Circumcision

Hello Everyone,

Yes, that title says what you think it does, I have now officially seen a circumcision... and I'm not sure I could handle seeing it again... I won't give you all the details, but just a little bit of the story...

For my one class, African Traditional Religions, our teacher set up an opportunity for us to go and watch a traditional circumcision ceremony. Not many of the tribes here in Uganda still do circumcision, in fact, I think it is only four that do, but it is a very big deal to them. It symbolizes the moment of moving from boyhood to manhood and is a very long process.

The process leading up to the event lasts about a month, I believe, and culminates in a day-long ceremony at the end of which the candidate for circumcision gets circumcised. This is a really big deal, and many many people come to celebrate this... in all facets of what that word entails.

We started the process during the morning, learning about it from one of the locals who knows about it. Then we drove out about a half-hour to a village where it was taking place, and watched some of the preliminary things and then drove out toward the home where it would take place and waited for the procession to come. Side note: while we were waiting we got to see Mt. Elgon, which is quite significant for the people of the region, and it was absolutely gorgeous, so I will share pictures with you when I get back.

Anyways, when we heard the procession coming, we walked out to the house in front of them while everyone was hooping and hollering and running past us. It was quite the experience. Then we were able to see the actual circumcision and be a part of the party... all-in-all quite a full day... If you want to know more of the details, ask me sometime, but I'm not planning on too many requests ;)

But wait, that's not all! When we got back to the place we were staying that night we took in another important part of African culture: grieving...

Right next door to the place we were staying apparently someone had just died recently and the body was brought to the home at about 11PM for the grieving process to begin, and they don't grieve like we do in the U.S., perhaps I'll reflect on that more sometime.

Anyways, to grieve here, wailing is pretty much mandatory, because if you don't wail you are basically saying that you were responsible for the death of the person. So, there was much loud wailing all night long, which reverberated through the halls of the place we stayed, waking most of us fairly often... With this wailing, however, comes singing, because it is also a time of celebration of sorts... This would have been fine, except that the songs they were singing were all hymns that I know, except in a different language, so I found myself waking up in the night and subconsciously trying to remember the words and being frustrated when I couldn't... all-in-all a poor night of sleep... but an interesting weekend...

Justin