AfricaChild AbuseChild RightsCultureFeaturesHumanitySocietyWomen's RightsWorldYoung Generation
The man hired to have sex with children
In some remote southern regions of Malawi, it’s traditional for girls to be made to have sex with a paid sex worker known as a “hyena” once they reach puberty.
The act is not seen by village elders as rape, but as a form of ritual “cleansing”.
However, as Ed Butler reports, it has the potential to be the opposite of cleansing – a way of spreading disease…