I thank John Mupusi Marwa, Janet Nyagei Chacha, Brantina Boke Chacha, Gooko Serina Mupusi, Mwita Makanga, “Nyamoraba” Wambura Rioba, Rose and Sammy Muniko, Peter Muhiri Chacha, Father Matiko, Susan and Sawi Maroa, Daudi Mwita Chacha, John and Gaati Magesi, Pastor Mishael and family, Moses Mwita Masiaga and family, especially his brothers Muniko and Fred, and Chacha Ntogoro. Paulette McNeal generously shared her collection of newspaper clippings. Having resolved not to pursue this topic in the spirit of morbid curiosity, I attended only those events to which I was invited, hosted by people I knew from other contexts as well. I thank the people, too numerous to name, who issued invitations for me to join them at various stages of the initiation rituals. They enabled me to be a participant observer in the full sense of the label.
In the fifteen years I have been working on this project I have depended on a number of people in the United States to see me through, to encourage my progress and to kindle the fire when my energy and enthusiasm flagged. My gratitude goes foremost to my family and my husband Robert Pini, deputy anthropologist, who shared much of my fieldwork experience and cared for our children Megan and Dylan as they got older while I traveled, taught, and wrote. His willingness to take on being both parents for extended periods of time, and to reach across the distance to encourage and sustain me while we were on different continents, is what really made the work, both research and writing, possible. He has read the entire manuscript in many forms and lived parts of it.
As the only anthropologist at Bennington College for most of the past two decades, I have relied on colleagues at other institutions for ongoing grounding in anthropology and in the events of life in East Africa. Most especially I thank Bill Kelly, who has gone from being a teacher and dissertation advisor during my graduate studies to being a lifelong mentor extraordinaire. I appreciate greatly the colleague-ship of Katherine Snyder and Jennifer Coffman, two East Africa hands and women with lives parallel to mine. They have kept me grounded in the discipline and the everyday lives we lead in Kenya. Encouragement and camaraderie on a daily level came from my colleagues and students at Bennington College. Becky Godwin originally published excerpts from my field diaries in the Bennington Magazine, and encouraged me to write a book that people would enjoy reading. Several deans have moved me forward in granting field time and Bennington College Faculty Grant funding for research, most notably Bill Reichblum, Elissa Tenny, and Isabel Roche. I am also grateful to friends and colleagues who have read sections of the manuscript and offered feedback, advice, and encouragement. They include Brooke Allen, Noah Coburn, Jennifer Coffman, Becky Godwin, Susan Hoffman-Ogier, Joseph Mwita Kisito, Joseph Mahanga, Sammy Muniko, Carol Pal, Alena Prazak, and Noelle Rouxel-Cubberly. They have improved the manuscript tremendously, and any mistakes that remain are my own. Bringing my research into the classroom has sharpened my thinking on the complex topics entwined in the study of genital cutting, and many students have, through their curiosity and critique, kept my focus on this topic. I express gratitude to my advanced Cultural Localities seminar, especially to Victoria Harty and Brittany Curtis, for their feedback and input. Ohio University Press, Gillian Berchowitz, and its fine readers have raised issues and contributed suggestions that have improved the book significantly. Special thanks are also due Wassim Nehme and Laurae Coburn, whose friendship and support enable me to live to the fullest.
In closing, I express my thanks to the Office of the President in Kenya for numerous research permits over the years. Further, sincere appreciation and thanks go to Samwel N. Chacha and Mohoni Rioba, who held official positions in my research communities throughout the past decade and a half, who supported my work and generously offered their official approval and protection.
Parts of chapter 7 in this book appeared in another version as “Introducing Alternative Rites of Passage,” in Africa Today 53 (4):19–40, 2007. I appreciate the journal’s permission to use that material here.
Families in the Book
Genealogical Charts
Figure 1A. People of Chacha Jonas
Figure 1B. People of Moses Kisito
Figure 1C. People of Stephen Wambura
Key to Figures 1A–1C
Kuria District. Source: Based on UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, : “Kenya: Kuria District Clashes (as of 23 June 2009),” reliefweb.int.
Introduction
“Circumcision is our tradition. It is our culture. Since the time of our ancient ancestors, the Kuria people have circumcised. When we were born we found our people circumcising. Since our ancestors did it, we must do it also.”
—Klara Robi, female, nineteen-year-old Form IV graduate, employed in family business.
My decision to write about genital cutting stems from a wish to share the understandings I have gained in observing and participating in initiation ritual cycles in Kuria communities of southwestern Kenya. After years of experience and deepened relationships with practicing members, I recognize that only through a holistic approach do these practices make sense—not only to me, but also to practitioners. As a spectator of genital cutting for the first time, I did not understand this; I was not adequately prepared intellectually or emotionally for what I witnessed. My responses were a mix of anxiousness and an attempt at cultural relativism. In sum, context matters, and I needed much more. So, I set out to learn the meanings—and significance—of initiation rituals as described by practitioners.
Over time, I have come to acknowledge and appreciate how members of the community move through an initiation cycle replete with richly complex meanings. Even as I write this, I struggle with how best to represent the many ideas and forms of genital cutting as physical acts and deeply contextualized rituals; yet I hope to do so in a way that may bring the material to various audiences without apologizing for, defending, or condemning genital cutting. Through this book, I hope to reach those who practice genital cutting as a part of their cultural heritage, and those who are curious about traditions different from their own. I of course also hope to reach those who oppose genital cutting on principle, whether that perspective is based on ideals of what constitutes human rights, feminism, activism, or humanitarianism. My understanding may well remain partial, and although I am sometimes described as an authority on the topic, I prefer to consider myself a knowledgeable, critical observer.
My role as a knowledgeable, critical observer derives from having listened to many voices, collected many stories, and watched, discussed, and participated in rituals of initiation for more than a decade. While I do exercise authority in deciding which perspectives are represented in this book, I have endeavored to include a range of voices—a mosaic composed of the voices of representatives from five groups. Each voice is individual, but also representative of others who share that social identity, selected to offer the polyvocality essential in treating this sensitive topic. Throughout the process of writing this book, which has spanned the better part of a decade, my ideas have been shaped through interaction with others who engage in some way with this topic of genital cutting. Some are Kuria, some are not. Some are circumcised, some are not. Some are academics, some missionaries, some feminists.
