CULTURE Insight - Handshakes: [27]

- handshakes are common between genders, mostly
using the ‘African handshake’, consisting of the
standard western grip, followed by a loose gripping of
each others thumbs by the fingers, and then reverting
back to a western grip.
- Handshakes are usually soft, though it has slowly
adapted to the traditionally firmer western grip
(excluding the ‘wet fish’ handshake, which gives most
people the woobly woo’s). They are also often
accompanied by touching the right elbow with the left
hand, a sign of respect that will be explained further in
a later week.
- Handshakes between good friends can last for
minutes, often the whole conversation, with the action
(thumb clasp) repeating itself as a sign that the
conversation is ending.
- it is common for men to hold hands, even whilst
walking down the road. It speaks to the often far more
public displays of affection shown within the separate
gender groups, compared to across genders. You are
far more likely to see a man holding the hand of
another man then that of his wife. The other man is
likely to be a good friend and peer, and they may well
have passed through the manhood initiation ulwaluko
together.

- And also so for women. This is because the culture
generally separates out the groups, which each group
having their own place to hang out at public
gatherings, as well as expectations, taboos, roles
assigned to people not only dependent on their gender,
but on their age group. Of course, in a modern and
urban context, these dynamics do not always exist to
the same extent.

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