A Day in the Life - Bantu Edition

Hello my name is Tonga ​Acheampong ​and I am an thirty-seven year old adult male living

in the Zambia village of Africa. I work as a craftsmen for all the villagers. Since hunting and

gathering is most common in my area, I spend my time iron working. Some examples of items

that I make are spears, weaponry, and farming pieces; agriculture is a very important part of our

civilization. As for my family’s passed on traditions, I keep them a secret. Secrets to my skills

are only known among my family, purpose being to preserve and protect my trade. Our society is

very diverse, but we do have many things in common. We all agreed that respecting leaders is

important to keeping a society intact and selfishness is shameful. Socially, I am a direct

descendant of the tribe elder, my father, Abeni Abarash. Recently my immediate family’s clan

and my uncle’s clan decided to combine into a tribe. So far the new tribe has been functioning

perfectly we are all very tightly knit and we understand the importance of loyalty and doing

favors for each other. Besides my new clan, other surrounding tribes are fair. We are not as close

as a family, but we are respectful of each other because we often trade with each other. Each

morning me and my family pray to our ancestors spirit to show respect and hope that it

welcomes kind spirits and keeps dangerous spirits away. Religion and beliefs vary across our

village, but generally we believe similar things. The most important thing is that all of our morals

are similar and we have the same values. We teach the appreciation of the societal structure to

our children from a very young age and until they reach adulthood and can spread our ideas to

their own kin. Each night we prepare a meal for all of our tribe and our dead ancestors to show

respect and concern for them. We believe that our ancestors continue to visit us in spirit form,

whether they are good, bad, or neutral.