• Girls display a traditional dance during an initiation ceremony.

By MICHELO HIMAAMBO –
DESPITE culture and tradition being art like music, dance and sculpture, there has been little understanding of these among local youth.
Tradition is the passing of beliefs from one generation to the next while culture consists of norms that describe a typical society at any given time.
Therefore, tradition often remains the same over time while culture changes continuously, even within a particular society.
In Zambia, each tribe has a given tradition that people perform during a funeral or when a woman gets ready for marriage and during marriage ceremonies. These traditional rites define the various tribes.
For the Tonga people, women in marriage have the role of production as they are expected to be the providers in their nurturing of children and preparation including provision of food and the enjoyment of
conjugal rights for their husband.
They must organise the home and as women, they are expected to bow to their husbands and be almost on their knees to demonstrate submission to their spouses.
In this tribe, women are such a valuable commodity that a husband must pay ‘lobola’ or bride price to his wife’s family, as compensation for their loss of their daughter from home.
In the past, there were strict preparations undertaken by boys and girls who were coming of age and reaching sexual maturity.
These traditional preparations were done in private by the tribal clan and those were the methods through which boys and girls were taught about sex and relationships.
Gobelo was a short preparation undertaken by boys to explain to them the roles, duties and rights in marriage.
Nkolola is a much longer preparation period of a few months, undertaken by girls to teach them how to satisfy their husband sexually and their role in marriage.
Nkolola literally means, ‘In the hut’, which is where girls are taken for these preparations and on completion, girls’ new sexual “maturity” is celebrated with a Nkolola ceremony, involving the wider community.
Over the last few decades, this kind of traditional preparation has been decreasing and Gobelo, for boys, has almost died out.
Because talking about sex and relationships is completely culturally inappropriate outside of Gobelo and Nkolola, the decline in these traditional preparations has left a gap in young people’s  informal education which is having an impact on cultural attitudes and expectations of sex and relationships.
For the Bemba Culture, there is no initiation ceremony for Bemba boys but girls go through an initiation ceremony called Chisungu.
That rite of adolescence is intended to teach girls the traditional roles of women.
A girl whose breasts have started to develop lives away from the community for six weeks to three months.
Rites representing the duties of the girl as cook, gardener, hostess, and mother are carried out. During the ceremony, there is much drumming, dancing, singing, and drama.
Although it is still practiced in both rural areas and cities, the Chisungu ceremony is slowly disappearing.
Most girls grow up in Christian families and attend modern schools, which have become a new rite of passage.
In school, subjects such as biology present information different from the teachings of Chisungu.
The older rite keeps men in control and women in a lesser role and these roles are slowly changing in societies.
But many Bemba still believe that initiation ceremonies have a place in their cultural and moral heritage and believe that the tradition should continue.
There are so many traditions that have been misunderstood in this culture.  Amatebeto and Chilanga Mulilo have been wrongly celebrated these days.
Insalamu
when two young people fall in love, the man takes the first step and takes the insalamu, or ‘token’, which shows the commitment he has towards a woman he intends to marry and the two families then accept and acknowledge the intention of their children.
Nkobekela is the period that goes from the time that the insalamu is accepted by the woman’s side up to marriage or wedding day and during this time the two partners get to know each other and their families better.
Amatebeto
The woman’s family responds to the man’s side with amatebeto. It is a ritual practice for social union between the two families.
On this day, the woman’s family prepares a feast for the man’s family.
Before the wedding day, the elders organise themselves to teach both the man and a woman traditional values on how to abide in their new marriage life.
In the past for a man and woman to live together as husband and wife among the Chewa people, there were formal arrangements done by relatives from both sides.
As a matter of fact, the woman never met the man to discuss any future plans as it is happening today.
In much of Chewa society, traditional rites of passage are still an integral part of growing up generally.
Chewa boys between the ages of twelve and sixteen are initiated into a semi-secret society called Nyau, ‘The Great Dance.’
This association of masked dancers parades through the villages portraying the spirits of the dead.
A Chewa man must belong to the Nyau society to attain full adult male status and during initiation, boys are secluded in the bush for instruction and discipline for about three days.
Girls between the age of nine and sixteen undergo a series of puberty and initiation rites known as chinamwali and this may be a church sponsored initiation ceremony that provides religious instruction, or it may be a traditional initiation ceremony, which can last as long as two to three weeks.
Young girls are taught traditional customs relating to sexuality and reproduction, usually during this period the women of the village accompany the young girls into the bush.
There they put them through a course of teasing and instruction and each evening they return to the village for dancing and feasting.
Among the many tribes of the country,  Silozi, Kalundu, Kaonde,  Luvale, Namwanga and many others each still represent their own culture and tradition both in marriage rites and funerals.
In as much as it hurts to say these traditional rites have completely changed, men attend Kitchen parties, young women organise kitchen parties, Amatebeto is celebrated by any tribe and in any style, and chilanga mulilo is celebrated wrongly.
While many are misunderstood, other traditional rites and beliefs have been forgotten and they are not celebrated even when it has been in the tradition of specific tribes.
Today the country’s tribes are losing their traditional values slowly, leaving the question… Will this change of tradition forfeit the identity of the tribes in the future?
With no culturally appropriate alternatives, young people are left to form their ideas about sex and relationships from television, videos and DVDs and through access to dangerous materials like pornography.
What these portray about sex and relationships are not an accurate or helpful representation, and only serve to fuel myths, misconceptions and attitudes that promote unrealistic expectations of sex, promiscuity and ultimately lead to unfulfilling sexual relationships.
Even in rural areas, weddings are increasingly being conducted in churches and for those who can afford it, the bridegroom wears a Western-style suit while the bride wears the typical Western white wedding dress with a veil.