Women start to speak out over initiation custom

QUEENS and female traditional leaders in the Eastern Cape have broken their silence on initiation as the death toll climbed to 35 this season – and more than 500 over the past eight years.

The newly elected president of Imbumba Yamakhosikazi Akomkhulu (IYA), Queen MaDosini Ndamase, emerged as one of the vocal critics. IYA is a forum of queens and traditional leaders' wives.

"We carry our sons for nine months, raise them for 18 years or so, and within three days or eight days in the hands of men, they die. We cannot keep quiet," the queen said.

Female traditional leaders are demanding to be part of strategies to curb initiate deaths. At a meeting in Mthatha on Friday, IYA members supported the introduction of medical circumcision in problem areas, although Ndamase said the traditional element of teaching initiates how to be responsible and accountable men within society had to be maintained. - Lulamile Feni