The Azande people live between the longest river in the world, the Nile river, and the Congo river on a continental divide that separates the two drainage basins. This is located in Africa on the borders of Central African Republic and South Sudan. The area of land is fairly big at approximately 1,200 miles long with many streams and different rivers running through, tall trees on the river banks, and much grass land. This divide was made 1885 when the Europeans created a boundary British influences in the east and French and Belgian influences in the west.
This boundary ran right through where the Azande people live in what is now known as South Sudan and Republic of the Congo (Revolvy). There are about 1 million people who consider themselves Azande, and there are also five dialects of the Azande language spoken. Most of the people can also speak dialects of English or French. In their language, the same words have different meaning if spoken with a separate tone (Azande). This culture is highly patriarchal and there are distinct gender roles that have been created.
Women must show obedience to the men always and act as their servants. The women cook, clean, and keep up the gardens and are also responsible for bearing the children and raising them. Women are kept busy by collecting water, gathering firewood, delivering messages, and gathering leaves for the husband’s bed. They are not allowed to even eat in front of their husbands and must obey the husband’s command. If the woman does not listen, her father is contacted and if the disobedience continues then the man will beat the wife until they learn to be a dutiful wife.
The men represent the tribe in the community and have the main responsibility of hunting for food. Social positions are also held by these men, that includes being a: doctor, musician, dancer, etc (Gender and Sexuality). The men in the military often had boy-wives because they did not have women. Homosexuality is a common practice among this tribe and married the boys as they would a woman. The men sent the boy’s family bride wealth, which is a gift of some form to compensate for taking a worker away from the family. The same work that the women are expected to do is done by the boys.
These relationships are temporary because when the boys grow up and become warriors, they find their own boys and the circle continues. Polygamy, having more than one wife, is the type of relationship this society practices. Having multiple wives is a sign of wealth in this culture. Homosexuality between women is common as well, even though is it frowned upon by the husbands. Men do not agree with this practice because it gives the women power and pleasure of their bodies, and the men are supposed to have all of the power and authority in a patriarchal society (Peters-Golden 6-7).
The tribes of the Azande are separated by tribal chiefdoms which are separated by large areas of bush. The chiefdoms are divided into providences and were ruled by the chief’s younger family like their son’s and they managed many sections and territories. The chiefs were known as the military, economic, and political leaders of the tribe (Peters-Golden 5). The culture is patriarchal so the chiefs and leaders are all men and the woman are not known in the social life. They stay at home to care for the children and the housework.
Because of the numerous amount of Tsetse flies that infect humans and animals, herding cattle is nearly impossible. Most of the food comes from foraging, which is searching and gathering plants in a large area, and hunting animals (PetersGolden 3). The Azande people use horticulture as a way of producing food as well. Horticulture is a type of agriculture that deals with growing plants, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and other type of things found in a garden and big machinery is not used to cultivate. The people tend this garden by hand and pick their food every day to cook with.
The main food staple for this culture is eleusine, sometimes called finger millet or ragi, and it is a plant that is a part of the grass family. It is the main source of grain in their diet and is also used to make alcoholic or fermented drinks. Corn, squash, peas, beans, okra, peanuts, and bananas are the other types of food that are cultivated and consumed by the Azande people. The men are responsible for hunting game and providing most of the protein essential to their diet, while the woman catch fish as a source of protein as well.
All of the food that is consumed by these people is either caught or planted by them and they do not buy food or exchange between groups (Azande). Witchcraft, or mangu, is a major part of the Azande people’s beliefs and religion. It is said that witchcraft is hereditary and can only be passed down to generations to the son’s through the dad or to the daughter’s through the mom. If the mom was able to perform witchcraft then her daughter would be able to as well, but not her son. The older the witch, the more powerful they are because the power grows over time.
This is why children that are witches are never accused of crimes like murder because it is almost impossible that they are powerful enough to do so. Witchcraft is an art that is learned and practiced. The witch can send the spirit to attack and eat the inside of their victims. The actions of witchcraft are through psychic abilities and can be don’t unconsciously. The powers also do not travel far, so the Azande feel much safer being farther away from neighbors, so they are not harmed. It is believed that all misfortune has something to do with the witches.
Oracles are used when they are asking for guidance or for more information. The most powerful oracle the Azande do is called Benge. It is the poison oracle where they poison a chicken and the outcome of the situation depended on whether the chicken survived (Azande). The main impact that the Azande people had was in the 1920’s the colonial authorities moved the people from their homes. The tsetse flies infected the people with sleeping sickness and it had to get under control. Their means of food changed as the British had shown the Azande how cash crops worked and also the industry of producing cotton cloth.
The culture had now started to become more modern and the people earned wages for their work of producing cotton. The younger children would be able to move out of their parent’s homes and into their own with the money they now made for doing work and getting paid by the Europeans. One of the worst things that happened was when the Europeans split up the families and had them live next to random neighbors. The family grouping was close and the living arrangements were very flexible before they were forced to move. Tension began to grow as the people became more and more unhappy with the situation they were in.
Sociopolitical and economic factors, and public health programs began to change the way the Azande explained and felt illnesses. HIV/AIDS was a big concern with this culture because of the bad sanitation and the fact that homosexuality was very common among these people. People infected with HIV/AIDS were much like witches in the fact that they look similar to everyone else and look healthy and normal, but they are secretly killing people. HIV-positive people used their blood as poison when the Europeans banded oracles from happening.
They placed their blood on razor blades and hid them on the ground so people would step on them and become infected (Peters-Golden 16-17). Another down fall of the Europeans coming was that the political system had decayed and new leaders were produced. The Azande were kicked out of their positions and they were taken by new non-Azande national leaders. This culture is now being ran by others and the Azande are now all followers of their own culture. By doing this, they will slowly start to deculturize and become nonexistent.
