News — African culture

It is said that the Nyau lead secluded lives and no one really knows who they are. Their group is supposed to embody the cosmology and religion of the Chewa - a Bantu people of central and southern Africa. The Chichewa word "Nyau" means mask. This cult has been around for centuries, but the Nyau association is closely related with Chewa and Mag'anja people who came to Malawi, with their origin being the Congo area. Reports about the Nyau society existed even in British colonial times.

Some people outside this religious context see Nyau as a strange, sometimes dangerous and backward cult. The society represents solidarity among the men of various villages. The Nyau perform the famous "D" dance at the end of events initiating young men into adulthood. The dance is also performed at birth ceremonies, funerals or in remembrance of the ancestors. Dancing the Gule Wamkulu has certain rules. The dancers initiated Nyau men - wear masks and costumes made of banana leaves. The attire is meant to represent all aspects of humanity, but at the same time hide the dancer's identity.

The Gule Wamkulu dancers are revered within the Chewa ethnic group. There are different, specific mask genres. The black mask, for example, is the mask of the chief; it is a respected mask and is most likely to have wrinkles of age and animal fur.Each kind of mask has a set of rules, a drum beat, a rhythm and a kind of performance associated with it. Every aspect of a mask's shape, coloring and material has a metaphorical, religious meaning.

Some of the world’s greatest cultural and historical treasures are housed in London’s British Museum, and a significant number of them were taken during Britain’s centuries-long imperial rule. In recent years, many of the countries missing their cultural heritage have been asking for some of these items back. Benin City in Nigeria is one of those places. They've been calling for the return of the Benin Bronzes, hundreds of artifacts looted in 1897 when British soldiers embarked a punitive expedition to Benin. Many are now housed in the British Museum. And it's just the beginning. As the world reckons with the damage inflicted during Europe’s colonial global takeover, the calls for these items to be returned are getting louder and louder. (Shared via Vox)

Africa is a diverse continent that boasts multiple cultures and languages in its 54 countries. In this clip, Africans are tested for knowledge of their own (extremely diverse) continent to see how much they know and what they really think about each other. The responses are quite hilarious and show varying opinions of African countries by Africans. The diversity of the African continent also becomes evident. How well would you have done in such a test?

Vanessa Nakate is a Ugandan climate activist who led Uganda’s First Fridays for Future climate strikes and founded Youth for Future Africa and Rise Up Climate Movement to address climate concerns in the African continent and world at large.

Nakate was born on November 15, 1996 and grew up in the Kitintale neighborhood of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala. She graduated from Makerere University Business School with a degree in Business Administration in 2018. After finishing her schooling, she began researching the different issues impacting her country and found climate change to be the most gripping problem. Given that Africa produces 2-3% of global carbon emissions but is the continent most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Nakate believes this is more reason to act. From long drought spells in Northern Uganda to a high prevalence of landslides and floods in Eastern Uganda, Nakate realized how localized and devastating the issue of climate change is and decided to become a voice in the movement towards climate justice.

In 2018, she protested outside the parliament of Uganda for several months alone. She used social media to spread word on the urgency of climate problems facing her region, and other youth eventually joined her to raise awareness about Congo’s rainforest, which is facing vast deforestation. In rural schools, Nakate spearheaded a project that provides solar installation and eco-friendly stoves because those communities would otherwise be unable to afford those energy sustainability tools.

In 2019, she was chosen to speak at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Spain. Later in 2020, she joined forces with other climate activists from around the world to camp outside in the freezing cold of Switzerland at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos. The group also published a letter calling on participants of the World Economic Forum to stop subsidizing fossil fuels. The Associated Press snapped a photo of the activists and wrote an article about the matter, but Nakate was cropped out of the image and not included in the article. She took to her frustration to her Twitter platform where she lambasted racism in the media, saying that the AP’s actions did not just erase her but that they erased an entire continent. The incident went viral on the internet and she received international outpouring support and solidarity from other activists. This put new eyes on the African climate movement and its activists so Nakate looks back on it favorably.

Nakate has continued to use her platform online for advocacy and has amassed over 200 thousand followers on Twitter and more than 100 thousand followers on Instagram. Nakate was chosen to be on the lists for BBC’s 100 Women in 2020 and Time100 Next published by Time Magazine in 2021.

In April 1966, The First World Festival of Negro Arts, which is now known as FESMAN, launched its debut as the first modern cultural event celebrating global Black culture.

The Festival took place in Dakar, Senegal and was initiated by Senegalese president Léopold Sédar Senghor who saw it as a way to emphasize the importance of cultural development of newly independent African nations. The Festival’s theme centered around the significance of Black artistry and its role in promoting economic, political, and infrastructural development in Africa. Though literature, dance, and visual and auditory performances, Senghor hoped to facilitate the identification with African culture and creativity which challenged the prior limitations imposed during the age of colonization.

The event brought together more than 2,000 writers, artists, and musicians from throughout the African diaspora including 30 independent African nations, to celebrate the vast diversity within Black cultures. Renowned African American artists including as Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, and Josephine Baker, performed in celebration of Africa’s cultural renaissance which mirrored their own contributions to the Harlem Renaissance, the jazz age, and Negritude.

Festival organizers sought to showcase Black excellence internationally by placing Black art in the company of Picasso, Modigliani, and other famous European figures. This artistic illustration of pan-Africanism contributed to the emerging global dialogue on the cultural importance of Africa and to show that the continent, and indeed all African peoples, were no longer bound by their history of oppression and slavery.

The Festival celebrated a newfound understanding of pan-Africanism, as different cultural performances from artists around the world showcased the collective identity of “blackness.” It promoted the unity of different ethnic groups within Black communities all over the world and reinforced the global demand for racial equality.

Following the events at the festival in Dakar in 1966, the Second Wold Festival of Negro Arts continued in Lagos, Nigeria some years later in 1977. This event was the largest pan-African event held in Africa. The most recent festival returned to its origin in Dakar nearly 30 years later in December 2010, to celebrate the significance of pan-Africanism and Black culture.

Bahia’s treasured costume, Baiana de Acarajé, is an extravagant piece of clothing worn by the beautiful women of Bahia. This group of people is in Salvador, a town on the northeastern coast of Brazil. It is impossible to stroll through the streets without seeing a woman or a group of women in this special attire.

The Transatlantic slave trade has had so much influence on Brazilian pop culture. The clothing of the women of Bahia carries a piece of this history.

Their traditional dress is made up of the Camino (a type of white cotton trousers), worn underneath a long maxi skirt, made extra flowy, and which is usually white. The dress also comes with a bodice that sinches at the waist and drapes slightly over the top of the skirt.

Although most of the styles are similar, every woman is at liberty to make their style more unique and personalized. The style inspiration for the traditional dress is that of ancient European Baroque — white lace and tons of layers. The headwraps, which are made with white lace, can be traced to the dress’s Afro-Islamic roots. The accessories include colorful bead necklaces and rings stacked upon each other.

In other parts of Brazil, the traditional dresses come in different colors and patterns but when it comes to the Baiana de Acarajé traditional dress in Bahia, it is an all-white affair. This is because it pays tribute to the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé.

Candomblé was formed in the late 19th century in Bahia where most of the enslaved can be traced. People from Yorubaland, Dahomey kingdoms (present-day southwestern Nigeria and Benin), and Bantu Africa were the larger groups in the settlement at the time.

Yoruba and Ewe-Fon rituals have heavily influenced Candomblé from the language of incantations to their religious organization and their mythology. The Candomblé faithful believe in several deities referred to as orishas (orixás) that are sometimes even likened to Catholic saints.

The Baiana de Acarajé traditional dress is also worn by women in Bahia who sell Acarajé, a dish made from peeled beans formed into a ball and then deep-fried in palm oil or vegetable oil. The meal serves as both a religious offering to the gods in the Candomblé religion and as street food.

Aside from the Acarajé, which is variously made with fried beef, mutton, dried shrimp, pigweed, fufu Osun sauce, and coconut, the women wear the traditional attire to sell other tasty street foods as well. They stress that donning the Baianas de Acarajé traditional dress is an intricate part of their culture that warms the hearts of the locals and tourists alike.

Traditional African names often have unique stories behind them. From the day or time a baby is born to the circumstances surrounding the birth, several factors influence the names parents choose for their children.

Whichever ethnic group you look at, these local names reveal a wealth of information about the bearer.

Here are seven different ways African parents name their children:

Events Surrounding Birth

Among several ethnic groups, picking out names can be influenced by positive or negative circumstances the family finds themselves in around the time a child is born.

Often, such names are complete sentences.

• Ayodele (joy has come home) is a unisex name for a baby whose birth brought happiness to their Yoruba parents in Nigeria.
• Yetunde or Yewande (mother has come back) is a Yoruba name given to a girl whose grandmother or other female relative died before she was born.
• Adetokunbo (crown/wealth has come back home) is a unisex Yoruba name often given to a child born abroad.
• Ajuji (born on a rubbish heap) is a Hausa name given to a baby after those born before it failed to survive. It is believed that giving the child a "terrible" name will deceive evil spirits into thinking the child is not loved and as a result, allow it to live.
• Kgomotso and Pumza (comfort) are given to babies born shortly after a death or tragedy in Sesotho and Xhosa families in South Africa.
• Kiptanui and Cheptanui are often given to babies whose mothers may have suffered extreme difficulties during childbirth among the Kalenjin ethnic group in Kenya.
• Kimaiyo and Jemaiyo are names sometimes given to baby boys and girls whose births coincide with men drinking locally brewed beer (Maiywek) among the Kalenjins.
• Misrak (east) was given to an Ethiopian baby girl whose father was in Japan at the time she was born.
• Lindiwe (we have waited) is an isiZulu name often given to a baby girl after a long line of boys.

Emotional Warnings

Some names, especially in Zimbabwe, reflect the mood or circumstance of the family at the time of birth. Some of them serve as warnings or rebukes.

• Nhamo means misfortune
• Maidei asks the question "What did you want?"
• Manyara tells someone "You have been humbled"
• Yananiso means bringing the family together

Sometimes these names are translated into English, where they can sound quite surprising, for example: Airforce; Kissmore; Brilliant; Psychology; Hatred; Nomatter; Jealous; Furious or Hardlife.

But this is not unique to Zimbabwe.

Gospel Mavutula from neighbouring Malawi was originally named Misery but decided it was too negative and changed it.

"I was born at a period when my parents were miserable," he told the BBC.

He said his parents, both teachers, had been experiencing pressure at work and problems with their neighbours and this influenced his birth name.

"I have avoided that scenario by giving nice names to my children," he added.

And across the continent in Ghana's Volta region, a couple belonging to the Ewe ethnic group had decided to stop having children but their last daughter unexpectedly came along.

To show that the child was somehow a mistake, they decided to name her Melevevio, which translates as "not necessary".

Celebrity Culture

The Luos in Kenya are known for adopting famous names for their children. Quite a number of mothers named their baby boys Obama in 2008 after Barack Obama, the son of a Luo man, was elected US president. And when he visited the country in 2015, one mother reportedly named her child Airforceone.

Churchill and Clinton are also quite popular in Luo-speaking areas of western Kenya.

One couple have already had to defend their decision to name their son Donald Trump Otieno. The parents told the Nairobi News they chose to name their child after the US president-elect because they liked the billionaire's principles.

But naming children after people in the news is certainly not unique to the Luos, or Kenya.

Order Of Birth

In many African cultures, there is no need for someone to explain whether they are the eldest or youngest of their siblings. This is because their names can reveal that much. This is especially true of twins.

If you meet a Ugandan boy or man called Kakuru or Wasswa, he is likely to be an elder twin. The younger male twin is usually called Kato. These are names specially reserved for twins.

Similarly, the Kalenjins in Kenya refer to the first born as Yator (first to open the way) and the last born Towett meaning last.

The Yorubas call the first twin Taiwo (taste the world) and the second Kehinde (came after).

In Ghana, the unisex names Panyin and Kakra, which basically mean older and younger, are used for twins.

Day-Born Names

Even before parents select a western or religious name for their child, the baby already has a name.

Among some Ghanaian ethnic groups like the Akan, Ga, Ewe and Nzema, a name is automatically assigned based on the day the child is born. These day names correspond to the day of the week someone is born and so by default, everybody has one - though the name may not necessarily appear on official documents.

• Monday - Kojo (male), Adwoa (female)
• Tuesday - Kwabena (male), Abena (female)
• Wednesday - Kwaku (male), Ekua (female)
• Thursday - Yaw (male), Yaa (female)
• Friday - Kofi (male), Efua (female)
• Saturday - Kwame (male), Ama (female)
• Sunday - Akwesi (male), Akosua, (female)

These day names can vary slightly depending on the ethnic group.

Faith-based names

Many parents express their religious beliefs through names but some this further than others.

Edem Adjordor, from Ghana, believes there is a higher power than black magic and so through his three-year-old son, he sends a strong message to those he considers spiritual enemies.

Xolawubo, which means the creator (God) is greater than voodoo, is the middle name of his three-year-old son. Though his Dutch wife and in-laws find it difficult to pronounce the name, its meaning is all that matters to them.

Across the continent, several local names have religious links. Among the Igbo and Yoruba ethnic groups in Nigeria, a name that starts or ends with Chi, Chukwu or Oluwa has some kind of reference to God.

• Olusegun means God conquers (Yoruba, Nigeria)
• Hailemariam means the power of Mary (Ethiopia)
• Mawufemor means God's way (Ewe ethnic group in Togo, Ghana, Benin)
• Makafui means I will praise God (Ewe ethnic group in Togo, Ghana, Benin)

Day And Night

Among some groups in eastern and southern Africa, certain names are selected depending on the time of the day or season a child is born.

• Kibet means day and Kiplagat means night (Kalenjin in Kenya)
• Mumbua and Wambua means rainy season for boys and girls (Kamba in Kenya)
• Olweny means time of war (Luo)
• Yunwa means hunger or time of famine (Hausa)

While the Luos are very specific:

• Omondi (dawn)
• Okinyi (morning)
• Onyango (mid-morning)
• Ochieng' (sunny midday)
• Otieno (night)
• Oduor (midnight)

Girls are given the same names but starting with an A instead of an O.