African Culture, Overview
Africa is divided into a
great number of ethnic cultures. The continent's
cultural regeneration has also been an integral aspect of post-independence
nation-building on the continent, with a recognition of the need to harness the
cultural resources of Africa to enrich the process of education, requiring the
creation of an enabling environment in a number of ways. In recent times, the
call for a much greater emphasis on the cultural dimension in all aspects of
development has become increasingly vocal. During colonialism in Africa, Europeans possessed
attitudes of superiority and a sense of mission. The French were able to accept
an African as French if that person gave up their African culture and adopted
French ways. Knowledge of the Portuguese language and culture and abandonment
of traditional African ways defined one as civilized. Kenyan social commentator
Mwiti Mugambi pragmatically argues that the future of Africa can only be forged
from accepting and mending the sociocultural present. For Mugambi, colonial
cultural hangovers, pervasive Western cultural inundation, and aid-giving
arm-twisting donors are, he argues, here to stay and no amount of looking into
Africa's past will make them go away. However, Maulana Karenga states:
Our
culture provides us with an ethos we must honor in both thought and practice.
By ethos, we mean a people's self-understanding as well as its
self-presentation in the world through its thought and practice in the other
six areas of culture. It is above all a cultural challenge. For culture is here
defined as the totality of thought and practice by which a people creates
itself, celebrates, sustains and develops itself and introduces itself to
history and humanity
—
Maulana Karenga , African Culture and the Ongoing Quest for Excellence
African arts and crafts
Main
article: African
art
Africa has a rich tradition
of arts and crafts. African arts and crafts
find expression in a variety of woodcarvings,brass and leather art works. African
arts and crafts also include sculpture, paintings, pottery, ceremonial and religious headgear and dress. Maulana Karenga states that in
African art, the object was not as important as the soul force behind the
creation of the object. He also states that All art must be revolutionary and
in being revolutionary it must be collective, committing, and functional "in Africa all art is socially functional."
African culture has always
placed emphasis on personal appearance and jewelry has remained an
important personal accessory. Many pieces of such jewellery are made
of cowry shells and similar
materials. Similarly,masks are made with
elaborate designs and are important part of African culture. Masks are used in
various ceremonies depicting ancestors and spirits, mythological characters and
deities.
In most of traditional art
and craft of Africa, certain themes significant to African culture recur,
including a couple, a woman with a child, a male with a weapon or animal, and
an outsider or a stranger. Couples may represent ancestors, community founder, married
couple or twins. The couple theme rarely exhibit intimacy of men and women. The
mother with the child or children reveals intense desire of the African women
to have children. The theme is also representative of mother mars and the
people as her children. The man with the weapon or animal theme symbolizes
honor and power. A stranger may be from some other tribe or someone from a
different country, and more distorted portrayal of the stranger indicates
proportionately greater gap from the stranger.
Folklore and religion
Like all human cultures,
African folklore and religion represents a variety of social facets of the
various cultures in Africa. Like almost all
civilizations and cultures, flood myths have been circulating in different
parts of Africa. Culture and religion share space and are deeply intertwined in
African cultures. In Ethiopia, Christianity and Islam form the core aspects of
Ethiopian culture and inform dietary customs as well as rituals and rites.] According to a Pygmy myth, Chameleon,
hearing a strange noise in a tree, cut open its trunk and water came out in a
great flood that spread all over the land.
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