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Kokonge and Erny (1976:7-27)[1] discuss at length the development of sexual behaviour. The maternal task of manual preputial adhaesiolysis in infants is institutional, since the condition of permanent fixation is considered kameme, a defect. When the prepuce is so forcefully retracted that it gets stuck permanently under the corona glandis [?], the boy is lufunu (boy with nude glans), and might not get married or have satisfactory sexual relations. As in the Senegalese (®Senegal) , erections are provoked, and medicines are used to combat assumed impotence when the penis remains flaccid. Children sleep with parents, but “à partir du moment où il osera se tenir éveillé au moment où Vénus couvre ses parent de son étreinte, on l’estimera devenu trop grand pour rester avec eux”; the child is then to sleep with his grandparents. Genitals are involved in verbal play with adults. From age five or six until age 11 or 12, children play “kitchen” with coitus: “Parfois on les surprend, derrière la maison, imitant innocement la copulation adulte... En règle générale, les parents s’amusent de ces jeux enfantins. [...] L’attitude des parents est tolérante, permissive. Bien plus, ils n’hésiteront pas à y inciter, le moment venu, ceux de leurs enfants qui sembleraient manifester peu d’anthousiasme ou une certaine inhibition” (p9, 24). Various games include sexual elements: Nambushi (Mother of Goats), Mwingilo wa nsenshi, and Sale sale kinkamba (Everone is to Choose whom he Pleases). The classic marital game, in the form of play villages, is called mansansa (p26); there they may “[...] imitent la vie conjungale sous le regard lointain, mais amusé des parents”.

At puberty, boys use numerous plants to prepare genitals to insure glandular function, provocation of spermarche, penile enlargement, and erectile potency. Implicitly, masturbation is involved, and contests are held. Boys also use love cosmetics, practice voyeuristic acts, and “attack girls” whom they are not to deflower. Girls practice artificial elongation of the minor labia (kukuna), and enlargement of the aditus vaginae to the size of a normal penis, sometimes using a dildoe. Mutual masturbation may be involved, and practices are done en groupe. She must not overdo this, for else she will experience marital difficulties. During the Kisungu ritual, further pharmacology is practised to ensure fertility. In the early forties, 12 to 15-year-olds invented a secret language to exchange vulgarities and to practice coprolalia.

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

Last revised: Sept 2004