Scarification is widely performed across Africa. The practice of incising the skin with a sharp instrument. Cicatrisation is a special form of scarification, whereby a gash is made in the skin with a sharp instrument & irritation of the skin. Dark pigments such as ground charcoal or gunpowder are rubbed in to provide emphasis. These cuts, when healed form keloids. The most complicated cicatrisation was found in the Congo Basin and neighbouring regions, and among the Akan speakers of West Africa.
