Kadodi Experiences
2024 December
I had already seen Kadodi parades in Mbale and marching by my house in early evenings since moving to the Mbale region in September. These were only a preliminary act for the days-long Kadodi gatherings that I have seen this first week of December and I have been assured by various people it will continue to intensify until December 31.
Family support on Kadodi parade
For each boy that is to be circumcised, there are days of preliminary marching in the village and throughout the district. The parades vary in size until the day before the circumcision, then suddenly family members from out of town start to arrive and the intense partying begins. Families and neighbors of all ages drink around the clock, party music blares through large speakers pulsating all night before the circumcision, then on the day of the circumcision there are a few more parades before the cut. At the actual circumcision, men and women press against each other to witness the cut, dancing and laughing together once the circumcision is complete.