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CommunityWWW.MSINGIAFRIKAMAGAZINE.COM | we tell the true afrikan story 24Traditionally, young G%u012bk%u016by%u016b men underwent coming of age ceremonies, Mambura ma irua, that included the surgical removal of the penis%u2019 foreskin. These ceremonies and their preparations were protracted processes that took the better part of a year. The circumcision ceremony itself was like a capstone that topped and finished a carefully constructed arch. Much like an artist brings out a perfect sculpture from a rough chunk of marble, or a stone mason carefully brings out a polished stone from the rough quarried stone, so too were the boys polished into men, g%u016bic%u016bhio.On the chosen morning when the circumcision ceremony took place, the boys trooped to the river very early in the By embracing pain and suffering as part of the human experience, we gain and learn a lot from this landscape of pain.%u201cCommunity