Demonizing African Cultures: Internally
Just at the mention of the continent we all have a somewhat similar thought — wild animals prowling or lazing by the waterhole, rich colourful cuisines, beautifully patterned kitenge wear and let’s not forget the vibrantly vigorous dances and music. African countries have been considered to have the richest and most diverse cultures in the world. These diverse cultures are celebrated across the planet, even to the point of some aspects being neatly integrated into the cultures of non-African people. However, this same jubilation of the cultures isn’t displayed as much within the continent as it is outside it, and the big question is, why?
‘Of course we celebrate our cultures within! I wear my kitenge skirt at least once every fortnight.’ Don’t get me wrong, we do celebrate our diversity. Whether it’s during Independence Day, Cultural week at school or Music festival. Physically, we openly celebrate our Africanism, but rarely do we do so verbally.
“We are cheap people”’, “Don’t buy the local one’s, most are fake.”, “We are often slow, it’s just our way.”, “African leaders are so corrupt, ‘ni kawaida, tushazoea’ (it’s common, we are used to it)”. Bad mouthing our African culture and anything African has become so common it’s basically a reflex. We don’t even realize how often we say it, that we are dumbfounded by any positive news about our countries.
How quick are you to jump onto the ‘they are corrupt, let’s complain about them’ talk, ‘these movies are so poorly created, let’s belittle them’ conversation or my personal favourite, ‘these traditions are so outdated, lets bash them’ discussion. We are quick to wear our ‘Proudly Kenyan’ t-shirts or wear our Nigerian-flagged beaded bracelet, that we don’t even notice how we are even quicker to jump onto the ‘what African trait are we complaining about today’ train.
In a world where the negatives, though few, outshine the positives, how much good happening in this same ‘poor and corrupt’ continent regularly gets swept under the rug?
Last year alone during the beginning of the dreaded pandemic, over 50 African inventions helped curb further spread of the Coronavirus. From Senegal’s ‘Doctor car robot’, which was designed to lower contamination risks from patients to caregivers, to Ghana’s ‘Solar powered hand-washing sink’, that ensures you wash your hands for the required 25seconds recommending by WHO.
Local innovations and inventions come up every day. M-Pesa, the world’s leading mobile money transfer application, was founded here in Kenya. Today, countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe enjoy the fruits of this African bred invention. Young Kenyan software engineers created Kweli: a Blockchain software for Digital Identity that will enable secure digital transactions in a privacy preserving way for Africans locally and in the diaspora (it’s a secure digital ID).
I’m not telling us to pretend that it’s all sunshine and rainbows, of course terrible things happen in Africa. But why don’t we speak about the positives too, the world already has enough critiques.
If this is the continent that was officially declared polio free last year, and singlehandedly carried the pandemic with the Jerusalema dance, then adding a dash of positivity into the conversations about our countries and cultures should be simple. Our African cultures encourage pushing through, ubuntu and creativity, so what positive African aspect will you talk about today?
