Traditional African Societies Research Articles

Learning to be active citizens: lessons of traditional Africa for lifelong learning

The emphasis on lifelong learning is well placed given the rapidly changing pace of technological, social, economic and political realities of the modern world. This rapid change has led to globalization that now dictates the pace of almost everything else in the human community, including education. This paper examines the concept of lifelong learning within the context of indigenous African pedagogy and how it is different from its present understanding. Through an examination of some practices and institutions, the paper argues that the concept of lifelong learning in traditional African societies was the foundation for active citizenship and indeed for becoming a revered ancestor.

Book Review: North American exploration, vol. I: A new world disclosed, The history of cartography, vol. II, book 3: Cartography in the traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific societies

Book Review: North American exploration, vol. I: A new world disclosed, The history of cartography, vol. II, book 3: Cartography in the traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific societies

Elaeis guineensis Jacq. (oil palm) fluctuations in central Africa during the late Holocene: climate or human driving forces for this pioneering species?

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is naturally abundant in all the African rain forests. Because this tree is a heliophytic, pioneering species, it can rapidly colonize the periphery of the rain forest and gaps created inside, regardless of the cause. In the majority of traditional African societies, people exploit natural oil palm groves; no attempt is made to propagate the palm by sowing or transplanting seedlings. The late Holecene phase of dramatic forest decline, around 2500 uncal. B.P., was particularly favourable to oil palm expansion. The scale and timing of this palaeoenvironmental variation, and the subsequent response of this pioneer tree, cannot be interpreted as indicating human activities, let alone an indication of cultivation.

Communal Conflict and Traditional Conflict Resolution the Ugep/Idomi 1992 Conflict Experience

Conflicts are part and parcel of man's existence. This is because disagreements among peoples are so natural. People must disagree to agree and conversely, it becomes logical that they should agree to disagree. That is logic of the conflict equation. But such agreement or the disagreement to agree does not in themselves constitute conflict. In conflict resolution these human tendencies and reactions are causal factors to conflict situations. If these tendencies of action and reaction, which are natural in nature and in relation to human conflicts, are as old as man then it is pertinent probing how man has coped traditionally with his conflict situations. It has been argued elsewhere that societies which are stable are not those that are conflict free but those that have in place structures for the successful management of conflict situations. Traditional African societies were stable because they have in place structures for the resolution of conflicts. In this paper, the Ugep-Idomi conflict of 1992 is here X-rayed in support of the contention that traditional African societies have and do hold such conflict resolutional mechanism secret and locked in their ways of life. These structures have been formed from centuries of custom before their disruption by colonialism. The Ugep-Idomi conflict of 1992 shows that even when modernization has acculturated such traditions of the people, yet it passed by, and so these traditions are still effective. IFE PsychologIA Volume 9 no 3, 2001, pp. 71-82

Cultural Responses to the Management of HIV/AIDS: The Repackaging of Puberty Rites

In an earlier study (Sackey 1999), I observed that as biomedical health delivery' services in Ghana become more technologically sophisticated as a result of increased global interaction, the cultural construction of disease and recourse to alternative and more familiar health delivery options also become more prominent. This presentation also seeks to use a cultural approach specifically to repackage traditional puberty rites in the combat against HIV/AIDS. Abstinence, which is being emphasized in the campaign against HIV/AIDS, featured prominently. The rites at puberty, a period in which boys and girls were formally educated in African traditional societies. The rites however, with the exception of few areas in the country, were proscribed as a result of social transformations, particularly with the advent of Christianity and Western education. Of late, there has been a concerted public outcry by religious groups, chiefs, public officials and individuals for the restoration of puberty rites arguing that their abolition has created a vacuum in the moral lives of the youth as manifested in sexual laxity and associated problems of teenage pregnancy and spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS. For example Ghana's Vice-President Aliu Manama is quoted to have said that, We need to weed a path for our old moral virtues of responsible sexual behaviour to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS which is threatening to undermine the growth of this nation by attacking especially its youth who are the nation's most productive resource (Daily Graphic, August 6, 2001: 17). Asamoah (2001: 3) laments the moral laxity of the youth. He thinks the vulnerability of the youth to HIV/AIDS is because of their inability to control themselves of their sexual drive when they experience it. He therefore challenged people in the realm of psychology, religion, philosophy, preachers of the gospel, and lecturers, among others, to come up with ways to help the youth control their sexual drive. But for the practice of female genital mutilation, incision, scarification and nudity accompanying the rites in some African societies, puberty rites were extremely beneficial and educative. I propose that aspects of traditional puberty rites in Ghana that deal with positive cultural values be resuscitated while irrelevant and archaic customs be left out. I contend that puberty rites can be used as an important tool against HIV/AIDS because in traditional society adolescents who had not yet gone through the rites were not permitted to become sexually active.

Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies. David Woodward , G. Malcolm Lewis

<i>Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies</i>. David Woodward , G. Malcolm Lewis

Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies.:Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies.

Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies. David Woodward and G.Malcolm Lewis. eds. The History of Cartography. Volume 2. Book 3. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1998.662 pp.

Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies

List of Illustrations Preface David Woodward 1. Introduction David Woodward and G. Malcolm Lewis Traditional Cartography in Africa 2. Cartographic Content of Rock Art in Southern Africa Tim Maggs 3. Indigenous Mapmaking in Intertropical Africa Thomas J. Bassett Traditional Cartography in the Americas 4. Maps, Mapmaking, and Map Use by Native North Americans G. Malcolm Lewis 5. Mesoamerican Cartography Barbara E. Mundy 6. Mapmaking in the Central Andes William Gustav Gartner 7. Indigenous Cartography in Lowland South America and the Caribbean Neil L. Whitehead Traditional Cartography in Arctic and Subarctic Eurasia 8. Traditional Cartography in Arctic and Subarctic Eurasia Elena Okladnikova Traditional Cartography in Australia 9. Icons of Country: Topographic Representations in Classical Aboriginal Traditions Peter Sutton 10. Aboriginal Maps and Plans Peter Sutton Traditional Cartography in the Pacific Basin 11. The Pacific Basin: An Introduction Ben Finney 12. Traditional Cartography in Papua New Guinea Eric Kline Silverman 13. Nautical Cartography and Traditional Navigation in Oceania Ben Finney 14. Maori Cartography and the European Encounter Phillip Lionel Barton 15. Concluding Remarks David Woodward and G. Malcolm Lewis Editors, Authors, and Project Staff Bibliographical Index General Index Ellen D. Goldlust-Gingrich

The History of cartography: v.2, bk.3: Cartography in the traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific societies

The History of cartography: v.2, bk.3: Cartography in the traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific societies

Teaching Traditional African Religions and Gender Issues in Religious Education in Zambia

In 1996 the Zambian government published Educating our Future: National Policy on Education. The document affirms the aim for school education, which is to promote the full development of the physical, intellectual, social, affective, moral and spiritual qualities of pupils so that they become complete persons.1 This paper discusses the question of gender within African traditional societies and how RE, within the provisions of the policy document, could respond to gender issues within African traditional religions. The paper acknowledges that African traditional religions may discriminate against women but also argues that the African heritage allows for an appreciation of women as full members of society 1 The aim for education in Zambia was stated in Focus on Learning (Ministry of Education 1992) and later reproduced in Educating our Future published in 1996

The Institutionalization of Contract Labour in Namibia

The South West African Native Labour Association (SWANLA) has received much attention by scholars of Namibia as the primary source of exploitation that eventually led to the rise of the independence movement led by SWAPO. Little attention has been given to SWANLA's predecessors, the Southern Labour Organisation (SLO) and the Northern Labour Organisation (NLO), which recruited and administered contract labour during the inter-war years. These two organizations played a fundamental role in breaking down traditional African societies in Namibia, and in creating a wage-labour economy in the southwest African territory. This study uses archival documents from the SLO and the NLO to reveal how the contract labour system was institutionalized in Namibia after World War One. This analysis confirms the centrality of the diamond industry for explaining the nature of contract labour, and much of Namibian politics itself, during the twentieth century in Namibia.

Diet, fibers, and colon cancer.

Epidemiological studies of colorectal cancer, particularly studies of time trends, of migrants, and of religious groups, indicate that environmental factors are of overwhelming importance in determining the incidence of the disease in the population. Of the possible environmental factors important in colorectal cancer carcinogenesis, diet has been the focus of attention. Recent advances have shown that genetic constitution is also important in determining susceptibility to the disease. This implies that colorectal cancer can be caused by an interaction between dietary factors and genetic predisposition. Among the dietary components that have been linked to decreased risk of colorectal cancer is the high intake of dietary fibre. The hypothesis of a fibre-depleted aetiology for colorectal cancer was particularly put forward by Burkitt.1 This was based on the careful clinical observations of the difference in patterns of diseases between Western and traditional African societies. He noted the rarity of colorectal cancer in African countries compared to the west and found that African diets were higher in dietary fibre and lower in refined carbohydrates than west European diets. Results from laboratory animal studies and from analytical epidemiological studies provide evidence that a high fibre intake decreases the risk of colorectal cancer. However, some studies have failed to support the theory of a fibre-depleted diet as a causative factor in the aetiology of colorectal cancer. The objective of this review is to present the evidence for and against the protective role of dietary fibre against colorectal cancer.

The Naming Drama of the Ga People

The processes and ceremonies that mark the progress of an individual's life cycle in traditional African society are fraught with rhetorical, dramatic, and symbolic qualities. When these ceremonies are structurally analyzed, they often yield salient elements of dramatic form: personae, setting, action, theme, dialog, poetry, music, song, and dance. However, in many previous works on such rites de passage (Van Guennep, 1908) the tendency has been to explicate them primarily as indices to indigenous African notions of cosmology, puberty, and sexuality.' Their creative, dramatic, and rhetorical dimensions are thereby obscured. In what follows, an attempt will be made to analyze one such rite, that of infant naming, practiced by the Ga2 people of Ghana. The analytical stress will be laid on the Ga naming ceremony as a multifaceted communicative system through which the people express, not only their ideas of personhood, self, and group identities, but world view, aesthetics, creativity, moral, social, and religious values as well. The ceremony in which a newly born child acquires a name in traditional Ga society is called Bi Kpojiemo (child out-taking)3. It is so called because the day (kpojiemo gbi) on which the ceremony takes place is the day the infant is taken out of isolation and privacy since birth to establish initial contact in the public realm with individuals and groups, families, and family friends-among

African vodun: art, psychology, and power

Beads, bones, rags, straw, leather, pottery, fur, feathers and blood - these are the raw materials of vodun artworks. As objects of fury and force, these works are intended to protect and empower people and cultures that have long been oppressed. In this major study Suzanne Preston Blier examines the artworks of the contemporary vodun cultures of southern Benin and Togo in West Africa as well as the related voudou traditions of Haiti, New Orleans, and historic Salem, Massachusetts. Blier employs a variety of theoretical psychological, anthropological, and art historical approaches to explore the contrasts inherent in the vodun arts - commoners versus royalty, popular versus elite, low art versus high. She examines the relation between art and the slave trade, the psychological dynamics of artistic expression, the significance of the body in sculptural expression, and indigenous perceptions of the psyche. Throughout, Blier seeks to pushe African art history to a new height of cultural awareness that recognizes the complexity of traditional African societies as it acknowledges the role of social power in shaping aesthetics and meaning generally. This book should be of critical interest not only to those concerned with African, African American, and Caribbean art, but also to anthropologists, African diaspora scholars, students of comparative religion and comparative psychology.

The Navrongo Community Health and Family Planning Project

In 1994, an experiment was launched by the Navrongo Health Research Centre that will test the demographic impact of community health and family planning services in a rural, traditional area of northern Ghana. While exhaustive social research has been directed to clarifying societal constraints to reproductive change, relatively little is known about how African cultural characteristics can be a resource to family planning programs. This study will clarify ways in which cultural resources of a traditional African society can be used in efforts to foster reproductive change. This article reviews characteristics of the study population, the design of the Navrongo experiment, and the research plan. The Navrongo Project will be the first African experimental trial of the demographic impact of family planning.

Assimilés ou patriotes africains ? Naissance du nationalisme culturel en Afrique française (1853-1931)

Abstract Assimiles or African patriots? The Emergence of Cultural Nationalisai in French-speaking Africa (1853-1931). — The French-speaking African educated elite is generally presented as strongly influenced by the colonial policy of Assimilation—at least until the emergence of the negritude movement before the Second World War. This article challenges this view by analyzing texts of local history and ethnography published by Francophone African authors from the middle of the nineteenth century to the 1930s. These sources display great pride in African culture, although they are also critical of traditional African society. Many of their authors later became important African politicians and intellectuals. Some played a role in the emergence of negritude. The works of these authors, however, were more than precursors of negritude: they were also attempts to define a modem African culture—one that would retain cultural elements from the past, while discarding oppressive traits of the old society.

The individual and community in African traditional religion and society

Etude de la personnalite et de la spiritualite individuelle dans l'univers religieux traditionnel africain (exemple des Igbo du Sud-Est du Nigeria). L'homme est place au centre de l'univers, il se fond dans la societe et y maintient l'ordre par l'observation des regles. La religion devient alors un instrument de pouvoir et de controle de la societe. La conception africaine du monde, du temps et de l'espace est un microcosme. La religion se transmet oralement et se caracterise par son holisme et sa nature envahissante : le sacrifice humain en est un exemple

Women and education: a crucial equation for human development in Africa

Population education programs in Africa are specific to each country yet have important common characteristics. Concern with safeguarding positive cultural traditions and moral values and an essential objective of improving quality of life for individuals and societies are shared by many different programs. The idea of responsible parenthood often touched on in the context of larger programs of "population and development" or "economic development and quality of life" calls for relating family size to prospects of economic development rather than limiting families to small sizes dictated by available family resources. Small families are seen not as a panacea but as a favoring factor within development policies. Smaller families are viewed as facilitating education of children and protecting family health through avoidance of early and closely spaced pregnancies. Rehabilitation of family values modernization of means of production and increasing educational levels and marriage ages are considered necessary steps in reduction of family sizes and improving quality of life. Fertility per se receives less priority in population education programs and when the issue is raised it is usually related to mortality or womans status. The value attached to children in traditional African societies and their importance to female status limits receptivity to messages focusing exclusively on reducing family size. Most of the programs also place little emphasis on family size in relation to management of family resources partly because of the continued importance of the extended family. Women occupy the most important place in population education programs because of their role in assuring family health protecting the environment educating children and in production and also because of their increasing marginalization in distribution of the benefits of growth. Educational activity is directed toward explaining the current status of women as resulting from sociocultural and religious prejudices which relegate women to an inferior position. The well being of women and their social promotion are essential conditions for family welfare. Womens role in family life and comparative analysis of the responsibilities of women and men and encouragement of birth spacing through family planning are emphasized with a view toward improving their conditions of existence and promoting their participation in development. Population education programs usually consider women;s marital status and condition in traditional society to be prejudicial to their progress but positive aspects of their socially recognized traditional status are usually omitted as are discussions of the negative impact on womens status and condition of the market economy. it is striking that a critical spirit is shown only in regard to traditional factors and not to the values imported from more developed countries.

A Study of the Reactions of Secondary Grammar School Students to Indigenous Moral Values in Nigeria

The present article investigates the reactions of Nigerian secondary school adolescents to some indigenous moral values. Indigenous moral values are operationally defined as values that are native or original to Nigeria and largely uninfluenced by exotic forces. Indigenous moral education, or character training, is defined as the systematic instruction of pupils in these moral values. Before the introduction of Oriental and Western cultures into what is now known as Nigeria, indigenous moral values such as respect for and obedience to elders and other authority figures were inculcated in Nigerian youth. For example, children were not allowed to intrude into the discussions and arguments of elders and they were taught to accept without question the responsibilities and duties assigned to them. In exercising social control, traditional African societies stressed that children obey instructions implicitly, and deviations from cultural norms were severely frowned upon. Traditional African society also emphasized a strong sense of communal life, reflected in community ownership of land and social justice and social control through the family, agegroups, and elders (Amadi, 1982; Nduka, 1980; Sofola, 1973). Individual actions were to be carried out in harmony with nature, and the needs and interests of the individual were deemed secondary to those of the group (Okoh, 1982). With the introduction of Western education into Nigeria, adolescents were encouraged to disregard traditional beliefs and customs that placed emphasis on values such as communalism, respect, and obedience (Nduka, 1975). As Nduka (1974) notes, traditional African moral values constituted an obstacle to the Western system of thought aimed at empowering individuals to engage in critical thinking for individualized self-development and self-actualization. Notwithstanding, indigenous moral education seems to be regaining its importance in Nigeria's educational institutions. The inculcation in

Give us back our own democracy

The democratic process is no stranger to traditional African society. The continent's leaders and people must rediscover and reinstate their own, forgotten practices