BABUNDA (KIMBUNDU, Angola)

 

IndexAfricaAngola→ Babunda

 

Featured: Babunda, Luimi, Umbundu, Bajok / Badjok, Wahiwé

 


 

 

Torday[1] details institutional child prostitution of a rare species:

 

“Virginity cannot be expected in the bride as girls are allowed to indulge freely up to the age of puberty. It is the custom of the country that about the period when the millet ripens (May) the young men of each village should club together to obtain a Mombanda.  The Mombanda has to be a girl under the age of puberty, a stranger to the village, and she has to prostitute herself with all the young men in turns, but there are days when orgies take place and all the men have intercourse with her. On these special days the Mombanda’s mother provides food and palm wine for the young men; it is she who receives the payment, which consists for the term of its duration (two lunar months), of fifty “salts” per man. Not all young men contribute, as they are some who cannot afford it; only contributors enjoy the privileges, and it is “good form” to belong to this set. Not only does a fact that a girl has been a Mombanda not prejudice her chances of marriage, but it is considered a distinction; no girl can be Mombanda more than once. Should she die while she is in this position, her village is entitled to heavy damages”.

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology

Last revised: Sept 2004

 



[1] Torday, E. (1919) The Northern Babunda, Man 19:49-55, at p53