Initiation counsellors are using the same blade to circumcise multiple boys – bringing with it the risk of HIV transmission

Moses will regret skipping school for the rest of his life. The bright 14 year old was persuaded by his friends to bunk off and sneak into the mysterious camp near to his home in Nkagula, in the south of Malawi.

But the camp, buried deep in the forest, is a no-go zone for teenagers like Moses. Instead, it is where boys from the Yao and Lhomwe tribes undergo initiation rites as they become adults.

Any boy who passes into the restricted area risks falling into the hands of the Angaliba or initiation counsellors. These heavily muscled men, with faces are covered with feathers, perform ritual circumcision on boys in the tribe - and any trespassers, as Moses and his friends found to their cost.

“The Angaliba captured us as we approached the camp and they immediately dragged us inside,” he says. “They forced us to drink a concoction which I believe upset our minds since we all lost interest to go back home.”

Then the boys were brutally circumcised, with the Angaliba using the same blade on each of his victims.

Six months later, Moses fell ill and was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with HIV.

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At first Ndaonga Munthali, the boy’s grandfather, and his mother Mercy refused to believe that Moses had contracted the disease.

“We could still not believe that, so we took him alongside his young sister to a private health centre for another test. Unfortunately only Moses was found with the virus,” says the incredulous Munthali.

“I strongly believe he contracted it at the initiation ceremony as they used one blade on several of them,” he says.

Moses has been given life-saving anti-retroviral therapy but does not always stick to the drug regimen.

Recently, he ended up in hospital after he stopped taking the drugs for five months. “I become very weak when I take the drugs on an empty stomach and feel sick. So I don’t take the drugs when there is no food,” Moses told us during our visit to his home.

Despite his ill health, Moses still hopes to one day become a doctor.

“I feel bad when I see patients suffering in hospital due to shortage of medical workers,” he says, “ I want to become a medical doctor so that I can help treat people of different illnesses.”

Mayeso Makope, an Angaliba at Njara camp in Zomba, admits that the initiation counsellors use the same blade to circumcise two boys but says - wrongly - that this carries no risk of HIV transmission.

“We assume that all those coming for the initiation ceremony have not had sex before hence it is not possible to spread the virus by using one blade,” he said.

View photos Boys waiting for the initiation ceremony to begin Credit: Henry Kijimwana Mhango More

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