Traditional African Societies: Understanding Communalism

A society or cultural group is an exceedingly multifaceted collection of historical identity, relational sequences, concepts, and, shares experiences of all kinds. The present character of an ethnic group or a political entity is a consequence of centuries of shared experiences, and, constitutes a coherent thought system, which assists make sense of those experiences and maintain the values established over the history of that group.

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Communalism in traditional African societies has become often a theme in most discourses on African Philosophy. This has made it essential that detail research is conducted on this way of life to develop its underlying philosophical tenets and its effect on the individual and societies in Africa. This essay, hence, has attempted an examination of the culture of people of Africa, the underlying philosophical matters and its influence that it has continued to exert on the African people since the end of colonialism.

A case study of a certain traditional society is employed for the purposes of uncovering and comprehending the specific features, practices, norms, and, institutions which served as means of communalism.

The presence and belief in a mystic life, the utilization of customary morality, and, the subjection of these societies under the authority of elders and ancestors ensured the intensification and institutionalization of communalism in traditional African culture. This research shows that communalism was deliberately desired social structure that was formulated and zealously sustained by a people's desire and will to survive under the most certain and tried situations.

Following colonization era in Africa was witnessed to have eroded and corrupted the Africa culture, way of life and thus their identity. The period at and after independence was hence dominated by a noncommunal spirit as a trial by Africans to restore, their way of life, culture, traditional values, their dignity that was polluted by Western countries culture.

I interviewed Mzee Juma, a 65-year-old male from Western Nigeria. A professor at Western Delta University and one of the prominent African literature writers. He is middle-class citizen, father of 10 and a husband to Mariah Juma and Ngozi Juma. He is one of the elders back in his village called Jigwa.

Communalism concept

Mzee Juma was raised in a village where everything was being done in communal and the community, which his family belongs to, was winning everything. People from his community to plant, harvest, held ceremonies together and individualism was highly neglected. African culture of the community usually comes first. The individual is born out of and into the community, hence will always be handled as part one of the member of the community. Venter (2004) claims that the notion creates a feeling of communalism, interdependence, and, sensitivity towards others and caring for others are all elements of Ubuntu as an ideology of life. This culture according to Mzee Juma was transmitted from their great ancestors and hence they had to comply with it since going against wishes of ancestors could bring diverse calamities to their land they inherited from ancestors. On a light note, communalism often implies that an individual is swallowed up in the community and has no separate life (Jamison, 2018). Such a concept helps to maintain the integrity of traditional African culture since every effort one applies goes to the wellbeing of the community rather than on a specific individual.

Literature

Mzee Juma explained that one of their routines after super as children from his home was listening to a story told by the grandmother. These stories varied from horror to fairy tales. Traditional African people love stories. In other words, they can be referred to as oral people. In jigwa village before western culture eroded African culture, storytelling and singing were used as means of passing the message down through the generations. The stories that Mzee Juma was told assumed form such as epic histories, proverbs, sayings, fables, and, folktales. The purpose of these oral narratives was to assist young people to generate a sense of the world and to teach both children and adults concerning a significant aspect of their culture.

The calm nights and sitting around the fire set the mood for storytelling. Mzee Juma claims that the attention and wholehearted reaction of the audience keep the stories interesting and fascinating. The folktales did not assume any chronological order. The narratives are told subjectively once the subject of the story is chosen. The stories are completed with singing, percussion instruments, drumming, dancing, and, clapping. The proverbial songs are employed to outline the expression of the characters. Majorly, Mzee Juma added that their ancestors about the several gods and goddesses worshiped these stories and some were about legends and heroes: kings and famous leaders who battled and won wars and fights. According to Cook-Gumper and Gumperz (2013), traditional African people did not have the skills of reading and writing, hence there was no written language. Oral traditional was the only way to keep their history alive.

African Tradition Religion

Traditional community members of Jigwa live were deeply spiritual people. They believed in the existence of Supreme Being who, they believed is the creator of their ancestors. Juma suggests that they used to pray through an ancestor who will receive their prayers and direct them to the Supreme Being. In their community, ancestors play a significant role in maintaining their healthy existence and since he was a small boy every evening her family members could pour liberation to the ground as a way of feeding spirits of their ancestors to avoid offending them and making them go hungry. Further, they used to gather under a tree along the river, where they could hold their worship and praise services to their being. The ceremony of praising and worshipped was usually marked as an end with slaughtering of a white lamb that has no blemish and they could pray to gods to give them plenty harvest, to protect their children from against bad spirits and, bless their soil.

To be protected from evil spirit, Mzee Juma points out those children are given a charm chain to were below their belly. These charms chains were obtained from healers who have performed several rituals on them. These healers had the role of healing the sick and those attacked by bad spirits, further they were assigned with the role of praying for rains to come when drought persists. Aside from healers, other key people in Jigwa community were leaders, leaders like mzee Juma serve roles of fixing dates for ceremonies and rituals, they settle conflicts in the community, make primary decisions affecting the community, and, they are the custodians of traditions and customs of the community. Mzee Juma asserts that this was the way of life of people of his village before the coming of the whites.

Mzee Juma explained that slowly by slowly these cultures started losing his meaning among his people at his early 20 years when White intruded their village. The whites came introduced new god to the gods that looked more practical than theirs.' People started practicing new religion at the expense of theirs. Further, the white adversely place critics to most of the rituals people of Jigwa community used to practice relating them to a demonic way of life. Mzee Juma described he has never felt lost in his entire life like that time when he was introduced to a new way of life. Mzee Juma said that he left as if his life was meaningless, having being knowing that his religion was most accurate then being told that is was devilish.

Moreover, he was among the young people from his village that were picked to go and learn the art of reading and writing. Everything to him was confusing, having been used to live to farm, grazing animals, hunting to sitting down and being taught how to read and write (McIntosh 1974). It took him almost and year to recover from the culture shock. After two years of learning, since he was bright, the white transported to France to advance his learning then he could come back and serve and one of the church elder. Upon reaching there, he becomes more confused, their food of different from since people there used to drink ginger beer, he had no idea what was that dressing code, language, he was used to seeing trees and forests, all he was seeing at that time of modern structure. By the time Mzee Juma was coming back to his native land, he had reformed completely, but he never wanted to see his culture go into waste that is when Mzee Juma began his profession as an African literature writer. To be able to save his culture of traditional people by putting into words since it was slowly swallowed up with Western countries.

Mzee Juma point out that western culture build mind of individualism on his people hence succeeded to break the communalism that was among people of Jigwa village. They eliminated the act of storytelling by introducing education to the young generation. Most children prefer spending time on social media in present times that setting down under a tree for a storytelling section. Western culture had toward people of Africa against their way of life, those who try to hold on those past cultures and viewed as outdated and old-fashioned. Mzee Juma concluded by claiming that with this modern trend of giving a lot of praise to strange culture will reach a point there will be more trace of the original way of life of people of Western Africa. However, not all hope is lost because a huge number of people apart from youths are turning into to consuming African dishes and prefer traditional medicines to cure most diseases that affect modern human being.

References

Cook-Gumperz, J., & Gumperz, J. J. (2013). From Oral to Written Culture: The Transition: Literacy. In Writing (pp. 99-120). Routledge. Retrieved from: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315060125/chapters/10.4324/9781315060125-7

Jamison, D. F. (2018). Key Concepts, Theories, and Issues in African/Black Psychology: A View From the Bridge. Journal of Black Psychology, 44(8), 722-746. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798418810596

McIntosh, R. J. (1974). Archaeology and mud wall decay in a West African village. World Archaeology, 6(2), 154-171. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1974.9979599

Venter, E. (2004). The notion of ubuntu and communalism in African educational discourse. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 23(2-3), 149-160. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:SPED.0000024428.29295.03