Africa Society 1998/2000

Commentary Canadian Journal of Family and Youth, 10(1), 2017, pp 481-495 ISSN 1718-9748 © University of Alberta http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index/php/cjfy Africa: Surface Differences, Spiritual Unities, 21st Century Survival Strategies Rev. Dr. Adenike Yesufu Rev. Dr. Adenike Yesufu is an Instructor at the Sociology Department at MacEwan University. She teaches Sociology of Family. She is a Certified Canadian Counselor (CCC) in Family Counseling. Adenike’s other area of interest is Gender. She has taught Sociology of Gender. Her doctorate research had a focus on Gender issues with special attention to African women living in Africa, their organizations and their activities in holistic peace issues, political and economic development, human rights, and environmental issues. In addition to her doctorate degree in International and Intercultural Studies from the University of Alberta. She possesses a University Certificate in Women Counseling (UCWC) from Athabasca University. Another area of interest which Adenike describes as her passion is Religion. She has a combined degree in Counselling and Christian Religious Studies. She has taught Sociology of Religion, Religions of the World and African Traditional Religions. Adenike is also involved in Cultural issues. She is a Peace Activist who has pursued extensively Peace Studies and is involved in UNESCO’s initiative in Promoting a Culture of Peace and Social Justice in the Community. Adenike is an African who is committed to Africa’s issues. She has taught The Art and Culture of Africa, History of West Africa at the University of Alberta. She is also a Member and past Board Member of The Africa Society. She is also heavily involved in the National Black Coalition of Canada (NBCC) and The Black History Month Celebration. Adenike is a Christian, an Ordained Clergy, a Deacon of the Anglican Communion of Canada. Adenike has been awarded two Significant Community Awards for contribution to the society. Adenike is a social critic, a Feature Article writer who focuses on various topics of social interest. She has published articles in academic journals and books. 481 Commentary Africa: Surface Differences There are usually two distinct views about Africa. The first group sees Africa as a land of one people. This set makes generalizations about everything African. It visualizes Africa, as a united land. The second group views Africa as a land of diversity but never of unity. This group emphasizes the diversity in social, political and even cultural contexts, but it never sees the unity. Paradoxically, Africa's uniqueness lies in her diversity and yet underlying uniformity or unity if you will, a complex combination which has been the source of her inner strength, which hopefully will shoot her out of her present doldrums and slumber to propel her jet force in the near future. The diversity of Africa is plain enough on the surface. No other continent has human diversity like Africa, yet there is a powerful unity that runs through all African societies, all African cultures, and all African peoples. Africa has no common traditional culture, no common language, no common religion and does not belong to a common race. There is no typical or average African. Different races are found in Africa: the Bushmanoid, short in stature with light yellow skins found scattered in areas of eastern and southern Africa, the Caucasoid peoples, medium to tall in stature with light to medium and pink skins, found in the extreme southern, north-eastern and northern Africa. There are also the Negroid people, found in almost all part of the continent and their skin colour range from black to dark brown to brown. In stature, they range from medium height to very tall. However, there are recent arrivals on the scene, the Mongoloid and the Pygmoid who are results of ethnic mixing both biologically and culturally. The skin of these range from white to yellowish. The other shades in between are as a result of the white man who though oppressed by the heat, mosquitoes, drink and at times fever was still man enough to want the African woman! 482 Commentary Africa, a multiracial continent with varying regions, with immense vastness and grandeur, a land of climatic extremes, a land of fabulous wealth is also an area of an incredible bleakness. No area in the world is more diversified politically than this region. What with her mélange of feudal monarchies, revolutionary Arab states, humanist social societies, tribal groups, traditional democracy, military overlords, "primitive systems", and yet in most ways, modern as conceived by the west, with the presence of industries, schools, universities and modern buildings similar to those found in the West. After all, she graduated from "underdeveloped" to "developing" not too long ago by virtue of being the largest consumer of Western culture, if there is any such thing and Western products as she continues to be penetrated by the multi and transnational corporations. Africa, the second largest continent on the globe, with a population currently surmised at 1,246,504,865 million according to World meters is made up of diverse ethnic, tribal and language groups speaking what has been described as a “Babel of 700 tongues.” There are “different kinds of Africa.” Her visage is as varied as much as her terrain. There is East Africa, which has been described as The Black Garden of Eden with scenery that is overpoweringly spectacular. It is the traditional and unchanged areas of game parks, where animals in their natural habitat have become almost peaceful co-tenants of the land with man, except for the occasional man-eating lions, tigers, and leopards which have been as described as the "psychopaths of the animal world". East Africa, the home of the Kikuyu and the Masai tribes, the veritable cattle raisers who have regard for their animals. They believe that no other tribe should have access to the animals because they are gifts from God Almighty, which they chose when offered the opportunity to choose. The white man, they claim, when confronted with the same opportunity, chose guns. Temperate East Africa, with its more congenial climate for the colonial overlords, is a major reason for their continued presence in Africa. Anthropologist have made dramatic discovery in this area which may lend credence to the fact that humanity might have 483 Commentary dawned here. This nevertheless seems too much for some people to bear and has generated a lot of controversy. No good can come from Africa they insist. There is West Africa with lush, luxuriant, denser forests, grassland, rain forest, deadly mosquitoes, land of heat, the home of Ghana former Gold Coast whose large gold deposit made her the most attractive colony to the overlords. West Africa has Africa's third largest river, Niger whose delta has produced the oil that has plunged Nigeria into one of the world's top ten oil producers, and yet one with the largest percentage of poor people. There is Liberia the only American colony in Africa, one of the oldest independent nations, that was luckily not included in the Scramble. The people call themselves Americo-Liberians; after all they are the descendants of the American Negro slaves. Today Liberia is far ahead in terms of experience but far behind in terms of accomplishment. There is the French speaking Africa. France had the largest chunk of Africa after the Scramble. The French wanted their Africans to become black Frenchmen, to be absorbed into the French culture. Africans in these areas therefore had the privilege of becoming French citizens but “poor photocopies of the original” as Leopold Senghor called them. There is Central Africa the heart of Africa, the Congos, which has the largest concentration of hippos in the world and was the former enclave of the Belgium colonials. There is the Portuguese Africa, the initial ground for slave trade, where there was veritable integration when Brazilians and Portuguese came to live and work. The result is a truly multiracial community. Portuguese consider these people "civilized" because they talk, think and act like Portuguese. Nonetheless, education was handed down sparingly to these groups of Africans. There is the horn of Africa dominated by Ethiopia the land of an incredibly good looking people tracing their history to the Queen of Sheba who had a son for Solomon, a legend made real and more powerful by Haile Selaise, who claimed to be a direct descendant. Ethiopia, home 484 Commentary of the Organization of African Unity commissioned to bring together all of Africa but which has become a toothless bulldog, in the face of neo-imperialism. There is the Arab Africa, in the north, the world of the brown people, separated by the sands of the Sahara from the rest of Africa. These have different social customs and politics but Islam makes them one. North Africa is subtly a conglomerate of all cultures that had ever had its presence in this region. The influence of French, Italian, British and Russian culture has become diluted with Islam as the prevalent culture. North African Muslims since the time of Arab conquest have adopted Jesus Christ as the second Prophet after Mohammed, a notion totally unacceptable and even ridiculous to Christians. There is Southern Africa which contains South Africa, the most advanced and powerful country in Africa, where in spite of the recently dismantled Apartheid, white is still might. It is phenomenal that this continent which is made up of multiplicity of individuals, interests and motivations have survived up till this present time as an entity. Africa: Spiritual Unities Today, Africa is beset with formidable economic and social problems. The basis for these problems according to Krause (1961) is the presence of various obstacles, which he identified; but the most captivating one is what he describes as "resistance to change from the mores, traditions and cultural patterns that prevail, which cause people to look back but not ahead".

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