Hyena Man of Malawi

Eric Aniva, a sex worker known in Malawi as a "hyena",

Bizarre Practice in Malawi where a Man is hired to sleep with Women and Schoolgirls for “Sexual Cleansing”

In Malawi families paid man called Hyena between $4 – $7 to sleep with their children in what they call “sexual cleansing”. They say it is an age long tradition that marks the progression of adolescent girls to womanhood. Also, if a woman loses her husband, she is brought to people called Hyena for cleansing before she can bury him. If women get an abortion, they are brought to Hyena for cleansing too. Each community in the Nsanje district has an “hyena”. Nsanje is the southernmost district in Malawi and lies in the Lower Shire River Valley. It straddles the Shire River in the north and is surrounded by Mozambique.

It is a traditional title (called Hyena) given to a man hired by communities to perform the sexual cleansing rituals. 12-13 year old girls are brought to him immediately after their first menstruation for him to transition them to womanhood.

Few selected elderly women are responsible for the preparation of the adolescent girls. They organise the girls into camps each year, teaching them about their duties as wives and how to please a man sexually. Finally, the Hyena defiles them to complete their “transition”. If the girls refuse to play along, it is believed that some disease or fatal misfortune could befall their families or the village as a whole.

In Malawi’s central Dedza district, hyenas are only ever used to initiate widows or infertile women. In some other districts, like Mangochi in the east of the country, ceremonies are being adapted to replace sex with a more benign anointing of the girl.

 

Picture Source: Collected from Internet