Some African beliefs, rituals and traditions in relation to spirituality and popular wisdom.
1. The history of Creation
In the Bible, especially throughout the first chapters of the book of Genesis, when God creates Heaven and Earth as well as all the species that would inhabit them, the history of the Creation is celebrated but not explained. The reader is left with many questions, and among the predominant ones is the WHY. Why did God make the Creation? What were the motives behind the Creation? The only given hint is that God created us through love and for love, but this notion is relatively abstract. However, in the African tradition and wisdom, we can find more elements to answer this question. We get from the Fula and Bambara oral traditions that in the beginning, God, called Maa-Ngala (literally God-Master), auto-created himself, and then, He created 20 beings who inhabited the whole universe. Yet, among those 20 beings, none of them was able to be His “Kumanyon” i.e. His interlocutor and enter into a dialogue with Him, have a relationship with Him. He therefore created Man; the 21st being, a hybrid, from taking a part of all the 20 beings that He first created. He called Man Maa i.e. with the first word composing His own name; a parallel can be made with the Bible which states that God created Man in his own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27).
2. The steps and seasons in the life of a man
In the Bambara tradition, the life of a Man is composed of 3 big stages lasting 21 years each. Every stage of 21 years is also divided in 3 substages lasting 7 years respectively.
· The first 21-years’ lump represents the period of learning and formation. During the first seven years of his life, the child is attached to his mother, and for each doubt and question, he will refer to her; she is considered by him as having the absolute truth. During the second substage of 7 years, the child starts building his own personality and character through experience; he is more independent but will still refer to his mother, though, at a lesser extent. Throughout the 3rd substage, he will keep on assimilating knowledge and experience. There are also important events and steps, such as circumcision, that will happen in this period.
· During the second stage of 21 years that will bring him to 42 years of age, the man will mature, process, interpret and develop all the teaching, learning and experiences that he accumulated for the first 21 years according to his own sensitivity and understanding. He is not allowed to talk in front of the wise men of the community but at some occasions, he will be given the opportunity to talk and express his point of view. These occasions can be viewed as a favour he is given, they can also be regarded as trials to test his knowledge and evaluate his level of maturity.
· It is only during the 3rd stage of his life i.e. from 43 to 63 years that he will be expected to speak and teach the younger generations all that he learned and processed during the first 2 periods of his life. When the man reaches 63 years, he is considered as having achieved the ascending phase of his life; the society does not expect any more duty from him. He can continue to teach, but this would only depend on his own will and ability to do so. During this period, he is considered as being in the park; this expression can be understood as the retirement or resting period.
3. The view of woman in society
According to the Bambara and Fula traditions, the woman is considered as a sacred and respected figure, the literal expression is that the woman is not public. She uncovers some mystery, having a divine dimension. Especially, it is believed that she embodies 11 forces as soon as she gives birth, contrary to the man who remains with 9 forces throughout his whole existence. The first 9 forces, common to men and women, are assimilated to the 9 orifices present in the human body i.e. 2 eyes, 2 nostrils, 1 mouth, 2 ears, 1 reproductive organ and 1 bottom. The other 2 forces that are added to the woman-mother give her a special rank in the community which pillars are axed on the family, with the woman being its core and nurturing figure.
Moreover, in many African kingdoms and civilisations, women have always occupied an important place in the royal or community life; there were amazons (powerful and respected warriors), Queen mothers, political advisors… In many communities, women were authorised to have a commercial activity, they also had a say in the education of the children and could advise their husbands regarding the direction of the household. Especially, some African traditional social hierarchies were based upon a matrilineal system. Colonisation affected to some degree the place and view of the women in most African communities since women, in the patriarchal occidental societies, were considered as second-class citizens to some extent: they did not always have the right to access to the same education level of their male peers; it is only if they were part of some influent social classes and groups that they were educated in consequence. Furthermore, they were not automatically granted to right to vote, and had to fight for it. However nowadays, the view and place of the woman is quite similar across the globe, this is mainly due to cultural assimilation and globalisation. The rise of the feminist movement, born in the occidental communities, impacted positively and negatively many societies and communities of women. In fact, in parallel to the difficulties encountered by the white women, the social, economic and political challenges and priorities are different for the black women living in Africa compared to the ones living in the European or North American countries. It is important to understand the real definition, foundations and objectives of the feminist movement, and if possible, adapt it*** to the different realities encountered in practice by the diverse pool of women; taking into account the communities they belong to and evolve in.
4. Wealth and possessions in traditional Africa
In traditional Africa, wealth and possessions did not mean anything. They did not define a man’s worth nor his social dimension. Since the society was based on communitarianism, when someone was wealthy, this wealth did not belong to him and his family only, rather, it belonged to the community. The priorities were oriented towards the whole community’s well-being. A man’s value and greatness depended on the nobility of his heart, on his ability to give to the others more than to himself, and on his disposition to serve his community. The goal of wealth was sharing. Amadou Seydou in an interview with Ina gave the example of a village where a man would kill a chicken to cook it; this man would willingly give a share to all the other families of the village before having his own portion. The society as it is today would gain so much in going back to these fundamental values and morals. In the same dynamic, Amadou Seydou again said that real progress was to go back to the roots, to the fundamental values; that the essential aspects would always remain and if not, come back at some point.
5. The place and value of the community and communitarianism
The culture in traditional Africa was built on communal values and community life. Similarly to the point explained above, the notion of individual property did not exist or at least, did not have a strong impact on the people’s social organisation and conception. Rather, wealth and possessions were used for the common wellbeing of the population. There is a proverb saying that it takes a whole village to raise a child, so the community played an important role in the children’s education and formation. It was very common for a child to be raised in another family, close to the mother or the father’s side; not necessarily blood-related. This was thought to give the children an advantage in the sense that they would belong to more than one clan or tribe and therefore be exposed to different languages, rituals, traditions and customs. There were no financial constraints that would prevent those habits, but the structural and social changes brought about by colonisation deeply impacted the traditional societal hierarchy and family organisation, making those practices less and less usual.
6. The value of the word and oral tradition
In most regions of Africa, writing did not exist, hence, the people relied on oral tradition to pass on their customs and account for all the important events that happened in the history of their civilisation and community, recounting the epic saga of the major figures and dynasties who founded their civilisation, empires, kingdoms. It follows that men were really attached to their word and the worth of a man was very much connected to his ability of keeping his word and fulfilling his promises. Griots, the ones who had the responsibility of holding and recounting history, were trained from childhood to memorise all the epic poems, traditions, rituals, customs and teachings that moulded the identity of their community. Writing and written documents did not have a big prominence; it was not part of the core of their culture. Oral tradition was preferred in the sense that it was inherent to their identity and habits. Also, story-telling has this great power of reuniting the communities, tying them close to one another.
7. The view of marriage
The main foundations of marriage in traditional Africa were mutual respect and assistance, solidarity, family. Marriage was a protection pact, an alliance between the families. The union, rather than being centred on the two people who actually were to get married also associated their respective clans. Most of the marriages were therefore arranged and concluded by the respective families and clans. Depending on the differences in the cultural and civilisational concepts, some people may perceive these kind of practices as bad and inconsiderate, however, these proved to be very successful. First, it is important to clarify that an arranged marriage does not mean a forced marriage; both the man and woman were in age to get married and had to agree to the union, otherwise, it wouldn’t take place. The main advantage is that the families were involved throughout the whole process, and the respective clans were the witnesses of the oath taken by the spouses. Thus, the spouses were both taking the responsibility to make the union work and clear any misunderstanding or conflict that would arise in the future.
8. The concept of childbearing and childbirth
The birth of a child was considered as the evidence that a parcel of the anonymous existence had been detached and incarnated in order to accomplish a specific purpose on earth. 3 types of births were taken into account. The first one is the miscarriage called “ji-bon” meaning “poured water”; it was perceived as carrying bad luck. The second one is the full-term delivery called “banngi”; it was not only a happy event for the parents and family, but rather, it was perceived as a gift to the community and the human race in general. Finally, the last one is the birth after-term called “menkono” or “nyanguan”, literally meaning “long time womb”. This was viewed to be the prelude of the birth of an extraordinary individual endowed with strong abilities and potential. The notions of purpose, individuality and uniqueness of each person were really ingrained in the mindsets since every individual was thought to have a unique mission meant to impact certain people, a certain community, civilisation.
9. The educative system
Education was not formal in comparison to the occidental educational systems. It was given through different media depending on the situation and audience. For example, if a group of people were in company of a wise man and a certain animal was to appear, this would be an opportunity for teaching about this animal, and the terms used would be adapted according to if children, youth or more mature people were listening. The teachings were given through anecdotes, maxims, experiences, stories, games. There is a saying that “in Africa, nothing is profane” , given that instruction and knowledge could be gained through different experiences and settings. Every activity was considered to have a didactic function; for example, games, in their structure, had this function of teaching many values such as respect, loyalty, trust, team spirit.
In the regions that were already Islamised, children were going to the Quran schools. Besides that, the wise men were teaching history, philosophy, biology and social conventions during some evenings around the firewood. Moreover, important celebrations such as weddings, baptisms, circumcision and generational festivities were the occasions for the griots to recount the history of the kingdom or empire, as well as the epic saga of the heroes and important figures who founded it.
Also, from an early age, the children were organising themselves within age classes where they learned discipline and how to socialise through interacting with each other. They were overviewed by the adults’ age classes. The usual practice was to pair the boys’ age class to the corresponding girls’ class. The boys were considered as their brothers, responsible for ensuring their protection until they were given in marriage, usually to older boys.
Finally, regarding the occupational activities, many communities were organised into castes, resulting in the male children taking on their fathers’ occupation while the girls were undertaking commercial activities besides their usual household responsibilities.
10. The organisation of society
There was a specific structure and societal organisation relative to each village and community. The main pillars were family; with the particular need to ensure the protection and well-being of the children and women, religion and spirituality; with the many rituals and cults relative to worship and initiation, education; mainly informal and through age classes as discussed above, occupational activities; related to agriculture, farming, arts and crafts and finally, the security and safety of the populations through the preservation of good relationships between them and the other clans and tribes. We often hear the notion of “parenté à plaisanterie” literally meaning “kidding kinship” which is a traditional agreement linking two tribes so that the people belonging to each of them could consider themselves as closely related and therefore address each other informally without raising any major conflict. The practice was also to give to each other their children in marriage so as to maintain and nurture the good relationships.
Notes
***In response to the rise of the Feminist movement in the African communities, a new movement called Motherism (in French Maternisme) was born during the post-colonial period. This movement was based on the African cultural and historical heritage and was more adapted to the social realities and challenges encountered by the African women living in Africa.
Follow these brief and insightful presentations by Natou Pedro Sakombi (in French)
References
Amadou Hampâté Bâ
· Aspects de la civilisation Africaine or Aspects of the African civilisation
· Amkoullel, l’enfant peul or Amkoullel, the Fula child
· Oui mon commandant or Yes, my commander!
Camara Laye, L’enfant noir or The dark child
Go deeper
If you understand French, go check the interviews of Amadou Hampâté Bâ about oral tradition in Africa and of Amadou Seydou on African culture, tradition and philosophy.
This is so good ! I appreciate the amount of knowledge I’ve gained from this
Amazing article ! I learnt so much ! Thanks for teaching us stuff we should all know. Would love to see an article about Motherism.
Each culture is unique and rich !
An insightful read as usual. I love how it sheds light on aspects of African culture that are generally unknown or even twisted.