TheCable

In Nsanje district of southern Malawi, Eric Aniva is known as a “hyena” who gets paid to have sex with girls once they reach puberty.

According to a BBC report, elders of the village regard the bizarre act as “sexual cleansing”.

Aniva is just one of 10 hyenas in his community who are paid from $4 to $7 (£3 to £5) each time, but Aniva isn’t hired solely to have sexual intercourse with young girls, as he also sleeps with widows and others.

GIRLS, WOMEN AND WIDOWS

As required by tradition in Nsanje, a widow must sleep with a “hyena” before she can bury her husband.

In the same vein, if a woman has an abortion, sexual cleansing is also required, while teenage girls, after their first menstruation, are compelled to have sex over a three-day period.

The three-day sex marathon is to mark their passage from childhood to womanhood.

The report suggests that the girls aren’t too inclined to refuse to have sex with a “hyena” over fears that disease or a fatal misfortune could befall their families or the entire village.

“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,” he says.

“All these girls find pleasure in having me as their hyena. They actually are proud and tell other people that this man is a real man, he knows how to please a woman.”

NOT MY DAUGHTER

Aniva, who has two wives, claims to have slept with 104 women and girls — a figure he also gave to a local newspaper in 2012.

The renowned hyena has five children but he’s not certain of the number of women and girls he’s impregnated over the course of his career.

He, however, claims to want the tradition to end — because he doesn’t want his daughter to be compelled to have sex with a hyena.

“Not my daughter. I cannot allow this. Now I am fighting for the end of this malpractice,” Aniva added.