DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2015.v03i03.025

Pages: 763-769

Initiation among the Bukusu community in Kenya, which involves a ritual called khulicha, is fundamental to human growth and development. Initiation involves undergoing a set of rites to start a new phase in life. It fundamentally has to do with transformation; and has been a central component of African cultures. The ritual khulicha is a highly respected and well organised ritual in Bukusu community performed after circumcision or the healing period. In this ritual, boys are initiated into the secret ways of the community by male facilitators. Women and girls are not supposed to know the secrets of the community. The boys are specially instructed on the expectations of the community during khulicha. They are assigned duties so that in the absence of the father, they can take over the leadership of the family. They must not, after initiation, be seen performing ‘female chores’. Through this ritual, the male members become weavers of hegemonic masculinity’s fabric and its organising intellectuals. They create, regulate and perpetuate cultural ideals that stabilise a structure of male dominance and female oppression in community. The dominant position of men and subordination of women in the society requires a critical investigation; and thus was the task of the study from which this article was obtained. Using the Discourse Historical Approach, which is a theory and an analytical tool, the study sought to establish how hegemonic masculinities self-manifest in khulicha ritual; identify the cultural ideologies that trivialise women and, the reasons for the exclusion of women in the khulicha ritual. The findings revealed that discriminatory and cultural ideologies that trivialise women do exist in the Bukusu khulicha ritual.