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The People of Africa
THE MAASAI
The Maasai tribe lives in East Africa. They
primarily occupy Tanzania and Kenya. Their principal activity is
nomadic stock rearing, but today some groups have become farmers.
They have a veritable milk industry, on which most of their food is
based. They tend to be bellicose in defence of the herds, armed with
spears with long slim blade, a straight sword and an oval, leather
shield. Their life is based on the phenomenon of the solar cycles,
that is, day and night, and the changing of seasons. They have
always lived a nomadic life and they live by rearing animals. For
this reason, the presence of vast pastures and deposits of water are
fundamental for their survival. For them, the Earth is sacred and
absolutely must not be cultivated or used to dig wells. Not even
corpses can be buried but instead are left to be eaten by the
animals of the savannah. It is impossible to meet a Maasai warrior
who does not have a perfectly sharp spear. They are very imposing,
very tall, without fat, and pay a lot of attention to their image.
Their clothing seems painted, a picture, the colours are a
fundamental part of it. The clothes that wind the bodies are red and
blue in colour, the men wear the shukà, or a red chequered sheet;
the women, like those of any ethnicity, pay attention to and
decorate their own image in careful detail. They adorn their image
with flat necklaces decorated by rather showy beads and "important"
clasps. A material often used for the ornaments is copper, with
which they form great spirals for the wrists and ankles. Both sexes
apply heavy ornaments to the lobes, which provoke an excessive
stretching of them. The Maasai believe that the rain God Ngai has
given them all the livestock, and therefore whoever possesses
livestock can only have stolen it from them. For many years this was
a cause of contrast among the various tribes. The women wear
their hair shaven and their clothes adorned with beads. The first
years of infancy among the Maasai are lived with carefreeness and
tranquillity. Subsequently, when they have grown a little, the
children have to be able to face daily life; the girls have to know
how to do the housework while the boys have to know how to mind the
livestock. In the Maasai tribe a boy becomes a warrior at 14 and,
after circumcision, as a rite, the boy must live alone in a small
camp for about eight years before being able to return to the
village and get married. Parents can decide the marriage of
their daughter while she is still a child. What is important is that
the groom has some livestock to give in exchange. Both sexes are
circumcised. During the operation the boys are not allowed to cry or
shout, unlike the girls, to whom it is permitted. The Maasai wedding
can happen only if the man is thirty years of age, that is to say,
when he is already a warrior and there is the certainty that he
possesses a certain number of livestock. With regards to food, the
warrior race nourishes itself with small animals such as sheep or
goats. When either of these is killed, no part of the animal is
wasted. Even the hooves and bones are used. The Maasai live in
poor huts built with dried animal dung and branches. It is generally
the women who are responsible for procuring the building material
and for construction. The "buildings" have an ovoid form. On the
outside they are fenced by thorny branches, which serve as
protection from fierce animals. The men are freely bigamous. That is
to say, they can marry how many women they desire. Girls between
nine and thirteen can freely have sexual relations before marriage.
When the woman abandons her father’s house, her father gives her his
blessing spitting a sip of milk on her neck. The girl is not
permitted to look back once she has left the house, because
according to a Maasai legend, if she were to look back, she might
turn to stone. Before the wedding, the girl is introduced to the
man’s relatives, who throw cow dung at her and insult her to make
her stronger and to test her resilience to the difficulties of life.
ZULÙS
The Zulus are a fundamental part of the Ngui people.
They live mainly in Natal. It is a "modern" tribe in the sense that
it has not been a part of the abovementioned tribe for long. It has
had a fundamental role in African history. Initially the Zulus were
a clan of the Mtetwa tribe that belonged to the kingdom of
Dingiswayo.
AKAN
The Akan are a people of Western Africa. They occupy
a large part of the region from the Ivory Coast to Togo. They speak
various languages of the Kwa family, which we can divide into two
groups corresponding to an ancient subdivision of the race. The
families are patriarchal, based on many components gathered in clans
that are both matrilineal and patrilineal; the various tribes are
led by an elective head and today are gathered in loose federations.
The religion of the Akan is animist, even though syncretist rites
and Christianity are very diffused. In this territory secret
societies are present, both male and female, and these have an
important part in society even today. The Akan have an agricultural
economy. Palm plantations are of significant importance. The
traditional dress has vivacious colours and is very decorated. The
traditional houses are rectangular, and consist of three rooms, with
the walls in clay and a straw roof. The art of the Akan has various
styles and themes such as small brass weights, produced using the
technique of "lost wax casting". The weights represent tribal
proverbs and legends. Wood carving is very common. Circular or
rectangular stools are often produced with curved seats supported by
caryatids linked to the cult of ancestors: to receive the homage of
their descendants the souls of the dead returns to sit where they
did when they were alive.
BEDOUINS
Bedouin is the name with which we can define the
arabised nomads who live in the steppes and in the deserts from
Mesopotamia to the Sahara. Their tribe is made up of numerous
patrilineal families with a patriarchal structure. The nomads still
live in camps, made up of the traditional black tents (BEIT) made
from strips of goat wool cloth. The economy of the Bedouins is
pastoral. It is based on the rearing of dromedaries, goats and
horses.
MALAGASY
The Malagasy live in Madagascar and can be divided
into different populations with different features. They have in
common, however, the colour of their skin, which changes tone, and
very smooth hair among the Merinas, while among the more African
groups the hair is rather woolly. Whoever belongs to the Malagasy
people speaks an Indonesian dialect. The official language is
Malagasy, which derives from the Merina dialect. The religion is
based on Christianity, spread by the Europeans. With regards to
dress in the villages, the ancient traditions are still alive, that
is to say, a loin-cloth and a cloak for men, a long narrow dress for
women. The house consists of a single room with two sloping roofs.
TUAREG
The Tuareg are a race of northern Africa found
primarily in the central and southern Sahara. In comparison to the
arabised Berbers, the Tuareg distinguish themselves for their tall
stature, their lanky build, their high, elongated head and round
face, in which an almost aquiline nose stand out, along with eyes
with particular eyelids. Initially this tribe was made up of nomadic
shepherds who subsequently became skilled breeders of camels and
horses. The working of silver and skins is very common, along with
the production of mats, carpets and cloth made form camel wool. The
Tuareg live in tents that are polygonal in form, made from mats or
skins of sheep or goats sewn together. The inside of the tent is
divided into two parts. In one live the head of the family and male
children, in the other their mother and daughters who are not yet
married. With regards to dress, most Tuaregs wear typical
traditional clothes: for the man, a short tunic, wide trousers with
a very low crotch, a long robe and the typical headgear made up of a
red felt cap wound in a great black, white or blue veil with only a
small opening for the eyes; instead women wear a long skirt,
half-hidden by a tunic, and often by a long cloak that covers them
from head to foot. Their face is always uncovered.
Guido Bissanti
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