Female genital cutting is a problem that has taken several dimensions and continues to be practiced despite enormous efforts and resources invested by governments,non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders to ensure that the practice is discontinued worldwide. This study was conducted with the primary objective of assessing the views and perceptions of NGOs on the practice of female genital cutting in Nigeria. The study also examines efforts by civil society and the Nigerian government towards combating and eliminating the practice of FMC in Nigeria. Aside from the systematic literature review, a case study of ten NGOs were interviewed on the telephone. Findings indicate that girls being kept pure as virgins, protection of girls' reproductive potential, increase in fertility, aiding marriageability, traditional practice, and keeping with lineage practice are responsibile for the practice in Nigeria. Few theories were reviewed, and research questions were designed in line with the theories. The approaches include the Functionalist theory, cultural relativism, social theory and Feminism.

Gender-based violence (GBV) has reached a state of epidemic proportion globally and in particular in Africa. There have been a few studies that have been conducted on GBV in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lesotho, situated in the heart of South Africa has one of the highest prevalence of GBV. An Ecological Framework by the WHO has divided the risk factors into individual, relationship, community and societal factors. Lebollo is overlapping with most factors but it is mainly an exclusive entity. Lebollo is the cultural circumcision of men and the most common cultural practice amongst Basotho men. Lebollo influences gender roles, normative perceptions and the behaviour of Basotho men. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of Lebollo on men’s perceptions on women beating in Lesotho. A cross-sectional study that is based on the DHS survey of Lesotho 2014 was used in this study. Basotho men, ages 15-55, with a sample size of 2921, were selected through a two-stage cluster sampling and completing a standardized questionnaire. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyse the data. Lebollo was not significantly associated with weakly rejecting GBV perceptions. This was the finding after adjusting for education and socioeconomic factors, that Lebollo was significantly associated with weakly rejecting GBV perceptions. Age, religion, education, wealth and Livential area were identified to affect men’s perceptions of GBV. Most men agreed to women beating with the justification of arguing with her husband. When the Null hypothesis was considered, it was found that Lebollo does not influence the GBV perceptions of men in Lesotho. This is in view of the fact that education and wealth was found to be the strongest predictors and influenced the association between Lebollo and women beating justification (confounders). The Legal and education system of Lesotho including Lebollo needs to be restructured and monitored.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2016 / The research set out to investigate how the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) programme in South Africa facilitated stakeholder participation in its communication processes to improve the uptake of services in the context of national targets. Studies reviewed have highlighted challenges in the implementation of the participatory model to achieve communication goals. This qualitative study used document analysis, in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) for data collection. The research has revealed other limiting factors including unequal opportunities to influence decisions as a result of varying levels of authority and access to mediated public spheres. While those with power end up being further empowered through participatory approaches in terms of voice and visibility, the representation of the inputs of the lower level stakeholder group is limited to head count. A five-day visit to a VMMC clinic in Alexandra Township attributes marginalisation by exclusion from decision-making processes as one of the reasons for people’s inability to translate knowledge into the positive public response. The study was inconclusive about the influence of the model on the actual service uptake because the purpose was to provide a textual description of the participants’ experiences and not the impact. / XL2018

In recent years, circumcision of boys has sparked off debate in Sweden. Even though mostpoliticians do not consider the procedure as problematic, if the procedure is done beforepuberty as the rights are covered by the Swedish law on freedom of religion, the SwedishCentre Party are drafting a ban on religious circumcisions of boys. This essay aims to analyzethe current discourse surrounding the subject of circumcision.Circumcision of boys is a procedure of frequent occurrence in all parts of the world. Thecircumcision is most often performed when the boy is an infant, or of such a low age, that thechild is too young to understand and give consent for such a procedure. Therefore, it is mostoften the guardian who decides if a circumcision is to be performed. In the current discourse,many regard circumcision as a way for the child or guardian to express their religion, since itis the right of the guardians to pass on their religion onto their child. Consequently, a ban oncircumcision of boys would discriminate against people belonging to the Jewish and Muslimfaith who will not be able to perform their religious duties freely, which could result in theincrease of isolation and segregation in society. Many see the choice of religion as a right thatis to be taken by the child, and that is why a prohibition on circumcision of boys is advocatedby some groups in society.According to the ‘UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’, all the decisions involving achild are to be taken while considering the well-being and what is best for the child inquestion. There is concurrently legislation that allows circumcision of boys on the conditionthat both guardians give their consent. The ones advocating for a ban on circumcision of boysargue that the procedure is against the well-being of the child as it is a limitation of the child’sbest interest and bodily integrity. While the side arguing for circumcision of boys consider theprocedure as part of the religious identity and the group identity, and that the procedure alsohas medical benefits that are considered to be favorable for the child’s well-being. / Omskärelse av pojkar har väckt debatt i Sverige under de senaste åren. Även om de flestapolitiker inte anser att ingreppet är problematiskt om det sker innan puberteten och medhänvisning till lagen om religionsfrihet, arbetar Centerpartiet för ett förbud mot religiösomskärelse av pojkar. Uppsatsen syftar till att analysera nuvarande diskurser kring omskärelseav pojkar.Omskärelse av pojkar är ett ingrepp som är vanligt förekommande i hela världen, liksom iSverige. Omskärelsen sker oftast när pojken är ett spädbarn eller i för låg ålder för att kunnaförstå och samtycka till ingreppet. Därav är det i de flesta fallen vårdnadshavarna sombeslutar om att omskärelsen ska ske. I de rådande diskurser betraktar många omskärelser somett uttryck för barnets och vårdnadshavarnas religionsfrihet, eftersom vårdnadshavarna harrätt till att föra över sin tro på sitt barn. Därmed anses förbud mot omskärelse varadiskriminering mot muslimer och judar som inte kan utföra sin religion fritt, vilket kan ökasegregationen i samhället och känslan av utanförskap. Medan många tolkar barnets religionsom barnets rätt att fritt välja sin religion därmed hävdar dem ett förbud mot omskärelse avpojkar.Enligt FN:s barnkonvention ska alla beslut rörande barn fattas utifrån barnets bästa. Samtidigthar vi en lagstiftning som tillåter omskärelse av pojkar om både vårdnadshavarna uttryckersitt medgivande. De som förespråkar ett förbud mot omskärelse anser att ingreppet är motbarnets bästa eftersom det innebär inskränkning av barnets intresse och kroppsliga integritet.Medan de som är för ingreppet anser att ingreppet ingår i den religiösaidentiteten/gruppidentiteten och medför medicinska fördelar vilka anses vara för barnetsbästa.

NOTE FROM THE LIBRARY: PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR AT indisunflower@yahoo.com OR CONSULT THE LIBRARY FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THIS THESIS.... This thesis investigates the trajectory traced from Sarah Baartman, a Khoisan woman exploited in Europe during the nineteenth century, to a contemporary writing workshop with circumcised, immigrant West African women in Harlem New York by way of a selection of African women's memoirs. The selected African women's texts used in this work create a new testimony of speech, fragmenting a historically dominant Euro-American gaze on African women's bodies. The excerpts form a discursive space for reclaiming self and as well as a defiant challenge to Western porno-erotic voyeurism. The central premise of this thesis is that while investigating Eurocentric (a)historical narratives of Baartman, one finds an implicitly racist and sexist development of European language employed not solely with Baartman, but contemporaneously upon the bodies of Black women of Africa and its Diaspora, focusing predominantly on the "anomaly of their hypersexual" genitals. This particular language applied to the bodies of Black women extends into the discourse of Western feminist movements against African female circumcision in the 21st century. Nawal el Saadawi, Egyptian writer and activist and Aman, a Somali exile, write autobiographical texts which implode a western "silent/uninformed circumcised African woman" stereotype. It is through their documented life stories that these African women claim their bodies and articulate nationalist and cultural solidarity. This work shows that Western perceptions of Female Circumcision and African women will be juxtaposed with African women's perceptions of themselves. Ultimately, with the Nitiandika Writers Workshop in Harlem New York, the politicized outcome of the women who not only write their memoirs but claim a vibrant sexual (not mutilated or deficient) identity in partnership with their husbands, ask why Westerners are more interested in their genitals than how they are able to provide food, shelter and education for the their families, as immigrants to New York. The works of Saadawi, Aman and the Nitandika writers disrupt and ultimately destroy this trajectory of dehumanization through a direct movement from an assumed silence (about their bodies, their circumcisions and their status as women in Africa) to a directed, historically and culturally grounded "alter" speech of celebration and liberation. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.(English)

The practise of male traditional circumcision is severely challenged with enormous problems ranging from hospitalisation of the initiates as well as deaths of the initiates. The background of the problem is focused in the Eastern Cape Province where the researcher has noted several initiates being treated in hospitals for physical and as well for psychological problems. The objective of this study was to explore and describe newly initiated Xhosa men's experiences of traditional circumcision rites at East London in the Eastern Cape Province and to describe the guidelines for support of these newly initiated Xhosa men by public health professionals. A qualitative explorative, descriptive contextual and phenomenological design was followed. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the participants. Fourteen participants volunteered to participate in the study after they met the eligible criteria. Focused group interviews were used as a method for data collection. Data analysis of the study showed that there are several factors affecting newly initiated men whilst undergoing circumcision rites. These factors can present at any of the three circumcision stages i.e. pre-circumcision, peri-circumcision and post-circumcision. The recommendations of the study strongly suggest a cultural competence in rendering effective health care services to culturally and ethnically diverse clients. All the five constructs of cultural competence are entailed in the support guidelines that have been developed by the researcher. They are cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounter and cultural desire. Finally limitation of the study and the need for a further research has been clearly stated. / Health Studies / M.A.

This thesis examines the discourse strategies used to construct initiation schools in online media and message boards. The focus is on understanding the tensions that come with enacting traditional practices in the face of modernity and its associated cultural expectations. The thesis describes the manner in which these tensions are constructed in text by the media in news reports and participants in discussion forums. While there is still debate around whether the internet will revolutionise public participation and create a digital utopia; the internet is acknowledged as one of the widest reaching sources of information and entertainment. Specifically, the internet provides a platform to challenge the traditionally top-down communication between the elite, who have privileged access to the media, and the general public, who were previously constructed as passive recipients of information. Using the male circumcision initiation rite, this thesis examines how the South African public discursively constructs the epistemic location of African traditions in South Africa. The study drew on a sample of news articles from the News24 site, the largest news site in South Africa, ranging from January 2008 to December 2013. A corpus of 62 articles were analysed using the Critical Discourse Analysis technique described by Teun van Dijk. The findings of the thesis were that the initiation rite is used as a rhetorical tool to argue for the abandonment of African cultural practices in favour of modern, Western influenced beliefs and values. The findings also indicate that the initiation rite is reduced to the act of circumcision in the media by focusing on the injury and deaths of the initiates and excluding the meaning of the rite as a meaningful cultural practice. The conclusion of the thesis challenges the epistemicide committed against the male circumcision initiation rite from within the Decolonial school of thought, which critically examines everyday interaction for universalising, normative language that aims to commit cultural epistemicide to reinforce the white, male, European, Christian traditions of masculinity. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The practise of male traditional circumcision is severely challenged with enormous problems ranging from hospitalisation of the initiates as well as deaths of the initiates. The background of the problem is focused in the Eastern Cape Province where the researcher has noted several initiates being treated in hospitals for physical and as well for psychological problems. The objective of this study was to explore and describe newly initiated Xhosa men's experiences of traditional circumcision rites at East London in the Eastern Cape Province and to describe the guidelines for support of these newly initiated Xhosa men by public health professionals. A qualitative explorative, descriptive contextual and phenomenological design was followed. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the participants. Fourteen participants volunteered to participate in the study after they met the eligible criteria. Focused group interviews were used as a method for data collection. Data analysis of the study showed that there are several factors affecting newly initiated men whilst undergoing circumcision rites. These factors can present at any of the three circumcision stages i.e. pre-circumcision, peri-circumcision and post-circumcision. The recommendations of the study strongly suggest a cultural competence in rendering effective health care services to culturally and ethnically diverse clients. All the five constructs of cultural competence are entailed in the support guidelines that have been developed by the researcher. They are cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounter and cultural desire. Finally limitation of the study and the need for a further research has been clearly stated. / Health Studies / M.A.

NOTE FROM THE LIBRARY: PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR AT indisunflower@yahoo.com OR CONSULT THE LIBRARY FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THIS THESIS.... This thesis investigates the trajectory traced from Sarah Baartman, a Khoisan woman exploited in Europe during the nineteenth century, to a contemporary writing workshop with circumcised, immigrant West African women in Harlem New York by way of a selection of African women's memoirs. The selected African women's texts used in this work create a new testimony of speech, fragmenting a historically dominant Euro-American gaze on African women's bodies. The excerpts form a discursive space for reclaiming self and as well as a defiant challenge to Western porno-erotic voyeurism. The central premise of this thesis is that while investigating Eurocentric (a)historical narratives of Baartman, one finds an implicitly racist and sexist development of European language employed not solely with Baartman, but contemporaneously upon the bodies of Black women of Africa and its Diaspora, focusing predominantly on the "anomaly of their hypersexual" genitals. This particular language applied to the bodies of Black women extends into the discourse of Western feminist movements against African female circumcision in the 21st century. Nawal el Saadawi, Egyptian writer and activist and Aman, a Somali exile, write autobiographical texts which implode a western "silent/uninformed circumcised African woman" stereotype. It is through their documented life stories that these African women claim their bodies and articulate nationalist and cultural solidarity. This work shows that Western perceptions of Female Circumcision and African women will be juxtaposed with African women's perceptions of themselves. Ultimately, with the Nitiandika Writers Workshop in Harlem New York, the politicized outcome of the women who not only write their memoirs but claim a vibrant sexual (not mutilated or deficient) identity in partnership with their husbands, ask why Westerners are more interested in their genitals than how they are able to provide food, shelter and education for the their families, as immigrants to New York. The works of Saadawi, Aman and the Nitandika writers disrupt and ultimately destroy this trajectory of dehumanization through a direct movement from an assumed silence (about their bodies, their circumcisions and their status as women in Africa) to a directed, historically and culturally grounded "alter" speech of celebration and liberation. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.(English)

This thesis examines the discourse strategies used to construct initiation schools in online media and message boards. The focus is on understanding the tensions that come with enacting traditional practices in the face of modernity and its associated cultural expectations. The thesis describes the manner in which these tensions are constructed in text by the media in news reports and participants in discussion forums. While there is still debate around whether the internet will revolutionise public participation and create a digital utopia; the internet is acknowledged as one of the widest reaching sources of information and entertainment. Specifically, the internet provides a platform to challenge the traditionally top-down communication between the elite, who have privileged access to the media, and the general public, who were previously constructed as passive recipients of information. Using the male circumcision initiation rite, this thesis examines how the South African public discursively constructs the epistemic location of African traditions in South Africa. The study drew on a sample of news articles from the News24 site, the largest news site in South Africa, ranging from January 2008 to December 2013. A corpus of 62 articles were analysed using the Critical Discourse Analysis technique described by Teun van Dijk. The findings of the thesis were that the initiation rite is used as a rhetorical tool to argue for the abandonment of African cultural practices in favour of modern, Western influenced beliefs and values. The findings also indicate that the initiation rite is reduced to the act of circumcision in the media by focusing on the injury and deaths of the initiates and excluding the meaning of the rite as a meaningful cultural practice. The conclusion of the thesis challenges the epistemicide committed against the male circumcision initiation rite from within the Decolonial school of thought, which critically examines everyday interaction for universalising, normative language that aims to commit cultural epistemicide to reinforce the white, male, European, Christian traditions of masculinity. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)