The strangest customs and traditions of the peoples of the African continent
The strangest customs and traditions of African tribes
In continuation of our article series about primitive tribes and the strangest customs and traditions of peoples and tribes.
In fact, all the peoples of the Earth have their own customs and traditions, and these customs differ from one place to another, or perhaps they are similar. Some of them are strange and others reach the point of hideousness, but the continent of Africa and the primitive African tribes have a large number of customs that seem to us very strange because of their isolation. About civilized societies and a large portion of them not mixing with others and keeping them away from technological progress.
Therefore, these customs and traditions are still present to a large extent in many African countries, and some of their strange rituals and customs include the ritual of death , which consists of cutting the throat of the dead and inserting water into their bodies or even spitting on each other as a blessing for married people and children, and stealing women whether they are married. Or not, you will also find strange ways of measuring wealth, strange ways of measuring aesthetics, and other things stranger than imagination. Welcome to Mama Africa, the most ancient continent in the world.
Here is a collection of the strangest African customs and traditions:
Spitting "Baraka":
The Masai tribe uses spitting as a sacred symbol and can bring blessings to others. For example, we find men spitting on newborns because they believe that this will keep evil away from the newborn, prevent it from the devil, and give them strength. We also find them spitting on their hands before greeting the elderly, priests, or others. Any other person deserves respect, and that tradition and that strange custom continues in marriage customs, as one of the strangest marriage customs and traditions followed in Africa and the world, where the father of the bride spits on his daughter’s head and chest during a strange marriage ceremony that is stranger than imagination. Can you imagine!
The strangest customs of the tribes of Congo and Malawi:
In the southwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there is the charming Soko tribe, full of strange traditions, which is considered one of the most important tribes of ancient Africa. When a member of that Soko tribe dies, especially if the deceased was an adult and of high status, his funeral takes place in an empty place in the forest, and gifts are placed. And offerings, but women are prohibited from attending the funeral.
While we find the Chewa people, which are considered the largest primitive tribes in Malawi, with a population of more than 20 million people, and they are also present in South Africa, they have some strange customs and traditions as their way of dealing with the dead, as the people of the deceased Chewa people take the body after death to the forests to conduct rituals. Which begins with cutting the dead person's throat and pouring clean water inside to clean and purify the body, by putting pressure on the stomach until the water reaches it.
Jumping over bulls:
In Ethiopia, just as the Spartan warriors used to take their children when they were infants and leave them in semi-empty places full of predatory animals to prove their ability to survive, and just as they took them from their families’ homes at a young age and forced them to undergo a series of difficult exercises, the Africans did similar things, but those exercises are related. They have a greater degree of maturity, for example in the Ethiopian Hamer tribe, when a child reaches puberty, they are forced to run over bulls to prove that they have actually reached puberty and have transformed from children into men, over a large number of bulls of different sizes, and repeating the process more than once. They are completely naked.
Wives live in separate homes:
In the Giou tribe in Ivory Coast, each wife has her own small house in which she lives with her children until they become mature and prepare them for marriage. They are not allowed to live with their parents or any other relative, while the husband meets his wife in his own house or visits. His wife and children from time to time, which is a tradition that is considered somewhat strange, as women’s property in primitive African tribes is almost rare and the male is the one who controls most things in various aspects of life.
Wealth is measured in cows:
The idea of material possessions and their value varies greatly over the years, and from one place to another, but in most African tribes the value of things is different from ours, as it is limited to agricultural land, livestock, or some jewelry and other simple and necessary things. For example, in the Pokot tribe in Kenya, wealth is measured A person is determined by the number of cows he owns, and the marriage dowry is usually a certain number of cows, meaning it is the official currency for them in most transactions.
Coexistence with wild animals:
The Maasai people in Kenya and Tanzania have strict instructions regarding killing wild animals, and although they depend on eating sheep, goats and cows for their food, they refuse to kill any wild animals, whether predatory or not, and they live in the midst of a group of the most dangerous types of animals such as leopards and tigers. .
It is worth noting that Africa is one of the continents that preserves biodiversity the most from ancient times until now, due to the lack of modern technology reaching the southern regions of the African continent. Africa alone has the largest species of mammals, which is the African elephant, and the fastest of them is the cheetah, as well as the gorilla, the largest primate, and the Nile crocodile. The largest reptiles, all of them are distinctive and extremely dangerous animals, yet they do not pose a major threat to the existence of the tribes of Africa who are accustomed to dealing with animals in one way or another.
Stealing wives:
Yes, this happens in the Wadabe tribe, which is a small tribe branching off from the Fulani ethnic group and is found in the northern parts of Nigeria, the northeastern parts of Cameroon, the southwestern Chad, and the western regions of the Central African Republic. There is a ceremony held every once in a while called the “Girul” ceremony, in which all the adult members of the tribe gather. To dance all night long. At this party, a man is allowed to steal other people’s wives, or even unmarried ones, to do whatever he wants with them that night unless the husband can prevent him from stealing her. If he wants to marry her after that, he has the right unless she refuses, but usually Women are forced to accept marriage offers!
Strange marriage customs and traditions:
In West Africa, a strange tradition spreads: when more than one man loves the same woman, they meet face to face and hit each other in a position where both parties are completely still without moving or making any sound. Each party has the right to one blow at a time, and the loser is the one who It makes a sound of pain or falls on the ground, and only the winner has the right to marry in one of the strangest customs and traditions of marriage. In another tradition, we find that when a girl reaches adolescence in the Surma tribe in South Sudan, she begins a process to enlarge the size of her lips and make them circular. By placing a metal or wooden piece in it for long periods of time to expand it. Despite the strangeness of the idea, it is considered of a high aesthetic standard for the men of the tribe.
African Gobis tribe:
On the wedding day in the Gobis tribe in North Africa, the bride is forced to pierce her tongue and the groom passes a thread through it, just as he passes it with a needle. If the bride talks too much later, the groom pulls the string just once, enough to force her to remain silent.
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