Bantu Culture Research Articles

Ancestrality, Affliction, and Catholic Song: Resonances of Africa in Alternative Caboclo Cosmology in Bahia, Brazil

Abstract The present article highlights the way in which a central African worldview served as the structural backbone for the development of the caboclo spirit as conceptualized by countless devotees in Bahia, Brazil. This study is chiefly interested in the traditions of caboclo veneration common outside of explicitly Afro-Brazilian religious houses of worship, and especially among those who affirm Catholicism as their primary religious identity. By placing over a decade and a half of fieldwork in Bahia, Brazil, in dialogue with the historiography on Afro-Brazilian religions and historical research on central African Catholicism and Bantu culture, this article argues that caboclos might serve as cogent reminders that an important facet of the African legacy in Brazil can be found at Catholic saint parties and therapeutic “white table” sessions.

Respect for Women: Lessons from the Shona, Tonga, Kaonde, Chewa, and Swahili Bantu Cultures of Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania

Respect for Women: Lessons from the Shona, Tonga, Kaonde, Chewa, and Swahili Bantu Cultures of Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania

Musicality and orixality in the film Barravento: the pedagogy of black cinema

ABSCTRAC This article aims to demonstrate that Glauber Rocha's performance in Barravento (1962) shows an element that is little discussed in his work, which is musicality. The presence of musical instrumentality in this title of "cinema novo" appears as a dimension of orixality. Considering that afrodiasporic rituality takes place in a process of black soul corporeality in which music and dance are established as an indissoluble solution in bantu cultures, being here a trace of the heritage of Africanity. In Barravento (1962), we confirm Prudente's thesis, that the black people is the aesthetic reference of Glauber Rocha's cinema novo, and we raise the extent to which this musicality is essential in the ontology of afro-descendants. For our perception, the black soul tamboreality translates the fundamental values of africanity that are present in the carnival revelries that have their origin in the ticumbi bantu. In addition to the rituality factor, which is not small, the article suggests that the musicality given by a demand from the orchestra of African divinities in which the sense of union points to an ideal of rescuing the black family that was victim of the attempt at fragmentation, imposed by the violence of slavery. This family rescue is mimicked in the dynamics of the black as a historical subject in the educational function of this cinematographic trend, characterized in the conceptual category of the pedagogical dimension of black cinema. Keywords: Musicality. Orixality. Barravento. Africanity. Pedagogical dimension of black cinema.

Gendered care at the margins: Ebola, gender, and caregiving practices in Uganda’s border districts

ABSTRACT In July 2019, Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was declared a public health emergency of international concern and neighbouring countries were put on high alert. This paper examines the intersections of gender, caregiving, and livelihood practices in Uganda’s border districts that emerged as key factors to consider in preparedness and response. This paper is based on an anthropological study of the Ebola context among Bantu cultures. We report on data from focus group discussions and key informant interviews with various sectors of the community. The study identified intersecting themes reported here: (1) women as primary caregivers in this context; and (2) women as providers, often in occupations that increase vulnerability to Ebola. Findings demonstrate the role that women play inside and outside the home as caregivers of the sick and during burials, and intersections with livelihood-seeking strategies. Because women’s caregiving is largely unpaid, women face a double burden of work as they seek other livelihood strategies that sometimes increase vulnerability to Ebola. Epidemic response should address these intersections and the context-specific vulnerabilities of caregivers; it should also be localised and community-centred and able to attend to the cultural as well as the economic needs of a community.

Biennials' Temporality

Biennials' Temporality

White Sangomas: the manifestation of Bantu forms of shamanic calling among whites in South Africa

South Africa is one of some few countries where sizeable communities of black and white people live together which have preserved their distinct cultures. Other than in the Americas, South Africa has a black majority with the Bantu African languages and cultural institutions largely preserved – and it has the most marked history of segregation. Thus few elements of Bantu cultures have been adopted by white South Africans. Yet in recent years a core element of Bantu culture, the shamanism and mediumism of the “Sangomas”, has begun to manifest itself among whites in South Africa – in the characteristic forms of such “calling”. Interestingly this has not happened by “cultural learning” in significant cases. This requires a different model of explanation. In this essay Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of “morphogenetic fields” will be applied to this phenomenon and its implications considered.

“We would never forget who we are”: resettlement, cultural negotiation, and family relationships among Somali Bantu refugees

Somali refugees are resettling in large numbers in the US, but little is known about the Somali Bantu, an ethnic minority within this population. Refugee youth mental health is linked to the functioning of the larger family unit. Understanding how the process of culturally adjusting to life after resettlement relates to family functioning can help identify what kind of interventions might strengthen families and lead to better mental health outcomes for youth. This paper seeks to address the following research questions: (1) How do different groups of Somali Bantu refugees describe their experiences of culturally adapting to life in the US?; and (2) How, if at all, do processes of cultural adaptation in a new country affect Somali Bantu family functioning? We conducted 14 focus groups with a total of 81 Somali Bantu refugees in New England. Authors analyzed focus groups using principles of thematic analysis to develop codes and an overarching theoretical model about the relationship between cultural adaptation, parent-child relationships, and family functioning. Views and expectations of parent-child relationships were compared between Somali Bantu youth and adults. Cultural negotiation was dependent upon broader sociocultural contexts in the United States that were most salient to the experience of the individual. Adult and youth participants had conflicting views around negotiating Somali Bantu culture, which often led to strained parent-child relationships. In contrast, youth sibling relationships were strengthened, as they turned to each other for support in navigating the process of cultural adaptation.

Pyramids and Prejudice: A Study of Cultural Discrimination in Lauretta Ngcobo’s <i>And they didn’t die</i>

A South African classic, Lauretta Ngcobo’s novel, And they didn’t die , explores the nexus of hegemony, culture, and transformation under apartheid rule. Edward Said’s thesis on the hierarchy of culture provides the conceptual framework for an analysis of politico-cultural agency in Ngcobo’s novel. Three characters in the narrative—Siyalo, Jezile, and Lungu—are used to comment on the cultural dynamics inherent in three different but interlocking sites: the nine-to-five working environment, rural Bantu culture, and the ambiguous location of “African Whiteness.” The paper establishes that the life of each character betrays culture’s negative discriminating power and the amplification of negativity by State policy. Keywords: prejudice, culture, apartheid, industrialism, patriarchy

“O conceito de branco como branco não existe na cultura bantu”, entrevista a Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa

Entrevista a Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa.Biografia resumida do entrevistado:Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa (*1957, Inhaminga), atual presidente da AEMO (Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos), transformou-se nas últimas duas décadas num dos intermediários mais hábeis entre as culturas bantu e a língua portuguesa. Sua obra é indubitavelmente central para o processo de conscientização cultural de Moçambique, para a redescoberta do passado pré-colonial e colonial, a construção de uma memória histórica integrativa e para a mediação entre o espaço rural e urbano. Esta entrevista foi realizada a 17 de Julho de 2014 na sede da AEMO em Maputo.

Health education for Somali Bantu refugees via home visits

Somali Bantu refugees, with unique health information needs, created challenges for health and social service providers. A service innovation was developed (i) to raise awareness, especially among local health and social service providers, about the Bantu refugees' presence in the community, their culture, and their information needs and (ii) to deliver needed health information, emphasizing child health, to the Bantu mothers in their homes. The project consisted of: (i) a community conference targeting local health and social service providers, describing the refugees' presence in the community, their culture, and information needs. (ii) Focus groups conducted with members of the Bantu population elicited additional information needs. (iii) Curriculum was developed based on identified needs, and (iv) the curriculum was delivered to the refugees in their homes. A clinical informationist and MP3 technology enhanced the project. Conference attendees' evaluation responses indicated improved understanding of Bantu culture. Focus groups' identification of health information needs provided a framework for the health education curriculum. A project website made educational materials available to other healthcare providers. The project raised awareness of the Bantus' presence, culture, and information needs. Identification of other unmet needs demonstrated that additional support for refugees is required.

Domestic Space, Habitus, and Xhosa Ritual Beer-Drinking

Xhosa beer-drinking rituals are structured according to several principles, among which the spatial order of domestic settings features prominently. An analysis of beer-drink rituals, however, requires that abstract notions of how they are structured spatially be understood in conjunction with practice, in which the spatial norms are applied in specific events and vary in meaning according to the particular variant of the ritual. Spatial symbolism also may be manipulated, modified, or subverted, according to specific circumstances affecting the participants. In addition, every beer-drink ritual (and thus the meaning of its spatial symbolism) has to be understood in relation to both previous and forthcoming events. (Xhosa beer-drink rituals, domestic space, habitus) ********** Among rural Xhosa-speakers in South Africa's Eastern Province, ritual commonly takes the form of highly stylized, communal beer-drinking, held for variety of purposes. These are public events that take place in individual homes, and their characteristics are closely related to the way in which Xhosa people design and use their homesteads. This article examines the way in which domestic space is used in beer-drinking rituals and the way in which this use of space is related to everyday social practice and to past practices; namely, certain historical developments influencing contemporary social life. The literature on the ritual use of domestic space in southern Africa is sparse, but there have been some prominent analyses of the spatial organization of southern Bantu homesteads, notably by Adam Kuper (1982, 1993). Structuralist and structural-functionalist analyses of spatial symbolism are limited by their static and formal nature, and this becomes apparent in the case of Xhosa beer-drink rituals once they are viewed as form of practice, in Bourdieu's sense of the word, rather than as manifestation of structural order (Bourdieu 1977, 1990). The Nguni residential unit occupied by family, argues Kuper, is basic economic, kinship, territorial, and political unit, and its physical layout is not only closely related to the way in which the domestic group is organized, but is also a symbolic representation of principles of the socio-cosmic ... [and] corresponds very generally with indigenous about social organisation (Kuper 1993:473). In his view, the organization of domestic space has been relatively constant for thousand years and is based chiefly on set of binary oppositions such as left and right, above and below, inside and outside, through which normative social principles based on agnation, genealogical seniority, gender, order of marriage, and the ranking of wives are expressed and reinforced. The model is also general one, extending beyond the domestic unit, encompassing ideas about the organization of the world ... [and] the organization of the state (Kuper 1993:472-73). So the social principles in terms of which domestic space is structured, such as the allocation of certain huts to wives in terms of their ranked order, are the same principles that govern the political structure (e.g., the ranking of territorial divisions of the chiefdom). Kuper's approach receives support from archaeologists, such as Huffman (1982), who have identified general southern Bantu culture system expressed in settlement pattern. While providing useful insights into Nguni social structural principles and the ways in which these are relevant in the political sphere, this kind of approach has been criticized for its limitations in analyzing the everyday use and meaning of space (Moore 1986). Similar criticisms have been leveled at Bourdieu's analysis of the Berber house (Bourdieu 1973), which he described as perhaps the last work I wrote as blissful structuralist (1990:9). To be brought to life, focus on an enduring structural and abstract order or set of organizing principles needs attention to the everyday social practices through which meaning emerges. …

Shona ethnography and Iron Age burials

Although Shona society has undergone much change, it is still a valid source of hypotheses about Iron Age burials. Death is part of a cycle that underpins the separate treatment of infants, children, young adults and adults. Everyone except chiefs should lie in a sleeping posture, and their location in the settlement depends on age, status and kinship. Adults should point westerly and lie on their left or right side depending on their status and gender. Everyone must be buried, including strangers and social outcasts, and anomalies to the normal pattern also follow cultural rules. The Shona rules have multiple points of correspondence with burials at Kgaswe and other Iron Age sites in southern Africa. Shona ethnography fits the archaeological data well because it is part of a larger nexus of Eastern Bantu culture: in contrast, Western Bantu ethnography does not fit the archaeology. Successful interpretations such as this involve the recursive interplay between ethnographic and archaeological data.

The Economics of Poverty and the Poverty of Economics: A Christian Perspective

In this world of plenty, almost half of the world's six billion people live on two dollars a day or less and the number living on less than one dollar a day has increased over the past fifteen years (World Bank 2000). Between one third and one half suffer undernutrition due to insufficient intake of calories, protein or critical micronutrients such as vitamin A, iodine and iron. More than one child in five lives in acute poverty. Why does such unnecessary injustice continue to disfigure a rich, technologically advanced world and what can be done to care for the poor and thereby to care for and honor God, as the Gospels instruct us? In attempting to answer those questions, at least partly, this paper offers some insights from recent research in economics, as well as my concerns about the limits to economic understanding of these humanitarian, intellectual and spiritual challenges. The Christian's interest in poverty is rather obvious. Jesus routinely expressed special concern for and devotion to the poor. We are called to feed the hungry, nurse the sick, and clothe the naked. The impulse to assist is obviously not unique to Christendom. Nor is it especially the comparative advantage of economics, for the instinct of economists is to look beyond the symptoms of poverty that indisputably demand prompt humanitarian response, and to seek instead the causal mechanisms that perpetuate poverty. In reflecting on the economics of poverty, my focus is therefore not on humanitarian response operations but, rather, on the mechanisms that necessitate the grim but honorable and too-necessary work of humanitarian relief agencies. Most of this essay was composed during a trip to some of my field research sites in Madagascar, a fascinating country where extraordinarily high species endemism rates fuel intense interest by conservationists and where the unique blend of Polynesian and Bantu cultures has long drawn the attention of cultural anthropologists. Such obvious unique qualities aside, Madagascar is nonetheless the quintessential poor economy. According to the most recent nationally representative household survey data, 69.6% of the population of Madagascar falls below a national poverty line equivalent to US $0.42/day per capita. More than 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas and 92% of the poor live in rural areas. The rural poor depend heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods, both as farmers and as workers on others' farms. Yet agricultural productivity is weak and the soils, forests and hydrological systems on which smallholder farming fundamentally depends are under significant threat from anthropogenic and natural causes. Because it so typifies poor economies, I illustrate some of my core points with brief anecdotes from a few of the many Malagasy who have been some of my most important teachers, not only about the economics of poverty, but also about the dignity and majesty of human life and the whole of God's Creation.

A willing benefactor: An essay on wilderness in Nilotic and Bantu culture

Using common historiographie sources—early ethnographic reports—we compare traditional perceptions of wilderness among East Africa's pastoral Nilotes and highland Bantu. Specifically, the hypothesis that Nilotic and Bantu views are substantially the same is investigated and cautiously accepted. Acceptance of the hypothesis, however, does not mean that important differences do not exist in the perception and approach to wilderness among the peoples being compared. Nilotes, dominated by pastoralism, lived closer to wilderness and wildlife, which they found necessary to integrate into their culture, whereas the highland Bantu, as agriculturalists, established significant barriers between themselves and wilderness. Both peoples, however, share ontological views that depict creation as lively, active, and complex. These shared views, to the extent they remain prevalent in contemporary society, are a possible basis for a unified, indigenous philosophy of wilderness independent of the West's traditions of romant...

Islam and Swahili Culture on the Banadir Coast

Islam and Swahili Culture on the Banadir Coast Mohamed M. Kassim The ongoing conflict in Somalia has seriously disrupted life and threatened to destroy communities and cultures throughout the Peninsula. Nowhere has the threat been greater than along the Banadir coast,1 whose ancient towns have been damaged and looted, and many of whose people have been forced to abandon their homes, shops and farms to seek refuge in neighboring Kenya. In such circumstances, it is particularly crucial to record the history of these coastal towns, since there is a real danger that war will destroy much of the evidence of their rich cultural heritage. This article2 seeks to highlight some aspects of the cultural history of the Banadir which have been neglected but are deserving of further study. After summarizing the background and early development of the Banadir as a whole, the article briefly examines the lives of five remarkable ulama (religious scholars) who played key roles in the cultural life of Brava in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through the oral and written records of their lives, one can learn a great deal about education, poetry, trade, and gender roles in the pre-colonial Banadir. Historical Background The history of the Banadir is as much a part of the history of the East African coast as it is of the Somali peninsula. It is closely intertwined in all its economic, cultural, and historical evolution with the Swahili civilization. Contemporary historians have concentrated their research©Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 2, No. 3 (New Series) 1995, pp. 21-37 21 22 Mohamed M. Kassim on the Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Mozambican parts of the Swahili coast and neglected or did not give due merit to the Banadir coast. The Banadir coast has been treated merely as the coastal area in which the first Arab-Persian settlements were built and from which some of these settlers later migrated to the southern Swahili coast.3 Most coastal historians agree that the earliest Swahili settlements on the east coast of Africa date from the 9th or 10th centuries and were located in the Banadir coastal area.4 Evidence suggests that the Swahili language as we know it today is a relatively late development from earlier Bantu languages that were spoken along the northern part of the east African coast.5 Tradition, coastal chroniclers, and Arab geographers suggest that the first settlers came from the Persian Gulf. Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests that there was also a Bantuspeaking population in the nearby fertile river valleys of the Juba and Shabelli.6 The Swahili culture that evolved in this coast was the result of the contact of this Arab-Islamic civilization on the coast with the Bantu culture of the hinterland. According to coastal traditions, the Arab-Persian immigration reached the Banadir coast in a series of waves over several centuries. This coastal area was also the first foothold of Islam on the East African coast.7 Oral traditions relating to the foundation of the Banadir coastal cities by Arab and Persian immigrants are supported by the historical sites in these areas.8 Even the location of the cities indicate that they were built by communities with maritime and mercantile interests.9 There is not enough space here to discuss precisely who founded these cities and at what point in time; these issues have been extensively debated by scholars.10 What is important to note is that all the early historic sites found today are credited to Arab-Persian settlers. There is strong evidence that Swahili was originally spoken throughout the Banadir coast.11 Several communities on this coast and some villages along the Juba River have retained their Swahili language and culture . In addition to the coastal city of Brava and the Bajunis in the Kismayo zone (which are areas of Swahili literature and culture), the native inhabitants of Mogadishu and Merka have retained some aspects of Swahili culture, traditions, and personal names.12 Also, the origin of the place names of Mukadisho (mui wa mwisho = the end city), Shangani (on the sand), Marika, Kismayu (kisima iu = upper well) indicate Islam and Swahili Culture on the Banadir Coast 23 that these...

The Arabs and Swahili Culture

Opening ParagraphSwahili culture can be roughly defined as the culture of the Swahili-speaking peoples of the East African coast whose activities show features of Perso-Arabian origin, features that are foreign to the culture of other Bantu peoples of East Africa. It cannot be described simply as Bantu culture plus Perso-Arabian elements, for some Swahilis have excluded from their way of life anything that can be labelled as Bantu; they may have Bantu blood, but their whole way of life is Muslim-Arabic.

Notes and News

A.M.S. Christmas Cards; A Unique Set of Tuning Forks for Students of African Modality; Twelfth Annual Conference of the International Folk Music Council in Sinaia, Rumanian People’s Republic; Annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology; The Folklore Institute of America; Mr. Gerishon Mugeleli Manani; Bantu Culture in South Africa; Kariba-International Music Award; Professor Willard Rhodes; Increasing Soviet Interest in Africa-Ghana Music Society; New Hymns; Mr. John Blacking—Records of Just and Meantone Temperament; Cowell Award.

Kikuyu tales

SYNOPSIS This is a small collection of Kikuyu folk tales which I have heard personally from different narrators of the Kikuyu tribe. Having lived with them for nearly thirty‐seven years, I have learned, not only their language and their customs, but much of the tradition and spirit of the people. The changes, which have taken place within the tribe in the last fifty years, are enough to baffle one's imagination. The contact with progress and civilization, changes of government, the possibility of free movement for trading and exchanging products, have greatly influenced the old traditions and their mode of life. The old generation is fast disappearing and with it the tribal folk‐lore, the customs and even the very characteristics of the country. Among their treasure of tradition the tribal tales used to reflect their primitive culture and interpretation of life. Nowadays, however, genuine narrators are very rare and those of the new generation are imbued with modern ideas. They prefer stories borrowed from the Swahili or from European literature, so that the old stories are not only neglected but even ignored for fear of being behind the times. In view of these peculiar circumstances, I hasten to record these genuine tribal tales before it is too late. I hope they will be of some interest to the student of Bantu culture. They may also be appreciated by those of the young Kikuyu generation who possesses true patriotism. C. C.

Discovery an African Number

Discovery of June, in an opportune moment, is concerned almost exclusively with Africa. It opens, immediately after editorial notes and comments, with an article by Prof. C. G. Seligman on human types in tropical Africa. Prof. Seligman explains how it has come about that the usual classification of the native peoples of the continent is based on linguistics rather than on physical characters, and then sets out the distribution and characteristics of the major racial divisions in the tropical area. Dr. H. E. Hurst, in a study of the Upper Nile, discusses questions relating to water supply at the source, and indicates where there is necessity for further research. Of the remaining articles, two in particular require mention. Capt. William Hichens's account of demoniac possession is a valuable report by an eye-witness of a recent outbreak of Kupagawa na pepo (“ridden by demons”), which amounted almost to an epidemic in Mombasa and other towns of East Africa. He describes the various forms of demon dances by which the spirits were exorcised. In another article, G. A. Gardner, field director of the Archaeological Committee of the University of Pretoria, describes the results of further excavations at Mapunggubwe on the south side of the Limpopo River. The partial excavation of a mound, which was found to consist of village refuse, confirms the results of previous excavation on an adjacent area which has been described by Prof. C. van Riet Lowe. He ascribed the earlier of the two occupations then discovered to the Sotho. This is regarded as the earliest trace of Bantu culture known in the Union. The mound excavated by Capt. Gardner was entirely Sotho. It had a depth of 20 ft. and consisted of about 40,000 tons of material. It was found to be centrally situated in a village from which had come the refuse of which it was composed. There was no iron, but copper ornaments, bangles and bracelets were plentiful. The burials were disarticulated with the skull on top of the bones. In several instances cow bones were associated with the human remains.

Further Exploration of Zimbabwe

NOTWITHSTANDING the general acceptance of the results of Miss Caton-Thompson's excavations in Rhodesia in 1929, a section of archaeological opinion in South Africa still adheres to the view that the Zimbabwe are more ancient than was then shown, and the work of a people other than of Bantu stock. It will be remembered that when Miss Caton-Thompson submitted her results to the British Association, on behalf of which her excavations had been carried out, at the South African meeting in that year, Prof. Raymond Dart contested her conclusions, arguing for both the greater antiquity of the ruins and their lack of similarity to anything known in indigenous Bantu culture. An alternative suggestion is that they are of pre-Bantu origin, possibly the work of an Hamitic people under Arabian direction. Further research by South African archaeologists, carried out after 1929, tends to confirm, rather than weaken, the view that structures of stone were not alien to early Bantu culture. Such, at least, is the origin attributed to ancient structures, which might, it is thought, have developed into the Zimbabwe, culminating in the unmortared granite towers and walls, thirty feet high and fifteen feet thick, of Great Zimbabwe. It is now reported from South Africa (Observer, September 6) that Prof. Dart, who has just returned to Johannesburg from Southern Rhodesia, proposes a further and more intensive exploration of Great Zimbabwe on a scale which will take five years for completion.