A group of sponsors gathered together and build a hut in a secluded area near the bank of a stream. The boys assembled at the hut and the operation was performed with little ceremony. The boys slept in seclusion in the hut for about two months. Before the wound was healed the boys went naked, until the final preparation for the circumcision dance had been made, when they put on a sort of short petticoat. After circumcision a boy was recognized as a person old enough to have sexual intercourse and his adult status was acknowledged.
Photo depicts boys' circumcision dance.
Baxter and Butt reported that Zande children were taught that sexual intercourse, properly speaking, should take place only between married couples, but extra-marital intercourse was not regarded as an offense if indulged in discreetly. Such a relationship between a boy and a girl may become more than a casual one, and then the boy calls the girl his badiya, makes her small presents and may even make gifts to her mother. Zande attitudes towards a child's sexuality E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Professor Emeritus in the University of Oxford, and one of the twentieth centuries' most renowned anthropologists collected oral history from Azande people between 1927 and 1930. Love making is a major interest of the Zande people and it is no surprise that sexual awareness comes at an early age. She thought it were better the man should mount her between her thighs.