Male Circumcision in Africa

Circumcision has been practiced in Africa to initiate adolescent boys into adulthood from time immemorial. Communities with a history of traditional circumcision in Sub-Saharan Africa are gradually taking up clinical circumcision and yet still adhering to traditional circumcision processes. By use of both ethnographic and descriptive means, this book explains modernity factors that determine choosing between traditional and clinical circumcision. Parents and their sons consider cost of circumcision and health concerns; HIV infection threat, safety, complications and other adverse consequences. Thus, traditional circumcision processes are not popular in prevailing economic and health circumstances. However, circumcisions are redefined today to serve their traditional significance of initiation as derived from William Thomas concept of "redefinition of the situation". This book is recommended for researchers, scholars and students in the field of circumcision and HIV/AIDS. It is also recommended for culture and health researchers interested in male circumcision.