BY: Bongani Ngomane
We live in times where the focus of child development and empowerment is on a ‘girl child’. A focus which is informed by a correct analysis that girls need to be supported to be productive and leading members of the society. Girl empowerment is critical if we were to break the historical patriarchy against women coupled with the emerging socio-economic abuse of women and girls in our society. There is therefore no doubt that the cause of the girl child should be advanced. However, in so empowering and advancing the girls, we should not forget about the ‘boy child’. We have boys who need equal care and guidance as much as the girl child.
We seem to be a society that values our culture and traditions at the expense of the boy-child’s life. The case in question is the ‘Boys’ passage to ‘manhood’ through initiation schools and the recurring deaths and abuse of boys by these so-called bogus initiation schools.
It is time that our nation stands up, expose and object this abuse. First and foremost young men should be allowed to decide whether they want to undergo initiation through a qualified medical practitioner without any fear of being stigmatized or take the traditional route to an inexperienced “ingcibi” and put up in ‘Bhoma’ with extremely inhabitable conditions just to keep up with the Jones, though death statistics year- in and year- out are showing that something has gone extremely wrong in the tradition and initiation process that used to be so well respected.
Elders in our society should be trained that going to hospitals is not in any manner taking away from the yesteryear tradition, now it is inevitable that due consideration should be given to the increasing mortality rate that is rather disconcerting. Focus should rather be on building the character of the boy child.
There is a need to do full audit of how many boys have died in these initiation schools in the past 20-years and check how many people have been prosecuted for such atrocities. This should not be treated as a seasonal event that comes once or twice in a year during the July and December initiation period and thus end up not receiving the full attention it deserves.
In a country where commissions and special investigations are a norm, perhaps we need a commission to investigate the extent of the abuse and deaths of these young men. Whilst men's forums deliberate on this matter on how the society builds the character of young men than focusing on initiation passage to manhood.
The other area of great concern is the boy’s schools, wherein the so called newcomers are taken advantage of and violated at times in full view of teachers under the pretext of orientating and socializing them to the new environment. Something needs to be done urgently, stories of young boys who died in this process should be told and affected families should get justice. The psychological effects of these initiations should also be exposed, there are many angry young boys out there because they have been extremely violated. It is not uncommon to find boys who have been turned into eunuchs because of negligence in these schools and yet no one was ever held accountable. Then we wonder why we have young men who are on drugs, why we have young men who are bitter and hopeless.
We therefore call upon the government social cluster to institute a study and an investigation into this matter, we call upon civil society especially the churches to act against this and we call upon all political parties to stop tolerating these tragedies. The same energy that the society is putting on the protection and advancement of a girl-child should also be exercised to equip the boy-child.
Bongani Ngomane is the Chairperson for SA Men’s Awards, writes on his personal capacity
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