Malawi- An HIV-positive Malawian man, Eric Aniva, 40, who is paid to have intercourse with more than 100 girls and women in remote African village has been arrested on the president’s orders.
The man was branded the name “fisi”, a Swahili word in Kenya that means a hyena but literally used nationally by youths to mean a person who has strong appetite for women.
Speaking to BBC, Eric said that he never revealed his HIV status to those who hire him for his services. Eric also went on to brag that he is one of 10 fisi in the region.
The Malawi custom dictates that sex with the hyena must never be protected with the use of condoms. The custom also adds that, a fisi is hand-picked for his good morals, and therefore cannot be infected with HIV/Aids.
Nonetheless, the service are also not cheap for the family or hiring individual will have to part with $4 to $7 as payment to the fisi for each client to have sex with girls over a three-day period after their first menstruation. If they refuse it’s believed their families or even the whole village will be cursed.
Apart from providing de-virgining services, the fisi is also paid to have sex with widows before their husband is allowed to be buried for cleansing purpose.
“Most of those I have slept with are girls, school-going girls. Some girls are just 12 or 13 years old, but I prefer them older. All these girls find pleasure in having me as their fisi. They actually are proud and tell other people that this man is a real man, he knows how to please a woman,” the Malawi Fisi, Aniva said.
Aniva has two wives and five children. However, with his de-virgining and cleansing services, Eric is not sure how many of the women and girls he has indeed made pregnant during the course of his work.
Dr Howard Kasiya, health expert and director of the Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy Network of Malawi,said that, “Malawi has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world and 10 per cent of the population is HIV-positive.”
“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. “The president had also ordered all men and parents involved to be investigated.”
“All people involved in this malpractice should be held accountable for subjecting their children and women to this despicable evil,” part of the statement read…“These horrific practices although done by a few also tarnish the image of the whole nation of Malawi internationally and bring shame to us all,” the statement continued.
With such news, some of people have been shocked to realize that there is somewhere where the slogan “ufisi” is highly valued. And I am sure some team mafisi somewhere are asking around ‘and where is that Malawi embassy?”