{"id":253,"date":"2020-01-05T00:32:21","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T00:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kalenjin.co.ke\/?p=253"},"modified":"2020-11-17T13:57:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T13:57:00","slug":"setyoot-mimulopsis-solmsii-a-blessing-or-a-curse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/?p=253","title":{"rendered":"Setyoot- Mimulopsis Solmsii: a blessing or a curse?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Flowering setyoot plant<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Many\nquestions have been asked on whether circumcision among the Kalenjin boys should\ncontinue or not when Mimulopsis plant, locally known as Setyoot<\/em> flowers. Many people in the Rift Valley grew up knowing\nthat when this plant flowers, no circumcision would take place in the Kalenjin\nnation. The reasons, however, are not clear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setyoot<\/em>\npossesses a unique yet a tantalizing aroma, second to none of the perfumes\nknown to man. It was believed that boys circumcised when this plant had\nflowered would end up trembling at the touch of arrows, which was the main tool\nthat was used in search of food and wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nwas the tradition of the millennium. Yet the philosophy behind this has never\nbeen known or has just been ignored. It has been spreading like a wild fire but\nno one holds with certainty the reason behind the thick black curtain of the\nKalenjin culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards\nthe end of June 2018, elders reported that the famous \u201cSetyoot\u201d plant as locally\nknown had flowered thus raising a lot of questions without lasting solutions to\nwhether circumcision would take place or not. We set on a mission to shed light\nto the puzzle during an exclusive interview with Pastor Joel arap Kimetto, an\nelder and a celebrated Kalenjin gospel musician. The explanation he gave is\nthat, when this plant flowers, bees suck nectar to make honey which sadly contains\ncertain toxic chemicals similar to the one contained in \u2018Changaa\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly,\nelders believed that honey obtained from this plant was too strong and\nunsuitable for human consumption because cases of feeble and sometimes\ntrembling at the touch of objects was reported. He added that it was believed\nthat chemicals abound in honey made from this plant would remain in the body\nforever and may cause problems later in life. Pastor Kimetto said that the\nplant itself is not a problem but the honey made by bees out of its nectar was\nbelieved to be a major problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\npersonally was initiated in 1969 when \u2018Setyoot\u2019 had flowered but look, I am a\nvery strong man\u201d Pastor Joel Kimetto said amidst a funny giggle shaking his\nentire body. The reason behind his fitness is that he was not fed with honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically,\nthe problem comes in when the initiates are fed with honey, which is not being\ndone presently. This was abandoned 50 years ago due to the emergence of the modern\neating habits that include tea, porridge, rice, ugali, meat and vegetables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kalenjin\nwanted strong men to defend their land hence the choice of honey as the main\nfood. Sharp and steady men were required. Men who would handle arrows and aim\nat the target without missing. Therefore, honey formed a critical component of\ntheir diet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor\nKimetto went ahead and expounded on another plant called \u201cKarabweet\u201d. Just like\n\u201cSetyoot\u201d, honey from this plant is said to paralyze the user for a day but\nrecovers when given cold water which acts as a neutralizing agent for the\npotency of the honey made from its flowers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nwas the philosophy as to why initiation never took place when this plant had\nflowered most recently in 1910, 1918 and later years as recorded by the\ncolonial officers. He added that \u201cSetyoot\u201d was not the only cause of evading circumcision\nfor a certain period of time among the Kalenjin community. There was so many\nfactors for instance, insecurity that resulted from inter- communal discords\ncaused by cattle rustling. Natural calamities like prolonged drought resulting\nin little or lack of food and honey were also some of the challenges. Also\nabsence of enough initiates due to low birth rate contributed by the fact that\nyoung men who were responsible for the population growth spent most of their\ntime outside their home looking for wealth and fighting for their lands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor\nKimetto said that the issue of \u201cSetyoot\u201d should not impede the initiates from\npassing the most important rite of passage. It worked back then but the emergence\nof modern feeding styles has rendered it meaningless. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many questions have been asked on whether circumcision among the Kalenjin boys should continue or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-and-arts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}