On male traditional circumcision

As part of religious and cultural rights, during this period, most parents usually subject their male children to traditional circumcision.In the North, circumcision is carried out on children rather too late, and it is usually in an unhygienic manner. It is mostly done at home rather than in hospitals. It is done by a traditional […]

As part of religious and cultural rights, during this period, most parents usually subject their male children to traditional circumcision.
In the North, circumcision is carried out on children rather too late, and it is usually in an unhygienic manner. It is mostly done at home rather than in hospitals. It is done by a traditional circumciser known as wanzami in Hausa language, using a jack knife called aska on a group of boys.
This practice is at variance with what obtains in other parts of the country, especially the South-West and South-East. In other regions, children are circumcised at a tender age and usually in hospitals.
Recently, in my home town, Alkaleri, a local government in Bauchi State, a nine- year-old-boy, Habib, underwent this practice sometime last December. For more than three months, Habib complained that the wound caused him so much pain and refused to heal. This is quite dangerous as he could be infected. He was later taken to a specialist hospital for proper treatment.
Speaking on why most people in the North prefer traditional circumcision despite the risks involved and sustained sensitisation campaign against it, a septuagenarian and resident of Alkaleri, Mallam Jafar said the herbs (gargajiya) applied have a quicker healing power  than the orthodox medicine. He added that the genital organ of the child circumcised through the traditional means is more virile and sexually potent than one circumcised via the modern method.
He further said that no anesthetic drug would be administered on the child because the pain of cutting the foreskin is considered vital to the process of becoming a man. As far as he is concerned, it marks the transition from childhood to adulthood, which enhances man’s sexual pleasure, among other things such as increasing a man’s attractiveness to a woman. It is also considered as a female version of menstruation.
The origin of this practice dates back to ancient Egyptians. According to Herodotus, a Greek historian, the ancient Egyptians practised male traditional circumcision essentially for the sake of cleanliness rather than comeliness.
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO), in its 2010 review of world literacy, disclosed that, “The circumcision performed by medical providers has a relatively low complexion rate of about 1.5 per cent for newborns and 6 per cent for older children with few instances of severe complications. Excessive bleeding, infections and the removal of either too much or too little foreskins are the most common complications associated with the traditional practices.
“This primitive practice is more prevalent in the Muslim world and Israel but relatively rare in Europe.’’
Similarly, medical studies reveal that this traditional practice may expose the circumcised child to many kinds of infection due to the use of unsterilised instruments, especially in the advent of many blood-related diseases, including penile cancer. It can also lead to excessive bleeding, which is dangerous.        
It is hoped that our brothers in the North would embrace modernity and desist from this very dangerous practice. The time is now.
Aisha Chiroma wrote from the Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri.