The Becoming of African Culture and History
Africa has since time immemorial been known as a place of rich culture and history. It’s believed to be the origin of man due to the numerous ancient fossils that have been found in the continent. Some of them are the oldest known to man. Apart from it being the cradle land of ancient man, Africans themselves have held on to their ancient culture continuing to live like they did ages ago. For quite a long period of time, despite the many changes taking place in the world as regarding cultures. This makes Africa a place of rich culture and History, a darling to any history scholar.
African heritage and history are frequently looked at in the study of human civilization. This is because African history has proved to be the world’s most extensive and complex. As it is considered the birth place of the human race especially since the discovery of the ancient human fossils, Aegyptopithecus in Egypt, there have been numerous studies to understand the history of Africa but most of these are still very much elusive maybe because most of the studies have relied on the African people to provide for an extensive and complex oral history and because of the written resources are rather scarce. In the process of passing down history by word of mouth to the scholars or from one generation to another by the ancestors, a lot of history is bound to be lost therefore leaving a lot of unanswered questions.
The African traditions and culture are best learned from their food, music, arts, craft, and from the way they carry themselves out including their taboos and myths. However with changing times and with the death of most ancestors who were believed to be the custodians of the African culture there have been a lot of deviation from the original culture and the adoption of foreign cultures. You see, ancient Africans were true to their beliefs and to their cultures. They followed it to the letter and failure to perform a cultural rite was believed to be followed by many curses from the displeased ancestors hence the tradition of offering sacrifices and pouring libation to appease them. Any foreign culture was frowned upon and the perpetrator of such was punished depending on the severity of the offense. These punishments would vary from just ridicule to more serious ones such as flogging and even excommunications.
With the influx of colonialists in Africa and its colonization came a host of different cultures into Africa. First, there was the Western culture brought in by the colonialists. Africans were at first very reluctant to adopt these due to the evils that were associated with colonization. Then there was the increased contact among the Africans themselves due to slavery and forced labor in the colonialist farms and homes and also due to increased trading activities and the need for unity in the struggle for independence. This led to mixture and borrowing of cultures thereby eroding the most of the ancient cultures. With the end of colonization came a new dawn in Africa, and things were never to be the same again. There was a total change in culture with most of the Africans adopting the Western cultures and since then African culture has continued to be eroded, and its history lost, though some tribes still struggle to maintain their cultures.
By Raphael M.
Africa Global News Publication
