among the Akamba pregnant women are not supposed to eat fats, beans or animals killed using poison. - In most African communities a widow was inherited by the husbands close relatives. Today the dead can be buried in cemeteries in towns. 3. Economy e.g. The kinships are based on two broad aspects 1) Birth (Blood relationships) 2) marriages. 7) Many of the traditional medicine men are not willing to divulge information to others (a lot of secrecy surrounding traditional medicine) 8) Those who are educated also do not believe in the powers of diviners and mediums. iii. The written descriptions and therefore perceptions of the traditional African family were also a victim of the European colonial cultural bias and Christian values. Such occasions include beer drinking, wrestling, playing football, singing and dancing etc. 2. 1. 6. vi. - The government and churches have built homes for them - They are given food etc. Significance of dowry payment The custom of paying personal gifts to the brides people is practiced all over Africa sometimes referred to as Bride wealth or Bride price. Some scholars have suggested that this arrangement might be fraught with potential social problems and conflict.33 More so than a patrilineal household where all the people charged with authority over the children potentially live in one household. Dressing The dress code differed from one community to another in the traditional African setup. Same ancestry: People of a particular community believe that they have the same origin e.g. the Agikuyu the ancestors are Mumbi and Gikuyu were created by Ngai. - There are cases of destruction of land and environment through dumping of wastes. Many people today acquire Christian names. iv. What role did religion play in medieval Africa communities? v. They drive a way witches and evil spirits. To give the mother time to recover the lost energy. Children are attached to and cared for by many adults, including grandparents, aunties, uncles and older siblings [29064] [28917]. Many of the rituals that were performed to the mother and the child are today seen as unnecessary. - The children born after his death were still referred to as his. During this period, the couples are given special instructions that prepare them for marriage life. They also play the role of priests and pray for people. They include: i. It is the kinship ties which determine a person's rights, responsibilities and behaviour. Economic hardships many people are not able to raise money to pay dowry. 9) The practice has also been affected by belief in conventional medicine. This can begin as early as childhood or before the children are born. Power and authority in matrilineal societies ultimately lies in the woman and her brother. 4. - In others the bridegroom and its party have to fight the brides party in order to get her. among the Luos the man is buried at the right and woman is buried the left. ii. - Religious organizations assist widows to start income generating projects. - They are kept company. There are strict rules and taboos governing sex. iv. Some herbalists have been legalized by the government and have opened clinics e.g. d. If it is a man, the wife is supposed to stay around the corpse among them show clearly she would miss the husband. In some communities girls are given to kings or chiefs as gifts. The youth are ritually introduced to the communal living. This again is true among other Zambian tribes like the Bisa, Lamba, Lala, Chewa, Kaonde, Luba, and others. They are given time to heal. There are meteorologists who predict the weather conditions. Prayers also connect the living and the dead. 2. The youth are believed to be free with them. The belief in Christianity has also affected traditional beliefs in death to believe that death is a gateway to heaven and there is resurrection of the body. 4. they are operational and obtainable in every society around the world be it traditional or modern. - Sometimes the orphans and widows have their property destroyed or snatched. PRIESTS/PROPHETS OR SEERS - These are other religious specialists who play a special role as intermediaries between God and human beings. Edited by G.A. 2. They are regarded as honest. It is kinship, which controls social relationship between people in a given community: it governs marital customs and regulations, it determines the behavior of individuals towards another. 4. - A lot of bleeding can lead to the death of an individual. These carried with them all the heavy social obligations demanded of a mother or father, daughter or son. If they float, the clan chief accepts the children as legitimate; but if the cord sinks, the child to whom it belongs is considered born in adultery and disowned.18, After this part of the ceremony, a feast is held. Second Edition, London: The Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1974. Severing the ties of kinship is among the body sins and it is among the major sins. 8. 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At childhood children are taught to obey parents and the elderly. For example, sickness in the indigenous African worldview is not only an imbalance of the body, but also an imbalance in one's social life, which can be linked to a breakdown in one's kinship and family relations or even to one's relationship with one's ancestors. Children could be named after their dead relatives. 3. PaulVMcDowell. - Marriage brings completeness in a person. Everyone has an obligation to marry or get married. Researchers have examined the effects of matrilineal kinship systems for women's preferences, including preference for competition, altruism, risk, and political participation. 3. They include;- 1. iv. Lusaka: National Educational Company of Zambia, and Kenneth Kaunda Foundation, 1970. In a more obvious way, this Eurocentrism36 did not treat polygamy, the African marriages and the extended family and any others of its eccentricities (regarded as such because they were different from European customs) as social phenomena that was legitimate and workable in its own African social circumstances and environment. This chapter only focussed on the matrilineal and polygynous patrilineal African traditional family patterns because they seem representative of the broad patterns that exists on the continent. Evans-Pritchard, J.J., Some Aspects of Marriage and the Family Among the Nuer, The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1945, 1969. (East Lansing, Michigan State University, 1980) p.11 Unpublished M.A. 2. They are not supposed to take part in heavy duties or carry heavy loads. In the African understanding, it is believed that there is no natural death. For example, in the polygynous African family, like among the Baganda, and many others, your fathers wives and brothers were not just mothers and fathers just as mere kinship terms. - Children made marriage complete. e. In certain communities pregnant women and children are not allowed to go near touch the corpse to avoid misfortunes. Before initiation one is not fully considered belonging to the community. These changes have been brought about by:- i. Rules and Regulations: People in the community are governed by rules and regulations, which are strictly followed. 2. Urbanization: Where people of different cultures interact with one another. Primary kinship refers to direct relations. Wedding ceremony - After the negotiation the wedding ceremonies are arranged. In some communities, a pregnant women returns to her parents when the time for giving birth draws near. 6. (New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1961)p.76. The dramatic social changes in Africa during the last three decades of political independence from European colonialism have obviously affected the traditional family. A mans legal entitlements and rights of inheritance are on his mothers side. Such influences as end of intra and inter-tribal warfare with the coming of European colonialism, the Western money economy, industrialization, migration, and urbanization have certainly transformed the traditional African family from what it was 50 to 100 years ago. Land Ownership: It is no longer communal affair but a private affair. - The practices vary from one community to another. Mitchell, J. There are societies where prayers are made to the mother and the child. 7. - Kinship ties assist people to live peacefully and in harmony with others. Midwife could assist the mother in actual delivery to ensure the safety of the baby. 4. 3. - Kinship helps to prevent the spread of hereditary diseases. It was written in 1988. They advise the expectant mother on how to take care of herself. Almost 30% of all single-parent families headed by women are officially poor. Th importance whice h UNICEF attaches to the family is also based on the Conventio onn the Eliminatio onf iv. There is no proper dosage of the herbs. 6 It separates one from the loved ones. The mothers bring children of both sexes with the umbilical cords carefully kept after birth. 5. CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN AFRICAN UNDERSTANDING Today many people talk of the way things were sometimes back many factors have affected the African culture. A clan is made up of a family who either are related by blood and marriage. Marriage 4. They act as judges in certain circumstances. The wishes of parents and the dead were honored. ix. Wealth was seen in terms of: 1. If one fails to show respect to such seniors. 6. v. Others would also be killed for crimes such as murder. DeVos, New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1976. Grandmothers teach girls their roles and grandfathers maintain law and order .Young unmarried men provide security in form of warriors while boys look after the animals. So the relationship is often based on mutual expectations and is more beneficial for both parties than confrontational and fraught with issuing of orders. - They can foretell the future by receiving visions, dreams or words from God. - Kinship system provides the peaceful ways of settling disputes in a community as all are treated as brothers and sisters. For example, all weapons and iron implements are removed from the house of an expectant mother. Communal worship prayers are offered to God to thank Him for whatever he has done. 2. They are senior members of the community. Some names are given according to the time one was born. Factors contributing to harmony and Mutual Responsibility in African Traditional Societies In traditional African Society, every individual is related to all. T/F: Through slavery, forced separation of spouses, siblings, and parents from children led to a more expansive definition of kinship, and thus an extended family model took root. 3. Children among the matrilineal peoples are brought up in a similar traditional extended family village social environment. v. They are taught secrets of the society. East Lansing, Michigan State University, 1980, Unpublished M. A. Thesis. A person's position in the kinship system establishes their relationship to others and to the universe, prescribing their responsibilities towards other people, the land and natural resources. ii. While the basic functions of the family remain the same all over the world, traditional African families have undergone significant transformations attributed to an interplay of factors, including Christianity, industrialization, educational expansion, population growth, monetization of the economy, migration, civilization, and now globalization. 1980, Unpublished M. A. 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