Medical science has completed its first successful penis transplant:
It began with a ritual circumcision for a teenager in South Africa, from the Xhosa tribe. And it ended with the world’s first penile transplant, completed in December and disclosed last week.
So far, it looks like a success. After the nine-hour procedure, Andre van der Merwe, the surgeon who led the transplant team at South Africa’s Tygerberg Hospital, was relatively confident that his patient, then 21, would eventually have a fully functioning penis. In time. Van der Merwe reckoned that it would take a couple of years for that to happen.
But just five weeks later, the patient informed him that not only was he achieving erections, but he had also engaged in intercourse. “I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say,” recalls van der Merwe, adding that he also feared that the early action might lead to a blood clot.
But this is certainly one of those medical procedures mainly motivated by traditional cultural practices, this time that of the southern African tribes Xhosas and Ndebeles. While certainly accidents and disease can also result in the loss of the penis, just reading about this traditional practice will raise the eyebrows:
Tricking the boys, some as young as 9, into attending initiation schools; law concerning age and medical fitness are often ignored:
While many initiation schools are officially sanctioned, others are unregulated and allow bogus surgeons to operate with unsterilised blades. According to Rijken, who works in the region, 825 boys have died from complications since 1995 and many more have suffered from what he calls male genital mutilation.
Billing the parents for the cost of the school:
The family was informed that the fee for both of them would be R1,420 (US$192), a significant sum considering their only source of income is two child support grants totalling R420 (US$57) a month.
Using ostracization to sustain the practice:
In 2012, Asanda lost his penis to gangrene in a botched circumcision ritual performed by a traditional surgeon wielding the same spear on more than a dozen initiates. He was an unusual case among thousands of men hospitalized after such ceremonies in past years because he broke a code of secrecy about the tradition and spoke out in protest. For that, he endured public humiliation and even a severe beating a few months ago.
“People would just stare at me, as if I were not a man,” 25-year-old Asanda told The Associated Press. He did not want his family name published for fear of a bigger backlash from his community.
They won’t use anesthetic, though:
Steve was circumcised by a traditional practitioner soon after arriving at the school. No anaesthetic was administered; bearing the pain of the cutting is considered vital to the process of becoming a man. A disposable blade was used, but the wound was not bandaged; the only protection against infection was the application of some traditional medicine.
The communities involved are not insensitive to the problem:
In a nearby hospital, a mother is in tears as she strokes her son’s head. He is still frail following months of treatment for a septic circumcision which also resulted in a penile amputation.
“Our children are dying like ants. I want the people doing this to be arrested and punished,” she says, angrily.
But the people involved are not about to give up their privileges without a fight:
Dr Dingeman Rijken said he had set up a website to reveal the “dark secrets of the ritual” because traditional leaders had shown “shocking” indifference and incompetence to the annual toll of death and injury.
The leaders have condemned Rijken for breaking a cultural taboo and reported his site to South Africa’s Film and Publication Board, demanding it be shut down. …
But critics argue that Rijken has betrayed their culture and should have handled the matter differently. Nkululeko Nxesi, from the Community Development Foundation of South Africa, told the AFP news agency: “That website must be shut down with immediate effect. He should respect the cultural principles and processes of this nation.”
Patekile Holomisa, a former leader of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, took a similar view. He told AFP: “We condemn the exposure of this ritual to people who do not practise it. Women should not see what happens at initiations.”
I suppose to an individualistic culture, this doesn’t make much sense; but for those that are more communitarian, a shared, horrific experience acts as a bonding process, something you know your mates have experienced, have in this case just survived, and perhaps marks your and your group as special. Horrific? So much the better. As one of those individualists, I find this horrifying; but if you’re trying to build a community, institutions such as these may be necessary to instill necessary mental attitudes.
Gah.
Andrew Sullivan of the now dormant The Dish raged against traditional Western circumcision here.
(h/t NewScientist 21 March 2015)
