Malawi's 'Hyena' Men: Paid By Parents To Have Sex With Their Daughters
This week, a man named Eric Aniva from Malawi was arrested after the BBC broadcast the 27-minute radio report " 'Stealing Innocence' in Malawi," which featured Aniva bragging about being paid to sleep with more than 100 young girls and women, some as young as 12 years old.
Aniva is known in Malawi as a "hyena" man — someone hired by families to have sex with girls after their first menstruation. Aniva told the BBC he was HIV-positive and had not disclosed this information to the families who hired him. He is one of 10 hyenas in the Nsanje district, where he lives, and is paid from $4 to $7 each time, reported the BBC.
We spoke to two staffers from Equality Now, an international human rights organization devoted to girls and women's issues, to learn more: Christa Stewart, a program manager, and Naitore Nyamu, a program officer based in Kenya.
Why would people pay a man to have sex with young girls and women?
According to Stewart, the practice is viewed as a way to ritually cleanse girls after their first period, usually within a three-day window. Some families tell girls they will get infections if they don't have sex with a "hyena," says Stewart.
But it also happens in other life stages, too — after an abortion or when a woman becomes a widow, reports the BBC.
According to a study on sexual cleansing rituals in Western Kenya from 2007, sexual intercourse is seen as a sacred rite when performed as a ritual — and has the power to cleanse evil spirits and sanctify.
How widespread is this practice in Malawi, and does it occur in other parts of Africa?
Stewart calls adolescence "a hot point for mistreatment" as some cultures have developed practices to prevent female sexual autonomy. She points to female genital mutilation and forced child marriage as other examples.
"I think the fact that [Aniva] thought he could communicate so openly with the community shows that we're in an uphill battle," Stewart says.
Stewart understands the practice to be particularly common in the southern part of Malawi. "Indications are that it may be occurring in the more rural and traditional communities," she says. But it may be taking place in urban areas, too — the way some families continued the practice of female genital mutilation by keeping it a secret and pushing it "underground," suggests Stewart.
Nyamu, who is based in Kenya, says, "In many countries on the African continent, including in Kenya, the idea of 'sexual cleansing' exists." But the term "hyena" seems "specific to the southern tip of Malawi," she says.
