Exploring African Rites of Passage

Understanding the African rite of passage is critical to understanding Africa's basic educational system prior to the dawn of colonization and westernization. The fact that many Africans have embraced western cultures and Christianity may account for why Africa appears to remain stagnant while other colonized cultures like India, Japan and China have reason economically outbid maintaining their cultural essence. Welcome to the summon, the African summon, where we connect you to Africa and African culture. Today we'll be having a discussion on the African rite of passage with Dr. Alassimbo Ngincho. Please invite your friends, neighbors and loved ones and join us for this thriller. While you're at it, don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like our videos. and Shay. Welcome doctor. Thank you very much for having me. I would like to ask you to tell us a little bit about what you do and about your people, the people of the Kingdom of Kong. Okay, I am a lecturer of theatre, television and film studies at the University of Gomenda and I'm also a cultural sustainability consultant. I come from the Qom Kingdom, the northwest region of Cameroon, and it's one of the major ethnic groups in the region. And as you can see, I am dressed in the typical Qom outfit. So, what's a rite of passage? A rite of passage, as you can understand, it's a composite word. You have rites, and you have passage. Rites are activities that are usually ceremonial in nature, usually involving spoken words to seen and unseen beings, imploring for protection or asking for favors. And then passage means living from point A to point B. point B. And in the context of rites of passage, it simply means a series of activities that involve social gatherings and spoken words or rituals that mark the passage of an individual from one stage of life to another. Yeah. So that's basically what a rite of passage is. of passage means and this happens in all communities in all societies and it takes different forms but usually in every human society there are benchmarks in a human being's life that are celebrated when you pass from a segment of life to another one a superior one yeah so um what are some of these um types of rite of passage? What kind of stages are celebrated I should say? Yes, usually some communities may have more stages of life that are celebrated than others but usually you have births, you have puberty, you have adulthood and death. These are the four major stages of life that are celebrated. And in Africa, these four stages of life are taken very seriously. Yes. Take, for example, birds. When somebody is born, it means that the family has increased. Birds denote continuity of life, continuity of family lineage, continuity of clan lineage. So it's a joyful occasion. So in some communities, talk about naming ceremony, a social gathering in which the parents of the child are called, the extended family and the community to come and witness the issuing of an identity. to this child usually the name would be from one of the ancestors who was good and they really hope that this child will take after this ancestor and this name also is an identity marker because just from the name you can already tell which family the child is from which community the child is from so it's a ceremony that gives this child an identity and in some communities they have graduated from naming ceremony to child dedication ceremony. This is to say that there is also a spiritual undertone to a child naming ceremony, which means that it is also a process or an occasion in which this child is presented to the ancestors of the family, the clan and the lineage and the gods of the land. Because the community believes that the gods of the land protect them. And the gods need to officially recognize this child. And this child needs to be introduced to them. That please, our numbers have grown. We have a new member. The same protection that you have been giving us. Please, shower it on this child. Let the child grow in health. Let the child prosper. And let the child be of good conduct. Open the child's brain and mind to be able to learn as fast as possible. So. I think birth is a very, very serious occasion in the African context. And the rite of passage that welcomes this child to the world is the very first rite that a human being receives in Africa when he is born. And it's taken very seriously. So tell us about, let's use the birth rather. Yes. Who's involved? Is it just the father and mother? I mean, like in a Western community or how does the African rite of passage, what characterizes this ceremony, say birth or puberty or marriage or death, what happens? I like to talk about the ceremony that helps. an individual to transit from childhood to puberty. I'm saying this because it anchors and touches on some of the fundamentals of the African traditional educational system. This is a ceremony that marks a child transiting from a child maybe usually between the ages of 10 to 13 years from a child to a teenager, which means that the child can now sit at the table, the child can eat with adults, the child can learn the ways of the community and participate in community life. So most of these rights usually have an educational package that comes with it. For example, in some communities, teenage boys are circumcised. right marks their circumcision. Meanwhile, that is the pull of the foreskin from their manhood to make it presentable and usable. And at the same time, they take them to the forest where they spend about seven days of initiation into adulthood. This initiation is in the form of education. What does it entail to be a man? What does it entail to be of good conduct in the society? What does it entail to continue the good deeds of your family and maintain your family name? And what were the exploits of your forebears? And how do you take the relay baton from them? What are the intrinsic values of the community? And how do you advocate and... perpetuate them. So this is a very serious educational system that imbibes boys with the values and the characteristics and the knowledge systems of the community so that they become viable men as per the standards of that particular society. And at the same time, there are spiritual undertones as well as to the the logis and how to commun communicate with the gods the jews and the don'ts what angers the gods and what appeases the gods. They get to know because they're getting into a stage where they will participate in community life and they'll have to also observe some do's and some don'ts in the in the community. Yeah so that's basically it. But this, it's intriguing that you choose the rite of passage from adolescence because this is usually an exclusive club isn't it is it's usually where boys are around a certain age group are taken are separated from the community and actually given education and sometimes their arts and craft they're taught different um skills which they could use as well and yeah but in at the rite of passage for a child uh birth or uh which is sometimes called born house or for a death ceremony There's coming together of an entire community, isn't there? There are lots of people that are all, the community really owns that child. And it's a way where they are being introduced to that community. Tell us a little bit more about that, the establishment of the African community that's brought together around those ceremonies. Yes, usually in Africa, there is a saying that A child belongs to one person only when that child is still in the womb. But once that child is born, that child belongs to the community. That is why the education of the child is a responsibility of the entire community. That is why in Africa and in typical traditional societies, if you see a child doing something wrong, you correct the child. It doesn't matter if it is your own. biological child or not, it doesn't matter if it's your neighbour's child or not, even if you don't know that child, you've never seen that child before, it is incumbent on you to correct that child and set that child on the right path. So the education of the child, as per the African traditional system, is a community thing. That is why it is important that when a child is born, that child is presented to the community. extended family the whole family comes out to see the child and know the name of the child know the identifier of the child so that uh at the end of the day when you see that child on the on the way you know that it is your child it is our child and so if you see that child going wrong it is incumbent on you to correct that child so that is why uh that's where the The commonality of African societies comes in. Yeah, one for all, everybody for one, and so on. So outside of the community being present, are there others who are participating in this ceremony? Or are there things like singing? What else is being done during the ceremony that makes the community involved and not just the two people who gave birth to the child? Yeah, there are two things that involve the whole community. You have singing, dancing, and you have pistachio. But in child naming ceremonies, unlike other ceremonies like death celebrations and so on, where there are masquerade dances and other performances, in child naming ceremonies, singing is reserved for the women because they embody fegundity, fertility. and child upbringing. So all the women in the neighborhood would sing and dance around and carry the child up and present to the community while the men urinate and acknowledge. Yeah, but the whole community enjoys the singing and dancing, even though it's mostly the women that are partaking. But when it comes to the feasting, it's more or less like a common meal that welcomes this child into the world. It's like the child's first birthday party, if you can put it that way. And of course, everybody who partakes in that common meal is really wishing the child good health, good luck and well-being in this rather eventful life, I would say. Similarly, when there is a death, That same community gathers to mourn. Yes. And they need them farewell. That same community gathers. It's not a one-man show. It's not because you gave birth to the family, to the child, so you're alone doing it. Everybody needs to know what has happened and they need to be given a chance to say their goodbyes, to come to terms with. the departure of their loved one to come to terms with the circumstances that have have befallen the community you know yeah tell us what's the the value of a right of passage in africa well rights of passage they're taken very seriously i talk about rights of passage in plural because the every stage of life has a different right of passage that's always that's why i always talk about them in plural but then i think uh they have a triple significance first to help the person concerned or persons concerned but because sometimes it is done in groups like all the adolescents in the community who come together and receive that sacrament if you want to put it in in more modern terms yeah or from a Western perspective. So when they come together, the whole community comes out, first of all, they gain recognition in the eyes of the community. So everybody knows that this person has effectively transcended from this stage of life into this stage of life and henceforth should be addressed differently, should be considered differently and should be respected differently. the kind of expectations from that person also changes because they know that he is now capable of doing A, B, C, or D. So there is this issue of recognition. There is also the issue of self-encouragement, personal courage and fortification mentally to be able to carry out tasks and duties that would be assigned to him in his new stage of life or new age. For example, the package of education that comes with it strengthens him for the next segment of the journey of life ahead. So the person is better prepared. It's like a training session as well. And of course, it also has a spiritual. component because people of a certain segment of life also have a certain routes that they use to connect to the absolute or to the belief systems of the the community which people in an inferior segment of life do not have it's like subscribing to a particular network or to a particular package that offers them uh openings to certain or access to certain knowledge that is not available for people who are not in up to that level and in the segments of life that are celebrated so so it has a lot of significance that's why it's very important whenever you hear that as a ceremony of rite of passage be it child dedication be it uh adulthood be it adolescence or be it marriage or death there is a lot of affluence because recognition also comes with it as well as empowerment yeah help us understand when we talk about a rite of passage often our minds go to the adolescent rite of passage ceremonies in Africa but these The rite of passage is common around the world, isn't it? It's even common in Christendom. Talk to us a little bit about how it is done, maybe in some Western cultures, some Asiatic cultures in Christianity. Just help us so we can see that it's not just exclusive to Africa, but that it's a common thing which people may not recognize when they see it. I think that rites of passage happen everywhere. It's just that... people that practice those things do not understand or do not give them that appellation rite of passage. So you may say rite of passage to somebody who actually knows who has actually participated in those rites but do not know that that is how they are called because this is a coinage from researchers and scholars who are like observers but then the practitioners of these rites do not necessarily call it so. I'll give you an example. Even in Christianity in churches there are rites of passage. For example, when you are baptized you are referred to as born again which means that it is their own sort of welcoming you into the world of christianity and you're talking about so it is a catholic uh religion well i think in it it's not just the catholics with presbyterian with a baptist there is baptism and baptism means being born of water and the spirit so it's not peculiar to catholicism i think yeah and then What is peculiar now could be other rites that the Catholics have that other denominations don't have, like Holy Communion, like Confirmation, and so on. But Holy Orders in the Catholic Church is the same like ordaining pastors in other Christian denominations. It's an important rite of passage, which means that you're passed from a lay Christian to being... a shepherd to your past from from following to leading just like living from a lay catholic christian to becoming a priest you understand and you may understand that all christian domination denominations uh no not all in the catholic church uh being ordained as a priest is the same as getting married because you choose between the two but in other denominations Getting married is a rite of passage because you get married in church and you get recognized differently. And then when you become a pastor, you are ordained. It's another rite of passage. And when I say rites, I say rites come with rituals. Rituals should not be seen from a derogatory perspective. Rituals is everything that is repetitive, that is done in a repetitive manner. If you follow the way a priest is ordained, the same things are done all through. If you follow the way a pastor is ordained, the same things are done all through. So those are some of the rites of passage that people do without understanding that they are rites of passage because it's not necessarily their coinage. Now, in other communities, rites of passage are less affluent than in other communities. For example, in the West, where the sense of the family... is the nuclear family in father, mother and children, and where the sense of community life is less popular. If you go to a child naming ceremony or celebrating the birth of a child, you would see fewer people, maybe reduced to the nuclear family, as opposed to Africa, where it is the business of the entire community, but it's basically the same rights. Yeah, so the same rights are performed, but... the physical nature of how the rites are performed depends on the cultural sphere where it happens but all human communities have this basic rite of passage. Briefly walk us through a marriage rite of passage in Qom, the Qom kingdom where you're from. I know that as he was speaking I was thinking about the fact that the the various rites of passage that occur around a marriage, especially in Africa, you'd find someone gets married according to their native customs. They go to and do another ceremony. They go to church and do another ceremony. So I was kind of intrigued when you started talking about the Christian rites of passage. And I was thinking, okay. When does the person really get married? Is it when they are being given in marriage by their parents? Because even scripture says they will leave their father and mother. And I believe that it is when the family gives them away. So going to court, and that's just one we've not talked about, and going to the civil ceremonies that are equally right. passage and and then the christian ceremonies that surround it but particularly i'd like for you to walk us through the calm rite of passage as briefly as you can to show us what are the things that happen during this beautiful ceremony that make it unique Actually, in Qom, a traditional wedding indicates somebody becoming an adult. You may be 21, you may be 25, you may be 30, but if you are not married, you have not been officially recognized in the society as an adult. And when you get married, there are some considerations that are given to you in public when they're sharing stuff or when they're giving opportunities to people. They know that, OK, you have a wife, you have kids, you have a husband. And it's also a mark of responsibility. You are ready to take responsibility because the way you take care of your family as a woman, as a man, indicates how you'll be able to take care of the public thing if it is given to you. So it's usually taken very, very seriously. The ceremony has several aspects. It has the educational aspects because empresarios in Qom are qualified, they are trained in the ways of the people. So that in the process of the wedding, they play the role of the empresario. play the role of the teacher and they also play the role of the entertainer to keep the public awake and attentive and catch the attention. So they usually inject a lot of jokes and a lot of interesting expressions in their process of being the impresario. And then they practically organize the different sections of the wedding as it progresses and then they take off time at every moment to educate the couple and the crowd on what is being done and the significance of what is being done to the couple and to the community at large so there are for example the moments when the impresario will actually turn around and say okay this is to say that this you two people are together which means that their family issues belong to them do not go to a partner and be telling him things about the other partner you saw him today you saw her there whether they are true or not because it is none of your business because what god has put together let no man put asunder so you There are moments when the brain foofoo and then the lady is supposed to cut some of it and put it in the mouth of the man to demonstrate how capable she is of feeding the man. At the same time, the man will also take some of the food and put it in the mouth of the woman to demonstrate to the public that he is and is going to. feed this woman and take care of her needs and then at the end of which the empresario will also go further to give some tips and bits of what they do and don't of sustaining a fruitful and long-lasting marriage relationship so i think that um marriage income is a package that is full of Knowledge is full of knowledge transmission from generation to generation. Because it's not just about the two people getting married. It's about the community renewing their vows with their spouses. It's about the community understanding certain things. It's about the younger generation understanding what awaits them in the future. Even in terms of the items that need to be brought, the younger people are watching. and they're calculating that when it comes to my turn i should be able to do this and that when so that when their turn comes they should be sufficiently informed about the processes the logistics and everything that goes into such a rite of passage yeah so so that's basically what i can give you for now uh because i'm not really like been intentionally taking note of some of these things but i think there's there's quite some literature now on come traditional weddings which you can find which any listener could also find on the net. Yeah. So thank you so much for that. I just want to ask, is the wedding ring a significant thing in, is it an African traditional symbol of marriage or is it an imported symbol of marriage? Is that part of the rite of passage? To my knowledge, to my knowledge, you know Africa is very vast and multi- cultural yeah the the north of africa is more related to the middle east and then sub-saharan africa is more homogeneous and so on and so forth so there are the cultural varies extensively but to my knowledge i don't know of any african culture that gives any importance to a marriage ring or any material thing that you wear on you to symbolize that you are connected or that you are a partner to another person. I don't think of that because the African believes more in what you have at heart, what you set out to do and what you intend to do on good intentions. They don't believe that an object is an embodiment of what somebody has to do. And what you say, right? In that case, you're professing what you're saying. Your word is your bond. Yes. In Africa, your word is your bond. And honor is one of the greatest values in African societies. What you are known for. That is why... for an African to do something he does not believe in, he may just prefer to die because his honor rests on it. And that is why in Africa we have what we call Gryots. Gryots are basically human libraries who know the history of the community, they know the family lineages, the ancestors and their experience. And the role of the griot is to inform influential people in the community about the exploits of their forebears so that you know that the lineage from which you come is a lineage of honor, exploits, bravery, so that you do not deter from the path of your ancestors, from the path of your ancestors. of your forebears. That is why every king in Africa, I mean every king, has a griot. Sometimes we just look at them, these griots, and think that they are beggars or they are slaves or they are commoners. But they are actually professors in African traditional educational system because each morning when the king gets up and he greets the king, he will recount the life history of the king right to the 10th generation and eulogize on what his ancestors his father before his father before his father this reboots the king and gives him the impetus there's a saying that a lion does not beget a goat so when you understand that you are the son of a lion you have to be a lion you cannot afford to be a goat This goes to the entire community. The system of education through the old people and the grow-outs helps the young people to know where they're coming from, the exploits of their forebears, and where they are going to. That is why in Africa they say, when an old man dies, the whole library has been burnt down. And that was come for you. Doing everything in their own style. I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to join us for our next edition. Do not forget to subscribe to our channel, like our videos and share. And until next time, I am Manondo Akono saying thank you for responding to this sermon.

Please invite your friends, neighbors and loved ones and join us for this thriller. While you're at it, don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like our videos. and Shay. Welcome doctor.

Thank you very much for having me. I would like to ask you to tell us a little bit about what you do and about your people, the people of the Kingdom of Kong. Okay, I am a lecturer of theatre, television and film studies at the University of Gomenda and I'm also a cultural sustainability consultant. I come from the Qom Kingdom, the northwest region of Cameroon, and it's one of the major ethnic groups in the region. And as you can see, I am dressed in the typical Qom outfit.

So, what's a rite of passage? A rite of passage, as you can understand, it's a composite word. You have rites, and you have passage.

Rites are activities that are usually ceremonial in nature, usually involving spoken words to seen and unseen beings, imploring for protection or asking for favors. And then passage means living from point A to point B. point B. And in the context of rites of passage, it simply means a series of activities that involve social gatherings and spoken words or rituals that mark the passage of an individual from one stage of life to another.

Yeah. So that's basically what a rite of passage is. of passage means and this happens in all communities in all societies and it takes different forms but usually in every human society there are benchmarks in a human being's life that are celebrated when you pass from a segment of life to another one a superior one yeah so um what are some of these um types of rite of passage? What kind of stages are celebrated I should say? Yes, usually some communities may have more stages of life that are celebrated than others but usually you have births, you have puberty, you have adulthood and death.

These are the four major stages of life that are celebrated. And in Africa, these four stages of life are taken very seriously. Yes.

Take, for example, birds. When somebody is born, it means that the family has increased. Birds denote continuity of life, continuity of family lineage, continuity of clan lineage.

So it's a joyful occasion. So in some communities, talk about naming ceremony, a social gathering in which the parents of the child are called, the extended family and the community to come and witness the issuing of an identity. to this child usually the name would be from one of the ancestors who was good and they really hope that this child will take after this ancestor and this name also is an identity marker because just from the name you can already tell which family the child is from which community the child is from so it's a ceremony that gives this child an identity and in some communities they have graduated from naming ceremony to child dedication ceremony.

This is to say that there is also a spiritual undertone to a child naming ceremony, which means that it is also a process or an occasion in which this child is presented to the ancestors of the family, the clan and the lineage and the gods of the land. Because the community believes that the gods of the land protect them. And the gods need to officially recognize this child. And this child needs to be introduced to them. That please, our numbers have grown.

We have a new member. The same protection that you have been giving us. Please, shower it on this child.

Let the child grow in health. Let the child prosper. And let the child be of good conduct. Open the child's brain and mind to be able to learn as fast as possible. So.

I think birth is a very, very serious occasion in the African context. And the rite of passage that welcomes this child to the world is the very first rite that a human being receives in Africa when he is born. And it's taken very seriously. So tell us about, let's use the birth rather.

Yes. Who's involved? Is it just the father and mother? I mean, like in a Western community or how does the African rite of passage, what characterizes this ceremony, say birth or puberty or marriage or death, what happens? I like to talk about the ceremony that helps.

an individual to transit from childhood to puberty. I'm saying this because it anchors and touches on some of the fundamentals of the African traditional educational system. This is a ceremony that marks a child transiting from a child maybe usually between the ages of 10 to 13 years from a child to a teenager, which means that the child can now sit at the table, the child can eat with adults, the child can learn the ways of the community and participate in community life. So most of these rights usually have an educational package that comes with it. For example, in some communities, teenage boys are circumcised.

right marks their circumcision. Meanwhile, that is the pull of the foreskin from their manhood to make it presentable and usable. And at the same time, they take them to the forest where they spend about seven days of initiation into adulthood. This initiation is in the form of education.

What does it entail to be a man? What does it entail to be of good conduct in the society? What does it entail to continue the good deeds of your family and maintain your family name? And what were the exploits of your forebears? And how do you take the relay baton from them?

What are the intrinsic values of the community? And how do you advocate and... perpetuate them. So this is a very serious educational system that imbibes boys with the values and the characteristics and the knowledge systems of the community so that they become viable men as per the standards of that particular society.

And at the same time, there are spiritual undertones as well as to the the logis and how to commun communicate with the gods the jews and the don'ts what angers the gods and what appeases the gods. They get to know because they're getting into a stage where they will participate in community life and they'll have to also observe some do's and some don'ts in the in the community. Yeah so that's basically it. But this, it's intriguing that you choose the rite of passage from adolescence because this is usually an exclusive club isn't it is it's usually where boys are around a certain age group are taken are separated from the community and actually given education and sometimes their arts and craft they're taught different um skills which they could use as well and yeah but in at the rite of passage for a child uh birth or uh which is sometimes called born house or for a death ceremony There's coming together of an entire community, isn't there?

There are lots of people that are all, the community really owns that child. And it's a way where they are being introduced to that community. Tell us a little bit more about that, the establishment of the African community that's brought together around those ceremonies.

Yes, usually in Africa, there is a saying that A child belongs to one person only when that child is still in the womb. But once that child is born, that child belongs to the community. That is why the education of the child is a responsibility of the entire community.

That is why in Africa and in typical traditional societies, if you see a child doing something wrong, you correct the child. It doesn't matter if it is your own. biological child or not, it doesn't matter if it's your neighbour's child or not, even if you don't know that child, you've never seen that child before, it is incumbent on you to correct that child and set that child on the right path.

So the education of the child, as per the African traditional system, is a community thing. That is why it is important that when a child is born, that child is presented to the community. extended family the whole family comes out to see the child and know the name of the child know the identifier of the child so that uh at the end of the day when you see that child on the on the way you know that it is your child it is our child and so if you see that child going wrong it is incumbent on you to correct that child so that is why uh that's where the The commonality of African societies comes in. Yeah, one for all, everybody for one, and so on. So outside of the community being present, are there others who are participating in this ceremony?

Or are there things like singing? What else is being done during the ceremony that makes the community involved and not just the two people who gave birth to the child? Yeah, there are two things that involve the whole community. You have singing, dancing, and you have pistachio.

But in child naming ceremonies, unlike other ceremonies like death celebrations and so on, where there are masquerade dances and other performances, in child naming ceremonies, singing is reserved for the women because they embody fegundity, fertility. and child upbringing. So all the women in the neighborhood would sing and dance around and carry the child up and present to the community while the men urinate and acknowledge. Yeah, but the whole community enjoys the singing and dancing, even though it's mostly the women that are partaking. But when it comes to the feasting, it's more or less like a common meal that welcomes this child into the world.

It's like the child's first birthday party, if you can put it that way. And of course, everybody who partakes in that common meal is really wishing the child good health, good luck and well-being in this rather eventful life, I would say. Similarly, when there is a death, That same community gathers to mourn. Yes. And they need them farewell.

That same community gathers. It's not a one-man show. It's not because you gave birth to the family, to the child, so you're alone doing it. Everybody needs to know what has happened and they need to be given a chance to say their goodbyes, to come to terms with. the departure of their loved one to come to terms with the circumstances that have have befallen the community you know yeah tell us what's the the value of a right of passage in africa well rights of passage they're taken very seriously i talk about rights of passage in plural because the every stage of life has a different right of passage that's always that's why i always talk about them in plural but then i think uh they have a triple significance first to help the person concerned or persons concerned but because sometimes it is done in groups like all the adolescents in the community who come together and receive that sacrament if you want to put it in in more modern terms yeah or from a Western perspective.

So when they come together, the whole community comes out, first of all, they gain recognition in the eyes of the community. So everybody knows that this person has effectively transcended from this stage of life into this stage of life and henceforth should be addressed differently, should be considered differently and should be respected differently. the kind of expectations from that person also changes because they know that he is now capable of doing A, B, C, or D. So there is this issue of recognition.

There is also the issue of self-encouragement, personal courage and fortification mentally to be able to carry out tasks and duties that would be assigned to him in his new stage of life or new age. For example, the package of education that comes with it strengthens him for the next segment of the journey of life ahead. So the person is better prepared.

It's like a training session as well. And of course, it also has a spiritual. component because people of a certain segment of life also have a certain routes that they use to connect to the absolute or to the belief systems of the the community which people in an inferior segment of life do not have it's like subscribing to a particular network or to a particular package that offers them uh openings to certain or access to certain knowledge that is not available for people who are not in up to that level and in the segments of life that are celebrated so so it has a lot of significance that's why it's very important whenever you hear that as a ceremony of rite of passage be it child dedication be it uh adulthood be it adolescence or be it marriage or death there is a lot of affluence because recognition also comes with it as well as empowerment yeah help us understand when we talk about a rite of passage often our minds go to the adolescent rite of passage ceremonies in Africa but these The rite of passage is common around the world, isn't it?

It's even common in Christendom. Talk to us a little bit about how it is done, maybe in some Western cultures, some Asiatic cultures in Christianity. Just help us so we can see that it's not just exclusive to Africa, but that it's a common thing which people may not recognize when they see it. I think that rites of passage happen everywhere.

It's just that... people that practice those things do not understand or do not give them that appellation rite of passage. So you may say rite of passage to somebody who actually knows who has actually participated in those rites but do not know that that is how they are called because this is a coinage from researchers and scholars who are like observers but then the practitioners of these rites do not necessarily call it so. I'll give you an example. Even in Christianity in churches there are rites of passage.

For example, when you are baptized you are referred to as born again which means that it is their own sort of welcoming you into the world of christianity and you're talking about so it is a catholic uh religion well i think in it it's not just the catholics with presbyterian with a baptist there is baptism and baptism means being born of water and the spirit so it's not peculiar to catholicism i think yeah and then What is peculiar now could be other rites that the Catholics have that other denominations don't have, like Holy Communion, like Confirmation, and so on. But Holy Orders in the Catholic Church is the same like ordaining pastors in other Christian denominations. It's an important rite of passage, which means that you're passed from a lay Christian to being...

a shepherd to your past from from following to leading just like living from a lay catholic christian to becoming a priest you understand and you may understand that all christian domination denominations uh no not all in the catholic church uh being ordained as a priest is the same as getting married because you choose between the two but in other denominations Getting married is a rite of passage because you get married in church and you get recognized differently. And then when you become a pastor, you are ordained. It's another rite of passage. And when I say rites, I say rites come with rituals.

Rituals should not be seen from a derogatory perspective. Rituals is everything that is repetitive, that is done in a repetitive manner. If you follow the way a priest is ordained, the same things are done all through.

If you follow the way a pastor is ordained, the same things are done all through. So those are some of the rites of passage that people do without understanding that they are rites of passage because it's not necessarily their coinage. Now, in other communities, rites of passage are less affluent than in other communities.

For example, in the West, where the sense of the family... is the nuclear family in father, mother and children, and where the sense of community life is less popular. If you go to a child naming ceremony or celebrating the birth of a child, you would see fewer people, maybe reduced to the nuclear family, as opposed to Africa, where it is the business of the entire community, but it's basically the same rights. Yeah, so the same rights are performed, but...

the physical nature of how the rites are performed depends on the cultural sphere where it happens but all human communities have this basic rite of passage. Briefly walk us through a marriage rite of passage in Qom, the Qom kingdom where you're from. I know that as he was speaking I was thinking about the fact that the the various rites of passage that occur around a marriage, especially in Africa, you'd find someone gets married according to their native customs. They go to and do another ceremony. They go to church and do another ceremony.

So I was kind of intrigued when you started talking about the Christian rites of passage. And I was thinking, okay. When does the person really get married? Is it when they are being given in marriage by their parents?

Because even scripture says they will leave their father and mother. And I believe that it is when the family gives them away. So going to court, and that's just one we've not talked about, and going to the civil ceremonies that are equally right.

passage and and then the christian ceremonies that surround it but particularly i'd like for you to walk us through the calm rite of passage as briefly as you can to show us what are the things that happen during this beautiful ceremony that make it unique Actually, in Qom, a traditional wedding indicates somebody becoming an adult. You may be 21, you may be 25, you may be 30, but if you are not married, you have not been officially recognized in the society as an adult. And when you get married, there are some considerations that are given to you in public when they're sharing stuff or when they're giving opportunities to people. They know that, OK, you have a wife, you have kids, you have a husband. And it's also a mark of responsibility.

You are ready to take responsibility because the way you take care of your family as a woman, as a man, indicates how you'll be able to take care of the public thing if it is given to you. So it's usually taken very, very seriously. The ceremony has several aspects.

It has the educational aspects because empresarios in Qom are qualified, they are trained in the ways of the people. So that in the process of the wedding, they play the role of the empresario. play the role of the teacher and they also play the role of the entertainer to keep the public awake and attentive and catch the attention.

So they usually inject a lot of jokes and a lot of interesting expressions in their process of being the impresario. And then they practically organize the different sections of the wedding as it progresses and then they take off time at every moment to educate the couple and the crowd on what is being done and the significance of what is being done to the couple and to the community at large so there are for example the moments when the impresario will actually turn around and say okay this is to say that this you two people are together which means that their family issues belong to them do not go to a partner and be telling him things about the other partner you saw him today you saw her there whether they are true or not because it is none of your business because what god has put together let no man put asunder so you There are moments when the brain foofoo and then the lady is supposed to cut some of it and put it in the mouth of the man to demonstrate how capable she is of feeding the man. At the same time, the man will also take some of the food and put it in the mouth of the woman to demonstrate to the public that he is and is going to.

feed this woman and take care of her needs and then at the end of which the empresario will also go further to give some tips and bits of what they do and don't of sustaining a fruitful and long-lasting marriage relationship so i think that um marriage income is a package that is full of Knowledge is full of knowledge transmission from generation to generation. Because it's not just about the two people getting married. It's about the community renewing their vows with their spouses. It's about the community understanding certain things.

It's about the younger generation understanding what awaits them in the future. Even in terms of the items that need to be brought, the younger people are watching. and they're calculating that when it comes to my turn i should be able to do this and that when so that when their turn comes they should be sufficiently informed about the processes the logistics and everything that goes into such a rite of passage yeah so so that's basically what i can give you for now uh because i'm not really like been intentionally taking note of some of these things but i think there's there's quite some literature now on come traditional weddings which you can find which any listener could also find on the net. Yeah. So thank you so much for that.

I just want to ask, is the wedding ring a significant thing in, is it an African traditional symbol of marriage or is it an imported symbol of marriage? Is that part of the rite of passage? To my knowledge, to my knowledge, you know Africa is very vast and multi- cultural yeah the the north of africa is more related to the middle east and then sub-saharan africa is more homogeneous and so on and so forth so there are the cultural varies extensively but to my knowledge i don't know of any african culture that gives any importance to a marriage ring or any material thing that you wear on you to symbolize that you are connected or that you are a partner to another person.

I don't think of that because the African believes more in what you have at heart, what you set out to do and what you intend to do on good intentions. They don't believe that an object is an embodiment of what somebody has to do. And what you say, right? In that case, you're professing what you're saying.

Your word is your bond. Yes. In Africa, your word is your bond.

And honor is one of the greatest values in African societies. What you are known for. That is why...

for an African to do something he does not believe in, he may just prefer to die because his honor rests on it. And that is why in Africa we have what we call Gryots. Gryots are basically human libraries who know the history of the community, they know the family lineages, the ancestors and their experience. And the role of the griot is to inform influential people in the community about the exploits of their forebears so that you know that the lineage from which you come is a lineage of honor, exploits, bravery, so that you do not deter from the path of your ancestors, from the path of your ancestors. of your forebears.

That is why every king in Africa, I mean every king, has a griot. Sometimes we just look at them, these griots, and think that they are beggars or they are slaves or they are commoners. But they are actually professors in African traditional educational system because each morning when the king gets up and he greets the king, he will recount the life history of the king right to the 10th generation and eulogize on what his ancestors his father before his father before his father this reboots the king and gives him the impetus there's a saying that a lion does not beget a goat so when you understand that you are the son of a lion you have to be a lion you cannot afford to be a goat This goes to the entire community. The system of education through the old people and the grow-outs helps the young people to know where they're coming from, the exploits of their forebears, and where they are going to. That is why in Africa they say, when an old man dies, the whole library has been burnt down.

And that was come for you. Doing everything in their own style. I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to join us for our next edition. Do not forget to subscribe to our channel, like our videos and share.

And until next time, I am Manondo Akono saying thank you for responding to this sermon.

Transcript for:Exploring African Rites of Passage

Transcript for:
Exploring African Rites of Passage