Apart from the pain of being circumcised with a spear head without anesthetics the initiates must live in the bush for several weeks. For the first week after the operation they are only allowed to eat maize and they are not even allowed to drink water which leaves the initiates in a miserable shape by the end of the week. Death is not uncommon.
Yet, the ritual is so deeply part of Xhosa culture that those who have gone through it usually agree that it has changed them in a positive way, and whatever hardship they had to go through was well worth it.
Sometimes even people who are not actually Xhosa by birth volunteer to go though the ritual alongside their friends.
The exact details of the initiation are not supposed to be disclosed to outsiders, but the fact that people are even willing to risk death to go through the procedure is an indication of its perceived value.
It's Hard to be a Man
Why a white South African risked traditional circumcision
http://www.brentstirton.com/xhosa-circumcision-ritual-south-africa/
