ezolwaluko
Saving the
lives of
our initiates
About this project
For many young men, the traditional rite of passage to manhood is a profoundly spiritual experience. But scores of young men suffer and die during initiation, at the hands of unscrupulous traditional surgeons. Yet more initiates at illegal initiation schools are maimed for life.
City Press, Code for Africa and Open Data Durban have devised a way in which initiates and their families can check whether the traditional surgeons they have chosen are registered with the Eastern Cape Department of Health.
It is our hope that you use this tool to choose a skilled, registered traditional surgeon, and experience the rite of passage as the enriching cultural experience it is meant to be.
THE four-YEAR DEATH TOLL
2020
June Winter Season: No season due to Covid-19
December Summer Season: 14
2019
June Winter Season: 17
December Summer Season: 29
2018
June Winter Season: 23
December Summer season: 21
2017
June Winter Season: 14
December Summer Season: 17
Check if your surgeon is registered
Check if your surgeon is registered
Hotline for initiates who are in trouble
Hotline for initiates who are in trouble
Do you want to register as a traditional surgeon?
Do you want to register as a traditional surgeon?
Report illegal surgeons or initiation schools.
Report illegal surgeons or initiation schools.
THEY WANT TO BE ‘REAL MEN’
By Lubabalo Ngcukana
Stigma in some communities is the reason many young boys feel under pressure to attend illegal traditional initiation ceremonies – even going as far as risking their lives by refusing to be rescued when things go wrong.
During each initiation season, forums that monitor initiation schools (amabhoma) have their work cut out visiting schools and shutting down illegal ones that are run by unscrupulous and bogus ingcibi (traditional surgeons) who are not registered with the department of health.
And, in some cases, when these forums have found an initiation school to be illegal, initiates (abakhwetha) have run away and refused to be rescued or taken to either a hospital or a rescue centre.
According to traditional leaders, this is due to the stigma some experience when they return to society and are called names and are not regarded as real men.
As a result, some initiates risk their lives by running from authorities and jumping from one illegal initiation school to another until their wounds are healed.
Those who are rescued and end up finishing their initiation in hospital are often subjected to humiliation and name-calling.
Nkosi Lindela Gwadiso, the chairperson of the Nyandeni Initiation Forum in the OR Tambo District Municipality, where most initiation deaths have been reported in the past, said the problem of stigmatisation was prevalent in most communities, but not all of them.
He said this happened mostly in the current generation and it was not an issue before whether someone went to a traditional initiation school or to the hospital.
So, those who undergo medical circumcision in hospital are not regarded as men by their peers.
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