During the Pre-colonial days, naming ceremony in Africa was usually performed in an elaborate traditional ceremony. For example in Nigeria, Yoruba is one of the popular cultures that took the cognizance of this ceremony seriously. Before the naming ceremony events, it was important for the grandparents to carefully pick a name based on the circumstances of the birth of the newborn. For example a child born with umbilical chord around the neck would be named “Aina” if she’s a girl and “Ojo” if it’s a boy.
The elders or the head of the clan would then perform the ceremony. There are seven symbolic items that had to be used because of there significant meaning and representation. Those items include; Water, Honey and Sugar, Bitter Kola, Palm oil, Salt, Dried fish, and Pepper.
The video below demonstrates the traditional naming ceremony preceding
But as the country gradually transitioned into “modern civilization” as a result of the influence and migrations of British and other Westerners who found refuge in Nigeria and as a result infused their culture into the society. Among such cultures brought into the society were Religion, pattern of dressing, and western education. These impacted the societal norms and beliefs to the extent that old traditional beliefs were mostly modified. Today naming ceremony is religiously performed. And instead of the head of the clan or elderly person presiding, it is now performed by officiating church ministers or Alfas (Islamic clerics) and rarely will you see all the symbolic items displayed or being used during the ceremony instead they have been replaced by holy books such as Bible and Quran.
This is a generalization of social science which states the relationship between changes in one institution and another (introducing sociology pg.34)
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