Across Africa, different tribes have their own idea of initiation into adulthood. Some of these initiation rites are compulsory and in several cases, the initiates are not expected to show any form of weakness or fear.
An interesting initiation rite common in tribes across Africa is one that involves sexual cleansing. This is a common practice where a woman is expected to have s3x after her first period, after becoming widowed, or after an abortion, as a cleansing ritual.
For young girls, sexual cleansing is considered a rite of passage and a form of initiation of young girls into womanhood. It is known as Kusasa Fumbi.
Kusasa Fumbi literally means “brushing off the dust” and can be interpreted as shaking off inexperience in s3x by actually practising it. It is a common practice in parts of Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Ivory Coast, and Congo.
In some villages across southern Malawi, girls as young as ten are taken to a secluded camp where they would be initiated. At the initiation camp, the girls are instructed on respect for elders, cooking, good manners, decency, cleanliness, proper sexual behaviour and fertility.
To round off the initiation process, the girls have to make love to a paid s3x worker who is known as “hyena”. The hyena is a traditional position held by a man who initiates young women into adulthood through intimacy.
The hyena also “cleanses” widows. Newly bereaved widows are seen as unclean and made to get intimate with a s3x worker or the deceased’s relative.
Widows who are not cleansed are ostracized and discriminated against. However, widow cleansing was outlawed in Kenya in 2015.
Hyenas are chosen for their moral character and are believed to be incapable of catching diseases such as HIV/AIDS. This is however false as many of them have the disease.
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