Explorer goes through agonising tribal ritual, but is mortified after finding out what it was actually for

AN explorer underwent a pain-staking ritual only to discover its symbolism afterwards, leaving him feeling rather mortified. Mike Corey documents his travel experiences with videos on his YouTube channel Fearless & Far, having visiting countries across all the continents and immersing himself in their cultures.

In his most recent video, titled Getting my NOSE PIERCED by Grumpy Tribal Grandmas, Corey meets the BaTonga tribe, who are based in rural northern Zimbabwe.

The Tongas can trace their origins back to Central Africa, having arrived in Zimbabwe around 300AD.

Upon arriving in the village, he decided to undergo one of the tribe's rites of passage, which he has done on previous other adventures for his 2,54 million subscribers.

Corey chose to get his septum pierced with no anaesthetic, using nothing but a thorn as a needle.

He even hand-picked his thorn, being torn between whether a small or a large thorn would hurt him more.

Explaining his final decision, he said: “These are acacia thorns. They grow in the bushes here and this is how they do the piercings.”

He then proceeded to have a “delicious” local lunch of mushy porridge and okra, before being held down by the village grandmas as they attempted to pierce his nose with the thorn.

It did not go through as smoothly as planned though, as the grandma spent around 15 minutes twisting the thorn through his septum.

Unfortunately, it did not go all the way through, only half going through.

He then revealed after the process: “After the fact, I realised through conversation that this is a rite of passage for young girls going through puberty and preparing to marry their husband — that’s what we did today.”

Corey continued: “Sometimes you make mistakes when you travel, and there’s things lost in communication. So I now have a rite of passage for a teenage girl. But still, I feel like I grew up a little.”

I guess he did push himself well out of his comfort zone with the full experience!

But surely he could have double checked the meaning of the ritual?

Either way, Corey ended the video by celebrating with the BaTonga tribe, who were very welcoming of him as he said the grandmas were 'not as grumpy as they looked'.

Maybe we should all push ourselves to this extent when we go on our next holidays.—