| Permissive African traditions spread AIDS [boodskap #93154] |
So, 23 Mei 2004 04:20 |
![Frikkie Potgieter[2] is tans af-lyn](/theme/default/images/offline.png "Frikkie Potgieter[2] is tans af-lyn")
Frikkie Potgieter[2]
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Geregistreer: November 2000
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LINK: http://tinyurl.com/22f97
Permissive African traditions spread AIDS
(Reuters)
ISIOLO, Kenya - Men in the arid, remote Kenyan town of Isiolo have
long had sex with young virgins to purge themselves of afflictions or
curses.
Now the age-old custom practised by the nomadic peoples of Kenya's
northeastern province is increasingly being used as a cure for
HIV/AIDS.
Nassir hesitantly admits he slept with a nine-year-old girl because
the clan elders in Isiolo, 200 km (124.3 miles) northeast of Kenyan
capital Nairobi, said it would rid him of frequent bouts of illness
brought on by HIV.
ÂI was given a girl of nine years to sleep with for a week, Nassir
said. ÂI took pity on her but if it wasn't for this disease I wouldn't
have slept with her...I had to do what the elders had said.Â
Isiolo's pastoralist community practices a mix of traditional African
beliefs. Illiteracy is high and AIDS is shrouded in stigma and
superstition.
ÂI am still afraid (that I may die), but there are many people from my
area who have done it, Nassir said. ÂMany survive, many die.Â
Although he paid 15,000 shillings ($195.9) and his mother gave up two
goats for the purging ceremony, Nassir still gets ill once in a while
and goes for treatment in a clinic run by a local charity whose
Swahili name Pepo La Tumaini Jangwani, means Wind of Hope in the Arid
Land.
After the ceremony, which includes gouging out a goat's heart while it
is still alive, the people of the village engage in a sexual orgy
intended to help a son or brother cleanse himself.
Nassir said he would get tested at the end of the year to see if he
has been cured.
Breeding ground
Two million of Kenya's 30 million people are HIV-positive and 1.5
million have already died.
Khadija Omar Rama, the founder of the Tumaini charity said that
despite the fact that up to 800 Kenyans die every day from AIDS,
communities like Isiolo continue to embrace traditional practices
which actively help to spread AIDS.
Another ancient custom permits men of the same generation to have
indiscriminate and unprotected sex with the wives of their peers. A
spear propped by the door of a man's house means that someone else
from his age group is in bed with his wife.
ÂNone of us is jealous about someone else sleeping with our wives
because we all do it, said Nassir, who says he has slept with the
wives of many men, even though he suspects he has HIV.
Nassir thinks his wife, who died shortly after his cleansing ceremony,
was infected with AIDS. She was never tested.
One woman who did not want to be named said her husband stabbed her in
the eye for objecting to having their daughter take part in a
cleansing ceremony.
She now belongs to the Maula, a group of women sponsored by Tumaini
who hope to convince people to abandon the old ways by reporting the
use of girls in purging ceremonies and offering alternative rituals
for men with AIDS.
Alternative cleansing rites
Rama says alternative cleansing rituals are highly contentious and the
Maula must operate in secret. Men who do visit, come to them under the
cover of darkness.
ÂThe women have to be very discreet about the alternative method of
cleansing and this is counter-productive for their campaign, Rama
said.
In a dome-shaped hut made of sticks, nine veiled Maula members sit in
a semi-circle for the cleansing ceremony. The earthen floor is covered
in mats and all footwear is left outside what is now considered holy
ground.
Popcorn, roasted coffee berries cooked in oil, coffee cups, sugar
cubes and a bar of soap lie in the centre while a pungent smell from a
small incense burner passed from woman to woman as part of the ritual,
assaults the nostrils.
Rama said reporting traditional purging ceremonies to the authorities
can sometimes cause further trauma for the girls who have been forced
to take part. She said two girls disappeared after the Maula reported
that they had been forced to take part. One is still missing.
One traditional custom which may help save some women from the deadly
virus that has afflicted much of sub Saharan Africa comes at a price.
Many women who suspect their husbands are infected with AIDS or HIV
have been turning to sufis, women healers, to put off their husband's
advances.
Traditionally, a woman seeking to join an elder council or tribal
leadership is required to stop having sex and will ask a sufi to her
bedroom to discourage her husband. In such circumstances the husband
eventually gives up.
But women who choose to use a sufi are not permitted to ever have sex
again and they are killed if caught in the act.
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