Africa is a truly fascinating continent, but without a doubt, also a continent unknown to those who come to visit or hear about it.
If there is a continent to discover it is Africa. Colours, flavors, smells, exuberant nature and African tribes that you may have heard of, but probably know little about. To discover the cultural immensity of Africa, read this article to the end:
The culture of Africa includes a wide variety of artistic expressions, beliefs, rituals and customs of diverse cultures.
Since the appearance of the first African civilizations, polytheistic religions (several gods) and animists (soul and consciousness are awarded to objects, mainly from nature) developed. Currently more than 100 million Africans follow beliefs transmitted by many generations that are based on the cult of ancestors and animism.
As for language, in Africa there are more than 1,300 different languages, some of which can be grouped into linguistic families that have diversified over the centuries.
However, there were standardization processes such as the Bantu, which spread through sub-Saharan Africa and imposed their language, or like the English and French colonizations that imposed a second language.
Currently, the most widely spoken languages are Arabic and Swahili, used by 120 million speakers. Even for those who do not speak their mother tongue, it is used as a «lingua franca» to communicate with inhabitants of other regions.
In relation to its appearance, corresponding to cultural diversity, in general, traditional African peoples use cotton as a textile fiber. Some textile artisans, like the Nigerians, alternate the colors of the threads and achieve geometric designs on their garments. In other regions, such as the Ivory Coast, strips of cloth are tied together and then painted with pigments obtained from plants.
In different cultures, the shape and color of clothing marks belonging to a group or social class.
In addition, some African cultures decorate their bodies and faces with paint in bright and bold colors. For this they use various pigments that they obtain from the earth and from plants.
This article gives whoever reads it a brief glimpse of how much can be said about a culture as diverse as that of Africa.
We invite you to look for more related information and soak up the color and vivacity of Africa.
