Ancient African Traditions and Rituals.

PLICC March 20, 2015 Leave a Comment

Congratulations to the staff of StellenboschUniversity and Tygerberg Hospital in Bellville, Cape Town; world’s first successful penis transplant carried out in South Africa.

According to the news reports last week: “Surgeons successfully attach donor penis to 21-year-old man whose own was amputated following a botched traditional circumcision ritual three years ago…”

If it doesn’t benefit us…by developing us, then let’s call it redundant! Any kind of procedure involving operation must be done in hospitals under safe environments.

Exchange of services & trade determines what will stay and what will go. In our continent the same applies; hospitals is where such exchange may occur, …yet superstitions and ancient unchallenged redundant set of beliefs overpower common sense and logic at a cost of young people’s lives.

Do black lives really matter? Because if this is true then it must first matter to us the African people.

How many young boys should die for us to pull the plug on this entire operation? Is 3000 enough? Is 1 good enough?

“One person is worth a million of people.” ~ Re PLICC

If rituals take the lives of our young ladies and young men or disable them in any way or form, why are we not discontinuing those traditions. If we do not protect our own, who will?

Let us take brideprice (also called i-Lobola in South Africa where I’m from for example): it must be known that brideprice was set as a law during the feminine age when women were ruling the world. At the time Africa was leading the world’s civilization. This law of bride price was discriminatory towards poor men, as such in South Africa there are plenty songs which expressed that the beauty and worth of a man lie in his wealth. However today as we pass the masculine age of the European rule, it was clear that such a law of pride price became oppressive towards women; this is the reason why we must discern and adapt the times we live in to protect our generation from suffering. Laws have a way of coming back to bite you when you have lost power, we should remember that!

This bride price an ancient tradition that is practiced all across Africa today is robbing our continent of skills and progress. In Uganda it is even part of the civil laws. There are cases whereby men demand their bride price back if the couple divorce. This can happen after 10-20years of marriage, after a woman has worked as a domestic worker inside her own home and given birth to children and in some cases she has suffered abuse at the hands of her husband.

The main problem was how women find their value in men: “If he has paid so much for me, than I am somebody, I am loved, I am a woman!” Or some woman say… “I do not have to take care of my weight and live a healthy lifestyle because he loves me like this, after all he married me“. Women, time and time again they link their value or worth in the opinions of men about them.

Yet, a woman’s worth is in who she is, not who men say she is. And this is also true for men, their power lies in who they are, not what women say they are. This underlying consciousness or mentality is often translated in business and other areas of a person’s life even worse into our society. One of the professors during my Aerospace MBA here in France, said that for a woman to succeed in business she needs a male mentor, which is off course is another way of saying that women need to be validated by men. A mentor can be either male or female, a mentor depends on an individual chosen career path and role model. When I was still practicing engineering I had male mentors only because they were more males in that career but as a singer today I have both female and male mentors. Women who know who they are, reach greater heights! We need more and more women to just understand that their power comes from within and not outwards from the oppinions of the opposite sex, and we should engrave this in our mind that all careers are genderless.

Many of these ancient traditions were perhaps fitting in the “bhundu years” (ancient times) to a life-style then, when a value of a woman was associated with bearing children increasing a population in production. Nowadays industrialization and technology change the way things are done, even the roles; we too must change with times. Traditions, culture, rituals and customs change or evolve with time.

Respect for women in the older days was high and this should return: cases of rape and assault were unheard of. The toxic masculinity gave men an idea of ownership to women’s bodies. That time is gone, we are in charge now and we will put order back in this world. The value of human-beings in general was differently understood by society during the feminine age but since then life styles have evolved and globalization influence world’s cultures and traditions, us too must change with the times for the better.

European cultures also practiced bride price before around the 1300’s but has since been discontinued as people and lifestyle developed. Direct slavery brought US & Europeans billions of dollars, but today is viewed as barbaric, though European women are still fighting against inequalities in their societies today but inside societies women roles are dirversed as should be. This bride price in the African continent however is still practiced adding to current women inequality battles. It is a corrupted tradition, corrupted by greed, love for money and modern day slavery.

Still today people are always searching for ways to sell human labour as such women and girls get sold to abusers and their future husbands to service them sexually, increase the family and serve as house/home domestic workers. Likewise the sales of all commodities bride price is not free of manipulation which cost millions of women and children their precious lives, such as access to education, especially girlchild. Young girls are married off, as young as 9 in some cases in order for families to gain money.

A human being is priceless, and should never be sold!

~ Re PLICC

People all over the world conceptualize “life” materialistically, including us, Africans. We live in a globalized world, which invites all sorts of corruption to old well meaning customs & rituals. Africa has been isolated for decades now, this results to slow development. Resistance to old ways that are not beneficial isn’t helping our case either. The scarcity of resources and global scramble for resources, high prices for food and clothing live poor countries in vulnerable conditions whereby selling your daughter is mere survival act in African countries where the majority of the population live below the poverty line abnormal choices have become the norm.

Initiation To Adulthood

Young men, also often loose their lives year in and year out in South Africa during this ritual of entering manhood called initiation. Yet the government has not banned this practice completely. When we all know that a circumcised penis does not equate to human transformation (which is real human growth) but only a matter of hygiene, therefore performing this in a hospital environment minimize the risks of lost lives. In reality a child to an adult or a boy into a man growth process is 90% inward process and has less to do outward physical changes; it is the body inside our brain that needs spiritual initiation.

In Kenya and other parts of WestAfrica it is women who go through circumcision which is a female genital mutilation whereby it often include the complete or partial removal of the clitoris, some women loose their lives as well during this ritual as this is done in villages where there is also minimal lighting.

In Malawi the problem is the rites of passage, which occurs in other parts of Africa well. It is an initiation that has lasting trauma even without physical injury. The Malawi Human Rights Commission, a government agency, has reported that initiations impinge on girls’ rights to education, health, liberty, and dignity. Once the young girl understands how to have sex, the girl’s family sends them to “initiation ceremonies” or sex camps. Reports from the Human Rights Commission further reveal that girls as young as six years old are sent to the Malawian sex camps. The Commission further elaborates on some of these rituals, stating that girls are taught a dance known as chisamba “as a way of preparing them for their role of satisfying their husbands in bed,” and that they are made to perform this dance at the end of their initiation “bare-breasted in a very explicit manner as they are being presented to the whole community.” This is to “initiate” them into womanhood. It’s called kusasa fumbi or “sexual cleansing” and requires a hired-man, called a “hyena”, to have sex with the young female; girl’s passage from childhood to adulthood.

Young Malawian girls are taught at an early age that they must have sex in order to “get rid of child dust”. They are lead to believing that if they ignore “sexual cleansing”, they will become diseased or suffer other forms of great misfortune. The fear instilled in the children runs deep. After completing her sexual cleansing, one young Malawian explained,

“There is nothing I could have done. I had to do it for the sake of my parents. If I had refused, my family members could be attacked with diseases – even death – so I was afraid.”

Given that 35% of all pregnancies in Malawi come from teenage mothers and that over 1 in 10 girls have HIV/AIDS, it will come as no surprise that as part of this cultural practice, the Hyena is forbidden to wear a condom during the initiation.

When we say #blacklivesmatter than we must demonstrate that in our conduct. Traditions that are killing us and are taking us backwards must be abondoned.

There are many ways to preserve culture, heritage and history in a way that is not at the expense of the other. Corporal punishment was custom at our schools growing up but today it is seen as barbaric because it inflicted harm on children and scared them away from school, which is contrary to the agenda of governments. Governments want children educated, boys and girls alike.

Virginity Testing

Umkhosi womhlanga is a Zulu tradition and the E-Swatini in Swaziland 🇸🇿 still being practiced today whereby girls and young adults women go through virginity testing. Well, the theories on used procedures to test these young women and girls are shocking and unscientifically tested or proven. Water sometimes is used to indicate whether girls are still virgins or not.Superstitious bamboo theories and so forth. This is also done in open fields not hospitals. In Kwa Zulu Natal fewer girls and parents participate in this ritual over the years, less and less representation is seen. Parents, women and girls are neither convinced nor interested in the outcome of this so called virginity testing tradition and its becoming unclear as to what purpose it meant to serve. Previously parents believed it gave pride to girls to preserve their virginity before marriage and reduced teenage pregnancy. Perhaps this was the case when culturally there were many other traditions that helped to support each other. Traditions and rituals are never isolated, in fact to see proper continuity and returns rituals link to other rituals, traditions and cultural norms. When the world is moving forward in such a high speed, nations form new identities all the time, we must make new rituals that are supported by times and new cultural norms.

The editor in the Times wrote an article explaining this whole concept of virginity testing scientifically, they explained that the hymen is a thin membrane that partly covers the entrance to the vagina. It can sometimes be torn or stretched during sexual intercourse, physical activity, tampon use or medical procedures.

The hymen is a “rim of tissue” that may be more prominent in some women than in others, Dr. Quinlan said: “People who don’t do this for a living don’t understand the anatomy. It’s like earlobes — there are tons of different appearances.”

“You can tell if someone has had a vaginal delivery, but to tell if someone has had vaginal intercourse is not possible,” she added.

Not every girl is born with a hymen, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and “the presence or absence of a hymen does not indicate ‘virginity.’”

The organization does not offer guidance on so-called virginity testing, because it is not medically indicated and is not a valid medical procedure. Virginity testing is unethical and should be banned, as it has no scientific or clinical basis.

Scientists have long condemned so-called virginity testing as a violation of a woman’s rights, as well as a sham procedure unsupported by evidence.

“A virginity exam does not exist,” said Dr. Maura Quinlan, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University in Chicago. “If someone brought me a girl for a virginity exam, I would tell them, ‘I can’t say either way.’”

Sometimes seen in Africa as a qualification for marriage, the sham procedure violates girls’ and women’s human rights. It is an unnecessary and often humiliating and painful exam that can be traumatic and detrimental to psychological well-being.

Parents who want virginity tests are generally those who are deeply uncomfortable about their adolescent having sex, Dr. Potter said: “It probably comes from a place of love and care, but a better strategy would be to create an open dialogue.”

Dr. Quinlan agreed. “The easiest way to find out if someone is a virgin is to ask,” she said. “Talk to your children, develop a relationship of trust with them, and trust them. Teach them from an early age about a healthy sex-positive way to live, and hopefully it will work out.”

Dr. Quinlan added that she was “appalled” by the entire concept. “I thought this double standard, of virginity being the value of a woman, was in the past,” she said.

Conclusion

Humanitarianism, Ubuntu as it is called in South Africa. Ubuntu is humanitarianism it is an ancient African way of life or tradition of encouraging recognition, liberty, respect and a sense of purpose, togetherness, egalitarianism and solidarity.

Connecting words: humanrights, righteousness, equality and inclusiveness. Which includes Respect and Recognition

International Human Rights Day is 10 December. In my birth country South Africa we celebrate Human Rights day on the 21st of March.

We must be able to discuss human/civil rights with our children. Human rights is a knowledge governed by the 9th heaven, it is an honorable part of civilization or global tradition.

White butterflies are associated with this 9th heaven cloud 9 – a wealth freedom: is that consciousness, the first foundation whereby “The Beacon Of Light” (rock of ages) has deeply rooted or built a strong unmovable foundation. Our consciousness is a place where all beliefs resides; belief system are made out of the education system, philosophy teaching, religion, superstitions, illusions, traditions, arts and culture …all resides in the human consciousness (a human soul.) We can change cultural norms and traditions as we move ahead to develop a new beneficial thinking of freedom of which we are free to structure new thoughts 💭 patterns.

consciousness — where reality and imagination meet, where feelings and emotions are processed.

There are numerous other African traditions and customs that are beneficial, positive, customs that are developing, encouraging & inspirational to the people. These are timeless traditions, they are appreciated and even adopted by other cultures. In the Zulu culture for instance we have a tradition of enchanting elders names to one another in a family (called “Izibongo” or “izithakazelo”) in other parts of of Africa they call a person who resite these as a greot.. greots chant these to show recognition, gratitude, appreciation, or encouragement. I for one remember how it made me feel when my grandparents and parents called me by these; it made me proud, confident and I felt that I matter, I count for something, I represent something, someone, a family tree, even a nation.

There are many such traditions that are positive, we know them: they are not sexist but inclusive and they dignify us.

This is Godly! Something that allows children (boys or girls) to flourish, to be fearless, to try new things and be new things. Traditions that are degrading, deforming us and killing our children, shaming our women and #mothers must go.

My people….It is time to live again!

May the peace of God, grace and the sweet sound of the Holy Spirit be with you always!!

#LightConeTheShift

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