Cultural values, traditions, ideas about male and female social roles on the African continent were passed on to children from generation to generation in the processes of socialization and enculturation. In a traditional patriarchal society, the roles of men and women were strictly divided: it was common for men to assume the responsibilities of the breadwinner and be responsible for social interrelations, while women were engaged in housekeeping and offspring.

The mechanisms for transferring this social model from parents to children were primarily initiation rites, including naming, cutting, or first hair cutting. In the process of passing the rites, the young representatives of the people got an idea of their future and the opportunity to join all aspects of the life of adult men or women. Deterministic scenarios were distributed depending on the biological sex. For example, in agricultural societies, boys helped fathers with field work from an early age. And girls from about the age of six were already responsible for having water in the house and helping their mother in cooking.

Since colonial times, the “shaking” of traditional gender roles, stereotypes and social attitudes in African cultures began. The “white man” brought political, socio-economic and religious changes to the African continent. Models of family relations, first of all, the power of fathers and husbands, began to undergo “erosion”. The scale of labor migration has increased, which also has a significant impact on family and marriage relations.

In this work, we observe how changes in initiation rites reflect the spread of new socialization practices in society as a result of cultural transformations in Africa in the colonial and post-colonial periods. We described the ritual of the Ganda people and identified the main reasons for the transformation of their external (ritual) and substantive (functional) sides.