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Agony as man's attempt to circumcise self ends tragically

Counties

Cartoon

We are proud Kenyan men who have been brought up to respect tradition and its attendant rituals.

Now why a certain mechanic in Kakamega would utilise his automobile mechanical skills on the human anatomy got many people baffled.

Mr Charles Anyanga, in his 45 year sojourn on God’s good Earth could not countenance being frogmarched to a cold riverside one chilly morning to have some villager snip away and “sharpen” his tool-of-trade.

Being the smart man that he is, he instead barricaded himself in his room and performed a delicate “operation” that went horribly wrong since his efforts left him bleeding profusely.

He must have let out a very loud scream since folks rushed to the scene to take him to a nearby health facility.

Granted, people of our age-group like Anyanga have been taught the value of how to tackle life with a big spoon by doing things ourselves, but some matters are best left to pros.

We grew up in a time when the Safari Rally was the real deal with rain, mud and all that jazz. We would scavenge through rubbish heaps for discarded tins, bottle tops and cardboard.

From these, our creative juices would flow and result in self-made rally cars that could rival anything legends Joginder Singh Sokhi, Bjorn Waldegaard, Shekhar Mehta or Patrick Njiru had in their garages.

Importance of self-reliance

We all dreamt of making our mark as we hurtled about, pulling our ‘rally cars”’ through the village to the finish line. The soccer balls we would create using string, discarded cloth and plastic paper were unmatched.

I wonder why FIFA did not recognise our barefoot, runaway talent as we rivalled Joe Kadenge and made more saves than Mahmoud Abbas.

Right now I would be an English Premier League coach of some standing if someone had bothered to look me up some years ago! We learnt to complete our homework in the absence of mobile phones, scientific calculators and electricity.

The smoke from the ‘tractor’ kerosene lamp was illumination enough to light up the mathematical tables at the back of our exercise books.

We even cooked, swept our homesteads, drove cows and goats to pasture, climbed every guava and mango tree in the neighbourhood, bathed in the river and did the Sunday church ritual clad in our best kitenge ‘Sunday best’ regalia.

applaud and ululate

Yes, we were taught the importance of self-reliance and did most things ourselves.

However, circumcision was best left to certain dour old men who had the hard task of turning boys into men once a year in return for a jogoo or some cash.

The mangy, emaciated dogs by their sides usually disposed of any scraps that came from the initiates.

The escorts (an entire village) would congregate at your homestead to drink chai-ya-maziwa and the elders quaffed traditional brew. The women would applaud and ululate for their sister who had just produced a new ‘bull’ for the village.

Now, Mr Anyanga, do you deem it right to DIY an age-old rite of passage by denying the circumciser his dues, the mongrel his morsel of meat, the women and youths their tea or the old men their swallow. What is the world coming to these days? It is so unfair.

 

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