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| Title: | The Heartbeat and Rhythm of Life: The Cardinal Points in the Socio-Cultural Construction of Bukusu Personhood |
| Author: | Nangendo, Stevie Moses |
| Year: | 1998 |
| Periodical: | Nordic Journal of African Studies |
| Volume: | 7 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 39-62 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Kenya |
| Subjects: | Bukusu initiation death rites Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://njas.fi/njas/article/view/656/478 |
| Abstract: | The majority of the Bukusu, a subgroup of the larger Luyia supra community, live in the Bungoma and Trans Nzoia Districts of western Kenya, as well as in the Bugishu and Sebei Districts of Uganda. The major argument of this paper is that during the enactment of certain rituals the cardinal points are used as internal and cultural interpretations of the Bukusu universe. This cultural interpretation provides the Bukusu with symbolic and historical statements about their own common experience as an ethnically defined entity. The author believes that this common Bukusu experience and ethnicity is significantly intensified and made most explicitly forceful during the enactment of two important male rituals. The first of these is circumcision ('sikhebo') and the second is the 'kumuse' mortuary ritual for elderly male individuals, who are thought the achieved the highest degree of personhood. This personhood can only be achieved by males and it accumulates in the body after circumcision as the indvidual grows older. During circumcision and the 'kumuse' the four cardinal points are used as a bridge where human and non-human universes intersect. Each of the cardinal directions invokes and addresses itself to a wide spectrum of notions in the belief system of the Bukusu. Bibliogr. |
