MY AFRICA..!! HISTORY, CULTURE AND TRADITION..

The earliest African people relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering, until the first African civilization was first developed in Egypt, along the Nile River.  The location of the river, combined with the area's ability to sustain agriculture, meant that civilization flourished here for more than 3,000 years. Africa was comprised of village-based communities, which in addition to agriculture discovered keeping livestock such as sheep and cattle.  Ironworking was introduced to sub-Saharan people in the fourth century, allowing them to make the tools, machinery, and weapons that allowed African civilization to progress.
The city of Carthage ruled the western Mediterranean until it was conquered by the Roman Empire in 146 BC.  At that point, North Africa's coastal strip was under the control of Rome and Byzantium until the Arabs moved in, spreading their language, religion, and culture, in the seventh century.  To this date, Islam has a major influence on the continent of Africa.
From 800 to 1600 BC, regional empires rose and fell along the Niger River, where ivory, gold, nuts, and slaves formed the basis for trade.  One of the most long-lasting empires was the Benin kingdom, which ruled in the area from the 13th century to the 19th century.  In some places, religious leaders also served as kings.
From 900 BC on, people spread to the towns and cities of the east coast, from Somalia to Zanzibar, resulting in the Swahili culture.  Today, the language of Swahili remains an important language in east, central, and southern Africa.
As settlements were developed, the people of Africa discovered arts, crafts, and other creative pastimes.  Oral narrative was used to preserve history and culture.
From 1500 AD to about the mid-1990s, Africa was dominated by other countries that colonized it, including Portugal, Great Britain, Belgium, France, Italy, and Germany.  The influx of these European nations brought Christianity to the continent.  During this time slaves were shipped to North America, South America, and Arab regions of Africa.
Colonization continued until the end of both World Wars, at which point the countries of Africa began to gain independence.  While most countries on the continent were independent by the 1960s, the last country to become independent, Namibia, didn't do so until 1990.
Because of the history of colonization, African culture is a mix of traditional ritual, language, and religion, mixed with European influences.  Today many languages are spoken on the continent of Africa, and just about every world religion is represented.

 MY AFRICA.

Africa is divided into a great number of ethnic cultures. The continent's cultural regeneration has also been an integral aspect of post-independence nation-building on the continent, with a recognition of the need to harness the cultural resources of Africa to enrich the process of education, requiring the creation of an enabling environment in a number of ways. In recent times, the call for a much greater emphasis on the cultural dimension in all aspects of development has become increasingly vocal. During the Roman colonization of North Africa,(parts of Algeria, Libya, Egypt and the whole of Tunisia) provinces such as Tripolitania became major producers of food for the republic and the empire, this generated much wealth in these places for their 400 years of occupation. During colonialism in Africa, Europeans possessed attitudes of superiority and a sense of mission. The French were able to accept an African as French if that person gave up their African culture and adopted French ways. Knowledge of the Portuguese language and culture and abandonment of traditional African ways defined one as civilized. Kenyan social commentator Mwiti Mugambi argues that the future of Africa can only be forged from accepting and mending the sociocultural present. For Mugambi, colonial cultural hangovers, pervasive Western cultural inundation, and aid-giving arm-twisting donors are, he argues, here to stay and no amount of looking into Africa's past will make them go away. However, Maulana Karenga states:
Our culture provides us with an ethos we must honor in both thought and practice. By ethos, we mean a people's self-understanding as well as its self-presentation in the world through its thought and practice in the other six areas of culture. It is above all a cultural challenge. For culture is here defined as the totality of thought and practice by which a people creates itself, celebrates, sustains and develops itself and introduces itself to history and humanity..

MY AFRICA.


African Tradition is expressed through many different art forms, such as music, dance, art, sculpture and beadwork.
These traditions are deeply ingrained into the whole African culture.
Many African languages are “tone languages,” meaning that pitch level determines meaning.

Oral Tradition

Oral tradition is very important in African culture, as it insures the passage of cultural practices from one generation to another.
Listening is an equally important skill, which has been perfected by the traditional oral practices. Numerous songs and dances have been transmitted by word of mouth.

Music and Poetry in African Traditions

Naturally, singing is very important to the African society because the melody and rhythm follow the intonation of the song text. The songs are often sung in call-and-response form.
In West Africa, a griot is a praise singer or poet who possesses a repository of oral tradition passed down from generation to generation. They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents.
Music is a form of communication and it plays a functional role in African society. Songs accompany marriage, birth, rites of passage, hunting and even political activities. Music is often used in different African cultures to ward off evil spirits and to pay respects to good spirits, the dead and ancestors.
Although the musical styles and instruments vary from region to region, there are some common forms of musical expression. The most significant instrument in African music is the African drum. It expresses the mood of the people and evokes emotion. The beat of the African drum is the “heartbeat of the community” and its rhythm is what holds the dancers together.
Dance is an integral part of the African culture, and it utilizes symbolic gestures, masks, costumes, body painting and props to communicate. The dance movements can be simple or complex with intricate actions including fast rotation, ripples of the body and contraction and release. Dance is used to express emotion, whether joyful or sorrowful and it is not limited to just the dancers. Often spectators will be encouraged to join in.

Dancer wearing traditional African mask

Traditional African Masks

The African masks that are used in dances have religious, ceremonial and functional origins. The artist who carves the mask will ceremonially purify himself and offer prayers to his ancestors for guidance before he begins the actual carving of the mask.
The African mask represents a spirit and it is believed that the spirit possesses the dancer as they wear the mask. The chosen dancer goes into a trance-like state in order to receive guidance and wisdom from the ancestors. The dancer will utter and moan the messages received and a wise man, who accompanies the dancer will translate the message.

Art

Although music and dance are extremely important African traditions and are very common forms of communication, many African people express themselves in other art forms as well.

Zulu woman wearing intricate bead work only her husband would understand

The Zulu people are well known for their intricate beadwork. The colour of each bead carries a specific meaning. The beads have been used to carry messages known as “ucu,” a Zulu term loosely translated as “love letters”.
It is an African tradition for young girls to send a boy a beaded bracelet of different colours. The boy will court her for a while and at the appropriate time, he will ask her the meaning of the beads.
Art and sculpture are prevalent in African culture, and the most common themes depict a couple, a woman and child, a male with a weapon or animal, or a “stranger.”
Couples are usually freestanding figures of the same size, representing the importance of “two as one.” A male and female couple in African art usually depicts strength and honour rather than love and intimacy, as it is uncommon for African men and women to publicly display their affection.
A mother and child couple can represent “mother earth” and her people or the strong bond between mother and child.
The male figure with a weapon or animal, represent honour to departed ancestors. African men are often honoured in warfare and there is a great emphasis on weaponry in African art, as it depicts survival and power.
When the stranger is represented in African art, it usually depicts someone from a foreign country or tribe that is not welcomed.

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