African Traditional Institutions
• Overview
• Kinship
• Forms of Marriage
• Non-kinship Groups
• The Individual in African Society
• Family Life and Socialization
• Traditional Religious Beliefs
• Religion As a Way of Life
• Politics and Government
Kinship
• Consanguine Relationship
– Blood relationship
– Four ways descent is determined (lineage)
•
Patrilineal (most common)
•
Matrilineal
•
Duolineal/bilineal
• Descent is important
– Determines inheritance and identity
• Affilial Relationship
– Through marriage
– More significant in Africa than in the West
– Africans get married to have a family
•
Large families are powerful
• Bridewealth
– Items of value are transferred from the grooms family to the family of the bride
(not a dowry)
• Why?
– Gratitude, compensation, patrilineal guarantee, strengthen family ties
Forms of Marriage
• Polygamy
– More than one spouse
•
Polygany – 1 husband, 2 or more wives (practiced in Africa)
•
Polyandry – 1 wife, 2 or more husbands
• Monogamy
• Why Polygany?
– Chance for women to get married
– Economic
– Insurance policy
– Care of family
– Family name
– Social prestige
• Surrogate Marriage
– Found among the Zulu of southern Africa
– Women who are unable to have children gives bridewealth and marries a woman
and has full control of her offspring
• Ghost Marriage
– Practiced by the Nuer of Sudan and the Zulu
– If the only male heir of his family dies before he is actually married, a marriage is
conducted between the woman and his ghost and the woman is impregnated by the
dead man’s relative
Non-Kinship Groups
• Age-Grades
– Social organization consisting of several age-sets
•
Age-sets are collections of males in a village that are about the same age
•
They go through rites of passage together
–
Initiations, circumcision
• Guilds
– Social organizations based on acquired or inherited skills like hunters, farmers,
musicians, fishermen
Non-Kinship Groups
• Ritual elders
– Held in high regard for their powers and healing abilities
– Rain makers, mediums, medicine people
The Individual in African Society
• Group is paramount
• An individuals action reflects on the group
• Initiations
– Passage to adulthood
•
Circumcision
•
Scarification
Family Life And Socialization
•
•
Family Life
–
Large families are highly valued
–
Traditional Africa was sex-typed
Socialization
–
Family
•
Young learned by observing
–
Peers (potty training)
–
Extended Family System
•
–
Elders were revered and watched after the young
Rituals (circumcision)
Religious Beliefs
• Religion
– Set of beliefs and practices related to sacred things that unites adherents into a
single moral community
• Major Religions of Africa
– Christianity
– Islam
– Indigenous or traditional religions
Traditional Religious Beliefs
• Belief in God
– Supreme being who created the universe and everything in it
– Yoruba people of Nigeria
•
Supreme being supported by smaller deities
–
Prey to the gods for specific functions
• Belief in Spirits (life force)
– Nature spirits
• Sky and earth objects
– Human spirits
• Deceased ancestors
• When living things die, the spirit remains
• Belief in Ancestors
– Act as intermediaries between God and the living
– Same concept as guardian angels
– Bad spirits (witchcraft)
• Religion as a Way of Life
– Practiced in every day living
Politics And Government
• Segmental Systems
–
Decentralized or “stateless” systems of government
–
Power sharing without a powerful political figure
–
Kikuyu of Kenya and Ibo people of Nigeria are examples
• Hierarchal Systems
–
Highly centralized and has a powerful king or chief
–
Buganda kingdom of Uganda is an example
• Pyramidal Systems
–
Consists of different levels of autonomous segmental groupings each with a chief
or king
–
Yoruba people of western Nigeria with each level run by an Ewe or Oba (king)