Taboos are part of us. They are, in fact, us. Every human society has them. Some, more subtle, others shocking – depending, of course – on one’s acculturation. They serve different purposes.
They are unwritten communal codes that shape moral behaviour – especially in highly conservative communities. Taboos also guarantee a general communal welfare. In societies where communal life, more than anything else, determines a person’s behaviour, taboos are even more important for ensuring economic, political, social and spiritual welfare.
And Africa is sprinkled with a potpourri of them. Taboos are woven into the very essence of African life, more so regarding sex and issues with the slightest affinity to sex. This article focuses on some of these very ancient sex taboos in Africa, and tries to make modern sense of them.
The Bambara of West Africa – found mainly in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal – forbid sexual intercourse at daytime. They believe an albino child will be the progeny of such abominable union. The Mende – one of two main ethnic groups found in Sierra Leone – who are a subset of the Mande people stretching across Benin, Burkina Faso, The Ivory Coast, Chad, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bussau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone, of West Africa, frown on sexual intercourse in the bush. Flouting that taboo invites curses.
Similarly, the Bambara believe sexual intercourse in the open stunts crop growth.
Among the Ganda of Uganda, sexual intercourse on the eve of a battle brings bad luck and defeat. Sex is also forbidden while processing wood for canoe construction. It’s also a taboo for mourning Ganda women to have sex.
Kwoma men of northeastern New Guinea are also prohibited from having sex after a cult ceremony has been held.
In certain Ghanaian societies, menstruating women do not cook for their husbands. According to (Agyekum, 2002), euphemisms are used in the Akan language of Ghana, to represent menstruation. It is a taboo to mention the word itself.
Among the Akamba, a Bantu ethnic group of Kenya, an expectant mother is forbidden from eating fat, beans, and meat of animals killed with poisoned arrows, during the last three months of pregnancy.
In Ingassana culture, both the expectant mother and her husband are forbidden from carrying fire, prior to the child’s birth. Among the Akan also, expectant mothers are barred from eating snails. Certain deformities and defects in babies have been put down to snail consumption.
The Kikuyu of Kenya remove all iron tools and weapons from the house of an expectant mother. They believe such items attract devastating lightning.
According to (Afe, 2013), it is a taboo for a Yoruba woman, of Nigeria, to be nude in the market, or fight in the market. The market was seen as a melting pot for the gods.
Still with Yoruba culture, a pregnant woman can’t deliver a child in the open. It was also a taboo for women to deliver abnormal children (Olufade: 2010).
In some African societies, twins were a bad omen. Triplets, or multiple births, were interpreted as curses. Times have, however, changed, so, multiple births are no longer viewed as an abomination.
The change in thinking, as far as multiple births are concerned, is a clear demonstration of the time-restrictive usefulness of taboos. They were useful at one time, but dissipate into uselessness in another era.
It is obvious that delivering a child in the open, rather than in the confines of a safe enclosure, could pose dangers to both mother and child. Years of observation and oral tradition among the Akans of Ghana, may have influenced the fear associated with eating snails during pregnancy.
Nutritionists, however, say snails are one of the most nutritious protein sources in the world. Attempting to reconcile the ancient fear of eating snails, with the current scientific proof of the health benefits of same, may be a tall order.
Sex in the open should cause public nuisance in any society, even in the most liberal communities in the world. The Ancients may just have pleaded mysticism as the basis for discouraging such social deviance.
Exploiting the traditional beliefs of a culture, easily engenders a law-abiding people. Sexual intercourse on the eve of a boisterous activity such as war, could, obviously, drain a warrior.
The same effect it has on athletes and sportspeople. Also, it is safer for a pregnant woman to be in an enclosure devoid of sharp iron objects. She could trip and fall over any such idle things.
Such an accident couldn’t be more distressing. The appeal to lightning – a phenomenon that has wielded mystical influence on man’s imagination since ancient times – may just be a cultural duress for ensuring social compliance towards creating a safe environment for expectant mothers.
Snakes and poisonous rodents could feast on a raunchy, oblivious couple humping away to ecstasy, in the bush.
They could get mauled by wild cats, or even set off traps meant for game during their frolics in the woods. Aren’t these better reasons for avoiding sex in the bush than appealing to mysticism?
Taboos have a very special place in African society. They are difficult to ignore once instilled within our African culture from infancy.
But the mysticism associated with them, appears nothing more than a phantom.
African forebears realized the need to organize society around these taboos as a means of engendering social peace and moral behaviour.
Inasmuch as we, Africans, fear these unwritten codes, it is my opinion that they were nothing more than a mysticised version of our current legal systems, which control social behaviour. They have outlived their essence in today’s modern Africa. It is now a taboo to hang onto those taboos
The writer; Patrick Ayumu is a journalist/ttrickky@yahoo.com.
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