Challenge Of Culture In Africa

This book was first published as a two-part essay in 1965 and 1967 in ABBIA - Cameroon Cultural Review - under the title 'Idea of Culture'. Its main argument is that indigenous Africans cultures must be the foundation on which the modern African cultural structure should be raised; the soil into which the new seed should be sown; the stem into which the new scion should be grafted; the sap that should enliven the entire organism. This culture, the object of imperialist mockery and rejected, needs rehabilitation. However, such rehabilitation of African culture cannot be a mere archaeological enterprise. It will not answer to dig up the past and live it as it was. Not only is African culture not without its imperfections, times change and African culture must adapt itself, at every turn, to the changing times. In restoring African culture, it is imperative to steer clear of two extremes: on the one hand, the imperialist arrogance which declared everything African as only fit for the scrap-heap and the dust-bin, and, on the other hand, the overly enthusiastic and rather naive tendency to laud every aspect of African culture as if it were the quintessence of human achievement.

This book was first published as a two-part essay in 1965 and 1967 in ABBIA Cameroon Cultural Review under the title Idea of Culture. Its main argument is that indigenous Africans cultures must be the foundation on which the modern African cultural structure should be raised; the soil into which the new seed should be sown; the stem into which the new scion should be grafted; the sap that should enliven the entire organism. This culture, the object of imperialist mockery and rejected, needs rehabilitation. However, such rehabilitation of African culture cannot be a mere archaeological enterprise. It will not answer to dig up the past and live it as it was. Not only is African culture not without its imperfections, times change and African culture must adapt itself, at every turn, to the changing times. In restoring African culture, it is imperative to steer clear of two extremes: on the one hand, the imperialist arrogance which declared everything African as only fit for the scrap-heap and the dust-bin, and, on the other hand, the overly enthusiastic and rather naive tendency to laud every aspect of African culture as if it were the quintessence of human achievement.

In the mid-twentieth century, the challenges raised by Africa’s emergence into the modern world touched on every aspect of national and international life. One of the most significant was raised by Africa’s quest for her own culture, encompassing not only the heritage of her distant and mysterious past, but also the most recent developments in her history. In The Challenge of Africa, originally published in 1962, reissued here with a new introduction, the foremost African sociologist of the time offers a constructive, humanitarian, and genuinely democratic approach to the problems Africa faced in this search. Professor Busia discusses the political, educational, and economic challenges inherent in the very nature of modern African nationalism. But, he argues, the basic challenge is moral: to maintain and adapt the social and spiritual heritage that Africa has preserved throughout her history. It is in the light of this challenge that he analyses the moral problems posed by Africa’s entry into the modern international community: the demand for the resolution of the race-relations problem, the insistence that the injustice of colonial systems be erased, the challenge to provide right and just governments for the peoples of Africa, the claim to cultural freedom. In the international context, African nationalism not only represents moral indignation against injustice and wrong; it is also a claim for equality. All nations must share in building a peaceful world community, and this requires the cooperation of all races. Lastly, Professor Busia contends, if East and West joined together to serve the needs of Africa, they might, in cooperation, rediscover their own brotherhood and so save humanity.

The core objective of this book is to explore, with the aim of stimulating awareness and illuminating the extent to which Africa is equipping her next generations with responsible values and the right techno-cognitive orientation to cope with and make progress in a competitive, knowledge-driven world in continuous transition. The focal issue revolves on the strategy Africa can adopt to raise children to be African in the light of global trends and requirements. Of course, African children cannot be anything else, but African. Given today's masked hegemonies, can Africa 'be allowed' to develop in its own terms? Can Africans even notice covert hegemonies and pretensions of mutual collaboration? Thus, the book is prepared from awareness that understanding African life journeys and developmental pathways and educational praxis and needs constitute essential foreknowledge for future prospects and progress. The book attempts to enrich the fields of psychology, education, development work and cultural studies with alternative lines and models of theorisation and reinterpretation of existing evidence.

The richness of Africa’s heritage at times stands in stark contrast to the economic, health, political and societal challenges faced. Development is essential but in what forms? For whom? Following whose agendas? At what costs? This book explores how heritage can promote, secure, or undermine sustainable development with special focus on sub-Saharan Africa, and in turn, how this affects conceptions of heritage. The chapters in this volume identify shared challenges, good practices and failures, and use specific case studies to provide detailed insights into varied forms of heritage and heritage defining processes on the continent. By critically analysing the often romanticised discourses of ‘heritage’, ‘community engagement’, and ‘sustainable development’ the volume suggests ways of harnessing aspects of heritage to tackle some of the socio-economic and political pressures facing heritage practices on the continent, including the legacies of colonialism.

ETHIOPIA is a compendium on Ethiopia and Northeast Africa for travellers, students, businessmen, people interested in Africa, policymakers and organisations. In this book 85 specialists from 15 countries write about the land of our fossil ancestor `Lucy', about its rock-hewn churches and national parks, about the coexistence of Christians and Muslims, and about strange cultures, but also about contemporary developments and major challenges to the region. Across ten chapters they describe the land and people, its history, cultures, religions, society and politics, as well as recent issues and unique destinations, documented with tables, maps, further reading suggestions and photos.

All over the world, there is growing concern about the ramifications of globalization, late-modernity and general global social and economic restructuring on the lives and futures of young people. Bringing together a wide body of research to reflect on youth responses to social change in Africa, this volume shows that while young people in the region face extraordinary social challenges in their everyday lives, they also continue to devise unique ways to reinvent their difficult circumstances and prosper in the midst of seismic global and local social changes. Contributors from Africa and around the world cover a wide range of topics on African youth cultures, exploring the lives of young people not necessarily as victims, but as active social players in the face of a shifting, late-modernist civilization. With empirical cases and varied theoretical approaches, the book offers a timely scholarly contribution to debates around globalization and its implications and impacts for Africa's youth.

This book examines the intersection between cultural identities and development in African and the Diaspora from multidisciplinary perspectives. Starting with the premise that culture is one of the most significant factors in development, the book examines diverse topics such as the migrations of musical forms, social media, bilingualism and religion. Foregrounding the work of Africa based scholars, the book presents strategies for identifying solutions to the challenges facing African culture and development. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African Studies and African Culture and Society.