Rites delineating the transition from childhood
to adulthood for boys are not commonly practiced
among the Ashanti. There are, however, cere-
monies for boys that are largely tests of bravery
and that vary widely among localities. In one type
of ceremony, less popular in contemporary times,
young men receive from their fathers a weapon as
a symbolically important gift. During the cere-
mony, the elders of the clan are present, and
prayers are offered to the deities for their protec-
tion and guidance in times of anger.
Bakôngo
The kindezi system of the Bakôngo people is an
example of an initiation process adapted to circum-
stances that require adults to leave their children to
go to work. Kindezi provides social readaptation/
preparation toward fatherhood/motherhood respon-
sibilities. The kindezi system, said to have existed in
Africa from time immemorial, develops the moral
and intellectual character of the youth and provides
the basic elements of cultural concepts. Its philo-
sophical foundations rest on the social, political,
cultural, linguistic, and economic foundations of
Bakôngo life. In African regions where agriculture is
the bedrock of the local economy, the role of kindezi
is of unquestioned value.
The one who practices the art of kindezi is
called thendezi. Every member of the commu-
nity, at one time or another in his or her life
span, is an ndezi. There are three main categories
of ndezi. The first is the young ndezi, the second
is the old ndezi, and the third is the occasional
ndezi. The birth of a child is viewed as the rising
of a unique “living sun” into the community. The
child will traverse five stages of changing social
roles and statuses: (a) the young child who needs
an ndezi, (b) the child becoming a young ndezi,
(c) the “living sun” becomes part of the commu-
nity productive force, (d) the “highest kindezi”—
elders able to offer experience and serve the
community, and (e) “old-age childhood” or the
setting of the “living sun.”
The ndezi, in their role as teacher, initiate
children into the community and prepare them
to become adults who know who is who in the
community, the elements of its social structure,
as well as the structure and hierarchy of kinship
relationships. The kindezi system shapes the life
of the child and, in doing so, shapes the entire
life of the community.Mwalimu J. ShujaaSeealsoAge Groups; CircumcisionFurther Readings
Diop, C. A. (1974).The African Origin of Civilization:
Myth or Reality. Chicago: Lawrence Hill.
Ephirim-Donkor, A. (1997).African Spirituality:On
Becoming Ancestors. Trenton, NJ: African World Press.
Fu-Kiau, K. K. B., & Lukondo-Wamba, A. M. (1988).
Kindezi:The Kôngo Art of Babysitting. New York:
Vantage Press.
Griaule, M. (1965).Conversations With Ogotemmêli:
An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas. London:
Oxford University Press.
Knudsen, C. O. (1994).The Falling Dawadawa Tree:
Female Circumcision in Developing Ghana. Højbjerg,
Denmark: Intervention Press.
Maquet, J. (1972).Africanity:The Cultural Unity of
Black Africa. London: Oxford University Press.
Mbiti, J. S. (1990).African Religions and Philosophy
(2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Heinemann.INTERMEDIARIES
A Luba proverb teaches that Vidye kadi kula
umwite ukwitaba,umulonde bukwidila(“God is
not far away, if you call upon it it will answer
you, but if you take the road to walk toward it
you will never meet it”). This proverb expresses
the ancestral understanding of what is now
referred to as the immanence and transcendence
of God. The Lugbara people put this in a more
poetic expression. For them God is essentially
Adro-Adroa, a God who is at once “near” (Adro)
and “far away” (Adroa). God, understood as the
Ultimate Reality, is absolutely pure and way
beyond human imagination.
It is a remarkable fact that, although Africans
produced sculptures of ancestors and various spir-
its, they did not make statues of the supreme God,
the creator of the universe known as Olodumare
among the Yoruba, Shakapanga among the
Baluba, and Unkulunkulu (“the first one”) among344 Intermediaries