African Tribes And Unusual Cultural Practices
Africa is a beautiful continent with a lot of different cultural traditions, some of which are well-known and some of which aren’t. Even after so many years since the dawn of civilization, some of these traditions are still followed in the most isolated regions of the continent. Some people may be surprised by the traditions that these different ethnic groups still keep, while others will find them fascinating. Here is a brief look at five different African tribes, each of which does things that are completely crazy.
People should be careful when looking at the pictures because some of them show naked people.
5: The Sharo ritual of beating to get a wife and status
In certain subsets of the Fulani (Northern Nigeria) culture, males who are ready to start a family do not have the luxury of just strolling up to the bride and popping the question. This is especially the case if the bride’s family insists on ‘Sharo’ as a precondition for the marriage to be valid.
The game “Sharo” involves the use of lashings. The purpose of this activity is for the more senior members of society to beat the prospective bridegroom in order to win respect and a wife for him. The wedding is called off if the groom is unable to withstand the anguish that is associated with the ceremony.
As a result of the fact that so many children and young adults of this tribe have been killed by flogging, the practice is no longer considered mandatory.
The bride’s family has other options than flogging, such as the “Koowgal,’ which is a kind of dowry payment, or the ‘Kabbal,’ which is an Islamic ritual that is very similar to a marriage but takes place without the bride and groom present.
4: Banyankole’s ‘potency test’
In many African societies, one of an aunt’s most important jobs is to help her young nieces through different stages of life, such as puberty and marriage. In Uganda, the situation is a little extreme since not only is a person’s aunt employed to give advice to a new bride, but they are also required to have intercourse with the groom in order to demonstrate his ‘potency.’
Additionally, before the bride and groom are permitted to consummate their marriage, the bride’s aunt is required to conduct a “purity” test on the bride. This tradition is quickly dying out, but in some remote areas, the couple’s aunts still have to show that the couple can have children by taking part in or at least seeing a sexual encounter between the couple.
3: The Ethiopian tradition of bull leaping
In some regions of Ethiopia, young boys are subjected to various initiation rites in order to demonstrate that they have reached manhood. In this part of the performance, he undresses completely before racing, jumping, and finally landing on a bull. This is then followed by sprinting over a number of bulls that have been placed in a straight and closely-knit herd and are being pushed by older guys by the tail and the horns.
The term for this kind of activity is “Hamar.” Female friends of the “warrior” are floged by elders and forced to dance until they are sore in an effort to demonstrate their loyalty to their male friend, who is about to demonstrate that he has reached adulthood. The “ochre,” which is a mixture of fat, is applied to the entire body, head, and hair of the female friends. Research shows that even though this kind of behavior doesn’t happen in public, there are still groups of people in remote areas who do it in secret.
2: Celebration of the departed held by the Chewa
The ‘Chewa’ group is a Bantu tribe that lives in the African nation of Malawi. This gang is well-known for their clandestine society that goes by the name “Nyau” (covering their faces in masks). It is common for the deceased member of a tribe to have his or her corpse washed before being buried as part of the funeral rites.
In order to clean the body, the deceased person’s throat is cut open at a holy site, and then water is poured into the corpse while it is open. This is done after the body has been transported there. The water is forced out of the body by squeezing it until it can be extracted without contamination.
1: Wodaabe’s wife stealing night dance
The Wodaabe are an ethnic group that live in the western portion of the Central African Republic, the southwestern part of Chad, and the northeastern part of Cameroon. It is a branch off of the Fulani people’s larger ethnic group.
Members of the community will engage in nighttime dancing as part of the celebration that is usual for them, although dancing will not take up the entire evening. During the time when the dancing is going on, the male members of the tribe are permitted to kidnap women from one another. Even if the woman is married, the man can keep her if she doesn’t object or if the woman’s husband stops him from stealing her.
There are certain aspects of these customs that are no longer practiced nowadays. If you are aware of any fascinating customs that are still relatively unknown in some areas of Africa, do share them with us in the comment box below.
