Media Watch

Circumcision Season

It is circumcision season again, and newspapers are telling stories of young Xhosa men who flock to the mountains where they subject themselves to mutilation and a certain risk of death.

The casualties have been dutifully tallied: towards the end of the June season, the Sunday Times reported 44 deaths, 270 maimed genitals and 13 penile amputations.

This has been a particularly gruesome initiation season and whilst there has been intelligent discussion in the media around issues of tradition and manhood, coupled with much-need exposure of illegally operating surgeons, the macabre stories of botched circumcisions seem to speak loudest.