The practice is most entrenched in the country's south, where Mwase's Golden Village is located. Mwase was just 10 when she was led, along with about a dozen other girls, to remote huts outside her village during winter vacation from school in August. The girls were accompanied by older women from their village in Chiradzulu district, near the border with Mozambique. According to Mwase, most of the two weeks she spent at the initiation camp were dedicated to learning how to engage in sexual acts. She had been excited for this time with friends away from home, but that feeling quickly gave way to dread as she learned the true purpose of initiation. The man should be on top of you and you should be dancing for him, making him happy. The anamkungwi told the girls to lie on top of one another and get a feel for the various positions described to them. This will mark them for life, and they will be ostracized if they don't complete the custom as their mothers and grandmothers did before them. These guardians often force their daughters to go through with the ritual for fear of breaking with tradition.


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Selling sex has been illegal in South Africa since at least the early s and buying sex was criminalised in The criminalisation of sex work has not deterred people from selling sex to make a living. Criminalisation has, however, made sex work less safe. Most sex workers in South Africa are poor, black, and female, and sell sex primarily in order to support their children, as well as other dependents. This report attempts to represent some of the fear, emotional pain, and frustration that South African sex workers experience because the work they do to try to ensure a better life for their children is criminalised. The report calls for law reforms including the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa and encourages the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to take up this task now with seriousness and urgency after years of debate on the issue.
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The legal status of prostitution in Africa varies widely. It is frequently common in practice, partially driven by the widespread poverty in many sub-Saharan African countries, [1] and is one of the drivers for the prevalence of AIDS in Africa. In other countries, prostitution may be legal, but brothels are not allowed to operate. In some countries where prostitution is illegal, the law is rarely enforced. Transactional sexual relationships are particularly common in sub-Saharan Africa, where they often involve relationships between older men and younger women or girls. In many cases, the woman in a transactional sexual relationship may remain faithful to her boyfriend, while he may have multiple sexual partners. In both of these cases, transactional sex presents an increased risk of HIV infection. This page uses the UN system of subregions. Prostitution in Angola is illegal [4] [5] and prevalent since the s.
The visible impacts of climate change in Africa — deforestation, flooding, drought, soil erosion, coastal storms and changing weather patterns — are striking, but so is its impact on women. In sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the drylands and the Sahel region, where climate change is aggravating poverty, women are disproportionately affected because of their close connections to the environment. In addition to their involvement in agriculture, rural women are responsible for household chores, particularly the fetching of water and energy sources, including charcoal and firewood, for cooking and heating. Experts say that climate change most affects those who depend mainly on natural resources and whose livelihoods are climate sensitive—many are poor farming women. Natural resources are becoming ever scarcer due to climate change, which presents additional challenges for women. Walking long distances is physically exhausting, and it can take up to 20 hours or more a week to locate safe water, regularly check the water levels in established wells and, finally, haul it home. Most African women also take care of their children, the elderly and those in ill health.