Initiation

Education and Seclusion

After the observances that mark the child's birth, the ceremonies or rituals of the initiation period [Page 342]that mark the transition from child to adolescent to adult status in the community are the second major point in the life of the individual. These rituals and ceremonies establish the place of the individual among the adults in the community.

A girl or boy will never be considered a woman or a man no matter what her or his physical age unless she or he has undergone initiation. The initiation period is an introduction to knowledge that is only accessible to adult members of the community. Through this education function, essential knowledge deemed critical to the continuity of the people, their collective identity, and their way of being in the world and universe is passed on from one generation to the next.

In West Africa, especially, initiation to adulthood is a prerequisite for other forms of initiation, such as those required for membership in secret societies or entering the priesthood. Although not all African peoples focus on the initiation period in the same way or to the same extent, most give it special recognition. Variations exist in the frequency in which initiation rites are performed, age at which initiation occurs, time of year, length of seclusion, and, if circumcision is performed, who is responsible and how it is done.

Initiation rites often include a period of seclusion away from the home environment to ritually introduce the initiates to the art of communal living. Girls are taken away to be with female elders and boys with male elders. During this period, the elders will share their wisdom, teach the initiates the roles of functions of vital ceremonies and rituals, transmit the cultural history of their people, and ensure that they know the personality traits and behaviors valued in their culture. The period of seclusion is symbolic of the life cycle. The initiate's childhood dies. Living in seclusion is likened to living in the spirit world after death and being reborn to rejoin the community as an adult.

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