DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49272#0272
256
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
in turn. After drinking, they sit down while the m’michila gives instructions that here they
sleep tonight. He takes his basket and starts to run back to Lupanda, singing:
“Ku twajile yeleleiya achambuje kutwajire kuMunde!”
“Where we went to masters to Munde!”
Then going to the back of his hut, he enters and takes a piece of bark left there bent up
into a dish containing medicine which has been put in by an assistant. This assistant holds
in his hand the neck of one of the fowls which was killed at Lupanda. The m’michila washes
his face and chest with medicine to cleanse his eyes and then leans forward to the assistant
and bites a piece off the neck of the fowl which the assistant holds out, and eats it.
This is ku-lumira, “ to taste a small piece,” often the liver, before starting to eat the flesh;
this is generally done by the most important person. The m’michila has been followed
by his assistants who do as he has done. They all follow him next round the cooking place
for the boys at Lupanda, each standing for a moment on the stones which have supported
the cooking pots, while the women sit looking on sadly. He begins to dance and the women
join in, singing likwata. He then calls the parents of the wali and leads them to where the
bonfire was. There assembled, he tells them they must not bathe, and that tomorrow
morning early, porridge is to be sent to the wali which must be prepared by a woman who
has had connection with her husband and who has not washed her hands; this is supposed
to make the boys strong. Early in the morning, the husband, who likewise has not washed
his hands, carries the food to the wali and personally gives portions to each boy to eat.
When they have partaken of the food, the circumcision is performed by the m’michila
who has returned the same morning early. The wali one by one, commencing with the
leader, go forward a little to the place where the m’michila awaits them. Each mwali is
accompanied by his mkamusi who commonly says, “ Come along and you shall eat of the
honey made by the bumblebee.” Such honey is very sweet and called msoma. This refers
in sarcastic terms to the pain the boy is about to undergo. The boy squats down, leaning
back on his mkamusi who supports him, while the medicine-man, having warned the lad
not to cry out, performs the circumcision with a small knife called chisondo. It is a triangu-
lar knife with one cutting edge and a handle produced from the opposite corner. Properly
the Yao method is, I believe, only to nick the free margin of the prepuce just to the right of
the middle line near the frenum, but complete circumcision is now commonly practiced,
possibly as the result of Swahili influence. In this case, the prepuce is seized and held by
the fingers, and division made by a circular incision without using a clamp or forked stick.
A dressing of charcoal and oil may be applied or medicine is chewed in the mouth and the
saliva spat on the wound and the boy sent on to rest under some convenient tree.
When all the wali have been circumcised, they are gathered together in one place and
the m’michila dividing them into groups, puts on the neck of the leader of each group a
necklace made of plaited bark from the mjombo tree:1 these necklaces contain medicine
1 Vide supra, p. 254.
HARVARD AFRICAN STUDIES
in turn. After drinking, they sit down while the m’michila gives instructions that here they
sleep tonight. He takes his basket and starts to run back to Lupanda, singing:
“Ku twajile yeleleiya achambuje kutwajire kuMunde!”
“Where we went to masters to Munde!”
Then going to the back of his hut, he enters and takes a piece of bark left there bent up
into a dish containing medicine which has been put in by an assistant. This assistant holds
in his hand the neck of one of the fowls which was killed at Lupanda. The m’michila washes
his face and chest with medicine to cleanse his eyes and then leans forward to the assistant
and bites a piece off the neck of the fowl which the assistant holds out, and eats it.
This is ku-lumira, “ to taste a small piece,” often the liver, before starting to eat the flesh;
this is generally done by the most important person. The m’michila has been followed
by his assistants who do as he has done. They all follow him next round the cooking place
for the boys at Lupanda, each standing for a moment on the stones which have supported
the cooking pots, while the women sit looking on sadly. He begins to dance and the women
join in, singing likwata. He then calls the parents of the wali and leads them to where the
bonfire was. There assembled, he tells them they must not bathe, and that tomorrow
morning early, porridge is to be sent to the wali which must be prepared by a woman who
has had connection with her husband and who has not washed her hands; this is supposed
to make the boys strong. Early in the morning, the husband, who likewise has not washed
his hands, carries the food to the wali and personally gives portions to each boy to eat.
When they have partaken of the food, the circumcision is performed by the m’michila
who has returned the same morning early. The wali one by one, commencing with the
leader, go forward a little to the place where the m’michila awaits them. Each mwali is
accompanied by his mkamusi who commonly says, “ Come along and you shall eat of the
honey made by the bumblebee.” Such honey is very sweet and called msoma. This refers
in sarcastic terms to the pain the boy is about to undergo. The boy squats down, leaning
back on his mkamusi who supports him, while the medicine-man, having warned the lad
not to cry out, performs the circumcision with a small knife called chisondo. It is a triangu-
lar knife with one cutting edge and a handle produced from the opposite corner. Properly
the Yao method is, I believe, only to nick the free margin of the prepuce just to the right of
the middle line near the frenum, but complete circumcision is now commonly practiced,
possibly as the result of Swahili influence. In this case, the prepuce is seized and held by
the fingers, and division made by a circular incision without using a clamp or forked stick.
A dressing of charcoal and oil may be applied or medicine is chewed in the mouth and the
saliva spat on the wound and the boy sent on to rest under some convenient tree.
When all the wali have been circumcised, they are gathered together in one place and
the m’michila dividing them into groups, puts on the neck of the leader of each group a
necklace made of plaited bark from the mjombo tree:1 these necklaces contain medicine
1 Vide supra, p. 254.