The three day Imbalu Millet yeast smearing riteRead below 18 year old Stephen Mafabis Experience

By Richard Wetaya

As the three day khuaka kamamela or millet yeast smearing

rituals approached, Stephen Mafabi kept a stern face, even as he sang a song that excited those around him.
“Ngana mbande mungubo iye shisani,” Mafabi sang. Loosely translated he was saying he is ready to put in a cloth of Manhood.
Sunday morning, the first day of the millet yeast smearing rite got off to a lock key start but when enthusiastic family and friends gathered and when the Kadodi drummers showed up, there was a semblance of excitement.
At around 11 am, Mafabi and his colleagues were rushed to a nearby well, at break neck speed to fetch water in a pot that was later poured into powdered millet yeast mixed with roasted dough for his circumcision beer or Busera.
Mafabi was smeared with some of the thick paste yeast from head to toe, his body thickly encrusted.
As he performed the smearing rite, the elder performed admonitions seemingly invoking the ancestral diety called Mulabula to come and bless Mafabi and his 3 colleagues.
A crying Mafabi was reminded that he should not shame his clan during the circumcision operation and that the manhood he was going to transition into was tough.
Though his body seemed to be covered with goose pimples, Mafabi seemed pretty intent on getting circumcised. He emphatically jumped up on cue to the sounds of uri nja, uri nja hoo from his relatives and elders.
“My resolve is high. I’ am only thinking about Imbalu.  I’ am unfazed. I’ am ready to make my clan mates and my family happy by standing strong and firm on Tuesday. Even if the surgeon takes 4 minutes, I’ am ready,” Mafabi vowed.

Mafabi and his dancing entourage then set off to visit and remind relatives of their intentions.

The smearing rite was repeated again on Monday morning and on the face of it, Mafabi seemed set.
He kept a straight determined look on his face as the Kadodi drum sounds that accompanied him and his colleagues resonated across Mutoto village and as they headed for his uncle’s place in Nambasa, near Mbale town.
Mafabi did the Kamabeka or the shoulder shake dance often. He kept avowing his readiness as the Basinyisi or the morale boasters urged him on.  He also did the opu dance vigorously.

Mzee Makayi Wangota, an elder in Mutoto says from the time of brewing, candidates are turned into tough looking individuals. “This yeast shows candidates that Imbalu is tough. A candidate should not twitch an eye as he is being instructed during the smearing. He is to remain silent and stock still,” Wangota says.

On Tuesday morning, Mafabi’s circumcision day, his mother added millet yeast to the brew, beginning the final fermentation.
As it clocked midday, Mafabi and his 4 colleagues were brought back to the courtyard for the final smearing rite.
“My day has come. You have moved with me all this long. Now I want you to come and bear witness to what I have avowedly been singing about all the while,” Mafabi said

As he stood with a firm gaze, the elder sermonising the smearing rite began his task.
Mafabi was smeared with thick millet yeast paste and chime from a sacrificial goat by his mother’s brother.
It was then that President Museveni arrived. Mafabi and his colleagues were summoned to perform on behalf of Bungokho County in front of the President. The elders however finished the smearing ceremony, before they let Mafabi and his colleagues go.

After they got their token from the President, Mafabi and his colleagues were led away in a warlike procession to the muddy swamp strongly associated with the ancestral diety of Imbalu or the Kumusambwa Kwe’Imbalu.
After arrival, the candidates led by Mafabi individually jumped into the black mud swamp and they were smeared with the black mud.  The elders of the swamp had prepared the ground by stomping on it until it formed foaming mire.
The elders then blessed each candidate and told them to go stand firm with fortitude like real men however painful the cutting may be.
The black mud, so runs the tale, is the beer of the ancestral power of Imbalu or the Kumusambwa Kwe’Imbalu.

The pushing and shoving as we approached the courtyard where the circumcision was to take place did not seem to concern and faze Mafabi.
He was relentless as he stretched his arms showing strength and grit.
Mafabi was led by an elder to the sack where he was to be cut from and in a minute and a few seconds, the Mushebi (traditional surgeon) was done.
Mafabi stood stock still, motionless as they cut him. He was now a man. As he took his seat, he kept smiling at me because I had dared him on. He kept smiling at other people who had come to congratulate him too.
“I’ am now a real Mumasaba man. It was tough but it was worth going through it. My father went through it, you went through it, my brothers went through it and now I want my children to also go through it so that our cultural legacy as Bamasaba is maintained. I will go back to school however and continue my studies,” Mafabi said.

The Morning after the circumcision, Mafabi was given a formal lecture and instructions on his new role as a real man in Masaba society by his Mushebi (Surgeon), Kalidi Masaba.
During this purification ceremony, referred to as Khusabisa, Mafabi was reminded of what it takes to manifest real manhood (Busani Bubweene).
He was given a panga, hoe, circumcision knife and a fire stick.
He was told to use the objects properly and a socially productive way.

Three days after his circumcision, Mafabi performed the Khujenda Itsila ritual. Khujenda Itsila literally means walking the path.

During the ritual, Mafabi, now a Mufulu (newly initiated) was shown the routes to and from the home compound by the clan leader, Christopher Wangota.
“You should know the routes to walk on as a man. You are not a boy anymore. The routes you used before were meant for you then, not now,” Wangota stressed.

During the ritual, Mafabi carried a long stick with its bark peeled off.
The clan leader on the other hand carried a gourd of malwa, as he led the way. The clan leader kept blowing the malwa in different directions.
The symbolism was that he was chasing away evil spirits impeding the way.
Mafabi kept reciting a local song of victory, normally sung by initiates who complete Imbalu successfully.
The song indirectly mocks candidates who postponed their Imbalu and reminds all and sundry that Bamasaba are a race of circumcised men.

Whilst most of the rituals are symbolic, Candidates are required to behave and act like real men. They are expected to engage in mature role playing whether they go.
They are expected to leave their parent’s homes and build their own homes.
Marriage is a prospect to be considered too but because many of the candidates are circumcised young, it is always long odds, that happening.
Many of the candidates head back to school after healing.
Deep in the villages however, many circumcised candidates marry off and start performing manly roles.
On average, a candidate will heal within a period of a month and a few weeks.

Healed candidates as well are expected to go for the ritual of Khukhuyalula (hatching).
It normally takes place at the end of the circumcision year or calendar and involves the burning of the dry banana leaves on which the candidates slept on during seclusion as they made their intentions to get circumcised known.
Legend has it that this ritual is performed to dispense with the fifth associated with boyhood. It is also meant to transition the new initiates into a new society.
On the day of Khukhuyalula, each candidate’s hair is shaved off by their paternal aunt.
The initiates subsequently sing songs proclaiming that they have chased Businde (Boyhood).

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