28/10/2019
African traditional culture is one of the richest cultural traditions in the world, a tradition full of arts and crafts. Like most other cultures, Africans had barbaric practices which are still practiced to date. However, most of the strange customs are no longer practiced thanks to human rights groups, education and religion. Some of the primitive cultural practices are, ritual killings, wife inheritance, Female ge***al mutilation and infanticide which is the intentional cleaning of infants due to reasons such as, s*x selection, religious sacrifice and population control. The Nandi among other Kalenjin sub tribes practiced infanticide. An infant who was born outside wedlock had to be killed. The infant was placed at the entrance of where cows used to spend their night (cow shed) so that the cows would step on it. At some rare occasions some infants survived and had to be subjected to an even worse act, cow dung was smeared on the nose so as to suffocate the child, This was done because it was believed that the infants would bring a bad omen to the family, clan and even the society. Among the Marakwet, an infant was killed or aborted if the woman got pregnant before the elder one had grown enough to an age up to 4years an age that was believed that the child had attained the age of being sent to pick something. Abortion was allowed in some instances, for the Marakwet a woman who got pregnant before initiation was forced to abort. If a mother gave birth to twins who were boys, the couple had to divorce because it was believed that it was a sign of bad omen and that the husband was going to die.
Looking into the history of such practices is essential in appreciating the efforts that have been made to ensure they are done away with. Many of our fore parents perished/ suffered due to lack of knowledge which is now available in the current generation. Women were the most affected, they were never allowed to own property or even address men. During birth, complications would arise and unfortunately there were no specialized mid-wives to allow for caesarean delivery so the va**na had to be cut to create more space to allow for va**nal birth. This cut could cause severe bleeding which eventually led to the death of the mother. For those who survived the cuts, they had to always sit flat on the ground to allow for natural healing since the cuts were never closed by stitching
