The tribe that drinks semen to turn boys into men

The Sambia Tribe in Papua New Guinea have tradition that has confused many. They are the tribe that drinks semen to turn boys into men. 

This ritual, which is a symbol of a young boy’s rite of passage to manhood, starts when a boy is between the ages of 6 to 10 and comprises of 6 stages.

Imperative to the processes and teaching of the initial ceremony is the notion that women can be dangerous to men. 

To become a man, and in essence a “warrior,” these young men are taught how to detach themselves from their mothers and the women around them as a means of showing that they can live without them and prove their masculinity. 

A sharp stick of cane is inserted deeply into the young boy’s nostrils until he bleeds profusely and then introduced to older warriors who are told that bachelors are going to “copulate” with them to make them grow. 

The infliction of pain and injury to the body, for the Sambia it is a symbol of strength and his ability to sustain pain, which is a needed requirement of a warrior.

The act of performing fellatio and the act of ingesting semen is seen as an integral part of manhood because boys are unable to mature into men unless they ingest semen and they adhere to the notion that all men have, 'eaten the penis'

According to Sambia belief, the semen of a man possesses the 'masculine spirit', which young boys will be able to attain through his ingestion of semen. 

© African hub