OMG!!! This man was hired to have sex with children
Culled from BBC
This man, Eric Aniva is being paid between $4 – $7 (between N1,500 and N2,650 using the current black market rate)by parents to sleep with their children in what they call “sexual cleansing”.
This man, Eric Aniva is being paid between $4 – $7 (between N1,500 and N2,650 using the current black market rate)by parents 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 like Aniva for
cleansing before she can bury him. If women get an abortion, they are
brought to him for cleansing too.
Aniva is called “hyena” by the community and he told BBC’s Ed Butler
that there are about 10 of them in the community. He says that each
community in the Nsanje district has an “hyena”. He says he started
the practice in 1985.
He says that it is a traditional title 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.
Three women, Fagisi, Chrissie and Phelia
who the report says are in there 50s 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.
“Most of those I have slept with are
girls, school-going girls. Some girls are just 12 or 13 years old, but I
prefer them older. All these girls find pleasure in having me as their
hyena. They actually are proud and tell other people that ‘this man is a
real man, he knows how to please a woman’,” Aniva says.
Aniva adds that he has two wives who
know what he does for a living. He says he has 5 children that he knows
of, stating that he’s not sure how many women and girls he must have
gotten pregnant.
One of the girls, speaking to Butler
said, “There was nothing else I could have done. I had to do it for the
sake of my parents. If I’d refused, my family members could be attacked
with diseases – even death – so I was scared.”
Butler challenged Fagisi, Chrissie and
Phelia about the practice, saying that instead of “cleansing” the women,
Aniva could be spreading disease because the custom demands that the
sex must be without condoms. They responded by telling him that men like
Aniva are hand-picked for their good morals, and therefore cannot be
infected with HIV/AIDS.
But that is not the case, as Aniva
confided in Butler that he is actually infected with the virus. He says
he’s slept with about 104 women, but Butler believes he’s lost count as
that was the same number he gave journalists in 2012.
The report states that in Malawi’s
central Dedza district, hyenas are only ever used to initiate widows or
infertile women. “The Paramount Chief in the District, Theresa Kachindamoto – a rare female figurehead in Malawi – has made the fight against the tradition a personal priority,” Butler said.
“She is trying to galvanise other
regional chiefs to make similar efforts. 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,” he added.
One of Aniva’s wives, Fanny who he “cleansed” after her husband’s death, says that she hates her husband’s job.
“I don’t want that to happen. I want
this tradition to end. We are forced to sleep with the hyenas. It’s not
out of our choice and that I think is so sad for us as women,” she
responded when asked if she will allow her 2-year old to be cleansed
when she reaches the age.
Aniva too doesn’t want that for his
beloved daughter. “Not my daughter. I cannot allow this. Now I am
fighting for the end of this malpractice,” he responds to the same
question.
“For sure. For real, I’m stopping,” he added.
Watch Aniva Speak below:
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