SUKUMA tribe

According to Cory (1954) the Sukuma tribe is found in the nothwestern shores of lake Victoria, and the territory has been divided into nine administrative districts of  Mwanza and Shinyanga region. The nothern area of their residence is in the famous Serengeti plain. Sukuma families have migrated southward, into Rukwa area encroaching on the territory of the Pimbwe and these Sukuma have settled outside Pimbwe villages. The Sukuma tribe is considered to be the largest tribe in Tanzania since it estimated to have the largest number of people than any other tribe of Tanzania. Therefore  sukuma tribe like other tribes it  pass through various stages of life as follows

          

Birth ,refers to the action of producing a new individual, according to the Sukuma culture a pregnancy mother is freed from hard works like farming and when a pregnant mother deliver a child, a child is purified by cutting hairs as the sign of separating a  child from the mothers womb and then the process of giving the name to a child is followed as an identity.  In the Sukuma tribe when the child delivered is a baby boy family members celebrate to show their happiness and they congratulate a mother of the baby boy for delivering a new citizen and the warrior in the family. But most happy increase after expected mother giving birth to a baby girl because in the family believe that she will be bringing a lots of cows as dowry when she will be coming to be married. This always in the Sukuma society the baby girls are very great properties an baby boys are termed as bankrupters of the family during their marriage time on this is showing that in the Sukuma societies prefer much baby girls than baby boys. When a child is born he or she preliminaries feet starts when giving birth kind of this child to  he Sukuma people is gruesome and esteeming by people in the society since in the Sukuma societies believe that they have couples in the pregnant but he or she move ot alone and leave him or her fellow without coming together, the child who born in his way they are called KASHINJE and the child who starts to erupt the up teeth is called SHINJE and the children like these are also get a perfect respect in the society

           

Initiation,refers to the stage in which a youth is introduced into adulthood stage. In Sukuma tribe there is no common ceremony is conducted or prepared for the aim of passing youths to the adulthood stage since Sukuma people do not  practice circumcision practice in both sides neither for boys nor girls as other tribes do instead the Sukuma youths are trained differently according to their sex for example in this stage girls are taught different gender roles quite early through participation in the house hold tasks like cooking and general domestic cleanness and also girls are taught to behave good in the society including greeting people by bending their knee up down since doing this is believed to be respect to girls in the society and this process is known as KUTUNA and this is accompanied by doing body cleanness and respectable clothes since at this stage a girl is prepared for marriage while boys in the Sukuma tribe are taught various physical works like farming and keeping cattle and this is accompanied with learning different local medicines for curing themselves and cattle when attacked by diseases and this is done for boys for their aim of preparing them for marriage and giving them skills on how to control the family when they will get married also boys like boys are ordered to have a great respect in the community

        Marriage, refers to the union of two individuals bounded by law. The average age for female get married is around the age of fifteen (15) years old to above though sometimes girls in Sukuma society they are forced to be married under the fifteen years because sometimes girls are consider to be matured by looking their physical appearance while the age of males to get marriage is around eighteen years old to above. Local forms of marriage in Sukuma culture fall into two main classes those are marriage with bride-wealth in this kind of marriage a husband customarily acquires full rights over the children his wife bears. He should receive bride-wealthy for his daughters and provide it for his sons, and his children should inherit from him, he also has customarily rights to compensation for his wife’s adultery. Adultery is still an offence and if no bride-wealthy has been given, but compensation is not customarily paid. Rights over children of non bride-wealth unions are mainly vested in maternal kin, unless the father  make redemption payments for them. These  payments is large for daughters than for the son, and this process making payments and paying bride-wealth is known as KUKWA. Bride-wealth marriage is more common prosperous areas and times and the verb KUTOLA is commonly used for both forms of marriage whereby a man marries and a woman is married

        

Death, refers to the transformation from this  to the spirit world. In the Sukuma culture when a person is died firstly  all relatives and the people who live around the family are informed to participate during the funeral ceremony then before the dead body  is buried firstly is washed therefore the dead body is covered with the sundry cow skin which is killed by knob instead of slaughtering then the meat of the carcass is burned till it remain ashes. Besides chiefs formerly were buried with couples people who were alive for the major purpose of defending the chief under the grave,  it was terribly but to date this culture is not practiced, after thirty days of the mourning MANANGWA as deputes of the chief recall a meeting for selecting another chief this continue up to now

        

By conclusion , the Sukuma culture has being affected by globalization where by Sukuma people now days have been ignored their old traditional due to the fact that the development of globalization has swept away the old customs since Sukuma people imitated various cultures from Europe.

REFERENCES

Cory, H (1954). The indigenous Political The Eagle Press system of the Sukuma and Proposals     For Political Reform. The Eagle Press Print.

Abraham, S,R.G (1967).The People Of Greater Unyamwezi, Sukuma, Tanzania.(Nyamwezi,

             Sukuma, Sumbwa, Kimbu, Konongo). London International African Institute.