Growing up, we never knew that dentists were there to remove teeth. All our milk teeth were extracted at home by the erstwhile, experienced family dentist: dad. But the experience of tooth removal didn’t end at his hands. The whole community, was involved one way or the other. Tooth removal the Luhya way: Myths and practices; as I remember them.
The other day I had to defy government guidance to stay home and observe social distance as a way to limit the spread of COVID-19. Reason? I had to take my little one to the dentist for a tooth extraction. I honestly couldn’t understand why my son could not agree to have his tooth pulled out at home by his father the Luhya way. As I sat through the bore of the dentist waiting room, the excitement of him teething was now a distant memory.
But I’m reminded that that gods that kept us alive in our childhood protecting us from all manner of health problems growing up — such as being tricked into applying chicken poop on the gap left following tooth removal — left the group. What! Chicken poop? Some of our younger readers might wonder. Yes, that and much more. This is how we extracted teeth back in the village. Tooth removal the Luhya way: myths and practices.
The prep
Back in the village, whenever you felt your tooth loosening, you were encouraged to kept shaking it back and forth khutekeya lilino. Just to ensure you were following the instructions, your father would summon you every morning and evening ‘to see’ how your tooth was faring on.
Of course, ‘seeing’ meant that he would for a couple of days shake it harder than you ever did it yourself. Beyond being reminded of that you were becoming a ‘big boy’ or girl at every turn, your parents or siblings would also give you something hard to chew. Sugarcane was the obvious choice. A bone if you were lucky.
How are teeth removed at home the Luhya way?
Occasionally, as you chewed on the sugarcane, the loose tooth would fall off. More often though tooth extraction followed an assesment by your dentist. Meaning your dad, elder brother or cousin. Often, it would be someone you trusted.
The way it happened was unceremonious. One fine morning, your dentist would call you over ostensibly to conduct their daily shake test. It had to be the morning as traditional knowledge had it that, just like it is during the Luhya traditional circumcision, the cold would make you bleed less.
Then, as you stood there for the tooth shake test, with one sweeping forward and backward movement, a kuk sound heard at the back of your head later, the extracted tooth will be handed to you. No anesthesia, but I can’t remember felling any pain.
What can I expect after an extraction?
After tooth removal the Luhya way, the extracted tooth was to disposed of properly. We believe that if chicken ate the tooth then you would be sure to remain toothless for the rest of your life.
Therefore one was supposed to identify a grass thatched house into whose thatched roof the tooth would be disposed. There was method to this tradition: One would stand facing the opposite direction and throw the extracted tooth over their head by ourselves onto the thatched roof.
We the Luhya say that it is from this tooth in the bed of the thatch that another tooth will grow.
The chicken poop trick
Traditions out of the way with the disposal, attaining this milestone did not come without a ceremony to forever etch it in one’s memory. The commemorative ceremony came by way of a pinch of naughtiness from your elders.
The child was, with all seriousness they could master without letting out their mischievousness, advised to apply fresh chicken crap on the gap that had been left by the extracted tooth. The wisdom was that the poop helped hasten germination of a new tooth.
And just to give them more of laugh, the chicken poop was only and only that of a brooding hen. The Bukusu say: kamasiliokokho kamatiobelo kengokho emali ekonela.
Men, that stuff stinks! This is where it paid to have elder siblings with a good heart. Woe unto you if your elder siblings were anything like mine. Instead of helping you ought, they would be the prime plotters of this practical trick; helping you hunt down and ‘time’ a brooding hen to take a crap. ????
Muliasa
After removing your teeth especially the front incisors, eveyone teased you about it. The gap left after one removes teeth is referred to as liliasa or liliope in Bukusu language. Thus, you were christened muliasa or muliope.
I remember my kocha asking if he could use my spanner to work on his black mamba bicycle. The more I protested that I didn’t have one, the more it tickled him. Soon he was in a heap in laughter. Took me a while to get this tease.
My peers on the other hand teased me for selling my teeth in exchange for whatever they could think of. There was even a play song to this regard:
Chamusiri mukwope, (Chamusiri your big gap) kwalia kwamala kwekhomba, (you finished eating and licked your gap)
Contrast that with the experience of generation
In my sons case, he could not eat anything hard like chewing on a bone. He could not even eat his favorite meal of boiled maize in fear of the pain. Forget even attempting to shake his tooth off with as we did it growing up.
At the dentist, injections to ease pain were administered before his tooth was extracted. When I ask him if he had the nerve to face lukembe in the traditional ways of my people. After all a simple tooth extraction had troubled him that much. My little kutalangi insists that tooth removal had nothing to do with it. Face the knife he will. Interesting… Huh?
