16 December 2021
Londiwe Dube
Culture and Heritage Reporter
The Christmas Holidays, a Christian adopted festival, has been one of the most celebrated holidays in African families and Zimbabweans in particular.
Yesteryear the Christmas season had become a special event which had the cultural impact of uniting family and relatives after a long time of separation to re-ignite the bond that family members from the old days shared.
Gone are those days where a whole bull was slaughtered to celebrate the Christmas festives were families would feast together with their neighbours to keep the spirit of Ubuntu alive.
Back in the days, family members lived in mud and pole circular huts, not so far from each other and they would gather at an elder family member’s homestead and bond as one family.
The tradition of celebrating Christmas as a family holiday has been adopted aa a custom into the Africa culture where family members would abandon the urban life and trek to the rural areas.
Christmas customs in African societies came with Western traditions and one of those being Christianity which is a religion and a cultural artifact of the West.
The connection between the Christian festival and the family holiday is made by identifying Christ as the giver of gifts to the family.
Thus, African societies then adopted this culture and it has dominated with the widespread of December holidaying.
Family members would gather, especially in rural areas, dance to music from the radio while feasting on meat and some goodies brought by the townsflok, just to make the 25th of December an enjoyable day as it was said then ‘ikhisimusi ibuya kanye ngomnyaka’.
Old men would sit under tree sheds sharing home brewed beer in ‘amaqhaga’, while reminiscing on the past year, the current tilling season, their livestock (cows in particular), the boys who are now wayward and the girls who do not want to marry.
Gone are those days!
Things have changed. Christmas festives are slowly but surely losing the grit to bring together families in the African societies.
Is it because the Christmas season is adopted?
Families no longer celebrate such ceremonies together. Ubuntu is no longer a valuable custom as people are carried away with urbanization and Western cultures.
The importance of celebrating Christmas has been reduced to a mere passing day as youths celebrate more of imbibing, clubbing, braais, current fashion trends and mostly showcasing their lives on social media.
In the modern societies almost everyone claims to be Christian and they have assumed that going to church on the Christmas Day is the right thing to do, whereas, this is supposed to be an entirely family day.
The 25th of December used to be one of the greatest opportunities where relatives would meet at one place, remind each other of the old days, mock each other on the things they did when they were growing up. It used to be one of the good times in the history of Africans.
This is all in the past now, families are no longer united and the purpose of extended family has faded, selfishness has taken over and destroyed family ties and as such, friends have replaced relatives in many occasions.
As the world evolves and cultures change people now only meet at funeral gatherings and more often, such gatherings have been used as opportunities to show off one’s wealth and power.
In the olden days people were united and the saying umuntu ngungumuntu ngabantu was practised.
Now the westernized mindsets has taken over together various borrowed cultural beliefs, families are no longer united. Individualism has set thus bonds are with immediate family only.
The Covid-19 pandemic is also a major contributor as it limits gatherings and it has made traveling extremely expensive.
As Christmas festival is upon us it is sad that many families would be celebrating without some missing relatives.
Many people have succumbed to Covid-19. May their souls Rest In Peac