Category Archives: Customs

Customs, conventions, and traditions of a group

Kenyan History

Nationality: Kenyan
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kenya
Performance Date: April 25, 2016
Primary Language: English

Description: Long time ago they came and settled in their spot in Kenya. Since the forty tribes are all dispersed around Kenya. They came and settled there and had a bunch of wars like with the other tribes to claim territory. And then once they had it that land has been passed down through generations. For example, where my grandparent’s land is, well they’re Luos, but where their land is is where Luyas live because it was very close to the border. Since there’s not as many disputes anymore they bought land that was a bit outside of that. There were issues with the tribes intermarrying. I’m not sure exactly how that ended up happening. The people came to a compromise. They got the tribes to unite by having the British coming over and taking the land. The British treated the locals as third class citizens and once they got fed up with that they united and basically kicked the British out and decided to form a nation. The biggest legendary figure was Jomo Kenyatta. He was the first president of Kenya. But my grandparents would say something different. I can’t exactly remember what they’d say. I guess my great grandfather was involved with trying to gain independence from them. They were kind of the ones who were pulling the strings behind the curtain. But like, Jomo Kenyatta was maybe the main guy. My great grandfather knew him. He was apart of the people who appointed him president. Nowadays no one really talks about it that much. And since, my grandparents on my mom’s side, they’ve all died. So now it’s only my mom’s generation left. No one really knows about that anymore. They still kind of know like the surname and everything but they don’t really know. Still, I consider to be more of my father’s family since there’s more relatives there.”

2. My friend learned this in school and also from his family.

3. I walked into his dorm room and asked him if he could tell me some Kenyan folklore. He told me this one.

4. A lot of this is recorded historical fact. However, there manages to be a remnant of information that may or may not be that of legend. He mentions that his great grandfather new the first president of Kenya. This may be true, but it may not be in the way that his family would like to believe. It’s possible that his family has expanded on his grandfather’s involvement and given it an extra flash of honor.

 

Kenyan Christmas

Nationality: Kenyan
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 25, 2016
Primary Language: English

Description: “We celebrate Christmas with a Christmas tree. It depends where Christmas is for us, but we usually just go to grandparents house. As a family we all celebrate Christmas in the family home. And then go to church. It’s just a service. We talk about Christmas. They give the Christmas story. We don’t do a candlelight service though.”

2. My friend has heard of these things because he has experienced them first hand.

3. I walked into his dorm room and asked him if he could tell me the way that Kenyans celebrate Christmas.

4. I realized afterward that this may have been a bit of a stupid question. Christmas isn’t exactly a Kenyan holiday. The main reason that they probably celebrate it is because they’re trying to conform to the growing global western culture. However, it still speaks a lot about where they are at in their lives as a culture. The fact that they are moving toward the globalized western perspective is definitely notable. In fact, it’s even worth saying that they’re moving away from their traditional and historic culture as well. These are ideas and beliefs that have been grounded within thousands upon thousands of years of thought and are now beginning to drain away.

 

The Bride Price

Nationality: Nigerian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 25, 2016
Primary Language: English

Description: “Basically the bride price is just like, it’s part of marriage culture and tradition in Nigeria where the person who’s proposing would pay the woman’s family just with money. That way they’d have the right to marry that woman. In some places it’s very very expensive. Some places it’s cheap. Some places don’t even have it at all. I remember when my dad was marrying my mom was getting married to my dad he had to pay a bride price but it was a minimal minimal price just cause like her family is like the Bride Price shouldn’t be put in place to just like restrict you from marrying our daughter. People still do the bride price though. It’s very prevalent. That’s just one thing.”

2. My friend experienced this from the retelling of how his parents became engaged.

3. I walked into his dorm and he was just about to go to sleep. His roommate had fallen asleep and I asked him if I could grab some quick folklore from him before he crashed. He said sure.

4. This perspective is interesting because it’s from the outside looking in. My friend is even closer than a second hand account because he experiences the people who practiced this tradition on a daily basis. He views the way they act and talk and think, and all these things change his perspective on the cultural practice. He spoke frequently how it was stupid and it’s progressive and good to get away from it. However, it’s very possible that if his father had paid a huge price for his mother he may have considered it to be some sort of honor.

IBO Fest

Nationality: Nigerian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 25, 2016
Primary Language: English

Description: “IBO fest happens every year. Every August. Every second week in August. The cultural association will like rent a festival space. People are selling food. People are giving away food. There’s live music. Choreographed dances, masquerade shows. It’s the biggest collection of IBOS in the area and around the state. It’s fun. The food is overpriced but it’s good. It’s just good to see everybody. There’s always jollof rice. There’s plain rice with tomato soup. Chicken, meat pies, fried fish, fufu, mashed yams you eat with your hands, Nigerian biscuit.”

2. My informant knew of this tradition because he had been to one first hand.

3. I walked into his dorm and he was just about to go to sleep. His roommate had fallen asleep and I asked him if I could grab some quick folklore from him before he crashed. He said sure.

4. This is an interesting piece because it’s very Nigerian but is happening in America. It’s this entire subculture of people who have their own folklore and jokes and riddles. They’re not entirely Nigerian and they’re not entirely American. Even so, it’s hard to say who exactly is American. We all bring our culture to this place, and that’s what IBO fest does. Except it’s arguable that this isn’t even Nigerian. It’s some new mixture and combination that results in its own identity.

Crew Celebration

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: student, athlete
Residence: LA
Performance Date: 4/1/16
Primary Language: English

JD is on the captain of USC’s crew team. He has been racing for over two years now, and the sport has, in his words, “become my life.” Rowers are dedicated athletes that train every day at the crack of dawn. The sport is brutal on the body. J tells me that if he doesn’t puke during practice than he’s not going hard enough.

Races are intense affairs. They only last a few minutes long, and rowers are pushing themselves to the limit the entire time. As in any sport, competition is taken very seriously, and winning means everything.

But rowers have an interesting way in which they celebrate their victories. At the end of the race, the winning team gets the shirts from the team that lost. As J described it, the losers literally remove the shirts they wore during the race and hand them to the victors. “The other team is basically publicly humiliated by having to take off their clothes and give them to us,” J explains.

I think this is a very aggressive celebration that encapsulates the intensity of the sport. It’s almost war-like: the champions are claiming their spoils from the competition. It is very symbolic. The winning team goes home with a material memento that symbolizes the opponents they have defeated. And the losing team goes home with nothing but their (nearly) naked bodies. Of course, I am dramatizing the celebration a bit, but the way J describes it, and from what I’ve seen of their practices and get-togethers, rowers take their sport very seriously. The war-like attitude is very much a part of it. They yell throughout the entire race, and have various other pre-race chants to pump themselves up.

These celebrations are an important part of any sport. In our society, sports have replaced war and fighting as the main way that the lay-man proves his worth. In war, victory was clear because the opponents were literally dead. But in sports, athletes have created new ways to perform and recognize their victories.