We learn all that pertains khuminya; a rite that’s central to Luhya traditional circumcision ceremony through the lens of my childhood adventures.
Back when we were growing up, life in the village was sweet to the bone. Especially come every August of even years. The arrival of this special 8th month ushered the circumcision year in the oluhyias of Mulembe. What this means is party after party, after party after party. I mean, what else could it be? Because after a two year wait, it was finally time for our brothers to get the cut. It was time for a new set of warriors, suitors and young elders to ensure continuity of the community. And the way we do it – full of the spirit of Mulembe – food and alcohol, song and dance was guaranteed to be in abundance.
Khuminya
As early as June, the year’s initiates announce their readiness to face the knife. They way they do this is by ‘calling’, known as khulanga. This is done by dancing through the villages while singing circumcision songs and beating a special bells called chinyimba (plural; singular enyimba).
To affirm their courage, we would ran around, through and across villages singing circumcision songs escorting basinde. Basinde are the initiates*. As part of the preparation of the rite of passage, basinde sing all manner of vulgarities and chant as they move from home to home, village to village. They do this as they beat enyimba on sirere tied around their wrists, signaling kith and kin to prepare to attend the very important circumcision ceremony. In Lubukusu, this dance that takes basinde round and across villages is known as khuminya.
Play: How to pronounce khuminya
Basinde and lukhendu: The pleasure and pain of khuminya
This August, like the many before, will be a happy-go-lucky time. A anything-goes time that depending on your age, could land one in big trouble. As it was a time society reveled in all manner of songs: singing and dancing along to all sorts of profanity composed by village choir masters.
To say that the air of the basinde caravans snaking through villages is sexually charged is a gross understatement. We sung songs ranging from vulgar to insults and even church music at a go. Some of the sikhebo songs carried messages of public interest; but this is not to say these particualar ones were preachy or boring. Far from it. To partake in the festivities, all one needed was to know the call and answer of the song and you were good to go.
Whenever my younger siblings and myself got consumed with the spirit of the times and our forefathers, I swear that there’s no way one could resist the call of basinde, it would always be lost on us the repercussions awaiting.
For we would end up spend much time running around with basinde that we forgot to go to the river; or let the calf suckle the cow so that there would be no milk; or fail to fetch firewood; and any other of the many sins a child could commit, and we would find mum waiting for us at home. In hand, there would be an equivalent of a sjambok in her hand: lukhendu.
She would descend on our little butts and beat the hell out of us. We would cry and promise her never to follow basinde ever. Come the following day, the cycle would repeat itself; running around the village singing and verily getting punished in the evening.
Khuminya: a time to settle scores, name, shame and re-calibrate society
One of the reasons we got a hiding from mum, though she never mentioned it once, was because khuminya offered a front row seat to all the community’s dirty linen. This was because the circumcision songs provided the perfect cover for the community took to discipline all wayward people in its midst. Often, the village choir master would came up with a call and answer song full of rebuke or chiding of bad behavior. They would then leave parts of the stanza open to the liberties of the mob. It is in this open spaces that the entourage accompanying basinde would insert names of the wayward persons and shame them.
For example, one such song was composed to deter a known female brewer from sleeping around with young boys. It was alleged that this particular woman slept with boys young enough to be her grandchildren.
The song went something like this:
There is an old cat in this village with the habit of eating cockerels that are yet to crow together with their bones, If she doesn’t stop, we will name her, ------ warn your friend to stop chewing our cockerels If she continues, we will shame her
It is at the dashes that the village cougar was named. Just like that, the message would hit home – through the implied rather than the outright.
However, discretion wasn’t always the name of the game. I am reminded of a similar song that was composed to warn a certain school teacher who was caught red handed stealing his neighbors cassava on the farm.
The song was a rendition of the Bukusu proverb: luno kanyolile nga embichi musipwoni. Like a pig caught feeding on sweet potato vines and now unsuccessfully trying to hide under the foliage. I must say the song was an apt description of the teacher’s embarrassing situation. For the teacher must have been hard pressed as he went thieving during enje chelechenje – a night lit by bright moonlight.
VIDEO FROM MULEMBE NATION
A HIV/AIDS song
That said, it wasn’t all about sneaky metaphor designed to name and shame. The circumcision songs sang by basinde during khuminya were also used to educate society on modern issues. For instance, take the song titled kangali mwichunga, mwichunga bulwale buli silimu. Take care, take care there is a disease called slim.
In our hilarious post on 40+ of your favorite emojis in Bukusu, we wrote the following about this khuminya song:
Some of the gems on here are in Mulembe Nation are our commentaries on how Luhya folk tells us about our forefather’s knowledge of modern medical disciplines and science. This piece on medical anthropology and a Maragoli folktale; and this one on epidemiology and a Maragoli saying remain our favorites. But this title of a song fits right up this alley. The song is a Bukusu circumcision anthem warning people to be sexually responsible so as to avoid getting infected with HIV/AIDS aka Slim.
Riddle riddle, kumubano kwo mukhebi?
Of my brother’s struggle wanting to escort basinde and the morbid urge to run away from the knife
I often admired my younger’s brother desire to be part of the festivities of Luhya circumcision year no matter the cost. First, just like us the girls, he had to bear the pain of mum’s lukhendu. Secondly, unique to him, he had to avoid the attentions of omukhebi. For it was said that the omukhebi was possessed by the spirits of our forefathers to a singular state of mind. That is, to circumcise all that was before him.
For people like my younger brother, this was a problem. First, their time had not come. Principally because they were yet to hear and heed to the call of the Luhya gods of circumcision. This is to say that a boy who was ready would by their own volition, and guided by the spirits from our ancestors, pick up chinyimba. They would then engage in a mock khuminya or follow other basinde.
Secondly, it was up to the elders to determine if such a boy was of ripe age for traditional circumcison or not. If too young, the boy would be ‘paced’ by letting them ‘practice’ with that year’s basinde. Meaning, for a boy to be circumcised, he needed the tacit blessings of his fathers.
Further, to ensure current and future basinde were of right mind for the cut, certain tools from our oral literature were sang. For people like my brother who were not ready, you could see their eyes dart about in panic when this riddle was called during khuminya:
Caller: Namunayi (riddle riddle) Respondent: Kwiche (riddle come) Caller: Pilipili manga (hot pepper) Respondent: Kumubano kwo mukhebi (the circumcise's knife)
This Bukusu riddle equates red hot pepper with the pain adolescent boys felt when undergoing circumcision. Our eulogy of Ngori the Maragoli circumciser showed us that the hands of traditional circumcisers were not the same. Some circumciser’s hands are said to be ‘more painful’.
Notes
* I’m told our Maragoli brothers alternatively call basinde who have undergone the rite avakevwo.
**I’m also informed that mukhebi is mukevi in Lulogooli.
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