Generally speaking, rituals abound to propitiate
the ancestors who, among all spiritual entities, are
most closely associated with fertility. When a man
and a woman experience difficulty conceiving a
child, for example, the ancestors are immediately
suspected of having shut the woman’s womb or
having afflicted the man with sexual impotency
out of retaliation for actions deemed disrespectful
or neglectful to them. The breach of a taboo may
be one such major fault. Failure to perform certain
important rituals may also constitute a serious
crime. Rituals to appease the ancestors and, in the
process, restore the harmonious balance of life
become then absolutely necessary.
The birth of many children is indeed seen as an
imperative and as a blessing because those
children will ensure the continuation of the family
lineage. Also, the children will be responsible for
the proper burial of their parents and for perform-
ing commemorative rituals that, in turn, will
maintain the deceased in a state of immortality
through their continued connection with the
world of the living.
Likewise, the generous reproduction of animals,
domesticated or wild, is beneficial to the group
because it means plenty of meat to be eaten—enough
to feed the whole community. Also, the falling of suf-
ficient rain will ensure the growth of fruits, vegeta-
bles, and medicinal plants for the benefit of all.
Obviously, in the African religious and spiritual con-
text, infertility, which may manifest as an absence or
lack of children, reduced cattle or game, and/or the
hampered growth of plants, cannot be considered a
positive development under any circumstances.
As far as African people are concerned, fertility
always requires, by definition, sexual fusion—that
is, the sexual encounter of the male and female of a
given species. Even in the case of land fertility, it is
believed that the sky—the male creative power—
fertilizes the Earth—the female creative power—
through the release of life-sustaining water, rain.
Homosexuality, which precludes this life-giving sex-
ual fusion, is therefore apprehended as a terrible and
incomprehensible violation of the cosmic order on
which fertility depends. As such, it is a punishable
taboo in many African societies, for it stands in the
way of the regeneration of life because it can only
spread infertility, a true calamity for African people.
Ama MazamaSeealsoFamilyFurther Readings
Armor, R. (1992).Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt.
Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press.
Jacobson-Widding, A., & van Beek, W. (Eds.). (1990).
Creative Communion.African Folk Models of
Fertility and the Regeneration of Life(Acta
Universitatis Upsaliensis. Upsala Studies in Cultural
Anthropology, 15). Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist &
Wiskell International.
Mbiti, J. (1990).African Religions and Philosophy.
London: Heinemann.INITIATION
Initiation is a process of culture transmission and
community survival. It is always a collective
responsibility. Nearly all African cultural groups
mark major points of transition throughout the
life cycle by rituals and ceremonies related to
birth, end of childhood and beginning of adult
life, marriage, eldership, and death. Generally,
African cosmogonies view the human life span as
a journey along a spiraling cycle in which the indi-
vidual exists in the spirit world before birth, is
embodied and born into the physical world, and,
at death, the disembodied spirit returns to the
spirit world to be reborn in physical form.
By the time children in African societies reach
adolescence, they know their place within the
social fabric of their communities and have
learned important aspects of their social and cul-
tural heritage. This is accomplished through
everyday life in the context of family and lineage.
This preparation, however, is regarded as insuffi-
cient. Initiation is required for admission to adult
status. Three practices that feature prominently
among initiation rites are education in the ways of
adults, seclusion of initiates, and circumcision.
This entry looks at those common practices and
describes their use among two African peoples.Education and Seclusion
After the observances that mark the child’s birth,
the ceremonies or rituals of the initiation period342 Initiation