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Our Ancestry In Africa And The Connection We Should Have With Our AncestorsThere is a Swahili saying that “Mwacha mila ni mtumwa”, loosely translated to mean that he who forsakes his culture is a slave. This perhaps stems from the reality that our lives encompass as Africans. We exist way before we are born, and we live in this life for a season before we depart. What makes this interesting is that whether pre-birth or post-life, we still belong and have a connection to the society we were born into.Life was shared in African society, and the family was not limited to the nuclear family. A child born into an African society belonged to everyone. Any adult member of that society, therefore, had the duty and obligation to discipline and correct an errant child on the spot should such need arise. On that very note, an African child could be sent by an elder in the community and respect was expected without question. Children grew up knowing that they could rely on anyone in their community without a question as to who was biologically related to them. When they progressed into adulthood, they carried on the same customs to their young ones. Africans venerated ancestors and incorporated them into their daily lives. This stemmed from the belief that life was really a cycle and one occupied a certain level of that cycle at any one given time. You were either conceived to be born, living or dead and becoming an ancestor to that society. The major phases were therefore spiritual and physical existence.Our bodies are viewed simply as vessels that facilitate our sojourn to our current sphere (earth) but we are spiritual beings before we occupy our bodies. We, therefore, make an entrance to this world through birth, live within the vessels assigned to us (our bodies) for a while and once we die, we shed off the vessels and return to the spiritual realm. In essence, we are part and parcel of our ancestors who have shed their bodily beings to return to the spirits where we came from.Many activities that indicated these connections included but not limited to;Birth and Naming CeremonyInitiation Ritual,Marriage ceremonyDeaths and veneration.Birth and Naming CeremonyThe birth was considered a blessing to society. It is a manifestation of a visit by the ancestors to the land of the living. It also ensured continuity of a family lineage and the whole community celebrated. A child was kept indoors for a couple of days and then brought out for the naming ceremony. During this event, the child was blessed and good tidings pronounced upon his or her life. The presences of the ancestors were invoked through different rituals and they were expected to take part in such a ceremony. The child would then be given a name. These names had two dimensions to them. One was to acknowledge the child as a gift and a blessing from the gods. The spirit of God was believed to live inside each and every one of us and therefore the name appreciated this fact by blessing the god spirit residing in the child. The second aspect of naming was to show the connection of the two different realms the child belonged to. One was that an ancestor had taken upon a bodily vessel to sojourn the earth and the child, therefore, was an ancestor in flesh.Birth and naming rituals were happy occasions where songs and dances marked the very peak of celebration. Life was respected, appreciated and celebrated. In so doing, ancestors were welcome to a new realm. The land of the living.Initiation Ritual.Young adults passed through different rites of passage before getting into adulthood. These rituals included cutting off of the penile foreskin, removal of teeth for some cultures and a test of bravery like killing a lion.During this ritual, initiates were connected to their ancestry through the spilling of blood to the ground, libation and invocation. Before or after the rituals, depending on the tribe, elders called upon these young generations and taught them what it took to be a man or a respectable woman. Culture and traditions were well explained and compliance with the cultural norms expected. The initiate had to prove that they were ready and willing to take on the responsibilities that came with adulthood and to protect and conserve the norms of the community. A test of valour was highly admired. It was a physical manifestation that the spiritual aspect of the initiate had understood and connected to the tribe as one entity.The initiation process became an integral aspect of African societies that those who failed to go through it face segregation from the rest of the community. It was almost unheard of to fail to go through the process.Marriage ceremonyAfter initiation, a young man or woman was deemed fit to marry. The couple knew that they were a part of something big and a woman belonged to the society, the same as the man. It was not in the physical but in the tribal sense. This is the reason why should either of them die; their children were absorbed and taken care of by the whole community. Children, therefore, did not individually feel to a great extent the loss of a biological parent as the rest of the community treated them as their own. During the marriage ceremony, a blessing from the ancestors was sought. The spirit of fertility and health were invoked and the couple made to feel a sense of belonging. As a married woman, you could easily walk to your neighbours' homestead and request to harvest vegetables from her garden and get the flour to accompany the vegetable. It was the duty of everyone to look after each other.Marriages, therefore, were a consummation and joyful ceremony where the couple undertook to bring forth new life into the society. The acted as a channel through which a spiritual being would take forth the bodily vessel to make an entrance to the world of the living. They, therefore, enhance the connection of the people to their ancestors and spirits.Deaths and veneration.As we stated when starting. We are all connected in a cycle that never ends. Once we are born, we live within our assigned vessels for some time before finally shedding them off to join the spiritual realm. This process, also known as death is usually a constant reminder that we do not only exist in the physical, but also in the spiritual form. Once death strikes, we assume the position of ancestors in the cycle of life. We live in the physical world but still belong to the same community. Our role to the community we once lived in still exists and we owe it to the living to guide and preserve the tradition. In this spiritual form, we can be invoked to solve mysteries, offer guidance and celebrate with the people.The memories of our ancestors are kept alive in our interaction and invocation of their presence upon a different aspect of our lives. We venerate them to remind ourselves of our lineage and how connected to our past we are. See the reason why he who forsakes his culture becomes a slave? It’s for the simple reason that if you are not in connection with your roots, you lack your own identity and is carrying out the bidding of an ancestor foreign to you.Every African society, whether from South, North, East or West understood the importance of ancestors in their lives and incorporated them in their lives. The moment this value is lost, a whole generation is considered lost as well.*******************************************************************************************No single community exists without a past, the present and the future. All races of the world have traditions that are influenced by the past. Even in the modern world, we still pay tribute to our ancestors by different behaviours such as veneration (keeping items or pictures that belonged to a long-gone relative), invocation and even seeking to engage in an activity that brings our cultures into play.We must keep this connection alive. It’s the only way we can make strides towards better societal prosperity and growth. No single human being exists in a vacuum. This connection to our ancestry can be the answer we seek to address the rot that has invaded our lives. Children suffer isolation, widows and widowers are neglected and individualism has eroded the very fabric that was once our strengths.A person without a history is no better than an empty vessel. We live in a world that pays little regard to the elders or ancestors. And as long as we do not remember where we belong, we cease to live fulfilling lives. Our strength lies in connection with our ancestors. The unity that once made the fabric of true African society characterized by shared pain and laughter.Author, Opondo Maureen ................
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