It has been 5 weeks not leaving the village and not seeing a white person or having a semi-intelligable conversation in English. Now I am in Solwezi drinking well deserved beer and trying to eat some protein (all I have in the village is beans or 3 in. fish boiled to a mush).
The day I left the village I was invited to the traditional Lunda circumcision ritual. I show up at 9 am in the village where it was taking place and was not too surprised to see the traditional master of ceremonies, also the cutter, to be well in to his second bottle of dituku (moonshine). I was glad to see that officials from the nearest clinic had come to monitor for HIV awareness. Although they were drinking as well, I figured all is normal here. The men set off in to the bush where we met the four kids about to get chopped. They were aged from about 12 to 17 years old.
Traditionally, the ceremony is done by an elder who would fire an arrow in the sky and cut up to 10 boys before the arrow hit the ground. Apparently some had felt this practice was somewhat archaic and switched the method to scissors (no arrows being fired) and even injections to lessen the pain.
The old man gave the kids injections straight in to their penises, which looked painful enough and then they sat around for nearly an hour discussing the best way to get a good, clean cut. I kept thinking that the local anesthesia would be wearing off any minute. The first kid was held down on the ground while the traditional cutter approached with what appeared to be a pair of scissors you might find on the desk of a 5th grade teacher, barely sharp enough to cut hair. One guy with forceps pulled as the other man attempted to cut. But between the two bottles of dituku pumping through his veins and what appeared to be the late symptoms of alzheimers, the man's hand was shaking uncontrollably. After 5 minutes of cutting and eventually sawing because of the dullness of the scissors, the boy laid on the ground with blood running down his legs and tears running down his cheeks. They wrapped some white tape around the bloody tip and called it a success. Only three more to go. And yes, they used the same gloves and scissors for all the boys. Not exactly HIV safe.
After witnessing the second boy getting cut and him looking into my eyes with a look of complete terror, I had to leave. Later in the day a man told me that this is why some feel they can beat their wives- they don't understand the suffering which they go through in circumcision.
I left an hour later for a cold beer in Mwinilunga.
