How Bugisu's 'imbalu' tradition breeds teenage pregnancies

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New Vision is highlighting the challenge of teenage pregnancy in Uganda with a view to finding a solution to the problem that costs Ugandan taxpayers up to sh250b a year in healthcare. 

In the 11th of 12 series, Moses Nampala looks at how the annual circumcision ceremonies in the Elgon sub-region have escalated teenage pregnancies.

At 15, Jane (not real name) is a mother of a seven-month-old baby. The resident of Bungokho sub-county in Mbale district, remembers the day she got pregnant. 

It was on a fateful Sunday evening in February last year when the Senior Two dropout was washing plates after lunch, she suddenly heard a traditional circumcision (Imbalu) procession trail, led by a cultural drummer troupe Kadodi. 

Her parents’ house is on the edge of one of the village paths. So, it was not long before the kadodi procession passed by her parents’ house. 

“As the procession got closer to my parents’ home, the drummers picked pace, drumming at an irresistible fever-pitch rhythm,” she recalls. Jane abandoned the dishes and joined the trail, dancing away. 

Dr Assen Kamwesige

Two kilometres later, the darkness was getting thicker, Jane left the procession to return home. 

“Little did I know that an ill-intentioned strange male youth had been stalking me. I had barely covered 30 metres from the procession when my tormentor leapt on me and in a second, we were both crushing on the ground. 

I made frantic wails of distress, calling for help, as he molested me, but my pleas were unheard as my voice was muffled by the deafening kadodi procession.” 

Jane has since abandoned her childhood dream of becoming a nurse as life has never been the same after that incident. 

“To say that my parents are angry with me is to put it mildly. No day goes by without them shouting at me, threatening to chase me from home. They always ask that I show them the boy who made me pregnant, but I do not know him. 

I am drowning in worry. I do not know if their threat will eventually come to reality. Where shall I go with a fatherless child,” wonders Jane as tears well up in her eyes. 

Jane is not the only victim of defilement on the kadodi procession trail. Fourteen-year-old Caroline, a resident of Bushika sub-county in Bududa district, a Primary Seven dropout and a mother of a child, who is barely a month old, is another victim. 

The adolescent mother, who is still in hospital, can barely bend, sit, let alone walk without support of attendant. 

Lydia Birungi

She was delivered by caesarean section and her incision scar was festering. Caroline, like Jane, was defiled in 2022, the previous “imbalu year”.

She had joined the procession trail when a 19-year-old teenager from the neighbouring village, cornered and defiled her. The suspected culprit has since been apprehended after Caroline identified him.

What is 'Imbalu'? 

Imbalu is a traditional circumcision rite performed among the Bamasaba, an ethnic community that occupies the belt surrounding Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda. 

Imbalu, a ritual believed to be as old as this ethnic community, subjects all boys from 12 years and above to circumcision using locally made knives. 

“The essence of this compulsory ritual, performed every even year, is to initiate male teenagers into adulthood,” Gilades Namalome, a senior gender officer in the Inzu ya Bamasaba cultural institution, says. 

Elgon sub-region constitutes the Mbale, Manafwa, Sironko, Bududa, Namisindwa, Bulambuli and Bududa districts. Imbalu takes place every even year. 

It rans from January to December 31. According to Namalome, the year of circumcision is celebrated by a drumming procession locally called kadodi. 

The term is derived from a set of drums of varying size made specifically for that ceremony. Each drum has a unique sound. When skillfully beaten, the sounds from the drums sound far and wide. 

Averagely, a kadodi troupe can be heard in a radius of between a kilometre or two.

There are thousands of imbalu (traditional circumcisions) processions punctuated with kadodi drummer troupes throughout Elgon sub-region and beyond the national boundaries (western Kenya). 

“Among the Bamasaba, it is a taboo for bystanders, irrespective of age or sex, to passively watch, a kadodi procession pass by without joining in the flurry.

Girls at high risk  

Traditional circumcision (imbalu) years have yielded enormous cases of defilement and adolescent pregnancies, according to Dr Barnabus Rubanza, the Uganda Police regional surgeon. 

“Girls, irrespective of their age, have been the most vulnerable during the kadodi procession,” he adds. 

Rubanza

The impact is usually felt from the midst of the festive year (June/July) up to April of the subsequent year. 

“During that time, I examine about 360 girls per month, which is more than three-fold the number of cases I register in years when there is no circumcision,” Rubanza observes. 

Eighty percent of the 360 cases registered at the regional Police surgeon wing are aged between 14 and 17 years old, Rubanza says. Twenty percent of the victims are girls below the age of 14, he adds. 

In many cases, these girls are also pregnant, Dr Rubanza observes. “Experience has shown that most parents/guardian of the victim have formally reported and taken the victims for examination to the Police surgeon just to strengthen their side of the bargain with families/relatives of the suspect,” Rubanza observes. 

Some cases are not reported because victims cannot identify the culprits. While in some cases, the culprits are known but flee to neighbouring Kenya.

Challenges the girls face  

Rubanza observes that the challenges the victims suffer do not end with being defiled and made pregnant, but they also get sexually transmitted infections. 

“Thirty percent of these teenage girl victims are usually nursing grave symptoms of urinary tract infections,” Rubanza says. 

Dr Assen Kamwesige of the obstetrics and gynaecology department in Mbale Hospital, says peak moments in the wing start in June every imbalu year. 

“Eight out of the 10 girls regularly registered are victims that had an unsafe abortion,” Kamwesige says. 

During peak months, the obstetrics and gynaecology department registers, on average, four cases of incomplete abortions. 

A child born by a teenage mother.

“Many of these victims come when their internal organs are not only gravely damaged, but are also rotting due to crude methods of abortion, ranging from herbs, bicycle spokes, wires, sticks and long thorns. 

“The majority have recuperated, with the exception of those that were brought to the hospital late,” Kamwesige says. 

Cases of adolescents that get pregnant during the imbalu season come to the hospital when they are six to eight months, Kamwesige says.

According to Kamwesige, the pelvic bones of girls aged 14-17 are taut (inelastic) to make a natural adjustment and allow for a vaginal birth, which results in referring them to a caesarean section.

Lack of social support  

Another challenge young mothers face, Dr Kamwesige says, is lack of social support. 

Many of these girls have been chased from home by their parents and are in many cases seeking refuge at the homes of equally young helpless friends. 

“Before delivery, many barely have a fabric to receive the newborn. What is so disheartening is that about 70% of these teenage mothers do not know the boys/men that defiled them. At times we are compelled to dig into our pockets to help the girls buy basic requirements.” 

Way forward 

The challenge of teenage pregnancy in Elgon sub-region needs a multi-dimensional approach that requires educating the community on the need to protect the girl-child. 

Laxity among parents and guardians at household level has been blamed for the unfortunate trend, according to the officer in charge Child Family Protection Unit (CFPU) in the Elgon region, Lydia Birungi. 

To mitigate this, the CFPU has embarked on a spirited campaign against this laxity. 

“We are educating parents and guardians during radio talk shows to be vigilant on girls in their custody during traditional circumcision. Experience has it the male fraternity in the imbalu procession are intoxicated by alcohol, among other intoxicating substances,” Birungi says. 

Parents/guardians are being implored during the talk shows to revive family basic sex/ reproductive health education session. 

A cross-section of teenage girls. Some had just delivered, while others are in advanced stage of pregnancy at a public health unit in the Elgon sub-region.

“Majority of teenage girls in teenage hardly know that a single unprotected sexual intercourse is catastrophic as it could yield conception,” stresses the CFPU boss. 

Birungi says persistence in talk shows on local FM radio stations is slowly but steadily changing the mindset of the parents/ guardians. 

CFPU is partnering with probation officers of respective districts to discourage girl children from instances that could lure them into getting tempted to give in to unprotected sex. 

Other subjects tackled during interfaces with learners at schools include basic sex education. 

Both Dr Barnabus Rubanza, the Uganda Police regional surgeon and Dr Assen Kamwesige of the obstetrics and gynaecology department in Mbale Hospital, argue that there is need to establish a robust counselling structure in communities and at health utilities as majority of the victims endure distress, punctuated with constant scolding and at times with physical assault from their angry parents/guardians. 

The officer in charge of crime for the Elgon Region, Mifon Birungi, says suspects have been apprehended and charged accordingly. 

“The biggest challenge been families of the victim colluding with that of the suspected offender to settle the matter out of court,” the regional crime boss observes. 

Mifon regrets that in most cases, the two parties have done this under arbitration of local council officials. 

“However, the establishment of intelligence scouts among the community has very often volunteered information. The conspiring parties have been too been arrested and charged with conspiracy to procure defilement, among others,” Mifon says. 

In some cases, local council authorities have been compromised by families of the suspected offender, taking advantage of ignorance of parents of the victim. 

Namalome says: “The institution is drafting stringent bylaws aimed at protecting the girl-child during imbalu.

This story was produced with support from WAN-IFRA, Women In News, Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) grant. 

However, the views are not those of the sponsors.

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