AFRICAN CULTURE: ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION – WHAT’S THE WAY FORWARD? (Part I)

By Tega Ezekiel Ughara – 19th July, 2020

Africa is the oldest continent on Earth, the cradle of civilization and has been a place of refuge in trying times.

So how did Africa got it wrong? Some say Africa is losing her culture owing to the impact of colonialism. But I am of the opinion that we should not place blame on the colonial masters. It is all our fault, Africans think they know it all, they see their tradition as uncivilized.

The Europeans also colonized India, China and some other nations of the world and these nations are still maintaining their cultural heritage till date. For instance, in Africa our wives call us by our names or even call us baby, which is against the African tradition (doctrine) and they call their pastors Mama or Papa, yet we do not see anything wrong about that. To me that is another sign of neocolonialism. They do not degrade themselves that way in China, India and other nations of the world.

We duplicate marriages (we get married multiple times), after getting married traditionally, we go for Church wedding thereby getting married twice unknowingly and degrading our tradition in the process. This is not done in India, China and other nations of the world except Africa “and we think say na open eye,” it is a pity. So we should not blame the Europeans, it is all our fault. In China, India, etc they do not believe in western tradition, after their traditional wedding, they do not undergo Church wedding again, because they know that Church wedding is the European traditional wedding and moreover it was in a traditional wedding in Cana that Jesus Christ performed his first miracle by transforming water into wine. When the Christians in China, India, etc get married traditionally they only go to Church for their thanksgiving but in Africa the reverse is the case.

Having said that, I would like to advise our people to maintain their traditions like the Indians, Chinese, and some other nations of the world that can reach God through their traditional religions and still maintain their norms and values till date, though there are Christians there too.