Circumcision

• Prize
  Silver in People/Culture
• Photographer
  Jorge Fernandez

This photographic series tells the story of a ceremony held every four or five years (depending on the elders criteria) at the village of Yaka in the North of Benin. When the time has come every male around his twenties belonging to the Yom tribe has to be circumcised in a big ceremony held in the village in front of everyone. Being circumcised means that the boy becomes a man in full right within the community. In the rare event that any of the boys would refuse to get circumcised this would mean shame for him and probably for his family too.