The Hyena Guy Who 'Ritually Cleansed' Girls By Sleeping With Them While He Has HIV Has Been Arrested
PREVIOUSLY: Some Parts Of Africa Hire A Guy Called A ‘Hyena’ To Bang Pubescent Girls And Women To ‘Cleanse Them’
AP – Malawi police on Tuesday arrested a man who said he was hired by families to have sex with more than 100 young women, including children, in what was described as ritual cleansing.
President Peter Mutharika ordered the arrest of Eric Aniva, who told local and international media he had been paid to have sex with young girls. Aniva also told the media he was HIV-positive.
Aniva was charged with multiple cases of defilement, Malawi Police Inspector General Lexten Kachama told The Associated Press.
The president also ordered police to investigate all men and parents involved in what he called “this shocking malpractice.”
A Malawi human rights lawyer, Chrispine Sibande, commended the president for the gesture but said arresting Aniva is not enough.
In a statement, Malawi’s president said it is unacceptable to commit such violations under the guise of culture.
I have to admit I’m pretty shocked by this one even though it makes total sense. When I blogged about the original video, I figured it was one of those things like a VICE special report where we all go “Well that’s awfully fucked up, seems pretty basic that they shouldn’t do that” but it gets swept under the rug as being part of their culture, we have to respect others’ beliefs blah blah, and everyone goes back to playing Pokemon Go. And this is a case where Malawi got all this negative attention across the globe thanks to the BBC’s story, immediately leaped into action, and put the guy in jail. Granted we probably shouldn’t give Malawi a medal for recognizing “Hey it’s actually not okay for that guy with HIV to go around ‘cleansing’ underaged girls’ vaginas by having sex with them” after its probably occurred in pockets of the country for centuries but still, swift action under pressure is still swift action.
At the same time, seeing stuff like this also gives me hope for the power of the internet. We cover all the “___ did something and Twitter is MAD” stuff that makes you want to roll your eyes so it’s sort of nice to see the inverse, media coverage of something fucked up leading to immediate change by people as high up as the President of a country. Now that we’ve solved this problem of hyenas in Malawi, who’s telling what can be fixed next with a well-produced 90 second viral video. Maybe we can finally catch that Kony fella, he’s probably up to no good.
(h/t Nate B)