This essay will seek to explore the communication cultural nuances of the Chinese people as regards their food and eating habits and the Bantus in Africa, specifically the Agikuyu community found in Kenya, Africa, as regards their rituals and festivals.

The food is eaten and the eating habits involved in the Chinese community have a lot to do with the nature of the relationship, the status of the people who are being dined, the importance of the food, the event in question and the characteristic of the group that is eating the food. Having meals is usually a chance for the Chinese people to build and enhance their established relationships. Morning tea, otherwise known as Cantonese breakfast, involves a lot of talks that have to do with their business and this is where they exchange relevant information amongst each other.

When the Chinese have the dumplings during the Spring Festival in China, it is usually to express the relationship that they have between themselves and their God. When brides have dumplings in their wedding ceremonies, it is often to signify that they are being blessed with fertility and they are expected to be good homemakers, taking care of their husband and their future family. Another instance where food is used to signify respect in the relationship is when there is a formal dinner among people of high social standing. Such dinners are usually very elaborate and consist of four to six cold dishes, eight to ten hot dishes which get served with soups and fruits.

For the Chinese, when rare and expensive food is involved, the social status of the participants is usually high. Such foods usually require importation, or at times they are locally available, but they are rare and costly. Some of these foods could be shark meat or very rare seafoods that will be cooked with chefs of high caliber and displayed elaborately for aesthetic value before being consumed. Another essential characteristic of the Chinese food habits is that rice is the staple food for people in the south of China while food made of wheat flour such as buns, bread and steamed bread is for people living in the north. Thus, because of these traditions no matter where they go, they tend to maintain their eating behavior that has been formed over spans of generations.

As earlier mentioned in the case of brides being fed dumplings to signify well wishes, food has a high significance when the Chinese celebrate important events. Some of the events are baptisms, religious events and weddings. As regards religion, the food is consumed for its symbolic value as opposed to the nutritional value. For example, while dumplings are consumed during the Spring Festival, mooncakes are consumed during the Mid-autumn festival and rice dumplings are consumed during the Dragon Boat Festival. Also, during a wedding, the man may send the bride’s family wine and fish to signify longevity and superabundance respectively. For events, normal eggs or lotus roots cannot be sent as gifts as they do not signify good luck.

When it comes to the Bantu, various rituals and ceremonies are of great importance, and they are held with high esteem. For this essay, the Agikuyu tribe shall be used as an example. The community has a lot of rituals surrounding birth, incineration, marriage, and death. For instance, when a child is born, gender is identified by the number of ululations that the women will sound. When the child is a male, the women will ululate five times, and when the child is a female, the women will ululate three times. This was especially useful in traditional societies where men were forbidden from getting into the house where the women were giving birth. Thus, to make men aware of which gender and time the women delivered, the ululations served as communication vessels.

Another important ritual for the Agikuyu people is the initiation into adulthood via circumcision. In the olden days, the practice was performed on both men and women. The initiates used to be taken away from the normal social setting and introduced to the secrets and traditions of their people through rigorous education from selected elders.  On the day of the initiation, they would be woken up very early and taken to a river, whereby the waters would be icy, and they would get into the waters for a while. The purpose of this was to numb the nerves to reduce the pain of the procedure as there was no anesthetic. Seasoned circumcisions would then perform the process, and then the initiates would heal in their huts which were in isolation from the rest of the community. The purpose of this was to signify rebirth into society. After they recover, they would then be involved in the village dances to show they are of mature age and ready for marriage.

For the wedding ceremonies, the men and women dressed in brown garments that are tied diagonally from end to end and tied to one’s back. The garments are then garbed with cowry beads. To signify the marriage, the man usually slaughtered a goat and cut its shoulder. He then lifted the goat’s shoulder for all to see. In order to wed the lady, the man then gives her goat’s ears to eat in order to signify the need for obedience to her husband’s. Another ritual performed firing the marriage ceremony is that the bride feeds her husband porridge using a calabash in order to signify that she will be the homemaker.

 
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