Both sexes must work for safer circumcision

THE plea of a woman for her son and her traditional family heir apparent, being decimated in the veld in his passage to manhood, is a moot point few will dare to speak about ("Women start to speak out over custom", July 16)! It is with great empathy and sympathy towards Imbumba Yamakhosikazi Akomkhulu (IYA) from Pondoland that I put pen to paper with regard to cultural wrangling on the mutilation and deaths that occur each year come circumcision season.

Mothers are crying out in pain for their sons who basically are castrated at the hands of overzealous traditional circumcision doctors who botch these manhood entry practices! With the spotlight now on this deeply entrenched Xhosa traditional practice here in the Eastern Cape, the true extent of mutilation and deaths taking place is receiving the attention it so richly deserves.

Yes, the kings and royal households' advisers will be perturbed at the prying and intrusion of women in this practice of old, handled exclusively by men as it has always been in that their sons are now entering manhood. Yet no mother or father wants his or her child maimed or killed while going through this ritualistic practice.

This is the future of this nation that is being compromised, unintentionally here perhaps, yet the facts speak for themselves. As one who grew up in the mountains of Mount Ayliff I was privy to many makweta rituals and never heard of this carnage ever taking place then! What has changed in this modern time?

Does intoxication play a part perhaps? Medical circumcision will yet prove to be the safest option in this regard as sterilisation of equipment would be paramount.

Marrying the old ways of doing things with the new ways will be the litmus test in this regard. If staunch traditionalists and custodians of culture do not interrogate modern ways of doing things then they are blind to the survival of the tribe.

Mothers' hearts are bleeding here, people! Their screams must be heard and heeded.

That cry cannot be silenced by tradition or culture as their offsprings' plight becomes the clarion call of all those we suckle from with only the intention of protecting those who suckled from their breasts. I speak under correction, but I see both sexes as involved in cultural affairs and involved in traditional doings every step of the way.

Denzyl Harper, Korsten, Port Elizabeth