Across Africa, tribal communities maintain practices that have come to shape their respective cultures; traditions that have been passed down over centuries, even millennia.
From San healing dances to Xhosa initiations, from Hamar bull jumping to Bodi beauty pageants, there is no shortage of incredible traditions to inspire wonder.
GEREWOL AMONG THE WODAABE
At the end of the rainy season near Lake Chad, in the north of Niger, the Wodaabe gather for the Cure Salee, the "Festival of the Nomads". At the center of the celebrations is the Gerewol, a male beauty pageant and courting ritual. The young men - traditionally shepherds - wear full makeup, jewelry and their best clothes and line up to await inspection from female spectators. White teeth and white eyes are very popular, so participants will smile widely and make all kinds of expressions in the hope of attracting attention. It's mass flirting, hoping to win a night of passion with one of the judges.
OTJIZE AMONG THE HIMBA
The women of the semi-nomadic Himba tribe in northern Namibia are famous for their red hair and complexions. This is the result of otjize, a paste of butter, fat and red ocher, applied daily to their hair and skin. It was once assumed that otjize served as protection against the sun and insects, but women say this is purely for aesthetic reasons – which makes sense, given that Himba men do not participate in the practice.
LIP STRETCHING IN MURSI
Circular lip plates called dhebi a tugion are worn by some Mursi women near Jinka, Omo Valley, Ethiopia. They are one of the few tribes who continue this practice in East Africa, but archaeologists have discovered lip plates in the region going back 30,000 years, says anthropologist Jerome Lewis of University College London. “It’s a body modification that people find beautiful,” he says. “It’s also very striking and a distinctive way of marking your difference from other people around you.”
The lower lip is pierced with a wooden dowel, which is then replaced by larger dowels. Once the hole is large enough, the first in a series of ornamental ceramic saucers is inserted, stretching over a period of years - one example from the neighboring Surma tribe was 19.5cm wide .
THE BULL'S LEAP AMONG THE HAMAR
Shepherds become hedge herders in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Young men from the Hamar tribe, one of the valley's many tribes, prove their manhood by jumping on prized bulls and running on their backs, while naked. The goal ? It is a coming-of-age ceremony, and only when the participant has passed through the bull enclosure four times will they be allowed to marry. If you slip, you risk a sudden fall: "Because it is a ritual of initiation into manhood, [failure] is likely to affect one's perception of manhood and this can of course have all kinds of disastrous consequences,” adds Dr. Lewis.
ULWALUKO AMONG THE XHOSA
In the Eastern Cape, South Africa, young Xhosa men participate in a coming-of-age initiation called Ulwaluko. The youngsters, called abakhwetha, are first circumcised without anesthesia, before being sent away from their village and into the bush, with minimal supplies and wrapped in a blanket. Wearing white clay on their faces, initiates will get by for up to two months, living in a structure built by the village's adult community specifically for Ulwaluko. When they return, they are no longer called "boy" and are given a new blanket. The initiation has not been without criticism, due to complications and poor practices surrounding the circumcision process.
MATRIARCHY AMONG THE CHEWA
The women of the Chewa tribe may not be quite on equal footing with the men, but they hold the key to one thing: inheritance. Descent and succession for the Bantu-speaking tribe, spread across Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique, is matrilineal, with property and land inherited from their mothers. “Although inheritance is passed down through the female line, which certainly gives women more power in society, it is still male-dominated and patriarchal in the sense that men are always at the pinnacle of power,” explains Lewis. “People think that matrilineal societies are somehow favorable to women – and they certainly are more so than some of the extreme patrilineal societies – but they are not societies that give women equal power.”
Chewa women are excluded from the Nyau brotherhood (pictured), a secret society that can channel spirits and perform a ritual dance called Gule Wamkulu around the harvest, at weddings and funerals.
SPITTING IT AMONG THE MAASAI
Spitting is an essential part of East African Maasai life, as it acts as a blessing. “People have different opinions about where someone’s power and essence lies,” says Lewis. For some, “spit represents the essence of the person.”
Spitting is "a way of blessing people by giving something of yourself; your own power to someone else." It starts from a very young age, when newborns are spit on to wish them a good life. “If you leave a place, the elders will come and spit on your head to bless your departure, and to tell you that whatever you do, you are safe and well preserved,” adds Mr. Lewis.
SAN HEALING DANCE
The San of South Africa, Botswana, Angola and Namibia are, according to some researchers, the oldest people in the world. Their hunter-gatherer culture dates back tens of thousands of years, and trance dance, also known as healing dance, is an integral part of it. Historically, this practice, which lasts all night, brings together the entire community, led by healers and elders who dance around a fire, sing and breathe deeply until they induce a trance-like state. It offers the possibility of communing with the ancestral spirits of the deceased and for healers, of curing the illnesses of other dancers.
According to Lewis, this tradition is under threat: "In some places in southern Africa, the San now practice their traditional culture exclusively for tourists, because they have been driven out of all their hunter-gatherer territories by conservation organizations . This means that by extension... these representations are not the original initiations but a facsimile of them.
LOBOLA AMONG THE BANTUS
Lobola is a feature of the matrimonial affairs of many Bantu-speaking tribes of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, practiced among others by the Zulus (photo). Lobola is also called "bridalwealth", that is to say that the family of the future groom negotiates with that of the bride to obtain her hand. Dowry comes in many forms, including money, but some choose livestock. In 1998, it was reported that Nelson Mandela (of Thembu lineage) paid marital lobola of 60 cows to the family of his new wife Graca Machel.
“This is the cause of much strife,” says Lewis, “because for a man to marry he often has to provide quite a large head of cattle, and so he is under indentured labor with his father until that the herd he takes care of is large enough.” In societies that are based on livestock, men tend to marry in their mid-40s, he adds, explaining that "there is always a backlog of women who are available but who cannot marry" because men of a similar age have not yet raised the required nobility.
“THE TANGELMUST” AMONG THE TOUAREG
The Tuaregs are the only tribal communities in which men wear the veil instead of women. The tangelmust, a wrapped headdress up to eight meters long, is ubiquitous among the "blue men of the desert." The name does not refer to the muslin headdress, dyed with indigo, but rather to the fact that the dye gradually seeps into the skin of the wearer. The Tuaregs use the tangelmust for practical reasons: it protects from the sun and sand, but the men always wear it at night, and even during meals. Men cover their faces with tangelmust in front of strangers and women, while women are free to show their faces.
THE SHOW ON KA'EL'S OBESITY AMONG THE BODI
Every year, in June or July, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, Ka'el, the Bodi lunar new year, takes place. It is accompanied by an extraordinary spectacle. In the months leading up to the event, the men live in isolation and drink a mixture of cow's milk and cow's blood to excess for months in order to become very bloated and overweight. Each clan will then present a single man to compete for the title of fattest man - and with glory, the greatest chance of finding a wife. With bloated stomachs, balance and fatigue can be an issue, but once the event is over, competitors return to normal size within a few weeks.
RECYCLED JEWELRY AT THE DASSANECH
“It's important to remember that tradition doesn't mean 'the same thing,'” Lewis says, “cultures adapt and add elements all the time.” A prime example is the Dassanech tribe, another group living in Ethiopia's Omo Valley, bordering Kenya. Waste of all kinds, but especially bottle caps, began to be recycled by the Dassanech women, who weave the metal caps into vibrant headdresses. Other women have adapted broken watches and trinkets for similar purposes - and a sure way to get noticed.
