Cultural Research Paper: African
Shirley Nichols
Medical & Health
July 8, 2011
Abstract
The readers will learn the culture in Africa pertaining to family life, society, art, life, death, after death, women, music, folklore, language, religion, burial and mourning. The different beliefs, languages and religion in Africa provide different views about life, death, and after death. With this paper, readers will get an idea on why Africa is known for its many rituals when it comes to death and their view about life and after death. Africa is known for its many folklore and rituals (some) as discussed in this paper. The readers will be able to know and identify the differences of life in Africa and the modern life we are in now. Is it still a life living during the earlier times with their rituals and beliefs, or it’s because of them being unfortunate living in a country where life still embraces the past beliefs and rituals?
Family and Society
Most people think that the word “feminism”, which is also known as “woman lib”, aims to be equal of men. African women are still experiencing violence, discriminatory practices and unequal rights. They’ve been subjected to systematic abuse and assault which is before and since may not be reported. Although there were several international conventions and treaties about all forms of discrimination against women and human rights, this has not been incorporated into domestic law.
In South Africa, the major effort towards achieving gender equality through the efforts of government and civil society is still a big issue. There’s always been an imbalanced practice against black women and gender relations in public and domestic life which prevents the women of their rights. It’s been decades and still we are witnessing a heightened activity to support women’s rights by rectifying a range of prejudiced practices (Women’s Health West). In Africa sexuality is embodied to women exposing sexuality as an expansion of the market, and the bond-labor market an extension of sexuality. Motherhood is a production in
African women. Bodies of African women became the artistic site of sexuality and are exploited. There are different types of marriage practices in Africa that are practiced depending on the group of the individuals though civil marriage is the same in those developed countries. Customary marriages or also known as traditional marriages, includes in African tradition as well as the ritual according to the Hindu or Muslim religions. Africans have a choice to marry according to civil or traditional marriages but in customary marriage, women had no right to material property if they were divorced or widowed.
According to some of the South African traditionalist, polygamy is a means of conserving their culture. Though polygamy before is mostly confined to the members of royal family and traditional leaders, it also solved the problem of the barren wife that a husband cannot abandon because divorce is not allowed in Africa. There’s a customary law were the first wife should give permission to the second marriage and the husband should endow with living arrangements where the wives have different place to live. Though because of the migrant workers and the lack of control from the society, these rules were not often practiced and men married a second wife without being aware of the first wife. Later on the first wife found her disadvantage to the marital property (Women’s Health West).
The health among black women is The Female Genital Cutting or FGC is still practiced in Africa, which involves the partial or total cutting of the female external genitalia. The practice of both female genital cutting and child marriage raises the likelihood of high-risk pregnancy and childbirth. According to studies, FGC is a harmful traditional practice that hinders development, violates the health and human rights of women and also harms the young girl’s physical and mental health as her right to reproductive health. There are negative complications in practicing FGC – the more sever the cut is, the more serious the consequences are. There are organizations who led efforts to maternal and child health that introduced the importance of vaccination, prenatal consultations, and follow-up children’s health after birth and about malnutrition among children. The lack of appropriate accessible health care and poor understanding when it comes to specific health needs threaten the life of the African community. The difficulty in language and translation should be given importance. There lack of awareness against violence should be given high priority importance (Women’s Health West).
Majority of African women face multiple challenges when it comes to self-esteem including the issues about racism and sexism. They learned to be self-reliant and empowered.
They accept stress as a daily part of their lives. Faith becomes a positive force in their lives.
There are large numbers of black women who prays and who is affiliated with religious groups. They believe that marriage can improve life fulfillment and a positive social engagement with the other members of the family is also related to life fulfillment. They believe in sense of control and that their lives have a purpose. Most of them are more optimistic about life with their interpersonal relationship and spiritual satisfaction.
In African cultures and societies, motherhood plays an important role. In spite of whether a certain African society displays a patrilineal or matrilineal kinship system, mothers are the vital structure of social affairs, individuality, and definitely society. Motherhood represents family ties, unconditional love and loyalty, motherhood is cited even in extrafamiliial states that call upon these principles. The social milieu of motherhood and the sense attached to birthing proceedings are a good starting point for at the moment of birth, two being are born – a baby and a mother. Motherhood is a lifetime pledge and one vestiges a child to one’s mother despite of one’s age. The value of having a mother who has a long existence cannot be overemphasized. It is not new to us that every one of us needs one’s mother in every turn of our lives and most especially through rites of passage after birth such as marriage, and the birth of one’s child. When an expectant mother normally had her first child, her mother is mostly in attendance. On the sixth month of pregnancy, her mother would persist that her daughter depart her marital home and come back to her natal home so that she could be suitably looked after and accompanied effectively through what is observed as a precarious and life threatening process. Even today, there are rituals practiced uttered after a baby is born that thanking God for making the mother and child survive the danger of childbirth.
Women
Just like anywhere in this world, men are considered superior. Women have limited power. Women are expected to do domestic duties for their family. They don’t have much say when it comes to decision making. They just tender to their husbands needs and take care of their children. It is obvious that women are possessions or properties of their father and husbands and they are expected to yield to the patriarchal demands and whims. However, African women have their ways of achieving influence, even if that kind of influence is done in silence and they control it unlike with men.
Art
Africa is known for their rich tradition on arts and crafts which are interpreted through woodcarvings, brass and leather art works. They are also known for their artistic talent in making sculptures, paintings, pottery, ceremonial,dress and religious headgear. Wearing jewelries is their important personal accessory which is made of cowry shells and the likes. Wearing masks on different ceremonies depicts ancestors and spirits, mythological characters and deities. Most of their artworks represents couples, a woman with a child, an animal or a male’s weapon, and a stranger. For them couples represents ancestors, community founder, married couple or twins, or the intimacy between men and women. The mother and child or children shows the intense desire of African women to have children. While a man with a weapon or animal symbolizes honor and power. A stranger represents a tribe or a stranger from a different place or country (Berglund).
Music
The straggling culture of South Africa has been more and more on the edge with its almost awkward limbs that was sprawled across a sporadically populated continent are beneath the movement of growing-pains, digging around for a position to a more self-conscious and mettlesome attitude of spirit, mind and body. War is the main reason and responsible for the renaissance in music in particular. The danger of war has brought animate human emotion that rejuvenates the hunger for some of the spiritual balm and accelerates the consciousness and the need to have a higher assessment of the fundamentals of a brotherhood when it comes to tolerance, understanding and inspiration.
Folklore
There are many folklore and folktales in African culture as well as myths like the Pygmy myth when a chameleon hears an odd noise in a tree cut open, its trunk and water came out in a great flood all over the land and the first man and woman emerged with the water (Isaak). There’s another story about a charitable man who gave away everything he had and he was rewarded by his God with riches. Later on his God advised him to leave the area and sent six months of rain to annihilate his self-centered neighbors.
Languages
Africa is composed of hundreds of languages which also includes diverse dialects from dissimilar ethnic groups. These various languages and dialects are usually discourse by just a few hundred persons while some of the languages and dialects are spoken by millions. Arabic,
Swahili and Hausa are the most known languages spoken in Africa.
Religion
Most Africans believes that life does not end with death, thus continues in another kingdom. The notion about “life” and “death” are not one concept and there are no gaps among these two. They believe that the existence of human is a vigorous process which composed of increase or decrease of “power” or “life force”, of those who are alive and those who are dying.
It is also believed that life and death have different levels. By various languages in Africa, some express that when life is not going well, like when talking about sickness, some uses the word “ we are living a little” which means that they living in a very low life. They believe that “illness” and “death” are brought by an outside agent which can be a person, thing or an incident that impairs people because this agent is consisted by a great life force. Africans believe that if a person dies, it does not end everything, it continues although there are just some changes in the state. This is strongly believed until now because of the “ancestors” who they think, still continues to be in the society and can still communicate with their relatives (Blakely, et al.,).
View about Death
Death is dreaded by most of us, but in Africa, death to them is a start where a person will have a deeper relationship with everything in this world, where they believe that there’s the existence of life between the visible and invisible in our world. To become an ancestor, after life, is their goal in life (Krisane). Thus, having a formal or correct funeral is important for every person who dies and this is common on most of the religious ceremonies. They believe that if a person who dies didn’t receive the appropriate funeral, there’s a big possibility that the dead person will become a wandering ghost that could bring danger to those who are still alive. The “proper” death rights shows to be an assurance for protection for the livings than making it as a sure passage for the dying. There are uncertainties when it comes to their notion about death, which usually vary on love and respect on the other hand and desolation on the other hand, especially because they believe that the dead are powerful than the livings.
African people strongly believed that a dead body should be removed in a hole in the wall of the house than through a door. The explanation behind this notion is for the dead to have a difficult time remembering the way back to life for the wall will be immediately closed. Feet first are removed first in the corpse which is symbolically shows that it points away from the former place of residence of the dead. It is believed that the road to the burial site should be zigzag path or thorns scattered along the road, or a barricade built in the grave because it is believed that the dead can strengthen the living. Special pains were taken by some for the belief that this could give the dead a hard time going back to their homes. There are also some people who were buried in their backyard or next to their homes (Asuquo).
Most of us believe that with death we lose our soul. When a person dies, the physical form is left in this world and the whole person which continues to live in the spirit world which has a new body that is almost the same with the earthly body, but with different ability that what ancestors are. When a child dies, Africans believe that the death is caused by grievous evil and that’s the reason why some parents give their children special names that could ward off the repetition of early death.
When it comes to the “place” where the departed go, they believe that there’s a “land” which is a replica of our world. Some believes that it is under the earth, which is the home or earthly families, or on the deep river. Some believes that it’s a place where there is no pain and hunger. African people therefore does not concern themselves where there is hell or heaven or hope for a future and better life but more on to live here and now.
Death
When a Muslim dies in Africa, his/her body is carried to a certain place with no smoke or any ill-smelling scent. Those who attend these rites must be in the state of complete ritual purity and from which women who just gave birth to a child not more than forty days are not allowed to join this ritual. Family members must recite “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet” several times in front of the dying person.
Reincarnation
Almost all African people believe that there is one Supreme Being who created the earth. They believe that the dead are closest to the Supreme Being than the living and the myths in the past is not restored in the afterlife. The rift between the humankind and Supreme Being are inevitable and normal to the departed, although it is given to everyone’s knowledge that the dead can rest and is safe there. A dead person is given the proper burial rights and all the rituals in the African culture. However, if the dead is not an ordinary person like a criminal or a wizard who had an unnatural dearth, they are destined for punishment in the afterlife and become a wandering ghost, and the ancestor may torture them depending on the seriousness of their sins when they were still alive, which is more likely to the Catholic’s idea of purgatory. They believe that witches and sorcerers are not accepted to enter in the spirit world, and given this fact they were not allowed to have proper burials and their burials are usually done by burning their bodies or chop them up or even give their bodies to animals and if this is done to a dead, then this is the nearest comparable to hell.
Reincarnation among different cultures and religions differ from the Africans. Africans welcomes reincarnation and doesn’t feared and evade it unlike in other religions. Their notion that the world is warm light, and living place where dead people pleased to come back from the grave. Those dead who returned to the communities are welcome without any limits as to the number of possible reincarnations unlike to the unfortunate ones that were mentioned above. It is said that the ancestors may be reincarnated in more than one body at a time. It is imperative for the Africans to know which ancestor was reincarnated in a reborn child in order for them to conduct deep thankfulness for reincarnating in a child’s body. The consecutive and concurrent numerous reincarnations are their basis on the destiny of their community.
Africans also believes in “transmigration” where a person turns into an animal and this idea applies to witches and sorcerers. They believe this happens to people who want to perform evil deeds. When it comes to death, they believe that after death, a person can reside in an animal, like snakes, where they treat with great respect. This applies to them for the Africans consider their rulers as lions. Totem in ethnic groups is believed to be where the dead reappear and they were fearsome like lions, leopards, or crocodiles and they are the ones who impose punishment to the dead with regard to the moral values that were not upheld in their community.
Burial and Mourning
Death for Africans is the last provisional stages of life that involves passage rites, which will take time to fulfill. This is important for them to detach the deceased from the living and have an effortless change going to the next life for there are many obstacles in the journey to the world of the dead. If the “proper” burial rites are not performed, there’s a big possibility that the deceased will haunt and trouble his/her living relatives. An animal is usually killed in the ritual, but this also serves another purpose of feeding the guests. Personal belongings of the dead are burnt so to assists the dead in his/her journey. There are also other rituals after the funeral like a fox may be killed to accompany the deceased. Other animals are killed also but for some time after the funeral like in three months to two years and even in a longer period is performed. In Southern Africa, Nguni group, slays a fox and calls it “the returning ox,” for they believe the ox or this beast accompanies the dead back to the living to protect his/her family. Another rite in Africa is the “home bringing” where if after the funeral all the relatives left and there’s no one left to remember him/her, it is the point where the deceased passes into the necropolis and where s/he loses individuality and becomes one of the unknown immortals (Asuquo).
During the burial rites, when it is time to send away the departed, the relatives of the departed requests that the deceased would not bring any trouble to their family left behind, and not to mention to help them have a good life on earth and other favors. This shows that Africans mourns for the dead but celebrates life in all its wealth. Attending a funeral is a time for the African community to have harmony and recover its distinctiveness. In some communities, immediate family of the deceased dances and provides merriment for all in order to refute the powers of death and this brings light journey for the deceased in the other world. In the Southern part of Africa, when someone dies inside a house, the windows are marked with ashes, all pictures are turned around, and any reflective objects like mirrors and appliances are covered. The bed of the deceased is removed in his/her room and widowed female must sit on the floor or on a mattress. It is common that people in the community visits the dead in seven or thirteen days so to provide comfort to the family members.
There are instances, in some communities, were children and unmarried adults are not allowed to attend any funeral rites. The immediate family must stay together and forbidden to speak during the funeral. Personal belongings of the deceased must be placed in the grave. After the funeral, guests attended the funeral are invited to go the deceased house for a funeral meal. They conduct a cleaning ritual at the gate of the deceased house and everyone must wash off the dust before entering the house. A cut of aloe is sometimes placed in a water to remove bad luck.
The “holy water” from churches is sprinkled to the people so to cleanse them from impurity. Since there are many tribes in Africa, each tribes, community, and ethnic groups have almost the same notion about death and after life. They almost have same burial rites and differ only depending on their beliefs on how to make it easy for the dead to his/her journey. However, it is obvious that they do not fear death and after death.
References:
Berglund, A. Zulu Thought Patterns and Symbolism. London: Hurst, 1976.
Blakely, T., et al., eds. Religion in Africa. London: James Currey, 1994.
Krisane, I. The Depiction of Concept of Death in Art of African Society. Free University of
Berlin, Faculty of History, Department of African Art. 2011
Mark Isaak. The Talk. Origins Archive: Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy. “Flood Stories from around the World. Retrieved June 15, 2011 from http://www.talkorigins.org/pdf/flood-myths.pdf
Offiong Offiong Asuquo. A rationalization of an African concept of life, death and hereafter. American Journal of Social and Management Sciences. Retrieved June 26, 2011 http://www.scihub.org/AJSMS/PDF/2011/1/AJSMS-2-1-171-175.pdf
Women’s Health West (2007). Working with African Communities. Retrieved June 13, 2011 from http://www.whwest.org.au/community/african.php