In many African countries, a wide array of rites of passage play a central role in marking the different stages in an individual’s development and their relationship and role to the broader community. Perhaps the most important of these rites is the transition from child to adult, when they become fully entrenched in their community’s cultural customs and ethics.
A Mursi woman with a lip plate, a sign of adulthood in her tribe.
The Significance of Initiation
The central idea of coming-of-age ceremonies across different cultures is the recognition and celebration of an individual’s transition from childhood to adulthood, symbolizing their readiness to take on new roles, responsibilities, and privileges within society. These five describes the various stages individuals undergo during significant life transitions. These rituals and associated ceremonies constitute what van Gennep calls the Rites of Passage. There are three phases that constitute the rites of passage namely: the rites of separation, the rites of transition, and the rites of incorporation. During rites of transition, initiates are given instructions and advice in preparation for their expected new roles in society. For instance, puberty rites mark the transition into a sexual world.
Traditional Education and Responsibilities
From a young age, children in many African countries are taught adult responsibilities and learn from their parents and elders how to work and manage their homestead. They are raised to do their chores without complaint and to treat their parents and elders with utmost respect. Here, children learn to bow or kneel down when greeting elders and not to make direct eye contact or offer handshakes. It is not unusual to see women across Africa carrying their babies on their backs as go about their daily chores - working in the field, caring for their own children and those of other women, fetching water and firewood, cleaning their homes and cooking family meals. Young girls learn from their mothers’ example and often care for their younger siblings whilst still young children themselves.
Examples of Tribal Initiation Rites
Across the African continent, diverse tribes have unique initiation rites for teenagers. Here are some examples:
Read also: Experience Fad's Fine African Cuisine
Mandinka Initiation
Traditionally, both male and female circumcision have been carried out amongst the Mandinka. Teenage boys are taken out into the bush and initiated into the ways and rules of Mandinka manhood and the medicinal use of plants as part of the rite. It is more commonly practised in the countryside than in towns and cities in the modern era.
“Circumcision for males, that is also another very big cultural event in my community back home. The village would choose a year and they say…. this year we are going to do circumcision for male children… Can be ranging from ten and below, only children that were not circumcised within that age. They will come together and they will be circumcised. They will group together you know, in one group, and that also is a school that circumcision time because you can stay in that. Sometimes they will take us to the bus, you will not, your mother, no woman not even your mother will not have access to you during that period. So, it’s a school where the elders will teach you… They will show you all you need to know as a man. Being circumcised you have to obey whatever thing they do to you, you have to obey it."Hamar Bull Jumping Ceremony
In the Hamar tribe of Ethiopia, young men seeking permission from a girl’s father to marry his daughter may have to undertake a ritual. Here, to become worthy of marriage, men first have to jump over a herd of cattle. The Bull Jumping Ceremony was traditionally held after harvest time, July to early September, but now it may be held earlier or later in the year.
The ceremony begins with young Hamar girls jumping in unison as their heavy metal jewellery forms a rhythmic beat. These girls are often relatives or friends of the boy who is about to be initiated into manhood. The girls will jump towards men, the maza, who have already gone through this rite of passage. The girls hand the maza a green stick, which is then used to whip the girls’ backs as they continue to jump. The lashing continues until blood is drawn and the men then stop; the girls bow to them and jump away. The scars that form show that the women endured pain for the initiate during his passage into manhood. The tribe forms a circle around a herd of cattle and sing. Four of the biggest castrated bulls are lined up side by side and the naked young initiate(s) is brought to the cattle. He must jump onto the first bull and then run back and forth three times across the backs of the four beasts.
Hamar Bull Jumping Ceremony.
Tuareg Veiling Ritual
The Tuareg, numbering approximately two million, are a nomadic, mainly Muslim people, who live across the Sahara Desert, including in the North African countries of Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria and Chad. When Tuareg men reach the age of twenty-five, they begin wearing a veil that covers their whole face, apart from their eyes.
Read also: The Story Behind Cachapas
Nuer Scarification
The Nuer of South Sudan practice scarification of teenage boys as a rite of passage into adulthood. The scarified marks are usually six vertical lines across the forehead which are called Gaar. After the rite the boys are not allowed to milk cows, but many other avenues are now open to them. They can marry. They are given a spear and can go on cattle raids.
Simon Koang, Nuer, South Sudan: “Yes, when you get about 18 years old or 15 years old you will get the marks, you get them from 15 to 16… From the day you get the marks you become a man, you will man, you are not a boy anymore… Yah, the day you are going to get the marks. All the village will know of the boy or guy is going to get a mark today. And it will be a group for boys in the village. They put them togethers in one place. The guy who make the marks will come with knife, just cutting. After that they will make a party."Cameroon Chieftaincy Introduction
In Cameroon, procedures exist when a teenager is introduced to the Chieftaincy. An event is organized once every two years for teenagers of 13, during which they are taught how to become a man. They spend two weeks isolated from their families and friends with the elders of the village. After six days, on the seventh day, they are released for eight days to run all over the city, painted with black stuff and holding the horn of the elephant. After two weeks there is a big celebration in the village with food and dancing, everyone attends, the chief, the elders, parents, etc., to witness the ‘new men’ in the village.
Bagamoyo Initiations
Bagamoyo is known to be a place where tribal initiations (for boys as well as for girls) still go on. Islam co-exists with tribal traditions. Or should I say, tribal traditions are a powerful thing, ancient and deeply rooted, and they persist. A mixture of tribes live in Bagamoyo, and the initiation at Mama ally’s home, as in many others, was comprised of different traditions. Each neighbor and each family member contributed from her own initiation.
Confined to the house, this is a symbolic state of in between. A rite of passage is a transformation between one state to another. During their period of initiation Maua and Zena are not considered to be girls nor women. They are in between these two worlds. Their lives as girls have ended forever, but they are not yet initiated into womanhood. For the period of the teachings and initiation, they are separated from the community. In old times, the entire girls age group would be taken by the women far away into the bush to the initiation camp, separated completely from their old lives.
During the day they cook, rest, play with friends who come to visit, until the time comes for the daily initiation session. Then their younger girlfriends are not allowed to stay in the house. Only women and very young children who need to be with their mothers are allowed to stay. Men leave as well- this is the women’s sacred time.
Read also: Techniques of African Jewellery
Malawian Puberty Rites
This paper examines timing of puberty and mechanisms through which society prepares adolescents to understand and deal with it in Malawi. Results show that the onset of menarche in girls and various pubertal body changes in boys can be a cause of joy, excitement, or distress depending on how adolescents understand what this means to them at this critical stage when they start defining and comprehending their sexuality. Much more emphasis is put on educating girls about reproductive implications of menarche than on what is expected of boys as sexual beings, which may contribute to boys’ greater indulgence in risky sexual behaviors than girls.
Data show that girls are more likely to attend these ceremonies than boys; 43% of females and 33% of males reported they had participated in an initiation or puberty rite. Again, as expected, older adolescents are more likely to have attended the ceremonies than the younger ones. Rural adolescents (40%) were also more likely to attend puberty rites than urban adolescents (32%), although the difference was more pronounced for boys than for girls.
Table 1 shows the percentage of girls who reported that they had started menstruation and boys who reported that they had experienced various pubertal body changes. As expected, older adolescents were more likely to have experienced pubertal changes than younger adolescents for both boys and girls. The big difference between the two age categories indicates that most adolescents experience pubertal changes after age 15. The median age at menarche for girls was 15 years, while the median age when boys started experiencing pubertal body changes was 14 years.
In order to understand how the timing of experience of pubertal changes and attendance of initiation rites are linked, we plotted life table survival functions for the two rites of passage (Figure 1). The data show that before age 13.5 years (intersection point between the two functions when 70% of girls have not attained menarche), there were less girls who had attained menarche compared to those who had attended a ritual since the survival curve for initiation rites is above the one for menarche up to this age. For boys, fewer had experienced body changes compared to those who had participated in an initial rite by age 12.5 years, by which time 75% of boys had not observed pubertal body changes.
Most females in the IDIs reported that they attended initiation or puberty rites after they experienced menstruation. Males in the Centre and South gave elaborate details about the ceremonies that they attended at puberty, while only one person in the north reported to have attended a church advisory session.
Hamer Tribe Bull Jumping Ceremony
Other Tribal Practices
- Twa People (Batwa): During their stay, an older woman teaches the young girls about their history, how to be good wives, mothers and all it takes to be a Twa woman. Once the girls are done learning, they come out dancing, eligible for marriage. The whole community then partakes in the rest of the Elima festivities.
- Niger Delta States: Various tribes in Niger Delta states practice the iria ritual. It is usually done to young girls between 14 and 16 to prepare them for marriage. The girls were fattened up because "bigger" brides were considered more beautiful. They were also seen as more fertile.
| Characteristic | Girls: Menstruation Started (%) | Boys: Pubertal Body Changes (%) | Participated in Initiation Rite (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Younger Adolescents | Data not available | Data not available | Data not available |
| Older Adolescents | Data not available | Data not available | Data not available |
| Rural Adolescents | Data not available | Data not available | 40% |
| Urban Adolescents | Data not available | Data not available | 32% |
