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Journal articles on the topic 'Afrian traditional culture'
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Norah Hashim Msuya. "Advocating Positive Traditional Culture to Eradicate Harmful Aspects of Traditional Culture for Gender Equality in Africa." Obiter 41, no. 1 (April 1, 2020): 45–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/obiter.v41i1.10547.
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The struggle for equality for all and the abolition of discriminatory, harmful cultural practices affecting women has been occurring in the world for some time now. Most African countries outlaw harmful, discriminatory traditional practices, although they persist, causing the violation of domestic and international human rights laws. Outside efforts to eliminate these practices are often met with suspicion or hostility from communities, because Africans generally believe that these are their valuable, traditional practices. The aim of this article is to discuss alleviating harmful traditional practices suppressing gender equality in Africa by practically supplementing the law. The study examines African culture versus gender equality historically to pinpoint colonialism’s influence in current gender equality. Colonial administration influenced lives politically, economically and socially, including culture and traditions. Efforts to eradicate harmful traditional practices are most effective when originating from within the culture, as focussing on international human rights is often perceived as culturally imperialistic in African countries.
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Boakye, Ebenezer. "Decoupling African Traditional Religion and Culture from the Family Life of Africans: Calculated Steps in Disguise." International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research 2, no. 3 (March 15, 2021): 202–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.11594/ijmaber.02.03.04.
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Even though African Traditional Religion and Cultural family life seem to have been detached from the indigenous Africans, with many reasons accounting for such a detach, the attempts made by the new wave of Christianity is paramount, under the cloak of salvation and better life. The paper focuses on the steps taken by Pentecostal-Charismatics in Africa to decouple African Traditional Religion and Culture from the family life of Africans in a disguised manner. The paper begins with the retrospection of African Traditional Religion as the religion with belief of the forefathers concerning the existence of the Supreme Being, divinities, Spirit beings, Ancestors, and mysterious powers, good and evil and the afterlife. It then walks readers through the encounter between Christianity and ATR and come out that Christianity from its earliest history has maintained a negative attitude toward ATR. The paper again explores that the traditional understanding of the African family system is portrayed in the common believe system and the functions of the family com-ponents. Again, the paper further unravels decoupling measures such as reaching the masses for audience, demonization of African the world of the spirit, demonization of African elders, pastors as-suming the traditional position of elders of African families are the factors that are being taken to ensure the taking away of African traditional religious and family life from Africans. The paper again discusses the adverse effects of these decoupling factors on Africans. The paper concludes that Traditional African family patterns are slowly but progressively being altered as a result of the process of the decoupling strategies.
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Kayange, Grivas M. "African Traditional Deliberative and Agonistic Democracy: A Maravi Perspective." Utafiti 13, no. 2 (March 18, 2018): 23–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/26836408-01302003.
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This essay traces elements of democracy in the history of African political thought, mainly in the Maravi Kingdom which once spanned the regions of present-day Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. Based on the study of Maravi history, language, and some published philosophical reflections on democracy, elements of both deliberative and agonistic democracy are demonstrably present in these traditions. These elements include consensus-building, democratic legitimisation of leaders (such as kings) and the capacity to tame agonism in the community. While some of the main studies on African traditional theory of democracy build on an exotic and exceptional conception of African culture as communitarian, this paper argues for using the model of moderate communitarianism as representative of African societies through the ages. On this view the understanding is that indigenous African political cultures accommodate both communitarian and individualistic elements independently of Western influences. It is the accommodation of these cultural elements as indigenous to Africa that allows democracy to flourish in various African settings.
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Akitoye, Hakeem A. "Islam and Traditional Titles in Contemporary Lagos Society: A Historical Analysis." International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences 25 (March 2014): 42–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ilshs.25.42.
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Lagos, an area basically inhabited by the Yoruba speaking people of South Western Nigeria and by extension some other parts of West Africa where Islam, Christianity and the African Traditional Religion are still being practised side by side till date with the Africans still being converted to the new faiths without dropping their traditional religion or cultural affiliations. This ideology is very common to the average African who still believes in his culture which has always tainted his way of life or as far as his religion is concerned should not interfere with his culture as the religion as not tacitly condemned some of these practices. This paper intends to examine the extent to which the Yoruba Muslims have been involved in syncretism especially as regards the introduction of the conferment of titles into the Muslim community.
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Amoah, Jewel, and Tom Bennett. "The Freedoms of Religion and Culture under the South African Constitution: Do Traditional African Religions Enjoy Equal Treatment?" Journal of Law and Religion 24, no. 1 (2008): 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0748081400001910.
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On Sunday, January 20, 2007, Tony Yengeni, former Chief Whip of South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), celebrated his early release from a four-year prison sentence by slaughtering a bull at his father's house in the Cape Town township of Gugulethu. This time-honored African ritual was performed in order to appease the Yengeni family ancestors. Animal rights activists, however, decried the sacrifice as an act of unnecessary cruelty to the bull, and a public outcry ensued. Leading figures in government circles, including the Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan, entered the fray, calling for a proper understanding of African cultural practices. Jody Kollapen, the Chair of the Human Rights Commission, said: “the slaughter of animals by cultures in South Africa was an issue that needed to be dealt with in context. Cultural liberty is an important right. …”That the sacrifice was defended on the ground of African culture was to be expected. More surprising was the way in which everyone involved in the affair ignored what could have been regarded as an event of religious significance. Admittedly, it is far from easy to separate the concepts of religion and culture, and, in certain societies, notably those of pre-colonial Africa, this distinction was unknown. Today in South Africa, however, it is clearly necessary to make such a distinction for human rights litigation, partly because the Constitution specifies religion and culture as two separate rights and partly because it seems that those working under the influence of modern human rights seem to take religion more seriously than culture.
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Fayemi, Ademola Kazeem. "African Sartorial Culture and the Question of Identity: Towards an African Philosophy of Dress." Uchenie zapiski Instituta Afriki RAN, no. 2 (June 30, 2021): 66–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.31132/2412-5717-2021-55-2-66-79.
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This paper is a critical interrogation of the apparel culture as a marker of African identity in traditional and contemporary Africa. The article philosophically discusses the sartorial culture of sub-Saharan Africans in the light of its defining elements, identity, and non-verbal communicative proclivities. Focusing on the Yoruba and the Ashanti people, the author argues that African dress expresses some symbolic, linguistic, and sometimes hidden, complex and immanent meaning(s) requiring extensive interpretations and meaning construction. With illustrative examples, he defends the position that the identity of some cultural regions in Africa can be grouped together based on the original, specific techniques and essence of dress that they commonly share. Against the present absence of an African philosophy of dress in the African sartorial culture and knowledge production, he argues the imperativeness of an African philosophy of dress, its subject matter, and connections to other cognate branches of African philosophy, and the prospects of such an ancillary African philosophy.
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Mapunda, Gido. "African Philosophy of Management in the Context of African Traditional Cultures and Organisational Culture." Philosophy of Management 12, no. 2 (2013): 9–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/pom20131229.
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Thiani, Evanghelos. "Tensions of Church T(t)radition and the African Traditional Cultures in the African Orthodox Church of Kenya: Justifying Contextualization." Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Theologia Orthodoxa 65, no. 2 (December 30, 2020): 133–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.24193/subbto.2020.2.09.
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"Abstract The African Orthodox Church of Kenya was formed as an African Instituted Church in 1929, with considerable cultural and liberative connotations, before officially joining the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa in 1956. The journey of being faithful to the rich and ancient Eastern Orthodox tradition, history, and heritage as well as grappling with the local cultures is been an ongoing tension for this church. The tension is better appreciated from the eye view of non-Kenyan Orthodox and young theologians in comparison with that of the locals. Some contextualization practices within this church were ecclesiastically sanctioned, while others have never been reviewed, even though both are practiced with no distinction. This Orthodox Church in Kenya continues to be regarded as one of the staunchest and first growing Orthodox Church in Africa, influencing many upcoming African dioceses and the theologians they form in the main Patriarchal seminary based in Nairobi. This paper seeks to document this tension and struggle of the church and local community traditions and cultures, and with it seek to justify some of the contextualization that is realized and practiced in this church at present. Keywords: African Orthodox Church of Kenya, contextualization, tradition, culture, mission"
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Msuya, Norah Hashim. "Concept of Culture Relativism and Women’s Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa." Journal of Asian and African Studies 54, no. 8 (July 16, 2019): 1145–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0021909619863085.
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This article discusses the challenges of the realization of women’s rights in relation to the concept of culture relativism in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines how the concept of culture is misconstrued with a traditional hierarchy and patriarchy approach that intervenes in the realization of women’s rights in sub-Saharan African states. Many societies are concerned that the promotion of gender equality would interfere with local culture; hence they feel that gender equality should not be promoted for ethical reasons. Women have been left with the unpleasant situation of choosing between their rights or their culture. Through secondary analysis and a critical review of the literature, the article engages in the debate on cultural diversity and gender equality, to challenge the existing stereotypes in sub-Saharan African cultures. It argues that traditional and cultural practices should adhere to the values of equality and human rights. The article proposes that cultural considerations will have to yield whenever a clear conflict with human rights norms becomes apparent.
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Urama, Johnson O., and Jarita C. Holbrook. "The African Cultural Astronomy Project." Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 5, S260 (January 2009): 48–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921311002134.
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AbstractIndigenous, endogenous, traditional, or cultural astronomy focuses on the many ways that people and cultures interact with celestial bodies. In most parts of Africa, there is very little or no awareness about modern astronomy. However, like ancient people everywhere, Africans wondered at the sky and struggled to make sense of it. The African Cultural Astronomy Project aims to unearth the body of traditional knowledge of astronomy possessed by peoples of the different ethnic groups in Africa and to consider scientific interpretations when appropriate for cosmogonies and ancient astronomical practices. Regardless of scientific validity, every scientist can relate to the process of making observations and creating theoretical mechanisms for explaining what is observed. Through linking the traditional and the scientific, it is believed that this would be used to create awareness and interest in astronomy in most parts of Africa. This paper discusses the vision, challenges and prospects of the African Cultural Astronomy Project in her quest to popularize astronomy in Africa.
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van der Walt, Bennie J. "CULTURE, WORLDVIEW AND RELIGION." Philosophia Reformata 66, no. 1 (December 2, 2001): 23–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22116117-90000210.
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Why is a Reformational philosophy needed in Africa? It is necessary, because something is missing in African Christianity. Most Western missionaries taught Africans a “broken” or dualistic worldview. This caused a divorce between traditional culture and their new Christian religion. The Christian faith was perceived as something remote, only concerned with a distant past (the Bible) and a far-away future (heaven). It could not become a reality in their everyday lives. It could not develop into an all-encompassing worldview and lifestyle. Because Reformational philosophy advocates the Biblical, holistic approach of a comprehensive worldview, it is welcomed on our continent. It contains a healing and liberating message to our bleeding and lost continent. What Africans, however, neither want nor can afford, is an ivory tower philosophy, playing intellectual games; a philosophy which does not do or change anything. They want a philosophy which is a “marriage” between abstract ideas and the facts on the ground. They need a Christian philosophy with compassion that may even contribute to the alleviation of their poverty!
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Mabvurira, Vincent. "Making sense of African thought in social work practice in Zimbabwe: Towards professional decolonisation." International Social Work 63, no. 4 (August 31, 2018): 419–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0020872818797997.
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The problem with current social work practice in Africa is that following its development in the West, it came to Africa grounded in values and ideologies stemming from capitalism, social Darwinism, the protestant ethic and individualism, all of which are un-African. Western ideas permeated social work institutions despite the ethical conflicts between traditional African cultures and values and the Western Judeo-Christian norms on which social work was based. Despite the political independence of most African countries, the profession has remained stuck in Western methods, values, principles and standards. Some of the traditional social work principles seem alien in African contexts. The social work principle of individualisation, for example, is un-African as it promotes individualism and yet life in Africa is communal. The content used in social work education and training in most institutions in Zimbabwe originated from elsewhere outside the African continent and as a result does not respect Africana values, beliefs, mores, taboos and traditional social protection systems. As it stands, social work in Zimbabwe in particular is a ‘mermaid’ profession based on Western theory but serving African clients. If social work in Africa is to decolonise, practitioners should have an understanding of and respect for African beliefs and practices. This is mainly because there is no clear separation between the material and the sacred among indigenous African people. This article therefore challenges African scholars to generate Afrocentric knowledge that should be imparted to African students for them to be effective in the African context. Afrocentric social work should be based on, improve and professionalise traditional helping systems that were in place prior to the coming of the Whites to the African continent.
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Bastian, Misty L., M. Akin Makinde, and Daniel A. Offiong. "African Philosophy, Culture, and Traditional Medicine." Journal of Religion in Africa 24, no. 1 (February 1994): 66. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1581377.
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Owomoyela, Oyekan, and M. Akin Makinde. "African Philosophy, Culture, and Traditional Medicine." International Journal of African Historical Studies 22, no. 2 (1989): 325. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/220049.
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Maphai, Vincent T., and M. Akin Makinde. "African Philosophy, Culture, and Traditional Medicine." African Studies Review 32, no. 3 (December 1989): 154. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/524559.
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Haworth, Alan. "Traditional psychiatric practices in Africa." International Psychiatry 2, no. 8 (April 2005): 2–4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/s1749367600007177.
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Many leaders in Africa bemoan the disappearance of African culture, including the use of traditional medicines, and there have been numerous calls for recognition of their value and for the integration of these treatments into orthodox medicine. This is especially so with regard to psychiatric disorders. The literature on psychiatric practice in Africa contains very few references to herbal treatments, however, and more is to be learnt about the use of herbs as adjuvants in the solution of psychosocial problems from the anthropological literature. At a conference held in the University of Ife in 1974, psychiatric disorders were not included in a list of nine conditions (e.g. cancer) in which it was recommended that herbal treatments be further investigated.
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Capitango, José, and Germán Vargas Callejas. "Conhecimentos, experiências e práticas vitais tradicionais indígenas como fundamento para a construção de uma cultura de sustentabilidade." Ambiente & Educação 24, no. 2 (December 5, 2019): 287–309. http://dx.doi.org/10.14295/ambeduc.v24i2.9733.
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RESUMO
O presente estudo objetiva valorizar aqueles aspetos das culturas tradicionais (conhecimentos, estilos de vida...) que podem servir de fundamento para a construção e cultivo de uma cultura de sustentabilidade a nível global. A informação que sustenta este estudo provém do projeto "Processos e práticas educativas para a transição a uma cultura da sustentabilidade e a cooperação em Galícia e República Dominicana - Investigação-Ação", como também da tese em processo de elaboração sobre "Educação e Desenvolvimento nas Comunidades Ovimbundu de Angola: Estudo etnográfico da Comunidade de Ombala Ekovongo-Bié/Angola" (investigação etnografica). Trata-se de uma tentativa de aproximar as duas realidades histórico-culturais (africana, latino-americana), naquilo que as suas populações indígenas têm de comum em termos de conhecimentos e experiências para subsidiar a construção da cultura de sustentabilidade.
Palavras-chave: conhecimentos; experiências vitais tradicionais indígenas; cultura de sustentabilidade
ABSTRACT
The objective of this study is to value those aspects of traditional cultures (knowledge, lifestyles ...) that can serve as the foundament for the construction and cultivation of a culture of sustainability at a global level. The information that supports this study comes from the project "Educational processes and practices for the transition to a culture of sustainability and cooperation in Galicia and the Dominican Republic - Research-Action", as well as the thesis in the process of elaboration on "Education and Development in Ovimbundu Communities of Angola: Ethnographic study of the Ombala Ekovongo-Bié / Angola "community (Ethnographic Research). It is an attempt to bring together two historical-cultural realities (African and Latin American), in what their indigenous populations have in common in terms of experience and knowledge, to subsidize the construction of culture of sustainability.
Keywords: knowledge; traditional indigenous life experiences; culture of sustenability
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Ngang, Carol Chi, and Patrick Agejo Ageh. "Intellectual Property Protection of African Traditional Medicine within the Legal Framework of the Right to Development." African Journal of International and Comparative Law 27, no. 3 (August 2019): 426–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/ajicl.2019.0282.
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In this article, we examine the prospect of securing intellectual property protection of African traditional medicine within the legal framework of the right to development in Africa. We do so with the aim to advance the right to development as an imperative to improving living standards for the peoples of Africa. Our analysis involves determining to what extent adequate protection could be secured to the benefit of the communities that engage in the practice of traditional medicine as a livelihood. Despite the imposition of western medicine, which has dominated traditional medicine since the colonial era, the latter has survived and, as we argue, deserves protection for gainful purpose as part of the common heritage, which the peoples of Africa are entitled by law to benefit from. With the renewed impetus directed towards re-establishing African value systems against the iniquities of imperial domination, our central focus in this article is to demonstrate that the practice of traditional medicine is deeply rooted in African culture, which under the African human rights system is granted as a human right. In essence, the advancement of African culture constitutes an integral aspect of the right to socio-economic and cultural development enshrined in the African Charter. Unlike other intellectual property regimes, which we argue are not sufficiently protective, we posit that the right development provides a sui generis framework within which intellectual property protection of African traditional medicine could effectively be claimed as a measure to secure redistributive justice, which the peoples of Africa have been deprived of over the decades.
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Musyoka-Kamere, Isabella. "Revisiting African Traditional Education to Promote Peace through Education in Africa." Msingi Journal 1, no. 1 (August 2, 2018): 459–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.33886/mj.v1i1.73.
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African traditional values are the principles, standards and qualities, which Africans traditionally held dear for perpetuation of culture and society. They are the values that guided human action towards a common good. There are certain things that Africans found intrinsically valuable, that gave them a distinct cultural personality and enabled them to contribute to knowledge and history. Some of these include the sense of community life, sacredness of life and respect for authority and elders.These values of African traditional education can be revisited to infuse peace and unity in today‘s fragmenting society. Peace here is taken to mean the non-violent, non-exploitative, cohesive, tolerant and united co-existence between people and respect for the social environment. This paper will document the dominant African cultural values and attempt to assess the contribution of these values to the promotion of peace in modern times. This is a library-based research, which involves a desk review ofarticles, documents and internet sources to draw facts and use the information to provide suggestions for promoting peace. It will try to bring out the salient values of African culture and see how these can be adapted to today‘s world to enhance peaceful co-existence and thus lead to change in public consciousness and habits to improve the quality of life. The findings of the study will highlight viable options for African societies to come out of their cultural quagmire and suggest ways of preserving values that lead to national cohesion and development.
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Nweke, Innocent Ogbonna. "African Traditional Religion vis-à-vis the Tackle It Suffers." Journal of Religion and Human Relations 13, no. 1 (July 22, 2021): 92–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jrhr.v13i1.5.
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African Traditional Religion is the indigenous religion of the Africans. The religion that has existed before the advent of western civilization which came with secularism as an umbrella that shades Christianity, education, urbanization, colonization and so on. These features of western civilization were impressed upon African Traditional Religion. Hence, the presence of alien cultures and practices in contemporary African traditional practice, as well as the presence of elements of traditionalism in contemporary African Christian practices. This somewhat symbiosis was discussed in this paper and it was discovered that African Traditional Religion was able to jump all the hurdles of secularism, Christianity, urbanization etc and came out successfully though with bruises. The paper used socio-cultural approach in its analysis.
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Wessels, W. H. "The Traditional Healer and Psychiatry." Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 19, no. 3 (September 1985): 283–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00048678509158833.
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Successful psychiatric treatment for rural Africans should incorporate their traditional belief that illness should be viewed in terms of magical, social, physical and religious parameters. Traditional healers divide illness into those of natural causation and those of traditional cultural aetiology which are peculiar to African people. Natural illness includes epilepsy, familial/genetic disorders, mental retardation and schizophrenia. Traditional, cultural disorders often cause difficulties for Western-trained psychiatrists because sorcery, spirit possession and ancestral worship are central to their aetiology and treatment as practised by traditional healers. They, in a state of altered consciousness, use a process of divination to determine why and from whom the misfortune originated. With this in mind, reputable traditional healers were consulted in therapy-resistant cases of culture-bound syndromes in Africans. Their high rate of success in treating these cases was notable. More recognition should be given to the reputable traditional healers.
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Ogunniyi, M. B. "Adapting western science to traditional African culture." International Journal of Science Education 10, no. 1 (January 1988): 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0950069880100101.
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Twitchin, Mischa. "Concerning “the Eurocentric African Problem” (Meschac Gaba)." Open Cultural Studies 3, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 276–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/culture-2019-0025.
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Abstract Even as it is often eclipsed by reference to the “contemporary,” modernity is widely celebrated in European museums and galleries. When refracted through the commitments of an avowedly Black artistic agenda, how might these institutions reconceive their understanding of modernism in light of African, diasporic, or Afropean perspectives? How might concerns with African agency be enacted in these cultural spaces as they project historical narratives and produce a “public” memory in their own image? What are the implications of the fact that critical resistance to modes of cultural appropriation may, nonetheless, reproduce a discourse that attempts to immunise itself from the association of modernism with colonialism? In the formation of modernist canons, what role might an example of African conceptual art have to play, even when consigned to a museum’s storage space? This paper explores such questions through the paradoxes engaged by Mechac Gaba’s reflections on his 1997-2002 project, “Museum for Contemporary African Art,” now owned by Tate Modern. In particular, it considers the dichotomy between “modern” and “traditional” as this has been constitutive of twentieth-century art history, informing a sense of the African presence within European museums. How might reference to the “contemporary” here relate to the potentials of decolonial cultural politics within such spaces?
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Flikke, Rune. "Writing ‘naturecultures’ in Zulu Zionist healing." Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies 2, no. 1 (December 1, 2016): 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v2i1.2131.
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<div>In this article my primary aim is to argue for an ontological and phenomenological approach to studying healing rituals within the African Independent Churches in South Africa. Through ethnographic evidence I will argue that the healing rituals are misrepresented in more traditional epistemologically tuned studies, and suggest that a better understanding is to be achieved through a focus on Latour’s ‘natures-cultures’ or Haraway’s ‘naturecultures’, thus showing how health and well-being are achieved through a creative process which continuously strive to break down any distinction of nature and culture as separate entities. I conclude by arguing that the contemporary healing rituals, which surfaced in South Africa in the mid eighteen-seventies, were a sensible and experience based reactions to the colonial contact zones of a racist Colonial regime dependent on African labor.</div>
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Almeida, Nadi Maria de. "TOWARDS A CHRISTIAN APPROACH TO AFRICA TRADITIONAL RELIGION." INTERAÇÕES 16, no. 1 (March 28, 2021): 118–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.5752/p.1983-2478.2021v16n1p118-131.
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Inter-Religious dialogue is a demand for the mission. Based on the theological investigation of scholars who explore and write on the subject, the article analyses the theological challenge of Inter-Religious dialogue especially in approaching African Traditional Religions. The discussion concerns the Christian theology of religious pluralism with the local religion in Africa looking at the theological progress, not just from the abstract world of books, but also, from connecting with the life of the people, appreciating and connecting points of convergences with the local culture and religions. Still, a long way to go on the reflection and there needs to open wider our vision concerning the action of the Spirit that has been always present in Africa.
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de Oliveira e Silva, Ana Luiza. "In Search of “Africanity”: Traditional and Islamic Education in Boubou Hama’s Writings." Islamic Africa 10, no. 1-2 (June 12, 2019): 98–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01001004.
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This article explores how the Nigerien intellectual and politician Boubou Hama (1906/09–1982) represented the relationship between Islamic and “traditional” educational ideals. Based on an understanding that Islamic education was closely linked to the historical dissemination and establishment of Islam, Hama advanced a particular interpretation of the reception and circulation of Muslim knowledge in West Africa. He argued that, first, the presence of Islam should be understood in its African historical context; second, that the foundations of African culture were equally “traditional” and Islamic; and third, that the forms of education that had shaped such culture could be used as the basis for a political plan of development. By doing so, Hama asserted that just as Islam was crucial to the continent’s history, it was a central part of Africa’s engagement with the wider world.
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Ibrahim, Fausat Motunrayo. "Rethinking the African Value of High Fertility: The Yorùbá Farmers’ Example." Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society 8, no. 1 (June 26, 2020): 11. http://dx.doi.org/10.26806/modafr.v8i1.308.
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African culture is implicated in the population dynamics of sub-Saharan Africa which is distinctly pro-fertile. However, there is a dearth of emic African demographic perspectives. In this light, the present article is a representation of demographic motivations of Yorùbá farmers’ who are largely rural residents and “more traditional” in orientation. Their articulations underscore themes cum bases of challenging the African value of high fertility, including the burdensome conceptualisation of high fertility; an appreciation of negative effects of high fertility on individuals and society; and the construction of high fertility as a threat to reaping “child food” (oúnje ọmọ), among others. In the current social climate, traditional culture is altered, manipulated or reconstructed to suit changing realities, thereby vindicating the “culture by the people” as opposed to “culture for the people” approach to cultural understanding.
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Shirey, Heather. "Engaging Black European Spaces and Postcolonial Dialogues through Public Art: Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle." Open Cultural Studies 3, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 362–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/culture-2019-0031.
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Abstract Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, installed on the Fourth Plinth of London’s Trafalgar Square from May 24, 2010, to January 30, 2012, temporarily transformed a space dominated by the 19th-century monumental sculpture of Lord Horatio Nelson, Britain’s most famous naval hero. When installed in Trafalgar Square, Shonibare’s model ship in a bottle, with its sails made of factory-printed textiles associated with West African and African-European identities, contrasted dramatically with the bronze and stone that otherwise demarcate traditional sculpture. Shonibare’s sculpture served to activate public space by way of its references to global identities and African diasporic culture. Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship, this paper argues, inserted a black diasporic perspective into Trafalgar Square, offering a conspicuous challenge to the normative power that defines social and political space in Great Britain. The installation in Trafalgar Square was only temporary, however, and the work was later moved to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where it is on permanent display. This paper provides an investigation of the deeper historical references Shonibare made to the emergence of transnational identities in the 19th century and the continued negotiation of these identities today by considering the installation of Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle in relation to both sites.
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Gumede, Vusi. "Leadership for Africa’s Development." Journal of Black Studies 48, no. 1 (November 21, 2016): 74–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0021934716678392.
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The African continent remains at the periphery in world affairs, as many have argued. Similarly, many scholars have advanced cogent reasons for this unfortunate reality. The development of the continent is also unimpressive, relative to the potential of the African economies. It is therefore important that Africa pursues its own socioeconomic development approach instead of what appears to be inappropriate policies that are being implemented in most if not all African countries, as argued elsewhere. This article makes a case for African (traditional/indigenous) leadership and examines political leadership in particular with the view of ensuring that Africa reclaims its lost glory and recovers its stolen legacy (to paraphrase George James). The article argues that African leadership should be infused with thought leadership, thought liberation, and critical consciousness. And critical consciousness and thought liberation should be linked to decolonizing the minds of Africans, as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and others have argued.
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Masoga, M. A., and A. Nicolaides. "Christianity and Indigenisation in Africa." European Journal of Theology and Philosophy 1, no. 4 (August 8, 2021): 18–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/theology.2021.1.4.33.
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In a quest for greater coherence between parochial identities, culture and Christianity, there exists an African consciousness which seeks to indigenise and decolonise Christianity. Africans are profoundly religious people who view their faith as part of their way of life, as strengthening their cultures and providing a moral compass for daily living. In efforts to transform society, the Christian religion has played a significant role in the path to African development. Christianity in Africa dates to the very inception of the church. Africans consequently played a crucial role in establishing the doctrines and theology of the early church. While African Traditional religion (ATR) is paramount, it is the purpose of this article to suggest that the Christian faith has and continuous to play a significant role on the African continent in its development. While there are many indigenous African beliefs, these have been to a large extent supported by Christianity in a quest to systematize novel knowledge and promote peace and tolerance across the continent. Many Africans have sought facets of Christianity that are similar to their religious and personal practices and continue to do so. Thus, while there exist numerous similarities and also differences between Christianity and ATR, it is imperative to preserve old-style regional distinctiveness and Christianity as the unifying rudiments in nation building endeavours and in efforts to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Africans can and should come to comprehend the Triune Godhead as being consistent with their own spiritual consciousness and existential veracities. Indigenization of Christianity requires enculturation and essentially an understanding that it is indeed ecumenical and also embraces diversity and fundamentally requires viewing Holy Scriptures and the truths they propound as being applicable to any context and cultural milieu across the ages. Christians after all espouse a faith in the Ekklesia or body of Christ for all its people who are the Laos of God.
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Tat Shum, Terence Chun. "Culinary diaspora space: Food culture and the West African diaspora in Hong Kong." Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 29, no. 2 (June 2020): 283–311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0117196820938603.
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This article examines how food practices contribute to the lived experience of the West African diaspora in Hong Kong. Drawing on in-depth interviews and participant observations of Africans in different African restaurants, grocery stalls and cultural events, this article proposes the concept of a “culinary diaspora space” to examine how they navigate spaces of solidarity and struggle during their integration process through African food-related practices. It highlights the point at which boundaries of inclusion and exclusion are contested by revealing the practical and symbolic roles played by migrants’ traditional food culture throughout the integration process. This research argues that African food outlets are a space of social frictions but also of possible cultural encounters between the Africans and Hong Kong Chinese. By focusing on food-related practices, this research demonstrates how the West African diaspora is felt, embodied and perceived by the host society.
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Rule, Audrey C., Sarah E. Montgomery, Gloria Kirkland Holmes, Dwight C. Watson, and Yvonne Ayesiga. "African Mask-Making Workshop: Professional Development Experiences of Diverse Participants." International Journal of Multicultural Education 17, no. 2 (June 28, 2015): 135. http://dx.doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v17i2.953.
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Diverse education professionals learned about African cultures in a workshop experience by making African masks using authentic symbolism. Analysis of reflections to evaluate the workshop for applicability to participants with and without African heritage showed that both groups expanded their cultural knowledge of traditional African ethnic groups. Those participants with African heritage noted valuing of women while those without African heritage expressed appreciation for African culture, self-evaluation of work, and the desire to investigate their own heritages.
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Oyekan, Adeolu Oluwaseyi. "John Mbiti on the Monotheistic Attribution of African Traditional Religions: A Refutation." Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 10, no. 1 (June 3, 2021): 19–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ft.v10i1.2.
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John Mbiti, in his attempt to disprove the charge of paganism by EuroAmerican ethnographic and anthropological scholars against African Traditional Religions argues that traditional African religions are monotheistic. He insists that these traditional religious cultures have the same conception of God as found in the Abrahamic religions. The shared characteristics, according to him are foundational to the spread of the “gospel” in Africa. Mbiti’s effort, though motivated by the desire to refute the imperial charge of inferiority against African religions ran, I argue, into a conceptual and descriptive conflation of ATRs with monotheistic faiths. In this paper, I challenge the superimposition of Judeo-Christian categories upon African religions. I argue that monotheism is just a strand, out of many, that expresses belief in God(s), and that it differs substantially from the polytheistic pre-colonial African understanding of religion. I provide a panentheistic paradigm using traditional Igbo ontology and religion to refute Mbiti’s generalization.
Keywords: Monotheism, African Traditional Religion, Igbo, Paganism, Theology.
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Iguisi, Osarumwense. "A Cultural Approach to African Management Philosophy." International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking 10, no. 3 (July 2018): 23–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/ijvcsn.2018070102.
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Despite acknowledging the existence of indigenous management capabilities and skills in Africa, management practice in precolonial African societies was seen by the colonizers as primitive management. Africans have ways of exercising power and authority at the workplace, ways of motivating and rewarding people to make them work harder. Neither the institutions nor the political structures put in place by the colonizers acknowledge these indigenous knowledge structures, but much of them have survived in the traditions and cultural values of the African people. However, unlike in Europe and most parts of Asia, the attempted modernization or Westernization after independence has completely neglected the indigenous sociocultural knowledge and tried to transplant western management theories and models to traditional African societies. This article draws attention to the relevance of cultures to management philosophy with the purpose of contributing to a culturally appropriate practice of management in Africa. It has been shown that the different management theories in the form that they have been developed in the West reflect western philosophical thoughts which may not fit culturally in Africa management practice. However, in developing theories and building models of management theories in Africa, it is unlikely to pay Africans to throw away all that the West has to offer. Rather, the approach to appropriate management theorizing is to reflect on assumptions of Western management theories, compare Western assumptions about sociocultural values with African cultural values to rebuild the theories and models. The use of anthropological and philosophical concepts in this context will help in the development of appropriate management practice.
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Wuchu, Cornelius W., and Akoni Innocent Ngwainbi. "African Culture and Sustainability." International Journal of Public and Private Perspectives on Healthcare, Culture, and the Environment 5, no. 1 (January 2021): 46–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/ijppphce.2021010104.
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This article is aimed at discussing the relevance of African culture and its values to the contemporary society. The qualitative approach was used in this work. The results arrived at shows that African traditional practices in the Western Highlands of Cameroon has over time developed cultural values which are concomitant to the objectives of MDGs and SDGs. But, in most cases, these values have been neglected by national and international development agencies leading to continuous clashes between traditional African values and what the people consider as foreign to them. However, some aspects of the culture have remained inimical to human rights and local development. Therefore, for African culture to entirely play its role in achieving sustainable development, the paper holds that a cultural hybridisation is an ultimate solution to the problems faced by indigenous practices and external policies of development.
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Tuchscherer, Konrad, and Jonathan Musere. "Traditional African Names." International Journal of African Historical Studies 34, no. 2 (2001): 458. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3097521.
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Rakhim, Dinah, Verly Veto Vermol, and Rafeah Legino. "Designing Movable Kitchen Cart through the Elements of Traditional Baba Nyonya House." Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal 6, SI5 (August 29, 2021): 41–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6isi5.2926.
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Malaysia is known for its multicultural diversity, which is heavily influenced by the ancient Malay culture, indigenous peoples and the cultures of Malaysia's second main ethnics groups - the Chinese and Indian. For centuries, our cultures have blended to create Malaysia's diverse heritage. Sadly, Malaysians are slowly losing their ancient culture due to modernisation. One particular culture of Malaysia that is close to extinction is the Peranakan culture. The researcher found it vital to implement our cultural motif into product design, so she has come out with a freestanding kitchen with an influence of the Peranakan motif. Keywords: Free-standing Cabinets, Kitchen, Peranakan. eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6iSI5.2926
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Yankuzo, Kabiru Ibrahim. "Impact of Globalization on the Traditional African Cultures." International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences 15 (October 2013): 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ilshs.15.1.
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There has been increasing concern over the years by the scholars and writers on how the world is being compressed into a single space now referred to as 'a global village'. Countries at various stages of development are increasingly forced to take account of an ever expanding interconnection of socio-cultural issues and economies in the management of their national affairs. The states are increasingly losing their capacity to govern and to regulate in an increasingly borderless world; with an increasing homogenization and domination of traditional African cultures. African societies are forced into accepting uniform moral principle of what is right and wrong within the global cultures. Scholars and writers often focus attention on economic aspect of globalization, while neglecting other aspects, more importantly its cultural aspect. This paper seeks to examine what exactly is globalization, and how can we best conceptualize this phenomenon? Lastly what are its impacts on the development of African cultural norms and values? These amongst others are the questions, which this paper seeks to examine using cultural convergence perspective as a guide.
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Casimir, Komenan. "Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A Seminal Novel in African Literature." Studies in Linguistics and Literature 4, no. 3 (June 27, 2020): p55. http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/sll.v4n3p55.
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Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is an influential novel in African literature for three reasons. First, it is a novel meant to promote African culture; second, it is a narrative about where things went wrong with Africans; and third, it is a prose text which contributed to Achebe’s worldwide recognition. It contains Achebe’s rejection of the degrading representation of Africans by European writers, and fosters Africa’s traditional values and humanism. The excesses of Igbo customs led the protagonist to flagrant misuse of power. The novel’s scriptural innovations bring fame to Achebe who is considered as the “Asiwaju” (Leader) of African literature, the “founding father of African fiction”, or again the “Eagle on Iroko”.
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Dike, Uzoma Amos, and M. I. Okwueze. "Sex Education: Ancient Israel and Igbo Traditional Practices." Journal of Religion and Human Relations 13, no. 1 (July 22, 2021): 313–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jrhr.v13i1.14.
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Every human (male and female) is a sexual being. Exploring and experiencing one’s sexuality is part of being human. Unfortunately, human’s curiosity and interest concerning sexuality are not always guided and nurtured in a wholesome way because sex is viewed as sacred and talking about it constitutes a taboo. Hence, many parents are at ease to teach their children about virtually every other thing in life, but they usually do not, however, teach about sexuality with similar ease. As a result, many grow into adulthood with partial and distorted views of human sexuality. The aim of the study was to discover the teachings of Proverbs 7:24-27 on sex education along traditional practices in tone with sex education in Igbo culture and determine the place of proper sex education for better dealing and understanding of human sexuality. The study adopted African inculturation hermeneutics which makes African social cultural context the subject of interpretation. The study revealed that sex education was integral to the training of the young adults in ancient Israel Igbo cultures. However, the study observed some areas of strength and weaknesses of sexuality training in Igbo traditional practices. Thus, the research upheld that the instructions on human sexuality preserved in the book of Proverbs are very relevant in strengthening the contemporary Igbo culture and her traditional practices in the training of young adults in the areas of chastity. Therefore, the paper called for proper sex education in the Igbo society to instill sexual purity among youths of contemporary Igbo society.
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Hadiyanto. "REPRESENTASI KOLONISASI TERHADAP MASYARAKAT KULIT HITAM AFRIKA DALAM NOVEL THINGS FALL APART KARYA CHINUA ACHEBE." HUMANIKA 19, no. 1 (October 18, 2016): 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.14710/humanika.19.1.20-34.
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Abstract This article discusses white-skinned race colonization and its impacts on African black-skinned race tribal society and culture in African Anglophone novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe. The approach used in this research is post-colonial approach by using post-colonial theory to analyze phenomena as well as the implication of the colonizer and the colonized relationship. The result of this research indicates that the coming of white-skinned race colonialists in African Ibo tribe community with their colonization and cultural imperialism is implemented with varied strategies. Those strategies are proven effectively in strengthening white-skinned race’s colonial hegemony in Africa. The white-skinned race colonialists’ imperialism results in horizontal conflict and cultural-social disintegration in African native society; between the pro-colonial and the anti-colonial. Anti-colonial resistence is shown by most African native society to fight against colonial government arrogance and to resist white-skinned race imperialism in Africa. Keywords: African black-skinned race traditional culture, white-skinned race colonization, horizontal conflict, social-cultural disintegration
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Yoder, John. "Good government, democratisation and traditional African political philosophy: the example of the Kanyok of the Congo." Journal of Modern African Studies 36, no. 3 (September 1998): 483–507. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x9800281x.
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Over the last several decades, officials in both the public and private sectors have applied economic, military, cultural, academic and diplomatic tools to promote the spread of democratic pluralism in African and elsewhere. With the fall of Africa's most resilient tyrant, Mobutu Sese Seko, there is hope that even one of Africa's most troubled systems may be transformed into a state that reflects the will of the people and promotes the common good. Sober observers, however, remain pessimistic. Laurent Kabila's spotted record on human rights, his stubborn intolerance of political opposition, the challenging global economic and political environments, and the long history of bad government in Mobutu's Zaïre are obvious reasons for concern. Furthermore, the example of most other African states is not encouraging. With the exception of countries such as South Africa and Botswana, even the most tenuous democratic progress in Africa is often slowed, blocked or reversed.Generally, blame for this state of affairs has been levelled against the African political elite, the burden of colonialism, or international political and economic pressures. Specifically, for the Congo, Mobutu's kleptocracy, Belgium's paternalism, America's backing of a friendly dictator and the World Bank's support for ill-advised ‘development’ schemes all have been criticised. While such reproaches may be well deserved, this article argues that it is important to ask if the persistent failure of democracy in the Congo as well as in other African states is also related to African political culture.
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Majeed Kadhem, Suhaib. "Conflict between Tradition and Change in Chinua Achebe's postcolonial novel Things Fall Apart." Al-Adab Journal 1, no. 124 (September 15, 2018): 81–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.31973/aj.v1i124.115.
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In studying the history of Asian and African countries, the colonial period plays an important role in understanding their history, religion, tradition and culture. Things Fall Apart is an English novel by the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, published in 1957, which shows the African culture, their religious and traditions through the Igbo society. This novel captures the colonial period and its effect on Igbo society. It is a response and a record of control of western colonialism on the traditional values of the African people. This paper treats the novel as a postcolonial text, by focusing on the clash between occupied and colonizers, the clash between tradition and change, and the clash between different cultures, The Europe Empire and the African natives
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Ofori Atiemo, Abamfo. "‘Returning to our Spiritual Roots’: African Hindus in Ghana Negotiating Religious Space and Identity." Journal of Religion in Africa 47, no. 3-4 (July 18, 2017): 405–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700666-12340120.
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Abstract This paper examines the phenomenon of the ‘African Hindu’ in the context of the discussions on ‘transnational Hinduism’. I also report on how these African Hindus resort to a reinterpretation of the history of their Ghanaian indigenous (traditional) religion and culture in their attempt to find religious space in the almost-choked religious environment of Ghana, and also how they attempt to negotiate their new religious identity in relation to their identity as Africans (Ghanaians). I conclude with a prognosis of the form that Hinduism is likely to assume in the near future on Ghanaian soil as its African converts try to live their faith in the context of their local culture.
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Johnson, Malcolm, and Helen Q. Kivnick. "FORUM: Adulthood and Old Age under apartheid: A Psychosocial Consideration." Ageing and Society 8, no. 4 (December 1988): 423–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0144686x00007182.
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ABSTRACTBased on Erik H. Erikson's life-cycle model as clarified by Erikson, Erikson, and Kivnick, this theoretical paper considers psychosocial development in the adulthood and old age of South Africa's black majority population, under the oppressive laws of apartheid. The author draws on empirical observations made during three months of fieldwork in South Africa. The paper rests on the propositions that apartheid may be expected to interfere with healthy psychosocial development in South African blacks throughout the life cycle, and that cultural strengths – exemplified by traditional singing – function as counterbalancing resources that promote psychosocial health, nonetheless. Adulthood and old age are discussed to illustrate the way black South Africans must negotiate every stage of life under the powerful, opposing influences of apartheid and indigenous culture.
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van Pinxteren, Bert. "National Culture and Africa Revisited: Ethnolinguistic Group Data From 35 African Countries." Cross-Cultural Research 54, no. 1 (March 15, 2019): 73–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069397119835783.
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Africa is a continent of considerable cultural diversity. This diversity does not necessarily run in parallel to the national boundaries that were created in Africa in the colonial period. However, decades of nation building in Africa must have made their mark. Is it possible nowadays to distinguish national cultures in Africa, or are the traditional ethnolinguistic distinctions more important? This article uses an approach developed in cross-cultural psychology to examine these questions. In 2012, Minkov and Hofstede published an article in this journal analyzing World Values Survey data from seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa at the level of subnational administrative regions. They argued that national culture is also a meaningful concept in this region. This study reexamines the matter. It uses an innovative approach, looking at ethnolinguistic groups instead of at administrative regions and using the much more extensive Afrobarometer survey data set. It finds that although the Minkov/Hofstede study still has merit, the picture is more nuanced in several important ways. There is not one pattern that adequately describes the situation in the whole of Africa.1
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Mbunyuza-Memani, Lindani. "Wedding Reality TV Bites Black: Subordinating Ethnic Weddings in the South African Black Culture." Journal of Communication Inquiry 42, no. 1 (August 30, 2017): 26–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0196859917726047.
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Black South Africans generally celebrate two types of weddings, one white and the second ‘traditional.’ This article uses the political economy theory and draws from multimodal critical discourse analysis to examine the televisual representation of these two types of weddings. Analyzed here are 10 episodes of two South African wedding reality programs, Our Perfect Wedding and Top Billing Weddings. The analysis reveals that South African wedding reality television programs displace cultural diversity and stay within the strategy of reproducing sameness by dominantly focusing on white weddings. From this perspective, ‘traditional’ weddings are backgrounded. In addition, natural black hair is erased as the shows consistently feature brides with chemically processed or store-bought hair rather than the brides' own natural hair. This article argues that white weddings and White feminine looks are normalized as attractive, while blackness is either erased or represented as inferior.
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Arlt, Veit. "The Union Trade Company and Its Recordings: An Unintentional Documentation of West African Popular Music, 1931–1957." History in Africa 31 (2004): 393–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0361541300003569.
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This paper introduces a unique collection of roughly 700 historical recordings of African popular music generated by a Swiss trading company, which today is located at the archives of mission 21 (formerly Basel Missioin) in Basel. The music was recorded and distributed by the Union Trade Company of Basel (UTC) during the 1930s and 1950s in the Gold Coast and Nigeria. The collection represents a rich resource for the study of African history and cultures and caters for the growing interest shown by social historians of Africa in everyday life and accordingly in leisure activities and consumption.As music and dance undoubtedly play an important role in African social and religious life, they have received much attention and there is a longstanding tradition of ethnomusicological research that has led to a great number of sound collections. The historian interested in the “modern” and “postmodern” or in popular culture, however, tends in many cases to be frustrated by the material contained in these archives. The ethnographic collectors often showed a blind eye to the modernizing forces within the African musical cultures they researched and concentrated on documenting what they perceived as the “original” or “traditional.” Furthermore the collection and documentation of the popular music of the day was rarely on the agenda of national research institutions and archives in postcolonial Africa. In the case of Ghana at least three initiatives have resulted in important collections of music that go beyond a narrow ethnographic documentation. The first, by Prof. Kwabena Nketia at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Ghana, features a mixture of field recordings and a few commercial records. The others focus specifically on the commercial and popular. These are the Gramophone Records Museum in Cape Coast, discussed below by its founder Kwame Sarpong and the Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation (BAPMAF) of John Collins in Accra.
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Layne, Glenda-Rose. "Honouring Caribbean Folk Cultures: A Personal Reflection." Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry 11, no. 3 (January 6, 2020): 92–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.18733/cpi29506.
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Drawing on my considerable knowledge of the field, this essay examines key components of the intangible cultural heritage of several Caribbean countries. It maps pictures of cultural similarities which can be traced to their roots in traditional sub-Saharan, African cultures. The article demonstrates that oral African cultural traditions derived from a rich cultural heritage are shared by the former Anglo and Francophone, Caribbean colonies. The article suggests that the cultural similarities in the folk culture, help Caribbean people to identify with each other as members of the larger African diaspora. Furthermore, the article also explores possible roles of synergy theatre, digitization and animation as mechanisms to maintain and retain the folk culture, once disseminated exclusively by our oral cultural traditions.
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Oduor, Peter Lee Ochieng. "Inculturation Methodology as the Medium towards the Formulation and Establishment of an African Ecclesiology of Ubuntu." East African Journal of Traditions, Culture and Religion 3, no. 2 (July 29, 2021): 19–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.37284/eajtcr.3.2.369.
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The emergence of ecclesiology scholarship in recent theological discourse has exposed the various approaches that ecclesiology has been studied as a distinctive discipline. The traditional ecclesiological approach has prioritized the scholarship of ecclesiology from the perspective of specific denominational orders. There has also been an approach of ecclesiology that revolves around the perspective of some renowned theologians on the basis of their affiliation to their respective church organizations. The most recent approach has been the global ecclesiology that prioritizes the concept of contextualization while looking at ecclesiological discourse from distinct sociocultural-geographical contexts. Three geographical regions hold a wealth of significance by virtue of the global trajectory of Christianity towards the global South: Asia, Africa and Latin America. African ecclesiology plays a critical role in this arrangement and is a major contributor to global ecclesiology. In this understanding, it is imperative for the pursuit of an African ecclesiology to appreciate the concept of Ubuntu as a definitive expression of the African identity. The problem is the methodology of ecclesiological scholarship in Africa that ignores the significance Ubuntu has and resultantly births a foreign ecclesiology to the indigenous African population. It is important to acknowledge that the approach of ecclesiology that will thrive in Africa is nothing less than an Ubuntu ecclesiology that prioritizes community and relationships reminiscent of our traditional African portrait as foundational pillars for her establishment. The formulation and establishment of an African friendly ecclesiology of Ubuntu can only be facilitated by the usage of the inculturation method of theology. This methodology accords due consideration to the African heritage with regard to their culture, spirituality and religious background emphasizing the values from traditional Africa that are helpful to Christian life and condemning those practices that are non-Christian in nature.