When do Zulus perform circumcision on a boy?

Answer 1

Last Saturday, wrapped in a blanket, 19-year-old Andile Ngcolomba ended his month in seclusion by walking off the aloe-covered slopes of Peddie into his mother's impoverished village in Qamini Location.

He remembered very little about the visit he received in his mountain shelter on 7 December from the traditional surgeon: "He arrives covered in clay and animal pelts. He is so ugly you don't want to look at him. I never even saw the knife. You just black out. When you wake up, it is done, and there is some powder there to help the healing.

"I did not sleep for seven nights for the pain. To help the pain and healing, they gave me dagga [marijuana] to smoke and I was not allowed to drink water or have salt in my food for a week after the cutting.''­

During his time "on the mountain", Ngcolomba and other initiates in adjacent shelters received visits every other day from an ikangata (teacher), Mazinyanwana Mkhongi. The teacher, in his 70s, said: "My role is to check that the wound is healing and to explain the duties and responsibilities of a man. He must be able to survive in the wild, fight, but also resolve conflicts.''

Robin McKie

Answer 2

at about 13 years of age , it is part of a rite of passage into manhood,