Thank you, Momodou, for this refreshing piece. I am responding as a white
Canadian whose compatriots are guilty of ascribing to Africa images of huts
and wells and dancing peoples. I have seen many films produced in Africa,
especially from Senegal and Burkina Faso, portraying "traditional" African
village life as the be all and end all of African life. In fact, I must say
that as romantic and idealized as these images are, I have always been irked
by this one-faceted view of African life. I have always yearned for more
accurate portrayals of urbanized Africa, rather than scenes of villagers
dancing about in masks and skimpy outfits, which I doubt would even be
acceptable in a Muslim community, for example. It was indeed a shock for
me, on the way to Dakar by road, to observe mud and straw huts along the
countryside, with baboons crossing it!
I must tell you that even in Canada, we are guilty of subtly putting down
the First Nations and Inuit (formerly known as Eskimo) communities by
pigeon-holing them into an idealized "traditional" lifestyle rather than
asking them to define for us what are the essential values of their own
culture. I had the pleasure of working North of the Arctic circle with the
Inuit population just before visiting The Gambia, and up until yesterday,
friends were shocked to discover that they no longer live in igloos or
tents! Yes, "modernization", for better or for worse, has struck the North.
People live in pre-fabricated homes that are well-heated and have all the
amenities like running water and functional toilets. People have adapted to
a more sedentary lifestyle, and now hunt on their skidoos with rifles,
rather than being pulled by dog sleds and killing animals with harpoons. As
far as family life is concerned, it is of outmost importance. Similar to
African culture, the extended family is the "lowest common denominator" and
safeguarding healthy social relationships between members is considered
crucial to survival. In a harsh Northern climate, one is obliged to depend
on others for survival. When social workers like myself are called upon to
intervene sometimes quite brutally in family life under the pretext of
guaranteeing child protection, and must separate children from their
parents, it is heart-wrenching. By doing so, we are destroying the very
fabric of the society that makes them strong and allows them to survive
against all odds. I have questioned myself about my role as a Southern
white worker hired by the local government to address issues of family
violence and child neglect just as I question myself about my potential role
as a Western worker in an African refugee camp. I have no answers, but am
committed to keep reflecting on the topic and to maintain a healthy sense of
auto-criticism.
I was outraged by the Toronto mayor's comment about Africans as cannibals,
but cynical as I am (I have been told by a few members of this list serv), I
am not surprised. We Canadians are not exposed to the realities lived by
the original dwellers of our own country, much less about those of the
international community, and the media does not serve us well as long as we
rely on the mainstream and do not seek out alternative depictions of life
beyond our borders. It becomes a uniquely personal responsibility to move
beyond stereotypes and to inform ourselves on these realities, and let me
tell you, it is hard work! It takes a lot of time and effort to seek out
fora of discussion such as this one to demystify our pre-packaged concepts
of "the other". As for me, I have vowed to myself that I will what I can to
educate my fellow Canadians and will keep on searching and be open to being
challenged, so that I will be able one day to impart a more balanced view of
life around the world to my friends and children. Thank you again for
sharing your thoughts.
Maria Caterina
----- Original Message -----
From: "Momodou Buharry Gassama" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 6:18 PM
Subject: African Culture Or A State Of Underdevelopment?
Hi!
As some have registered a desire to once in a while have non-political
discussions, I thought I would throw in this butut on an issue that I have
pondered for many years. This is the issue of African cultural identity or
what it means to be African or Gambian. Ask any Samba or Demba in the
streets of Gambia to give you a symbol of Gambian culture and the odds are
that he will show you a hut, some forest or some animal like an elephant -
which we incidentally do not even have. Is this truly what our culture is or
is it a state of our backwardness or underdevelopment?
All the societies on this earth have at some point in their history
lived in a state of underdevelopment and some have through some form or
other evolved into advanced societies socially, technologically,
economically, politically etc. This means that all societies have
historically lived in huts, roamed forests etc. in their days of
underdevelopment and Africa therefore does not in any way have a monopoly on
the claim to huts as a symbol. Many of the societies that have advanced in
the aspects mentioned above have however thrown away the symbolism of the
huts etc. that used to be their reality in their days of underdevelopment.
This is to due to the fact that a stagnated culture is one that is not
conducive to development and innovation. Should we therefore accept the
continued symbolism of huts and other signs of underdevelopment as what
rightly describes us? It is granted that a vast number of Gambians and
Africans live in huts in villages near the bushes but should this mean that
this state in our development cycle should be what we should be stuck with?
Should this mean that cities and all they encompass should be discounted as
not being part of our culture?
We have so readily accepted the symbolism of underdevelopment that we
have tended to miss its psychological effects. It is a given that one of the
most effective ways to perpetually keep one under one's influence is to make
him or her feel inferior. This has been practised since time immemorial and
is most vividly illustrated in modern times during the Atlantic slave trade
and the colonisation of Africa. It is the lingering effects of such
practices that we are witnessing. Look at African especially Senegambian
music videos and films and this fact becomes glaringly evident. In order for
the producers to feel that they are portraying ''African culture'', they
have to shoot most of the films and clips in the bush or in village
settings. This tends to keep alive the stereotypical impression promoted in
the West of Africa as a backward jungle. I sometimes feel so enraged that
the beauty of Dakar is nearly never portrayed in the Senegalese films -
films produced and financed by Senegalese. No wonder most of the African
films financed through Western agencies such as Channel Four, French
Ministry of Culture and others plus African books tend to be given acclaim
only when they portray village life. I am yet to see an African film
financed by Western institutions that positively portrays the nice
infrastructure of African cities. Why? Because Africa does not have nice
skyscrapers, roads, bridges, villas etc. to show or is it because it is a
means of keeping the stereotypical impression of Africa as a backward haven
of man-eating savages alive? Imagine a Canadian mayor in 2001calling
Africans cannibals!
It is a fact that a lot of the African city life is influenced by
Western culture yet one has to understand that no society has a claim to
technology or development. The mistake that is made most of the time is to
equate technology and development with the West. This is a grave fallacy. It
is true that the West is more developed than others but no one society or
race has contributed all of the development that has led to the current
state of the world. When African civilisation, technology and science was
flourishing in ancient Egypt, most of Europe was populated by uncivilised
cavemen yet when Egyptian influence reached Europe, the Europeans didn't
cling on to their underdeveloped ways as a means of maintaining their
''culture''. They quickly embraced all the positives they could find in the
African civilisation and suited the scientific, technological, religious,
social etc. aspects to their ways of life and it is those positives that
have laid the foundation for the science, religion, technology etc. of
modern times. Europe would not have been able to transform itself from its
state of backwardness to its current position if it had clung on to its
culture of caves, huts etc. It realised that culture is dynamic and needed
to change in order to develop. It is the same thing Africans need to
realise. We need to throw away the notion that culture is stagnant and that
our African culture is the rigid form of life lived by ancestors. We need
to take cognisance of the fact that culture is an evolving process and that
technology is a tool to use in this process. We need to promote innovation.
Take the example of the typical ''fanaal'' competitions. Innovation or
creativity in coming up with new designs is not rewarded. It is rather the
''fanaal'' that most resembled the ones built by our parents and their
parents that are rewarded. What is wrong with adding a category for the best
innovation? A friend once jokingly told me that if ''kankurang'' was a
Western phenomenon, people would not in this day and age have to go into the
bush to cut ''jaffo'' and leaves. One would instead go to the mall and buy
the costume ready-made and not have to worry about leaves and branches
cutting and stinging one.
This piece is getting long and I'll just cut it here. Before doing so, I
would like to make an illustration. I visited a Swedish museum depicting the
Swedish way of life some time ago and the similarities with the Gambian way
of life are chillingly similar. The huts, the small sleeping cubicles in the
huts where one would not fit if one is a tall person, the charcoal clothes
irons, the baths in which the same water
had to be shared by the whole family with the father taking the first bath
followed by the mother and the rest in terms of age or position within the
family etc. The Swedes are not hounding these aspects of their
underdevelopment as their culture. They are rather in museums to show the
young generation how tough they had it in their days of underdevelopment.
Would Sweden be in the position it is today had it obstinately held onto
that period of underdevelopment and thoroughly identified with it? My belief
is no. It is also my belief that the huts etc. that we portray as African or
Gambian culture are but a state of our underdevelopment. In order to get
past this state, we have to realise that culture is an evolving process that
needs to use science and technology in order to progress and evolve.Thanks.
Buharry.
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