ALSO READ: 5 crazy sexual traditions that are still practised in Africa. The Krobo of easten Ghana do not practice FGC; instead, they mark the back of an initiate’s hand with a tattoo of fine blue marks to symbolize her maturity and the completion of her ritual training. 24/7 live news & videos, Young girls ready to undergo the rite of passage (hubafrique). It is a unique moment of prayer, thanksgiving and joy to all the family members and the community at large. Ritual songs, dances and masks or other artwork feature prominentaly in many initiation rites. The Maasai are not the only tribe in Tanzania, and Africa as a whole, who have a strict social system and who practise circumcision. “Islam is teaching that these spirits and this energy do not exist.”, The increasing modernization and globalization of African society are also having an impact. Then, on the day of the ceremony, the boys shave their heads and paint their faces with white chalk. The Mende women act as mentors as they prepare young Mende girls for the adult life in which they will act as wives, mothers, and … Ahmadu notes, “It is incumbent on mothers to initate their daughters properly, according to ancestral customs, in order for the latter to become legally recognized as persons with rights and responsibilities in society.”. Boys must endure the operation without flinching or crying out, while girls are allowed to show pain but cannot marry or bear legitimate children within Maasai society if they refuse to undergo the procedure. By Kristina Rodulfo During the winter break from school a group of initiates go into the bush accompanied by an older man. In 2004, a young Xhosa man was beaten to death during a circumcision ritual, and two years later, another boy died from malnutrition after being isolated with his age mates in the mountains without food. Walkabout. During a ritual period of seclusion, the girls are education on such topics as sex, HIV/AIDS, interpersonal skills, problem solving, religion, FGC, peer pressure and legal rights. Male circumcision is common throughout Africa while female “circumcision,” or female genital cutting (FGC), varies in prevalence. At the ceremony, all of the men and women participating are brought to a government building and listen to many speakers, similar to a graduation ceremony. Ahmadu argues that most Kono women willingly perpetuate the ritual because they see it as a way to preserve female sources of power and authority, as well as promote characteristics such as strength, tenacity, endurance and fearlessness in young women. The practice is almost universal in Egypt, Eritrea, Guinea, Mali and northern Sudan and is performed on the majority of women in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Mauretania. The most important masks represent ancestral spirit forces that are believed to sanction the initiation and protect the youths during the ritual. They signify different aspects of life within the continent like achieving a new status on the social ladder or coming of age etc. The rites involve learning about sex, birth control, motherhood, what it takes to maintain a good marriage and other aspects of womanhood from very respected women. They were held in these rooms for 1-6 months. “When you come through the initiation process, you are officially a man or woman,” says John Frazier, assistant professor of humanities at the College of DuPage. A Horrifying Coming-of-Age in Somalia / A young woman's first-person account of cultural brutality REVIEWED BY CAMILLE HOWARD Jan. 15, 1995 Updated: Feb. 5, 2012 1:48 a.m. “The older generation sees this as a serious issue, not being able to deliver what society needs in an effective format.”, Even as many cultural aspects of initiation have fallen away, circumcision has not, and the age at which the procedure is performed has been decreasing throughout Africa. The transition period often involves various tests and ordeals, many of them painful. The Mende people live throughout Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. In Senegal, Bassari boys undergoing the Koré rite are taken into a sacred forest where they experience a symbolic death and a simulated return to infancy, a state of ritual purity from which they are reborn as mature members of the community. Ahmadu’s research in Sierra Leone found that the period Kono girls and boys spend in the bush receiving practical, cultural and religious education has been reduced from several months or years to less than a month during school vacations. Among the Kono, Ahmadu notes, the cutting is being performed on girls as young as toddlers “in the fear that these children may forever forgo their Kono identities, either because of intensifications and aggressiveness of eradication campaigns or because they may wind up as refugess in other, possibly Western countries as a result of dislocation caused by war.”. African coming-of-age rituals have traditionally been seen as consisting of three main phases: separation from the community, a period of transition or liminality and reincorporation into society. Under the shadow of a snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, hundreds of Maasai boys brave the morning chill to take part in a ritual that marks their coming of age. Once the girls are done learning, they come out dancing, eligible for marriage. Among the AmaXhosa people of South Africa, male circumcision is referred to as “ ulwaluko.” It is considered a teachable moment that prepares boys for the enormous responsibilities of manhood. Hounen Matsuri Fertility Festival, Japan. Coronavirus - Sierra Leone: COVID-19 update (15 January 2021), Key battles in Liverpool's Man Utd showdown, Coronavirus - Gambia: COVID-19 update (15 January 2021), 76-yr-old Yoweri Museveni re-elected as Ugandan President for 6th term. “You know it, society knows it, and you are prepared for the tasks at hand and all the different situation because you go through a training process to learn all your new roles in society.” Without undergoing initiation, a person, no matter what age, will not be considered a full adult. Among the Nkanu people of Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, specialized sculptors create masks, figures and carved panels that are used to educate initiates about symbolic meaning, appropriate and inappropriate behavior and other adult knowledge. In Ethiopia, Hamar boys complete the Jumping of the Bulls, a ritual in which they must leap over the backs of 20 to 40 bulls in order to demonstrate their manhood. In South Africa, where FGC is not practiced, serious issues related to male initiations have prompted the government to introduce legislation requiring initiation schools to be licensed and regulating the conditions under which circumcisions may be performed. First, the boys must give away everything that they own. It is usually carried out under the … Eyewitness? In West Africa, however, women's coming-of-age rituals have often been elaborate and invested with layers of spiritual, social, cultural, and political significanc… In the secular sphere, it is celebrated in democratic countries by the granting of the right to vote to persons upon the attainment of a certain age. In some places, they are required to stand bare-breast for the crowd to inspect them and check to see that their virginity is intact. Though some people have advocated safer, more sanitary “circumcisions” for girls as well as boys, anti-FGC activists argue that medicalization would counteract efforts to abolish the procedure. Young Inuit children are just 11 or 12 when they are sent out into the wild to fend for themselves amidst harsh arctic… “They’ve told me that for an uncircumcised woman, God doesn’t hear her prayers.”, Hernlund adds, “There are a lot of people who will say that male and efmale circumcision is Islamic, but other aspects of the rituals are not Islamic. 10. Among the Krobo of eastern Ghana, girls are secluded from three weeks, during which they are trained in appropriate female behavior, personal grooming, domestic skills, dance and the art of seduction. In the first stage, young boys or girls are physically removed from the community and taken to the “bush,” which may be fully separate from the village or may be a special enclosure or specific building in the community. WHO classifies FGC into three different types according to severity: clitoridectomy (removal of the clitoral hood with or without removal of the clitoris), excision (removal of the clitoris as well as all or part of the labia minora) and infibulation (removal of part or all of the external genitalia, including the clitoris, labia minora and labia majora, followed by the stitching of the vaginal opening to leave only a small hole for urine and menstrual flow). For example, ritual masks were traditionally a way to connect with particular spirits.”You would harness that spirit to serve the community,” says Frazier. A woman guarding a fattening room since only females are allowed to enter (HypeScience posted by Miguel Kramer), Join 10,000 others, get the latest African business trends, profiles and news straight to your inbox, three brutal rites boys go through to become men in Africa, 5 crazy sexual traditions that are still practised in Africa. The emphasis placed on specific aspects of initiation varies greatly, with some ethnic groups placing greater importance on the physical tests of bravery and toughness, others emphasizing spiritual aspects, and still others focusing on practical education. In Nigeria, young girls known as iriabo spend several weeks in “fattening rooms” being pampered and wearing copper coils around their legs to restrict movement as part of a ritual marking their official transition into womanhood. Many different languages, religions and types of economic activities developed on this continent. After the festival, the newly initiated women are showered with gifts like cash, jewelry, clothes and cooking utensils. However, across Africa there are Islamic peoples who don’t practice female circumcision and there are non-Islamic people who do.”, For many African women, the practice is an essential part of womanhood. “Lots of people are living in the city, and people are not as tied to the village,” Frazier points out. Young women also have coming-of-age ceremonies 'umemulo'. According to WHO, “Immediate potential side effects include severe pain, hemorrhage, injury to the adjacent tissues and organs, shock, infection, urinary retention and tetanus….Long-term effects may include cysts and abscesses, urinary incontinence, psychological and sexual problems, and difficulty with childbirth.” For women who have been infibulated, severe labor complications can occur if the genitalia are not deinfibulated (opened) during delivery. The girls were fattened up because "bigger" brides were considered more beautiful. Islam came early to West Africa and, in most places, mixed with traditional African animistic beliefs to create a syncretic form of the religion that is quite different from its more orthodox forms. In the Brazilian … The Mandinka see initiation as intimately connected to the physical act of circumcision, which, in turn, is closely related to Islam. Though coming of age traditions vary drastically from culture to culture, nearly every society designates specific rituals, ceremonies, and traditions as a way to symbolize and celebrate the transition from child to adult. In many African communities, the popular practice for females used to be circumcision. We embrace the local traditions of our homes and the coming of age ceremony for boys is certainly a hallmark. The Anlo-Ewe people are a subgroup of the Ewe people who live in southern Togo, southern Benin, southwest Nigeria, and south-eastern parts of the Volta Region of Ghana. Both coming-of-age rituals and circumcision are still widely practiced today but have frequently become separated from one another, even in places where they traditionally went hand in hand. These songs are sung on the final day when the girls traveled together down to the river while the Osokolo (senior male of the tribe) beat the women with a stick to ward off water spirits. Similarly, the male foreskin is seen as a female remnant that must be removed to make a true man. A portion of the female populations of Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Kenya, Benin, Niger, Nigeria and Tanzania also maintain the practice. The Koran specifies that men must be circumcised; for women, the connection to official Islamic doctrine is less clear, but according to Johnson’s research, most Mandinka women see the practice of female genital cutting in a similar way. During the transition period, initiates learn the skills necessary to participate in society as adults. The clitoris is believed to be a male remnant that must be cut away to make a girl a complete woman. Subscribe to Other articles where Coming-of-age rite is discussed: feast: Crucial stages of life: Puberty, the transition into adulthood, has been celebrated since ancient times by various rituals and festivals. Each year the ceremony is marked with beautiful outfits, music and wonderful traditional cuisine. Various factors – the anti-FGC campaigns, the changing influence of Islam and Christianity, political upheaval, civil war, modernization, and financial and time constraints – have all had tremendous impacts on the practice of initiation rituals. It is usually done to young girls between 14 and 16 to prepare them for marriage. Botched circumcisions by traditional surgeons have led to highly publicized deaths and injuries. Horsemen take part in the Durbar festival parade in Zaria, Nigeria September 14, 2016. A number of health risks are associated with FGC, particularly for the more severe forms of the procedure. Since 1979, a vocal movement, started by African women’s organizations and quickly taken up by health and human rights activists around the world, has been advocating for the abolition of FGC in all its forms. First, the boys must give away everything that they own. The practice has been outlawed in many African countries, but until recently few efforts have been made to understand or change the cultural underpinnings of the practice. By clicking again, you agree to our Boys of the Amazon's Satere-Mawe tribe, on coming of age have to ritually wear gloves full of bullet ants to prove their power of masculinity to the tribe. “Westerners have stomped in and demanded that Africans be for or against it,” says Hernlund, adding that most Gambians she has worked with are “profoundly ambivalent. They have mixed feelings. She first examines some traditional tribal customs commonly performed in South America, Africa, Australia, and the United States. 4. “You’ve got social change that’s just wreaking havoc on traditional rituals,” Johnson reflects. The question for female circumcision is, do you take the idealistic view that medicalization is legitimizing female circumcision or that it is harm reduction?”, The anti-FGC campaign has influenced the practice of initiations throughout Africa, and the Christian church has also worked to discourage traditional rites, with varying degrees of success. For some groups, this change is so dramatic that the newly initiated aduly is given a new name and presented to the community as a different person. Circumcision & Coming of Age Ritual "Going to the Bush is a Xhosa ritual where boys in South Africa are initiated into manhood. For many African ethnic groups, such as the Kono of Sierra Leone and the Dogon and Bamana of Mali, genital cutting reflects traditional beliefs about gender and duality. These new 'women' are adorned with very beautiful beads as they are shown off to single young men who select their prospective wives. Although the girl’s mother had refused to allow her to undergo the procedure, the girl had endured relentless teasing and name-calling from her age mates and finally decided to take matters into her own hand – with tragic results. By the 19th century the Arabs moved to East and Central Africa. Various cultures all over the world have certain practices to mark the transition from childhood to adulthood. Male circumcision is getting safer and safer. In 2006, a 15-year-old Kenyan girl died after trying to perform FGC on herself. 12 Captivating Coming of Age Ceremonies From Around the World See how young women in Indonesia, Ghana, the Philippines, and more countries get inducted into adulthood. Young Maasai warriors must prove their courage by hunting lions with only a spear. In our society, coming of age is often defined religiously as a Quinceñera, a Confirmation, and a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Female initiation rituals are, in general, thought of as being smaller and less dramatic than males' and tied more closely to the individual's onset of puberty. Ritual killing is an integral part of the African culture. These traditions reflect norms of care and behavior based on age, life stage, gender, and social class. Initiation Rites and Rituals in African Cosmology Prof. Paul Kyalo School of Humanities and Social Sciences Mount Kenya University P.O Box 342-01000, Thika Kenya Abstract This essay is an analysis of the rituals in African cosmology. Financial limitation have caused many rituals to become shorter of less frequent, while modernization means that the lives of African youth are now tied to school schedules rather than to the land, putting further constraints on the length of time that can be devoted to rites of passage. In South Africa, many ceremonies and celebrations are also ai… In the walkabout, adolescent Aborigine boys are sent to live in the wilderness for as long … Iria ritual (Niger Delta states) Various tribes in Niger Delta states practice the iria ritual. Depending on the ethnic group, these trials may involve physical marking such as circumcision or other body scarification without the use of anesthesia. The lessons are followed by a durbar (festival) where the rest of the community welcomes the newly initiated women into the society. After completion of the isolation period, the initiates return to the community as fully fledged adults and are reintegrated through a public ceremony and celebration. Harmful traditional practices (HTPs) exist in many different forms. They also play a role in drawing attention both to the individual's emergence from childhood and the assumption of responsibilities associated with adult life. 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