Cultural and Ancenstoral beliefs in the African Continent!!

In my culture of " Amampondomise/kwajolinkomo Clan" which is part of the Xhosa tribe,there is a ritual where you have to CUT-off your finger about 1/4 from the top. It is normally done on your left hand:for females they normally cut your 'ring finger' and for males they would cut the 'pinkie'.We call this ritual "Ingqithi".

NB: Please note that it differs with Clans.You mighgt find that "amaGcina clan" in some areas,would cut-off on the 'pinkie' whether you male/female.

Then the cut-off finger piece would be plastered together with Mud on to the wall of the main Hut for the ancestors.

This ritual is mainly done if you as a child are peeing/urinating on yourself while sleeping,or for the ancestors to recognise and accept you as the child of the Son of the family and so forth.I never heard where it was done to recognise a child of a daughter of the family. It has to be done on the father's side.

This ritual was a "must-do" based on the above mentioned othrewise there will be consequences ranging from curses,badluck,or not being able to fing a husband to marry.

However,when it came to a time for me to cut-off my finger,because I had reached the stage of adolescent.I told my family I WILL NOT DO IT.Knowing that I have rights,I took advantage of the new constitution and the laws relating to human rights.

Even though the risk of being disowened was there,I was prepared to stand for my rights.I told them I do not give consent for my finger to be cut-off.My family accepted it.I am in my mid 20s,I have not experienced any badluck,I dont mind not being married.I devoted my life to Christ and live through christianity now. But I still respect my family rituals and cultural ceremonies,but I cannot accept to go through pain and torture in the name of "Culture"

Even though I think cultures with all their traditions should generally be preserved, I also believe that there is no reason for an individual to personally accept parts of the culture that seem unethical, unfair or meaningless to him or her.

I have though a lot about this conflict. Is it better to preserve cultures, traditions and rituals of different communities without any change from outside? Then we might take the risk of "passively admit" suffering, abuse or injustice. Or should we try to help, to decrease pain, injustice or cruelty? But what do strangers really know about a different culture, and why would they presume to know better than the people of the community who have lived in a certain way over such a long time? Would we "help" the people in a culture if we would adjust them to what we believe is wrong and right in our "western" society? Or would we destroy the whole culture?

These are just questions that challenges my mind on a daily basis,I am still in a process to try to find ways of challenging these centuries old social ideals of the African continent....