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Scarification involves scratching, etching, burning/Human branding, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification or body art. The body modification can take roughly 6–12 months to heal. In the process of body scarification, are purposely formed by cutting or branding the skin by various methods (sometimes using further sequential aggravating wound-healing methods at timed intervals, like irritation). Scarification is sometimes called Wound healing.
Among the ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa that traditionally practice scarification are the Gonja people, Dagomba people, Frafra people, Mamprusi people, Nanumba people, Bali, Tofin language, Bobo people, Montol language, Kofyar people, Yoruba people, and Tiv people of West Africa, and the Dinka people, Nuer people, Surma people, Shilluk people, Toposa people, Moru people, Bondei people, Shambaa people, Barabaig people, and Maasai people of East Africa.
Scarification has been widely used by many West African tribes to mark milestone stages in both men and women's lives, such as puberty and marriage. In many tribes, members unwilling to participate in scarification were generally not included in the group's activities, and are often shunned from their society. According to anthropologist Grace Harris, group members lacking the normal characteristics consistent with the group are not considered as having acquired the full standing as agents in their society; they would also lack the capacity for meaningful behavior, such as greeting, commanding, and Therefore, scarification can transform partial tribe members into "normal" members entirely accepted by the group. Scarification is a form of language not readily expressed, except through extensive and intricate greetings, and gives the ability to communicate fully, which is a key element for being considered as a normal member of the group.
One reason why scarification is used as confirmation of adulthood is how it shows the ability to endure pain. With young men, the endurance of the pain of scarring exhibits strength and discipline, especially in tribes where males have roles as hunters and warriors. A young man who has already experienced the feeling of torn or cut flesh is considered less likely to fear the teeth of a wild animal or the tip of an enemy's spear. In Ethiopia and Zambia, elaborate scarification is often done on women at puberty, used to denote a willingness to be a mother. The markings show that she can stand the pain of childbirth, as well as being an indication of her emotional maturity.
Some of these rites of passage have spiritual or religious roots, such young boys in the Chambri people tribe of Papua New Guinea undergo scarification resembling crocodile scales to mark their transition into manhood, a ritual which stems from the belief that humans evolved from crocodiles.
In Ethiopia, Surma people men scar their bodies to show that they have killed someone from an enemy tribe; the Mursi people practice scarification for largely aesthetic reasons in order to attract the opposite sex and enhance the tactile experience of sex. The Ekoi people of Nigeria believe that the scars serve, on their way to the afterlife, as money.
Scarification can also help change status from victim to survivor. These individuals pass through various kinds of ritual death and rebirth, and redefine the relationship between self and society through the skin.
Many people in certain regions of Africa who have "markings" can be identified as belonging to a specific tribe or ethnic group. Some of the tribes in Northern Ghana who use the markings are the Gonja people, Nanumba people, Dagomba people, Frafra people and Mamprusi people.
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