Boys from South Africa's Xhosa tribe who have just participated in a circumcision ceremony sit outside near Qunu on June 30. It's a traditional rite of passage that the country's former president, Nelson Mandela, also underwent in the same village in 1935. The beloved politician, who turns 95 next month, is currently hospitalized and in critical condition.

The Xhosa initiation into manhood includes a period of seclusion, an ascetic diet, education and the circumcision ritual --which is followed by feasting. "During the whole experience you are in an unknown state, you are not a boy, not a man," Mandela's grandson, Nkosi Zwelivelile, told a South African tourism website. "From this time you are supposed to gain a full understanding of what makes you be a man."