Page 25 - Demo

CommunityISSUE 39 | JULY 2025 25morning as when Maara went to throw away his dying mother%u00b9. In that early chill, the water flowing from God%u2019s seat, K%u012br%u012b Nyaga or God%u2019s sleeping hides, Nyandarwa, was ice cold and when the boys dipped themselves up to the waist, they came out numbed to face the circumciser%u2019s knife. Even after weeks and weeks of preparation, it was a painful experience. The real test was facing the knife without flinching. The boys would stand up straight with the river behind them and with their faces unblinkingly looking straight up to the hills. The sponsor or supporter, Mutiiri, of each boy would stand behind him, (without touching him) and the circumciser would move quickly from boy to boy with the same knife. The women at a safe distance up the hill would look down and break into song. The boys too would sing much later after healing during the cerebrations that on that day, as they went down the river in great trepidation but also with expectancy, that a tiny ant seemed to them the size of a buffaloTugithii rui, tugithii rui, ii wari ndunyu;Thigiriri yaiganaga mbogo ii wari ndunyu!Today very very few if any G%u012bk%u016by%u016b would question the need for the cut but many have questioned the need for it to be so painful. Almost all boys in G%u012bk%u016by%u016bland today face the knife not at the river but in a medical doctor%u2019s operating table under local anaesthesia. The pain of the traditional circumcision has been reduced to a minimum. And it is not just in the circumcision ceremony that pain has been banished but in many aspects of the lives of modern G%u012bk%u016by%u016b. The modern medical doctor has come to deliver us from pain just as the new religion has come to deliver us from evil. Women today dread the traditional delivery method and are more and more opting for a caecilian section, CS, rather than undergo what they call the messy and painful ordeal of a natural childbirth. Those suffering from headaches, toothaches and similar minor pains have found salvation in the pain killer. Pain has been equated to sin.What many people are not aware of is that much more than pain is killed by the pain killer or anaesthesia. By embracing pain and suffering as part of the human experience, we gain and learn a lot from this landscape of pain. Someone said, %u201cWhat happens does not matter much. What we do with what happens matters Pain and G%u012bk%u016by%u016b Circumcision %u2013 K%u016brua RuoBy Mukuyu.