Year: 2020

Some cultures believe that facial stripes (tribal marks) serves as a distinctive feature between tribes or ethnic groups. However, over time, it has come to symbolize beauty; this is the case with the Xhosa in South Africa and the Maasai in Kenya. Stripes on the face are not seen as violent but a sign of beauty. There are also many other tribes of sub-Saharan Africa with the same practices. These includes Nuba women who colour their faces. Ladies decorate their face with art using different materials, such as calamine lotion and a matchstick. Face-painting and body decoration serve an important aesthetic function. Women who are considered as most beautiful receive some form of social recognition, for example, they receive romantic attention. Face decorations also serve as social markers. They are used to distinguish boys from elders, women from men and members of the tribe from other tribes.

Africans have different physical expressions of beauty. In Mozambique, Makonde people perform facial cutting for beauty. Tribal marks of the Yoruba people from Nigeria, Benin and Togo are scarification. Barega people in DRC perform both facial cutting and scarification for both beauty and status; the Maasai of Kenya do ear piercing for beauty; the Koi Koi of South Africa remove teeth for beauty. Similarly, Wanyabungu from DRC trim teeth for beauty. These marks serve multiple purposes, including tribal identification of a person’s family, community or patrilineal heritage and beautification.

Internal Beauty is esteemed than external beauty by Africans. Internal beauty means love, care, compassion, respect, wisdom, faithfulness and truthfulness and non-violence. It is the sum of human cherished values that contribute to peace, harmony, wellbeing, security and development in the society. Therefore, it is not the appearance that counts so much, but the personality. A young person is not beautiful unless he/she displays some noble characteristics and this truth applies to both males and females. A young man who acts violently or prefers violence to peace, lacks internal beauty. Non-violence is a an internal value which is expressed through a way of life committed to justice, peace, common good, solidarity, compassion (ubuntu and ujamaa – community).

A young man’s beauty is to protect his personal internal dignity and that of others by showing love, care and being nice to people. Such a young man in a community is treasured and most families would express interest in their daughters being married to a man like that. Although in some African cultures violent men are seen to be treasured, but that consideration has its limits in the application – for example, a violent young man is valued when there is need to fight a battle for the family or tribe. Such an attribute is meaningless for arranging a marriage either for the boy himself or for a girl with the boy. A young man’s beauty is to show love. Not loving is hating and hating is a sort of inner murder.

Like a young man, a young woman’s personality and behaviour is mostly desired if, she is found to be similar to those of a mother who conducts herself in a worthy manner and has demonstrated herself to be noble. A woman who meets these special qualities such as kindness, politeness, submission, respect, compassion, who is teachable and cares for others, is the kind of a beautiful and desirable person that meets the African definition and standard of beauty. Judging a woman based on this standard could save a person from running into trouble, but any judgment that goes against these guidelines could result in disappointment. The secret behind this African wisdom is that, some ill-disciplined character hides beneath artificial beauty. Since the opposite of beauty is ugly – no-one wants to face a woman who is like a sleeping volcano that has the potential to unleash the beast when you accidentally step on her toes.

Africans valued and still do value marriage. The understanding here is that the beautiful woman is a kind of a woman who seeks to be beautiful in the eyes of men and whose chief goal in life is to be in marriage someday. This woman will seek to fulfil man’s sexual desire, to assure that he may not go outside the marriage bond and enjoy extramarital relationships. It is on the basis of this conviction that some marriages were and still are arranged by parents on behalf of their children. This is to ensure that the African traditional values are preserved, while maintaining a strong family bond and peace among members of the family. Hence, in an African context, the beauty of a woman may be defined as good inherited traits and habits that earn her a good reputation in public and is both internally beautiful and externally attractive.

In the African concept of beauty, a person is truly beautiful when he or she has what it takes to meet the above criteria. Though Africans value both internal and external beauty, the internal beauty takes precedence over the external one. This understanding of beauty may be different from other definitions of beauty. Once different meanings join together, there is often a culture shock, which may result in loss of meaning of the traditional meaning and the adoption of an alien model of beauty. In this case, such search for beauty would no longer be an African traditional understanding of beauty. In spite of this, traditional values will always have a place, therefore they will never lose relevance.

The obvious cultural diversity in Africa makes the continent unique in different aspects among which is language. Africa is one of the most diverse continents in the world with about 3000 distinct ethnic groups and more than 2000 languages. The linguistic capacity of Africans is one of the unique features that distinguishes them from other regions.

A typical example of linguistically diverse country in Africa is Nigeria which is rated top position worldwide in this aspect. In Nigeria, the spoken languages exceeds 514 languages. Though the three major languages are Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, there are many other tribes with their different languages. The number of native languages spoken in Africa is estimated between 1,250 and 2,100. However, one of the most remarkable differences between Africa and other linguistic areas is its relative uniformity, due to the fact that several languages are widely used for inter-ethnic communication. Arabic, Somali, Berber, Amharic, Oromo, Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Mande, Fulani and Yoruba are spoken by tens of millions of people. One of the major setbacks to such language diversity is inter-ethnic communication. Infact, there are instances of two neighboring ethnic groups who don’t understand each other.

Nevertheless, some pundits have been of opinion that a common language like Kiswahili can unite Africa. South Africa’s Julius Malema is one of those who strongly called out for the adoption of a common language in Africa. Following his call, the South African government announced that Kiswahili will be incorporated into South Africa’s school curriculum. Swahili is a language widely spoken in African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, DR Congo, northern Mozambique, and northern Zambia and has more than 100 million speakers.

The preservation of African languages is of utmost importance because the languages constitute one of the invaluable assets of Africa. In a bid to nurture the growth and development of African Languages, celebrating their uniqueness, the African Union declared 2006 the “Year of African Languages”. It had early created in 2001, the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), which promotes the usage and perpetuation of African languages among African people as a means to harmonize the various languages across the continent as well as preserving any that are on the verge of becoming extinct.

One of the problems facing any indigeneous value in Africa is lack of appreciation of such values by the African natives. Africans are always quick to abandon their rich culture for imported foreign cultures. Some of African languages are not spared in this aspect. Consequently, several of these languages face the risk of extinction. It was noted that about 300 languages have less than 10,000 speakers, which puts them on the UN’s endangered list, and 37 are in danger of completely dying out.

While Africa prides itself with such linguistic diversity, some citizens are yet to fully embrace it as their commonplace. For instance in some countries and tribes,some people feel ashamed discussing in their mother tongue in public. A majority of youth who grow up in the cities are not taught their mother tongue and many of them do not see any necessity in learning it. Some even forbid their children from speaking their mother tongue.

Nonetheless, the spirit of reawakening is currently blowing across the continent as many persons have begun to show increasing interest in native languages. It is now very common to see Africans on social media like twitter, engaging in discussions in their mother tongue. With persistent reawakening, Africans can preserve the uniqueness in their linguistic diversity.

The variety of the African cultures, beliefs, languages and ways of life have is large, detailed and blessed. From this unique background of the African people the idea of beauty is not uniform throughout the continent. Here are two distinguishing features that can be used as a bridge, consequently offering a unified view: the different pertinence given to external and internal beauty.

In some African cultures, such as the Kikuyu in Kenya, the Bemba in Zambia, the Bembe in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Hutu in Burundi, external beauty in marriage does not count more than hard work in families and communities. A hard-working young girl, who is less beautiful outside, could be married faster than a beautiful girl considered by the community as lazy. So physical strength resulting in hard work comes first and external beauty second.

When the woman is healthy and physically strong, fit to manage a home environment and endure labour pain, she is said to be hardworking. In some rural communities as well as conservative communities in Africa, this is still a reality. This is not only applicable to the above named tribes and ethnic groups but to many tribes and ethnic groups across the continent. The African concept of beauty does not depend so much on what a person thinks of him/herself but rather how that person conducts him/herself. Then, the behaviour is seen and judged by the community.

The External Beauty: Africans believe that external beauty can be deceptive in that it gives a false representation of a person’s true nature and personality – but this does not reject the notion that a woman is desirable and attractive when she has a beautiful face or an external elegance of shape, good hair and smooth skin, to name but some features. Stripes on the face are not seen as violent but a sign of beauty. In some cultures, it serves as a distinctive feature between tribes or ethnic groups but over the time, it has come to symbolise beauty.

In the DRC Fuleru people would say for example, “mdukula ata homba”. This literally means, a fair skinned girl (person) cannot become bankrupt. In other words, a girl who has fair skin stands a high chance of getting married. Interestingly, in many African cultures, a very dark-skinned girl also stands similar chances. That is the whole essence of ‘black is beautiful’. When a dark-skinned girl passes by, young men would say ‘dark and lovely’ or ‘black is beautiful’. As such, Africans love dark skin.

In modern days, both women and men are using special cosmetics to turn their dark skin into lighter ones, even with all the health risks that come with the application of such products. That is not what black is beautiful means. Black is beautiful is being comfortable and happy with dark skin, natural skin, being proudly black. It is the appreciation of God’s perfect design of a black person.

For the persons who are applying cosmetics to change their skin colour there are some forms of cultural violence in the desire to look what they are not. The application of such products is different from the practice of Africans who used soil or herbs to protect their face against sunshine, for example, the Zulu people. There is no harm in such practice because it does not have side effects. On the contrary, it helps to protect the beauty. In fact, the application of soil on the face is not intended to change one’s skin but to care for the natural black beauty.

Violence is seen as an enemy of external beauty. Physical or direct violence damages the external features, which should serve to attract. Whatever damages the skin is violence but whatever protects it is not, for example, the traditional marks and stripes used in many African tribes. The skin is an essential part of human external beauty as designed by God our creator. Do well to make sure you take good care of your skin and keep it protected and not endangered. Your skin has a lot to tell about your health.