Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
initiation ritualslatest news & developments
Debate: Initiation or ulwaluko prepares young Xhosa men for manhood. So what is the attitude to transgender people?

Battle for rights in traditional rites

Nonconforming people are protected by the Constitution in a complex tug-of-war

(John McCann/M&G)

Ratty rituals turn students off rugby

British university players are being deterred by disgusting initiation pranks like drinking vomit

The drama started in July 2017

Exposing a culture’s wounds

It’s been fêted around the world, but Inxeba’s smashed stereotypes will cause a stir locally

Nakhane Touré stars in  ‘Inxeba – The Wound’.

​Inxeba: A moment of confrontation

The film questions the idea of manhood in Xhosa culture through a relationship between three men.

Nakhane Touré stars in  ‘Inxeba – The Wound’.

​Actor Nakhane Touré fends off hate speech over controversial new film

‘The Wound’ tackles the unspoken issue of sexuality and tradition in a film about Xhosa initiates.

Xola near the Triangle Project offices in Cape Town on December 6 2016.

​Torment for trans women ‘sent to the mountain’ to learn to be men

It denies a transgender person her identity but refusing to go through a cultural rite of passage further alienates her.

‘It is imperative that we continuously visit the circumcised so as to make sure that they are not ill-treated and that they are safe

Rip-off artists are the real threat to koma

This sacred community ritual has been subverted and sullied by predatory and deadly opportunists.

In Pondoland

Man severely beaten for speaking out about his penis amputation

Three people have been arrested after a Pondoland initiate who lost his penis and spoke out about it in public was beaten for "shaming the custom".

The boys who lost their manhood

During this initiation season, we look back at what happened in 2013 when bungled initiations cost boys their penises.

Circumcision: No harm in asking the question

We cannot willingly choose not to talk about cultural practices to the detriment of unknown numbers of boys, writes Faranaaz Parker.

An unknown man has been shot and killed at an Eastern Cape initiation school.

PrePex will save many lives in SA – with traditional leaders’ help

The state’s hopes for the nonsurgical circumcision device rest on its acceptance in initiation rituals.

Police said there had also been six deaths related to initiation schools in Limpopo.

Parliament to probe initiation deaths

Parliament will probably debate the deaths of initiates at the end of the month, says the ANC chief whip’s office.

The difficulty is that the facts of the disturbing story have not been fully established.

Suffer the sense of belonging

Recent allegations about the rape initiation of a pupil at a rugby camp raises the question of why such practices exist in our supposedly modern era.

Cricket bat beatings at NWU

From savage initiation rights to claims of race bias, the Potch campus is out of date and under review, writes Primarashni Gower.