Abstract
Male circumcision has long been associated with religious or cultural rituals which bestow culturally valuable status. In some communities, circumcision is believed to provide concomitant access to economic and spiritual resources such as land and the ability to communicate with the ancestors. However, the recent promotion of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) in 2009 as an additional dimension for reducing the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was received with mixed feelings by different people in Zimbabwe. The resistance was more pronounced in those districts where male circumcision was a traditional norm. It is considering this background where this article examines whether VMMC and religio-cultural male circumcision are distant cousins or siamese twins. This is performed by taking a leaf from the Varemba of Mwenezi district in Zimbabwe. Data collection was performed between May and October 2017 using in-depth individual interviews within the context of the hermeneutics paradigm which emphasises the existence of multiple realities across time and culture. Our analysis of data shows that the Varemba of Mwenezi district does not believe in the efficacy of VMMC because it is void of the ritualistic cultural–spiritual dimension that usually accompanies male circumcision. The study recommended that VMMC should contextualise the cultural value to achieve set targets for HIV prevention.
Highlights
The new knowledge we possess today about the relationship between religious traditions and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prescribes the urgency to look at the theme of HIV and AIDS from a new perspective that is harnessing and redefining useful traditional rites in the fight against the pandemic in Zimbabwe
This is so because some societies like Shangani in Chiredzi have opted to withdraw from HIV and AIDS programmes like voluntary counselling and testing that accuse their religion of fuelling the spread of the pandemic (Gono 2015:1).The thrust of this article is to examine the attitude of the Varemba of Mwenezi district towards voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) as a strategy of fighting HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe
The conclusion that can be drawn in this article is that VMMC and the Varemba circumcision and initiation rites should complement each other in fighting and reducing HIV and AIDS prevalence in the community under study
Summary
The new knowledge we possess today about the relationship between religious traditions and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prescribes the urgency to look at the theme of HIV and AIDS from a new perspective that is harnessing and redefining useful traditional rites in the fight against the pandemic in Zimbabwe. The Varemba initiation ritual encourages youths to delay in sexual debut and this according to the Varemba initiation (Koyana 1980) is a gateway to legitimate marriage and sex It is https://theologiaviatorum.org crucial to note that the initiation does involve circumcision, but has an accompanying process of instruction which has an educational feature ‘aimed at building certain character traits [like chastity, fortitude and] forbearance’ necessary for the prevention of HIV and AIDS (Vincent 2008b:436). The Varemba initiation ritual could be a valuable addition to the basket of strategies towards prevention of HIV and AIDS because it is culturally appropriate and locally relevant by targeting a specific group of people making them cognisant of their social context. The ritual strategy could have an idea over the type of behaviours to be changed for successful action
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