DOCSLIB.ORG

Discovering Africa's Rich History & Culture

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Discovering Africa's Rich History & Culture Discovering Africa’s Rich History & Culture The Uplifting Africa Program 3/9/2021 Dogon Dance of the people of West Africa Photo Credit: CulturesofWestAfrica.com Windila Balbone The Uplifting Africa Program https://www.upliftingafrica.org The Eurasia Center Discovering Africa’s Rich History & Culture How does most of Western media portray the African continent? I think the answer is pretty clear: hungry kids, savannah, safaris to see the elephants, giraffes, lions - nothing but nature, misery, and hunger. Yet does the image of Africa and Africans lie only in poverty, hunger, and the view of the Safari? Africa is a continent rich in history and culture, diversity of languages, ethnic groups, natural resources that the Western world fails to show and learn about. The African continent is considered to be the oldest inhabited continent on earth where the human species originated seven million years ago. The African continent is a continent with an extremely high linguistic diversity with an estimate of 1500-2000 African languages. The country of Nigeria alone has 250 languages, one of the greatest concentrations of linguistic diversity in the world (Greenberg, Joseph H. "The languages of Africa."). In recent years, African countries have become increasingly aware of the value of their linguistic inheritance. Language policies that are being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism. For example, all African languages are considered official languages of the African Union (AU). 2006 was declared by the African Union as the "Year of African Languages.'' African languages are divided into six different language groups: the Afroasiatic languages, the Nilo-Saharan languages, the Niger-Congo languages, the Khoisan languages, and finally, the Austronesian and Indo-European. This shows the richness of language diversity in the continent. Many Africans at a younger age already are bilingual or trilingual. Ancient Nok Culture Sculpture - Nigeria Another aspect of African richness is the culture that enriches the values and the identity of each country. Africa’s cultures and traditions are expressed mostly through music, art, dance, and sculpture. For example, music is a form of communication that plays a functional role in African society. Both traditional and modern afrobeat music relate to good spirits, the dead and ancestors (Marcel Griaule, Cultures of West Africa). In West Africa, a griot is a praise singer or poet who possesses an archive 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, current leaders, and members of a royal family. For many Africans, the elders' griots are storytellers. Africans might not have had notebooks to write history down, but through singing, dancing, and their art, the history of the continent was able to survive and live today through the generations. Dance is an essential part of the African culture, and it uses symbolic gestures, masks, costumes, body painting and props to communicate. The dance movements can be simple or complex with 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 (Marcel Griaule, Cultures of West Africa). Dogon Dance of the people of West Africa Photo Credit: CulturesofWestAfrica.com This is an example of traditional masked dance called the Dama masked dance of the Dogon people in West Africa usually accompanied by drummers, and other instruments. This is a beautiful activity that the African continent can share with the world. These cultural and traditional aspects of African countries are also integrated in touristic sites, monuments and more. The African Renaissance Monument in Senegal Photo Credit: NBC News When visiting an African country like Senegal for example, the African Renaissance Monument is a beautiful place to visit which reflects the history of the continent - its bravery and the fight and sacrifices many Africans led for independence and freedom from the colonial powers. Every single African country has a lot more to discover than the safari. Next time you decide to travel to Africa, also discover the culture and traditions, learn to admire the happiness of the people even when they are said to have little base on Western standards, learn something new about a tradition and maybe try it. Do not limit yourself to what you see in the media. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: an Annotated Bibliography
    Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography Volume 11 Prosody and Intonation in Non- Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Article 1 Bibliography 2009 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green Indiana University Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/ejab Part of the African History Commons, and the African Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Green, Christopher R. (2009) "Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography," Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography: Vol. 11 , Article 1. https://doi.org/10.17077/1092-9576.1010 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 11 (2009) Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages: An Annotated Bibliography Christopher R. Green, Indiana University Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Atlantic – Ijoid 4 Volta – Congo North 6 Kwa 15 Kru 19 Dogon 20 Benue – Congo Cross River 21 Defoid 23 Edoid 25 Igboid 27 Jukunoid 28 Mande 28 Reference Materials 33 Author Index 40 Prosody and Intonation in Non-Bantu Niger-Congo Languages Introduction Most linguists are well aware of the fact that data pertaining to languages spoken in Africa are often less readily available than information on languages spoken in Europe and some parts of Asia. This simple fact is one of the first and largest challenges facing Africanist linguists in their pursuit of preliminary data and references on which to base their research.
    [Show full text]
  • Anti-Black Racism and the Foreign Black Other: Constructing Blackness and the Sporting Migrant
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship Repository ANTI-BLACK RACISM AND THE FOREIGN BLACK OTHER: CONSTRUCTING BLACKNESS AND THE SPORTING MIGRANT BY MUNENE FRANJO MWANIKI DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Margaret Kelley, Chair Professor Tim Liao Associate Professor Moon-Kie Jung Associate Professor Monica McDermott ABSTRACT The popularity and globalization of sport has led to an ever-increasing black athletic labor migration from the global South to, primarily, the U.S. and Western European countries. While the hegemonic ideology surrounding sport is that it brings different people together and ameliorates social boundaries, sociologists of sport have shown this to be a gross simplification. Instead, sport is often seen to reinforce and recreate social stereotypes and boundaries, especially as it regards race and the black athlete in body and culture. At best we can think of sport as a contested terrain for both maintaining and challenging racial norms and boundaries. The mediated black athlete has thus always, for better or worse, impacted popular white perceptions of blackness broadly and globally. While much work has been done to expose the workings of race and racism in sport, studies have tended to homogenize black populations and have not taken into account the varying histories and complexities of, specifically, black African migrant athletes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Standardisation of African Languages Michel Lafon, Vic Webb
    The Standardisation of African Languages Michel Lafon, Vic Webb To cite this version: Michel Lafon, Vic Webb. The Standardisation of African Languages. Michel Lafon; Vic Webb. IFAS, pp.141, 2008, Nouveaux Cahiers de l’Ifas, Aurelia Wa Kabwe Segatti. halshs-00449090 HAL Id: halshs-00449090 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00449090 Submitted on 20 Jan 2010 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. The Standardisation of African Languages Language political realities CentRePoL and IFAS Proceedings of a CentRePoL workshop held at University of Pretoria on March 29, 2007, supported by the French Institute for Southern Africa Michel Lafon (LLACAN-CNRS) & Vic Webb (CentRePoL) Compilers/ Editors CentRePoL wishes to express its appreciation to the following: Dr. Aurelia Wa Kabwe-Segatti, Research Director, IFAS, Johannesburg, for her professional and material support; PanSALB, for their support over the past two years for CentRePoL’s standardisation project; The University of Pretoria, for the use of their facilities. Les Nouveaux Cahiers de l’IFAS/ IFAS Working Paper Series is a series of occasional working papers, dedicated to disseminating research in the social and human sciences on Southern Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • '.Kita. JT 'Pami "Yam" :*Tg Inhame /I'pamw/) the Cognat
    171 Tb word is alsv. trisyllabic in Principense,which has ma.’.kita . jT 'pami "yam" :*tg inhame /i'pamw/) The cognate stem for to eat" occurs in various African language groups, e.g. Se-er (Adamawa group) ^am "to eat". In Gullah there is <nyam> " <yam>, and L'illard (1972a: 118) refers to Krapp’s opinion that "present infantile <yum-yum> may be related to this word.". According to Alvarez Nazario (1961), the Gullah word also means ..potato" , which supports the view that the verb could be the etymon for the noun <yam> "type of edible tuber". The Cape Verde word is ‘pame . Alvarez Nazario gives examples of the occurrence of cognates in several Creoles. .1.3. Extension of Portuguese Meaning For some ST words, Portuguese has supplied the linguistic orm and the African substratum the area of reference. The ortuguese form thus ceases to be associated with its con- :eptual area and covers in ST the conceptual area which had ,een covered by an African linguistic form. As an instance, •tg mao (hand up to the wrist) - ST m® (covering the ifrican concept hand and arm up to the shoulder). In both ,i„i (Kwa) and Kongo (Bantu), two languages representing a „ajor substratum influence on ST , "hand" and "arm" are one concept, obi in 0ini and in K°n9°- There is always a degree of overlap in the criteria! attributes which the linguistic form had in Portuguese and those which it has in ST. In the case of mo , the part o the co' ceptual area up to the wrist is common to the concept labelled by Portuguese and the African languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Classification of the Languages of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea on the Basis of Lexicostatistics and Mutual Intelligibility
    African Study Monographs, 28(4): 181-204, December 2007 181 CLASSIFICATION OF THE LANGUAGES OF CAMEROON AND EQUATORIAL GUINEA ON THE BASIS OF LEXICOSTATISTICS AND MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY S. Beban Chumbow University of Yaounde I Gratien G. Atindogbe University of Buea Engelbert Domche University of Dschang Dieudonne Martin Luther Bot University of Douala ABSTRACT This work clusters genetically related speech forms in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, and determines to which speech forms within these clusters are sufficiently and mutually intelligible to be grouped together in order to ease harmonization and standardization. The analysis of the linguistic situation in the two countries revealed that while clustering the speech forms on the basis of genetic relations via lexicostatistics has been quite fruitful, clustering on the basis of mutual intelligibility of at least 85% does not seem to significantly reduce the number of speech forms. Intelligibility surveys and testing have not been carried out in many of the clusters. However, it is important to continue the exercise in order to ascertain the exact situation. Key Words: Cameroon; Equatorial Guinea; Classification; Lexicostatistics; Genetic relation; mutual intelligibility. INTRODUCTION This work is carried out within the context of the project on “Harmonization and Standardization of African Languages” initiated by the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), Cape Town, South Africa. The overall objective of the CASAS research project is “to cluster African speech forms into sets which display an 85% level of intercomprehension” as a first step to the development, based on the economics of scale, of large literate communi- ties. More specifically, CASAS is of the view that given evidence of a high level of mutual intelligibility between several speech forms, it should be possi- ble to harmonize the standardization of those languages, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Institut Für Ethnologie Und Afrikastudien Department of Anthropology and African Studies
    Johannes Gutenberg-Universität (JGU) Mainz Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Mainz Fachbereich 07 – Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien Department of Anthropology and African Studies Jahresbericht 2019 Annual Report 2019 Impressum Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien http://www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de Fachbereich 07 – Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Managing editors: Tom Simmert and Christine Weil Cover: Passing the future: on the shore of the “Eco Atlantic City” construction site, an artificial peninsula currently built in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo by Matthias Krings, September 2019. Print: Hausdruckerei der Universität Mainz CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 1 ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND AFRICAN STUDIES ............................... 3 Degree programmes offered at the department .............................................................................. 3 Publications of the department ....................................................................................................... 4 Research facilities in the department .............................................................................................. 6 Jahn Library for African Literatures ................................................................................................. 7 African Music Archives
    [Show full text]
  • Intergovernmental Conference on Language Policies in Africa
    LANGUAGE POLICIES IN AFRICA INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE POLICIES IN AFRICA Harare, Zimbabwe 17-21 March 1997 FINAL REPORT (revised) by Herbert Chimhundu (Rapporteur General / University of Zimbabwe) Unesco Web version edited by Karsten Legère INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE POLICIES IN AFRICA Harare, Zimbabwe, 17-21 March 1998 FINAL REPORT by Herbert Chimhundu (Rapporteur General / University of Zimbabwe) ©UNESCO 2002 Preliminary remarks The material enclosed in this web version of the forthcoming publication “Language Policies in Africa” was originally compiled by Herbert Chimhundu after the Harare conference in March 1997. At that time, Prof. Chimhundu was commissioned by UNESCO to write a report on the meeting and to compile the speeches and other documents. The manuscript that he subsequently submitted to UNESCO was left unattended until Director Noriko Aikawa (Intangible Heritage Unit of UNESCO) approached me in a letter dated February 6, 2001, where she expressed UNESCO’s wish to have the manuscript published as soon as possible. She suggested that both a publisher and funds for subsidising the publication be found. The latter was a rather difficult issue, since a number of potential donors who were contacted while I was in Namibia were not able to support the publication. Finally, some Norwegian colleagues from Oslo University responded positively. They were prepared to fund publication of the document in Namibia within the framework of the trilateral cooperation between Universities of Oslo, Zimbabwe and Gothenburg. In the meantime, the manuscript returned by UNESCO was thoroughly checked to make sure that the version to be submitted to potential donors and publishers was in a proper shape.
    [Show full text]
  • From Home to School: Bridging the Literacy Gap in L1 Wolof
    FROM HOME TO SCHOOL: BRIDGING THE LITERACY GAP IN L1 WOLOF CHILD LEARNERS OF L2 FRENCH IN SENEGAL by MOUSTAPHA FALL B.A., Beloit College, 2003 M.A., The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, 2005 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (French) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) January 2014 © Moustapha Fall, 2014 Abstract The relationship between first language (L1) literacy and second language (L2) learning hasincreasingly become an object of considerable study in the field of Second Language Acquisition. Whilenumerous studieshave been conducted on this issue in situations in which the first and second languages of literacy are related (Spanish and English: Cummins, 2000; Gonzalez, 1979; French and English Cziko, 1978), little research is currently available on how school children who are partially literate in their mother tongue learn an L2 successfully (Wagner, 1998). This research investigates the L2 French phonological awareness, decoding and comprehension skills of two groups of sixty L1 Wolof childlearners of L2 French in Senegal. Prior to learning French, one group developed early literacy skills in Arabic (the Qur’anic group), and the other groupdeveloped no literacy skills in Wolof or Arabic (the Non-Qur’anic group).Combining bothquantitative and qualitative methods, the data were collected through anodd-word-out instrument, a picture-word-identification and association instrument,a readingcomprehension instrument,
    [Show full text]
  • The Languages of Africa LIN 4930/6932
    The Languages of Africa LIN 4930/6932 . SSA 4930 . Spring 2012. T 7 T 7-8. WEIM 1084 Dr. Frank Seidel Hours: Tuesday, 3:00-3:50 Office: 496 Grinter Hall & by appointment Phone: 850-339-6337 e-mail: [email protected] COURSE DESCRIPTION There are close to two thousand indigenous languages, or one third of the world’s languages, spoken on the African continent, making for an extremely rich and complex linguistic environment. This course is intended as an introduction to the four main language families of Africa, and will present an overview of their component sub-groups, their history and geographical distribution, their characteristic linguistic features, including phonetic, phonological, morphological and syntactic features, keeping in mind the role of African languages in their respective societies. READINGS The main textbooks for this course are: 1) Childs, G. Tucker (2003). An introduction to African languages. John Benjamins Publishers. 2) Heine, Bernd & Derek Nurse (2000). African languages: an introduction. Cambridge University Press. GRADES Grades will be based on the following work: % Pop quizzes (5) 10 Assignments & projects: Homework problems 15 Short papers (3) 30 Test 1 15 Test 2 20 Participation (see below) 10 Total 100 The assignment of a final letter grade will be based on the following scale: A 92-100 B 81-84.9 C 71-74.9 D 61-64.9 A- 88-91.9 B- 78-80.9 C- 68-70.9 D- 58-60.9 B+ 85-87.9 C+ 75-77.9 D+ 65-67.9 E Below 58 You may consult the following website to see how the final letter grade is weighted with regard to overall GPA: www.registrar.ufl.edu/catalog/policies/regulationgrades.html A note on participation, class involvement, and classroom culture The classroom is where we will accomplish much of our work this semester and you are expected to be a contributing member of our classroom community.
    [Show full text]
  • The African Language E.Pdf (325.5Kb)
    PREFACE The present paper is the first in a series of papers whose primary aim is to provide information about development in African languages as they relate to Member States of the Organisation of African Unity.: ·. · · Much of what is happening in Africa today in the effort to promote African languages is little known outside the scholarly circles of Linguists. And yet it is clear that Africa inspite of its tremendous achievement politically still faces a linguistic problem created in the aftermath of colonial domination. Not only is the Continent still curved up linguistically int~ Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone blocs accor~ing to the former colonial power which is reflected in the continued predominance of colonial languages, but the Continent's own indigenous languages are still largely viewed negatively and unfavourably both within and outside the Continent. If Africa's attitude towards its languages is to be changed in favour of African languages, then the whole of Africa· stands to benefit . from the efforts that are being geared towards making people _ · sufficiently aware about developments taking place in Africa· in this vital sphere. Being the languages of the majority populations of Africa, African languages have always been and will continue to be' on the forefront of development. As viable tools of development we can no longer afford tq continue regarding them as . ,· inconsequential. Every African has therefore the responsibility ::- of ensuring that we develop t~e·right attitudes towards African··~ -~· languages, evolve and impl~in{mt the right policies th~~ wo~ld ;' · •. enhance their status and generally. rehabilitate them wi~hib, · the mainstream of all activities as Africa forges ahead towards the year 2000.
    [Show full text]
  • Institut Für Ethnologie Und Afrikastudien Department of Anthropology and African Studies
    Johannes Gutenberg-Universität (JGU) Mainz Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Mainz Fachbereich 07 – Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien Department of Anthropology and African Studies Jahresbericht 2017 Annual Report 2017 Impressum Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien http://www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de Fachbereich 07 – Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Managing editors: Franziska Reiffen and Christine Weil Cover: Photo by Tom Simmert, 1st October 2017. The photo shows the hand and smartphone of someone filming the performance of Rotimi Alakija, known as DJ Xclusive. It was taken at the New Afrika Shrine in Lagos, Nigeria during “Jimmy Jatt’s Jumpoff”, a show held every year in the night before independence day (1st October). Print: Hausdruckerei der Universität Mainz CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 1 ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND AFRICAN STUDIES ............................... 3 Degree programmes offered at the department .............................................................................. 3 Publications of the department ....................................................................................................... 5 Research facilities in the department .............................................................................................. 6 Jahn Library for
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Africa Online Handbook (Pdf; 86Kb)
    Online Academic Summer School 2020 SOAS University of London Understanding Africa Course Handbook Mode of Attendance: Full-time, Online Duration: 2 weeks SOAS Accredited: This course is worth 15 UK credits Programme Description This course provides participants with an overall understanding of the history, politics and culture of Africa. With a diverse range of sessions, from History, Pan-Africanism and Politics to Languages, Migration, and Music, the course gives an in-depth knowledge of the main academic areas of study regarding Africa. The course comprises a combination of lectures and interactive workshops, as well as museum visits and social events. This is a great opportunity given the prominence that Africa as a continent has gained over the past few years and the vision of Africa Rising, a continent with many job and investment opportunities. Also, within the Arts, we have seen an incredible rise of the presence of African artists in the international art circles which has been extremely stimulating and refreshing for an understanding of arts and cultures. Programme Schedule and Topics: • Pre-colonial Africa and its Kingdoms • The Colonial period • The Independences and Postcolonial Africa • Africa in the World: International Trade and relations • Overview of main Pan-African political institutions • Governance and Development in Africa • Religion in Africa • Contemporary Art in Africa • African languages and cultures (with an African country case study) • Migration and African Diaspora • Music in Africa Learning Outcomes On successful completion of the module, this course will: • Provide a broad coverage and an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Africa • Provide students with the key information and debates connected to the historical, political, economic and cultural evolution of Africa Assessment Each course is assessed by two online assessments (‘e-tivities’*) comprising of 30%, the remaining 70% is formed of a 2,500 word essay.
    [Show full text]