This paper will discuss two areas of traditional African religion; the initiation of young people into society through circumcision, and the subject of marriage.
In most traditional African societies, it is customary for both boys and girls to undergo some type of initiation rite which marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. Frequently, these rituals involve circumcision. For boys, circumcision means that the foreskin of the penis will be cut away, whereas for girls the procedure is far more involved and indicates anything ranging from clitoridectomy (the removal of the clitoris) to infibulation, in which the labia are removed as well and the two sides of the vulva are stitched together. Initiation rites which involve circumcision are usually carried out at around the time of puberty; however, this is not always the case. Even though circumcision of both boys and girls typically represents their transition to adulthood, the procedure is sometimes carried out when the individuals are small children. The actual age for circumcision varies among different tribal cultures. For example, Mbiti has noted that "in some parts [of Africa], boys are circumcised at a very early age (even a few days after birth). In most cases, however, this is left until the period of puberty and after" (Mbiti, 1975, p. 96). Sometimes there are age variations even within the same ethnic group. Among the Afar people of Ethiopia, for example, the Asaemara group circumcise boys at about the age of fifteen, whereas boys in the Adaemara group are usually circumcised at the age of nine (Peoples, 1978, p. 20). Although boys in some African cultures may be circumcised during infancy, this is less often true of girls. Nonetheless, the procedure is not always left until the onset of puberty. In Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar's study of female circumcision in Africa, the youngest child in a group of girls being circumcised was only four years ol...