Gangs Rituals & Rites of Passage

ISBN 978-0-620-61103-9

Crime is the greatest threat to South Africa’s democracy. While corruption and white-collar crime cost the state billions of rands, violent crime is eroding the very fabric of society.

At the root of this violence are gangs made up of tough, poorly educated young men who have nowhere to go and a life to solve. They may have no prospects, but their wild, antisocial behaviour is based on a need far deeper than that of food and schooling. It is based on a need for a rite of passage into adulthood, one that echoes back to the dawn of humankind.

If South Africa is to recapture its lost youth and collapse the crime wave, it will have to offer rituals more powerful than those given by drug syndicates and gang bosses.

This book examines the need young men have for ritual and suggests that correctly positioned rituals can re-route youngsters away from gangsterism and violent crime.