The Konkuran

There is a circumcision camp going on in Wurokang right now. As a girl, I don’t get to see much of anything, but there are certainly some noticeable changes in the village. The first day of the camp all the women in the village wore pants and danced. Scott went to the bush to see the boys and he said they were sitting under a mango tree nursing their wounds. He thought some were girls before they were wearing headscarves. He gave them cookies and they said a prayer. At night you can hear drums and see a bonfire going in the bush.
But the really noticeable change in the village is the entrance of the konkuran. Today, as I was walking back from Kwinella with Scott we saw a parade of drumming, clapping boys coming toward us. One of them was dressed all in straw and wielding machetes. Scott turns to me and says “Seriously, you might want to run.” And I do, along with all the other women outside their compounds. This is a serious run, not a little jog. People want to get home. When I got back to my compound the women were standing at the gate peeking out, but soon Kombe hustled us all into the women’s house and locked the door. When Fatou went outside into the backyard, she got yelled at. This is serious business. If the konkuran catches a woman, people say he will beat you unless you give him money. But in practice you never really know what to expect, and it’s not worth messing with.
The konkuran came through the village several other times, and even if it was dark or the middle of dinner, all activity stopped to go inside and lock the door.