African culture is vast and diverse , endowed with an enormous immaterial wealth, a factor that can be explained both by the diversity of ethnicities present in Africa and by the influence of peoples from the Middle East and Europeans who have had contact with Africans throughout history. The combination of migratory factors , European colonization and ethnic diversity within the continent has made Africa today a continent in which several languages are spoken and religions are worshiped and which is characterized by being multicultural .
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Africa‘s cultural diversity
The African continent can be divided geopolitically into two broad strips of land: the African Saharan Africa (northern region) and the African sub-Saharan (southern region). Both are regions of cultural diversity, but the southern portion of the continent is more diverse and contains the majority of the population.
African culture is vast due to the great diversity of ethnic groups that it has and the migration of various peoples from the world to the continent.
The northern Saharan region has, throughout history, maintained forced and spontaneous contacts with Phoenician , Turkish, Arab, Roman, Greek and Far Eastern peoples . It is situated in an arid area, just above the Sahara Desert , and is made up of countries like Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria.
About 30% of the continent’s population lives in this portion of the land , and the majority of these inhabitants worship Islam , followed by a Christian minority. The people who live there have peculiar phenotypic traits, originating from the mixture between peoples of the Middle East, blacks and whites, being that they are not white like the natural peoples of Europe or black like the natural peoples of sub-Saharan Africa.
Before we understand the cultural diversity of sub-Saharan Africa, we must undo a prejudice that many carry with them about the southern portion of the continent. Poverty, hunger, disease and social inequality are not part of Africa’s ancient history.
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Sub-Saharan Africa is made up of people of many different ethnicities who led a tribal way of life. Among the various ethnic groups, we highlight the Bantos, Nagô and Jeje peoples, brought to Brazil during the Colonial Period . War between tribes was common, and they worshiped different religions with a similar matrix, based on the cult of orixás – entities that in African mythology have a spiritual contact with nature and represent the connection and protection of natural elements or human beings. .
Currently , there is a large portion of the population of southern Africa who maintain their roots and worship traditional religions, but there are also a significant number of Muslims and Christians living in the region, which causes religious conflicts arising from prejudice and intolerance , especially by Christians and Muslims.
The ills that affect the African people today are the result of the colonization process in two cycles:
· Colonialism
Led mainly by Portugal and Spain, it sought people in sub-Saharan Africa to be enslaved in the colonies and to satisfy the needs of agricultural and mining labor. In the process, just as European countries took natural wealth from their colonies located in the Americas, they also confiscated African natural wealth.
Another characteristic of this first colonization was the intentional intensification, by Europeans, of internal conflicts between African tribes, in order to achieve, through agreements with the winning tribes, the capture of slaves won in the war so that they were sent to the colonies. It was a common custom among tribes for victors to capture the vanquished as slaves.
This system of slavery was, however, quite different from European-type slavery, since Africans saw themselves, even in a master and slave relationship, as equals , while Europeans saw Africans as inferior.
· Neocolonialism
The neo-colonialism (or imperialism ) was a second wave of colonization that literally divided the sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in Asia and Oceania between the major European powers. Most of the African continent came under the rule of England , with countries also under the Portuguese and French domains . This factor caused a division of borders and the formation of national states in the region.
The problem is that these states were home to different ethnicities and tribes, with different religions and cultures, which were historically enemies. This caused several internal conflicts and civil wars that marked the continent’s history and contributed to the poverty of the local population. Other factors that caused the misery were the unbridled withdrawal of natural resources from mining, such as gold and diamonds, and hunting, which depleted natural resources in different parts of the continent.
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African cultural traditions
Among cultural traditions, we can highlight some as more striking and widespread. Below we separate and expose sections with the traditional brands of African peoples.
· Habits and customs
Among the peoples of the north of the continent, traditionally Islamic habits and customs stand out , as this religious denomination is predominant there. It is common in societies, especially Egyptian and Moroccan, for the prevalence of the use of the veil for Muslim women and the establishment of a patriarchal family model, based on the customs of Islam.
The peoples of the South, on the other hand, have a wider and, consequently, more diverse culture . In some places, Christian culture predominates, especially in those where colonization was established with greater force , such as South Africa. In others, such as Congo, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Kenya, the prevalence of the tribal life in the interiors is still remarkable, which brings us back to the native polytheistic religions that still exist.
· visual arts
Southern African peoples have developed various artistic forms linked mainly to their religions . These are artifacts, such as masks, braided rope, statuettes and others, sculpted in wood, stone or made with fabrics. The symbolism of these artistic forms refers to the deities or elements of everyday life and have different meanings for each people, representing the sacred , the profane or actions that are part of the culture , such as war and food collection (most sub-Saharan tribes had a nomadic life, based on hunting and gathering, before Europeans arrived on the continent).
Masks are elements of African culture that unite fine arts and religiosity.
The ivory sculptures of the Bakongo peoples show the traditional hunting of elephants, animals that were once abundant in some places in Africa, for food. The tusks of these animals are made of a dense and calcified material, ivory, and were used to make sculptures and ornaments, such as necklaces.
The people who inhabited the regions of Savanna (biome present in much of sub-Saharan Africa) knew metallurgy , melting metals to make hunting and war weapons , as well as decorative artifacts .
· Music and dance
The music and dance are part of the African tribal cultures. Packed by a rhythm marked by percussion instruments , African dances generally have a fast rhythm and beat , which allows for different variations and movements.
Both arts, often have religious connotations and are used to mark traditional cults, being elements that attract and please the orixás (or good spirits) and keep evil spirits away. Music and dance are also used in tribes for celebrations and festivals , being practiced by all members.
Some rhythms of African origin are capoeira (a mixture of martial art and dance), batuque , lundu and coco . Many Western musical rhythms originated based on African music, such as samba, axé and maracatu in Brazil; the reggae in Jamaica; and jazz in the United States.
Typical instruments of African culture for the composition of music are:
- Atabaque: a percussion instrument made with wood and animal leather, usually played with the hands, it can also be played with thin wooden drumsticks. It is used today in capoeira, samba, axé and maracatu, among other rhythms.
The atabaque is an instrument widely used in capoeira games, religious ceremonies and in other contexts.
- Berimbau: instrument of Angolan origin composed of a wooden bow, a wire rope and a gourd box, which amplifies the sound that results from the vibration of the string. The berimbau is played with a stick, made of some resistant wooden stick, and is usually accompanied by a rattle, which moves the stick, and a stone, which holds the berimbau and serves to interrupt the vibration of the string. In Angola, the berimbau is known as m’bolumbumba . The instrument has been used, since its creation, in capoeira, to produce the typical sounds that chant the dance of capoeiristas.
- Agogô: it is a metal instrument that has two or more bellows (outside a bell without the bell, which is the internal pendulum) of metal and of different sizes, attached by a metal rod. A metal or wooden drumstick is used to vibrate the clocks, which produce the sound.
- Afoxé: is a kind of rattle made with a gourd and a braided net with lines and seeds. The net covers the gourd, but remains loose, in order to allow friction between the seeds and the gourd when moved, which generates the sound amplified by the gourd
