Circumsicion Ceremony

Hi All,

I realize its been quite a while since my last post, which was about the snake slaying. this post should have accompanied that one as it is about the circum. ceremony i attended the same day as the slaying. here it is, better late than never... (it may be short bc i may not remember all the details but ill do my best)

so the ceremony occured over a period of two days, the first day started around 2pm (for me) i showed up at the kids house with my counter-part Dennis KoiKai. we arrived to find many men and some boys sitting around the Emanyatta (traditional Maasai homestead) just waiting. the women were in the home cooking mostly, some were nursing their children. After about 30min i asked Dennis what the heck we were waiting for and where was the kid that was getting circum. he said that the boy was out with the cattle in the bush and some other olmurran (warriors) and kids from his age set who had been circum. recently went to retrieve him. about an hour and a half later we saw him coming over the hill, about half a mile away. the men got up and started walking towards him. also, as he walked the group with him got larger as more people saw him and joined in his walk. When he got close i saw that he was completely naked....he had just walked for miles from the bush, through our town center and back to his family home COMPLETELY NAKED! there were probably 100 people there to witness this. I must also add, as he walked and people (men/boys only) joined into the group walking with him they would spit in his face repeatedly; Dennis said it was a blessing to be strong from those who had been circum. before him. Also, amongst those acompanying him were men screaming and yelling, i was told this was to signify their saddness and sympathy for they knew what pain he was about to endure.

Once at the home, the old men who couldnt or didnt want to walk got up and spit on the boy; they immediately then went back to drinking their traditional maasai liqour/beer. two of the old men however didnt sit back down but instead escorted him over next to his mothers home. there they had a cow hide on the ground and they told him to sit on it. they proceeeded to shave his body using only an individual razor blade, dry. after the shaving and only a few nicks they then had him stand on the hide and the two men each measured a foot and made him a sandal. these were to be his sandals until he had completely healed from his circum. after completeing the sandals the men spit mouthfuls of traditional brew onto his feet and with that the days celebration or preparation for the day to come was complete.

The next morning i awoke in the dark, around 4a.m. to go with Dennis to day two of the ceremony. we hurried down over to the boys home but found he had already left for the river so we ran there next. as we arrived, we saw the boy coming out of the river, he was still completely naked; however as we began our walk back to his home he put on a small, dark purple, cloak (it was like a cape). Dennis said that the washing he had just had would be his last as a boy and that he could no longer bath outside until he was completely healed from the operation. As we accompanied the group towards home, the sun began to rise casting a thounsand colors into the sky welcoming the boy home and into adulthood.

Upon arriving at the home we found many people gathered around the cow pen. as we approached they grabbed the boy and pulled him inside the pen. In the pen they dumped a bucket of freezing cold water on the boy (to numb him up i was told) and sat him down on a cowhide in the dirt and dung. all the men, including me, circled around the boy and the man who would do the cutting. We were all to watch the boy and make sure he was brave; the maasai circum. boys near the age of 16 without any pain killers and they are expected to show no pain - if they do, they become a disgrace and will be punished with a beating. Needless to say, or maybe not, the operation lasted only about a minute and the boy was tough as a rock. he made his family and community proud and will recover well hopefully. as for the man who does the cutting, he apparently is very good and completes his task very quickly, i was told, because he goes to the bush and practices on Zebras...i have heard of many botched operations however, though not by this man in particular, one recently almost lead to the boy bleeding to death.

after the operation was finished the boy was carried into his mothers home where he would stay for the next couple days. in order to speed his recovery the men "let blood" from a calf for him. this means they let the cow bleed into a gourd (made into a jug) and then gave the blood to the boy to drink. above is a picture of how they cut the cow, its the one where the man is shooting a an arrow from point blank range into the cows neck. that was very entertaining to see i must say!

after that, i returned home for most of the day becasue the food would not be ready until around 4pm. I returned later that day to find all the guests eating and drinking and dancing. As a thank you for letting me attend i brought the boys mother a kg or sugar and a kg of tea.

so thats that folks, hope you enjoy the pitures and story. sorry for the delay.