Embedding pain in memory: Instigating amaXhosa manhood

Introduction

Writing as an autochthon on amaXhosa circumcision in the 1970s, Ngxamngxa was exceptional in describing a detailed rite of passage, thereby breaking a taboo on silence. Having both a personal and an academic perspective, he cautiously addressed an initiate’s acute pain stating it was not mystical but felt and endured. He argued that injury was intentionally inflicted by the circumciser so initiates could learn to survive pain, whilst conducting themselves in a culturally appropriate, manful manner.

“In terms of the pain”, Andile explained, “there is a perception in urban areas that the older you are the more you have the means to manage pain. In rural areas, you are younger, and you heal faster. Men are meant to undergo the pain

Andile affirms Ngxamngxa’s comment: “The logic is not to do with pain but the responsibilities of manhood. The perception is that the world is changing and where you care it is your responsibility as a man to provide". Andile’s comment echoes Ngxamngxa’s illustrating an amaXhosa discourse on engendering in wounding for the embedding of pain. This rationale advocates that a youth must learn to manage pain to heal his body and psyche. Structured cognitively in circumcision into his personal response this accords with cultural expectations of how men should behave in pain and conflict. Whilst circumcision instantiates manhood for the amaXhosa, they acknowledge that the wider world is ever changing and a man must adapt to this. I begin by describing how this cultural ritual orchestrates the infliction of pain for an initiate to learn how to assimilate painful feelings bodily and psychologically.

It is officials’ purposeful infliction of a wound, simultaneously with ritualistic behaviour and symbolic action that embeds resilient behaviour in youth. To understand this complex phenomenon, I rely on Lakoff & Johnson’s (2008) concept of metaphor. Metaphor in circumcision signifies culturally inscribed indicators with deeply embedded symbolic and psychic meaning. Instantiated in memory and spoken word, metaphor interrelates images, as internalised symbols with external artefacts. In a circular effect, metaphor then describes lived experience into memory and discourse, motivating engendered action. I would argue that pain has a dual purpose; it is the central metaphor for amaXhosa manhood, but it also centres an orthodox practice. Orthodoxy happens in the infliction of a painful injury which leaves the penis scarred and the mind wounded. Never to be forgotten, the personal moment of circumcision is then instantiated for each youth in personal and, by repetition, cultural memory. Thus, as illustrated by Andile, the circumciser wounds each youth to engender behaviour for manhood across peers. The circumcising of every male generation in perpetuity, sustains an orthodoxy for gender-described behaviour. The power of metaphor is shown even if this sequence of events is inverted; orthodoxy orchestrates the wounding of youth believed to have the physical and psychic capacity to become men.

Gasa (2003) argues that ‘the cut’ is not the defining moment in circumcision, it instigates a cognitive shift that is absolute in determining a man’s life and his social relationships. As the initiate learns to endure the pain, obey the rules, engage with his peers and mentors, and observe the injunctions of the circumciser then healing is instantiated in the body of the man and in an amaXhosa social body. Xhosa youth do not become men men by the cut; rather manhood is achieved in a lifetime’s journey of becoming. Ironically, in becoming, the initiate dresses his wound to break the agony whilst, crucially, denying the hurt. I have used Xhosa men’s narratives to explore this complex conjunction of metaphor, pain, and healing in circumcision and describe how it inscribes gendered identity. Their testimonies illustrate the transformative nature of felt pain. Culturally manipulated in ritual, feelings of pain begin as acute but change during the seclusion to chronic pain. Healing affirms their emerging identities and the inner strength to surmount it. This attitude manifests as resilience in their coming out. My description has artifice in linking pain in circumcision to the instigating of Bourdieu’s (1984) cognitive and behavioural distinctions in initiates. I therefore link different perceptions of pain to the stages in the ritual event and this conforms to the literature. Of note, is that for this to have its effect, the rite of passage must function to form at each stage, for each initiate, and have a definitive entry and exit point. It is the circumciser, fathers and mentors who teach initiates to refrain from expressing feelings of pain and instead embody silence.

Pain in circumcision is deliberately inflicted so that behind the circumcised youth, stands the circumciser, his proficiency and how this will manifest in the specifics of his cut (Peltzer et al., 2008; Matshoba, 2014). The cut bestows the physical and psychological outcome for the youth, marking his passage forward in terms of self, his family’s social response to him, the nature of his future wife and their inclusion in his community. Indeed, the cut will determine exactly how he re-enters his home and his future strength as a new man. The scar marks him for life, not just as a circumcised man but sexually in his prowess and performance. Including the circumcisers in a discussion on pain, shifts the focus from the initiate’s felt pain to an official infliction of the

Embedding pain in memory 99 wound. When placed side-by-side, pain becomes phenomenal as reciprocity in action and happening in conscious and unconscious action. Perceptions of pain are incorporated into metaphor, indelibly linking all actors in the ritual event. Older Xhosa men, for example, know this injury and its felt effect, but do not see this as harm because they remember a constructed wounding and healing. Knowingly, they watch over their sons, careful that their response is to him, not as a youth, but a new man.