Africa has been said to be one of the highly blessed continents in the world known for its natural resources, tourist attractions, and cultural heritage. Aside from this, the strange African cultures that is been practiced make it a distinctively unique continent.
While many have defined some African practices to be barbaric, others have simply embraced it as a way of life for the people. Nonetheless, it would interest you to know that these somewhat strange practices are not limited to Africans only. According to research, the Walibri tribe men in central Australia shake penises rather than hands, and in the Kingdom of Cambodia, parents build sex huts for their teenage daughters.
However awkward these practices may sound, they hold great value to the people who see beauty in diversity.
Here are 10 Strange African Cultures You Didn’t Know
1. Uganda’s Aunt Potency Testing of Neice’s Husband
Among the Banyankole tribe in Uganda, East Africa, children are the pride of a woman. she must have at least a child to earn status among her people. The desire of most Banyankole women is not just to get married but to as well raise as many children as possible. It is probably because of this that the tribe leaves nothing to chance when it comes to authenticating the potency of a suitor at marriage.
It is said that the aunt of a niece would have to have sex with the groom to confirm that he is truly a man before he consummates his marriage. If the marriage is happening among families that are not particularly enthusiastic about upholding the cultural dictates, the aunt can just watch the groom’s first lovemaking with his wife or listen from close quarters.
2. Sudanese Latuka Tribe’s Bride Kidnapping
Let’s assume you are a young man of the Latuka tribe in South Sudan, Northern Africa, and there is this fine lass you’d love to have as a life partner, all you have to do is to kidnap her from her father’s house. It doesn’t matter if she fancies you or not, once you have kidnapped her, it is up to your elderly male relatives and her father to thrash things out.
Your relatives on your behalf would ask the lass’ father to give his blessings for marriage. If he does, you will then present yourself for him to give you some decent beating. After this, you are as good as a married man. Nevertheless, if he refuses to give his blessings, it’s up to you to decide if you want to return his daughter to him. If you don’t, you can go ahead and marry her. Crazy huh?
3. Sharo – The Fulani’s Lashing of Suitor
There is only one way to pick the best suitors among the several suitors asking for a maiden hand in marriage in the Fulani custom – ‘Sharo’. The manliness of the suitors will be tested. How? They will all receive a good lashing. Those who can’t bear the severe thrashing would be eliminated. The suitor who received all the whippings would ultimately become the in-law.
4. The Wodaabe’s Wife Stealing Dance Festival
The Wodaabe people are nomadic cattle-herders and are loosely scattered from Nigeria to the Central African Republic, Chad, and Cameroon. Their Gerewol festival, an annual dance courtship competition is somewhat similar to what we have in #2 above. At the festival, Wodaabe men dress up to dance with the hope of impressing and stealing another man’s wife.
It is completely acceptable to steal a man’s wife and have sex with her. Her husband has no option but to live with it. If he doesn’t want his wife to be stolen or suspects that his wife wants a man to steal her, all he can do is to stop her from attending the Gerewol festival. If he can’t do this, his life partner is literally up for grabs for the entire Wodaabe men. She can have as much as she wants of them.
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5. Namibia’s Offering of Wives to Visitors for Sex
In Northern Namibia, the Okujepisa Omukazendu treat is the most prestigious way the people of Ovahimba and Ovazimba tribes welcome their male visitors. To make the guest feel at home, a man would order his wife to go in and spend the night with the visitor. Although rare, wives can equally require their visiting friends to go in and be with their husbands.
It has been speculated that the essence of this strange African culture is to eradicate jealousy and encourage oneness. Meanwhile, it is believed that this culture is also practiced by the Tiv people of Nigeria.
6. Southern Africa’s Reed Dance/Virginity Testing
Umhlanga, an annual dance ceremony meant to celebrate virginity in Swaziland is known as Umkhosi Womhlanga in South Africa. The culture is peculiar to the Swazi and Zulu people. It all has to do with maidens completely bare-breasted dancing for their respective kings. Before they can do this, they would have to queue up to have their virginity tested.
This is usually done in a traditional way which majorly revolves around examining the physical features of the vagina and shallow inserts into the organ to see if the hymen is intact. We learned that ladies who are no longer virgins, for fear of being stigmatized, go as far as inserting raw meat into their vaginas so as to pass the test.
7. Leblouh – Mauritania’s Force-Feeding of Girls for Marriage
Here, it is believed that a lady is more desirable and would attract fine suitors if she is well fed and robust. As such, young girls and maidens from as low as five years old to teenagers are being secluded and forced to consume a large portion of food and milk by their fatteners who would inflict pain on them if they fail to do so.
While this practice is most common in Mauritania, Northwestern Africa, it has also been associated with the people of southern Morocco and the people of Cross River state in southeastern Nigeria.
8. Ethiopia’s Bull Jumping
For Ethiopia’s Hamer tribe, a male child isn’t a man until he jumps the bull. That is the only way he can prove his manhood and earn respect among his people. The culture is like a rite of passage a young man of the Hamer tribe must go through before he can assert himself as a man and take his first bride.
While it is expected of the young man to strip naked, run, jump on the back of a bull and run across the back of several bulls lined up for the event, his female friends would be seriously whipped. They are expected to receive as much pain as possible from the whipping to indicate their loyalty to the young man who is about to become a Maza – accomplished man.
9. Kenya and Tanzania’s Massai Tribe Spit Greeting
You will find the Massai people in Tanzania and Kenya and they can brag about owning some of the strange African cultures. Prominent among them is their spit greeting. If you are one of them, you will have to spit to greet. It is unacceptable to offer an elder a handshake without first spitting into your hands.
More to that, the Massai tribe would spit on a newborn and tell the baby that he/she is everything bad and undesirous. we garnered that, the tribe believes that saying sweet words to a newborn is tantamount to cursing the child for a bad life.
10. Maasai Moran Lion Fight
In the past, proving that you are a man among the Maasai tribe of Kenya goes beyond providing food for your wife and children or working tirelessly. According to research, a male child from the age of 14 to 30 is regarded as a Moran and would be required to prove that he is courageous enough to be called a man.
Beyond living in isolation in the bush, he would be expected to hunt down a lion. Until this is done, he would be considered a boy in a man’s body.
