Across pre-colonial Africa, societies thought hard about courage. They rewarded it, tested it, punished its absence and argued about where it ended and recklessness began. Their answers were more varied than the familiar picture of the fearless warrior.
In this article we explore the various forms in which bravery/courage was expressed in pre-colonial Africa, the people who embodied it, and its impact on the societies they were expressed in.
Bravery as Endurance
A young man stands bare-chested in the middle of a ring of spectators. His rival steps forward with a long, flexible cane and strikes him across the body, again and again, at least ten times.
He must not wince. He must not cry out. Some young men laugh, or chant, or stare into the distance as the blows land. The crowd cheers them on, and other men stand by as referees, watching to make sure the strokes are fair. The families of the contestants watch anxiously, hoping their sons will not bring disgrace upon them. If a young man cannot endure the flogging, he risks public shame. If he flinches, he loses, and among some families a suitor who cries is judged too weak to marry. But if he stands firm, the scars he carries afterwards become marks of courage and a successful passage into manhood.
This is sharo, a traditional Fulani festival held twice a year among some communities in northern Nigeria, in the dry season and at Eid. Its message is old: bravery is not only what you do to others. It is what you can bear. The first celebration takes place during the dry season, around the preparation for guinea-corn harvesting, while the second coincides with Eid-el-Kabir. It goes on for approximately a week and takes place in public spaces, often market squares, and features performances by minstrels, tricksters and maiden dancers. But the main event does not begin until the bare-chested, unmarried young men, accompanied by young women, enter the arena to face their challengers.
The preparation for the ordeal can be as significant as the contest itself. Some contestants undergo traditional spiritual fortification or recite mantras in the hope of reducing the pain of the flogging. A referee oversees the contest and can stop it when a contestant surrenders, suffers a serious injury or when the rules are violated. In some accounts, the contest also settles disputes between two young men seeking the same woman's hand in marriage. The winner earns the right to marry the woman, while the defeated contestant steps aside. For those who successfully endure the ordeal, the scars are the evidence of their courage, earning them recognition as men ready for marriage.
For the Fulbe, the pastoral Fulani of West Africa, courage sits inside a larger code of conduct called pulaaku, an unwritten guide to what it means to conduct oneself as a Fulani. It includes bravery, which they call elewre, alongside patience, modesty, self-respect and a strong sense of shame. In their 2000 study, The Concept of Pulaaku Mirrored in Fulfulde Proverbs of the Gombe Dialect, Rudolf Leger and Abubakar B. Mohammad identify five of its principal components: semteende (modesty and restraint), munyal (patience and perseverance), endam (kindness and compassion), ngorgu (manliness and bravery), and neddaaku (dignity and self-respect). These qualities were interconnected. A person was expected to demonstrate courage without abandoning restraint, dignity or consideration for others. One Fulfulde proverb captures the importance of munyal: "No matter how deep a body of water is, there is fine sand at the bottom." Its lesson is that however difficult a situation becomes, perseverance can eventually bring relief. Saleh Momale, of the Nigerian pastoralist organisation The Pastoral Resolve, sums up the logic behind sharo simply: "pain comes and goes, but shame lasts forever."
Many African initiation rites carried similar acts and the same lesson. Boys and girls passing into adulthood were expected to bear hardship, hunger, cold or pain without complaint, because a person who could control fear in the body could be trusted with responsibility in the community. Essentially, bravery began as self-command.
Forward or Die: The Asante Military's Show of Bravery
On the battlefield, the demands were harsher. Soldiers of the Asante Empire in what is now Ghana were made to memorise a saying: "If I go forward, I die; if I flee, I die. Better to go forward and die in the mouth of battle."
The Asante took their military organisation seriously. The army was not a permanent force of soldiers waiting in barracks for war. Rather, the empire maintained a core of professional fighters and drew additional men from its provinces and territories whenever the need arose. When assembled, the army was divided into units, each with a specific responsibility. There were scouts who went ahead to observe enemy movements, an advance guard, a main fighting force, a rear guard and two wings responsible for attacking the enemy from the sides. The arrangement allowed the Asante to use their knowledge of the forest to ambush opponents and strike from unexpected directions.
But getting soldiers to advance was one thing, keeping them from retreating was another. The Asante had a rather brutal way of doing this. Special contingents known as afonasoato, or sword-bearers, were positioned behind the fighting men. Armed with heavy swords, they were responsible for preventing soldiers from fleeing. Anyone who attempted to escape could be beaten or killed. The message was clear: retreat was not an option, even when the battle turned against them.
Courage was also something a soldier could earn recognition for. Those who distinguished themselves in battle were rewarded, and individual acts of daring were encouraged. A soldier who ventured into the open to take the head of a fallen enemy, for instance, could earn distinction. Such trophies were counted and presented to the commanding general after battle.
The British discovered just how difficult the Asante were to defeat during the Third Anglo-Asante War of 1873–1874. At the Battle of Amoaful on 31 January 1874, Asante soldiers used the surrounding forest to their advantage, attacking the advancing British from concealed positions and attempting to strike their flanks. The British eventually forced them to withdraw, using superior firearms and artillery, but their resistance left an impression on the invading army. British accounts acknowledged the discipline and determination of the Asante fighters. After the battle of Amoaful in 1874, a soldier wrote that "the Ashantees stood admirably."
For these soldiers, bravery was both a personal virtue and a military obligation. A man was expected to hold his ground, regardless of the danger before him. The proverb that guided them left little room for interpretation: "If I go forward, I die; if I flee, I die. Better to go forward and die in the mouth of battle."
"If I go forward, I die; if I flee, I die. Better to go forward and die in the mouth of battle."
Courage That Had To Be Earned
Many societies made bravery visible, so that everyone knew who had earned the respect of their community. In the Zulu kingdom, a warrior who distinguished himself in battle could be recognised by the king and given permission to make an iziqu, a bravery necklace of carved wooden beads made from the wild willow tree (uMyezane). The warrior carved and assembled the necklace himself, and wearing it announced that he had performed an act worthy of recognition. An even higher royal honour was the iNgxotha, a broad brass armlet bestowed on the kingdom's greatest military commanders.
Among the Pokot of Kenya, a man wore a goat's-beard ornament to mark the first time he killed an enemy, and a particular armlet could be earned only by killing an enemy or a large and dangerous animal such as a lion or an elephant. Courage, in these societies, was something you could see on a person's body.
Among the Gqunukhwebe, a people of the Eastern Cape with both Xhosa and Khoikhoi ancestry, courage could earn a warrior something rather different: the feathers of the blue crane. During the reign of Chief Tshiwo, a warrior named Khwane distinguished himself by protecting the chief and his people during a conflict. In recognition, Tshiwo bestowed isithwalandwe, the blue crane feathers, on Khwane and his warriors. The feathers were also worn by experienced Gqunukhwebe warriors as emblems of war.
This practice also formed part of a wider system of recognition among the Xhosa. After a war, the paramount chief assembled the army and called forward warriors who had distinguished themselves through acts of bravery. Their deeds were recounted before the community, and the chief placed the blue crane feathers on their heads. Those who had died displaying exceptional courage were also remembered and honoured. Another distinction was the umxhaga, an ivory armlet made from elephant tusk by specialists at the royal residence and bestowed by the paramount chief on people of considerable standing.
The Zulu army and Africa's other great pre-colonial militaries all had ways of marking their bravest.
A Woman's Courage
Women's courage in pre-colonial Africa was usually exercised far away from the battlefield, but not always. In the kingdom of Dahomey, in today's Benin, an all-female corps of soldiers, the Agojie, were trained for pain, endurance and speed, including storming barriers of acacia thorns in military exercises. One of their war chants, recorded in 1851, described their training as turning them into men.
When France invaded Dahomey in 1892, the Agojie fought at close quarters against troops with modern rifles and bayonets. At Adegon, Dahomey lost 417 of its women soldiers in a few hours, while the French lost six. French veterans later wrote of their "incredible courage and audacity."
Eight years later, in Asante, a queen mother turned the old code back on the men. When the British governor demanded the sacred Golden Stool in 1900 and the chiefs hesitated, Yaa Asantewaa of Ejisu is reported to have told them: "If you, the men of Ashanti, will not go forward, then we will. We, the women, will." She led the war that followed.
The Courage To Walk Away
Not every society equated courage with confrontation. A Fulfulde proverb, munyal deefan hayre, holds that "patience can cook a stone": steady endurance achieves what force cannot. Among the Igbo of Onitsha, a saying praises the man who, reading a dangerous situation, quietly excuses himself and leaves by the back way. Onitsha men regard it as a mark of good judgment, a way of keeping one's dignity intact. Avoiding a pointless fight was a form of strength, not a lack of it.
The Price Of Courage
Bravery codes also had costs. They were enforced with whips and swords, and fear of shame could drive young men into feuds, raids and wars that served nobody but the powerful. The Agojie's training included executing prisoners. The line between courage and cruelty was not always clear, and pre-colonial societies knew it.
Courage also had limits that no code could overcome. The Agojie at Adegon and the Asante at Amoaful were as brave as any soldiers in the world. They were fighting armies with machine guns and breech-loading rifles.
So here is the question. Pre-colonial Africa honoured several kinds of bravery: the warrior who would not retreat, the youth who would not flinch, the woman who stepped forward and the elder who knew when to walk away. Which of them do we still teach our children, and which have we forgotten?
