NYT: AIDS Now Compels Africa to Challenge Widows' 'Cleansing'

[DeepModem Mom]

AIDS Now Compels Africa to Challenge Widows' 'Cleansing'
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
Published: May 11, 2005


MCHINJI, Malawi - In the hours after James Mbewe was laid to rest three years ago, in an unmarked grave not far from here, his 23-year-old wife, Fanny, neither mourned him nor accepted visits from sympathizers. Instead, she hid in his sister's hut, hoping that the rest of her in-laws would not find her.

But they hunted her down, she said, and insisted that if she refused to exorcise her dead husband's spirit, she would be blamed every time a villager died. So she put her two small children to bed and then forced herself to have sex with James's cousin.

"I cried, remembering my husband," she said. "When he was finished, I went outside and washed myself because I was very afraid. I was so worried I would contract AIDS and die and leave my children to suffer."

Here and in a number of nearby nations including Zambia and Kenya, a husband's funeral has long concluded with a final ritual: sex between the widow and one of her husband's relatives, to break the bond with his spirit and, it is said, save her and the rest of the village from insanity or disease. Widows have long tolerated it, and traditional leaders have endorsed it, as an unchallenged tradition of rural African life.

Now AIDS is changing that. Political and tribal leaders are starting to speak out publicly against so-called sexual cleansing, condemning it as one reason H.I.V. has spread to 25 million sub-Saharan Africans, killing 2.3 million last year alone. They are being prodded by leaders of the region's fledging women's rights movement, who contend that lack of control over their sex lives is a major reason 6 in 10 of those infected in sub-Saharan Africa are women....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/11/international/africa/11malawi.html?hp&ex=1115784000&en=9f608f4a771b6c9b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[tucoramirez2005]

1. At least they're not blaming the Pope anymore

This ritual has gone on for decades, but it was just more convenient to blame someone else (preferably a conservative group).

Without taking a real hard, honest look at this crisis (not just in Afric, but everywhere), and dealing with some "inconvenient" truths, this disease will continue to spread out of control.

[preciousdove]

4. Who's not blaming the Pope ?

and if you are defending Conservative Groups you are in the wrong neighborhood.

[babylonsister]

2. OMG, I'd never heard about sexual cleansing until

this post, in any country or religion. How sad.
Thanks for enlightening me.

[oneold1-4u]

3. This is simple "mumbo jumbo"

But right here in the US are religions (one very large) that have some similar programs for women! They don't believe a woman can possibly remain healthy without a man! marrying back into the husbands family where possible is much recommended, even if it is the husbands father whose wife is gone!

[babylonsister]

5. Okay, you're on DU, so I hope you can provide a source.

I'm interested!