Sexual cleansing

 Bizarre Traditions

Sexual "cleansing" is ceremony where girls have sex as a cleansing ritual following their first menstruation. This is known in some regions of Malawi as kusasa fumbi, meaning "brushing off the dust." This is also sometimes performed after an abortion. This practice of sexual cleansing is largely confined to Salima, Chikwawa, and Nsanje Districts in Malawi, as well as parts of Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Ivory Coast, and the Congo.

Prepubescent girls are often sent to a training camp where women known as anamkungwi, or "key leaders", teach the girls how to cook, clean, and have sex in order to be a wife. After the training, a hyena (not to be confused with the animal), a traditional position held by a man, performs the cleansing for 12- to 17-year-old females and gets paid for 4-7 dollars each time. The rite lasts for three days. Sometimes, the girl is required to perform a bare-breasted dance known as chisamba at the end of their initiation in front of her whole community.

The practice can place young girls at risk of HIV infection because the hyena has sexual intercourse with all the girls and condoms are not used as the ritual requires the exchange of sexual fluids.

The rite is claimed by traditionalist Malawians to be able to prevent disease. Hyenas are usually selected for their moral character and are often erroneously believed to be incapable of catching diseases such as HIV/AIDS,

though there is documented evidence of practicing, HIV-positive Hyenas.