Every once in a while I find myself in the middle of a unique cultural situation where I wonder what in the world is going on. This last Saturday I landed in one of those.
I had gone over the Bible school where I taught a class last semester. I wanted to say hi to some friends who I hadn't seen since before Christmas. When I got out of the car I heard drums and wondered what was happening. Normally it is pretty quiet around the school and drums signaled something unusual. I had arrived with Hazel and Johnny (friends and colleagues) who also wanted to do some visiting so the three of us headed over to find out what was going on.
As we got closer we saw a group of students standing in front of their dorm and behind the dorm was a long line of people dancing and playing the drums. They were coming up the road through the Bible school. I asked someone what was going on and they said there was going to be a circumcision so the crowd was chasing the boy as part of the ritual. I could see now that the man leading the crowd had something tied around his head and the whole upper half of his body was painted in various colours. The group was moving fairly quickly although they were still a distance away.
I turned to talk to a friend and before I knew it, the group was heading in our direction. They had seen the white people which was an immediate attraction. I began to feel a bit uneasy, wondering what they were going do. I had never seen anything like this before and had no idea what would happen.
Suddenly I was surrounding by the crowd, my friends who I was talking to being forced into the background. The drums were loud, the crowd, mostly men around me, were dancing and the guy who was painted was directly in my face. I stood there, taking it all in, waiting for some cue to let me know what they expected from me. Sure enough it wasn't long in coming, "One thousand shillings will be good" they told me (about $1 CAD). Then I saw the money attached to the forehead of the painted man so I pulled out my wallet and handed over the money which they promptly added to the collection on his forehead. He was wearing some type of headband which they pinned the money to.
Having gotten what they wanted, the crowd took off in another direction. A bit dazed I turned to ask my friends (Tanzanian friends) what had just happened. They said this is a normal part of the circumcision ceremony. The crowd will go around collecting money from friends and neighbours in the morning and then will perform the circumcision in the afternoon. They said it is a bit different in each tribe and that this one is more aggressive than some of theirs that allow people to contribute as they want instead of demanding it.
We had an interesting discussion on circumcision after that and I enjoyed having another glimpse into the Tanzanian culture and seeing one of their traditions.
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