An investigation into the adjustment problems experienced by an initiated Xhosa male student in a high school

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the impact of being a circumcised Xhosa male student at a high school where the rights and privileges promised by this status are not necessarily entrenched in the school's ethos nor guarded by its rules and regulations. To this end interviews were conducted with these students augmented by observation, fieldwork and questionnaires. These covered all the aspects of the circumcised males' life at school on the one hand, and in the community on the other, after circumcision. The investigation is preceded by a theoretical discussion of rituals in general and the importance of Xhosa male circumcision, in particular, stress is laid on how the socio-political circumstances obtaining in the Western Cape led to the tenacity with which the Xhosas adhered to the custom not just despite such circumstances but, more importantly, because of them. A comparison is made between the effect of circumcision on male groups other than Xhosa and the particular impact this has on them as against such impact on the Xhosa male still attending school. A further comparison is made between the treatment meted out to circumcised males at the school as against what obtains in the community.