Cultures. African Culture - Research Paper Example

Cultures A culture refers to the characteristics of a group of people within the community. Culture is a characteristic of aspects such as religion, language, food, social conducts, music, and sculptures. The world constitutes different cultures like the western cultures, Italian culture, Eastern culture, Middle East culture, and African culture (Namulundah 22). This persuasive essay looks at the African culture and its significance. The African continent consists of two main cultures, which are the Sub-Saharan Africa and North African cultures. These cultures have a number of ethnic, tribes, social groups. One of the main features of this way of life is the large number of cultural groups where some nations can have twenty or more ethnic groups, and the variety of their principles. The African culture is varied and diverse. Like other cultures in the world, it has been obstructed upon by both external and internal forces, which in turn affect it negatively and positively. Their art, music, literature, and African cultural customs of Africa have motivated interest and admiration all over the world (Barakat79). The African continent has a rich custom of arts and crafts. Their arts and crafts observe manifestation in an assortment of leather arts, woodcarvings, brass, and other metal works. These art and crafts consist of sculptures, woodwork paintings ceremonial, pottery, religious ornaments, and other dresses. According to Barakat, African art must be innovative and in being revolutionary, the artists ought to be collective, functional and committed to their works (80). Barakat continues to note that art is socially functional within the society (81). The African culture places a lot of emphasis on the appearance and jewelry, which has endured an important individual accompaniment. Most pieces of this jewelry are crafted using cowry shells and metallic materials (Namulundah 23). In the same way, the masks are crafted using elaborate objects and are significant part of the culture. During ceremonies, these masks are used as symbols of spirits and ancestors, deities and mythological characters (Namulundah 23). Certain themes are significant in the African arts and crafts, and these themes keep on recurring from one art to another. They include men carrying weapons, women carrying children, men posing as hunters with animals on their shoulders. Pairs may symbolize ancestors, society founder, married people, or twins (Namulundah 23). The couple subject rarely displays intimacy of the married people. The mother carrying a child or children as argued by Namulundah shows strong aspiration of the African women to give birth to her own children (23). The theme is also an agent of woman mars and the communities as her children. On the other hand, the man carrying a weapon or animal subject represents principle and power (Namulundah 23). An alien or a stranger may be someone from other ethnic groups or somebody from a different nation, and accurate representation of the stranger signifies fairly better gap from the stranger (Namulundah, 23). Oral presentation is very important in African arts and crafts. African oral literature includes arts like origin fables, myths, history, folklore, lineage, folk therapies that are very common with the African continent. Initially this information was not recorded in written materials, but instead passed from one generation to another through word of mouth. Storytelling and singing are very common and highly appreciated in this society. Just like other human culture, the African religion and folklore represents different aspects of social issues within the African community (Namulundah 21). Similarly, like all other civilization and cultures, myths have been presented in different parts of the African continent. Religion and culture share space and deeply rooted in the African cultures. For example, the Ethiopian culture consists of their African culture and informs dietary customs together with rites and rituals (Namulundah 21). The pygmy myth states that, a chameleon, overhearing a strange voice in a tree, hacked its trunk and stream came out in an excessive flood that swept all over the kingdom (Namulundah 21). African Folktales also act an imperative role in several African communities. The African stories reflect their society by presenting the African cultural identity, and preserving their cultural practices. Through storytelling, the African culture presents its pride and identity. In this context, the stories are developed by the ethnic groups and for the ethnic groups. All the different ethnic groups in Africa have their own rituals and customs for story telling which in turn creates a sense of belonging within their own cultures. By others hearing these stories one gets to comprehend the cultural practices presented in them. For the communities hearing these stories they are able to take pride in their own uniqueness (Impey 23). The stories display many themes like the human needs and anxieties of a group, like love, wedding, and death. Folk stories are also understood as an instrument for entertainment and education. They offer a means where children can understand the physical and social surroundings. Every account has an ethical norm to teach individuals, as good will succeeds evil. For entertaining purposes, stories are established in strange, non-human domains. Frequently, the foremost character of the account would be a speaking animal or rather unnatural instance might happen to main character that is human. Although, folktales are for amusement, they bring awareness of belonging and satisfaction to African communities (Impey 24). There are different types of African stories and they include stories like, the animal tales, and the daily tales. The animal tales are mainly ogre tales and trickster tales. They present an animal with same personality or responsibility in the story so the audience does not have to get concerned with its characterization. The tales present themes like food shortage, escaping from death, engagement, and family issues (Barakat83). These stories are usually narrated before villagers who would gather around to listen to at the market place of village square. They also have a given structure to follow which the storyteller adhered to during the process of storytelling. They also had their own music that reflected their ways of life and most of them borrowed features of the western and Italian cultures (Barakat83). African beliefs or religious conviction includes several beliefs like animism, divine beliefs, enchantment, and Shamanism. Other religions are also manipulated, but not entirely taken over by contemporary religions like Islam and Christianity, which are frequently embraced to the main conviction systems, and customary rituals. Contemporary religions such as Christianity and Islam still have a big number of customary adherents (Barakat84). The African had their own clothes, which were mainly worn by their women. Like the Ethiopian clothes were made of cotton and about 90 meters. The Zulu women wore traditional beads together with modern clothes adapted from the western cultures (Namulundah 68). Most of the attires worn reflected their religious traditions like the Muslims wore cloths reflecting the Muslim traditions. Most of the African food comprised of a mixture of fruits, grains vegetables, milk, and meat. They also prepared yams and cassava, which formed the basis for daily meals. Vegetables and meat stews are very popular. The Arabs, Europeans and Indians who migrated to Africa have also influenced the kind of food consumed in the region (Namulundah 74). Different languages can be traced in the different ethnic groups in the African cultures. In this context people speak several languages. The languages and the dialects spoken in this region do not have great importance because some are just spoken by very few individuals within the context, while others are spoken by very many people like the Swahili and Bantus (Barakat 85). Conclusively, Africa has an interesting cultural tradition. This essay presents a picture of how varied the cultural practices are in terms of art and craft, clothing, food, language, folk tales and stories. Therefore, there is a complex pattern of cultural beliefs and practices in African, which needs to be investigated. African sense of value includes the sense of communal life or heritage, senses of good human relation, sense of hospitality, sense of sacred religion, sense or respect to the authorities and elders, language use and lastly sense of time. Works cited Barakat, Halim. The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State. California: University of California Press.1993. Print. Impey, Angela. “Popular Music in Africa" in Ruth Stone, ed., The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 1, Africa: 415-37.New York: Garland Publishing. 1998. Print. Namulundah, Florence. The Bukusu of Kenya: Folktales, Culture and Social Identities. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic. 2011. Print. Read More