The Azande of Sudan  and  the Congo

 

Azande: childhood and sexuality Location: from upper Nile basin in the southern Sudan to the borders of semitropical rain forests in Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo); Population: 1 million; Religion: beliefs revolve around ideas associated with mangu. Male circumcision and coming of age According to C.R. Lagae, in the 1920’s the age of male circumcision varied, but in the north the age was between six and ten years. The particular age depended on the advice of the oracles, and the collection of a sufficient number of eligible boys in a district to justify the ceremony. The operation always took place in the dry season because the wounds healed more quickly. A group of sponsors gathered together and build a hut in a secluded area near the bank of a stream. The boys assembled at the hut and the operation was performed with little ceremony. The boys slept in seclusion in the hut for about two months. Before the wound was healed the boys went naked, until the final preparation for the circumcision dance had been made, when they put on a sort of short petticoat. After circumcision a boy was recognized as a person old enough to have sexual intercourse and his adult status was acknowledged.         Photo depicts boys' circumcision dance. Baxter and Butt reported that Zande children were taught that sexual intercourse, properly speaking, should take place only between married couples, but extra-marital intercourse was not regarded as an offense if indulged in discreetly. Formerly, and now more frequently, society permitted “sexual incidents” at certain dances connected to funeral rites as long as they occurred with discretion and not to openly. Such a relationship between a boy and a girl may become more than a casual one, and then the boy calls the girl his badiya, makes her small presents and may even make gifts to her mother. Zande attitudes towards a child's sexuality E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Professor Emeritus in the University of Oxford, and one of the twentieth centuries’ most renowned anthropologists collected oral history from Azande people between 1927 and 1930. And presented them years later as sketches of how the Azande talked, thought and reflected on the how men and women see one another. Love making is a major interest of the Zande people and it is no surprise that sexual awareness comes at an early age. I have quoted four of the oral histories that Dr. Evans-Pritchard collected, which follow: Intercourse with a small girl “In the past when a girl was small she did not copulate with men, thinking that she would not have intercourse with her husband because, since she was not developed, if she got with child how could she bear it since her hole (vagina) would not be big enough. She thought it were better the man should mount her between her thighs. But today even a small girl knows all about intercourse with men. This is something new.” Conception “However much intercourse a small girl has her mucus is not capable of giving her a child. It is only after her breasts begin to grow and her hips broaden and strengthen that her mucus begins to contain the souls of children. The mucus that a girl excretes shortly after her first intercourse is like water. Thus the Azande say that a girl must grow up before she can have a child. If she conceives before she is properly grown up she will die in childbirth. This is why a man will not think his wife barren because she does not bear him children when she is small, but waits till she is grown up, and it is only when her breasts have begun to fall without her having given birth to a child that her husband begins to think that she is barren.” Children and Sex “When desire for his love comes over a young man he goes to lie on his bed and pines for his love. If then he is by himself he begins to push on his mat as on a woman. And small boys for their part- one will take hold of another to press on him in boys’ play, but this is what he has seen his father doing, his father copulating with his mother – so he goes after little girls whom he knows to try to copulate with them. So when a little boy mounts a little girl the grown-ups just laugh, just laugh quietly and then pretend to be angry, saying to him ‘eh child, from whom did you get that idea? Who told you to do that sort of thing in front of people. It is just a child's behavior”  Incest When a boy reaches puberty he may take his sister and with her build their little hut near his mother’s home and go in it with his sister and lay her down and get on top of her – and they copulate. His father then begins to keep watch on them to catch them at this and seizes them and gives them a good hiding and asks him what he means by going after his sister, she is his sister, has he seen people going to bed with their sisters? Then he is afraid. He keeps a look-out for his father and when his father is away he again takes his sister and they go out in the bush to copulate. When they know that their fathher is returning they get out of the bush. So people say about it that a man begins his desire for women with his sisters. So people say that children are like dogs, for a boy will go after his own sister. After they have been stupid for a time, when they grow up they get a sense of shame and whenever they see their sister they do not think of going any more with her to the bush. A youth feels ashamed with regard to his sister, he would not see her nakedness any more.” Zande Marriage Zande marriage is not a sudden act but rather a culmination of a long cumulative series of events.  First payments shortly after birth and further payments continue for several years after marriage. Bride wealth is generally in spears, a total of twenty being the usual number required to establish a stable marriage. In addition the young man labors for his father-in-law and makes gifts of general goods. If a wife dies without issue it is the duty of the family to provide another wife, if possible her sister and the husband will continue to pat bride wealth as for his first wife. Azande do not really consider marriage to be stable until a child is born. Azande parents were very affectionate towards their children and had considerable authority over them until they are married adults with families of their own. As the old men tended to monopolize the younger women for wives, it was unusual in the past for a commoner to marry until he was 30-35.  A daughter was completely under her father's control and infant betrothals were frequent.  Evans-Pritchard collected one story called, “Marriage of an Elder” which may be found on pages 30-32 of his work. An elderly man comes to ask to marry a young girl. The father counsels her saying, “my child, do not refuse. However, you speak your mind about it also.” She says that he has come to marry me I would not refuse, for you are my father and I would not refuse what you say, whatever you say, I accept it.’ A mother also counsels, “..an elder has sent his spears, saying that he wants to marry you. If it were just form me to say, you would marry him, for elders make good husbands, better than young men do. Young men are triflers.” Sources Baxter, P.T.W. & Audrey Butt. 1953. The Azande, and related peoples of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Belgian Congo. London: International African Institute. Evans-Pritchard, E.E., ed. 1974. Man and woman among the Azande. New York: the Free Press. Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1971. The Azande. Oxford. Clarendon. Evans- Pritchard, E.E. 1970) "Sexual Inversion Amongst the Azande", American Anthropologist 72:  Lagae,C.R. 1926. Les Azande ou Niam-Niam. Bruxelles: Bibliothéque Congo.

Graphics and Azande oral histories. Copyright Professor E. E. Evans-Pritchard, 1974.
 
 

Index

Primates	Victorian England	Azande-Congo	Hill Maria-India	Nuba-Sudan
Nuba-Otoro	Nuba-Koalib	Marquesas Islanders	Child Marriage: India	Irish Village