South African boys die to become men in traditional circumcision

Story here. Excerpt:

'LIBODE, South Africa — The lucky ones survive with mutilated penises and shameful scars for the rest of their lives, but that's the high price boys in rural South Africa pay to become a man.

In the Eastern Cape province, the ethnic Xhosa boys graduate to manhood through a sacrosanct ritual of circumcision.

But every year, the custom among the country's second-largest ethnic group sees young initiates die of complications from botched circumcisions by ill-trained traditional surgeons.

Boys still flock to traditional initiation schools in the bush, because the faster and less painful medical method can result in a lifetime of rejection.

"When you are uncircumcised regardless of your age, society will never regard you as a man, you will always be a boy. No one wants to live with that," said Athenkosi Mtirara, who is about to undergo the procedure.'