Inside Africa: Cultural Diversity

Like I said earlier in the post of March 16, every year on the second Saturday of July, starts the traditional wrestling in the Kabye home town Kara. It is time for the young Kabye to prove they are ready for life, through ritual initiation. The event takes a whole week. What I really want to add to what you already know is indeed something vital related to the event. You need to know that in their existence and in the society or community, the Kabye only identify themselves by generations. And understand a generation here means a group of young people who attended the same wrestling ceremony event. What this means is that the date of birth of a Kabye comes second whereas people would most likely ask you to identify yourself by your wrestling group. And the wrestling groups are identified by people who come on the top of the leader board at the end of the ceremony. If you don’t belong to any group at all, it won’t be easy for you, in some cases, to prove a point or speak your mind in public. People won’t listen to you. That’s why the young Kabye wherever they are, feel Evala ceremony is something they have to accomplish in order to be fully accepted in their community.

Kente cloth is a fabric worn mainly by kings and queens on ceremonial occasions. Today, Kente is worn on various Celebrations: Weddings, Births, Graduations, and Ceremonies to bring in new leaders. Wearing Kente is also an occasion for one who wants to respectfully show his or her African heritage. It is one of the best of all African textiles. Although kente cloth is used in many African countries, The Akan people from Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are the main producers of these materials. Kente is made of cotton. The threads used come in a multitude of colors.

• The majority of Togolese are nowaday converted either to Christianity or Islam. However, many people in Togo still practice their ancient traditions in order to maintain a symbolic link to the land of their origins.
• In some areas called villages there is a ceremony called fire dance, which is practiced by animists. During the dance the dancers throw themselves into the fire without fear, because they trust the power transmitted from their fathers to them. These people have courage to walk on the burning embers. They also hold fire red coals in their hands and pass them over their body without leaving any burn marks on their skin. All this happens Inside Africa.

African names are purely the expression of ethnic and religious roots, and the projection of the dreams of the parents in the future of their children. A name is of a paramount place in African societies.

Many African are named according to their day of birth or according to an event that occurs on the day a person was born. Who does not believe it can ask what my name is and I will tell you.

Actually my name is “Yawo” meaning a male born on Thursday, in the Ewe ethnic group in Togo, Ghana and Benin. A female born on Thursday is then “Yawa”. Note that Yawo can also be spelled “Yao”, “Ayawo” or “Ayao”. Yawa can be Ayawa, Yawavi Yawafe. If in a family a second male is born on Thursday he is called Yawovi, meaning there is another Yawo who is older than he is. In some families there can be a person in the name of Yawogan, meaning the oldest Yawo followed by Yawo and Yawovi if there are three males born on Thursday in that family.

List of Ewe people’s names according to the days of the week:

Monday: female: Adjo (Adzo, Adjogan, Adjovi, Adzogan, Adzovi);

    male: Kodjo, Kodjogan, Kodjovi, Kodzogan, Kodzo, Kodzovi.

Tuesday: female: Abra, Abravi, Abragan, Abla, Ablavi, Ablagan, Abrafe

                Male: Komla, Komlagan, Komlavi, Komlatse

Note that Akan of Ghana name a female born on Tuesday Abena, but Ewe people in the Volta Region of the same country Ghana name their daughter Abra. This means that African names reflect the ethnic groups.

Wednesday: female: Akou, Akouvi’ Aku, Akuvi, Akouwa, Akuwa, Akuwavi….

                     Male: Kokou, Kokouvi, Kokougan, Koku, Kokuvi, Kokutse

Thursday: already mentioned.

Friday: female: Afi, Afigan, Afivi, Afissi

             male: Kofi, Koffi, Kofigan, Kofivi, Kofitse

Saturtay: female: Ama, Amagan, Amavi, Amafe

                Male: Komi, Komigan, Komivi

Sunday: female: Kossiwa, Akossiwa, Koossigan, Kossiwavi

               Male: Kossi, Kossigan, Kossivi, Kossitse

            African Names as projection of dreams or hopes

“Mawulolo” can be male or female in Ewe and it means “God is powerful”

“Akachi” female or male in Igbo, Nigeria, means “the hand of God”

            African names as recall of an event

In Yoruba “ Abidemi” means a male born during the father’s absence.

In Ewe,” Agblessi” is a female born at the farm.

One more important thing to remember about  African culture

is the importance of the name.                                                                                          

In many african cultures if someone ask you what is your name, remember that he or she wants to know if both of you are sharing something in common. Most of the intended answer is the day of birth. In my culture, people who know one another as born on the same day do not call one another by their names. They simply call one another “Doko” meaning “a person born on the same day like myself”

In my culture some parents have their name changed after they give birth to a child.

For instance if a child is named “Peter” his father will be called “Peterto” meaning “Peter’s father”

“Evala” is a traditional festival held  every year from the second saturday of july  in the Kabye region, in the north of Togo and last a week. It is a form of wrestling perfomed by young kabye men to prove that they are ready for adulthood and marriage. Each kabye man ages 18 has to take part of this initiation.  Some weeks before the festival, the young adults are isolated from their families and kept in special places where they are trained physically and psychologically. The wrestlers are in team of five people.  A team which wins the most matches for the rounds wins the round. Family and friends support tthe wrestlers with traditional dances. Whether a wrestler wins or not he is considered adult after the initiation. But the loss of the wrestle is a shame for the family. As culture changes with time, these initiations are now voluntary.

I was once shocked when a coworker asked me “who is the president of A frica?” Another one asked what language we speak in Africa. Africa is a huge continent about three times the United States of America, and is made up of about 34 countries. Each african country has a president. African coutries do not have a common native language. What can be considered as a common language for some african countries is their official language, this means these countries were under the same colonist and they have their colonizer’s language as official language. For instance Togo (my coutry) , Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal were french colonies. Therefore, french is their official language. Togo is one of the smallest countries in Africa but there are about 32 languages spoken in it. Besides french I can speak and write only one of the languages spoken in Togo. I can speak another language but not fluently. There are more than 100 languages spoken in Nigeria.

This image of African men local clothing is retrieved from: http://www.cultureshockonline.com

Culture is a system of life style or attitude that characterizes members of a given community. Therefore, culture varies from place to place. For instance, Africa is a huge continent and there are at least thousand languages spoken. There are also so many tribes, each of which has a specific culture. The way people dress depends on their faith and culture.  There is a style of clothing called ‘traditional clothing’ in Africa. These types of dresses are not mass produced, but are works of outstanding designers and are used on specific occasions. But as culture changes from time to time, these traditional clothings have been replaced  in some circumstances by western clothing introduced by european colonialists.