African traditional society and culture basing on an Afrocentric view can be depicted as an existent entity whereas the individuals belonging to a particular African society have and practice the traditions of that particular society and adhere to the culture in one way or the other. This is more evident and clearly practised within the rural majority dwellers of the African continent whose minds, morals and behaviours are centred in line with the values and norms of the basic African Traditional society.
African Culture can be depicted as it was expressed by Dr. Maulana Karenga in his article quoting Steve Biko as “Our (African) culture provides us with an ethos we must honour in both thought and practice. By ethos we mean the peoples self-understanding as well as self presentation in the world through its thought and practice, it’s above all a cultural challenge. For Culture is here defined as the totality of thought and practice by which people create itself and celebrates, sustain itself and develops itself and introduces itself to history and humanity” (Karenga, 1997)
Idowu E. Bolaji (1973) argues that “there is common Africanness about the total culture and religious beliefs and practices of Africa. The common factor may be due to either the fact of diffusion or to the fact that most Africans share common origins with regard to race and customs and religious practices”. This therefore directly implies the fact that African societies are interconnected and have a common culture so to speak which is binding and unifying in its aspects.
African traditional societies are existent and the exemplary societies include mainly; Swaziland headed by King Mswati III who has been in power since 1986, The African traditionalism evident in the state as a whole is incomparable and its conformity towards the culture and traditional ways of living in adherence to the typical traditional ways as Kinship, Rule without legal rational basis and the like have shown the evident presence of the traditional African societies in these contemporary times. ( BBC 2013)
African Traditional societies which are fully fledged in the African continent clearly include the Pygmies; these are groups of traditionalists who practice hunting and gathering and live off entirely from their natural environment. They are dispersed in the Central African rainforests ranging from Congo where the Baka pygmies are most evident, Bakola-Bagyemi pygmies dispersed in Cameroon and the Equatorial Guinea, Bakoya pygmies evident in Gabon and other dispersion of pygmies as the Bedzan pygmies and Aka Pygmies. This is an evident example to the contention that there are African traditional societies which directly adhere to their culture which is highly traditional in example the ritualistic act of initiation of the spirit of the rainforest onto the pygmies in order to be more connected to their environment in general. (Devin 2001)
African traditional society which is evident and highly adhering to culture include the East African Maasai, who live in the northern region of Tanzania and southern areas of Kenya along the Great Rift Valley on semi-arid and arid lands are the prime African traditional society members due to their trait of maintaining their culture as Maasais by maintaining traditional ways of living and preserving their culture as a totality in general.
Cultural values in Africa are vastly adhered to as a basis of living in African societies, implying that the core values are still evident in some African societies. As listed in Dr. Emeka Emeakarohas article on African cultural values; These include; Sense of community, Sense of good human relation, Sense of hospitality, Sense of sacredness and religion, Sense of respect for authority and elders in the general basis of interrelation among individuals and the larger community in general.(2006)
It is important to note that African culture isn’t limited to African traditional societies as it transcends beyond the gap of traditional societies transcending into the urban African scenario whereas Africans who do not live in exact traditional societies still practice the values and norms of their specific society of origin making them a collection of the larger dispersed group of the traditional society in general.
Walter Rodney had stated that, “Religion is an aspect of the superstructure of the society, deriving ultimately from the degree of control and understanding of the material world” (1972: 35). This brings forth the contention those African Traditional religions which are aspects of the superstructure of the societies are highly influenced into understanding the material world in which they reside in through animism, these practices are evident and are existent in our modern day times as people practice and worship the traditional forms of religions as long as they get assurance that the religion would be able to provide some kind of solution or an understanding of a particular aspect of the material world. In example, the Xhosa and Khoi Khoi religious rituals of appraisal ceremonies to the dead in order to get peace and understanding of their situation and hoping to attain enlightenment of the future through such ceremonies by their religion which is a typical African traditional religion in our current times hence further showing the evidence of the presence of African traditional societies.
The presence of African traditional customs and practices further stipulate the presence of the traditional society regardless of its disparity, These practices include the following; Male ceremonial circumcision, as Walter Rodney had stated “Circumcision meant initiation into the society and into adulthood” (1972: 37). This is a highly celebrated ceremony in African Tradition in example the Congolese “Kisokolo” initiation process whereby young boys are taken into forests and taught life skills and other teachings for almost a week and on the final day the circumcision takes place, this is similar to the Tanzanian “Jando” initiation process whereby the discourse is similar and it is practised in the rural parts of both areas. This has a similar counterpart for girls whereby young ladies undergo Female Genital Mutilation which is a relatively extremist traditional and is under international pressure to be abolished, Countries which have high prevalence rates in Africa include Somalia, Mali and Egypt. In Tanzania however many tribes are resorting to giving teachings to young ladies on initiation to womanhood and celebration ceremonies as a girl hits puberty, The Zaramo in Tanzania are the most prominent in such affairs.
Polygamy is one of the deeply rooted African traditional practices evident in the patterns of African traditional societies. This is the situation of one man having multiple Wives. Polygamy has existed in all over the African continent due to the fact that it represents an aspect culture. One of the reasons why this has happened is because the African traditional societies have managed to see that children were a form of wealth and this way a family with more children was considered to be more powerful. For example polygamy is very widespread across Kenya and right now one of the most prominent single individual that is popularizing this practice is Akuku Danger who as managed to become famous thanks to the fact that he is married with over 100 wives. Polygamy is accepted is Sudan. Under these circumstances the Sudanese president: Omar Hassan al-Bashir has always sustained polygamy and he says that these multiple marriages are one of the options available for Sudan in order to increase its population. (BBC 2013)
African traditional attire are evident in the society whereas the designers are being innovative in invigorating traditional styles into the society an example is Khadija Mwanamboka who is a renown designer basing on traditional attires for men and women in Tanzania. It is these percolations of traditionalism and culture which show the presence and adaptation of African Traditional societies ways and values, Nigerians on the other hand have been very keen in preserving their culture through ensuring that their traditional attires do not fade away hence encourage the wearing of the traditional based Nigerian wear as the Ankara wear. This is a depiction on how traditional attires can be invigorated in modern ones creating a blend of semi-traditional but very African. The Maasai on the other hand have outdone themselves by maintaining their culture completely and keeping their tradition alive and constant. This is the most celebrated tribe in maintenance of attire and not merely ceremonial.
African traditional medicine in use in our current times is an evidence of the presence of the wider African traditional culture as it is evident in the way that most African societies indulge in traditionalists as herbalists who use plan technology in the process of acquiring antidotes of various diseases. In example the Loliondo Herbal cure developed by Rev. Ambilikile Mwasapile who resides in Samunge village in Loliondo near Ngorongoro which had occurred in Tanzania in 2011 had brought forth international attention to the fact that Africans firmly believe in traditional medicines and are more than willing to comply to travel miles and miles for the cure. This is backed by presence of many herbalists even in urban areas who practice the use of traditional African medicines for curing the ill for example, Matunge herbalists in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania. This shows the extent of the widespread values and culture of African Traditional societies.
African vernacular languages are in vast use and this is due to the presences of African academicians who write in vernacular languages mainly being the frontier Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o who wrote most of his work in Kikuyu, this is a contention that African Traditional societies are existent and that they are functional hence authors like Ngugi show the world that Africans can stand and can be proud of who they are and of who they can be. This has propagated widespread acceptance of vernacularism and its widespread use especially in Kenya amongst the Kikuyu. Rural dwellers of most African countries use their vernacular languages as the medium of communication in example Fang, Bubi, Ibo, Hausa, Djerma, Gogo, Haya, Makonde, Nyakyusa, Nyamwezi, Sukuma, Tumbuka,
African respect and sense of humility and politeness as well as respect to elders is evident and it is an attribute of African traditional societies as well as a pillar of African culture. In the words of William Conton: “Africans generally have deep and ingrained respect for old age, and even when we can find nothing to admire in an old man, we will not easily forget that his grey hairs have earned him right to courtesy and politeness”( Emeakarohas 2006) This is in light of the fact that the nature of Africans is humble and loving as well as caring and respectful. This is evident in our society as people are trying to maintain decency especially in presence of respected elders.
African traditional food is widely used in African societies, this shows that people are living the African traditional life due to indulging in usage of Traditional African cuisines, This is evident throughout Africa in example Fufu in Nigeria, Ibo in Zambia, Attieke in Ivory Coast, Bazeen in Libya, Buttong in South Africa, Brik in Algeria, Gari Soakings in Ghana, the list is endless but the most importantly is that all these foods were passed down from generation to generation and they have vast history but are still in use and they are edible and extremely healthy.( BBC 2013) This therefore entails the presence of African traditional society and culture.
The contention that questions the existence of African traditional society and culture has been clearly beyond reasonable doubt asserted to agreement however there are presences of constraints towards the flourishing of these societies as, Internal factors which include; Lack of unity among members of the society, differentiation of ideologies rise of personal interest in the community, deterioration of morality and other social factors. The external factors are mainly Globalisation which seems to be the main eroding agent hence risking the development of indigenous culture alongside other factors whose impacts are sensed as the culture slowly risks fading away into the world community. Therefore it is the collective duty of citizens to ensure that their culture and the African traditional societies do not fade away completely, and through cooperation in the society.
