Rural Dispatch: Rite of passage is not what it used to be

Some years back, every December a thrill of excitement would sweep the village as young boys got ready to face the knife. Nowadays the excitement has gone down and the villager looks nostalgically back to the good old days and wonders what happened.

Then, the mood throughout the village and the surrounding lands would be a mixture of happiness and anxiety. In Kikuyu community where circumcision is a critical and an integral cultural rite, circumcision of boys was and still is treated as a serious rite of passage.

The boys who just completed primary school would have to move from their parent’s house to a thingira (hut) clearly showing that the rite was more than just surgical.

The thingiras were hastily built using mud or timber and located a considerable distance from the parents’ houses.

They were meant to be temporary so that even if the boy turns out to not to be very successful in life, circumstances will at least force him to build a decent house to marry in.

Some guys even ended up marrying in these thingira, mostly after breaking a girl’s leg.

The boy’s male siblings and friends would play a vital role in sensitising him on the importance of the ritual and its intricacies.

They would assist the boy to beautifully decorate the thingira using used cartons, posters, wall papers and any other stuff.

“Girls like decent men. Your room must always be spotlessly clean if you want girls to fight over you,” the boy would be advised.

They would add: “You must be a real man. Never fear the circumciser even if you see him holding a razor-sharp knife and an hypodermic injection. Be ready for the excruciating pain that will graduate you into the next phase of your life.”

The actual event took place in early at night. A bevy of uncircumcised boys would be escorted by a group of young men to the local dispensary. Through a prior arrangement, the doctor would be there waiting for them even if the clinic had closed at 5.00 pm.

They will face the merciless knife in the full view of the escortees to ensure they do not shed a tear, yet anesthesia ensures little pain unlike during days of their grandfathers.

“It is an abomination to cry. Our forefathers faced the knife without any anesthesia and did not cry. The doctor has already pampered you, so if you shed a tear none one will respect you.” With such a scaring threat from escortees, every boy bears the pain bravery.

The days following circumcision coincided with the Christmas Eve and were memorable to a boy’s life.

Friends and relatives would pay a visit with all sorts of gifts and advice. Juice, milk, fruits, meat, sodas, breads and cakes would be in abundance.

Everyone talked to the young man nicely unlike in his previous state when he was treated like a child.

When the boy healed, some spoilt friends gave wrong advice: “Hey, the circumciser left soot on your manhood. You must have sex with a girl to cleanse yourself.”

This is very misleading advice as the young man is not fully healed. Furthermore, fornication is sinful and has dire consequences like unwanted pregnancy, STDs and HIV/Aids.

Thus, if you are circumcised this December avoid such advice. The joy and thrill of circumcision lasted even to high school.

There, bullies would force the boys, now referred to as monos, to strip and expose their manhood.

If found circumcised they would be declared fit for secondary education but if not, they are “sent” back home to get circumcised. The circumcision period was nostalgic and boys would feel proud of it for many years.

However, to the villager, that much ado with circumcision is gone. Nowadays, a boy is taken for circumcision even by his mum during daytime while he is Googling on what is circumcision.

To make it the matters worse, thingiras are gradually becoming extinct with possibility that he would go back to his parent’s house as happens to urban boys.

The reverence that accompanied the rite is no longer there and to the villager no knows which boy was or was not circumcised this December.