A World Far From the One I Know

WARNING: I am posting pictures of this event at the bottom of the entry. Some are graphic so if you don't want to see them, don't scroll down. I don't want to offend anyone by posting these so be aware.

I arrive to Mbale Sunday night because we think we have an early morning Monday. Turns out the event we want to attend, 40 minutes away in Busheeka, doesn’t start until 4 pm. So we mosey around town and leave around 2. The drive up has green rolling hills on every side – it’s a view that’s hard to find outside a state/national park.

As we’re driving up we hear the sound of drums, then see the parade of people walking past us towards a river. The ceremonies have started.

Mbale is on the eastern part of Uganda and the tribe found there is called the Bugisu. Tribal customs require that every male get circumcised between the ages of 15 and 25. This circumcision ceremony happens for one month every two years so the opening ceremony was held in Mbale and then from that day on for a month numerous boys are circumcised every day. The trick to seeing one (which isn’t difficult) is to know which village is holding them on which day. Through other peace corps volunteers we heard there was one happening in Busheeka, hence our trip to that village.

We aren’t really sure where to go since there are three distinct sets of people drumming and parading. The guy sitting next to us in the taxi is a talker and ends up being our guide to the ceremony being held closest to our stop. He guides us up this muddy hill (it rains every day in these hills) where with my traction-amazing chacos I make it up with ease. Rishi, on the other hand, is wearing loafers with no traction on and is traveling slow, slipping along the way. Zac is wearing tire sandals and looks like a lost cause, but he is moving slower and steadier than Rishi. We make it up the hill with no real falls.



Right when we arrived, people swarmed us asking if we were here to see the circumcision ceremony and that we have to make a donation to the participants if we want to watch. We had known this previously so we say it’s fine and will make our donation after. They are a bit concerned about me because women aren’t permitted to watch but as always the exception is made because I’m white (I’m not trying to be racist, but we do get a lot of special treatment because of the color of our skin). There is one man in particular that comes up to talk to us with a big stick and he says he is in charge of beating the participants if they get scared. I simply request the he doesn’t beat me if I get scared and he agrees.

Here’s where I start getting scared. Men are walking back from the river where they took each participant (there are three on this day) to get smothered in mud. Everyone is banging drums and making as much noise as they can. Some men are wearing metal on their knees so when they stomp all the metal clinks together for noise. When they get close they start stomping in the mud, so much that I end up with mud on my camera and clothes.



They are so excited for us to get pictures and see this ceremony as a foreigner that they continually try to put me closest to the man getting cut. This is in no way enjoyable. They put me so close for the first one that I thought they were expecting me to do the cutting. I get out my camera because they insist that I take pictures and the first guy walks up. The two men who are in charge of circumcising this guy pulls out his penis and starts peeling it down just like you would a carrot. The knives look dull and I get nauseous. The skin goes from black to white and bloody. I start shaking, not only because it looks so painful, but it looks as though it is hap-hazardly done. The cutters are not even close to what anyone would consider a medical professional. And I had known previously that it is not uncommon for mistakes to occur…cutting too deep, hitting the urethra and then the man has to keep a tube in for the rest of his life.

One done and I am ready to go. But the people are so excited to have me see the next one that they pull me back into the crowd and put me in the same position. This time instead of focusing on the cutting, I look at the boy’s face. He looks so drugged that he doesn’t even seem to know what is happening to him. His face is covered in mud and he is gripping a wood plank placed across his shoulders. The families or the father rather, will give the boys a ‘special plant’ and A LOT of local brew so that the pain is lessened. If the boy cries out, he shames the family so the father of the boy will take extra precautions against that happening. At this point, I cannot take my eyes off this boy’s face because if I look down, I know I will puke and possibly pass out. It ends and I have taken pictures, I’m not sure what of because I didn’t want to look, but I point and shoot hoping for the best.

Two done and I am refusing to see the third. As they drag me in, I am pulling myself away saying ‘please no more.’ The crowd is obviously stronger than me and not all that concerned about what I want. I watched the third one and meant to get a video, but I was in such a state of shock by that time that there was no use in trying. I want to point out that most Bugisu on the way to the ceremony were yelling ‘Prevent AIDS, get circumcised.’ It has been proven that circumcised men are less likely to contract STD’s and HIV, but many boys contract HIV during their circumcision ceremony because the same knife is used for all boys without being cleaned so blood transfers from one boy to the next. This is probably the biggest problem with the circumcision ceremonies, more so than cutting too deep.

Immediately after this one ended, we left. We got out of there as quick as possible, but considering the hill we had to climb up and now have to climb down, we could only move so fast. Rishi fell and I heard from about 15 laughing Ugandans before I saw his entire side covered in mud. After walking on the road for a long time, we got a taxi back to Mbale and I went to bed still shaking from what I saw.

There is another tribe that does female circumcision, also in the east, but I don’t think I’d be able to stomach another one. And, from what I understand, the female circumcision is done purely to make sex painful for a woman therefor discouraging her from cheating on her husband with other men. Both the female and male circumcisions are mandatory within the tribe.