FUNERALS AND

FESTIVALS SLIDES 36-67

LIFE CYCLE EVENT (RITES OF PASSAGE)

• Africa has diverse ethnic groups, languages, rituals, and cultural practices. Cultural beliefs
and practices find expression through rituals, which existed before contact with the
Western world

• All over Africa, and; in fact, all over the World, significant rituals and ceremonies are, with
varying degrees of intensity and seriousness, performed at thie major turning points of a
man's life (Sarpong, 1974).

• The various rites through which societies effect transitions in an individual's life from one
social identity to another [include] celebrations of crises in the life cycle is termed as rites
of passage.
LIFE CYCLE EVENT (RITES OF PASSAGE)

• Bernard and Spencer (1997: 409) define rites of passage as the ways that
human beings indicate transformation from one status to another or passage
of calendrical time

• Discourses concerning the beginning of life, ie, pregnancy and the periods
surrounding it, are filled with rituals and cultural practices (Van Beek 2002).
LIFE CYCLE RITUALS (CONT.)

• Life circle rituals/ rites of passage/ rites of initiation. Are groups of rituals which celebrate
transition from one phase in the life of an individual or a community to another" (Gennep,
1960)

• Rituals and or cultural practices are deeply embedded with rites of passage at varied stages
of a person's life: pregnancy, birth, naming ceremonies, puberty/adolescence, marriage,
death, and burial (Nwadiokwu et al. 2016;Ehimuan 2021).

• "Ceremonies cluster around the great crisis of life, or periods of transition from one status
to another, notably birth, puberty, marriage and death" (Fairchild(1965)
RITUALS IN RITES OF PASSAGE

• The performance of a particular rite of passage would mean that the person
involved has passed from one stage to the other, and since the African
universe is a religious one, all rites of passage have religious undertones

• All stages of life in Africa are ritually celebrated

• The two most important times in a person's life are the birth and death of
the person; both events are marked with symbolic rituals.
RITUALS IN RITES OF PASSAGE

• Ritual as "a means to negotiate a responsible relationship in the human

community, with the ancestors, spirits, divinities, and cosmos (Laura Grillo,
2012).

• • Rituals in African cosmology are "symbolic, routine, and repetitive

activities and actions through which we make connections with what we
consider to be the most valuable dimension of life (Kyalo, 2013).
RITUALS IN RITES OF PASSAGE

• In the African context, the rituals connect us to our ancestors and therefore give meaning
to our existence

Ritual does not only unite people to a community of shared values, but it al connects the
body and mind, as well as emotions (Kyalo, 2013).

Kyalo (2013) categorised rituals into two types: (1) rites which are linked to the human life
cycle: namely; beginning of life (birth), marriage, and human crises, e.g illness and end of life
(death); (2) rites connected to fixed events, which can be either yearly or historical events.
RITUALS IN RITES OF PASSAGE

• In Zambia "rituals, traditions, and beliefs still have-an-important position in

constructing social gender, cultural, moral rules and taboos" (Honkavuo
2021).
PREGNANCY RITUALS

• Celebration of a new entrant to the community begins with conception, and pregnancy is
indicative of a new member of the family and society; hence, birth rituals start with the
pregnant woman (Nwadiokwu et al. 2016).

• maintains that it is a rite of separation of the child from the world of the ancestors and
incorporation into the world of human beings (Metuh,1985).

• • It is generally believed that children have come from the divine with a message for the
community, consultations with diviners helps the community to know the message the
child has brought and if possible to take precaution when necessary (Ezenweke (2012).
PREGNANCY RITUALS

In many cultures, pregnant women observe different rituals or taboos that aim to
protect the mother of the child from perceived evil attacks.

• The taboos range from wearing protective bracelets to avoiding certain foods.

• Dietary prohibition or proscription were reported to have protective benefits in

Southern Cameroon (Elom, 2019) and among the Maasai-Kenyan women (Mpoke
& Johnson 1993).
PREGNANCY RITUALS (EMPIRICAL STUDY)

• Zambian women's experiences of cultural - and traditional health beliefs about pregnancy
and childbirth;

• Honkavuo (2021), in addition to prayers, women wore a protective band around the
waist to wall off evil spirits.
• Women avoid fish, birds' eggs, and meat during pregnancy while fruits and vegetables,
shima (nutrient deficient cornmeal), and rice are recommended.
PREGNANCY RITUALS

• • In Abamba (Kenya), it is prohibited for pregnant women to eat beans, fat, and the meat of
animals slaughtered with poisoned arrows during the last trimester of pregnancy.

• Maasai women increased their water intake, and they also take bitter herbs and roots to
induce vomiting. It is believed that this purifies the woman's bloodstream and cleans her
stomach (Mpoke and Johnson 1993).

• Contrastingly, among the Ika tribe of Nigeria, expectant women can eat any food of their
choice unless advised by elders or medical practitioners (Nwadiokwu et al. 2016).
PREGNANCY RITUALS

• "Culturally-defined ideal childbirth'. Based on their two anthropological

studies conducted in Madagascar, characterised by avoidance of stillbirth
or caesarean section, the baby not too thin or too big, and socially
and financially inexpensive. Women achieve this by avoiding food like sweet
potatoes, bananas, fatty foodstuffs such as peanuts, and salt, particularly in the
third trimester (Pourette et al. 2018).
PREGNANCY RITUALS (PLACENTA)

• In Western medicine, the human placenta is typically viewed as just human waste.
However, in many African societies, the umbilical cord and placenta are viewed as holders
of extraordinary power (Adamson 1985).

• The burial of the umbilical cord and placenta is believed to restore a woman's fertility,
bring about healing of the womb, and preserve the future of the newborn.
PREGNANCY RITUALS

• The placenta is referred to as a "traveling companion" which assists the ushering of the
new baby from one world to the nexf(Cooper 2019)

• For the Ugandans, the placenta is regarded as another baby and therefore given formal
burial (Beinempaka et al. 2015)

• In Kenyan Luo cosmology, the left side relates to vulnerability and impermanency while the
right side indicates authority and permanency . Consequently, the placenta of a female
infant is buried on the left-hand side of her mother's house, while the placenta of a male
infant is buried on the right-hand side.
PREGNANCY RITUALS

• The longa people of Zambia. Depending, on the clan, it can be buried under
the mupund tree, on the veranda of the family hut, or at its centre .The
mupundu tree is known as fertility tree, hence its link with women's fertility.
Using the mupundu tree as a placenta burial site illustrates the connection
between nature and birthing (Siwila, 2015).This act is symbolic as it is "a way
of evoking the spirit world through nature to continue blessing the womb of
the woman so that she can be as fruitful as the mupundu tree" (Siwila, 2015)
PREGNANCY RITUALS

• The Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria and the Ghanaians consider the placenta as
the deceased twin of the newborn and they bury it mostly under a tree, as
trees symbolize ongoing life.

• In Ghana, burying the placenta at home is a way of preserving the child's

destiny (Adatara et al. 2019).
PREGNANCY RITUALS

• In Mali, it is believed that the placenta can influence the child's' mind-set or
even make the child [Link], the placenta is washed, dried, put in a
bowl and buried by the man of the house.

• The placenta is highly revered in most African societies because of its

biological and spiritual connection to a child's life cycle.
LIFE CYCLE RITUAL STAGES

• In every rite of initiation, four stages can be mapped out: preparation ,

separation, transition and reincorporation.

• Preparatory stage, one learns the basic skills and responsibilities associated
with the new status to which they hope to move into.

• The separation stage marks the separation of the participants from their
usual social setting, to mark a departure from the past.
. LIFE CYCLE RITUAL STAGES

• The transition stage is a stage dominated by ceremonies that marks the

movement or transition.

• The reincorporation stage confirms one's new status, with the rights,
privileges and responsibilities.
STAGES OF LIFE CYCLE (GENNEP, 1960)

• Bell (1997) refers to rites as 'coming-of-age' and agrees with Arnold van Gennep (1960),
who talks of the three stages or characteristics in initiation: An initial stage/stages in
individual's life

• ;Separation, in which the individual is divorced from his familiar environment.

• Transitional stage, in which the old identity is destroyed and a new one created.

• Incorporation, in which one is reintegrated into society in his new role/environment.

SEPARATION STAGE

• Separation:This stage comprises the, symbolic behavior, signifying the

detachment of the individual from an earlier phase in the social community
or structure.
Rasing (1995: 35) 'the initiates are geographically separated and it was symbolic
that groups to be initiated were separated from one world to the other' (Can
be separated from a particular world, group or state).
Skhakhane (2000) confirms that, 'initiates would be taken to some remote
place which was referred to as 'sacred place' and this period is emphasized
through a very strict observance of secrecy'.
TRANSITIONAL STAGE

• Puberty rites were given prime importance and therefore more attention.

• This transition meant that an individual was graduated from one state to the
next (Skhakhane, 2000).

• The second stage in a rite of passage, the "in-between" time in which the
participant has lost his old identity, but has not yet been fully reincorporated
into the community with a new identity.

• Frequently a period of confusion, testing, education which can be described as

"a period of indeterminate identity, full of ambiguity and paradox".
TRANSITIONAL STAGE

• During this stage boys and girls were prepared for marriage which according
to Mbiti (1973:47), was viewed as a sacred institution’
• Initiates had to learn to submit to an authority that represented the whole
community.
TRANSITIONAL STAGE

Ritual dislocation of the self may involve one of more of the following:
• dying symbolically
• * mutilation of self
• + losing name, language
• * disguise
• * behavioural reversals
• Frequently involve ordeals of a physical or mental nature:
• • * beating *sleep deprivation * fasting*circumcision *ordeals and tests
INCORPORATION STAGE

• This marked the last stage of the initiation.

• The initiates were taken back to the community from isolation and feasts and
ceremonies were organized and this meant that the initiates were integrated
into the community.
• It also meant that they had shed off their childhood behavior and were r
ready to take up adulthood roles
INCORPORATION (CONT)

• * Often dancing or an exchange of gifts.

• Whole community participates, centring on new initiate or newly married pair.

• Receive emblems of new status, such as jewellery, new clothing, or new names.

• Ritual often involves individuals, immediate family, and larger community

DISCUSSION

• BIRTH
• PUBERTY/ADOLESCENCE
• MARRIAGE
• DEATH
• Gennep's (1960) perspective67