South Africa: the ancestral rite of the Xhosa ethnic group has already killed several people

A man of the Xhosa ethnicity stands in front of the Hole in the Wall in the Eastern Cape region.

Hein Von Horstein / Gettyimages

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1 min

The southern winter in the country coincides with the period of the initiation rite for the Xhosa ethnic group.

Young men who have reached the age of majority and must be circumcised to pass to adulthood follow a series of rituals, away from the cities.

An ancestral ceremony, very important in the life of young Xhosa, but which can be dangerous.

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With our correspondent in Johannesburg,

Their faces coated in white paint, and their naked bodies wrapped in blankets, nearly 70,000 young men are following the Ulwaluko ceremony this year, a high number due to postponements linked to the pandemic.

They will stay for several weeks in the middle of nature, where they will be circumcised according to a secret ritual.

But as every year, cases of dehydration and poor hygienic conditions, especially at the time of circumcision, have already resulted in the death of about twenty of them, and dozens of other

have been admitted to the hospitals in the region.

A thousand victims since 1995

The local authorities would like those responsible to be brought to justice, while the majority of the victims were part of illegal initiation schools.

The leader of the region calls on parents to send their children only to approved structures.

These rites should last until mid-January, which raises fears of more deaths, according to the public authorities.

The region estimates that these circumcision ceremonies have claimed more than a thousand victims since 1995.

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