The Misleading Call for Circumcision
By
Otieno Mbare, PhD (Research Fellow)

I would not have ventured into this sensitive debate if it did not have direct consequences for my children, the posterity of the Luo nation and other non-circumcising communities around the world. However, the debate has been fueled following a research that was carried out by some researchers in Kenya and Uganda and; consequently published in January 2008 in the BJU International. Had it not acquired political overtones that sought to authenticate an otherwise a lop-sided research whose methodology, validity, plausibility and veracity are in doubt, I would have not wasted my precious time debating it.

Yet, this issue touches on the very nerves of the communities that are not practicing circumcision. It is an old time debate that has been misguidedly used to show cultural superiority and supremacy among different communities. The same argument has sadly been used to stigmatize, lower the image and undermine the culture of the Luo community. Scientific research as evidenced in the Mexico conference has rejected that line of thinking as a dead-end research. It will further give a false hope that a cure has finally arrived albeit with devastating consequences to our society.

It is therefore surprising that none other than my friend Hon. Raila Odinga (no disrespect intended!), who has suffered the wrath of these cultural purists, was the one who went out prescribing the new medicine for the “uncut”. This happened a few days after receiving with his in-laws from central Kenya. I will not question Hon. Odinga’s wisdom but this is a very sensitive cultural issue that a person of his standing in Luoland and Kenya in particular, cannot afford to discuss it casually they way he did. I understand people have started saying derogatively that “Luoland sasa ni kichinjoni” because the PM has said so! The endorsement for circumcision in the Luo nation is totally unacceptable!

I don’t intend to argue here that our culture is pure and superior. But, let me make it clear that there are certain cultural practices that need to be eradicated without legislation. Practices such as inheriting someone’s wife whose husband, probably died of aids and, other promiscuous habits. These are issues that have to be addressed and develop a common position not only for one community, but for the entire society. Abstention and regular use of the condom is the sure way out of the current HIV quagmire. This is what elected leaders should be advocating instead advocating for something which is meant to demean and portray our culture as inferior!

It is for this reason that most members of the community have felt provoked by an assault directed at our culture. Yet, the research is so hollow that there is no knowing whether the sample group and the control group had been subjected to a full-blown situation to validate their research finding! I do not want to dispute circumcision for those who are practicing it for it is seen as a rite of passage marking a boy’s entrance into adulthood. Sometimes it was performed as a means of suppressing sexual pleasure,  or used as an aid to hygiene where regular bathing was impractical. At other times, it is performed as a means of differentiating a circumcising group from their non-circumcising neighbors, as a means of discouraging  masturbation, or to increase a man’s attractiveness to women, or as a symbolic castration.

The Luos have since used and abandoned other cultural practices that marks the passage of a boy to adulthood. We have refused to embrace circumcision for various reasons; First, circumcision is not part of our culture. It is foreign! Second, our other objection which is supported by the existing literatures and research is that circumcision changes physical sensitivity in the penis of a man.

A 2007 study funded by an organization which opposes circumcision, and published in the journal BJU International, found a difference in fine touch sensitivity between men who were circumcised and those who were uncircumcised (such that circumcised men had less sensitivity to fine touch in all but one area of the penis). This same study also compared the sensitivity thresholds at various points on the penis and concluded that the most sensitive part of the uncircumcised penis was more sensitive than the most sensitive parts of the circumcised penis. The authors argue that the parts of the penis removed by circumcision represent the most sensitive parts of the penis.

Similarly, in a poll conducted by an anti-circumcision organization, 61% of men who were circumcised as infants reported decreased sensation over time, which they report resulted in sexual dysfunction.

And recently, a study by DaiSik Kim and Myung-Geol Pang on the “The effect of male circumcision on sexuality” found there was a decrease in masturbatory pleasure and sexual enjoyment after circumcision, indicating that adult circumcision adversely affects sexual function in many men, possibly because of complications of the surgery and a loss of nerve endings. I do not want to speculate that  some high-level conspiracy has been hatched to render Luo men dysfunctional. I will simply stick to the issue which can be corroborated through the overwhelming existing body of knowledge concerning the matter at hand.

Let me further buttress my argument by citing Erickson Paige 1978 article The Ritual of Circumcision, where she writes: “In the United States, the original reason for the surgical removal of the foreskin, or prepuce, was to control ‘masturbatory insanity’ (what the Luo would call, thelo-oyuma!) – the range of mental disorders that people believed were caused by the ‘polluting’ practice of ‘self-abuse.'”

And here, she describes “Self-abuse” as a terminology commonly used to describe masturbation in the 19th century. According to Paige, “treatments ranged from diet, moral exhortations, hydrotherapy, and marriage, to such drastic measures as surgery, physical restraints, frights, and punishment.
But how was this conundrum conceived in the bible. Because the Luo nation have always followed the bible and what was bequeathed to them by Ramogi at Go-Kwer! The scriptures, which my late father, Jakwath Festo Mbare made his constant book of reference says that the Council of Jerusalem in Acts of the Apostles 15 addressed the issue of whether circumcision was required of new converts to Christianity. Both Simon Peter and James spoke against requiring circumcision in Gentile converts and the Council ruled that circumcision was not necessary.

However, Acts 16 and many references in the Letters of Paul show that the practice was not immediately eliminated. Paul of Tarsus, who was said to be directly responsible for one man’s circumcision in Acts 16:1-3 and who appeared to praise Jewish circumcision in Romans 3:2, said that circumcision didn’t matter in 1 Corinthians 7:19 and then increasingly turned against the practice, accusing those who promoted circumcision of wanting to make a good showing in the flesh and boasting or glorying in the flesh in Galatians 6:11-13. In a later letter, Philippians 3:2, he is reported as warning Christians to beware the “mutilation”. These teachings and others reinforces the very beliefs we have upheld as a community.

Finally, the American Academy of Pediatrics (1999) stated “There are anecdotal reports that penile sensation and sexual satisfaction are  decreased for circumcised males”. Boyle et al. stated that “the genitally intact male has thousands of fine touch receptors and other highly erogenous nerve endings—many of which are lost to circumcision. They concluded, “Evidence has also started to accumulate that male circumcision may result in lifelong physical, sexual, and sometimes psychological harm as well.”

The caveat that I have to express is that circumcision has not, and will never be part of our culture. Who ever want to do it is free to do so without involving the community. But if you get circumcised, know that they are amputating your foreskin. One should be informed that the sensitivity that you feel, not only in that skin, but the surrounding tissues, including the glands, will be drastically affected and diminished.

Researchers also allege that not only are the nerve endings gone with the foreskin, but remaining nerve endings are severed, blood flow permanently disrupted, and the shaft skin will be tight, possibly painfully tight. Several months after this, the sensitivity remaining will begin to fade, and will continue to do so. The warning to our people is, “Circumcision will damage your penis and your sexual ability;  that’s what it does”.

Even the British Medical Association has reported that “there is significant disagreement about whether circumcision is overall a beneficial, neutral or harmful procedure. At present, the medical literature on the health, including sexual health, implications of circumcision is contradictory, and often subject to claims of bias in research.”[

This is my position on the current debate on circumcision! Please,   disseminate!

Otieno Mbare

http://www.abo.fi/~ombare/Kasipul-Kabondo%20Musiikki.wma

Otieno Mbare, D.Sc.(Econ. & B.Adm)
Ã…bo Akademi University
Institute for Advance Management Systems Research
Lemminkäinengatan 14
Office location: Kulturhuset, Fabriksgatan 7A 1
Tel. +358 2 2154 976 (Off) +358 40 5341 996
http://iamsr.abo.fi
Email: Otieno.Mbare@abo.fi, awachtin@yahoo.com
20520 Ã…BO
Finland

      “Assertion is not argument; to contradict the statement of an opponent is not proof that you are correct.”

–  Samuel Johnson (English lexicographer, critic, and poet, 1709-1784)

People who live on borrowed culture often go to extremes that their models and mentors had never intended. Varindra Tarzie Vittachi  (1921 – ), Sri-Lankan born writer

– – –
Date:  Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:23:33 -0400
From:  “Dr. Otieno Mbare”
Subject:  The Misleading Call for Circumcision!
Date:  Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:57:49 +0300

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Daktari Mbare:
Well stated and written, but I have to disagree with your premise and consequently the conclusion of your argument.  If we are going to argue the validity of circumcision let it be on scientific ground, cultural ground is very slippery.  I do agree with you there is research that refutes the significance of circumcision and its anti – AIDS benefit, but maybe it is time to “err” on the side of saving lives. 

Culture is humanly created and there is nothing sacrosanct about any of the practices. I reject the assumed cultural staticity of the Luo which is at the heart of your argument.  You have assumed something called the cultural “Luo nation”, which somehow has agreed, accepted, collective practices and laws.  Students of Luo history will point out that the Kenyan Luo like other Kenyan groups are “mutts” [to put it politely] – made of sub-nations some who trace their roots outside the Luo, ex. the Kano Sidho were Kisii, Kamagambo have Maasai blood, Suba were Bagandas, Kasagam  related to the Abasikaami of Bunyore, half of Yimbo traces its lineage to pre-Luo Bantu clan etc. etc.**  My point is that these groups abandoned their practices and introduced others, and they have evolved over time into Luos.  Some of the Suba – still practice circumcision,  yet they are Luos by any other definition.   There is nothing inherently sacred or permanent about cultural practices – we are the ones who make them so. Indeed, it was the Kalenjin who introduced the Luhya – Wanga to circumcision, for example.  Yet if you follow the current Kenyan news you would think they were born to be circumcised from time immemorial.

 You will be suprised to discover that some of the so called Luo practices that you might hold dear were actually originally Bantu or completely foreign [ did you not say your father was a Christian,  a very non- Luo religion?]
In relation, as the Luo migrated towards their current homeland they ran into lockjaw among other ailments.  In turn they started the practice of removing the lower six teeth.  This in turn evolved into a cultural rite of passage, which lately has been largely discarded partly because it has no use with the arrival of modern medicine.   

As for the pleasurability issue, it seems to boil down to either have pleasure and face risk, OR little pleasure and reduce the risk.  To me this is the least of concern for a province  that has 15% HIV rate, and 25% in some fishing locales like Homa Bay.
In my view, I would rather we err on the side of safety.

With all apologies to Marx:
“Luos of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but our foreskins.”
Ochieng’ K’Olewe

On Luo history:
H. Ayot: A History of the Abasuba
John Osogo: A History of the Baluyia
Ogot: History of the Southern Luo
Ochieng: The Transformation of a Bantu Settlement into a Luo Ruothdom: A Case Study of the Evolution of the Yimbo Community in Nyanza up to A.D. 1900″;
Mr. Speaker Sir, “…We are not going to deal with political and electoral fraudsters, masquerading and exercising illegally the executive authority of this nation”
“Simba” Ababu Namwamba

– – –
Date:  Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:32:24 -0700 (PDT)
From:  ochieng o
Subject:   Re: Press Release – The Misleading Call for Circumcision!

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Otieno

Your point on circumcision is well corroborated, however, there is a need for further work on this as the currently documented clinical findings available in the public domain are littered with a lot of subjective information.  The medics are right to emphasise the need for circumcision as one of the options available to reduce incidence of new infections but it is not the main and only solution.   It should be an individual matter whether to be cut or not.  I know a few  circumcised Luo friends of mine who did it for their own reasons but were not impressed upon by community leaders or politicians to do it.

It is true that statistics show that Nyanza Province has come out badly in terms of HIV/AIDS infections.  This could be due to a number of reasons rather than being uncircumcised.  Our leaders are right to contribute to this debate but Luo community should be addressing such cultural practices which may excerbate the proliferation of the epidemic such as the age-old ritual of wife inheritance. 

Dickson Aduonga

– – –
Date:  Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:43:51 +0100 (GMT+01:00)
From:  “dick.aduonga@ . . .
Subject:   Re: Press Release – The Misleading Call for Circumcision!

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Otieno Mbare,
 
I find your article quite detailed and corraborative with opinions already expressed. I propose that we can develop an article devoid of partisan opinions but focussing on facts about HIV/AIDS including detailed scientific knowledge about the efficacy of circumsion or otherwise to confirm to ALL KENYANS that they must not be duped by anybody, political or medical, to believe that circumcission has anything to do with CONTROL of HIV/AIDS.
 
Whereas it may reduce the chance of getting the virus (becuase it adapts the penile tissues to abrassive forces and hence reduces risk of tissue injury, and hence full exposue to the viral particle during intercourse ), it is not scientifically tested and verified method. Evidence exist even in Kenya to indicate that HIV/AIDS is affecting all circumcised or not with equal measure. Nyanza’s proximity to AIDS ravaged Southern Africa is responsible for the high incidences coupled with some backward cultural practices like professional wife inheritence, and stupid myths like “EVEN A COW DIES WITH GRASS IN ITS MOUTH” etc
 
It MUST NOT therefore be introduced as a control method if the people involved know what the word CONTROL means. It can only be encouraged outside the control doctrine.
 
I propose that we conribute funds and have the document (1 to 2 pages) circulated in the print media and radio for 2 to 7 days asserting the true position backed by facts and let someone with contrary proof table it. Otieno you could redo the paper but direct it to the larger Kenyan audience not just Luos! I don’t know how much it would cost but we can find out. This is a matter of life and death. Why? Because I know so many poeple who are circumcised and have been infected and are at various stages of the disease. So what rubbish is this? Why must Kenyans and their leaders get so engrossed in none starter issues like this one!
 
The time to act is now before fellow Kenyans loose their gaurd and jump into this deadly ship to oblivion
 
Time is of essence
 
Sebastian Onyango

– – –
Date:  Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:32:58 -0700 (PDT)
From:  Sebastian Onyango
Subject:   Call for Circumcision! We must counter this deadly propaganda immediately