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Western myths and stereotypes in africa
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Africa always had the short end of the stick when it came to its reputation. It all started when a German philosopher named Georg Hagel visited Africa and made a very miss informative statement about it in 1837. In his own unwitting words, Hagel basically suggested that Africa was worthless, had no history, and that the people were wild. Word of Hagel’s statement spread to the western world and that particular stereotype has been around for a very long time. Over a century later, in 1964, another philosopher named Hugh Trevor-Roper went on a trip to Africa. The statement that he made about Africa was almost the same thing that Hagel’s statement said back in 1837, except that Roper suggested that the only history from Africa is that of the Europeans and the rest was worthless for the topic of history. What each of the philosophers said about Africa was absurd. Georg Hegel was from Germany and Hugh Trevor-Roper was from Britain. How could they possibly know the history? Let alone the political, educational, and religious side of Africa. The continent is made up of fifty four states. For them to make these kinds of statements was quite ignorant; you cannot just go to a piece of Africa and make observations for the whole continent. Politics have always been a part of Africa. In pre-colonial times, African …show more content…
In pre-colonial Africa, the entire community or village were responsible for orally passing knowledge on to others – young or old. This kind of education was important because what was taught helped them meet the needs of their society. This was a very successful system of education. So much was passed on from generation to generation; for example, knowledge about nature was a very big part of education. That was probably very useful so that people knew which plants they could and could not use for things such as medication for
That leaves us with the myth, broken and jaded. While it is not wrong to say that Africans are Black and to be African is Black, there is no indication the continent has become void of all culture. The damage of the myth lies in the very lexicon, that Black is used in a derogatory sense. That to be Black means that individuality and diversity are lost. But the history of Africa will show us otherwise. Cultures mixing, influxes of ideas and migrations of vastly different cultures flowing with zealous religious practices and harmonious linguistic structures, that is to say the ‘real’ Africa. Myths like these are dangers because they become promulgated throughout worldview, clouding the reality, and forever holding back the truest form of the subject. To that end, Africa will never be the same.
Unfortunately, even though European imperialism in Africa was justified, many Africans are still suffering from the effects to this day.
Europe, in the late 1800’s, was starting a land grab on the African continent. Around 1878, most of Africa was unexplored, but by 1914, most of Africa, with the lucky exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, was carved up between European powers. There were countless motivations that spurred the European powers to carve Africa, like economic, political, and socio–cultural, and there were countless attitudes towards this expansion into Africa, some of approval and some of condemnation. Europe in this period was a world of competing countries. Britain had a global empire to lead, France had competition with Britain for wealth and so did other nations like Germany and Russia.
Based on the response on a typical woman, I would assume that the nation does not see in world wide impact the global economy is hurting Africa. People tend to know that government officials are corrupt but do not have the financial capabilities to rid the corruption. This causes southern countries to breed a hatred of people within the same continent.
The children of the Ali'i learned to be leaders, children of the kahuna studied the profession of their parents. Without books, all of the practices were taught through oral tradition.
West African Kingdoms It is generally accepted by scholars and scientists today that Africa is the original home of man. One of the most tragic misconceptions of historical thought has been the belief that Black Africa had no history before European colonization. Whites foster the image of Africa as a barbarous and savage continent torn by tribal warfare for centuries. It was a common assumption of nineteenth-century European and American Whites - promoted by the deliberate cultivation of pseudoscientific racism - that Africans were inferior to Whites and were devoid of any trace of civilization or culture.
Africa has had a long and tumultuous road of colonization and decolonization the rush to colonize Africa started in the 17th century with the discovery of the vast amounts of gold, diamonds, and rubber with colonization hitting a fever pitch during World War I. However, the repercussions of colonization have left deep wounds that still remain unhealed in the 21st century. Early on, European nations such as Britain, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany and Belgium scrambled for territories. Countries wanted land so they could harvest the resources, increase trade, and gain power. The European colonization of Africa brought racism, civil unrest, and insatiable greed; all of which have had lasting impacts on Africa.
Problems began for Africa when there was the “scramble for Africa. Africa was extremely divided throughout the continent. There was no nation intact. Even though they were divided into colonies, they still had no sovereignty. Since they had no form of nationalism it made it impossible to succeed as a nation. This really hurt Africa economically. If they would have been able to come together as a nation they could have pulled all of their assets together and exploit them in order to make money. By not doing this it allowed the government to exploit the people. This is why there are starving people in Africa on television. The states of Africa were created in order to make money by exporting all the various resources, whether it was slaves, minerals, or agriculture. There was much to gain by owning a chunk of land in Africa. This reason being because Africa is so rich in their resources for trade. After the race was over it left Africa severely divided.
“Mistaking Africa” is an eye opener for curious minds and truth grabbers. Curtis Keim’s book presents the negativity and reveal the true essence of Africa. Keim shows us the most used stereotypes and misrepresentation of views that Western society and others have implied to Africa. Kein goes into strong details about where these stereotypes came from, how these stereotypes harm Africans, and how we can change our views to help educate ourselves. These stereotypes are damaging and it shows how society as a whole has a hard time opening up to different cultures and lifestyles.
Through media, literature, and what a monumental amount of America has learned in grade school, the perception of Africa is immensely exaggerated (The African Executive | Africa: The Beautiful). Over time, images of famine and extreme poverty has shaped America’s idea of all that Africa entails (American Perceptions of Africa Based on Media Representations). Due to the fact that modern America heavily relies on what the media chooses to feed it, it is truly up to these newspapers, magazines, and evening news channels to be responsible in choosing what they portray Africa as. Unfortunately, this has been going on for a vast amount of time, and some cannot see the end to the misconceptions, even with Africa begging to be represented in the correct manner (Africa In The Western Media).
Africa is currently healing from the scars that had been formed due to its ferocious past that includes the Rwandan genocide as well as the diamond war. The outside world had very little knowledge of the events that had taken place at that time and gained their knowledge mostly from Hollywood’s reenactments of those events. Films such as Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond are very good examples of these reenactments. These movies may have gained huge success in the international industry but they had portrayed Africa in a very stereotypical way as well as only focusing on the human rights violation that had been done. The movies had ignored historical and cultural contexts of human rights abuses as well as downplaying the severity of genocide just to attain maximum entertainment value for the films.
The American educator Horace Mann once said: "As an apple is not in any proper sense an apple until it is ripe, so a human being is not in any proper sense a human being until he is educated." Education is the process through which people endeavor to pass along to their children their hard-won wisdom and their aspirations for a better world. This process begins shortly after birth, as parents seek to train the infant to behave as their culture demands. They soon, for instance, teach the child how to turn babbling sounds into language and, through example and precept, they try to instill in the child the attitudes, values, skills, and knowledge that will govern their offspring's behavior throughout later life. Schooling, or formal education, consists of experiences that are deliberately planned and utilized to help young people learn what adults consider important for them to know and to help teach them how they should respond to choices. This education has been influenced by three important parts of modern American society: wisdom of the heart, egalitarianism, and practicality... the greatest of these, practicality. In the absence of written records, no one can be sure what education man first provided for his children. Most anthropologists believe, though, that the educational practices of prehistoric times were probably like those of primitive tribes in the 20th century, such as the Australian aborigines and the Aleuts. Formal instruction was probably given just before the child's initiation into adulthood -- the puberty rite -- and involved tribal customs and beliefs too complicated to be learned by direct experience. Children learned most of the skills, duties, customs, and beliefs of the tribe through an informal apprenticeship -- by taking part in such adult activities as hunting, fishing, farming, toolmaking, and cooking. In such simple tribal societies, school was not a special place... it was life itself. However, the educational process has changed over the decades, and it now vaguely represents what it was in ancient times, or even in early American society. While the schools that the colonists established in the 17th century in the New England, Southern, and Middle colonies differed from one another, each reflected a concept of schooling that had been left behind in Europe. Most poor children learned through apprenticeship and had no formal schooling at all. Those who did go to elementary school were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion.
An overwhelming majority of African nations has reclaimed their independence from their European mother countries. This did not stop the Europeans from leaving a permanent mark on the continent however. European colonialism has shaped modern-day Africa, a considerable amount for the worse, but also some for the better. Including these positive and negative effects, colonialism has also touched much of Africa’s history and culture especially in recent years.
What empowers us to educate others? It all goes back to love. God's love enables us to love our neighbors. Educating others is brought about by our love for our neighbor. Passing on education is similar to passing on something that is part of you.
Education is the one of priorities in life for most parents. Previous generation, which is the generation x born between 1961-1981 has pressure on the Millenial Generation. The money is the most important variable that specifies the quality of life for them. So the Generation X pushes their children to graduate from a qualified colleague to have high life standards (How Young People View Their Lives Futures and Politics A PORTRAIT OF “GENERATION NEXT” (2007) by Andrew Kohut, Kim Parker, Scott Keeter, Carroll Doherty, Michael Dimock ). Especially parents, thinks in the same way with Balogum and he describes it as a key that “... unlocks the door of development and modernization...” in the idea of an educated person in contemporary African thought(117). This thought points out that parents think of the child’s future when forcing children to go to school. Also Balogum state that “...the concept of ‘education’ and ‘educated person’ are both common in all cultures”(118). Although both are familiar for people for people, most people may confuse these two claims and there is a link between them. Education is a lifelong process so being an educated man is connected with the developmental process. Also to have education there is no age limit. Balgum point that “...from womb to the tomb”(120) totally fits the previous sentence. The author supports his ideas by saying that “ In Rome, an educated person was a person who was a good orator and one who excelled in the military training...”(112). This example shows that in ancient times people who had various jobs were educated. Oth...