ABSTRACT
When an initiate has discarded his ritual hair and becomes a novice moran, he is referred to as a 'shaved male' (olbarnoti). It is within a father's grasp to deny his son moranhood. Once the circumcision fire has been kindled, no further promotions of this kind are possible, and the normal course is then for initiates to become moran and to achieve a certain independence from their fathers. The manyata posse can be seen as a display of physical power at three levels. It re-establishes territorial boundaries within and beyond Matapato. It proclaims that the new age-set hold the central arena of moranhood. And it highlights the formal rupture of the paternal yoke. In other words it may be seen as a ritual of rebellion against the father, vividly illustrated in some of the more melodramatic accounts of fathers who have been forcibly put in their place.
