Initiation schools- a death condemnation for teenage boys

By Ayabonga Nkalitshana

It’s that time of the year again where boys will be gearing up to become men, an unknown experience to them which has taken just under 120 initiates for the past two years. This has been a growing problem because even with the involvement of traditional leaders to try and resolve these botched circumcisions, but there are still a vast number of illegal initiation schools being set up around the Eastern Cape and teenage boys with prospects of becoming men, are still losing their lives through inexperienced and illegal initiates who target young boys who some are just under the required age to go to initiation schools.

The Eastern Cape Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs together with the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders, through the initiation monitoring intervention strategy will embark on a safe initiation week between the 10-13 of November this year, in an attempt to try and educate in-school initiates and out of school youth about the importance of ritual, and what is expected of them before and during initiation. This is to ensure that the initiation season this year goes smoothly and try to minimise the number of deaths and injuries from 119 deaths and 66 injuries respectively, with only eleven convictions.