Rites of passage.docVIP

Rites of passage play a central role in African socialization, demarking the different stages in an individuals development (gender and otherwise), as well as that persons relationship and role to the broader community. The major stage in African life is the transition from child to adult when they become fully institutionalized to the ethics of the groups culture. Rites of passage are for this reason critical in nation building and identity formation. (Shahadah) Historically, in addition to the recurrent daily and seasonal patterns of African life and community,great ritual distinction is placed on the nonrecurring moments of personal life. These moments, which have been happening since the beginning of time, mark times of new beginning and transition from one life stage to another for the individual by dramatizing the transience of individual existence, Rites of passage thus serve a double purpose; preserving the ongoing community as a symbol of collective immortality and permanence as well as providing a clear and guided means for transition from one life stage and sphere of responsibility to another. They thus confirm the hierarchies of values of the community and project an ideal sequence of personal development the individual can look forward to and upon reaching each stage, evaluate his or her maturation against a collective standard. African initiation rites link the individual to the community and the community to the broader and more potent spirit world. Initiation rites are proven to be a necessary extension of many communities and are as necessary and natural as are arms and legs are a natural and necessary extension of the human body. Rites of passage provide the African with the foundation of his or her being: Identity. Sexual identity and the roles of gender identity are enshrined through rites of passage:, The males are prepared for their responsibilities in the community as men, and the women prepared for their responsibilities in the nation as wome