by Phyllis Logie

Created on: May 22, 2010

The Bukusu people are one of the seventeen sub-tribes of Kenya, East Africa.  They have in the past practice an ancient and unique circumcision ritual which began many, moons ago with a story of heroic deeds of a member of their tribe, named Mongo. 

This story forms part of the oral history tradition of Africa, where it is said that long ago there was a serpent-like monster they named Yabebe, terrorised the villagers by arriving at will and killing their live-stock and although they tried to rid themselves of this evil, they had no success, Yabebe always did his worst and then escaped.

Oral traditions have it that the monster lived in a cave in a place called Bungoma.  One day a brave young man called Mongo, decided to take on the serpent single-handed and rid the village of this monster.  Before setting out on his mission, he decided to cover his whole body with mud to minimise his human odour, this he believed would give him an opportunity to approach the monster without being detected.  

He successfully killed the monster with his sword and the place where the monster was killed, Bungoma, is now regarded as a sacred place. He was awarded high honours for his bravery by the grateful villagers and from that moment onwards he was regarded by the villagers as the greatest man who ever lived.  When ask how he could be rewarded, he replied that he would like a permanent mark to be made on his body.  The part of his body which he chose to have the mark was the removal of the foreskin on his penis. He also asked that future generations of young boys, on reaching the age of manhood (age 8 to 12 years) should also have the mark applied to their bodies, a tradition which has stood the test of time and still practiced today, albeit in a more sanitised form.

The Bukusu circumcision ceremony had five different stages which started with the Khuchukhila. The Khuchukhila was a brew made from maize flour and millet.  The maize was fried and placed in a special pot. Four days before the ceremony, the boy who was to be circumcised was sent to the Esitosi River in the early hours of the morning to fetch water to make the ceremonial brew.  The millet was then mixed with the maize flour in a special pot reserved for the purpose and left to ferment. After four days the brew was then used to bless the boy to be circumcised.

The second stage is known as the Ebukhocha, regarded as being extremely  important and

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