Polygamy, which means often married, is practiced in many Africa places. This means that the man can marry as many wives as long as he can support them. For example in Somalia, a man is allowed to marry four wives. It is also common for a girl to get engaged even before she was born.
One very unique tradition is the people of Labola follow an interesting custom. The groom has to pay the bride’s father a compensation for the “loss” of daughter by giving cattle. A wife may cost about 30 to 40 head of cattle. This helps build mutual respect between the families and also showed that the groom is capable of providing and supporting his daughter,
On the other hand, divorce in Africa is rare as often the whole village will join in to help the couples to solve their problems. (Buzzle.com 2009) http://www.buzzle.com/articles/culture-of-africa.html
Next I will talk about the lifestyle of the Masai tribe. The Masai people live in small settlements of 8-15 huts per village. Their traditional hut, called Kraal, is surrounded by a thorn bush fence which acts like barbed wire, protecting the tribe and animals against enemies. The huts are built using tree branches, grass and cement of cow dug and urine. The mixture is so strong after it dried in the sun and does not smell. The entrance of the hut is very small and narrow, thus they need to bend their bodies in order to get in the hut. The family sleeps on beds of woven branches cushioned with dry grasses and animal skins. (Maasai People Traditions & Culture 1998) http://www.africancraftsmarket.com/Maasai_people.htm
Below shows a picture of Masai huts (taken from Africa Safari Journey Photo Blog August 2010 http://goafrika.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html.)
No comments:
Post a Comment