herdt himself – are known by cultural anthropologists for their acts of "ritualised homosexuality" and semen ingestion practices with pubescent boys. In his studies of the Simbari, Herdt describes the people in light of their sexual culture and how their practices shape the masculinity of adolescent Simbari boys.
The virgin cleansing myth is the belief that having sex with a virgin girl cures a man of HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases. Helping the idea that Christian women who were virgins, were capable of being powerful enough to fight off transmitted diseases.
Seodi Venekai-Rudo White is a social development lawyer and women's rights activist. As of August 2021, she is a legal consultant practicing as a Global Transactional Lawyer based in Malawi. She provides legal process outsourcing (LPO) services including contract drafting, contract management, legal support for management projects, support for business sale agreements, licensing sale agreements, data protection, data extraction, document review, legal analysis, and due diligence. She also provides legal management services in projects.
Prostitution in Malawi is legal and prevalent around hotels and bars in urban and tourist areas. Living off the proceeds of prostitution is illegal. In 2015, it was estimated there were 20,000 sex workers in the country.
Sex for fish, sometimes referred to as "fish for sex", is a phenomenon in which female fish traders engage in transactional sexual relationships with fishermen to secure their supply of fish, often out of coercion. Sex for fish is a common phenomenon in many developing countries, with the bulk of cases observed in Sub-Saharan Africa's inland fisheries. The most vulnerable victims are economically disadvantaged women, such as single women, divorced women, or widows, who reside in or along the shores of inland fisheries.
Female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone is the common practice of removing all or part of the female's genitalia for cultural and religious initiation purposes, or as a custom to prepare them for marriage. Sierra Leone is one of 28 countries in Africa where female genital mutilation (FGM) is known to be practiced and one of few that has not banned it. It is widespread in part due to it being an initiation rite into the "Bondo," though initiation rite-related FGM was criminalised in 2019. The type most commonly practised in Sierra Leone is Type IIb, removal of part or all of the clitoris and the labia minora. As of 2013, it had a prevalence of 89.6%.
Impurity after childbirth is the concept in many cultures and religions that a new mother is in a state of uncleanliness for a period of time after childbirth, requiring ritual purification. Practices vary, but typically there are limits around what she can touch, who she can interact with, where she can go, and what tasks she can do. Some practices related to impurity after childbirth, such as seclusion, overlap with the more general practice of postpartum confinement.
Circumcision in Africa, and the rites of initiation in Africa, as well as "the frequent resemblance between details of ceremonial procedure in areas thousands of kilometres apart, indicate that the circumcision ritual has an old tradition behind it and in its present form is the result of a long process of development."
Lebollo la banna is a Sesotho term for male initiation.
Lebollo la basadi also known as female initiation among the Basotho is a rite of passage ritual which marks the transition of girls into womanhood. This activity is still practiced in the Free State, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal provinces of South Africa. In Sesotho, lebollo means initiation. The Basotho rite of passage ritual, unlike other practices in Africa, does not involve procedures which remove parts of the female genital organ. However, the inner folds of the labia are enlarged and elongated by stretching for a more pleasurable sexual experience. In areas where initiation is still valued, uninitiated girls are ridiculed by society.
Disengagement from education refers to a situation where a person does not feel included, does not participate in school activities, are not enrolled, or have poor school attendance. Disengagement from school is linked to individual attitudes or values and can be influenced by peers, family members, the community, the media, and surrounding cultural aspects in general, including the school itself. In the case of girls, specific circumstances contribute to them dropping out of school, such as teenage pregnancy, classroom practices, poverty, illness or death in the family, early marriage, sexual harassment, and peer pressure.