Some NGOs focused on changing legislation. Building on the momentum of the 1999 National Plan of Action and 2001 Children Act, many domestic and international organizations launched a plethora of initiatives, which are given more context in chapter 7.
Kuria and Bukuria
Kuria people live in the rolling hills of southwestern Kenya and northwestern Tanzania. They make their living as small-scale farmers, cattle keepers, and petty entrepreneurs, remote from the centers of power and development in both nation-states in which they live. The name Abakuria refers to a Bantu-language-speaking people living east of Lake Victoria, largely between the Migori and Mara rivers. The term Kuria does not describe a traditional political group with clearly defined territorial or group boundaries, but rather a people who have a common cultural and linguistic identity. Cultural and linguistic features shared between Kuria and other groups indicate a past rich with interactions over centuries of migrations. These shared features can make drawing sharp distinctions between Kuria and non-Kuria difficult. Colonially induced cessation of movement left Kuria with Luo and Maasai neighbors to the west and east respectively, Gusii and Luo to the north, and Ikoma, Ngoreme, Naata, Isenye, Igishu, Chizaki (Ruel 1959, 2), and Zanaki (Bischofberger 1972) to the south. Perhaps this history of intermingling is responsible for the prominence of a cultural repertoire offering grounds for establishing/proving cultural identity.
After independence, Kuria were a minority ethnic group in South Nyanza, a district dominated by Luo people. Then Kuria lands became a new, separate district following the 1992 election when Kuria people gave their political support to the dominant party at the time. Kuria leaders saw this as a major accomplishment and gain. Following the 2007 election, the district was split in two, gaining Kuria people further administrative structure with accompanying funds—a fairly remarkable feat for a population of about two hundred thousand people.17 The potential gain of influence in parliamentary politics was curtailed in the new constitution of 2010, which subsumed both the districts of Kuria East and Kuria West districts into constituencies of Migori County. The two districts then contained four clans (ibiaro), which were the administrative locations of the postcolonial era. This political reorganization administratively separated Kuria from the Luo-speaking majority in South Nyanza and Migori districts, and brought in resources as well as employment opportunities within the several levels of the newly created administrative structure.18 But lack of qualified candidates, particularly experienced ones, to fill many of these positions ensured that they were filled by non-Kuria workers. The presence of professionals from other parts of Kenya, as well as growing interest on the part of NGOs (particularly those concerned with “the girl child,” with the eradication of FGM, and/or with HIV/AIDS) reflect Kuria’s growing ties to the national and international scene.
Kuria life is rich in traditions and has historically centered on a ritual cycle that individuals and the community undergo. They speak of themselves as “doers of ritual” (abakora nyangi), and compare themselves according to this criterion with other peoples having or not having a similar ritual complex (Ruel 1965, 298). The ritual cycle is a central institution that regulates the rhythm of individual as well as communal life and is crucial to Abakuria self-identification as a people. Genital cutting is one ritual, a part of esaaro, which constitutes the transition from childhood to adulthood, marking the changed status of an individual and his or her family with concomitant changes in roles, responsibilities, control, and power. Genital cutting marks the identity of an individual as a member of the community and defines a person in relation to extended family, lineage, descent group, and ethnic group. As much as genital cutting unites people, it also divides them. It identifies those who belong to the group and those who do not, and by extension, those who control the ritual event and its outcomes and those who do not.
In the cycle of Kuria individual and social life, the highest position within the society—elderhood—is open to all by virtue of reaching the requisite age and reproductive history. The council of elders convened by the chief’s baraza serves as the body of decision making most approachable by ordinary citizens of the community. A second council, inchaama, is the secret conclave responsible for ensuring the ritual well-being of the community. Membership in the conclave and knowledge of its meeting places are known only by its members. Their communication with the general public consists usually of swiftly moving rumors, and the presence of the inchaama is felt rather than witnessed. To declare the start of initiation season, the elders of the secret council must study a number of physical and metaphysical signs to determine whether a particular year is propitious for a round of initiation. If it is determined to be so, hundreds of adolescent boys and girls undergo a series of culturally prescribed rituals, including genital cutting. The rituals are carried out separately by each clan (ikiaro)—the maximal unit of the descent structure—and adjacent clans generally avoid carrying out rites of passage during the same years. The interval between initiations also varies among the clans. In Bwirege, initiation takes place about every three years. Years ending in seven are usually passed over, since the number is considered extremely unfavorable.
Tradition and Innovation in Kuria Genital Cutting
Kuria youths say that an uncircumcised child is “despised.”19 Initiates look forward to gaining respect more than any other aspect of the ritual event. They become adult members of the society (albeit still low-ranking at that point) and they can look down on the uncircumcised. Initiates know that by undergoing the ritual, they earn their spot on the lowest rung of the ladder of the ritual cycle, which is the backbone of the status hierarchy in this rural area. Age and gender continue to be primary criteria of social hierarchy, although stratification in postcolonial Kuria society stems from additional criteria, such as education, employment, and wealth. Both gender and age are combined to secure an individual’s appropriate place in a social system still organized on the basis of age-grades and generation classes.
Immediately upon being circumcised, the individual gains the status of omosaamba (initiate). After ending seclusion the female initiate becomes umuiseke, a young woman eligible for marriage. The male initiate becomes umumura, a young man who can be held responsible for protecting the family herd or providing future opportunities for the family by devoting himself to his studies, thus building his skills for gaining access to potential employment and the much esteemed and needed off-farm income.
In customary practice, ritual mechanisms create both an egalitarian ethos among members of an age-set and a way to identify leaders within it. It is an oft-repeated truth that if a youth cries during the operation, he or she will be taken less seriously thereafter than a youth who was stoic. At a baraza or any other convocation, his or her word carries less weight as a result of not having shown bravery at that crucial time. Otherwise, all the members of an age-set (but divided according to gender) are seen as equal, an egalitarianism underscored by the fact that they pass from then on through the major stages of life and the ritual cycle together. During the time of seclusion, leaders emerge from the localized bands in which the abasaamba wander about the countryside, seeking diversion while they are restricted from productive work. And upon becoming heads of households, some prosper more than others, but the ritual recognition of fundamental equality remains. Young women become members of their husband’s circumcision set at marriage, and their status within the set is equal to that of all others.
There are, however, other initiates who, by their structural position, are leaders at another level. These are the amanaanai, the first eight persons to be circumcised during any circumcision season. The amanaanai represent each of the eight named generation classes (amakora) of Kuria society. In this manner, the society is divided into moieties, the Abasaae and the Abachuma. Each moiety has four named generations. Men are coeval across the moieties, but stratified within them on the basis of age and birth order. Each generation class is said to give birth to the one following it, and to be born of the one preceding it. Kuria follow kinship norms of respect and joking associated with adjoining and alternating generations respectively. The generation class system is cyclical.
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