The Luo community of Kenya is not known to traditionally undergo circumcision like other communities, instead, they had 6 of their lower teeth removed. This was their initiation.
This practice is known as 'nego' in Dholuo, a painful ordeal that was conducted on youths, both male and female, as soon as they hit 12 years of age.
It was meant to indicate their graduation from childhood to adulthood. It was also a rite of passage meant to test one's courage.
Majority of the young people were compelled into the practice that was conducted by special traditional doctors who would camp in marketplaces to attract more initiates in exchange for small tokens including grains.
It entailed uprooting the teeth using screwdrivers, with the initiates receiving an amount of potassium permanganate to soak the gums before the process and another dose of the same to ease the acute pain after the ordeal.
The pain obviously saw a number of potential initiates sneak away.
However, the majority willingly underwent it to avoid future forceful initiations and to save themselves from the shame of being considered pariahs and lesser beings in their own land.
The practice, however, lost its significance in the late sixties.
Despite being a cultural undertaking, it was also used by Luos to differentiate their people from others during unfortunate occurrences like road accidents.
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