VIRGINITY TESTS ON COMEBACK TRAIL IN SOUTH AFRICA

Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies (2001)

ISSN: 1530-5686

Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies

Johannesburg Reuters

Thousands of girls in South Africa are queuing up each month to prove that they are virgins, reviving an African tradition seen by many as the answer to the scourge of AIDS.

Bare-breasted teenagers wearing nothing but strings of beads and colourful loincloths regularly submit to the ordeal of having a stranger check if their hymens are intact, leaping for joy when the test confirms that they are still virgins.

Advocates say the revival of the rite, which had died out in all but a few rural areas late in the 20th century, is the most effective way to stop the spread of teenage pregnancies and the deadly HIV virus, believed to affect one in 10 South Africans.

Opponents argue that the practice is unconstitutional, unhygienic and violates the human rights of those being tested.

“Those who are behind the comeback...say that if we test young girls to see if they are virgins they will be fearful and will not engage in sexual activity,” said Phumelele Ntombela-Nzinande, former deputy head of the Commission for Gender Equality.

“We are arguing that this practice undermines the principles of equality, freedom and human dignity. It is difficult to tell whether or not a girl has had intercourse and after touching about 600 girls you can easily transfer infections.”

Girls between the age of seven and 26 lie on a mat in front of the woman doing the test, which only takes a few seconds. It is often carried out with bare hands and the tester seldom washes them.

Girls who pass get white stars pasted on their foreheads and a certificate confirming their virginity.

“We have come here to celebrate and keep our culture going,” 16- year-old Brenda Mkhize told Reuters television after her test.

“It’s better to be a virgin than to have AIDS and have a baby at the age of 16...we don’t see any reason to sleep with a guy, and I think I will stay like this until I get married.”

Mkhize was one of hundreds of girls attending a virginity celebration at a sports stadium near Durban in December.

Afterwards, the girls sang and danced in traditional Zulu fashion.

“We are here because we are proud of ourselves, because we are virgins,” another girl said.

“We want to show the world we can live without doing those things that other girls are doing—without sleeping around. We are protecting ourselves from HIV.”

Nelson Ntshangase, a language lecturer at the University of Natal/Pietermaritzburg, told the Sunday Independent newspaper that almost one million women in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal province had submitted to the test.

“This thing is working. If it wasn’t, it would not be growing so fast,” he said. Ntshangase is also chairperson of Isivivane Samasiko Nolwasi, an umbrella organization advocating a return to traditional practices.

Advocate Andile Gumede is credited with reviving virginity testing in 1993 in Kwa- Zulu Natal province, an area said to have one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in the world. She is passionate about the cause.

“This is our culture, we believe in it and want it to continue. We are helping people to wait until it is the right time for them to take their decisions—when they have their own accommodation and money to raise children,” she said.

“Children at the age of 13 don’t have the power to say no to a man, can’t say ‘no sex without condoms.’ We are here for them, we are not here to abuse them.”

Gumede acknowledges that the practice is unhygienic at present but says if the government supported the tradition, there would be money for things like rubber gloves, food and privacy.

This is a real issue in a country where one of the prevalent myths about AIDS is that if you have sex with a virgin, you will be cured. South Africa’s high rate of rape and child abuse make HIV even more rampant, experts say.

Gumede, who is a 33-year-old single mother with three children, argues that the test often uncovers cases of rape or child abuse. Test advocates sit with the non-virgins afterwards and ask them what has happened, giving them support and advice, she maintains.

“We had one case in Durban where a father was lying with a five-month old child. We are training women to check their children when they go home,” she said.

“We don’t force girls to come for this type of testing. What we are trying to do is encourage those who are virgins to keep their virginity,” she said.

Girls who had been raped should be helped, not condemned, but girls who have started sleeping around should not come to the tests, advocates say.

“We found out that most of the time it is girls aged seven or eight that are damaged and on investigating we found out that some of them were sexually abused by uncles and other relatives,” said virginity tester Florence Buthelezi. “Some were afraid to talk but feel at ease to tell me who has been abusing them.”

Citation Format

Reuters, Johannesburg (2001). VIRGINITY TESTS ON COMEBACK TRAIL IN SOUTH AFRICA. Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies: 1, 1.