chaos and order in the rites that mark birth and
death. For example, a Zulu woman, in the com-
pany of married women, is required to be in
seclusion in the first 10 days after giving birth.
This is necessary because her association with the
new life places her in a potentially dangerous
condition of ritual pollution. Among the Yoruba,
the woman remains in seclusion for 9 days (for
boys) and 7 days (for girls) when the incorpora-
tion of the child (through naming) is done.
During the period of seclusion, the woman is
given a special but unusual meal, soup without
salt and oil. To the Kikuyu of eastern Africa,
seclusion symbolizes death and resurrection,
where the mother and child symbolically die and
rise again during and after a naming ceremony.
Puberty
Seclusion is crucial to the performance of
puberty rites—the rites that are performed to cel-
ebrate the coming of age by girls and boys. The
performance is fairly common and elaborate
among most peoples of Africa, although with dif-
ferent intensity, because it introduces boys and
girls into sex life, ushering them into parental and
family responsibility. Among some ethnic groups
of Sierra Leone, seclusion takes the form of formal
separation into societies: Poro for the male, and
Sande for the female. In their seclusion moment,
they receive instructions that are tailored around
mythic heroines or heroes, sexual activities, and
customs and taboos of the community. For the
Tiv, Ibibio, and Igbo peoples of Nigeria, girls
observe a period of seclusion that takes 4 months
in “fattening houses” that are built for the pur-
pose. During their seclusion, they are fed with
fatty foods, and their bodies are anointed with oil
to make them plump and beautiful in preparation
for marriage. Girls are also exposed to sexual
functions and motherhood and the dignity of vir-
ginity and chastity at marriage in the houses. They
learn songs, dances, the customs of the commu-
nity, and its myth of origin.
Among the Ndembu people of northwestern
Zambia, a girl goes into seclusion for several
months, where she acquires the virtues embedded
in the normative aspects of womanhood, mother-
hood, and the mother–child bond. The use of
a particular milk tree that symbolizes aspects of
female body imagery, such as milk, suckling,
breasts, and girlish slenderness, and conception cli-
maxes the initiation into puberty. For boys, they
are collected from a cluster of villages for seclu-
sion, first in a camp where they are prepared for
circumcision. A fire is lit in the camp and
continues to burn for the length of the rites. It is
on this fire that the mothers of the boys prepare
food that the boys eat during this seclusion.
Immediately after the circumcision, the boys are
then secluded in a lodge until their circumcision
wounds are healed. Here they are taught lessons
relating to adulthood, after which masked dancers
beat them with sticks, they are taken to a stream
and washed, and then they are sent into the forest
to trap animals. They return to their parents’ camp
in painted bodies, disguised in such a manner that
their identities are not easily known. The seclusion
period closes when the boys return to their villages
to participate in community adult life.
For the Tswana of southern Africa, seclusion
features in the initiation of both boys and girls into
adulthood; male initiation is, however, more exten-
sive and elaborate, and so is male seclusion. The
males who are old enough to serve as regimental
leaders are assembled and sent outside of the vil-
lage to spend about 1 month under the supervision
of some senior men. There they sing, dance, and
make ceremonial kilts out of bark. They undergo
circumcision and remain in seclusion in special
lodges. Here, they learn dances, songs, and ethical
norms that emphasize obedience to the chief, filial
piety, and the domination of women. This event
qualifies them to reenter into the society with a
new status of political relevance and significance.
Their girls are also secluded outside the village,
where ritual operations involving cutting of the
inner thigh and perforating the hymen offer them
a transition to adulthood and an opportunity to be
given instruction in domestic wisdom in prepara-
tion for marriage.
A young Pokot woman in Northern Kenya, in
East Africa, is put in seclusion after being circum-
cised. She wears garments made of leather and a
cloth over her head. Her face is covered with a
white paste made from milk and ashes. She holds
a staff or stick in her hand. One of her breasts
can be seen under her leather cloak, and she has
cicatrix markings for body decoration. Frazer
recorded some other taboos that were expected598 Seclusion