Growing Up in Africa

Growing up, the official change from a child to an adult, in many cultures requires a ceremony. In many cultures this ceremony includes circumcision. That is not earth shattering news. It is very common.

In Africa, these ceremonies have traditionally included witchcraft. This is also not surprising news to anyone. There are always certain old people whose role is to lead the children through the ceremony, which usually takes several days. These old people are not witchdoctors, but their roles include witchcraft. Witchcraft is used to ask for health, wealth, fertility, strength, a good education - any number of different blessings. In direct relation to this, it is believed that if these ceremonies are ignored then these children will suffer and even be cursed.

Many tribes do this, but the Kuria tribe does it in a much more ominous way. From what we have learned, it is not just simple witchcraft. It is truly demonic. That may sound odd to many ears, but the whole process from the highest to the lowest levels involves ceremonies that truly frighten us. I want to write about this as I learn more, but just trust me. This is not like circumcision in any other tribe I know.

Both churches and the government have taught against total female circumcision and against the unsanitary practices used in male circumcision. Sometimes the parents are convinced but the children literally run away to be part of the ceremony. Sometimes the children are convinced but the parents are adamant that culture be preserved. Sometimes no one is convinced.

But there is great pressure to continue in the old ways. Unless the circumcision ceremony is pursued, these youth will always remain children in the eyes of the community. They will not be given the respect of an adult. Girls may not want to marry the uncircumcised boys, and vice-versa (because the Kuria also practice female circumcision).  They may have to live with the curse of not pleasing the ancestors and spirits by keeping culture. There are a myriad of obstacles to overcome in a life without circumcision.

We have come up with a different idea, though it is not new. It is already done in many places successfully. We want to create a Christian circumcision ceremony that will replace the traditional one. We will take the elements of Kuria tradition that are important but change them to glorify God and add a lot of teaching about becoming an adult who loves the Lord.

The idea is not to tell them to stop having this important rite of passage, but to do it in a Christlike manner.

We are talking with our 3 local Baptist pastors. This is a new idea for them. They are used to attending training and educational meetings, but not planning a whole procedure and then trying to put it into action. This is our action plan:

Step 1

Our pastors decide who to invite onto a committee which will begin looking at the traditional ceremonies and deciding how a Christian ceremony should look. This committee will be made up of other evangelical pastors.

We will also need to make sure that we have good, Christian men and women from various Kuria clans. There are 16 clans. We aren't aiming to have a representative from each, but if only one clan is on the committee then the other clans will be less likely to accept this plan.

We would also like to find a person who once led these ceremonies but is now a strong Christian. This is a strong matter of prayer. Such a person would give us great insight and would help us in introducing the new ceremony into communities.

We will need to have a subcommittee that deals with female circumcision. This is a much more difficult situation because we would want a ceremony, but not the actual physical circumcision. I think that this one will be even harder to accept than a new male circumcision ceremony.

Please pray for Step 1. It is a lot, in and of itself. We so need God's guidance in choosing the right people to invite onto this committee. If the committee does not work then the plan will not succeed.

Blessings.