The Ugandan government has banned the practice of “disco matanga” during funerals, believing that these “diabolical dances” degenerate into sexual violence, a minister announced to AFP on Monday.
This practice, which means “funeral disco” in Swahili, takes place in the evening and until late at night, and sees men, often having consumed alcohol or drugs, paying young women to dance. The money raised is then used to pay burial costs.
Several human rights NGOs have denounced these evenings, which sometimes degenerate into acts of non-consensual prostitution and sexual violence.
“Disco matanga is a devilish dance. (…) The police and security forces have been instructed to ensure that matanga disco stops and that anyone who organizes it is arrested and prosecuted in court,” the Ugandan minister told AFP. of General Affairs, Justine Kasule Lumumba.
At these parties, “young girls are forced to perform on stage in short dresses and dance seductively to attract men and help raise funds for burial costs. These performances take place at night and girls are sexually abused,” she added.
This practice, originating in neighboring Kenya, has particularly spread to the border districts of eastern Uganda.
In Namayingo district in eastern Uganda, “we recorded two deaths linked to disco matanga: one of a young girl who had been gang raped and the other of a boy who was killed during an attack while returning,” said a local official, Suleiman Walugembe Juuko, ensuring “the ban is applied.”
Kenya told interdit the “disco matanga” in 2018.
