Sunday, July 19, 2009

Festivals

So Saturday we went to a festival called Evala. It is where the boys from the ages 16 to 18 wrestle. It is an initiation rite. The boys go away from their families for about a week in a special hut and prepare to wrestle. Before the wrestling they go on a pilgrimage which involves climbing three mountains; those who do not complete it are not initiated into adulthood. Although the wrestlers are initiated whether they win or not, it is considered shameful of the family of the wrestler. The last of these initiation rites is circumcision. Which happens after all the wrestling is completed. To me this sounds like something you would read in national geographic and how awesome is it that I got to and experience this first hand! This is such a big deal to the people of Kabiye because the president came and he is from Kabiye ( which is where I am living) There are 'cheerleaders' who welcome him in by standing along the road and chanting. The younger men and older men all dance around in a chant together and cheer on their village. They put white chalk mainly on their heads and do the same to the wrestlers. ( I have pictures of this all over my facebook!) Before the ceremony can began, the president has to approve of the chanting and cheerleading, once he claps it is 'safe' for everyone else to clap as well. When the fighting begins, it is VERY exciting! There is one referee and 5 pairs of two people fighting. So at the most there are ten people fighting. People tend to get very mad if you do not respect the rules laid down. To win you must have your opponent on the ground flat on his back or belly. If the ref does not see it he will make them go again. Once a red team hit a white team for behind, which respectively you are not supposed to do, and the whole village tried to come out and defend him. Oh and another thing there are army/police EVERYWHERE controlling the crowd. All in all it was a great experience and fun to par take in as a tourist. This is so well known that people from France come and watch it. So you tend to see more white people around this time of the year.

There is also a younger women initiation going on. The women have a tradition that they get naked and run to the top of a mountain. The people in the towns do not take it as literally as the people in the surrounding villages. The girls usually dress in a bra and a short skirt. You see, the story goes that the young girls get naked run to the top of the mountain and sit on a rock, where a snake comes out and he can tell if they are virgins or not. If they are not a swarm of bees chases them to their villages where everyone obviously knows and they are humiliated. There was a guard of one of the missionaries a few years back and his daughter was going through this initiation. However instead of her getting naked and running around, they through her a party and had the missionaries pray over her and tell her words of encouragement. They still the traditional dance and songs, they were just fully dressed. I think that it is really neat that a family can take traditions like that and make it modest and glorifying to God. 

Well I think I am going to hit the hay, it is 11:30 here and I have to get up at 7 to meet a man about a carving!

Thank you so much for showing interest in my life over here and for all of your prayers!
In Him
Abbie

2 comments:

  1. This all sounds so exciting! Now I'm bored here in this house. Maybe I'll go invent some interesting ritual for Mariah's initiation into pre-K.

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