Culture of Africa encompasses and includes all cultures which were ever in the continent of Africa.
The continent of Africa was the birthplace of the hominin subfamily and the genus Homo, including eight species, of which only Homo sapiens survive. Human culture in Africa is as old as the human race, and includes Neolithic (10000 BC) rock engravings , the glacial age petroglyphs (a carving or line drawing on rock, especially one made by prehistoric people) of early hunter-gatherers in the dry grasslands of North Africa, the Nomes of Egypt (3100 BC), and ancient Egypt.
One continent, several worlds
Africa is one continent with several worlds. The continent of Africa covers an area of around 30 million square kilometers, one-fifth of the land mass of the earth, and has more than 50 countries. Its geographical features are diverse – from Tropical Wet or Rain Forest, with rainfall of 250 to 380 centimeters to Tropical Dry areas. Mount Kilimanjaro (height 5895 meters) remains capped with snow all the year round, whereas Sahara is the largest and the hottest desert on the earth. Similarly, Africa has a diverse plant life ranging from scrub, savanna, desert shrub, and a variety of vegetation growing on mountains as well as in the tropical rain forests and deciduous forests.
Like the nature, 800 million people of Africa have evolved a cultural milieu which is a study in contrast and have several dimensions.
Tribes & ethnic groups
Africa is home to innumerable tribes, ethnic and social groups, some representing very large populations consisting of million of people, others are smaller groups of few thousands. All these tribes and groups have cultures which are different, but iterestingly represent the mosaic of cultural diversity as well as the unity of Africa.
Such tribes and ethinic / social groups include Afar, Anlo Ewe , Amhara, Ashanti, Bakongo, Bambara, Bemba, Berber, Bobo, Bushmen / San, Chewa , Dogon, Fang, Fon, Fulani, Ibos , Kikuyu (Gikuyu) , Maasai, Mandinka, Pygmies, Samburu, Senufo, Tuareg, Wolof, Yoruba, and Zulu.
Music & dance
Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are maintained by oral traditions and they are distinct from the music and dance styles of the North Africa and the Southern Africa. Arabic influences are visible in the North African music and dance and in Southern Africa western influences are apparent due to colonization.
Many African languages are “tone languages”, in which pitch level determines the meaning. This also finds expression in African musical melodies and rhythms. A variety of musical instruments are used, including drums (most widely used), bells, musical bow, lute, flute, and trumpet.
African dances are important mode of communication and dancers use gestures, masks, costumes, body painting and a number of visual devices. The basic movements are sometimes simple, emphasizing only the upper body or torso or the feet. Such movements are sometimes complex involving coordination of different body parts. The dances are sometimes performed solo or in small group of two or three persons. Team dances are also performed with various formations, like linear, circular, and serpentine and so on.
With urbanization and modernization, modern African dance and music exhibit influences assimilated from several other cultures.
Art & Craft
Main article: African art
Africa has a rich tradition of arts and crafts. African arts and crafts find expression in a variety of wood carvings, brass and leather art works. African arts and crafts also include sculpture, paintings, pottery, ceremonial and religious headgear and dress.
African culture has always placed emphasis on personal appearance and jewelry has remained an important personal accessory. Many pieces of such jewelry are made of cowry shells and similar materials. Similarly, masks are made with elaborate designs and are important part of African culture. Masks are used in various ceremonies depicting ancestors and spirits, mythological characters and deities.
In most of traditional art and craft of Africa, certain themes significant to African culture recur, including a couple, a woman with a child, a male with a weapon or animal, and an outsider or a stranger. Couples may represent ancestors, community founder, married couple or twins. The couple theme rarely exhibit intimacy of men and women. The mother with the child or children reveals intense desire of the African women to have children. The theme is also representative of mother earth and the people as her children. The man with the weapon or animal theme symbolizes honor and power. A stranger may be from some other tribe or someone from a different country, and relatively more distorted portrayal of the stranger indicates proportionately greater gap from the stranger.
Folklores & folktales
A proverb from Sierra Leone states: “Proverbs are daughters of experience”. Likewise, in essence, folktales and folklores are residue of human experience and a treasury of human values. Folktales provide a look at any culture’s moral and customs. This also applies to African folklores and folktales. It is estimated that there are around a quarter of a million of African folktales[1].
Like all human cultures, Africans folktales and folktales represent a variety of social facets of African culture[2]. Like almost all civilizations and cultures, flood myths have been circulating in different parts of Africa. For example, according to a Pygmy myth, Chameleon hearing a strange noise in a tree cut open its trunk and water came out in a great flood that spread all over the earth. The first human couple emerged with the water. Similaraly, a mythological story from Ivory Coast states that a charitable man gave away everything he had. The God Ouende rewarded him with riches, advised him to leave the area, and sent six months of rains to destroy his selfish neighbors.
Languages & literatures
The continent of Africa speaks hundreds of languages and if dialects spoken by various ethnic groups are also included, the number is much higher. All these languages and dialects do not have same importance: some are spoken by only few hundred persons, others are spoken by millions. Among the most prominent languages spoken are Arabic, Swahili and Hausa. Very few countries of Africa use any single language and for this reason several official languages coexist, African and European.
The language of Africa present a unity of character as well as diversity, as is manefist in the all dimensions of Africa. Four prominent language families of Africa are:
Philosophy
Religions
The traditional religions followed in Africa are grouped under the term animist, and presently followed by around 100 million of Africans.
The Christian faith reached North Africa in the 1st century and spread to Sudan and Ethiopia by the 4th century. The faith still survives in Ethiopia under the form of the Coptic Christian social group. In the 15th century, the Christian faith was again reintroduced in tropical Africa and presently there are around 340 millions Christians on the Continent of Africa.
The Islam, the second most widely followed religion in Africa, had reached the continent in the 7th century from the Mediterranean coast. Over a period of time, Islam spread along the East Coast and the interior areas of West Africa. Today, followers of Islam are found in all parts of Africa and number around 285 million.
Festivals & celebrations
Africa is a continent of festivals and celebrations and they touch all dimensions of life of peoples. Festivals and celebrations mark birth and initiation, courtship and marriage, selection of tribal chiefs, harvest rites, beliefs and worships, and even death, spirit and ancestors.
Food & drink
Africa is a big continent and the food and drink of Africa reflect local influences, as also glimpses of colonial food traditions, including use of food products like peppers, peanuts and corn introduced by the colonizers. The African cuisine is a combination of traditional fruits and vegetables, milk and meat products. The African village diet is often milk, curds and whey – naturally, the Bible has described Ethiopia as the land of milk and honey.
Traditional African cuisine is characterized by use of starch as a focus, accompanied by stew containing meat or vegetables, or both. Cassava and yams are main root vegetables. Africans also use steamed greens with hot spices. Dishes of steamed or boiled green vegetables, peas, beans and cereals, starchy cassava, yams and sweet potatoes are widely consumed. In each African locality, there are numerous wild fruits and vegetables which are used as food. Watermelon, banana and plantain are some of the more familiar fruits.
Differences are also noticeable in eating and drinking habits across the continent of Africa. Thus, North Africa, along the Mediterranean from Morocco to Egypt has different food habits than Saharan Africans who consume subsistence diet. Nigeria and coastal parts of West Africa love chilies in food. Non-Muslim population of Africa also uses alcoholic beverages, which goes well with most African cuisine. The most familiar alcoholic drink in the interior Africa is the Ethiopian honey wine called Tej.
Cooking techniques of West Africa often combine fish and meat, including dried fish. The cuisine of South Africa and neighboring countries have largely become polyglot cuisines, having influences of several immigrants which include Indians who brought lentil soups (dals) and curries, Malaya who came with their curries with spices, and Europeans with “mixed grills” that now include African game meats. Traditionally, East African cuisine is distinctive in the sense that meat products are generally absent. Cattle, Sheep and goats were regarded as a form of currency, and are not generally consumed as food. Arabic influences are also reflected in East African cuisine – rice cooked with spices in Persian style, use of saffron, cloves, cinnamons and several other spices, and pomegranate juice.
Ethiopians lay claim to first regular cultivation of coffee, and they have a sort of coffee ceremony. From Ethiopia coffee spread to Yemen, from there it spread Arab, and from there to the rest of the World.
See also
Last updated: 10-12-2005 19:36:47
