African rituals: history, characteristics and other information!

African culture and rituals have countless forms of diversity, being very rich in intangible heritage, formed by the great ethnic diversification, as influenced by the arrival of peoples from the Middle East and Europe. This diversity, formed in the course of the history of Africans when relating to these peoples.

Due to the large migratory movement, together with the colonization of Europeans and the existing ethnic diversity in the African interior, a mixture of cultures was created in the country. In this way, in the various regions of the continent there is a great variety of religions and languages, thus characterizing a pluralized culture.

In this article you will find information that will show the richness of African rituals and the culture of this people, you will understand these rituals, their main characteristics of rituals and culture, some of these rituals and their influence in Brazil.

Africa is a continent with vast territory, so there is a lot of diversity, including determined between the northern region, Saharan Africa and southern region Sub-Saharan Africa. Each of these regions has its own diversity of African cultures and rituals.

In this section of the text, you will find various information about these rituals, their history, how they work and their usefulness, their variety throughout the continent and how these rituals arrived in Brazil.

African culture and rituals went through a process of great destruction during periods of colonization. Which led to a collision between African countries and Arab nationalism and European imperialism.

In this way, it was possible to preserve many traditional cultures preserved, which ended up being taken to various places in Africa, mainly as a result of the migration process across the continent. Thus, it was possible to keep African cultures and rituals alive, in addition to creating a coalition between various characteristics of African peoples.

Many African rituals are linked to traditional African religions, they are formed by spiritual leaders and some types of priests. They play a very important role in preserving the spirituality and religiosity of the community. Some of these representatives are responsible for performing healing and divination, it is as if it were a form of counseling compared to shamanic rituals.

These representatives of African rituals are usually indicated by ancestors or gods. These people are rigorously trained, assimilating the necessary skills. These learnings include knowledge of herbs used in healing processes, in addition to other mystical skills.

As it is a continent with a very extensive territory, it is divided into two territorial strips, with Saharan Africa to the north and Sub-Saharan Africa to the south. Throughout these regions, African rituals end up creating their own characteristics, presenting great diversity.

The northern part of Africa during its history received the influence of various peoples such as the Phoenicians, Arabs, Greeks, Turks, Romans and the Far East. Which brought unique characteristics to the rituals of this area. The southern part of the continent was influenced by peoples such as Bantu, Jeje and Nagô, thus having rituals with different characteristics.

With the realization of the trafficking of Africans to Brazilian lands, in order to enslave them to work in the lands of Portuguese colonizers, African rituals ended up being adopted in the country. Even though the Catholic Church tried to prevent enslaved people from practicing and disseminating their culture, forcing them to adhere to Christianity, the tradition was stronger.

Enslaved Africans performed their rituals on dates that were used for Catholic celebrations, making mobilizations and festivities. Even when some accepted to participate in Christian festivities, they did not fail to have their faith in voduns, orixás and traditional deities of their land.

And so, participation in both forms of religion ended up bringing new cults, with African, Christian and indigenous characteristics. In this way, African rituals were perpetuated, received new influences and spread throughout Brazil, and still resist today.

African traditional cultures and rituals have very diverse characteristics, both because they receive influences from foreign peoples in their continent. In this way, this is a rich culture and has a lot of diversity.

In this part of the article, we will talk about some of the most striking characteristics of African culture, such as its general aspects, the form of political organization, its religions, its cuisine, its forms of art and its dance rituals.

The African culture known today was transmitted from generation to generation, through narrations of stories known by traditional peoples. Although they already knew writing, it was also an African tradition to register through orality, or storytelling.

Another existing traditional feature in Africa was the organization of the population into tribes, which had political chiefs. These tribes lived from the practice of agriculture, hunting and fishing, in addition to performing African rituals among themselves. These population organizations could be nomadic or have fixed residence.

Traditional African culture made its people organize themselves politically in fixed dwellings, using a territory to form large empires, or as nomads who traveled through the desert. There was the possibility of organizing themselves in small tribes, or in larger kingdoms, where the same person could be the ruler and the religious teacher.

Regardless of the type of governance these peoples had, whether by clans with good lineage, or by certain social classes, what matters is that they created an enormous intangible and material heritage, which lives until today.

Among the inhabitants of the northern region of the African continent, it is necessary to highlight their customs based on Islamic traditions. Thus, it is common, especially in Morocco and Egypt, for Muslim women to wear a veil. As well as the implementation of patriarchy as a family model.

However, in the south of the continent, a much more diversified and quite extensive culture prevails. Thus, in some areas of South Africa, there is a majority of Christian culture. Other places, mainly inland, such as Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Somalia, practice polytheistic religions.

In this continent, in addition to African rituals, something very peculiar is also the unique cuisine existing in each country. But regardless of the type, the way of cooking these people is quite unique and refined. Not only in Africa, but in every country in the world, cuisine is the key to getting to know their culture in depth.

The richness of each region’s food, the influence of the country that colonized the area, the traditions and the way of preparing it, show peculiarities that make noticeable the mark left by a people and by their traditions and rituals.

As in African cuisine and rituals, there is also a lot of diversity in the arts, mainly linked to religious beliefs. These characteristics are present in objects such as the braiding of ropes, statues and masks that are made by sculptors and artists in wood, stones or even fabrics.

These art objects are the representation of deities and also artifacts used in daily work and African rituals. The meaning of these works have different representations for each tribe, demonstrating the divine, the mundane or cultural activities, such as power struggles and harvests.

Dances are also part of African rituals, and the characteristics of this rich culture, their dances have many traces of their ethnicity. Some of these dances are capoeira, which is also known as a martial art, afoxé and also coco and maracatu.

The art of dance originating from African peoples has many characteristics related to their religions. They are widely used to celebrate cults and traditions, and also as a way to please and attract good spirits, in addition to being a tool to ward off evil spirits.

Among the characteristics of African rituals are the influence of colonizing peoples, religions and the way of life of traditional peoples. These characteristics are fundamental to determine what the culture of a nation will be like.

Below, learn a little more about African rituals focused on dance and musical instruments, games and competitions, their vision of the environment and nature, the traditional sacrifices and mutilations practiced and their typical foods.

There is a great connection between dance, musical instruments and African rituals, below are some of the traditional instruments of this people:

– A percussion instrument, the Atabaque is made of wood and animal leather and played with the hands. Widely used in samba, axé, capoeira and maracatu;

– Originating from Angola, the Berimbau is an instrument made with a bow, a box made of gourd and a wooden bow and played with a stick. Commonly used in capoeira:

– An instrument made of metal, the Agogô, has two bells (bell mouth without the pendulum) joined on rods, played with a wooden or metal drumstick:

– This instrument is made with a gourd, surrounded by a network of lines with seeds, the Afoxé, when moved, the seeds produce a sound similar to a rattle.

There are numerous games, games and competitions that have always been used by children in various regions of the world and that emerged from African culture and rituals. Below, find out about two of these traditions and find out if you have participated in any of them.

burnt beans

A game in which children stand in a line holding hands, after singing the verses below, the game begins. In it, the first in line, the “boss” pulls the line, passing under the hands, of the third at the other end of the line, and so, the penultimate will have his arms braided, therefore, trapped.

Rubber band jump

This game is performed between 3 children, two of them put a tied rubber band forming a circle around their legs. The third child must jump the rubber band, which is initially at ankle height, and which with each jump is raised higher to…