Result
The BBC reports fallout from its own reporting on the “hyena” in Malawi who cheerfully admitted that he’s HIV-positive.
An HIV-positive Malawian man, who says he is paid to have sex with children as part of initiation rites, has been arrested on the president’s orders.
Eric Aniva, a sex worker known in Malawi as a “hyena”, was the subject of a BBC feature last week.
He told the BBC that did not mention his HIV status to those who hire him.
President Peter Mutharika said the police should investigate and charge him over the cases of defilement he had seemingly confessed to.
“Defilement” is a horrible choice of word. He apparently confessed to potential infection.
“While we must promote positive cultural values and positive socialisation of our children, the president says harmful cultural and traditional practices cannot be accepted in this country,” presidential spokesman Mgeme Kalilani said in a statement
Mr Avena would “further be investigated for exposing the young girls to contracting HIV and further be charged accordingly”, he said.
The president had also ordered all men and parents involved should be investigated, Mr Kalilani said.
“All people involved in this malpractice should be held accountable for subjecting their children and women to this despicable evil,” the statement said.
Well, good. That’s a cultural practice that should come to an immediate end.
I don’t know. It sounds like they are only worried about the HIV, not about children forced to have sex with an older man. I hope this doesn’t stop with the idea that infection is bad, and moves toward the idea that forcing children to have sex with anyone is bad.
Okay, rest of the media, everywhere: This is how it’s supposed to work. You find something horrible going on, you identify it as horrible as you write and talk about it, and then pressure builds to make the horrible thing stop. Now, Beeb, please keep up reporting on the larger cultural practice, until the government there drives it down. Don’t assume that because they arrested this one guy, that the problem is now fixed.
iknklast – Hmm, I read it differently – that Aniva specifically could be criminally liable for not mentioning his HIV status, but also that the custom itself is terrible. The HIV is a major turn of the screw but the first BBC story did report that the girls don’t want the “cleansing.”
And while we’re on the subject…I’ll just say that with all my carping about some of the BBC’s vocabulary, they do also do a lot of this kind of reporting, and I’m massively grateful to them for it. I used a lot of their stories for the first chapter of Does God Hate Women?
“Eric Aniva, a sex worker…”
Potayto, potahto. Tomayto, tomahto. Rapist for hire, sex worker?