Traditional Beliefs In Modern Society

Living on the hilltops in Northern Nigeria and Cameroon south of the Mandara Mountains,the Kapsiki people are divided into contiguous clans spread in small autonomous villages. In the social ladder of each clan is the blacksmith caste which is a hardworking and tedious social group who strongly believes in traditional gods of the mountains. Due to many skills, they are in the center of all the This normally put them on a higher standard rank on the social ladder among other social groups, but because of some prejudices such as sorcery, dirtiness, impurity, begging etc, they are considered as being at the bottom rank of the whole society. The opening of the country to modernity brought in every traditional African society great changes. Nowadays, modern schools, new religions and new visions transformed their organization and reduced the number of active blacksmiths. This essay on the dynamics of the evolution of the blacksmith group of Mogode rebuilds their history and shows their present situation in a simple description and analysis of their daily life and their feelings about who they are.