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| Features |
| Doing away with harmful cultures |
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by
Josephine Kwizombe, 15 June 2006
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06:42:45
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At a time the country is fighting against possible traditional beliefs that may perpetuate the spread of HIV and Aids, some people are still practising the same dangerous beliefs..
After Lizzie Linya of Chisinkha Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mabuka in Mulanje lost her first born child, elders advised her to clean her family through sleeping with a man immediately.
“They also warned that I wasn’t supposed to put salt in the relish before I have sex with a man. They threatened that if I did the rest of my family would die of malnutrition or diarrhoea,” explained 25-year old Linya, who naturally chose to sleep with her own husband.
In this part of the country this trend is called ‘kuchotsa mipingu’ (getting rid of death). Among the chewa of Central Region it is known as ‘kuchotsa maliro’. It is slightly different from ‘kulowa kufa’ where a man would marry his deceased brother’s wife.
She further said, when a husband or a child dies, the woman is supposed to have sex with a man to protect the family from diseases and death. It is believed that when a woman puts salt in the relish before sleeping with a man, the relatives would become sick and die.
Unfortunately, Linya lost another child after a year and her husband divorced her soon after burial, angry about the loss of the children.
“I was four months pregnant then and had no choice but to suspend putting salt in the relish until somebody asked to sleep with me ‘to cleanse me’,” said Linya who claims people are still practising this cultural belief in her area.
According to Linya, a number of NGOs have been sensitising the villagers about the dangers of this practice. People listen but ignore the message afterwards.
“We are not allowed to use a condom when doing this because if we do, it means the whole ritual is useless,” said Linya who said was very sorry for having had sex with a man other than her husband.
She added: “I only followed instructions. If I had a choice I would have used a condom.”
After the sexual intercourse which symbolises cleansing the woman, it is up to the two to either continue with the relationship or not.
Meanwhile, Linya is a single mother of two and life is very hard for her as she has to fend for her family.
Because of the HIV and Aids pandemic, some dangerous traditional and cultural practices are being discouraged.
Women like Lizzie are unfortunately at risk of contracting HIV through cultural practices such as ‘kuchotsa mipingu’.
Maxwell Molande, of Namwela Village, T/A Njema in Mulanje confided in Mana that despite massive HIV and Aids awareness campaigns conducted in the area, people are still practising ‘kuchotsa mipingu’ in the district.
“Of course different people have been coming here to conduct HIV and Aids awareness campaigns but the messages do not seem to sink in the minds of the people. There is no tangible result in terms of behavioural change.
“It is at least safe for those who are married because they do it with their husbands, but those who are single need to sleep with any other man. There are experts for this ritual whom women hire at K400,” said Molande.
He, however, revealed that some quarters started using traditional medicine as a safer alternative of cleansing a family, other than risking the life of their relation to HIV.
A report by Margaret Lumpkin Keon, a former Wellsley Centre for Women (WCW) member, sourced from the Internet, 15 percent of Malawi’s population is HIV-positive.
“In Malawi the greatest risk factor for a woman to become infected is to be married. Traditional beliefs require women to turn over their earnings to their men, to submit them sexually and to have large families,” reads the report in part.
It further says: “With such beliefs embedded in the culture, it is indeed challenging to assist people to begin to think differently.”
Director of Gender Support Programme, Cecilia Mussa said her organisation is still conducting awareness campaigns in rural areas to ensure that women are protected from harmful cultural practices.
Roy Hauya, Director of Policy and Programmes at the National Aids Commission (NAC) noted that men take advantage of women’s weak gender position to perpetrate cultural practices that would infect them with HIV.
“Women’s rights are consistently violated in the name of culture which is not acceptable in human rights. Men are taking advantage of their gender position in society to satisfy their desires,” he said.
Hauya also pointed out that it would be difficult for people to immediately abolish traditional beliefs that would increase the spread of HIV and Aids over night, hence NAC’s initiative to sponsor Community-Based Organisations’ (CBOs) dealing with HIV and Aids issues.
“Sex is a cultural thing and traditional beliefs regarding it would die slowly. It’s high time traditional and religious leaders joined hands to fight against such practices,” said Hauya who revealed that NAC committed K6 billion to sponsor various NGOs involved in HIV and Aids initiatives in the past two years.
According to Hauya, HIV and Aids cases have remained stable since 2000—at one million HIV-positive people—an indication that Malawi would achieve United Nations’ goal that there should not be HIV infections by 2015. |
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