Africa in outline 3
Africa in general
I have already wrote a big summary about Afrika, but now I am going to tell about the western part’s characteristics.
(What is) like the life?
I usually ask people if what they do in their free time, what they like? They like watching movies – they say. And what kind of films? Nigerian. And why? Because it is told there what like is the life! Tell me an example, please. For example how you can find out if your husband cheats on you and so on.
Nigeria
So they can see how it feels when their best friend betrays and robs them, causes them difficulties. Well, Nigeria is a good school for life. Life is like this there, accordingly it is the same anywhere else in Africa. Hard world.
It is also happend at my host family in Burkina Faso that they gave advancement to the master who naturally disappeared after that and caused them difficulties. In this way roof will never be on the house. ’Neither money, neither beize’, ( I mean: roof.) as the hungarian proverb says.
Nigerians are not liked either, here in Gambia, because they commit crime, they decieve
people. However everyone admits that they are very smart and fast. Either I do.
Nigeria in a little traffic
Work
Foreign teachers are mainly imported to Gambia. They come here alone to work to get free from their family. So they don’t have to support their whole family i.e. other 20 relatives, who do nothing. However if a Gambian undertook this (teacher) position he would have to support that 20 people in his family because he couldn’t tell a lie at home that he doesn’t get enought money, he spends it for renting a flat etc.,. Since they see how much he recieves.. the village is small. But the salary is not enought for that 20 people. So rather they don’t go to work as a teacher. It is an interresting way of thinking whatever happens. If I won’t get into a better situation why shoud I sweat for the rest lazy pople?
Guinea-Bissau – waiting for water in thecapital city
One of the family members used to be a police officer who explained the letters of the word „police” this way: „polite, obedient, loyal, intelligent, courtesy, efficient”. I whis it would be like this.
Education
In general we deal with the dark side of the colonization, however if we see it from the europeans’ point of view there were a civilizational sense of mission in the Europeans and they go there with their own value system f.e. to Africa. They thought, they supposed that Africa waits for evangelism so they tried to naturalize such a structure there what was strange to the local culture. There is room for debate if it was good or bad…but time may have proved their right, as education is the only way out from poverty in Africa today.
I gave a lecture with slide-projector in Gambia
If do they need to have education, more comfort, healthcare system, clear water, less epidemic?
Order? So there is given less possibility for the „vendetta”-type blood-feud. Anyway there is enought place for the vengeance in their legends and in their everyday life untill today.
School
Ultimately I borrowed a school book and there was asked to pay attenction of „beware of book piracy” on its reverse side.
Chiken is on the road – Gambia
But let’s tell that, if someone bought a false one how does he/she get to know about this warning? Or if the warning is also on it, it is a good imitation.
Conversely it fulfills its original function in theory because you (can) decide if you want it like this or not. How it is questionable for me, too, because a little photo is attached to their book titled Social and environmantal study, which tries to teach the north-south direction, but this photo interpretes badly the text, so we shouldn’t wonder that they won’t have a clue about the north and south.
Therefore the problem is not caused by the piratical edition but the book was written poorly originally.
And I don’t want to show further again but if neither the author, nor the teacher knows it, what comes out of that??? So that’s all that there is, what we can see, if we go beyond the surface and the stereotypes.
Senegal – scene in the kitchen
Usually the students don’t get homework but in turn once a family memeber came home, he/she got the task to collect all presidens and capitals of 30 countries (nem akarok nagyon beleszólni, de esetleg meg lehetne említeni, hogy afrikai vagy európai országokra gondolsz..). I understand the latter but the leadears are totally unnecessary, that doesn’t add anything to their knowledge, when even they haven’t got a clue about where Europe is situated. There are taught needless „grains of sand”, that is endless. This is unnecessary and impossible. Instead they should learn about the desert’s laws, characteristics. Well that’s all about it.
Model for big familie
Family, kids
I experienced this in several places that the parents are never together with their children, don’t play and I didn’t either see the warm relation between men and women, that they would huddle up against, perphaps they would hug each other. Therefore I looked for public opinions about its reason. More people admitted this but only one person succeded to say reasons, when I asked about it. He/she told if you play with them, he/she meant with the children, the other people thinks they are silly.
Going to the church
According to the other reason if you degrade to the children you won’t be respected as a parent. They conceived it that usually the grandmother acts the part of person, who takes care of the children. Well, it is interresting…
The grandmother cooks, washes the cloths, feeds. The grandfather disciplines so he will be the authority in the family. In turn they achives that the kids are going to fear (and respect) from their father. So violence – respect – fearness… with this I may have described the modern political and social structure of Africa. It is quite rough…
Coming of Islam
Anyway I know that the islam arrived here with the merchants at first but it follows they gain economical power, after that they worn themselves into political power to. Then the next step is that they displace the old leaders and they rises to power. Generally it happens in the following way: they state about the cheef, the boss, he wanted to kill them. Therefore they declare dzsihad against him and burn everything around him, because now they own not just the econiomical, but the religious support as well to execute this. Compared to this, Europeans just carried slaves at the very start, they didn’t encroached, they even didn’t send missionaries.
Anyway the coming of islam was also helped at the end of the 11th century, that they gained economical power by the trade. Therefore the people started to close, to believe in the islam religion’s supernatural power, that makes people wealthier. Finally they also reimbursed (it comes again I have already written that they adopt religion because of interest).
Dzsudzsu magic close to the body, Gambia
Colonization
So, I usually ask people about the colonization, f.e. did it ever have a positive effect? In genreral they say yes to the education because before there wasn’t education at all. But lots of people also criticize it. They say that Europeans created it only for the colonizer bureaucrats have local reinforcements, f.e. writer.
Now I would transale it as they educated for the reason locals have a job.
As other positice affect was told that the country became international so it got a view for other cultures, other technical civilizations.
Benin, no for the slavery
Anyway if we take a look to the slavery objectively, it had excisted before on local level, too. The neighbour tribes’ and villages’ residents were forced to be slave, they have them worked on the lands generally. Women were raped, animals were sent away, men were killed. This was the situation before the white people arrived. So there was nothing new in this, just that, they were taken into an unkown country.
I just add to this that now the same thing is happening. They are in the same slavery, just it is us who knocks on the frontdoor of the factory. In the point of Africa they try to knock into Europe, catch up us, even to get to an unkown land. They sell themselves and work day and night for little money, that it is still better than the uncertain future and exposure to permanent danger at home. However they don’t confess it in this context.
Well, as I read their history book, it is written that they had evolved states long before the colonization, too. The „chef-system” was born with the administration, so the „boss structure”, what reportedly operated wonderfully. But then there is only one question I have. If 50 years ago, when these african countries achived their independece, why didn’t they returend to this wonderful system?
Africa needs support?
Education, history
The missionaries appeared only after the slavery trade ended. They purchased land, built schools, so in any way we swear at this system, there were people who got energy into Africa – let’s says it like that – to make it suitable for the existance in the new structure.
The bosses have to be payed down to send their kids to school! It is absurd! But this tumbled around 1846, because the bosses usually sent someone else indstead of their own children, becuase they were afraid of killing them by the white people.
Gambia – the elections is the get-out?
They weren’t just taugth to write and read by the missionaries but embroidery, too. The monks took care about the poor and the sick people in their residual free time as well. So they didn’ just teach writing and maths but also practical things! And now they throw this to our head? If they had learnt that before Africa wouldn’t be in a situation like this today.
Taboos
There were some taboos in their old systems such as the women shouldn’t eat black pigeons because they won’t have milk. Anything they did on Saturday they had to repeat. However I guess these habits can be new if they think about days.
They don’t call anyone loudly at nigth because the bad ghosts get to know that person’s name and they will haunt him/her.
Can the youth make change?
So the name has always had magical power. If someone owns the name he/she owns that person, too. That’s the reason that everyone’s name is secret when he/she gets it. By the magic’s appearance in Europe, the insider people had also got an own secret name with. And if somonene answered for the calling of this secret name he/she surely were going to die.
Samans
In Western Africa is typical that people vistit the „marabu”, so the local woodoo saman to ask curse for their displeased acquaintances. It doesn’t matter if that person is poor, the main thing is he/she shouldn’t succeed what he/she is doing etc. The woodoo works, that’s why Africa is poor. It is interresting for me why they don’t ask well-being for themselves instead, why they ask bad for others.. this tells a lot about their culture.
New Africa? The money would solve the problems? No!
So than you shouldn’t care about others are OK as well if I am OK too, so it wouldn’t be disturbing. So it seems the base turn of mind is that we degrade people around us. Of course it is not only true in Africa.
Talismans, curing
The marabus, let’s tell the samans, creat the so called „dzsodzso”. These are generally crops packed in goatskin or islamic texts because of extension of this religion. So they were quasi talismans what people kept around their waist or arms and this protected and cured them if it was needed.
But these are the latest ones, so not the traditionals but they were samans of the islam.
For example, my host’s sister suffered from anemia and she couldn’t be cured by the western methods. So she visited a traditional saman who bathed her and prepared her a medicine. Of course she got worse, therefore she had to sit into boiled water. This helped, so finally she recovered.
There also were taboos such as it is banned to use wooden tooth-cleaner during the night, at a meeting or at sunset. It is also banned to frighten the kids because they are usually be collected by slave collectors during this.
Gambia, remedy
There were also a tribe where it was banned to touch an aligator. Well, I am curious about if who tends to palpate them.. but it is obvious these are quasi statute books and they regular the cohabitation. They are in taboo form because in this way superstitious people are going to observe the rules. The true is they don’t really care with common sense.
In South Africa, if someone wants to cure himself from AIDS he has to rape a virgin girl, or to eat albinos in Tanzania.. But why them? Why is it easear to kill someone instead of putting up a condom? In Congo you need to eat pigmies for this wonderful healing. Madness! I am telling it serously.
Senegal, albino man, but why them?
But the only thing I cannot understand why everyone continues to do these habits despite noone gets better from the AIDS sickness? Why? Isn’t the stupidity immortal? Not even here.
Sad.
