CULTURE AND CONFLICTS IN AFRICA
What is a Culture?
An Anthropologist’s definition:
"Culture
consists of the abstract values, beliefs, and perceptions of the world"
that shape people’s behaviors and are reflected in those behaviors."
Shared by members of a society, "[c]ultures are learned, largely through
the medium of language, rather than inherited biologically, and the parts of a
culture function as an integrated whole."
"People
maintain cultures to deal with problems or matters that concern them. To
survive, a culture must satisfy the basic needs of those who live by its rules,
provide for its own continuity and an orderly existence…,"
"strike a
balance between the self-interests of individuals and the needs of the society
as a whole," and "have the capacity to change in order to adapt to
new circumstances or to altered perceptions of existing circumstances" (William A.
Havilland, Anthropology, 7th ed, Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1994; p. 303].
Culture refers to a complex system
of behaviors and attitudes embodied in the total way of life of a group of
people including their diet, norms and traditions, music and dancing, language,
art, religion, and distinctive behaviors that make the group of people unique
and distinguishes them from other people.
The causes for conflicts in modern day Africa cannot
be understood without an appreciation of the struggle between traditional African
culture and its clashes with Muslim and European cultures. Understanding
Africa’s triple heritage is fundamental to understanding the geography of
Sub-Saharan Africa – its political situation, its ethnic conflicts, its
population dilemma, and current development crises.
The Relevance
of Cultural Studies
1.
An
understanding of the culture of a people is important for understanding their
way of life and how the group interacts with nature including their
environments.
2.
Every
group of people, through their culture, leaves distinctive imprints on the land
on which they occupy. This produces cultural landscapes that are different from
each other.
3.
The
way cultural traits are diffused among groups of people can help explain the
way of life of a group of people.
Aspects of a
Culture:
1. Folk Culture:
2. Popular Culture:
3. Material Culture:
4. Non-material Culture
Subsystems of
a Culture:
1.
Technological Subsystem:
2.
Sociological Subsystem:
3.
Ideological Subsystem:
CULTURAL
CHANGE:
Processes that induce changes within a culture
include:
1. Innovation: Implies changes to a culture that result from ideas created
within the social group itself.
2. Acculturation: It is the process by which one cultural group undergoes a major
modification by adopting many of the characteristics of another, usually
dominant culture.
3. Spatial Diffusion: It is the process by which a concept, practice, or innovation
spreads from its point of origin to new territories. Throughout history ideas,
civilization and inventions have spread from major cultural regions into other
areas. Both Christianity and Islam spread in Africa through Diffusion. Several
categories of Diffusion can be identified
a) Relocation diffusion: The
physical movement of people from one place to another and in the process spread
their language and aspects of their culture
b)Expansion diffusion: The spread of cultures through force, conquest and domination or
direct contact. Changes in the culture of the original inhabitants may be
induced by
i) Contagious e.g., spread of Aids, or it could be through
ii) Hierarchical
expansion from the cultural heart (e.g. expansion of Islam from
Mecca)
Barriers to the spread of
culture may include:
a)
Ideology - for example Aparthied ideology prevented the spread of African
culture
b)
Harsh physical environment - e.g. distance, deserts, tundra, etc could slow
down but may not totally prevent cultural diffusion.
MAIN COMPONENTS OF AFRICAN CULTURES
Africa’s main Traditional
Institutions include:
1. Traditional government institutions
2. Traditional religions
3. Kinship - clans
4. Family - extended family relations
5. Polygamy - multiple partners
1. Language
There are four major language families:
1.
Afro-Asiatic
,
2.
Niger-Congo,
3.
Nilo-Saharan
and
4.
Khoisan
(Click).
Except for Afrikaans, Malagasy and European
languages (French, English, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and German or local
Creole adaptations, all the thousands of languages and dialects spoken on the
continent are historically related to these four.
2. Religion:
Defines a group of peoples' relationship between the
living and the supernatural beings. Western
writers have often referred to African religions as Animism. A kind of
religion in which people worship inanimate objects such as plants, trees, and
natural objects because they believe such objects have spirits.
ETHNICITY, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN AFRICA
Apart from
Arabic, which is not confined to Africa, the most widely spoken African tongues
are Swahili (an Arab-influenced Bantu language) and Hausa, each with more than
20 million speakers today.
On the average
an African language has about 200,000 speakers; only a few dozen languages have
more than 1 million speakers."
Can We Generalize about a Common "African Culture"?
Yes, argue
some Africanist scholars. Consider that there are ways other than language by
which common ethnicity and cultural identity can be defined: for example, by a
group's belief in a common origin (e.g. the Mande peoples trace a common origin
to Sundiata Keita,
legendary 13th century founder of the Mali Empire: see Part
II: African Empires),
and increasing cultural similarities among groups can develop over centuries of
contact and exchange.
Widespread adoption of European culture makes it
difficult to identify an authentic African culture today. While Africans share some
remarkable cultural unity, there are significant ethnic, religious, and other
differences.
Religion:
In Western culture God is seen as separate from
nature and humans as outside and above nature. Nature exists for the well-being
of humans. In African traditional religions on the other hand, God, and the
spirits are both associated with the major elements of a cultural environment -
sea, trees, rivers etc. Gods and spirits are concerned about, and actively
involved in the daily lives of humans. God's power, majesty, and interest in
human beings are believed to be mediated through Earth (often viewed as female
who nurtures and intimately linked to the Creator).
Divination and fortune-telling (Psychic) are popular
religious activities in traditional African religion. Traditional religious
beliefs have undergone considerable changes under the Influence of Islam and
Christianity. Angels and Saints who mediate between people and God replaced the
African concept of spirits.
Social Life:
While human beings are subject to the overall will
of the Creator and the supervision of their ancestors, they are not helpless in
the fate of adversity. People are therefore held responsible for their lives
for there is a belief that God gives people specific gifts or weaknesses and
that in complex societies statuses are ascribed - hence the reverence for age
and seniority. Elaborate funerals often mark the physical separation of a
person from the community to join the ancestors.
Music and dance are used to invoke the gods, comfort
ones soul, or motivate people to work. Social, economic and politics usually
involve rhythmic singing and movement.
Africans often perform economic activities with
symbolic reference to the supernatural. Rituals that show respect for the earth
mark the opening of the farming season in many African countries. Rituals
welcoming the harvest -yam festivals in West Africa and millet festivals in the
Sudan or the first fruits of the Swaziland are rampant. San hunters of the
Kalahari invariably apologize to the spiritual essence of the animal they
kill.
Marriage,
Family and Kingship Relations:
A Great deal of importance is attached to such rites
de passage as childbirth, marriage, and death. Among the Akans of West Africa,
there are out-dooring ceremonies in which the new child is introduced into the
community.
Specialized training often takes place during
puberty when the youth are prepared for adulthood. Descent, kinship, and other
social relations are central values in African societies. Motherhood is an
honored status in African societies. Sterility is a considered a grave
misfortune.
In bilateral kinship systems (such as pertains in
North America), descent and family ties are traced through the father’s or
mother's side. In unilinear descent system of inheritance (as pertains in
Africa,) kinship is traced through either of the parents. If descent is traced
through the line of the male parent (or father), it is called Patriliny
or Patrilineal system of inheritance. In this system, the wife is gradually
incorporated into her husband's kinship group. Examples include the pastoral
societies of West and East Africa - Fulani of the Sahel region, Nuer of Sudan,
Masia and Kikuyu of Kenya, Yoruba of
Nigeria.
Descent through the mother is termed as Matriliny
(Matrilineal system). In this system, links to the father's family are of
secondary importance. Resources are inherited from the mother's brother so that
authority resides in one's uncle and not the father. Examples include the Akans
of Ghana, Lamba, Bemba and Tonga of Zambia.
Mariage, in African societies is a union between two
extended families. It is perceived as a civil contract between two families.
Several cultural groups in Africa permit polygamy.
Polyandry: (Women marrying more than one husband) is not practiced anywhere in
Africa. Polygyny: (men marrying more than one wife) is permitted in many
societies. Polygyny in Africa ranges from non-existent in countries such as
Tunisia (abolished by statute) to more than 30% in Nigeria. Studies also
suggest that it range from 20.4-36% in Benin, Chad, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Mali,
Senegal, and Tanzania. The average number of wives in polygamous marriages is
2.
Suggested Reasons
for Polygamous Marriages in Traditional African Societies
a.
Social
Stability provided by people having families:
b.
Marriage
is seen as socially desirable and responsible activity and everyone is expected
to be married.
c.
Since
most African societies had imbalances between males and females (more females
than males due to wars, slave trade etc) men were allowed multiple wives
d.
Economic:
agrarian societies required more hands on the farm. The more wives one had, the
more children guaranteed and therefore the more hands available for farm work.
Research in Nigeria shows that when export crops were introduced in the
southwestern part, the rate of polygamous marriages went up.
e.
High
mortality rates, especially for male kids: more wives assured more children and
therefore hedge against the eventuality of some children dying.
f.
Social
security: In the absence of government sponsored social security, children were
considered a source of insurance in old age
g.
Custom
did not permit intimacy between couples until a baby born to them was weaned.
This could be up to 2-3 years or more. In some cultures, women cannot have
intimacy as soon as they discover they are pregnant. Yet in others, adherents
to certain traditional religions could no eat food prepared by women during the
menstrual period. Solution to all these problems was to marry more than one
wife.
AFRICAN ORATURE:
Oral arts and
traditions of Africa are rich and varied, developing with the beginnings of
African cultures, and continuing to flourish today.
The Power of the WORD:
African oral
arts often combine religious, artistic as well as social functions: e.g., to
convey wisdom, teach ethics and social codes of conduct; teach religious
beliefs and communal values, celebrate cultural heroes and revered ancestors,
& explain the origins, history, and development of states, clans, and other
important social organizations.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON AFRICAN CULTURE:
For Muslims, Koran is the holy and sacred book and
Sharia laws must be obeyed.
The African belief in Allah has coalesced with God
of African cosmologies. The Swahili for instance use Allah and Mungu as
synonyms. Good spirits are equated with angels and evil ones with jinn (a group
of evil spirits).
Muslim traders introduced new clothing styles, and
diffused certain notions of personal adornment. Islamic law has affected the
social organization of African societies.
The patrilineal emphasis of Islam has weakened the
matrilineal inheritance system among such people as the Yao in Tanzania. Sharia
laws also weakened the corporate nature of African lineages so that
individualism is emphasized in African Muslim families. Islam also treated
women as minors.
The Sharia conception of marriage as a voluntary
contract between individual spouses has been incorporated into African Marriage
systems. The payment of expensive bride price (settlement) gives men total
control over their wives. Only wealthy men can take advantage of the permission
to marry 4 wives. Birth rituals are significant communal events among African
Muslims. Circumcision and clitoridectomy are part of the initiation ceremonies
of African Muslims.
THE TRIPE HERITAGE - Impacts
1.
The
diffusion of Islamic and European beliefs caused the demise of traditional folk
customs by which indigenous Africans had lived and governed themselves for
ages.
2.
Foreign
cultures may at times be less responsive to the diversity of local conditions
and could consequently generate conflicts and adverse impacts on the
environment.
3.
The
disappearance of folk customs was symbolic of the loss of traditional African
values. The result is a generation of Africans that are neither European nor
African.
4.
The
diffusion of European culture has led to the dominance of Western perspectives
on issues that are purely African. European solutions to indigenous African
problems may not always work leading often to crisis in development.
5.
Domination
of foreign cultures has caused many conflicts several spheres of African life:
e.g., new names, new role for women, marriage, new concepts about the family
that do not match African values, new concepts about the state, etc.
The political instability present in most parts of
Sub-Saharan Africa takes several forms including the following:
A.
Preponderance of military coup d’etats
In 1992 a group of Africans and international associations
and personalities began a movement to fight for the democratization of Africa.
Prior to 1992 many countries were under military dictatorships. They include
the following:
a)
Ghana,
5 (25 of the 38 years of independence
under military rule)
b)
Nigeria,
5 (25 of 35 years of independence under military rule)
c)
Mauritania 3
d)
Uganda,
Burkina Faso, Sudan, 5 times each
B. One party states and dictatorships
In many other African states, there is a tendency
for democratically elected governments to monopolize political power by
creating one party states to stifle opposition parties. This often leads to a
police state with the adoption of socialist ideologies. For example, many of
the leaders who led African countries into independence created one party state
systems. They include:
a)
Ghana
under Nkrumah 1957-66, Tanzania under
Nyerere 1961-85, Uganda under Milton Obote, Zambia under Kaunda 1964-91, Ivory
Coast under Houphet Boigny, Gambia under David Jawara, Malawi under Kamuzu
Banda 1964-94, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe
In some cases, the one party states begin as a
military governments and then transform themselves into civilian
Administrations. These include:
a)
Samuel
Doe of Liberia, Amin of Uganda,
Rawlings of Ghana, Mombutu of Zaire,
C. Ethnic and civil unrest resulting in the
devolution of state systems
a)
Civil
war in Chad (1975-83)
b)
Katanga
Province’s attempt to secede from Congo after independence in 1960
c)
Biafran
war in Nigeria (1967-70)
d)
Somalian
civil war (1990)
e)
Wars
between Eritrea and Ethiopia
f)
Huutus
and Tutsis in both Rwanda and Burundi
D. Border
disputes between and within countries.
Many
border disputes in Africa have their origins from European colonization,
particularly the Berlin Conference where African countries arbitrary demarcated
without regard to even family ties. Ongoing border disputes can be found in the
following countries
a)
Nigeria
and Cameroun
b)
Morocco
and Spanish Sahara
c)
Ghana
and Togo
d)
Tanzania
and Uganda during Amin’s rule
E. Factions among Independent Movements Fighting for
Independence.
Examples
include Angola, Mozambique, Zaire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Divisions within
the ranks of leaders of Independent Movements such as what happened in Angola,
Congo and other countries in Africa are caused by several factors including the
following:
1.
Personality
clashes among the leaders of such groups
2.
Tacit
support from external powers generated by external events such as the need to
control territories during the Cold War between USA and the Soviet Union.. In
situations such as what happened in Angola, USA supported and financed UNITA to
fight the Angolan government so that Angola would be run by those who subscribe
to USA’s ideology and become a Western Ally.
3.
Precious
Minerals and Enormous Wealth - Territories in Africa where precious minerals
have been discovered have often generated conflicts among several factions for
the control of the wealth. In cases such as Katanga in Zaire and Angola, the
World’s Super powers (USA and the Soviet Union) were involved in the crises.
1.
The
triple heritage of African culture and personality the
region.
2.
Conflicts
among muslims & christians, tradition and modern culture such as in
Northern Nigeria
3.
The
incompactibility between traditional, Islamic (Sharia laws) and Western
political systems, eg. Sudan conflict between Islamic north and Negro south
4.
Split
loyalties to several leaders (Buganda and conflits in Uganda)
5.
Ethnic
differences and tensions caused by colonial past, division of groups among
states during the partition of Africa, imbalance and unequal development which
began with colonization. Many of these problems were caused by the
balkanization of the continent by European colonizers without regard to any
ethnic affiliations in the new independent states.
6.
Political
ineptness, incompetence, and corrupt practices of some leaders. Idi Amin of Uganda, Mombutu Seseseko of
Zaire-Congo, Siad Barre’s naivety in playing off the Soviets against the West
set the stage for political instability in Somalia, Kamuzu Banda of Malawi,
Emperor Bokassa of Central Africa Republic.
7.
The
legacy of Westminster form of government and poorly defined role of the
military and traditional rulers in African states.
8.
Undue
international interference in purely local affairs of African states. The
support of Francophone states by the French, Anglophone nations by the US and
UK and South Africa’s Apartheid government and the support for Socialist
nations by Cuba and former Soviet Union.
9.
Unrealistic
expectations placed on state institutions
10.
Discriminatory
policies in some states many of such treatments began with European
colonization during which Educational and welfare programs favored some ethnic
groups and placed them above other groups within the country (Hutus and Tutsis,
Yoruba abd Ibos in the South and Hausas in the North, Groups in Southern and
Northern Ghana.
11.
The
struggle for Independence in settler colonies. The Independence process was
bloody. In places such as South Africa, the struggle for Independence divided
the people.
Review questions
1.
Can We
Generalize about a Common "African Culture"? In your answer, provide an explanation of the conditions and
events on the continent that facilitates the integration or prevents the
homogenization of African cultures.
2.
“From far,
Africa looks like one giant family with a common culture but on close
examination, the continent is very diverse in culture and ideology” Explain the
physical, historical and other events that explain the diversity of African people.
3.
Polygamous
marriages are rare in many advanced countries and in some parts of Urban Africa
today but it prevalent in rural Africa. Explain the conditions and events that necessitate
and/or facilitate such marriages in Africa.
4.
One of the
obstacles to economic development in many African countries is the Instability
caused by Coup De’tats (take over governments by arms). Write an essay
outlining the main reasons why military takeovers of African governments are so
common, then suggest ways to stabilize those states.
5.
Describe any one
violent conflict situation in an African country and explain the historical
events and/or factors that might account for the remote causes of the incident.