Like it is often said that there's no smoke without fire, and everything and anything that ever existed has it root somewhere. Tribal mark is a distinguishing phenomenon in Africa, that carries a wide range of meaning and significance. Its done or given in shapes and sizes depending on the use and what it stands for.
Taking Nigeria as a case study because I'm a Nigerian and i can speak to a wide range about my people. Though i don't carry a tribal mark but, i know and understands the importance to the people that practices the art.
Face marking dated back to the colonial era when Africa was invaded and her people were forcefully taken and sold into slavery to foreign slave masters.
Slave trade
Both parents and children were taken alike and mostly sold to different slave masters. This trend continued for a long time without little or no help coming from anywhere. The problem was not actually the fact that they were being taken as slaves but the big problem was that when they are taken they may never reunite with their family members again. Some are shipped far away and some very far! Owing to time, distance and environment the slaves change and they not be able to recognize their people or their people recognize them.
Due to this, villages in Nigeria precisely devised a means of recorgnising and identifying their people that has been sold else where. This is how the gimick of facemarking started in Nigeria. Different ethnicity adopted their style and maintained it.
A collage of tribalmarks from different ethnic groups
It became a culture and tradition most especially in the westerners part of Nigeria even after the slave trade, that it became so fashionable that the beauty of a lady is measured by the markings on her face. Royalty, imbibed it as a way of differenting them from other other people. Princes and princesses carry a specially designed one which no ordinary person or family is permitted as a law to identify royalty and give them their place in the society.
The Olubadan of Ibadan
MATERIALS USED FOR TRIBALMARKS
Let me quickly tell you about the materials used in creating these marks which i find very offensive.
RAZOR BLADE
In most cases razor blades are used both sharp and blunt ones.
KNIVES
Knives are eqally used as an alternative for razor blade, mostly because of the shape and degree of the marks that is intended.
BOTTLES
Broken bottles are also employed in the absence on both knife and razor blade.
After the marking with these materials a traditional concorction is mixed with charcoal powder to stop the bleeding, darking the mutilated areas and reduce the pain.
With respect to culture and tradition, as for me i think this trend is barbaric and should be abolished in our society. Though a bill has being raised by a senator, proposing that this culture should be stopped and should be treated as a serious or otherwise a criminal offence to whoever practicing the act of facial mutilation.
Although, due to civilization the trend has drastically reduced and people and families alike no longer see it as fashionable as it was in the past. Many people feel inferior this days in society and amongst their pairs carrying these marks all around. Some are treated as second class citizens and certain things are deprived them.
My take is that since the era of slave trading is over, the tradition of face marking should stop since it was first practiced and done for identification purposes.
Thank you for reading!
IMAGE CREDIT: All image are sourced from google!
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