Sexual rites of passage

[3][4][5] Such sexual cleansing is also practiced in parts of Namibia,[6] Angola, Congo, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

[9] At the training camp the girls are told that they should sleep with a man in order to get rid of child 'dust' or else their body will become diseased.

[10] After the training, a man holding the traditional position of hyena (not to be confused with the animal) performs the three-day cleansing ritual for a sum of money ($4-7 per girl in 2016).

[14] Similar rites of ‘boy insemination’ used to be practiced by societies of indigenous Australians, in ancient Greece, and in Japan during the Edo (Tokugawa) period.

It is practiced in parts of Angola, Congo, Ivory Coast, Malawi (where it is known as kulowa kufa),[16] Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

The ritual is often forced upon a widow by the family of her deceased husband and the wider community, who may physically harm the uncompliant woman and her children.