There is no fundamental difference between female genital mutilation, a primitive practice in many countries in Africa and Asia, in which the labia and the clitoris are shaved off, and its equivalent male genital mutilation, commonly known as circumcision, which is equally primitive primarily practiced in essentially Jewish and Muslim countries. Male circumcision consists of slicing off the prepuce or foreskin which is a sheath that surrounds and protects the glans but also provides significantly greater pleasure. In both cases, it is assumed that mutilating the genitalia of boys and girls helped control people by making them less lustful and libidinous by reducing the intensity of sexual pleasure. Religions want people to have sex only to procreate, which increases the numbers of the faithful, but without the "sin" of pleasure.
Both practices pre-date religions, as they were common among nomadic tribes prior to the advent of monotheism, but male circumcision has been sanctified by the Hebrews-Jews, and later by Muslims. The procedure caught on in the Christian protestant world that viewed Christianity as a subsidiary of Judaism and abided by a literal reading of the Torah-Old Testament, which prescribes male genital mutilation as a religious obligation. On the front of the Muslim Qur'an one can read, "لا يمسه الا المطهرون", i.e. only the circumcized can touch this book.
Below is what happens when male genital circumcision goes awry and kills children. The fact that boys can be mutilated under medical supervision does not negate the primitiveness of the practice. Of course, there are instances where circumcision is a necessary medical procedure to correct malformations and other impediments to sexual intercourse, but to practice it as a routine procedure, sometimes without asking the parents' approval, is superfluous, unnecessary, and "augments" the hospital and doctor's bills.
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Dozens dead in South Africa circumcision initiation rite
Ben Farmer
Tue, January 6, 2026
The initiations are practised by some of the country’s largest black ethnic groups including the Xhosa - Schalk van Zuydam/AP
South Africa has said it will clamp down on unregistered traditional initiation schools for young men, after at least 41 died in recent coming-of-age rites involving circumcision.
Tens of thousands of teenagers take part in highly secretive initiations each year as a rite of passage into manhood practised by some of the country’s largest black ethnic groups including the Xhosa, Ndebele, Sotho and Venda.
The initiations are closely guarded secrets, but often see the participants secluded together in the wild for several weeks as they learn cultural values and responsibilities to become adults. Circumcision is a central part of the initiation.
Such initiation is often a cornerstone of a young man’s life and the return of the initiates is met with family feasting and celebration.
But there has been widespread unease in recent years at the numbers of attendees who have died, got blood poisoning, or been maimed during botched procedures.
A large proportion of the deaths are put down to dehydration, which is thought to stem from participants being given dangerous advice that they must not drink during their initiations, or that not drinking will speed healing after circumcision.
Other deaths in the most recent initiation season, which has been running in November and December, have also been put down to lightning strikes, drowning, fights and suicide.
After previous tragedies, the government has already passed laws demanding that initiation schools must register with the authorities.
However there has been a proliferation of illegal initiation schools where many of the deaths are reported.
Participants are often secluded together in the wild for several weeks as they learn cultural values and responsibilities to become adults - OBED ZILWA/AP
Zolani Mkiva, secretary general of the Congress for Traditional Leaders of South Africa, said unscrupulous illegal schools saw initiation as a money-making venture.
He told the state broadcaster: “This now has become a national disaster. We can’t afford that year on year we lose 50 children in a sacred ritual that’s meant to prepare young men for leadership and the future.”
South Africa’s traditional affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa has blamed negligence by the initiation schools, but also said parents were failing to heed advice.
He said: “There is negligence in terms of meeting health standards in some of the initiation schools. If you take your child to an initiation school, you never make a follow-up, you do not monitor, you do not go there to see whether the child does drink water, you are placing your child at risk.”
Under South African law, only children who are 16 years and above may be admitted to initiation school with parental consent.
Mr Hlabisa said 41 people have been arrested in relation to illegal initiation schools, including parents who had supplied wrong ages for their children to be admitted.
Previous crackdowns have failed to stem the deaths.
Several schools in Eastern Cape province were suspended in 2019 after a spate of deaths, but the province has again this year seen the highest death toll.
Initiations usually take place in two seasons, one in the summer and one in the winter. Some 94 people in total are reported to have died during the whole of 2024, though the secrecy surrounding the initiations means the circumstances are often unclear.
Despite the deaths, any attempt to ban traditional initiation, or to place the circumcisions under heavy-handed state medical regulation, is likely to face stiff resistance.
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