Rituals and Rites
For many Africans, the words “rituals” or “rites” conjure up images of blood, incantations of questionable, possibly evil intention, and practices which should be left alone (Thank you, Nollywood!). Others might understand the words in their literal sense: rituals as sequences of activities performed in a sequestered place and according to a set order, usually involving specific gestures, words, actions, or objects; and rites as established, ceremonial, usually religious, acts.[i], [ii], [iii] Rituals and rites are examples of cultural forms. Cultural forms are the practices through which the networks of meanings contained in a culture’s ideologies, norms, and values are expressed, affirmed, and communicated to its members and integrated into unified, and often public performances.[iv] Cultural forms in the traditional African context, manifest in practices such as ancestral worship, divination, sorcery, liturgy, and rites of passage.[v]
These definitions provide what I find to be necessary levels of normalization because despite the innate fear of blood and Ayamakanda (IYKYK), the average African person’s life is replete with rituals and rites. For example, waking up at a specific time, to wash your face, brush your teeth, and then sit down for Bible study, prayer or singing, is a ritual. Were a person to replace Bible study and meditation with any other kind of routinely performed spiritual practice or other activity to which they assign symbolic meaning, they would be performing a ritual. Same goes for ways of greetings or introductions, as well as any routinely performed actions taken before enjoying a meal or starting an important activity. Similarly, commemorations of births, weddings, and other important events, as well as efforts which recognize personal or collective transitions in different contexts, are the rituals and rites which mark the average life.[vi] Through rituals, rites, and the ceremonies they are aggregated into, even the most ordinary of actions and gestures are transformed into symbolic expressions whose meanings are reinforced each time they are performed.
The definitions above are thorough and avoid the negative connotations rituals and rites might get weighted with. They do not, however, provide an answer to the question of why humans have this tendency towards ritualization, especially since these activities are a human universal, that is, they exist in all human societies that have been studied over time.[vii] The field of psychology offers some insight on why humans develop and maintain rituals and rites. Canadian psychologist Nicholas Hobson and his team of researchers found that in general, rituals and rites have three main functions: regulating emotions, regulating performance, and regulating social connections.[vi] Essentially, the psychological reward of having done something specific to address an issue, the focusing of individual or collective attention and effort that is a key aspect of ritual, rites and ceremonies, and the comfort to be found in the knowledge that there are people with similar values to yours, are what make these activities so useful and give them power. Successful communities do, after all, depend on their member’s ability to regulate or mediate relationships on the intrapersonal and interpersonal level. Additionally, when performed in the context of a religion, rituals and rites make the mundane sacred. (Click here for a great read about how and why humans developed religion)
Traditional African rituals and rites persist and often coexist on a continuum with civil and other religious rituals and rites. In many cases, they play key roles in just about every facet of each community member’s journey through life, starting from birth to death. A typical situation in which this occurs is marriage where traditional, civil and religious ceremonies are held.
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This coexistence also shows up in situations which call for justice or conflict resolution where the state or other governance apparatus introduced by colonialism are insufficient to meet the need. Take the Ntangle ritual of the Oku people in the Northwest region of Cameroon, for example.[viii] Ntangle means “arbitration and the resolution of disputes”. The Oku people believe that their ancestors send illness or catastrophes to people who disturb the peace of a family or a community. They also believe that these calamities can be overcome only by expiatory sacrifices which are performed by the family head in his compound. Both the offending and offended parties gather, palm-wine is served from large wine pots known as eking myin, and a chicken is sacrificed (i.e. ritually killed), prepared and eaten, with the ancestors also receiving a share. The point, of course is not just to gather for a meal. It is to provide the filial environment, with ancestors present, in which the conflict resolution can happen. The Ntangle process itself involves confessions of bad feelings and expressions of regret. During Ntangle, ancestors are said to gather at the bottom of the eking myin so their keyus (‘life-power’, ‘soul’ or ‘breath’) enters the wine and mixes with the keyus of those who drink it, reinvigorating the drinkers and linking them directly with their ancestors.
Traditional rituals and rites persist despite centuries of disruptions such as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism which have left much of the continent in a state of upheaval. This is because African communities remain “culture bearing” groups, and thus are actively involved in creating and perpetuating activities which tether members cognitively and emotionally to their respective groups, generating the inclination towards cooperation and harmony necessary for the group’s survival faced with an ever changing world. [iii] it is exciting to think about the rituals and rites which will emerge in the future, given the opportunities for connection and cooperation created by the internet.
References
[i] Siegel, Michael J. “The Use of Ritual and Ceremony in Strengthening Institutional Affiliation Among First-Year Students.” Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention 15.2 (2008).
[ii] Wikipedia contributors. “Ritual.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 Oct. 2020. Web. 5 Nov. 2020.
[iii] Wikipedia contributors. “Rite.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Aug. 2020. Web. 9 Nov. 2020.
[iv] Trice, Harrison M., and Janice M. Beyer. “Studying organizational cultures through rites and ceremonials.” Academy of management review 9.4 (1984): 653–669.
[v] Ferim, Valery Buinwi. “African Indigenous Knowledge Systems In Contemporary Conflict Transformation: A Case Study Of The Bakweri People On The Southwest Region Of Cameroon”. University Of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, 2017.
[vi] Hobson, Nicholas M., et al. “The psychology of rituals: An integrative review and process-based framework.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 22.3 (2018): 260–284.
[vii] Brown, Donald E. “Human universals and their implications.” Being humans: Anthropological universality and particularity in transdisciplinary perspectives (2000): 156–174.
[viii] Koloss, Hans-Joachim. “Kefuh Myin: A Therapeutic Medicine In Oku”. Journal Of The Anthropological Society Of Oxford, vol 26, no. 96, 1996. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/1580885. Accessed 30 July 2020.
