Welcome to Afro Cultural Hub's African Issues Section
At Afro Cultural Hub, we are dedicated to celebrating and promoting Afro culture as an integral part of the global cultural landscape. Our African Issues section focuses on addressing important topics related to Afro culture and spreading awareness about the diverse cultures within the Afro community.
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The African Meaning of a Market
Across the African continent, there are days referred to as “Market Days” and on such days, the end product of every human endeavor is brought to the physical Markey place.
Before the arrival of the legal tender, there existed alternative ways to trade amongst which was the popular Trade By Barter which has not been completely abandoned till date.
A Market in the African context involves selling what comes from your efforts. If you are lazy and unproductive then you will have nothing to sell. The traditional definition of a Market therefore encourages people to be hard-working and the direct result of a successful sale impacts directly on the quality of life of the people.
This explains why the wealth of an individual in some purely African settings was measured in terms of the quantity of the harvest from his farms.
In an unadulterated traditional African setup, people only market or sell what they produce and it is only in this way that the society gets richer and grows economically. This is why in Eastern Nigeria among the Igbos, it was normal to measure the wealth of a farmer in terms of the number of barns of yam that he had. In truth, this is the authentic way to measure material riches.
Among populations or ethnic groups dependent on Animal Farming, riches or wealth was and is still measured by the number of cows, sheep, goats or pigs that they have.
Same goes for coastal populations with fishing as one of their major Economic Activities. Their wealth is measured in terms of the amount of fish they bring home from their efforts. On Market Days they sell Smoked fish while Special Selling spots for fresh fish are always found at the Seashore where fresh fish can be directly bought or sold.
Hunters brought and still bring dried or smoked meat to the market on “Market Days.”
Africans can truly become self sufficient in many ways if they focus on bringing what they produce to the physical market place.
When Africa started trading with the rest of the world, some of the main items traded were gold and salt. The gold mines of West Africa made empires such as Ghana and Mali very wealthy. Other commonly traded items included ivory, cloth, metal goods, and beads. Major cities developed as trade centers. Unfortunately, humans were also eventually included in the list of “items” (for the lack of a more appropriate word) that were traded. This of course was slave trade. The idea of trading or selling humans off to distant unknown lands thrived on ignorance and vulnerability of local Chiefs and the exploitation of certain “soft spots” in the African way of life by visiting European traders.
From ancient times, trans-Saharan trade routes linked many markets and products to buyers and sellers of the Northern part of the continent.
This was referred to as the Trans-Saharan trade which as the name indicates was trade between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. It required traders to travel across the Sahara Desert.
The Trans-Saharan Gold Trade between the 7th and the 14th Century occupied a prominent place in trade on the continent.
Wealthy Empires were spotted across the continent. These empires have today been replaced by impoverished nations created by forces from elsewhere.
As Africans shifted away from marketing the end products of their endeavors, they increasingly become poorer.
So how did this happen?
The answer lies in the fact that Africans have failed to realise that they have things that are valuable and worthy of being marketed. The result is that they have abandoned the valuable things that they have and started selling things from elsewhere.
Africans have a rich culture that is marketable. African music, dance, literature, cuisine, mode amongst many other aspects of culture.
With the most recent revival of self worth amongst Africans, Afro people irrespective of where they are found on the globe can change the narrative and start celebrating themselves and what they have as a culture. It’s all about marketing what you have on the global stage rather than helping others to market what they have at the expense of developing yours.
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In a purely African Market, you sell what you produce. You sell the end product of your endeavors and this must come from your immediate environment. When you sell what you don’t produce, many things go wrong.
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Firstly, when you sell what is produced elsewhere and by someone else, you’ve got to use your (money) resources to buy what belongs to someone else. This impoverishes you and makes the other person richer at your expense. You make yourself poorer while helping someone else to get richer while you get just the crumbs from the table.
Secondly, this approach prevents you from seeing and valuing what you have. It kills hard work. Imagine that some African countries with the capacity to create rice farms and some actually having large expanses of rice farms have decided to spend huge sums of money on the importation of rice allowing their rice farms to gradually dwindle like is the case in the Central African state, Cameroon.
When an African leaves the continent and shuttles to Dubai, capital of the United Arab Emirates to buy items to be sold when he returns home, how intrinsically beneficial is that to him and his community?
In the process he spends his hard earned money on transportation, hotel bills and pays for the goods. When he returns home, the impoverishing process continues. Brainwashed Africans who have been shaped by their Colonial History to believe that things from elsewhere are superior to that which they have will be further impoverished as they spend their scarce means on these “superior” goods.
Every culture is beautiful and unique. Africans should rediscover the value of what they have in order to perceive other cultures and ways of life from a better perspective.
The intention here is not to segregate Afro people from others but rather to reshape the way they fit themselves into the mainstream of World Cultures. Afro People are legitimate Children of the world.
Francis Ekongang Nzante
Center for Afro News and Culture
Afro Cultural Hub
African Folklore. Afro Storytelling Tradition
African Folk Tales
Story telling in African Communities had always been done orally until the art of writing was introduced with the advent of multiple conquests on the Afro continent. Traditionally, African short stories were and are still done orally during different occasions and under different circumstances. There are as such formal and informal Storytelling Sessions.
The story teller is almost always an older person narrating the story to younger people and these stories usually serve as a source of entertainment or as a means of passing on information to younger people so as to maintain the continuity of certain values in society.
The information that is usually passed on to younger people could include a variety of issues which among other things usually include traditional approaches on issues of importance to the community such as Marriage, Morality, Hard work, Importance of Family, Relationships with the Creator God Almighty, Ancestral Beliefs, Living Together amongst many other things.
Short stories usually told orally therefore serve as the main medium through which the traditional values of the people are transmitted from one generation to the next. History of the clan, Exploits of legends, Peak moments in the history of the clan, the History and Significance of Sacred Places and natural features such as Rivers and Forests that shouldn’t be infringed upon among many other things, constitute the themes in many short stories.
Some African Scholars like Professor Talla Kashim of the Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences at the University of Yaounde in Cameroon in an effort to factor in the African Short Story and the peculiar circumstances that usually surround a Story Telling Event coined something called ORATURE, short form for Oral Literature.
Another custodian of Afro Culture, His Royal Highness Senator Lekunze Andreas Nembo II of the First Class Fondom of Bamumbu in Cameroon describes the peculiarity of a story telling event in the following words:
“Stories are told at different times and under different circumstances but for most of the time, story telling events are usually under very informal and unplanned circumstances. It can take place among the men in the morning while they are walking to the farm to begin the day’s work. Under more formal circumstances, it can take place in the warmth of the kitchen with the children seated around the traditional African three-stone-fire-side listening to their father as he recounts a story. It can equally take place in a casual setting with men sharing a keg of palm wine after a hard day’s labour in the farm. A story telling session doesn’t have a clearly defined structure as it can spring out of an unplanned event.”
Briefly put, a Story Telling Session is a very informal affair and could take place anywhere, anytime and during very different occasions. Some of these occasions could possibly include marriage ceremonies, family gatherings in the evening in a the kitchen, funerals, cultural festivals amongst others.
However, emphasis of African Folktales has always been on the content more than on the structure and this of course is due to the fact that any storyteller directly shapes the structure but not necessarily the content.
African Culture which is rich in folklore and legends is also pregnant with mythological creatures and African monsters which are spread all over the continent.
Characters in African Folklore aren’t always normal human beings and the settings are not always the normal familiar physical human environment. While characters can sometimes be animals like in tales from Cameroon, formless creatures with vampiric qualities like in Ghana and Togo, spirits in human form like in Nigeria, the settings sometimes shifts from the physical human world to the spiritual sometimes referred to as the land of the dead. African Folklore depicts a world in which there’s almost no boundary between the human world and the spiritual realms.
Francis Ekongang Nzante
Cent for Afro News and Culture
Afro Cultural Hub
Kimbong the Beautiful Stubborn Princess
A long time ago in a far away Kingdom, there lived a very rich King who had an only daughter. The beautiful Princess was called Kimbong. In complete contrast with her beauty she was very stubborn and hardly listened to her parents.
Against the advice of her parents Kimbong turned down all the suitors who came to ask for her hand in marriage. Suitors from all over the Kingdom both young and old came to seek for her hand in marriage but she turned down all the offers. No man from her Kingdom seemed to be good enough for her.
In spite of repeated entreaties from the King and the Queen, the beautiful but stubborn Princess continuously turned down all offers requesting her hand in marriage. Princess Kimbong insisted that she would only get married to a very rich and handsome Prince from a distant Kingdom. Her idea of a perfect man was a rich, handsome and strong man. Her stubbornness continued to be a source of grieve to her parents.
One day, news of the appearance of a very handsome young man in the village on a Village Market Day spread like wild fire. News of this handsome young man soon reached the beautiful stubborn Princess and she set out to meet the handsome young man who presented himself as a Prince.
Theirs was love at first sight. The princess immediately fell in love with the young man. The princess decided to take the handsome young prince home to introduce him to her parents the King and the Queen.
The prince then went ahead to ask for their consent to marry the princess. The King and Queen hesitated because they didn’t want their daughter to get married to a complete stranger who’s background they knew nothing about. However, they eventually gave in because they wanted their daughter to be happy.
The strange Prince stayed with them for a few days and eventually decided to take his wife home. Princess Kimbong immediately agreed to this but her parents resisted at first before reluctantly agreeing to let Princess Kimbong go with her man. This was because Princess Kimbong stubbornly refused to listen to her parents. She’d made her mind to set out with her new husband. It was a very sad day in the palace.
The young couple eventually set out on their journey and walked for days. After many days of walking, they eventually left the land of humans and crossed into the world of Spirits. Immediately they entered into the land of the spirits, many strange things started happening.
Different people started asking for his body parts. First someone asked for his arms and the next one asked for his legs. After a short while the handsome Prince was reduced to a skeleton. So his real physical appearance was only a skeleton.
The truth is that the prince who had looked so handsome at first had actually borrowed all the human body parts from different spirits so that he could look like a human being. The natural appearance of the prince was only a skeleton.
The frightened princess now wanted to return home but the skeleton prevented her from doing so. He took Princess Kimbong home where she met his poor mother who could hardly walk.
The princess was forced to do things that she’d never done before. She had to cook for and take care of the old woman. The princess now had to fetch water and firewood for the old woman.
The old woman was very happy with the attention she was receiving from Princess Kimbong and eventually became really fond of her. The mother of the skeleton started feeling sorry for the princess and decided to help her return to her Kingdom. Her decision to help Princess Kimbong came with a condition. The Princess had to promise that she would not disobey her parents in future and she was going to desist from her stubbornness in future. She of course readily agreed because she desperately wanted to return home to her parents.
In preparation for her return, the old woman called in the clever spider to help the Princess with the preparation. Her hair was done in beautiful braids and she was adorned in a beautiful dress befitting her status of a princess.
Using her supernatural powers, the old mother of the skeleton caused the now humbled and obedient Princess to be transported by the winds back to her Kingdom. The princess was surprised and full of extreme joy when she suddenly found herself outside of the palace back in her Kingdom.
The joy of the royal couple knew no bounds. They were so glad to have their daughter home again. Celebrations following the return of the princess went on for days in the palace and in the whole Kingdom.
Princess Kimbong then apologized to the King and Queen and promised to be a good and obedient daughter. She was completely transformed and gradually became the role model for the young maidens in the Kingdom.
She eventually got married to a very rich and hardworking young man from her Kingdom and they brought many children into the world.
The transforming experience of the princess served as a lesson to the young maidens of the Kingdom. They all became very cautious and determined not to get married to people from far away places whom they knew nothing about.
The Kingdom became happier as maidens became more obedient and listened more to their parents particularly on issues concerning marriage.
The King then decreed that for any marriage to take place in or outside the Kingdom, the two families had to know each other very well.
Center for Afro News and Culture
Creating a Homogeneous Environment
We believe that creating a more homogeneous environment in a multicultural world is crucial for fostering understanding and unity. Our African Issues section delves into the efforts and initiatives taken to create a more inclusive and harmonious society.
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We are committed to the belief that the key to a more stable human society lies in recognizing and respecting different cultures. Our African Issues section explores the impact of cultural diversity on society and the steps needed to build a more equitable and inclusive world for all.
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AFRO CULTURAL PEOPLE
PROFESSOR PAUL NCHOJI NKWI
"Africa's Emergence Will depend on an understanding of Africa's Cultural Norms and Values " -Professor Paul Nchoji Nkwi
Professor Paul Nchoji Nkwi is a leading African Anthropologist and considered as the Foundation Stone in the study of Anthropology as a subject in the University of Yaounde in Cameroon.
When this interview was carried out, he was a professor of Anthropology at the Catholic University of Cameroon, CATUC in Bamenda, Cameroon. What stands out in this interview among other things is the emphatic statement that “Africa’s Emergence Will depend on an understanding of Africa’s Cultural Values and Norms.”
He was interviewed by Ekongang Nzante Francis and this interview was first published in Les Gens Du Cameroun.
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The professor begins by narrating the story of his humble beginnings which is characteristic of most African iconic intellectuals. He doesn’t stop there but moves on to prescribe the best way that sustained development can take place in Africa.
Excerpts
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“I was born in Kom in a small village called Wombong in 1940. I grew up there and one of my early experiences was the Ghost Town of 1958 which was declared by KNDP’s John Ngu Foncha and Ngom Jua, leading characters in the party who for one reason or the other called for a strike to disrupt the visit that was to be carried out by another leading Politician at the time, S. M. L. Endelley and that ghost town disrupted schools in present day Boyo Division and very few of us were fortunate to go to school then. Probably if I hadn’t gone to school, then I would not be where I am today. Schools were suspended for quite some time although the First School Leaving Certificate Examinations were organised. I was lucky to be among the three pupils who passed the examinations in 1958. Because of that disruption, Catholic School Njinikom became the meeting center for students destined for Saint Joseph’s College, Sasse and at that time, there were only two secondary schools in West Cameroon. These Schools were Saint Joseph’s College Sasse and the Cameroon Protestant College, CPC Bali. Thousands of students wrote the entrance exams and because of the disruptions I had to walk the sixty Kilometers to Mankon to be able to sit for the qualifier exam to Saint Joseph’s College. Among those who could make it to Mankon on foot. Ten of us were eventually selected and from this, only two finally made it to Saint Joseph’s College, Sasse. It took us three days to travel to Sasse. We travelled from Njinikom to Bamenda and then waited for Mamfe-go-down. On such days, vehicles only went down through Widikum to Mamfe. When you arrived Mamfe, you also had to wait for Kumba-go-down. This was because the roads were so narrow and for you to go against the direction of the day, the Divisional Officer had to authorise you. From Kumba, we went down to Buea and from Buea if you were lucky then you could get a car for Sasse but if not, you had to do it on foot.”
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Was there a university at the time in West Cameroon?
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There was no University at the time in West Cameroon. I went to Saint Joseph’s College Sasse from 1958 to 1963 and we were the first batch of students in Sasse to learn three major European Languages. We studied English, French, Latin and Greek. So if you graduated with your West African School Certificate you would be expected to go and do the A levels before proceeding to the university. The Cameroon College of Arts Science and Technology CCAST Bambili became the most obvious destination for most students but I ended up in a seminary in Nigeria where I did Philosophy. When we finished Philosophy, we couldn’t continue in Nigeria so we were flown to Rome to continue theological studies. From 1967 to 1971 when I got a Licence in Theology, I moved to the Catholic University of Fribourg in Switzerland where I spent six years studying Anthropology and ended up with a PhD.
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How satisfying has your teaching life been considering that you have touched the lives of many Cameroonians in your long teaching career?
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While doing my PhD I already had a teaching job that prepared me for my teaching career. After obtaining my PhD and with six months of teaching, I applied to return to Cameroon and work. When I came back, my real intention was to spend most of my time doing research but a friend of mine approached me when we met in Yaounde in 1973 even before I had left the university because I had won a German UNESCO prize and had flown to Yaounde to do the paper work. He urged me to come and join them explaining that there was no English Speaking lecturer in the Department of Sociology. I jumped on the idea and on the first of October 1976, I was recruited into the University of Yaounde which was the only University at the time in Cameroon. My area of specialization was Cultural Anthropology with emphases on applied domains for example: Medical Anthropology, Anthropology of Development as well as Systemic Anthropology. My idea was how to use my accumulated knowledge to help my country in a number of domains. My thesis was actually based on Political Anthropology and it focused on the Transformation of Grass field Political Institutions as a tool for governance. My focus was to see the role played by local chiefs in the process of independence given that the chiefs of Kom, Nso, Bali and Bafut actively, participated in the negotiations for an inclusive form of government. How could I use Anthropology to help managers of civil society to understand the Nitti gritty of culture and how it could be used in development programmes? In a sense, when I started teaching from 1976 until I retired, my focus was on teaching Cultural Anthropology with emphases on applied domains.
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Do you think the mastery of Cultural Anthropology can enhance good governance?
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I have always said that Africa’s emergence from its underdevelopment requires an understanding of Africa’s Cultural values and norms. We cannot wake up one day and take development as if it were a copy card issue. My philosophy is what I call the African pragmatic Socialist. Those values that we have can be used for better governance. The British by introducing Indirect Rule recognized the value of Traditional Governance Institutions to move the development process forward. My job has been to help government to help those who are involved in the development of our local communities. Don’t begin any development initiative without understanding what the local culture is. Development that takes into consideration the cultural dimensions ensures its sustainability. In 1982 at the World Conference on Culture which took place in Mexico they arrived at the conclusion that for Africa or any country to move forward, the European model was not the answer. Studying and understanding African Culture, its values and norms should be the starting point.
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How hopeful are you with regards to development in Africa?
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Through the sixties and seventies and even up to the eighties, billions of money was thrown into Africa to develop the continent and we didn’t make any fundamental breakthrough. The 1982 conference in Mexico simply sort to find out where we went wrong. Let me site an example. In the seventies, the Cameroon Government in an attempt to integrate the Pigmy population in development projects elaborated a project which sort to build schools, clinics and encourage production of food crops. Well they thought that if we built schools, all the people would come to school but nobody came there. This is because when the hunting season came, parents came to the schools picked up their kids and they were gone. Nobody cared to understand the life style of the Baka Pigmies or the Bantus in the East and the project collapsed. We should have known that the best form for this people was to train ambulant teachers to stay and travel with the pigmy colony.
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Is the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon a cultural thing?
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The Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon is fundamentally cultural. Whether we like it or not, the British came here and built schools, fabricated syllabuses, taught us how to live and acquire knowledge. They gave us a life style which we have come to identify ourselves with. Nobody can take that from us. Look at the student revolt in the nineties when they tried to take the GCE from us. The GCE system which was organized in Cameroon, controlled by the University of London or University of Cambridge as the objective way of appreciating the intellectual capacity of a people isn’t something cooked over night that can easily be changed. The Nkar people had a language before the Nso people came and wiped out a culture and a language so much so that the Nkar people now speak the Nso language and even identify themselves as people from Nso but there is something that makes them unique and can’t be taken from them. The Anglophones are simply asserting that they were brought up in a manner that can’t be taken away from them.
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Let’s talk about the award that you received at the hands of the Minister of Arts and Culture.
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It came as a surprise. I received a phone call to come to Yaounde for an award. I think it’s an acknowledgement of my contribution to the building of a culture vision in Cameroon. Having taught for 40 years, there are hundreds of Cameroonians in the various services and ministries. Many of them are working in the Ministry of Culture and other ministries and I think it is simply in recognition of this that I received this award. The Bilingualism and the Multi-Cultural Commission does not solve the Anglophone problem. It is important that we see that Cameroon is made up of four diverse cultural groups .