Imagine being a member of a tribe where there are three distinct steps or periods of initiation rituals over several years.
At the age of 10 or 11, you are seized by elders. You are painted with totemic symbols, tossed up in the air and severely beaten.
A few years later, you are again seized and subjected to mutilation, which could be scarification of back or breast that could leave life-long identification marks. It could also be a knocking out of front teeth, a piercing of nasal septum or lips, or a loosening of the scalp by biting. During the ceremonies, you have a guardian to direct you, but for the most part, you have to observe absolute silence.
These ceremonies have moral value. Through mutilation, you are taught to endure pain; through exposure and want, you are taught to endure hardship and hunger; through subservience to the performers, you are taught obedience and respect for adults. You learn that you are expected to serve your elders and supply the family with the necessities of life.
Again, imagine arriving at school and you are told to bob for pigs' feet, smear your buttocks and underwear with syrup, wear a dog collar, refer to yourself as a slut, fill your mouth with hot peppers and fireball candy while those older than you tape your lips shut and squeeze you into a bathroom.
What if the initiation included a striptease fashion show and a series of video interviews in which you are forced to divulge your sexual history? Among the questions: Are you still a virgin? Why?
These are some initiation rites that some shrug off as harmless. Others call them degrading. Some tout them as tradition; others, such as Parktown Boys' High School parents, see them as cruel coercion.
But how offensive are these initiation rites? It depends on who's talking.
One of the extremely confusing things about initiation is that there is no clear definition that everyone can agree on.
Some define initiation broadly as any type of humiliating or dangerous activity required of members to join a group, regardless of their true willingness to submit. This can include teasing or making a person eat something disgusting.
But some cling to a stricter legal definition of promoting an initiation activity that puts another person at risk of physical harm.
To me, initiation rituals are harmless school pranks that did not start this year, that have been - unfortunately or fortunately - a tradition for years.
Some of these pranks may actually help to bring the pupils together, bring them closer. I don't think there's any intent to psychologically or physically harm anybody. After all, sometimes it's not so bad to be the butt of jokes.
Also, school seniors just want to feel superior and in command, to say: "I'm older, you're new, and so you better follow or you're going to be in trouble."
Many times seniors take juniors under their wing to make them feel comfortable. Many people are proud of the fact that they are part of the school, so they don't want to degrade themselves or others.
I know that some may say such initiation rites backfire and destroy pupils' spirits. They would argue that initiates end up resenting being humiliated and take revenge on the next year's rookies. Some may go even further and argue that initiation is destructive.
I know some would say that when we as adults condone even the milder initiation rites, we send a dangerous message that trampling on other people's dignity is permissible.
Indeed, initiation at school is ridiculous. Humiliating oneself in front of people to become accepted is a bizarre notion. But it is a rite of passage.
Having a good personality and being a nice person doesn't get you too far these days. Girl or boy, you have to be bound and gagged to prove you are entering adulthood. Everyone knows that people who are willing to do that to you will be the best of bros.
Lest we forget, initiation is part of history.
The practice dates to at least 4th-century Carthage, where, in the words of St Augustine, students behaved like "devils", taunting and bullying newcomers to the ancient centre of learning.
In the Middle Ages, first-year university students in Europe were forced to drink urine and endure having skin scraped off their ears.
Today, initiation is different from what it was in the past - nowadays the people directing the initiation generally impose their will through peer pressure and brute force.
Can initiation be stopped? No. Trying to stop initiation will be unproductive. The authorities don't have the manpower to catch the many people who participate in initiation rituals.
Many initiation activities are shrouded in secrecy, which makes the acts difficult to prevent. No one tells anyone about their sacred rituals.
School initiation is a victimless crime. The only people who are appalled by it are usually those on the outside looking in, like the Parktown Boys' High School parents.
Parents, professors and some students are usually the ones who take the most offence regarding initiation rituals.
The ones who are actually initiated hardly ever press charges and just subject themselves to the initiation process.
There is no single solution to stop initiation activities in schools, since so many pupils clandestinely take part in it.
It's pointless to get mad at those tying someone naked upside down from a tree if the guy wants to submit himself to it to be accepted by his new best buddies.
One can't truly know the nature of a man's heart until he has hung him from his ankles, in his birthday suit, from the grand branches of a mighty tree.
Yes, the initiation rituals are insulting and humiliating, but let them continue. The participants know full well what they are getting into.
Schools and the police have bigger things to worry about than initiation rituals.
Let those who believe in the rituals build their strange brotherhoods and sisterhoods through ridiculous shenanigans. Keep an eye on them, and punish them harshly if they commit serious crimes.
Parents of pupils at Parktown Boys' High School must grow up. Initiation is nothing new. The rest of the world has moved on.
Surely, this country is not so politically correct that people can't have some old-fashioned fun.
Rich Mkhondo - writer, author and former editor and foreign correspondent - is chief communications officer for the 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee South Africa. This is his personal opinion.
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