Individual initiation rites: a different approach to learning about sexuality and gender roles

***

Madrinha Sara applies an oily liquid made of herbs and plants, which makes the vaginal lips softer and more flexible and helps to reduce the pain, and then she starts to pull the girl’s vaginal lips. Her movements are rhythmical and confident. She has been doing this for many years. The girl’s eyes wander around the room. She looks terrified, but she doesn’t say a word. From time to time her facial expressions show pain and discomfort. Her thin body is shivering. Some movements cause more pain and her muscles contract, but she lets Madrinha

176 I have started this section with an account from an individual initiation session, which had a more intimate character than the group puberty rites. Drawing on my ethnographic observation I explore the ritual, which encompassed learning about sexual behaviour and the elongation of the labia minora carried out by Madrinha Sara on Manuela, a 12-year-old girl from a village outside Beira. I look at why going through this ritual is considered to be ‘learning the right knowledge’ and why altering the female sexual organs is such an important act for both men and women in the research area.

I expected the ritual performed by Madrinha Sara to be an act of humiliation, yet what I experienced was an engaging lesson in sexual behaviour. Madrinha Sara has been doing this ritual with girls and young women for over 20 years. She seems to be a warm and happy 53- year-old woman. She lives in a fairly large three-bedroom house in a small village outside Beira. Madrinha is well known not only for doing puixa-puixa,64 but also for her knowledge of herbs and medicine. Puixa-puixa is a procedure for the elongation of the vaginal labia

minora (matingi) and is one of the most widespread vaginal practices in Mozambique. The

procedure is usually directed by elderly women and is preparatory to sexual activity and marriage. It involves pulling the inner lips of the genital organs with regular movements while applying castor-oil.65 The apparent objective of the elongation, according to Madrinha Sara, is to enhance sexual satisfaction (of both partners) during intercourse. However, I learned that the size of the matingi used to be a source of pride. The elongation of the labia used to be common practice: young women would do it for each other; a group of women would sit in pairs opposite each other pulling on each other’s lips. Apparently ‘the longer the

better’, as Madrinha stressed. During community meetings women would sit in a circle

exposing their organs (they did not wear underwear in the past) to show the size of their labia. Although it is no longer common for the young generation to show off their organs, the size of the labia is still significant when finding a husband.

I tried to comprehend exactly what Madrinha Sara’s function was and why she was not a

curandeira. People (usually women) look for counselling and advice in medical and

emotional matters; young women, for example, ask for help with ‘matters of the heart’, and when they had difficulties finding a husband they believed that Madrinha could help them to

‘catch’ a boy they liked. Madrinha Sara is also a specialist in preparing traditional medicine.

She spent hours looking for plants and seeds in the area. She showed me one of the rooms in                                                                                                                

64 _{Puixa-puixa or kupfuwa - local practice of elongation of vaginal labia – labia minora.} 65 _{Ricinus Communis – castor oil plant.}

her house which was full of boxes, small bags and jars of all sizes; on the walls dried plants, animal hair, bones and roots are hung. Madrinha told me that her house was the best place for doing the ritual (and other procedures) as she has everything handy. People therefore come to her house. Sometimes she is asked to go to group initiation rites like the one described earlier, to introduce girls to sexual intercourse between a woman and a man, hygiene and other issues they should know about when ‘stepping’ into adulthood. However, during such rituals she did not perform puixa-puixa or any other procedures related to sexual behaviour. These require intimacy and hence are done in private. According to Madrinha, these days young women go to her for puixa-puixa as they realise that most men still find it attractive. Unlike these young women, girls aged 8-12 are usually sent by their mothers. Madrinha Sara asserted that girls grow up and became mature earlier nowadays.

While practices of female mutilation are seen as detrimental to women’s health and well- being and reinforcing of women’s subordinate position (for example, Althaus, 1997), in this community, traditional rites such as puixa-puixa are recognised as ‘sexual capacity building’: they are a means of introducing young girls to sexual and reproductive health, marriage, childbirth and maternity. They are also taught the importance of hard work on the farm or the importance of fishing, trading and other livelihood activities depending on the area they come from.

Returning to the ritual, in the atmosphere of trust Madrinha Sara first showed Manuela various movements in bed called dança da barriga (stomach dance). She patiently practiced different positions with the girl; how to move the hips and lift the body in order to achieve sexual satisfaction. ‘Now, I’m a man and you have to try to lift me up with your hips. Try! Try

again! Lift! Up!’ (Fieldnotes: Beira, 04/05/09), Madrinha instructed Manuela. The girl

seemed to trust her as she followed Sara’s instructions. Madrinha Sara also taught Manuela how to attract a man with a belt made out of small shells and beads (see Figure 6.5 and 6.6).

178

Figure 6.5 Madrinha Sara instructing Manuela about body movements

Figure 6.6 Madrinha Sara shows how to use a bead belt to attract a man

In the end of the initiation Mardinha Sara initiated the girl in labia elongation. As the extract above illustrates, the procedure was unpleasant and even painful. Madrinha Sara explained that Manuela must continue doing the procedure at home for some time and then come back to have the length of her labia checked. If Manuela was unsuccessful Madrinha Sara would then have to help her with the procedure. Madrinha Sara answered all the questions the girl posed without embarrassment or awkwardness. During this ritual I understood Madrinha’s important role in teaching young people sexuality and reproductive health. It was clear why parents (mostly mothers) chose Madrinha Sara to initiate their daughters into adulthood. She was the right person: she was professional and trustworthy.As this was my first experience with vaginal practices, I tried to find out why Madrinha Sara and other young women in the village talked about matingi as a very powerful act necessary to ‘catch a man and make him

to stay’ (Fieldnotes: Beira, 04/05/09). From informal conversations I realised that through

this prevailing discourse among both female and male community members matingi was a powerful thing to have. Like women, men found matingi an important factor in sexual life. Three young male teachers (aged 25-28) at the primary school where I observed classes acknowledged in an informal conversation that matingi was a characteristic of ‘a real

woman’ and that they found it necessary as it made sexual interaction more pleasurable. As

one of them explained: ‘Our grandfathers’ wives had it, our parents did it too, and so we

appreciate a woman with matingi. It’s in our culture’ (Fieldnotes: Beira, 22/05/09). It was

then that I began to understand why Madrinha Sara was concerned about the fact that as an unmarried woman I did not want to proceed with puixa-puixa.

From conversations with the teachers I also learned that while some girls go through puixa-

puixa, boys’ circumcision is also practised individually or through initiation rites. In urban

areas this is nowadays usually done in hospital and at the much younger age of two or three. In rural areas it is still led by local traditional healers. The teachers noted that marking the passage to adulthood happens in boys’ life, at 14 to 16, and thereby they become productive and community-oriented responsible adults in society. They receive guidance about their responsibilities to the community and as the head of a family, as illustrated in the description of the group ceremony. One of the teachers told me: ‘When I was a teenager my father

arranged for a friend – a young man – to talk to me about girls, sex and all this stuff I couldn’t talk with my father about. Apparently he didn’t want to explain all these things to me himself’ (Fieldnotes: Beira, 22/05/09). Interestingly, I realised that male circumcision is not

as important as matingi as it is seen as a hygiene procedure. It did not seem to have any significance for sexual relations, I heard from women and men.

Bourdieu (1990) suggests that young people in particular pay special attention to physical dispositions of the body, hence ready form their gender and sexual identities. The madrinhas instruct pubescent girls entering the rituals to become young women ready to marry. During the process of puixa-puixa the girls discover their bodies through imitating the sexual act and learn their role in sexual intercourse. This connects to my earlier point about the performative construction of gender identities (Butler, 1990) and situated learning. With the passing on of secret knowledge of puixa-puixa, sexual seduction, attraction and charm as a lover and a woman the girls shaped their sexual identity. Importantly, the puixa-puixa ritual is a female- only ritual and thus could be seen as female control of female sexuality – it is always commanded by a madrinha or several madrinhas.

Elisa, a 27-year-old female teacher, regretted not having had the chance to go through the initiation rites:

I think it’s important for our culture, for us and to know our roots. I, for example, I wish I had gone through the initiation rites. I feel the lack of it. I was born in the city, but my parents came from a village. Because of some social factors my parents didn’t think it was

important for me to learn ‘all of these traditional things’, as they would put it.

(Interview: Beira, 26/10/09)

Elisa believed that she could have used the knowledge she would have gained from the rituals in her teaching profession. She felt that she was missing a part of her identity:

180 I wish I’d had the chance to be ‘prepared’ and properly introduced to my adulthood. My

grandmother wanted to teach me about all these things, but my parents didn’t think it was important. Then you think, ‘Epa [oh!], where do I come from?’ I think most people here in the city don’t continue with the tradition. (Interview: Beira, 26/10/09)

Elisa wished she could pass traditional knowledge on to her daughter.

Another female teacher, Nila (43-year-old) explained that in her experience, the traditional way of instruction on sexual matters was through fear. She had learned nothing about sex at school, but she had heard some terrible stories in the community. Her recollection of initiation rites was rather upsetting. Fear should lead to obedience and respect:

I remember our parents and grandparents saying ‘You can’t talk to a man because he burns’. And we were living in fear. It wasn’t the truth, but we were afraid and because of the fear we didn’t have sex. If a man wanted to ‘provoke me’ I would say ‘Iiiii…I don’t want you! You burn!’ (Interview; Beira, 01/09/09)

In talking to young people and parents I became aware that discussing sexual matters with young people was one of the biggest taboos in the local community. My observations in church was that clerics do not want to teach these sensitive issues and expect parents to be responsible for preparing their children for adulthood (see Chapter 7). During focus group discussions with adults of the local community it became apparent that parents were afraid to provoke their children to sexual relations. Parents in particular expressed how explanations and open discussions about sexuality with young people were dangerous because the latter could lose their respect and fear. Consequently some parents thought it was not appropriate to discuss sexual issues with their children. Yet this view contradicts the public acknowledgement of such group rituals as those conducted by Baba Joaquin or individual ones led by Madrinha Sara. I wondered whether the lack of communication between parents and children is the main reason why some parents choose to give this responsibility to another person, a relative or an elderly madrinha for girls or a padrinho for boys. As one mother noted: ‘It can’t be just anyone, you know, it needs to be a wise person who knows

something about it and she knows how to explain it to a girl’ (FGD: Beira, 06/04/09). Parents

expected the person to have the knowledge and to be skilled in communicating with young people.

The account of the individual initiation ritual in this section has presented an insight into the preparation for adulthood in a private and informal setting. Individual initiation sessions convey knowledge about sexual behaviour and vaginal practices to girls and young women,

through situated learning and bodily hexis. The elongation of the labia, as presented in the account, alter the female organs to enhance woman’s and man’s sexual satisfaction during intercourse. Thus this kind of vaginal practice plays a fundamental role in empowering young women and girls. Through the account I have emphasised the important function of the

madrinha, a skilled and knowledgeable practitioner whose role it is to communicate the most

intimate matters to young people.

6.3 Conclusion

The initiation rituals opened my eyes to the influence of community-based learning in young people’s lives. My ideas about the role of community learning had been vague. From my observation of the group rites led by the community and the private session taught by Madrinha Sara I learned that the main objectives are to instruct young people about the fundamental aspects of traditional values and mores, about gender roles and about sexuality. Through performativity the body in the initiation appeared to be a central means by which the young people define their gendered identity among the initiates – the self – and sexual identity in the process of puixa-puixa. The rites are an important part of the construction and reinforcement of socially desired femininity and masculinity, and for the elders and parents they constitute ‘learning the right knowledge’.

Since sexuality is one of the pillars of traditional family morality, command of discourse about sexual matters is still an enormous challenge as it is different from day-to-day communication. What struck me most during the rites, especially the individual one, was the intimacy of the procedure and the trust girls must have in Madrinha Sara. Although Manuela seemed at times embarrassed, she surrendered and let Madrinha perform the procedures. The notion of the learning continuum enables me to analyse the initiation rites in terms of purpose, content and delivery methods and to compare these with other means of learning (Simkins, 1977). While the objectives of formal education are identified in the school curriculum, the puberty rites draw on indigenous knowledge, with the main aim to ‘construct’ a respectful community member. According to Baba Joaquin, the initiation rites enable the young person to gain ‘capacity’ through learning about the traditional beliefs and values of their forefathers. The rites are intended to transform the initiate into ‘a new, better person’ – a knowledgeable and respectful member of the community. This process is informed by the traditional system of values in which kinship and family have a central place, similar to the ideas represented by the local churches which I will explore in the following chapter. Baba

182 Joaquin symbolically created a house for all the participants at the beginning of the ritual. In contrast to school, the initiates were encouraged to use Bantu languages and to acknowledge their roots.

As in school, the structure of the rites is gendered and hierarchical, displaying elements of formal learning: as Baba Joaquin pointed out, ‘everybody knows their place’. Reflecting on my visits to schools and churches I realised the importance of the medium and the way messages are interpreted and communicated, whether to students at school or to congregants in church. The facilitators of the rites seemed to determine and dictate what ‘right knowledge’ was. Baba Joaquin’s discourse was similar to that of most of the parents, who viewed the initiation ceremony as an important part of ‘stepping into adulthood’ and

‘learning the right knowledge’ (FGD: Beira, 06/04/09). When discussing this matter with

young people I realised that although they acknowledged the traditions they did not see the initiation rites as enabling them to negotiate their rank in the local community. For many young people, what was important was ‘having a job and earning our own money (…) this is

what we see counts in the community, not the tradition’: this was how to ‘become somebody worthy of respect’ (Fieldnotes: Beira, 23/03/09). Hence some young people disputed their

parents’ view of ‘right knowledge’. Young boys particularly saw traditional ideas and customs as ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘outdated’ and attributed them to the ‘old times’. Yet there are still some who want to participate in the rituals, such as Manuela and other girls who found it empowering and ensured a ‘good catch’. What constitutes ‘right knowledge’ remains, however, ambiguous. In the following chapter I look at knowledge constructed and transferred in school and in the church; and how learning through these means helped young people to construct their gender and sexual identities.

Chapter 7

The implications of what young people learn about gender at school and church 7. Introduction

School and church are two important formal institutions that play a central role in constructing gender and sexual identities in the local community. Although their messages about gender and sexuality, and approaches to teaching differ, both are important agents shaping people’s ideas and attitudes about gender and gender relations. Rather than seeking polarised beliefs and messages I decided to bring together the intersecting ideas across these two institutions following the concept of continuum of learning (see Chapter 4, section 4.1). I start the chapter by looking at what and how young people learned about gender relations and sexuality in school, given that sexuality plays a significant role in shaping individual