Are Taboos Superstitions?

Being a student of language and a lover of my tribe, i don't take African heritage lightly. These are the things that make us who we are and they differentiate us from other people.

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Our customs, traditions and how we preserve our cultures despite the external forces are the values that make us true Africans. We find it difficult to distance ourselves from these cultures not because they are barbaric as some claim but because they are our heritage.

Some of the taboos we have in Africa are now modernized due to the advent of foreign religions that frown at some of these practices. Like the case of twins which appears to be the most apparently dumb taboo to have happened in Africa.

This cannot be said about other taboos and to rationalize these things on the basis that your religion frowns at them is to be ready to answer begging questions when your religion has no answer to your circumstances.

Before i proceed, i will like us to have a clear knowledge of the meaning of taboo. I shall also attempt to define superstition. 

Taboo is a social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing. Source

Superstition is a widely held but irrational belief in supernatural influences, especially as leading to good or bad luck, or a practice based on such a belief. Source

From the definition of taboo above, nothing is credulous about the practice. People don't just wake up in Africa and term certain things taboos. Every taboo in Africa has its history and reason behind it. If these taboos look credulous now or superstitious, it is because of civilization or education. This does not in anyway deny the fact that something happened before these things were tagged taboos.

You only need to go back in time to have a glimpse of what the people faced when the gods dealt with them because of disobedience or another thing known to them.

In some parts of Nigeria, a woman who just gave birth must eat lizard as concoction. In some families, you cannot eat okro or anything draw soup, melon soup. 

Till today, some of these taboos are very active and an attempt to ignore them because it's against your religion could spell doom. Do not forget also that you cannot separate the culture of the people from their religion. If this is true, then you will understand why our culture plays crucial role in African Traditional Religion. 

Note also that no religion is superior to another. Just because something is not forbidden in your own religion does not mean your religion is superior.

The Muslims for instance don't eat pork. This is considered a taboo. Also, the Muslims don't train dogs or even allow its body to touch them. If it did happen by accident, they will off the cloth and wear another one before going to pray.

Now is this credulous? Christians have no issue with pork. They also have dogs around them. The question now is what will happen if a Muslim eat pork? Will he die? If no, then eating something that is considered a taboo by the Africans might not necessarily kill you too.

We need to understand the rationale behind these taboos and go back in time to understand what the people faced and how they survived it before making something 'A' a taboo.

Believe what you must but know that taboos are real and have their histories. 

Thanks for your time. Your boy @smyle the philosopher.