Muganda man faces the knife in Imbalu ritual

A Muganda welder working in Mbale town in Eastern Uganda was on Saturday circumcised by a group of Bamasaba 'culturists' after he accepted to face the knife during the Imbalu initiation rituals.

Robert Ssentongo from the Nkima (monkey) clan who works in a garage near Mpologoma Street in Mbale town was carried shoulder high around Mbale town by fellow youth as they drummed and chanted cultural songs.

They went on announcing his acceptance to people along the streets, taxi and bus parks and branched off to the markets, shops and supermarkets as they chanted his name.

Onlookers, women and men donated money to the young man who had been already smeared with cassava flour and kept on approving his boldness, telling everyone that he was ready to face the knife in a foreign culture instead of the hospital operation.

The ceremony finally took place at the Mpologoma Garage at about 4pm and was followed by ululations.

Richard Mubene, a news vendor and a Munyole by tribe said that he had also undergone the same initiation, which he said ends on December 31.

He said that Ssentongo had accepted the Imbalu on his own, giving various reasons including improving his personal hygiene and to 'become part of the Bagisu' culture.

Mubene said many non-Bagishu were accepting the culture in order to 'live safe' in the area, saying 'one remains an alien once is not circumcised'.

"I have been working here but to live safe and avoid being ambushed or harassed by some extremists, I accepted and I was also circumcised" he said.

He added that there was a group that goes around convincing non-Bagishu to accept the rite but those who refuse are sometimes persuaded into accepting.

"Here, you either go to hospital and you are circumcised or accept to undergo the traditional process" he said.

Imbalu is an important cultural norm among the Bamasaba, conducted in even years where young boys aged 14 and 17 years are initiated into adulthood by facing the knife.

Some traditional advocates want the Imbalu to be turned into a tourist attraction.