MAASAI CIRCUMCISION

Is dedicated to all cultural tourism eco-tour guides

As to bettering their performances in cultural tourism activities

Article by

Yusuph Hussein

And an Eco-tour guide at cultural tourism programme

E- mail yusuphkus@yahoo.com

www.kajabukamafamily.co.tz

© 2004

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Heralding the beginning of adult life, circumcision is regarded by the Maasai of Kenya as a rebirth, a new road to the ways of maturity.  They believe that the male or female youngster who undergoes the agony of such an ordeal with courage will be able to endure the challenges of life and uphold the proud reputation of the Maasai people.

For both male and female initiates, circumcision takes place at dawn.  A boy, usually between fifteen and eighteen years old, undergoes the operation outside the main gate of his family’s cattle enclosure. Taunted with insults by his friends to build up his resistance, he must endure the cutting without flinching to prove his bravery.  If he cries out, he will bear the shame for the rest of his life.  A girl, between the ages of twelve

And fourteen, undergoes a clitorectomy inside he mother’s home.  Without anesthetic, her clitoris and labia minora are cut away by the female circumciser, but, unlike a boy, she is permitted to express pain without dishonor.  Both males and female go through a healing period of up to six months, a time that serves as transition into adulthood.  The girl remains in seclusion, and the boy joins the collective activities of his age mates.  Following this period of recuperation, males become warriors and females enter married life.

A Maasai warrior may not marry until he graduates from warrior hood, in his late twenties or early thirties.  Prior to this, he may only have sexual relations with uncircumcised girls between the ages of nine and thirteen, who cannot become pregnant.  For the Maasai, pregnancy out of wedlock is strictly taboo.  At the onset of menstruation, girl are circumcised and must leave their warrior boyfriends to prepare for marriage with older men who are selected by their parents and may be twice the girl’s age.

The Maasai has practiced a highly controversial issue in contemporary western society, female clitodectomy for centuries.  Without undergoing his painful ritual, a girl will not be considered a woman, will not be permitted to marry within Maasai society, and will not be able to bear legitimate offspring.  A Maasai girl who refuses this rite of passage will be ostracized from her community and alienated from her cultural tradition.

ON THE THRESHHOLD OF MANHOOD

The initiate rises just before dawn and bathes, using water that has been kept outside all night in a bucket containing an axe head to make the water colder.  His body numbed, his age mates to toughen him for the ordeal that lies ahead insult the boy relentlessly by his age mates.  As a parting gift from his mother, he has been given the hide of an unblemished ox, on which he will sit during the cutting. Accompanied by his father, the boy walks to the entrance of the family cattle kraal.  Already in attendance are the initiate’s close male relatives and the circumciser, who has been brought in from the Ndorobo tribe especially for the occasion.  He will be paid one goat for every operation he performs.  Women are forbidden to come to the cattle kraal for the duration of the ritual.

THE FIRST CUT

Seated securely between the legs of the back supporter (left) so that he is prevented from making even the slightest movement, the initiate prepares himself. The circumciser throws a libation of the chalk and milk over him and calls out, “one cut” so as not take the boy by surprise. He then puts a knife through the boy’s foreskin, and when the cutting is complete, a flap of skin is left beneath the head of the penis – a unique feature of Maasai circumcision. With the entreaty, “Wake up, you are now a man,” the circumciser indicates that the initiate is free to leave.

Still in great pain and weak from shock, the initiate is carried is carried back to his mother’s hut to nurse his wound and rest. He receives a ritual calabash of fresh cow’s blood to restore his energy. Treated like woman recovering from childbirth, he is carefully looked after by his family and restricted from performing certain tasks. As a reward for his bravery, his father may give a cow or a goat. This experience will serve to remind him of his youthful courage for the rest of his life.  After healing, the initiate is allowed to have sexual relations for the first time.

A CROWN OF BIRDS

From neighboring camps, the age mates of the initiate arrive to celebrate his entry into manhood. Each guest wears as headdress of colorful stuffed birds and has his face painted with white markings to indicate his intermediate status between adolescence and warrior hood.  When the initiate has healed sufficiently to be able to walk, he goes out to hunt for small birds. Shooting them with a bow and blunt arrow, he eviscerates the carcasses, stuffs them with ashes and dried grass, and ties them to a circular frame, which he wears as a ceremonial crown.  If he has withstood circumcision unflinchingly, he may wear colorful birds, symbolic of courage, but if he has cried out, his crown will be drab.  It may take up to forty birds to complete such a headdress.

Dressed in dark blue, an initiate paints white chalk designs on the face of a recently circumcised age mate.  For protection during this vulnerable period of transition into warrior hood, both young men wear their mother’s coiled brass pendants against their temples.

During the healing period the newly circumcised boys roam Assailant, chasing young girls and shooting them with blunted arrows.  Each time an initiate hits a girl; she must five him one of her beaded finger rings to wear on a band around his head or on a finger. The greater his collection of rings, the more admired he is as he enters the most exciting period of his life being a Maasai warrior.

THE CRY OF PAIN

Ritually shaved and washed, a young girl sits in the darkness of a hut before a female circumciser, surrounded by her family.  A especial curved blade is used to cut away her clitoris and labia minor.  No anesthetic is given; the only concession to the girl’s pain is that, unlike her male counter part, she may cry out without disgracing herself.

During the cutting, she screams in pain and appeals to her relatives to let her go but they continue to hold her down, believing the procedure to be in her best interests.  The excision competed; the girl rests in her family hut. At the end of the day, she inspected by the female elder.  If the circumciser’s work has been carried out satisfactorily, the girl is free to resume her recuperation; if not she faces a repeat of her earlier ordeal.  During her weeks of recovery, she is secluded with her family and other initiates.   Dressed in dark blue and wearing a beaded band around her head she is not allowed to be seen or spoken to by men, other than immediate relatives.  She receives gifts of livestock to honor her new status and can now look forward to marriage and children of her own.