Africa can easily be the most diverse, mysterious and contrasting out of all areas on our planet. Despite civilization coming to Africa with globalism in tow, tens of millions of indigenous Africans still live in tribes, as their distant ancestors once did.
There are nearly three thousand on the continent, most of them with their own traditions and worship. Life is so interesting some aborigines that to them go tourists from all over the planet, eager to touch the primitive exotic culture.
We present to your attention familiarization withsome of unique tribes of Africa, acquaintance which amazes, and sometimes shocks representatives of the civilized world.
Maasai Tribe
The Maasai live near the savannah, that borderland in southern Kenya and western Tanzania. The tribe has a total population of just shy of a million. The Maasai do have a long-standing reputation as fierce warriors, but they do not hunt, rather they herd animals.
Cows have the most important place in the life of the tribe, and it is their amount that determines the degree of wealth of the parents of the tribe. The rain god gave cattle to Maasai in the past for free, therefore, all the cows around belong to Maasai.
There used to be conflicts with other African tribes when the Maasai attempted to ‘take back their property’ but nowadays the tradition of cattle wrestling is fading away.
Cows give the tribe milk and the primary building material, dried animal waste, which they use to patch the walls of their huts. They also suck cow’s blood, which is drawn off in special manner: a fine arrow makes a small hole in the animal’s vein, from which it is caught in a small gourd bottle, after which the wound is plugged up with a cakes of dung. Before consumption, the blood is often combined with milk.
But members of the tribe seldom kill cows for meat, as these are too precious to eat. In many ways, the everyday life of the tribe is subordinated to traditions.
This division remains in their lifestyle and boys learn herding of cattle from childhood where as, girls are involved in the hut and cooking. With adulthood come initiation rites that involve ritual beatings, followed by circumcision, male and female.
The Maasai have their own concept of beauty: both sexes wear heavy jewellery, stretching earlobes almost to the shoulders, and it is common practice for women to shave their heads.
Their funeral traditions are also unusual – after a member of the tribe dies, his body is removed into an open field and left over to wild animals, which according to the understanding of the Maasai demonstrates respect for the process of life in nature.
Mursi Tribe
The Mursi tribe resides in Ethiopia, close to the South Sudanese border. In total, they number around seven and a half thousand people.
As traditional African tribes, they lead a simple life: The men do animal husbandry and guard the town borders and the women raise children, cook, deliver water and do many other types of work in the village.
This people is distinguished from others by a series of grotesque and savage customs that they have followed for centuries. The Mursi warriors are prepared to kill their enemies, and according to their mentality every killing serves for their glory, which is indicated by special scars that show how many enemies have been defeated.
Because of the constant fighting between clans (usually for pastures and wells) the tribe people go to the outside of the village only with long heavy stick, which they trained to use from childhood.
During a main mystical rite Mursi wives hypnotize their husbands with the help of narcotic herbs and then poison with the poison of fish. The tribe’s high priestess goes around the huts and hands the men the antidote.
This is how they revere their primary god, lord of the dead. The Mursi are also famous for their women wear clay discs in their lower lip. Girls wear such ‘jewellery’ from the age of 20 by their own will.
A young woman with a plate of up to 12 centimetres in diameter and two teeth missing on the lower jaw (so that nothing can hinder the wearing of the disc) is considered an enviable bride, the ransom for whom will have to be paid by the groom.
Himba Tribe
The Himba are a nomadic people of up to 50,000 people who live in northern Namibia. They are principally engaged in the raising of cattle. The more superior domesticated animals are cows, which provide milk, the basis of the tribe’s diet through its products. Also, cows are a sort of universal currency, and, conversely, they are a marker of the tribe member’s status.
Himba seldom eat flesh, from plant food they eat roots, maize and millet. Kunene province vegetation stony lands do not grow vegetables or fruits, heat up to 60 degrees, sharp temperature changes
The hardest thing to get along with here, is water, so nearly all cleanwater is reserved for drinking and cooking. To stay clean and shielded from the sun, the Himba daily smear their skin with a special paste made of oil, plant extracts and ground volcanic pumice.
In the evening, the dried ointment is scratched off, wiping the skin of dirt and hair. Women use this formula to cover their hair, braiding it (and adding pieces of other people’s hair (usually ‘donated’ from their husbands) into to) dreadlocks.
Himba women also adorn themselves with a myriad of handmade bracelets worn on their necks, arms, ankles, waists and in their hair. They wear goatskin skirts for clothing and adorn them with shells. A tribal village generally consists of mud and cow dung coated wicker cone-shaped houses.
Hadza Tribe
The Hadzabe or Hadza tribe consists of about 2,000 people who dwell in northern Tanzania, close to Lake Eyasi. They live at a fair distance from other tribes and speak internally only by speaking their own language.
Such seclusion has enabled them to preserve their identity but also insulated them from the H.I.V. epidemic and from other diseases that could be transmitted by intertribal contact. The Hadza are hunters and gatherers, like people hundreds of years ago.
Hunting is done only by men, and then either alone or in groups of two or three when a large animal is being hunted. They wield bows and stone-tipped arrows as weapons. In order to improve the efficiency of hunting, hunters coat their arrows with toxic substances derived from the poisonous plants that grow wildly in their living environments. It is common practice to split the dead prey among everyone back at camp.
Both women and men participate in gathering, the finds of the gatherers, such as bird eggs, fruits, berries, roots, wild honey, make up a great part of the meager diet of the tribe inhabitants. The Hadzabe are settled in small groups that move from place to place. They sleep in huts made of grass and twigs, but during the dry season many prefer to sleep outside.
The tribe has no definite social hierarchy, there are only those whose opinion has a decisive weight due to his personal qualities and merits. Well regarded among women are successful hunters, who bring back a large quantity of prey. Tribal members walk five to nine kilometres a day. Bears are active during this resting time, however, as they dance and sing.
Herero Tribe
It is quite natural in hot tropical conditions that most of the African tribes wear sparse clothing. But the Herero are an exception, with their colourful Victorian-style outfits setting them apart.
The tribe has about 240 thousand people, are engaged in animal husbandry, trade and crafts. The Herero were slaves under the German colonialists in the early 20th century, and rebelled again and again, before finally winning their freedom after losing 80% of their population in the war.
That was when Christian missionaries worked trendy clothing into the tribe’s culture. The idea of the power of clothes — that wearing the clothing of your enemies takes some of their power — also factored into the mix.
Herero women today typically wear brightly coloured long patchwork dresses featuring wide puffed sleeves. They provide special hats in the shape of buffalo horns to enhance the image. This piece of wardrobe also serves as a kind of symbol of prosperity- the richer is the husband, the longer would be the horns on the head of the wife.
Men wear stylised clothes based on German military uniforms from the early 1900s during holidays and funerals. The Herero make all of these outfits themselves, the craft of making them handed down from mother to daughter in the tribe.
Wodaabe Tribe
The Wodaabe are a nomadic tribe that inhabit the Sahel savannah zone of Africa, which happens to encompass Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic and a few more countries.
The name Wodaabe translates to ‘those who honour prohibitions’, indicating strict commitment to ancient traditions and rituals. The people are 45 thousand people, they mainly live on livestock: zebu cows, donkeys and camels. If a man has a large enough herd, he can afford up to four wives, Families are mostly polygamous.
Marriages are free, any of the spouses can get a divorce and leave to live with another member of the tribe. Although most families are formed through parental arrangements, collusion between young people of interest is hardly unheard-of.
If they escape and have a meal that they have prepared together before the bride’s relatives catch up with them, the marriage is considered consummated. Wodaabe culture is all about the cult of male beauty. An unattractive man might well allow his wife to ‘go left’ to produce offspring with a sexier male of the tribe, for example.
The highlight of the celebrations is the gerevol, a male beauty competition. It features young men from several clans who paint their faces in vibrant colors and dance for hours, showcasing their stamina, mobility, bright teeth and the capacity to roll their eyes.
The tribe’s elder women encourage the winners and mock the losers. The three winners are pointed out by the three girls representing a sort of jury of the contest towards the end. A feast follows, and as evening descends, the victors, the ‘judges’ to select them and the tribe’s young people, who are coupled by twos, retire into the savannah to continue the merry-making.
Kalenjin Tribe
The Kalenjin primarily inhabit Kenya’s Rift Valley Province. A handful of them also inhabit the neighbouring nations of Tanzania and Uganda.
Its population is more than three and a half million people. The tubets were known by their name only in the XX century, prior to that time they were called simply ‘tribes speaking Nandi’.
Any average member of this tribe, according to the scientists who studied them, is faster than the vast majority of all other humans on the planet. And the facts bear this out. The Kalenjin people may only need a few months of serious training in order to compete on equal ground with the professional runners.
As a rule, most achievers are driven enough for the big sport. In the last three decades, Kenyan athletes have collected ten Olympic medals for running, and seven of these races belong to runners from the Kalenjin tribe.
These “superpowers” are the product of genetic predisposition, as well as the natives’ lifestyle and diet. Long-distance cattle drives from a young age build stamina for tribe members.
They eat ugali, which is high in energy content. Besides cattle rearing, the tribe also engages in farming and tea cultivation. Men of the tribe can have one or multiple wives – the number of wives is directly linked to a man’s finances, as there is a high bride price that is to be paid.
