African national life customs

Africans pay attention to hairstyles, especially women. In addition to wearing bright and colorful clothes, they also like to wear novel and elegant hairstyles. African women's hair becomes frizzy and cannot be combed by themselves, so they need help from others. Therefore, in urban and rural areas of various African countries, mobile stalls dedicated to combing women's hair can be seen everywhere. African barbers are ingenious and can design and comb out a variety of beautiful and ethnic hairstyles according to different ages, statuses and occupations. Most of the hairstyles for little girls are light and lively. Some have braids that reach the top of the head, standing straight on the top of the head. Some have the top of the head as the center and are combed close to the scalp from top to bottom into multiple well-arranged braids. Young women like round hairstyles, with the top of the head as the center. They are made up of countless braids that are erected, or are twisted with green silk and black threads to form various patterns; middle-aged women use silk threads to braid their hair together, either on the top of their heads or draped over their shoulders, and some pull their short hair into braids. The small braids close to the scalp are shaped like watermelons. Some divide the hair into small pieces of the same size, tie them tightly and connect them to resemble pineapples. In addition, other names derived from their shapes include "fish scale type", "screw type" and "shell pattern type". Some women also decorate their hairstyles with shells and beads to look dazzling. In recent years, African barbers have designed a new hairstyle, which is to comb two rows of porous bridges of the same height and orderly between the top of the head and the base of the neck, just like "small bridges flowing water", which is very unique. It takes a lot of time for African women to comb their hair, ranging from one to two hours to three to four hours.

People who thrive on African soil have developed unique dietary characteristics due to factors such as climate and culture. In Africa, there are many spices, vegetables, and fruits native to Africa, and there are many varieties. Therefore, since ancient times, there has been a custom of mixing many kinds of food into one. The method of cooking together is to grill meat and then mix it with curry, milkshake, tomato juice, etc. For pasta, it is mixed with other fruits and lightly fried in oil.

Due to historical factors, African cuisine not only retains traditional cooking methods, but also absorbs many French cuisine practices. In addition, it is also influenced by many influences from Italy and Middle Eastern Arab countries, thus forming a unique food structure. From North Africa to South Africa, due to the influence of race, religion and culture, the main style of their diet is a "chowder" of various foods in the form of roasting, boiling, stewing, etc.

African food has always been famous for the art of seasoning, making full use of various spices and seasonings, such as chili, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, etc.

In many places in Africa, people do not use tables and chairs, knives and forks, or chopsticks to eat. Instead, they eat with their hands. When eating, everyone sits in a circle, with a lunch box and a vegetable box in the middle. Each person presses the edge of the lunch box or vegetable box with his left hand, uses the fingers of his right hand to grab the rice and vegetables in front of him, and puts it into his mouth. At this point, you will be at a loss as to what to do, and may even have your hands covered with rice. However, Africans make clean and neat movements when grabbing and eating.

Guests should be careful not to scatter food on the ground when eating, as this is taboo for the host. After the meal is over and the elders have not left the table, the younger ones should sit quietly and wait; when the children leave the table, they must salute their parents to express their gratitude; the guests should wait for the host to finish eating and leave together.

In many places in Africa, there are strict etiquettes when eating, and there are even regulations on who can eat each part of the beef, sheep, chicken, and duck. For example, in Mali, chicken thighs are eaten by older men, and chicken breasts are eaten by older women; the head of the household eats chicken neck, stomach and liver; chicken heads, claws and wings are eaten by children. Another example is in Botswana, at large public banquets, guests and men eat beef, and married women eat offal. The two are cooked and eaten separately and must not be mixed. It is advisable to follow the local customs and understand them.

Enter the world of Kenya’s Maasai people

Before arriving in Kenya, I had never heard of the Maasai. This time I was lucky enough to visit a village of the local indigenous Maasai people in Kenya. Enter the world of the Maasai people.

Entering this village, you can see Maasai people along the way. They hold spears and wear red clothes. Some herd cattle and sheep, and some are in a hurry. The Maasai are a nomadic people in East Africa and one of the more distinctive ethnic minorities existing in East Africa. Currently, there are 584,000 Maasai people in Kenya, accounting for about 2% of the total population of Kenya. They mainly live in the Rift Valley Province near the border with Tanzania.

Maasai men are tall, handsome, and slightly arrogant. They were once called "noble savages" by Western colonists. The traditional Maasai people live a nomadic life, relying on beef, mutton, milk, and blood as their main food. They live in areas where lions, elephants, bison, leopards and other wild animals roam. Long-term survival has formed a certain tacit understanding between the Maasai people and the wild animals, and they usually do not interfere with each other.

Isolated tribe

In the Kalahari, Botswana, Bushmen were forcibly evicted from their settlements and stripped of their way of life. The Bushmen have lived there since 20,000 years ago, and the country's government appears to have ordered them to move out of the arid, waterless desert to a new settlement because of the diamonds buried there. The Bushmen are one of 5,000 indigenous groups on Earth. There may still be undiscovered tribes. Anthropologist Antonio Perez said: "It is estimated that there are still undiscovered tribes in the Amazon region and Papua New Guinea. There are still some in the Chaco region of Bolivia. Although the tribes have been discovered, they have no contact with the outside world. In short, I think there are no more than five or six such tribes, and each tribe has no more than seventy or eighty people.”

Mursi women decorate themselves with earthen plates

The Mursi people, who live in the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia, are one of the most striking primitive tribes in the world because the Mursi women adorn themselves with earthen plates. This custom is similar to that of the Kayapo Indians in the Amazon, who hang a dried earthen plate (or wooden plate) on their lips. When you're a teenager, you put a plate in your mouth and your lips get split. As you grow up, you can replace it with a bigger plate. Wearing a plate on the lips is not only for beauty, but also a symbol of wealth. Whoever has a bigger plate will have a larger dowry.

The Micaeans shunned other tribes

The Micaean people are descendants of the original inhabitants of Madagascar. They live in the southwestern part of the island and number about 100 people. They are a nomadic tribe and do not come into contact with other tribes. When they encounter other people, they hide. Locals call them "people disguised as trees." The Micaean people, regardless of age or sex, have to change places every two or three days. The temperature where they live is as high as 50 degrees Celsius, but they only drink one cup of water a day due to drought. They hunted hedgehogs, but their main food was the roots of a plant called babao. The method of finding Babao is a secret that is kept secret among the Micaeans to prevent other tribes from finding Babao.

Far from modern civilization, the "leaf women" of the Koma tribe

In the dense forests of the Arantica Mountains at an altitude of 1800 meters on the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, there is a tribe far away from modern civilization, the African Koma people. This tribe is composed of four tribes. They each speak their own dialects, but their lifestyles are basically the same: women wear no clothes and only use leaves to cover their lower abdomen. They are called "leaf women". They tied a rope around their waist and pinned the collected branches and leaves on it to form a "beautiful skirt". Women love to look beautiful, and because skirts are easily damaged, girls have to change them several times a day. Compared with women, men appear to be much more "civilized". They not only wear pants, but some also wear tops.

The social structure of the Koma people is strict and closed. More than two centuries ago, they still lived in the plains under the Alantica Mountains. Because of the invasion of the northern nomadic people, the Pall people, they fled to the mountains to find refuge. The cliffs and primeval forests became their natural fortresses. Since then, they were forgotten until 1926, when they were rediscovered.

The Koma people live between the blue sky and clouds, and are also known as the "people of the sky". If outsiders thought about where they live, they would not only have to spend six or seven hours walking through dense virgin forests, but also climb over steep rocks.

pocket nation

"Pygmy" comes from Greek and means "fist-sized". Pygmies are a racial type of the Negro-Australian race. Those in Africa are called "Negriro", and those in Asia's Andaman Islands, Malay Peninsula, and the Philippines are called "Negris". Tuo people". These two words originate from Spanish and mean "little black man". Pygmies now mostly refer to the Negrilero people of Africa. Pygmies are short in stature, with short heads and legs, and their height rarely exceeds 1.5 meters. They can be called a "pocket nation".

The Pygmies lived in central Africa a long time ago and are the heirs of the prehistoric Sanga culture. The spread of the Bantu forced them into the tropical forests of central Africa, areas now managed by countries such as Zaire. It is for this historical reason that the Pygmies lost their language

The Pygmies live in a primitive social state. Clan is their form of social organization. Seven or eight households form a collective and have no concept of private ownership. They lived by gathering and hunting. The men are all excellent hunters and can identify the male, female and type of a wasp from 9 meters away. Although they are short in stature, they are dexterous and agile. They can capture elephants, monkeys and other animals with hunting nets, spears, poisonous arrows and other weapons. The collection work is mainly performed by women. The various edible plants, termites, fruit nectar, caterpillars, snails, etc. they collected were their main daily food.

Pygmies do not know how to make fire, so one of the most important tasks of women is to preserve fire. They spread grass or leaves on a shelf made of branches as their living room, and the fire was kept in it. Leaves and grass were also materials they used to make clothing.