Hi Maria,
I'm not sure what exactly you're trying to convey when you said that you
'have always yearned for urbanised Africa" ....a shock for me , on the way
to Dakar to observe mud and straw huts..."  What yardstick are you using to
measure what's "proper or nice "? Whoever said that urbanised rather
westernised Africa was right for Africa? I believe that Africa should remain
true to its values  even if this means dancing in masks and skimpy skirts.
Africa got into trouble by embracing foreign cultures and values at the
expense of its own. It is not by imitating X and Y that Africa will put its
house in order. It is  our languages, our food, our huts ( well adapted to
our environment) our masks, our warmth, our generousity  etc. that
distinguish us as Africans.  Until and unless as Africans, we take pride in
who we are, we would remain a confused continent at the mercy of other
cultures. I do not believe that we should waste our energy on fighting
steroetypes. The uphill task is convincing Africans all over the world to be
proud of their heritage and to join the struggle for Africa's economic and
political liberation


>From: Maria Caterina Ciampi <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: African Culture Or A State Of Underdevelopment?
>Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 08:45:48 -0400
>
>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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