In this photo taken on July 13, 2017 Traditional Xhosa initiate Khanyisile Mapope (R), 18 years old, walks through the bush during a traditional initiation process, in a rural hut in the Coffee Bay area in Umtata, South Africa. – Bi-annually in South Africa, hoards of teenage boys from several of the country’s tribal groups undergo a right of passage in the form of circumcision rituals, where they are taught to ‘become men’.

South African doctor Mamisa Chabula-Nxiweni has for two decades broken stereotypes, culture and tradition by treating initiates with mutilated penises – classically a no-go area for women in medicine.

Photo : MUJAHID SAFODIEN / AFP