Female circumcision, denial, and HIV/AIDS

Last week was a rather rough week. The community I was working in is hit hard by HIV/AIDS (e.g. 6-7 funerals on average per month) but the level of denial is mindboggling. One woman told me that she didn't believe in HIV/AIDS and that it was actually a disease that they used to treat in the old days with traditional medicine. When I asked her to describe the disease she stood up, pointed to her genitals and then upwards and told me that everything would swell and have lots of pus. Hmmm...sounds lovely. I encountered one older guy who had contracted HIV from his older brother when he was taking care of him (the older brother had failed to inform him of his status). These are just two of many stories that I could tell you.

On top of all of this I came across a female circumcision school in the same community. Most Basotho had told me prior to this encounter that female circumcision schools had died out or were only out in the most rural communities but here we were in a community that was a few kilometers off the main road to Teyateyaneg! When I asked what type of circumcision they were performing on the girls (there are several different types from a straightforward clitirodectomy to pharonic circumcision) they told me it was a clitirodectomy (of course I couldn't actually say the word "clitoris" because that is culturally verboten so it was a bit of a mime song and dance to get to the point....if only I had a video camera for that performance!). When I asked the chief if she thought the school helped young women with the transition to adulthood and all the responsibilities that came with it she replied "no" and when I questioned her about the importance of the school she said that it wasn't important, but that some women who had been through the school when they were younger wanted their daughters to experience it and have the same "bond" as they did with their agemates/school attendees. Very interesting. And please recall my dear readers that all of this is happening in a setting where a third of the adult population is HIV+ *sound of Tarra banging her head against a wall* .