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Impact of colonialism on african culture
Impact of colonialism on african culture
Is language a key to identity
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Our class focused on the film, Keita: Heritage of the Griot, this week. The movie features a young boy, originating from the West African nation of Burkina Faso, who spends time learning about the historical, and cultural significance of his last name, Keita. The young boy gets influenced by stories from a man named Djeliba, and in return stops focusing on his school work. This type of behavior irritates his parents, especially his father, who believed that the European traditional characteristics of Africa were significantly more important for his boy’s future. The film distinguishes between two instructors, a man named Djeliba, and the young boy’s father, who is a strict teacher using teaching methods that could be classified as boring.
In this analysis includes a summary of the characters and the issues they are dealing with, as well as concepts that are seen that we have discussed in class. Such as stereotyping and the lack of discrimination and prejudice, then finally I suggest a few actions that can be taken to help solve the issues at hand, allowing the involved parties to explain their positions and give them a few immersion opportunities to experience their individual cultures.
There were many cultural beliefs and practices that changed the outcome of Abina’s life including liberalism, industrialism, imperialism, colonialism, nationalism, slavery, and gender discriminations. Through the Western influences that the British brought to Africa, not only did Abina’s life change but the positive and negative effects influenced everyone in her village.
Guggenheim focuses his documentary on the teachers that make-up a large portion of the system. One of his strongest arguments is that the teachers are the problem, and the inability to rid schools of the incompetent teachers is the primary reason American schools are coming in so low in the international rankings. He also shares many facts and statistics that are staggering by their lonesome, but he presents them in such a way to exaggerate them by use of animation, music, and narration.
The episode entitled “The Buffalo Woman” of Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali begins to delve into several ideas prevalent throughout the entirety of the novel, most notably the concept of destiny and an exploration of its influence on how the events of the story unfold. Other ideas present in this chapter that are of great significance include the supernatural and the virtue of generosity.
The opening of the novel places the reader not in Falola's shoes as a child, but rather as an adult scholar attempting to procure information from his own family. This proves easier said than done as Falola takes us through the process of obtaining specific dates in a society that deems them irrelevant. By examining the difficulty that Falola has in this seemingly simple task, the reader begins to understand the way in which time and space are intertwined and weighed in Africa. This concept of "connections between words, space, and rituals" encompasses the way that Africans perceive the world around them - as a series of interrelated events rather than specific instances in time (Falola 224). This approach also stems from the concept that the family unit, the village, and the elders come before the individual in all instances, making a detail such as a birthday unimportant when it comes to the welfare of the whole. Introducing the reader to the complexities of African conventions, Falola expands their minds and challenges them to view the forthcoming narrative with untainted eyes.
The Return to Laughter is a fictionalized account by Elenore Smith Bowen about her experiences with the Tiv culture in Africa. It describes her struggles to learn and understand the local culture and beliefs, and juxtaposes her own conflicts, morals and beliefs. Bowen engages in what anthropologists termed participant-observation. The anthropologist made a few mistakes that provided revelations about herself and the Tiv people. Language difficulties provide the greatest barrier: as when the researcher is trying to understand the context of the conversation, while still struggling with the intricacy of a difficult language. Secondly, like most anthropologists Bowen knew that social relationships are a research requirement: informants are needed, yet she quickly realized that identification with one family, status or group in the society could hinder other critical relationships. These lessons are among a few that the anthropologist seeks to overcome. This essay will discuss that culture and language are dependent on each other and how forming social relationships can propel research and reveal insightful knowledge into a culture, while possibly hindering other useful information.
Achebe opens his lecture, "An Image of Africa," with the story of a student who sent him a letter saying how he was "particularly happy to learn about the customs and superstitions of an African tribe," not realizing that "the life of his own tribesmen in Yonkers, New York, is full of odd customs and superstitions" as well (1784). Western thou...
even more savage life and ideas of the civilization from Africa, a story of greater historical significance. The characters are not extensively developed; instead, they are simply presented, even understated at a point. Spielberg’s intent is to draw vivid characterizations and to create objects and characters as symbols with larger meanings.
In Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie attempts to use history in order to gain leverage on the present, to subvert the single story stereotypes that dominate many contemporary discourses on Africa. Written in the genre of historical fiction, Adichie’s novel transcends beyond mere historical narration and recreates the polyphonic experiences of varying groups of people in Nigeria before and after the Civil War. She employs temporal distortion in her narrative, distorting time in order to illustrate the intertwining effects of the past and present, immersing deep into the impact of western domination that not only catalyzed the war, but continues to affect contemporary Africa. In this paper, I will analyze her portrayal of the multifaceted culture produced by colonialism – one that coalesces elements from traditional African culture with notions of western modernity to varying degrees. I will argue that Adichie uses a range of characters, including Odenigbo’s mother, Ugwu, Olanna and Kainene, to each represent a point in a spectrum between tradition and modernity. Through her juxtaposition, she undermines the stereotypes that continue to characterize Africa as backwards and traditional, proving instead that colonialism has produced a cross culture where the two are intertwined.
Our protagonist, a young man named Okonkwo, struggles to get out from underneath the shadow of his irresponsible father and become a successful, respected man among his fellow tribesman. That is what drives the story, but the underlying theme is more about early Africa and its individual nation’s roads to trying to become a more modern, civilized society. It covers the Igbo tribes’ resistance to change and their subsequent downfall. Despite the fact that it was harsh at times, was the Igbo society functional? Did it really need to change because the white man did not approve with how they governed their society. Let us take a look at how the book reveals these things to us.
On one side of a mountain in the Long Kloof, there is Fiela Komoetie who is devoted to her child – a three-year old boy she finds one night, crying on her doorstep like a castaway lamb. On the other side of the mountain, in the Forest, are the Van Rooyens. Many years ago, the three-year-old son of Elias Van Rooyen, a woodcutter, and his wife Barta disappeared. In Fiela’s Child, Dalene Matthee passionately portrays ideas about identity to the reader. She uses the story of Benjamin, a white boy who is brought up by a coloured woman, to communicate her thoughts about the nature of identity, not only in the situation of Benjamin, but also everyday life.
Although both Mister Johnson and The African Trilogy are concerned with similar issues, the ways in which these issues are confronted are strikingly different. In contrast to the simple, baby-like natives of Cary’s novel, Achebe’s characters are complex, multi-dimensional figures in their own right. While the African society of Mister Johnson is portrayed as uncivilized, simple, corrupt, the Igbo society of Things Fall Apart is shown as having grown from a long tradition of careful decision-making and a carefully system of religious, social and political beliefs. A rebuttal to the African world portrayed by Cary takes the form of an intelligent portrayal of the character of Okonkwo and the society of Umuofia. As opposed to Cary, Achebe explores, in depth, the relationship between the individual and the social context in which his emotional and psychological make-up has developed. In addition, he gives us in Okonkwo a protagonist we can identify with rather than laugh at:
James Hilton’s novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips is the story of an English schoolmaster who dedicated his entire adult life teaching young boys. He was a somewhat shy person. Nevertheless he was a competent school teacher, professional and attractive in many different ways. Although his first teaching experience was not successful, he was determined to become a good schoolmaster. After coming to Brookfield, he began to warm up to his students. But more important he brought discipline to his school which is the requirement for good teaching—something he did not achieve while teaching at Melbery.
The title of the movie is “Taare Zameen Par” or in English, “Like Stars on Earth, Every Child is Special”. There is a child that has been discriminated by his classmates and teachers because he always fails in all their subjects. However, he is very good at painting which his father is taking for granted. But the worst part is, because of his incompetence, his very own father discriminated him also. They thought that the kid was just rebelling to them and sent him to a boarding school to discipline him. However, what happened to the child is another way round. Discrimination ate him and he gave up. He became depressed and eventually stopped painting. Then, their new art teacher, who has a heart for kids, noticed him and what he is going through. He started to care for the child and wanted to find out why the child became depressed. Finally, he diagnosed that the child has dyslexia. It is a developmental reading disorder and that is the reason why he is having a hard time in dealing with his academics in school. The art teacher informed the parents but at first, they seem not to accept the fact for they do not want the child to be labeled having a mental
The small African village located on the bank of the river Niger has a story of its own, that only the old and wise are able to des...