African Women Culture

In his book ‘Society must be defended’, written in 1976, Michel Foucault speaks about historical revisionism, hinting to a an earlier statement made by Winston Churchill who said that “History is written by the victors”.

These discussions are still relevant today. A significant amount of historical narrative is still being written by those with the most power. If you walk into any of the world’s most powerful institutions (government, academic or corporate) you will identify that the

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by Dele Chinwe Ukwu and Anthony I. Ikebudu

Chinua Achebe discussed several customs and beliefs of the Igbo people in his powerful novel, Things Fall Apart . One of the issues he discussed was how the Igbos viewed suicide.

Ekwe = Wooden Drum
Suicide is intolerable in Igbo society even in this modern time. It is considered an "nso ani", a sin against the Earth. The Igbos do not concede to the difficulties of life or to the demands of everyday life. They do not accept suicide, in any form and at any age, as a solution to any problem regardless of the complexities. Suicide is believed to be a terrible and evil way to die.

The Igbos strongly believe in

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Written by Dele C. Ukwu
in consultation with Anthony Ikebudu

In the novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe provided a vivid picture of the Igbos, especially highlighting their social life and customs, religious beliefs, seasonal festivals, ceremonies, myth, political structures and their rich traditional wisdom handed down from one generation to another through oral history and proverbs.Makeup or Body Decoration

Achebe described various aspects of dressing and makeup among the Igbos at the period the book was set. Traditionally, the Igbos (Ibos), especially Igbo women, believed in and valued decorating their bodies for a variety of reasons including aesthetics. There is a saying in Igbo, "One's body is his/her temple."

Ekwe = Wooden Drum
Body decorations for

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We represent over half of humanity. We give life, we work, love, create, struggle, and have fun. We currently accomplish most of the work essential to life and the continued survival of humankind. Yet our place in society continues to be undervalued.” - Jivka Marinova

Inferiorization is the conscious, deliberate and systematic process utilized to derogate, demean and relegate an individual, group as second class. The meaning of the word “feminine,” is modeled, especially in classical ascetic cultures, on the images of the lower self and world. Autonomous social selfhood is imaged by men - the cultural creators of this view - as intrinsically “male,” while the “feminine” becomes the symbol of the repressed, subjugated and dreaded abysmal side

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What place should women have in society? Traditionally, a woman’s place has been inferior to that of the average man. Whatever is considered most valuable in society is placed under the direction of men; whatever is considered less valuable is given to women to care for – even when people ostensible know better.

The culture of women, especially higher education, was of greatest concern from 1880 to 1900, even though the issue nearly dropped from view by the turn of the century. Although there were a few sprinkled comments in favor of identical education from males and females, most commentary took one of two approaches. The first supported education for women within their sphere. Women should be taught to be “teachers to their children” and better housekeepers and they should receive “some careful instruction regarding the beauty of girlhood as shown by

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The Maasai are an indigenous African ethnic tribe of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and homes being near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well-known African ethnic groups internationally.

The Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have instituted programs to encourage the Maasai to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle, but the Maasai have continued their age-old customs. Recently an Aid organization has claimed that the lifestyle of the Maasai should be embraced as a response to climate change because of their ability to farm in deserts and scrublands.

Source:

Obalufon mask. Ife, Nigeria. Early 14th century. © Karin L. Wills/Museum for African Art/National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria.

LONDON.- This spring, two major exhibitions at the British Museum will explore two important artistic traditions which flourished at the same time in different part of the worlds.

Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa (4th March - 6th June 2010) will tell the story of the legendary city of Ife through some of the most refined and beautiful sculptures ever to be found in Africa, created between the 12th and 15th centuries. Meanwhile Fra Angelico to

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The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were founded about 2200 BC by two groups of people from Africa, Negroid and Dravidian (Black people with wooly hair and black people with straight hair). Some scholars say that many left the Nile Valley during the Third Dynasty in Kemet. They built the world's first indoor toilets with closed sewer systems that ran from each toilet stool to the outskirts of town. - C. L. Clark.

Over the course of some four centuries, artists at Ife created sculpture that ranks among the most aesthetically striking and technically sophisticated in the world. Dynasty and Divinity reveals the extraordinarily creative range of Ife art through a diversity of objects that includes handsome idealized portrait heads, exquisite miniatures, expressive caricatures of old age, lively animals, and sculptures showing the impressive regalia worn by Ife's kings and queens. Together, these illuminate one of the world's greatest art centers and demonstrate not only the technological sophistication of Ife artists, but also the rich aesthetic language they developed in order to convey cultural concerns.

The sculptures in the exhibition express the dignity and self-assurance readily associated with the idea of dynasty and the violence and misfortune that could befall human beings. Several superbly crafted copper alloy and terra-cotta heads and figures are expressive representations of the notion of authority, while startling representations of disease and deformity, rendered in stone and terra-cotta, show the afflictions that may result from both divine and worldly forces.

A catalogue with an introductory essay by Enid Schildkrout,  Chief Curator Emerita at the Museum for African Art and an essay by Henry John Drewal, Evjue-Bascom professor of art history and Afro-American studies at the University of

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Africans believed that the creative-source in nature and human culture were two completely different developments. Africans did not wish to offend nature by trying to imitate creation. They consider it an insult to do so. The human mission was to advance culture not creation. Nok civilization around 300 BC began using the cultural geometric volumes of sphere cylinder and cone to portray the human figure. When Yoruba emigrants from the Nile valley moved into the region they continued using those same shapes to create an illusion of human likeness. - C. L. Clark

(1) Sandra Aguebor- Ekperuoh, Robert Kokoma, a native of Benin city, Edo state. The First Lady Mechanic in Nigeria (Sandra Aguebor) was born in the 70s into the family of late Mr. &Mrs. R.A Aguebor. She attended Ivbiotor Primary School, St Maria Goretti Grammar School in Benin, later to Benin Technical College for further technical skills and finally a graduate from Auchi Polytechnic, all in Edo state. She also had a degree from The GOETHE INSTITUTE, a German school based in Lagos State. Currently Sandra is acquiring a part time degree course in Mechanical Engineering. This young Lady Sandra is also the CEO/MD of Sandex Car Care, (specialist in maintenance, servicing of mostly used cars and sales of spare parts for commonly used cars), she maintains and services fleet of cars for MTN Communications, KAKAWA Discount house, Transocean, Alandick, Zenith Bank, Ikoyi Club, CNN News, BCC News, Games Shopping Complex, AIICO Insurance, WHO, United Nations and lots of notable individuals.

(http://www.edoworld.net/Sandra_Aguebor.html) and (http://www.voicesofedowomen.org/sandra_aguebor.html)

(2) Stella Obasanjo was from Iruekpen, Esan West, Edo State. Stella Abebe obtained her BSc at the University of Ife in English 1967 to 1969. In 1969 she was transferred to the UK to complete her studies, this time round, in insurance, in London and Edinburgh, Scotland, from

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You may wish to read this early European characterization of the people of Benin City. The Dutch geographer Dapper wrote of the people of Benin as follows:

"The king every year 'goes twice out of his court and visits the town, at which times he shows all his power and magnificence and all the bravery he can, and then is conveyed and accompanied by all his wives which are about 600 in number, but they are not all his wedded wives."

"These negroes are much more civilized than others on this coast. They are people who have good laws and a well-organized police; who live on good terms with the Dutch and other foreigners who come to trade among them, and showed them a thousand marks of friendship. Deceiving and drunkenness are not their principal faults but rather lechery."

Dapper, Description of Africa, Amsterdam 1686 quoted in Schwartz (1968) Nigeria. London: Praeger Publishers page 67.

Prince Eweka, There is a problem. The problem is prostitution. Not just prostitution but the selling of our young girls into international prostitution by people who should be protecting them. Ascribing the origins of the prostitution in Edo land to another ethnic group is a cop out. Most societies in Nigeria were not monetized and could therefore not have a word describing "sex-for-money". But they had words for promiscuity, for women who slept around.

It is possible that there were prostitutes from Nsukka. I am sure that coal mining activities must be one of the explanations for the emergence of sex-for-money in that part of the world.

There is no profit in relapsing into a defensive crouch. Rather, what we should do is to call attention to this scourge and campaign for policies to stem the trade in flesh.
okn
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OKN:
You know very well that I seldom respond to mails which miss the essential point in my original postings. You missed the point and I thought over it before attempting to respond to you. I never said that women or men do not sleep around. I gave a name. I called them FLIRTS. Did you really read my posting thoroughly or you are just pulling my legs again as I tried to run back to my shelf?

Thanks for the quote from the Dutch geographer Dapper. But I hope you are not alluding to the last line of the quote:- " but they are not all his wedded wives? " If that is what you are alluding to, well, I have this to say: “Ehen OKN, you have a problem. You need to study a little bit of Edo culture with specific reference to how the Obas of Benin get married to so many women." No free 100 course on Edo culture this time Okn.

Besides I can still remember that you were bestowed Edo citizenship a long time ago by me. You were close to being made achief . Do you want me to cross out your name? Do not forget that you can become the Iyase of Benin someday if you behave well. Bolaji Aluko is still in the running INSPITE OF IT ALL. He is an Edo man no matter how hard he runs away from it.. There is no way that I too can also deny my own YORUBA HERITAGE. Even a rat has two families-the father and the mother.
Greetings
Ademola Iyi-Eweka.
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Prince Iyi-Iweka:
Here is the point I tried to make. The Dutch thought Bini people were lecherous. I reproduce the quote:

"These negroes are much more civilized than others on this coast. They are people who have good laws and a well-organized police; who live on good terms with the Dutch and other foreigners who come to trade among them, and showed them a thousand marks of friendship. Deceiving and drunkenness are not their principal faults but rather lechery."

The dictionary explains lechery as "unrestrained and promiscuous sexuality." The Dutch described the Edo as lecherous.
   
Nigeria: Car Line
I do not believe that you are not uncomfortable with such a characterization of the Edo. If that is so, you should not make the assertion that the presence of women allegedly from Nsukka explains the monetization of sexual intercourse in Edo land. By the way, what is the Edo attitude towards sex? A recreational activity? A sacred activity? A solely procreative activity? What is the Edo attitude towards a woman's body? As a temple? An object of play and fun and enjoyment? It is by asking and answering some of these uncomfortable questions that we can begin to seriously tackle the social problem of prostitution.
From me to you,
Best wishes.
okn .
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Dear OKN,

What the Whiteman described as lechery was nothing but POLIGAMY. OKN, you are smart enough to have known that the Edos are a polyginous ( poligamous) society. The Oba had over 600 wives and some were not his “wedded wives." Your friend saw a train of women and he was told they were the Oba's wives. But he did not tell you, how the Oba came to be marrying about 600 wives or why those who were not his “wedded wives" got there. When you know how the Obas of Benin got wives then and now, then you would have discovered that your friend used a wrong term to describe what he saw in Benin hundreds of years ago.. It seems you need some clarification or lessons about Edos way of life. Dapper's 600 wives/polygamy and lechery are joined at the hip. Dapper was using his Judeo/Christian values of Europe of his day, to describe what he saw in Benin-POLIGAMY. I will oblige you this time only.

When an Oba of Benin is on the move, the royal court is on the move. As he moves from one community to another, gifts of various kinds including human beings are given to him as pages or slaves (when slavery was practiced) These of course included women. Parents give out their daughters as a would-be wife to the king. These women are handed over to the chiefs who are in charge of the Oba’s harem. The train of human beings grows larger and larger as the Oba moves around. These chiefs actually go out on a recruiting drive to procure wives for the Obas of Benin since the Obas do not leave the palace grounds.

Many of these women never go to bed with the King or even see his bed chamber until he passes to great beyond. Many of these women, the Obas may never see face to face are put in POOL, to be given out as wives to loyal chiefs, loyal palace servants, military generals, princes and newly installed ENIGIES/OBIS/OVIES. To make sure that these women were not defiled, EUNUCHS were placed in charge of this pool of women. How on earth could the Oba so described have had sexual relationship with all these “600 wives "? According to the British, Oba Ovonramwen had about 80 wives when Benin City fell in 1897. Tell the Whiteman to keep counting.

OKN, you owe me a lot of money for this course 101 on Edo culture and Tradition. I can understand your problem about Dapper's quote, since you grew up in the Eastern part of Nigeria, which had no tradition of kingship. That is why I want you back to Benin City as a chief. That is the only way you will understand why the Edos do things the way they do it.
Greetings.

Ademola Iyi Eweka.
Compile By William Edia

As the analysis of phenomenon of women's quest for liberation developed, it became clear that religion was one of the main sources of the denigration and marginalization of women from the exercise of power and of autonomy. Stanton's women's Bible resurfaced and the cry went up among churches that women are rewriting the Bible. Women from other faith communities re-read their scriptures and commented in writing. On the Christian theological scene. Mary Daly's, The Church and the Second Sex shook the ramparts of church and theology. She followed it with Beyond God the Father in which she argued that if God is made then the male must be God and since this has to be resisted, the male language about God has to go. My response was, God is male does not make the human male God. Maybe it comes out of my orientation toward non-gender specific pronouns and the Creator God as a woman in some parts of Africa.

Many more women wrote, Caucasian, Christian, Jewish and Moslem. Soon there was the generic name Feminist Theology, later to be diversified with the rise of Womanist and Mujerista Theologies. Asian women produced their theologies and so did African women and Latin American women. First this was done in the mode of a general theology of liberation within the Ecumenical Association of Theologians until the Association too proved to be non-gender sensitive. Women realized that if they do not say, "we are here" the men will continue to act if women were absent.

In Africa gender became a theological issue when the Circle asserted that the gender parameter in African culture and African religions have crucial effects on women's lives and on how womanhood is viewed by Africans. They researched the names given to baby boys and baby girls, rites related to the birth of boys and that of girls and all other rites of passage. They examined everyday language and especially proverbs, myths and legends and found them seeped in a gender ideology.

They examined daily relationships in marriage, inheritance laws and women's leadership and roles in the wider society as in the church. Gender as the power, priority and preference of biological male over the biological female was evident everywhere. The women pointed out that it is not only biblical hermeneutics that needed attention but most immediately cultural hermeneutics as Africans are in crisis about their relationships to the inherent ways of doing and thinking. Especially when it is in conflict with modernization and against the notion that culture is dynamic and an open circuit. Gender in biblical studies took the form of re-reading, and the hermeneutics of suspicion and resistance prevailed.

The feminist highlighting of the maleness of God took back seat but African women still saw through the power that men derived by associating masculinity with God. It was necessary to exhibit the feminine face of God and to distance God from the violence against women that has become endemic in man-woman relations in Africa. God had to be placed beyond gender. Contrary to what Daly says, Oduyoye insists "God is male does not make the male God" no human being has a right to play God in another's life except as agent of love, compassion justice and empowerment as demanded by God. Gender is a human, social construct and should not be made to apply to God. Men must not continue to co-opt God into this hierarchy of being by reading into the scripture an order of male over female as ordained by God. African women took refuge in the existence in versions of African Traditional Religion in which the creator is imaged as a woman.

The gendered nature of theology is exhibited not only in the male image of God but in the doctrine concerning the nature of the human being traditionally designated as "the doctrine of man" in English. Women have to sing "Stand up O men of God". Here too African languages assuaged the fears of women that they have become invisible as most African languages have words that mean humanity and no-gender specific pronouns. This however did not prevent the church from being operated as a gendered Institution with men as owners and women as the clients.

The Church's order and liturgy came under scrutiny and the issue of participation as in the Pauline theology of koinonia was lifted up by women. In the Bible study that convoked African women theologians in 1989 Teresa Okure comments on the healing of Jairus daughter as follows "Today, we are not to be satisfied simply with being healed. We are to join the discipled in being healers, proclaiming, the reign of God has come, that we have touched that reign, become part of it, and have been empowered by God to become its heralds (Oduyoye & Kanyoro 1990).

Musimbi Kanyoro the first co-ordinator of the Circle writing on "God calls to Ministry: An Inclusive Hospitably" used the Theological constructs of Koinonia, our common baptism and the Pentecost experience. (Kanyoro & Njoroge 1996). The two articles (Okure & Musimbi) were selected by Sr. Mary John Mananzan as presenting what African women theologians say on the subject of "To be fully human". The Circle followed Accra with studies on the reign of God and out of efforts in West Africa. Elizabeth Amoah edited the Circle book Where God Reigns.

In Talitha qumi (1990) one finds the gender constraint evident and critiqued in all the contributions. The introductory article "The search for a two-winged theology" sets the agenda and the tone of participated. Power is to be jointly utilized according to charisma and not directed by biological determinism. The Bible studies in this book demonstrate the need to pay attention to context and to culture as well as the need to become sensitive to gender when dealing with religion and culture and by extension to theological construction. The papers and the poems all highlight the role of gender in theology as traditionally curbing women's initiative. The women give indicators of how to find scriptural resources to resist this dehumanization of women.

Seven years later the Circle met in Nairobi as mentioned above. One of the books that came out of the papers delivered is Talitha Cum! Theologies of African Women edited by Naymbura J. Njoroge and Musa W. Dube (Cluster 2001), Again "Little Girl, Get Up" was used as introduction and Njoroge in the Preface writes "Together we will soil our hands in our efforts to achieve the goal of dignity, liberation and fullness of life in Africa". 

Nyambura highlights in addition to Talitha Cum! "Eph'phatha" "Be opened (Mark 7:31-35). Silence is no longer an option where women theologians are concerned. Women's 'silence' was not voiceless their lives spoke volumes but now their voices are heard and as Nyambura says "they are calling churches to listen and engage in conversation with African women. (It is interesting to note that neither Nyambura nor Dube were at Accra. Though the former was at Ibadan, they represent the widening of the Circle and study increase of women with doctorates in the theological field in its membership). Theology in Africa calls for acknowledging the role of gender in theology and for eliminating its debilitating effects so that the church might be the church. Between Talitha (1990) and Talitha (2001) several researches have highlighted issues of gendered theological reflections have been written on them, hospitality, violence, HIV/AIDS, spirituality of resistance and transformation and a deepening of the hermeneutics of culture as well as biblical hermeneutics. That women are absent from the pages of our tunes on the history of Christianity is evident. This denial of women's agency has to be corrected and a beginning has been made in Her Stories.

Unravelling the gender component of Christian theology began with studies of life situations and of 'story' telling it was, if you like a phenomenological approach. Lately the analyzing and theolozing from the stories have led to tentative steps towards theorizing an example is what Musimbi describe as "engendered communal theology". The dilemma posed by culture and religion, structures that are both positive and negative in their utilization of gender is an open field for study. Discussing "Gender as a concept in theological analysis" Musimbi has this to say, "Theological engagement with gender issues seeks to expose harm and injustices that are in society and are extended to scripture and the teachings and practices of church culture".

Gender in theology faces the web of oppression as noted above and is not limited to power relations between women and men. She highlights women's emphasis on anthropology with special reference to the establishment of the full humanity of women. Gender in theology critiques the dualistic thinking that opposes body to soul material to spiritual and assigns whatever in the pair is deemed inferior to be feminine. In African women's theology, theological analysis is linked to cultural hermeneutics. A concept that has come from the identification by African women of gender as operating in both culture and theology.

Satou Diallo and her daughters have already been traveling for more than an hour.  They have been on a bus, a subway train, and are about to board another bus near Washington to reach their destination a half hour away.  It is the final meeting with their lawyer to prepare for their asylum hearing.  Their journey began in the West African country of Guinea two years ago. But the momentum for their departure had begun to build about three decades ago when the parents of Isatou first approached her about an arranged marriage.

“During my youth I studied, but when I reached 13 or 14 years, the family wanted me to marry. But I was able to convince my parents to let me study, and when I got my degree I would accept their wishes,” says Ms Diallo.

In the meantime, she met someone special. “We went to school together. I was at the medical faculty and he was in accounting.  But my parents, despite all that I did – school they could accept – but they wouldn’t accept that I chose my husband myself,” says Ms Diallo.

In developing countries, arranged marriages are one way for families to ensure financial security for their daughters.  The man chosen for Isatou was considered a good catch – a wealthy diamond merchant who already had two wives.  Polygamy is widespread in Africa. Isatou refused the marriage, saying she wanted to continue her education. But there was no backing out.  The dowry had already been accepted, the ceremonial cola nuts broken to seal the matrimony.  However, one more thing needed to be done to prepare 17-year-old Ms Diallo for marriage.  She says she had to undergo female genital excision.

“The day that they did the excision they said, 'Come see your aunt.'  I entered and they made me go into a small room behind the toilet. When I entered, I didn’t see anyone, but they blindfolded me and four people came in and they held me to the ground. I cried and screamed. I cried and screamed.”  There was no anesthetic.  During the struggle, Ms Diallo says the cutting instrument slipped and sliced open the length of her inner thigh.

There are varying degrees of female genital excision. In its most common form, the clitoris is removed to prevent women from having sexual pleasure.  It is believed that this helps maintain a woman’s virginity prior to marriage and keeps her chaste.  The practice of excision began more than 2-thousand years ago. Contrary to popular African myth, it is not a tradition of Islam.

Eventually, Ms Diallo’s physical wounds healed, but she says she remained emotionally scarred by the ritual.  She married the man chosen by her family and got a job in a lab. She found pleasure in her children and friends.  As in much of Africa, her community was like an extended family.  That is partly why the tragedy of a neighbor hit Ms Diallo so hard.

“There was a woman and she had three children – only one of them was a daughter. They circumcised her. The girl hemorrhaged and died … She didn’t bear any more children. She was the only girl – a pretty girl. I said, me, I don’t want that to happen to my children,” says Ms Diallo.

So she took action. She says she became part of a women’s group, which she refers to as “the movement,” that went door to door to educate the local population about the dangers of female genital excision. They told villagers about the risk of infection and hemorrhage, as well as the risk of transmission of HIV / AIDS through the use of shared cutting instruments. The women also told them about gynecological problems that women who underwent excision could suffer for the rest of their lives.

“Some people accepted us, but when you go to some places in Fulani or Muslim families, they don’t have the time to receive us to listen to us. They say we make people rebel against their customs,” says Ms Diallo.  But the resistance that she faced on the village doorsteps at that time was nothing compared to what she was about to confront in her own home.

Listen also to Cindy Shiner’s second reporting which we hear how Isatou Diallo fought to protect her daughters from the practice of female genital excision. You can read the series and learn more about African gender issues online at www.voanews.com. At the request of those interviewed for this story, the names have been changed.

africanwomenculture

My experience of gender as it functions in theology on the African continent is located in my intentional involvement with African women in theology dating back to the mid seventies and to the first conference of African Women theologians organized in 1980 by Daisy Obi, then director of the Institute of Church and Society of the Christian Council of Nigeria, Isabel Johnson, then secretary for women's department of the All African Conference of Churches and myself then on the faculty of the Religious studies department of the University of Ibadan.

From Ibadan the circle widened and relationships of trust grew, flowering into convocation of African women theologians in 1980 held in Accra. The fruit of all this is the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians with membership from more than twenty countries including Egypt, Ethiopia and Madagascar, Angola, Mozambique and Namibia. The women of the Circle are practitioners of African Traditional Religion, Christianity, Islam and Judaism may be others too. We do not ask for religious affiliations in the Circle, only that one should consciously live by a belief in God.

This make up the Africa that I speak about until recently theology by African men was not gender sensitive. It was meant to be objective and generic and consequently subsumed women into man. This paper therefore deals mainly with the theological output of women, with the significant exceptions of a handful of men like John Pobee and Tinyiko Maluleke and Gerald West who begun to consciously examine the gender parameters in African theology, I now do hear Christian preachers saying "and women" where the Bible or a collect omits them, it will repay study to read the recent writings of the "fathers" of African Christian Theology with an eye for their sensitivity to gender. This, I have not done. But I know that in the academic world, what counts as theology has been defined by men. This definition - makers we are going to have to acknowledge that both hermeneutics and ways of accessing knowledge are constantly changing. The power of definition of what is theology has to be exercised by the community of women and men in theology.

The academic world remains uncertain as to how to assess the alternative epistemologies and methodologies that women claim mainstreaming gender in theology demands. But like it or not the concern for gender has opened up a new academic field, and this has to be acknowledged and appropriated to make the academy responsible and responsive to the world out there. The same goes for the ecclessia. The presumed right of church and bishops to determine what is to be believed, stands in the ways of mainstreaming gender in theology as long as leadership in the ecclesia remains male.

The first annual International African Culture and Wellness Festival, to be held in Ghana this year was launched at Elmina in the Central Region on Wednesday.

The four-day festival which is scheduled to take place from August 9 to 12, 2012 at Elmina is on the theme: “Building a global community of wellness for the African family,” and targeted at the public as well as Africans in the Diaspora.

The Festival is also aimed at appreciating and preserving the culture and wellness of the global African family as well as bring diverse communities together for dialogue, learning, economic development and unity.

Dr Yazid Sharita, a ‘Holistic’ life Consultant, who is the Event Coordinator of the festival, said it seeks to provide a platform for African wellness products, services and organisations on an international scale.

She noted that globally, Africans were dying prematurely due to diseases such as diabetes, cancer and various heart-related diseases, adding that the Festival would teach people how to lead healthy lives, since one’s health was his or her number one asset and should therefore be well-taken care of.

Dr. Sharita urged the public to turn up in their numbers and experience the nation’s rich culture through dance as well as learn how to enjoy being healthy.

The festival is being sponsored by New Body Products, One Africa Health Resort, Queen Afua Wellness Institute and African Renaissance Foundation among others.

Activities lined up for the event include wellness workshops on nutrition, emotional healing, life management, beauty without chemicals; African drum and dance workshops, exhibitions, tours as well as a concert to climax the festival.**

Source: ghanaweb.com