Blood Brotherhood

The Batooro practiced blood brotherhood, but a man could also make blood brotherhood with a woman. The main ingredients of the ceremony included coffee berries, a new bark-cloth, a knife, two branches of a fig tree and sprouts of a grass called ejubwe.  Get a picture f this type of grass)

The climax of the ceremony involved making a cut just below the party’s navel, soaking the coffee berries in the oozing blood and each consuming the other blood stained coffee berries. Thereafter, the two blood brothers would take an oath to behave as real brothers in all respects. Two men and one old woman would usually act as witnesses to the occasion.

The two celebrants would pronounce the following words to each other during the ceremony:

“Brothers fight and shave each other; they cut each other’s nails; they beat each other and help each other. If you become dishonest to me your stomach will swell. When I come to you with a horrible disease, you will not send me away. When I come naked you will not send me away. When I come to your home, I will not go away hungry. We shall not do evil to each other, nor shall our children and clans.

Thereafter, the witnesses would affirm this brotherhood when need arose.