Some have speculated that the root of Africa 's inability to be as successful as the western countries is African culture. Culture is defined as the shared set of assumptions, values, and beliefs of a group of people by which they organize their common life. Culture is both a process and an intuition. Roots of a culture lie within families, schools, music, art, and sociopolitical institutions. Each culture is difficult to describe in detail because there are so many aspects to it. There is an iceberg concept of culture, the majority of it cannot be seen. Surface culture includes languages, accents, behavior, food, dance, arts, physical appearances, rules, and regulations. Deep culture includes much more: such as value systems, emotions, attitude towards elders, class distinction, and socials norms. African cultures are changing to accommodate to western ways. Oral traditions are transitioning to written. Globalization encourages the homogenization of society and civilization, the world is becoming a global village. As English is becoming the dominant language in the world, many countries are teaching their children English in schools instead of their native languages. As a result, the native languages are dying out and the children begin to disassociate with their home cultures in favor for western culture. Africans are raised differently than westerners, instead of being independent individuals they are taught to be interdependent members of a community made by
A debate ensures on a proper definition of Africana and it extends to culture. There are discrepancies between various Africana Studies scholars on the exact definition. Wade Nobles, defined culture as “a general design for living and patterns for interpreting reality.” Based on the Kawaida Theory of culture, he describes culture as a “scientific construct” and explains it in a tertiary model. In the first two levels, it includes behaviors or patterns that are developed in reality. Furthermore, he defines the two levels; the primary consist of what he calls “cultural factors” and the secondary level as “cultural aspects”. The third level involves expressing the behaviors such as language or ideas. That is where the differences in culture can
Dance has always been the focal point in which Africans are able to let free through movements of emotion. In this essay I will discuss the history of African Dance and its importance to the African Culture. Also will be discussing the general information of African dance, the different types of African dance and the ones that I like the most. Dance in the African culture is something that cannot be taken advantage of in the African Culture because it holds such a strong meaningful moment at the time of any occasion.
Drums have always had a significant role in culture. The drum serves as the pulse of many nations and peoples and has historically had a dominant role in many of the rituals and ceremonies of the African, Latin American, and American Indian cultures.
commands her to rise to her feet and tells her it is time to go and slowly she
There is no doubt that African Americans have a rich cultural background and history like the many different ethnic groups who settled in the New World, whose origins lie in another country. For this reason, America was known as the melting pot. However, the backgrounds of each of these cultures were not always understood or, in the case of African Americans, accepted among the New World society and culture. Americans were ignorant to the possibility of differences among groups of people until information and ideas started to emerge, particularly, the African retention theories. This sparked an interest in the field of African culture and retention in African Americans. However, the study of African American culture truly emerged as a result of increased awareness in America, specifically through the publication and findings of scholarly research and cultural events like the Harlem Renaissance where all ethnicities were able to see this rich historical culture of African Americans.
Culture is one of the most relevant elements that can define not only a society but also a country’s cumulative beliefs and system. Often noted as the origins of a country, culture is definitive in the sense that it harbors all the elements that can provide justification on the traditions and norms set by the society for its members. More often than not, the society members follow norms in order to create a harmonious community, and the beliefs and the traditions serve as the poles or grounding rules for each member to follow. Culture is very dynamic in the way that it can change over a variety of foreign influences but what is permanent about it is that original elements about it often lingers with the influences, therefore making it multi-faceted and broad. More importantly, culture serves as an individual and unique trait each society has, and therefore sets it apart from other countries and other societies.
Define culture: Culture refers to beliefs, values and norms of a group of people from a particular ethnic or cultural background. Even though each culture has their unique characters, but there are elements common to all human cultures. By definition, this is what we call “cultural universal”. For instance, fear of supernaturals, food, clothing, money, education etc. There are ethnocentric people, who believe that their culture or ethnic group is superior to all others. The Nazi Germany back in 1931 wanted to transmit the idea that the German race were of a superior race than all races around the globe. More often than not this kind of cultural globalization can create conflict and tension among nations.
Before one starts to outline the traditional religion in Africa, one must first explain the way Africa is as a whole. Without the knowledge of the past combined with knowledge of culture, one would have a very vague, if any, understanding of traditional religion.
Consider how Africa’s geography has changed over time. What positive and negative effects would these changes have had on human populations on the continent? As their new homes changed they were able to adapt due to their innovative mindset. This can be attributed to the new found organization thanks to language. Allowing Africans to grow and expand throughout the entire continent. Other factors that can be attributed are the change in geography for some parts such as the Sahara drying out and swamps and lakes disappeared.
Having origins in slave trade of the Muslim Empire that conquered North Africa, are the Gnawa people. Located in Morocco, the Gnawa are an ethnic group that is a product of their ancestors that have come before them. Their culture is a hyprid of their West-African heritage, North-African surroundings, and Islamic faith. Their spritualism and animism has its roots in West-African traditional religions. Another use of the tern “Gnawa” refers to the people of Morocco that participate in the musical and ritual tradition of the lila. This nighty ritual celebrates God, his Prophet Muhammed, Sub-Saharan Africa and many other invisible entities. This complex liturgy is an all night ceremony that mixes music with colorful costumes, acrobatic dances and incense. Music and dance are ubiquitous of the lila, meaning “light”, with songs that comprise of a rich repitoire of ancient Afro-Islamic
From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern for the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as remembered traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art
In this course we have learned about all of the different cultures and their musical traditions. My favorite so far has had to be the west African music culture. They have a variety of different music, instruments, and dances to contribute to the reasons I liked this music culture so much. So, I have taken it upon myself to further my research on this particular musical group. I will compare and contrast a variety of different videos from the west African music culture and I will analyze how they connect to this culture.
Africa is a continent marked with a beautiful, yet violent and turbulent past. Its distinct culture is displayed through singularity in art, language, traditions, values and beliefs. However, unfortunately, much of ancient African heritage disappeared due to active elimination by slave traders and colonists. Even today, Africa is one of the most negatively judged continents on this Earth. Simply the word ‘Africa’ might conjure up images of ebola or war as compared to ‘North America’ which might evoke words like wealth, liberty and freedom. The source of modern discrimination and disdain towards the “less developed or third world countries” in Africa originated in 18th Century Europe - at the dawn of the slave trade. Contemporary writers, like Achebe, have taken up the challenge to confront these biases and falsehood ingrained in European society with the publication of African literature. A closer look at the culture and traditions explored in Things Fall Apart suggests that Nigeria and in a larger scale Africa was much more advanced, rich and complex than described in the writings of the colonial era.
Culture is the most basic cause of a person’s wants and behaviour. Growing up, children learn basic values, perception and wants from the family and other important groups.
Culture is the characteristics of a group of people defined by language, cuisine, religion social habits music and art. There are many different types of culture including western culture, eastern culture, African culture and many more. Culture is influenced by the groups of people that make up the country (Zimmermann, 2012). The term culture was first used by an English Anthropologist named Edward B. Tyler. It was first mentioned in 1871 in his book named ‘Primitive Culture’. He stated that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. Since then culture is the main focus of anthropology.