THE SEXUAL RITES OF PASSAGE: KUSASA FUMBI
It is believed that initiation rites are essential for
both socialization and human growth and development. They work by ceremonially
designating a person's entry into full group membership. Different rituals are
used for these rites of passage.
One of these initiation ceremonies is sexual cleaning, a
widespread custom in some African nations where a woman is expected to engage
in sexual activity as a purification ritual following the onset of her
menstruation, after getting widowed, or after having an abortion.
Sexual cleansing is regarded by young girls as a rite of
passage and a way to initiate them into womanhood. Kusasa Fumbi is the name of
it.
Kusasa Fumbi, which translates as "brushing off the
dust," can be used to refer to overcoming sexual inexperience by engaging
in it. In some regions of Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola,
the Ivory Coast, and Congo, it is a widespread practice.
Human Development Research Initiative for Malawi Girls
Girls as young as 10 are transported from some areas in
southern Malawi to a remote location where they would be started. The girls
learn about respect for elders, cooking, excellent manners, decency,
cleanliness, appropriate sexual behavior, and fertility during the initiation
camp.
The females are forced to have intercourse with a
professional sex worker known as a "hyena" to complete the initiation
procedure. A guy who initiates young ladies into adulthood through sex is known
as the "hyena."
In addition, the hyena "cleanses" widows. In order
to have sex with a sex worker or the deceased's kin, newly bereaved widows are
allowed to partake in a sex ritual. Widows who are not cleansed face
discrimination and rejection. In Kenya, widow purging was declared illegal in
2015.
Hyenas are chosen because of their good nature and
because it is thought that they are immune to infections like HIV/AIDS. This,
however, is untrue because many of them have illnesses.
A hyena named Eric Aniva was detained on July 26, 2016,
at the behest of Malawian President Peter Mutharika. For having intercourse
with more than 100 women and girls without reporting his HIV status, he
received a two-year prison sentence.
Aniva boasted about being paid to have sex with more
than 100 young girls and women, some as young as 12, in a 27-minute radio
documentary titled "Stealing Innocence" in Malawi, which was aired in
a BBC broadcast a week before his arrest.
According to The Atlantic, initiations violate girls'
rights to education, health, liberty, and dignity, according to a report by the
government-run Malawi Human Rights Commission.
Infant Initiation
The Commission goes into further detail about some of
these rituals, claiming that girls are forced to perform the dance known as
chisamba at the conclusion of their initiation "bare-breasted in a very
explicit manner as they are being presented to the whole community" as a
means of "preparing them for their role of satisfying their husbands in
bed."As strange as some of these practices may seem, society sees them
as necessary. The community is connected to the larger and more powerful
spiritual world through these rites, which also serve to connect individuals to
the community.
The United Nations Population Fund's Jean Mweba, an
education program expert for reproductive health and adolescent health, told
CNN, "Everyone makes sure their child attends the initiation ceremony
because you will not be welcomed in the society." Being accepted in the
community is a problem.