Continuing on the theme of my previous post, comes another unfortunate story:
A 15-year-old boy has died in the Eastern Cape after being circumcised, allegedly by an 18-year-old, the province’s health department said on Friday.
…Earlier this week another eight unregistered surgeons were arrested for circumcising boys in the Transkei.
I want to make sure I have this right. Circumcision is “good” because it reduces the risk of HIV. We must convince African men, particularly fathers, on the benefits of circumcision. When those circumcisions are done “illegally”, we must be angry and stop it. The approach to stop this type of “illegal” circumcision by traditional healers is to educate communities about the necessity to perform “legal” circumcisions. We have faith that this will work. I think I got it.
So why will education work to teach African men to perform circumcisions correctly but it won’t work to have them learn safe sex practices?
Good question. Exactly my thoughts.
The answer, of course, is because our culture is in denial about the risks and lack of benefits of circumcision.