Page 125 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

10 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

An Initiation Ceremony for Girls in Zambia

Around the world the transition from childhood to ado- The Bemba chisungu is an individual nubility rite
lescence or adulthood is often marked by a formal, pub- practised for each girl, or for two or three girls
lic ceremony. The following is a description of the together and it is preceded by a short puberty cere-
chisungu ceremony for girls of the Bemba people of mony proper.When a girl knows that her first period
Zambia. has come she tells older women and they must “bring
her to the hearth” again (ukumufishyo peshiko), or
The chisungu of the Bemba is usually described either
“show her the fire” (ukumulanga umulilo) since her
as a puberty rite for girls or as a female initiation cer-
condition has made her “cold.” This is done by rites
emony. It consists of a long and rather elaborate suc-
which vary slightly from locality to locality.The uku-
cession of ritual acts which includes miming, singing,
solwela ceremony is one in which doctored seeds are
dancing and the handling of sacred emblems. In the
cooked on a fire and the girl must pull them out and
old days the chisungu invariably preceded the mar-
eat them burning hot. In another rite she is washed
riage of a young girl, and was an integral part of the
with medicine cooked in a special pot and she drinks
series of ceremonies by which a bridegroom was
this medicine too. She is then isolated indoors for a
united to the family group of his bride, in a tribe in
day or more and fed with a small ball of millet por-
which descent is reckoned through the woman and
ridge cooked in new fire so that she may be made free
not through the man, and in which a man comes to
to eat again without harming herself or others. This
live with his wife’s relatives at marriage rather than a
is the usual Bemba way of returning to the commu-
woman with her husband’s....

geneous societies.When no public recognition of the fact person might need to make upon reaching adulthood
and implications of puberty is given, adolescents are left include whether or not to marry, whom to marry,
to struggle through the adolescent identity shift on their whether to have children, what career path to follow,
own, with the result that the shift may be prolonged and what political and religious beliefs to adopt, and where
difficult. It is probably not a coincidence that the view of to live. In practice, any or all of these choices may be fore-
adolescence as a period of storm and stress, as well as the closed to the person, either by circumstance or by cultural
concept of the identity crisis, originated in Western cul- convention. Historically, because of limitations on the
ture, which lacks meaningful initiation ceremonies. In availability of potential spouses, absence of effective birth
Western culture ceremonies such as the bar mitzvah (the control technology, hardships associated with making a
initiatory ceremony recognizing a boy as having reached living, and cultural barriers foreclosing free choice of
the age of Jewish religious duty and responsibility) may spouse, job, and the like, a young person typically had
still be practiced, but these ceremonies no longer guar- fewer choices to make regarding how his or her life would
antee that the young person will now be recognized as a look. In contemporary heterogeneous, democratic, afflu-
man, the original culmination of the ceremony. ent societies, the choices that a young person can and
indeed must make are numerous, the consequences of
Range of Life Choices making such choices are momentous, and pressure to
The adolescent experience is also affected by the range of make a number of decisions about the future simultane-
choices open to people who are facing adulthood and ously is often present. Hence, the level of stress experi-
need to make decisions about the course that their lives enced during adolescence, and beyond, is expected to be
will take.The wider the range of choices, the more diffi- higher in such societies.This difference in the constraints
cult it can be to negotiate the task of taking on new roles, placed by custom and circumstance on individual life
and the more the need to choose will be associated with choices may explain why, until the close of the Middle
upheaval. Theoretically, important choices that a young Ages, the distinction between child and adult was mini-