Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton by Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna Read Free Book Online

limits.
    Our cows ceased to be scared when I was a baby.
    T HE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT of my whole life was my circumcision. In many parts of the world and in many traditions, boys have the foreskin cut back or removed from the glans of the penis. Some cultures feel that a circumcised penis is healthier, some that it is holier. In Maa culture, the circumcision ceremony is the initiation that makes a boy a man.
    In the Maa world, a man who is not circumcised is considered a small boy. He cannot make decisions, and anyone can tell him what to do. It doesn’t matter how smart he is or how old he is or what he does. He can bea professor. He can be a hunter. He can be a journalist, a cook, he can be anything, but people will not take him seriously if he’s not circumcised.
    I was circumcised when I was about 13. Ngoliong and Lmatarion, who are 5 and 8 years older than I am, were circumcised at the same time. That’s because the circumcisions don’t take place every year. They’re generally held several years apart—whole generations are circumcised together.
    When you’re circumcised with a group of people, you always identify yourself as part of that group. So if people ask me what age group I belong to, I say I’m Ilkiroro. If I see somebody of my circumcision group, I think, “I know that guy.” He’s not necessarily my age—there could be 10 years or more between us—but it’s still a sign we’re the same generation. There were maybe 200 in my group, from my village and several surrounding villages, ages 12 to 22.
     
    THE FIRST STEP for any group of young men is to ask for circumcision from the elders in the community. The way you ask is to sing songs. The village gathers, and the young men sing songs they’ve made up themselves—songs praising the elders or their families or the cattle. “Blessed Be the Mother of This BeautifulDaughter.” “May God Give You Long and Beautiful Life.” Then you say: “We need a time for circumcision.”
    This can be a thing that takes several months and many songs. Many elders just cry to hear your songs. They remember what it felt like when they were young, and they remember their own initiations. They let you sing and sing and sing. They want you to understand that manhood doesn’t come easily. But eventually they say yes. They need warriors to defend the village.
    The next two steps are called ilbaa and naingure . Everyone who is going to be initiated has to go cut arrows. These arrows are supposed to be straight and from a specific tree called a siteti . Then we have to collect gum from another tree, called a silalei . This gum tree grows on a hill in the lowlands. At the right time of the year, when the tree produces its gum, the young men go there to spend the night and collect it. The gum is like chewing gum. It smells great, and a lot of people burn it like incense to make their houses smell good. But if you put it on the tip of an arrow and leave it, it gets hard. It becomes like a rock.
    After the circumcision, when their wounds are still fresh, warriors are required to practice their life skills using these arrows. But the arrow is not supposed to really pierce the animal: It is just supposed to knockthe prey down. We don’t believe in shedding blood at that time.
    Also, there’s a particular kind of rope used to bind the arrows. It’s white and very soft, made from the bark of a specific tree. A warrior’s mother collects this material, makes the rope, and ties the arrows in a bundle.
    Finally, your mother has to kill two or three goats to make a leather coat for you, because for a month before you’re circumcised, you have to wear leather. These goats have to be pure white or pure black—no markings. It’s very difficult to get goats like that, so people look for months to find them. All these preparations are not easy, but they are very important. Someone who is not ready will have to wait for the next group to be initiated, which could take 10 or 15