To say that circumcision, as a facet of the Xhosa initiation ritual, is a cultural lightning rod is to understate the case. Some in the community are dead-set against it; others will go to the furthest extremes to ensure that it happens.
The latter scenario played out recently in the Bhisho High Court, where a young man pursued a case against his father, who had abducted him and had him forced-circumcised in the bush:
A YOUNG man who took his father to court after he was circumcised by force did so to protect other young Christians from the ordeal, his lawyer said yesterday.
Bonani Yamani from KwaMasele village near King William’s Town in Eastern Cape took his father to the equality court after he was abducted from his home at 4am, tied up, taken to the bush, and subjected to further circumcision by his father and 10 community leaders on March 3 2007.
He had earlier refused to be traditionally circumcised as it had already been done in hospital in November 2006 and it was against his Christian beliefs.
Thando Mgqolozana’s A Man Who is Not a Man is the first novel to tackle the taboo against questioning circumcision head-on. It’s a must-read for those who track the evolution of cultural debate in South Africa.
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