FAMILY AND COMMUNITY PRACTICES OF 17 AFRICAN TRIBES
Courtship, marriage, the birth of a child — these and other
rites of passage and milestones are celebrated around the world in different
ways. Here are some family and community practices of 10 African tribes.
1. Wooed by The Wodaabe, Niger
The men of the Wodabe — a North Nigerien tribe and a subgroup of the larger
Fulani people — decorate their faces and accentuate their bone structure with
colored clay for the annual Gerewol courtship ceremony. They apply black
eyeliner and lipstick, and stick ostrich plumes in their hair. The ceremony
precedes the rains that relieve the dry season in the Sahara. It also is a time
for pairing up. With the women serving as judges, the dolled-up guys line up
and enact a series of facial movements and sounds including eye rolling, tongue
clicking and teeth baring. Wodaabe men typically have one primary child-bearing
wife and three other partners.
2. Lobolo and the Wedding Payment,
Lobolo or lobola (roughly translated to “bride price”), is the practice of
the groom offering a money to the bride’s father, in exchange for her hand in
marriage. It’s a traditional custom among Bantu tribes of South Africa
including the Xhosa, Zulu, and Ndebele. This is meant to unify two families
and also prove that the groom can support his new wife. In days of yore, the
price was expressed through the gift of cattle, which represented significant
wealth. Today, cash is viewed as more practical, especially in urban settings.
3. Kikuyu and Circumcision, Kenya
Known by the Kikuyu people as “irua,” this controversial rite of passage for
both young men and women has been practiced for centuries among Kenyans. In
fact, male circumcision is common in most of Kenya, with the exception of the
Luo and Turkana societies. The Kikuyu practice circumcision in a public
ceremony. For girls, clitoridectomies are still practiced on roughly 30 percent
of the Kenyan population. This is not the only place in Africa this practice
done. Female circumcision is internationally frowned upon. The medical
complications for women can include infection, loss of sexual pleasure,
hazardous childbirth and death.
4. Kara Tribe and the Abolition of
Child Sacrifice, Ethiopia
Until 2012, some Ethiopians practiced what the rest of the world would
consider barbaric: sacrificing children. Babies that were born via tribal
intermarriage, were considered “mingi,” or impure, and were either thrown in
the river or abandoned to the wilderness, as decreed by the elders. Until 2012,
there was an estimated 8,000 children sacrificed in 12 years. Even twins were
sometimes considered impure and killed. It wasn’t moral outcry that halted the
tradition — it was stopped because of population decrease in the Kara Tribe,
which numbering around 2,000. All the other tribes in the area had much higher
5. Chewa People and The Secret Dance
Though there are more than 1.5 million Chewa people living in Zambia,
Mozambique, and Malawi, they are not considered native to those countries, but
from the Bantu Nyanja group. Among many unique practices, the Chewa men uphold
a secret society called the Nyau brotherhood. They perform Gule Wamkulu, a
ritual dance every July after harvest, or sometimes during weddings and
funerals. Participants don costumes representing various animals. Their
movements help to convey good, evil, and morality. The secret dance has been
around since the 17th century Chewa Empire, and survived through British
colonization. They’ve incorporated some aspects of Christianity into their choreography.
6. Edo People and the Naming
Edo is the name for the generations who founded the Benin Empire, as well as
their language. When a baby is born in the Edo ethnic group, the village waits
until the seventh day. Then everyone gathers to name the newborn infant.
Prayers, feasting, and the symbolic breaking of a coconut are part of the
ceremony. The elders gather, and after engaging with each other in divination
(also known as future telling), they offer a name to the child’s father. Names
are significant, and during the feasting other members of the village will
offer names to the child as well.
7. The Ashanti Family, Ghana
Ashanti is a name for one of the four post-colonial regions of Ghana, and is
also one of the main ethnic groups of the country. The Ashanti are a sub-ethnic
group of the Akan, the largest nation in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The
spiritual role of parents is stressed in this culture: the mother imbues the
child with flesh and blood, while the father’s soul inhabits the child’s own.
Other roles include the father teaching the son a skill or trade, the mother
showing the daughter how to keep house, and the mother’s brother being
responsible for teaching his nephews the “talking drum”– imperative to
communication in the Ashanti nation.
8. Berbers and the Festival of
Fantasia, North Africa
These indigenous North Africans number up to 40 million today, and are found
mostly in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania and outside of the
Maghreb (North African region). Remembering a victorious history of battle, the
Berber enact the Festival of Fantasia, also known as the Game of Gunpowder.
Usually performed during a Berber wedding, a group of men armed with antique
firearms dresses themselves and their horses, and charges at a fast speed for
roughly 200 meters before firing guns into the air in perfect unison. The skill
involves harmonizing the movement of the men, horses, and firearm discharge.
9. Pedi People and Killing the Lion,
The Pedi people, a subgroup of the Sotho nation, no longer
practice this dangerous rite of passage but it is still kept alive through
song. In the past, a young man who wished to marry must kill a lion to score
the ultimate good catch — the village chief’s daughter. Nowadays, it’s a thing
of the past. Young men, as they work, will sing of killing a lion in the hopes
that it will speed up completion of the task at hand.
10. Kachipo and Facial
Scarification, South Sudan
The 30,000-plus Kachipo of Southeastern South Sudan live mostly on the Boma
plateau. While they have been heavily influenced by Christian missionaries,
they still practice witchcraft and physically disfiguring traditions. The women
are still known to stretch their lips in order to pierce them — a sign of
beauty. Scarification is also found within this group. Glass, coconut shells,
or knives are used to cut the faces and bodies of men and women. The
process is done carefully to control scar tissue and form keloids. Keloid
designs represent lineage, ethnic identification, and often in women are meant
to attract men. Scarification is found in scores of African tribes, especially
in West African.
11. Keeping the bones of your
The Fang people, a tribe that is part of the larger ethnic group the
Beti-Pahun, keep the bones and skulls of their ancestors in
boxed, believing these hold some power. The Fang mostly only do this for
12. Asking to enter a cemetery
The Gullah tribe is a tribe of descendants of enslaved Africans, and even
though it began in the United States, it carries the traditions and practices
of several different African tribes, namely those in West Africa, the Rice
Coast and African Sudan. One tradition of the Gullah tribe is they carry a dead
body to a cemetery, but to wait at the gates until dead ancestors have granted
permission to enter.
13. Bridal tattoos on a Karo bride
The Karo people of Ethiopia tattoo the abdomen of a bride before her wedding
with several symbols meant to enhance the beauty of the bride. The Swahili
group of Kenay also tattoos brides on their limbs with henna.
14. Two children equals a real
marriage in the Neur people
In Sudan, amongst the Neur people, a marriage is only legitimized once the
wife has had two children. If the wife only has one child, her husband can ask
for a divorce but in that divorce he can only get back either his one child or
15. Marriage between cousins in the
In the Wodaabe people of the Fulani Nation in Nigeria, cousins can and often
do marry one another. In this case, the marriage is usually arranged between
the parents of the children when the children are between two and four years
16. The host enters first in a Zulu
In the Zulu culture, it is polite for the owner of a home to enter before
his or her guest, in case there is something that might take them by surprise
and harm them inside the home.
17. The placenta burial and bath in
the Yoruba people
In the Yoruba people of the Sahara Desert, when a baby is born, he is
immediately sprinkled with water until he cries. Nobody in the room can speak
until the baby has cried. The placenta is buried in the backyard and over it
the baby is bathed in palm oil and shaken to make him strong.