Kalenjin circumcision rituals are a secret aspect that is rarely spoken out in details by any member of the tribe, even women and uncircumcised boys have no details regarding what takes place annually when the traditional songs rent the air in the midnights every festive season, beginning from November to December.
When the circumcision ceremony is cued in, mothers prepare their initiates by mending special shawls made from animal skins and head-gears that are supposed to be put on by their boys.
The entire village will turn into celebration mood to accompany the boys as they are being transformed into manhood. Relatives and their parents gather together to organize for the initial mega ceremony presided by the appointed Elders to carry the boys through rigorous procession that will take a span of one month.
Boys initiated as a group or the same year enters into the age set known as “Ibonda” and they will call themselves Bakule (they call each other).
“Not all men are allowed to execute rituals in the ceremonies, the chosen ones carry initiates through the process by teaching them cultural values,” said Kibwambok Barno the senior Kalenjin culture conservative.
Men that were traditionally initiated are the ones only allowed to perform rituals to the initiates as well as teaching them traditional folk songs to appease the dead forefathers and commit themselves to keep secrets as well as adhere to rules and regulations that govern them as men.
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