RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972260.TIF
Mbuti boys endure whippings during a puberty ritual.
After several months in the Ituri Forest, Pygmy boys learn skills to survive on their own. They hunt, fish and learn to read the forest. On the last day of the nKumbi, whipping is more severe and includes a ceremony where the boys are secluded within a phalanx of men. They are met halfway thru the village with women carrying whips and a melee ensues–the intent is to control the destiny of the child.
The women want the boy to stay a boy and the men want the boy to be acknowledged as a man.
- Copyright
- RANDY OLSON
- Image Size
- 10000x6667 / 190.8MB
- Keywords
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africa, african tribal peoples, circumcision, customs, democratic republic of the congo, ethnic and tribal peoples, forests and forestry, habitats and ecosystems, ituri forest, mbuti pygmy tribespeople, medical examination and treatment, peoples, puberty rites, pygmy tribespeople, rain forests, religion, religious rites, surgery, tribal customs, whips, zaire
- Contained in galleries
- Ituri Forest Pygmy_National Geographic Magazine 9/2005
