34 South African youth die during initiation rites

VOA

Instead of celebrating their sons’ coming-of-age, this month 34 families in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province are mourning their deaths. 

At least 34 young men have died this month during traditional initiation to manhood rites. The country’s cultural rights commission is calling for a crackdown on schools that offer the dangerous rituals to prevent more deaths.

Initiation to manhood is a common tradition, especially among the Xhosa people. But it is also dangerous and can be deadly. 

Every year, teenage boys leave their families to spend weeks with a traditional leader in the wilderness, where they also undergo circumcision. 

South African officials are scrambling to understand what went wrong this season. 

David Luka Mosoma is chairman of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities. 

“No nation prides itself by committing genocide of his sons… and no culture can be blamed for this because the deaths of an initiate is a consequence of human negligence, including the current criminal activities and commercialization of the practice,” said Mosoma…