What becomes of 'her'?: a look at the Malawian Fisi culture and its effects on young girld - Alinane Kamlongera

This focus explores Fisi (Hyena) culture, a custom that is practiced in some of the female initiation ceremonies in Malawi. Fisi culture is interpreted through the experience of Nagama (not her real name), a 34-year-old domestic worker in the city of Blantyre, in the southern part of Malawi, who went through the process at the age of eleven and a half. The Fisi culture derives from a man, called Fisi, who is hired to sleep with female initiates to mark the end of some of the initiation ceremonies in Malawi. While this focus does not directly discuss the technicalities of statutory rape, it interprets the practice of the Fisi sleeping with girls during ceremony as statutory rape. It interrogates the factors that have aided the existence of this harmful practice and recommends its immediate eradication. The focus also argues that there is a need for research highlighting girls' experiences with the Fisi to show the extensiveness of damage caused.
From: Agenda 74 (2007)