In the light of the challenges facing the SA youth, it is worth pondering the question whether initiation schools are a boon or a bane to our society. There have been many stories, mostly horrifying, about the experiences of the initiates at these “schools”, which include botched circumcisions which condemn young boys to childless futures.

What is clear is that boys who attend these schools return with altered characters and personalities. Stories abound of respectful and obedient boys who after graduation from these schools, return as rogues who lose these virtues in the false belief that the “manhood” they acquire at these obsolete centres entitle them to be disrespectful and disobedient...