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