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He Must Not Even Flinch: Mass Circumcision Among the Samburu of Kenya
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# : |
19762 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1991 |
3,337 Words |
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Ettagale Blauer
Ettagale Blauer is a freelance writer based in New York. |
At the heart of the culture of the Samburu, a Nilotic people living in northern Kenya, is the periodic creation of a new age-set of moran (warriors). The event that begins this crucial cultural shift is the circumcision ceremony. Samburu males make their way through life as closely knit members of an age group, bound by commonality of experience. The core experience is the personal and group circumcision itself, the ceremony surrounding it, and the role that the rest of the Samburu people play in that event as directors, participants, or observers. Through the circumcision ceremony, the whole panoply of Samburu culture unfolds.
An age-set of boys, ranging in age from about twelve or thirteen to twenty or slightly older, is formed about every twelve to fourteen years. Because there is so much stress placed upon them at the time of circumcision, and because their behavior at this time is so crucial to their reputations throughout the rest of their lives, boys must be of a sufficient age (usually twelve) to be considered mature enough to stand up to these demands. The singular importance of the circumcision ceremony is that the boy must show no pain; he must not even flinch as the operation is performed. Boys must also be mature enough to begin to learn how to act as moran, an age group associated with young men, not with children.
The circumcision ceremony I witnessed in August 1990, near the administrative center of Maralal, was part of a larger celebration taking place throughout Samburu district. Such an opportunity is rare for a Westerner, but a Kenyan friend introduced me to the blacksmith of the group holding the ceremony, who invited me. However, as a woman, I could not witness the moment of circumcision; this was documented by the photographer, Jason Laure.
The moran: an anomaly in modern Kenya?
That a new group of moran is being created in the last decade of the twentieth century through the circumcision ceremony is seen by many in Kenya as an anomaly. Westernization, particularly Western education, has established a firm but uneasy beachhead in Kenya. Nairobi has a busy, successful air about it: The streets are lined with high-rise office buildings, cars clog the roads, shops flourish, and various races, sects, and religions commingle. But the impression generated by the capital rests on a very thin veneer of modernization, overlaid upon cultures that remain essentially African. What works best in Kenya is an unusual melding, a coexistence of tradition with a curious combination of leftover colonialism, missionary
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