In Africa sexual community is allowed at certain periods among the Hereros (Brinker, p. 88). Among many other Bantu tribes sexual communism is customary, particularly at the initiation of the young people. The girls, too, are allowed to choose male partners for a time, and among many tribes of South Africa it was customary for the girls who refused to be given to men against their will. 의정부오피 The Colonial Government has now put a stop to this (Theal).

The statements about the Hottentots of South Africa vary. But the custom of sore, which is found among them, seems to point to the existence of an institution similar to the Australian pirauru. Schultze[Pg 24] (pp. 299, 319) thinks that illicit love was punished among the Hottentots before the extensive immigration of the white people into South Africa led to the overthrow of their old customs. Either the guilty couple were beaten, with the consent of the parents, or the lover received, in addition to his own, his sweetheart's share of punishment. But Schultze mentions also that the institution of sore, intended ostensibly for the exchange of love gifts, really means in many cases a secret agreement for intimate extra-marital relationship, though it is generally quite honourable. This institution is by no means an innovation.

The Hamitic tribes of East Africa, who belong to the most warlike races of mankind, permit pre-marital intercourse of both sexes. A. C. Hollis (1909, pp. 16, 77) says of the Nandi; "The unmarried warriors, as many as ten, sleep in the huts called sigiroinet, where the girls visit them and remain with them a few days, living with them in free love." Married women are not allowed to enter these huts. When the warriors go away for a time or go to war, their sweethearts keep the huts in order. Real "family life" is unknown, for the bigger boys and girls also live alone in special huts or together with the old women; the little boys who serve the warriors sleep in their houses. There is no publicly recognised punishment for adultery; but if a husband discovers another man not belonging to his mat (one of the subdivisions of each of the seven age classes) with his wife or one of his wives, he beats[Pg 25] him severely. Adultery is also not considered wrong when it concerns a couple that have previously lived together in free love in the warriors' house, even when the woman does not belong to a mat comrade. When a Nandi travels and wishes to remain somewhere overnight, he must first of all apply to another member of his mat in the place. If there is one, and both men are married, the latter gives hospitality to the guest, commissions his wife to fulfil his wishes, and leaves the hut in order to sleep elsewhere. The wife pours water over the hands of the guest, brings him a stool and food, puts his weapons into a place of safety, and spends the night with him. Should there be no member of his mat in the place, the traveller betakes himself to a member of the nearest mat; and, after having explained the situation, he is treated exactly as if both men belonged to the same mat. Members of different age classes do not offer each other hospitality or expect it. If the traveller is unmarried, he spends the night in the warriors' hut. Children born before marriage are killed by the Nandis, only one group making an exception to this rule.