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16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions - Culture - Nairaland

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16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:00pm On Jun 18, 2015
Some African tribal traditions are a
mystery and a fascination for
most of the modern world. Tribal
communities sometimes live
without many modern comforts
the rest of us have. Here are 16
fascinating traditions from several
African tribes.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:08pm On Jun 18, 2015
1) Kidnapping your bride In the Sudanese Latuka tribe, when a man wants to marry a woman, he kidnaps her. Elderly members of his family go and ask the girl’s father for her hand in marriage, and if dad agrees, he beats the suitor as a sign of his acceptance of the union. If the father disagrees, however, the man might forcefully marry the woman anyway.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:10pm On Jun 18, 2015
2) Khweta Ceremony
This Southern African ceremony is
practiced by several tribes and is
how a young boy proves his
manhood. When they are of age,
boys are sent to spend several
days or weeks in a circumcision
lodge during winter, where they’re
put through rigorous and often
dangerous tests and rituals such
as continuous dancing until
exhaustion, and circumcision.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:13pm On Jun 18, 2015
3) Putting a price on the bride
Lobola is an ancient and
controversial Southern African
tradition in which the families of a
bride and groom negotiate how
much the groom must pay for the
bride. All negotiations must be
done in writing — never by phone
or in person. The two families
cannot even speak until
negotiations are complete

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by dnacrystal: 5:14pm On Jun 18, 2015
I'm sure most of these will involve hurting others or themselves. These african traditions.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:27pm On Jun 18, 2015
4) Spitting your blessings
Members of the Maasai tribe in
Kenya and Tanzania spit as a way
of blessing. Men spit on newborns
and say they are bad in the belief
that if they praise a baby, it will be
cursed. Maasai warriors will also
spit in their hands before shaking
the hand of an elder.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:29pm On Jun 18, 2015
5) Bull jumping
In order to prove their manhood in
the Ethiopian Hamer tribe, young
boys must run, jump and land on
the back of a bull before then
attempting to run across the
backs of several bulls. They do
this multiple times, and usually in
the nude.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:34pm On Jun 18, 2015
6) The groom wears a veil
The Ahaggaren Tuaregs of Algeria
are part of a larger group of
Berber-speaking Tuaregs. In their
culture, the men wear veils almost
all the time. However, they can
take their veils off when inside
family camps or while traveling.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:37pm On Jun 18, 2015
7) Women have their own houses
In the Gio tribe in Ivory Coast,
each wife has her own small
house that she lives in with her
children until they are old enough
to move out. The children never
live with their fathers.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:41pm On Jun 18, 2015
8. Women can’t grieve elders
In the Southwestern Congo, the
Suku tribe honors ancestors and
elders, when they die, with a
ceremony held in the clearing of a
forest. Here, gifts and offerings
are brought, but outsiders and all
women are forbidden to attend.

Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:43pm On Jun 18, 2015
9) Sons are raised by their uncles
When male children reach age 5 or
6 in the Northern Angolan
Songo tribe, they are sent to live
with their uncles on their mother’s
side. This is because chiefs inherit
their position through matrilineal
lines.

2 Likes

Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 5:45pm On Jun 18, 2015
10) Wealth is measured by cows In the Pokot tribe in Kenya, wealth is measured by how many cows a family has. Most Pokot people are either “corn people” or “cow people”— meaning that’s what they cultivate on their land — but all Pokot people measure their wealth by cows. The number of women a man can marry is determined by how many cows he has.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 6:22pm On Jun 18, 2015
11) Living with animals The Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania have strict policies against killing wild animals. They keep cattle and livestock, but leave wild animals untouched. In fact, each clan is associated with a specific wild species, which they often keep close to them and treat as a clan member.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 6:24pm On Jun 18, 2015
12) Red sun block
The Himba people of Northern
Namibia cover their skin with a
mixture of butter fat and ochre —
a natural earth pigment containing
iron oxide — to protect
themselves from the sun. For that
reason, the Himba people often
appear to have a red skin tone.

8 Likes

Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 6:27pm On Jun 18, 2015
13) Hunter-gatherers The San People of Botswana, also called Bushmen, are hunter gatherers who were evicted from their ancestral land in the 1950s. They were forbidden to hunt and forced to apply for permits to enter reserves. The San switched to farming but they continued to gather herbs for medication and plants for food. Deprived of the ability to hunt, San numbers dwindled.

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 6:29pm On Jun 18, 2015
14) Beating the suitor
The Fulani tribe live in many
countries in West Africa and follow
a tradition called Sharo. Sharo
happens when two young men
want to marry the same woman.
To compete for her hand, they
beat one another up. The men
must suppress signs of pain and
the one who takes the beating
without showing signs of pain can
take the wife.

11 Likes

Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 6:30pm On Jun 18, 2015
15) A thorough cleansing The Chewa people are one of the largest indigenous groups of Malawi but live throughout Central and Southern Africa. When a person dies, one family tradition involves taking the body into the woods, slitting the throat, and forcing water through the body to cleanse it. They do this by squeezing the corpse’s stomach until what comes out the rear end runs clear.
Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Olamitisoji(m): 6:32pm On Jun 18, 2015
16) Lip stretching
When a girl becomes a teenager
in the Surma tribe of Southern
Sudan, she begins the process of
lip stretching. The girl has her
bottom teeth removed to make
space for a lip plate, which is
increased in size annually.

3 Likes 4 Shares

Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by jerflakes(m): 6:55pm On Jun 19, 2015
Those sudanese ladies though.

They look like they'll kidnap me for ransom if I come to kidnap them for marriage.

3 Likes

Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by McEwen(m): 6:55pm On Jun 19, 2015
cool

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by asumo12: 6:56pm On Jun 19, 2015
That moment when you were sitting alone in the Church and your ex joined you and the Pastor suddenly say; hold your neighbor and say 'i will always love you'

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by youngice(m): 6:56pm On Jun 19, 2015
you forgot to add corruption in nigeria
The process whereby elected government officials proceed to impoverish the masses voted them into power

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by exlink10(m): 6:56pm On Jun 19, 2015
yyyy
Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by gbaskiboy: 6:56pm On Jun 19, 2015
AFREEKA
Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Shehucom(m): 6:59pm On Jun 19, 2015
PROUDLY AFRICAN... But for our backwardness though

1 Like

Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by Jamesclems223: 7:01pm On Jun 19, 2015
Our culture our pride

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by tucky200(m): 7:01pm On Jun 19, 2015
Nawa o
Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by myklangelo(m): 7:02pm On Jun 19, 2015
Only few are fantastic.
To be a man in Africa no be beans...women respect us

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1 Like

Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by tinuolababy(f): 7:02pm On Jun 19, 2015
Following......


Hehehehehe lol @ lip stretching

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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by AREWAINC(m): 7:02pm On Jun 19, 2015
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Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by ihatebuhari(f): 7:03pm On Jun 19, 2015
Thank God for Christianity in Africa

Useless traditions

#team-Western-world

1 Like

Re: 16 Fascinating African Tribal Traditions by OkikiOluwa1(m): 7:03pm On Jun 19, 2015
All weird!

Last Bullet
We cant be proud of these.

3 Likes 1 Share

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