Out of Africa: Part 7 (Continued - E) – African Worship & Community Needs

On my recent trip to Africa, I disciplined myself to keep a daily journal of what transpired and how I felt about it. These entries are from that journal.

Sunday, October 23, 2005 – Experience #6 – Conversation Becomes Graphic

Here is a warning!! This discussion will be quite honest, open and perhaps graphic. Please do not be offended. I intend to be open as long as I am not profane or vulgar. The church has a long history of skirting the discussion of uncomfortable topics. This will be just that for many folks. If you feel that way, please feel free to simply exit the page and return at another time. I have to hope that search engines do not pick me up for pornographic searches as this discussion unfolds.

Many cultures, including America, have set up circumcision as a rite of passage. For the ancient Israelites it was ceremonial and performed on the male child’s eighth day alive. This was for them the time the child was officially given his name. Other cultures have made this procedure a passage into adulthood for the males. This is the approach the Masai have taken.

When a Masai male is circumcised it occurs in their early teen years. It is a major cultural ceremony. The procedure is performed in a public ceremony. The entire village is invited and usually attends. When the circumcision is done, the male is not permitted to cry or shed tears just as at the removal of the two front teeth. If the young man does not cry or shed tears, he will be given a cow by every herdsman present. This could mean he will receive as many as 20 to 30 cows as gifts at the passage into adulthood. It is no small matter to be given a cow since they are so revered in this culture.

If a young man decides to move on to being a Muran, which is a Masai warrior, they should keep themselves pure. This in many cases means they will not have sexual relations until the age of 35. It is no wonder that many of the tribes in Africa are surpassing the Masai in sheer numbers. The number of men who take this route are becoming fewer and fewer. Some simply break the code and do not tell anyone.

Late in the evening we talked to our host Simon Sole Masi about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the need for the empowerment of women in this culture to fight HIV and other social issues. Other than HIV education across the culture, which is primary, a key issue in combating HIV is the empowerment of women. Female Genital Mutilation, or female circumcision, is therefore another major issue in the empowerment of women in some African cultures. (If you do not know what FGM is, you will if you continue to read this entry.) FGM is actually illegal in Kenya, but so is the arranged marriages of young women to older men. Yet, it does not stop both from taking place. (I will write a bit more on the arranged marriages later in this entry.) Things that are that culturally entrenched, die very hard!

When we first asked Simon Ole Masi about this issue he said, “Thank you. I am very glad you asked that question.” It turns out that he did his Masters thesis on that subject in England. He chose that topic because it has almost 100% prevalence among the Masai people and he is Masai himself; so he sought to fully understand it. Ole Masi personally interviewed hundreds of men and women to see what he could learn about the cultural phenomenon.

The first question we asked him was to us the most obvious: “Why?”

It turns out there are three basic reasons in their culture. The first reason is that it is seen by many as a parallel to the male circumcision. It is the passage into womanhood for the female. The second reason is that the female clitoris is viewed as dirty just as the male foreskin is viewed as dirty.

The third reason is the least talked about and the one that in many cases is a control issue by the males. Masai, as I have stated, are herdsmen. This means they are gone from home with the cattle a great deal of the time. If sexual intercourse is not pleasurable, or in many cases is painful, there is little reason for the female to be unfaithful to her husband. This makes the sexual act purely for male enjoyment and a procreative act for the female and ensures her faithfulness.

He later informed us that this is another reason some of the women want a maternity clinic. Some women who manage to avoid this hideous practice, will have the procedure performed on them by a midwife during the birth of their first child. At that time they are in pain and do not know what is taking place. After they heal and realize what has been done to them, it is too late. It is almost as if the older women are saying, “We went through this and you will too.”

I probably should not close this entry without (as promised) explaining what FGM is. We asked that very question, “Exactly what takes place?” Ole Masi said that in his studies he discovered that there are actually four levels of FGM practiced worldwide.

Level 1 – This is the level practiced by the Masai. In this the procedure involves the removal of a portion of the female clitoris. This is similar (sort of) to what is done to the male in circumcision, except that in the male, it does not reduce the enjoyment of sexual activity. That is the case with women. Women who have this level of procedure can still achieve orgasm during intercourse and sexual activity but enjoyment is reduced.

Level 2 – The entire clitoris is removed. It is practiced by some African tribes and some Muslim cultures.

Level 3 – The entire clitoris is removed as well as the labia minor. Extremely painful it would seem. This is practiced almost exclusively by some Muslim cultures he said, although there may be some exceptions.

Level 4 – This is the most gruesome of all. The entire clitoris is removed as well as the labia minor and the labia major. The vaginal opening is then stitched closed except for an area to allow the passage of urine.

As I said . . . hideous!

One final area we talked about was the arranged, and usually forced, marriages of younger Masai girls to older men. There are times where a younger female has kept herself from sexual activity and is free of HIV. Yet because of a sum of money paid to a father, the girl will come home from school and see family all around. She will be told to greet them and next thing she knows she is married to a much older man (many times 60-70 years old) who quite often is HIV positive and infects her! This is often closely tied to the Virgin Cure myth. This belief is that if a male has sex with a non-HIV female, he will actually cure himself by giving it to her!! Many times that is why they take such young brides. This shows the importance of education in combating HIV.

As I sat listening to him I thought, “Talk about empowerment of women issues! No wonder it is such a big deal here!”

Sorry for the length of this day’s discussions requiring five entries. It was very intense. This has been our most intense and most busy day. It has also been the most enlightening and challenging.