No linked challenges.
No linked visions.
Attaining a balance between culture and development
Culture, Devdelopment or Both?
From the perceptional views of anthropologists, culture involves the beliefs, customs, laws, arts, practices and many other societal capabilities acquired by a member of a society that is handed from generation to generation. It identifies the way of life of a group of people.
With about 1 billion people and covering about 20% of the total land surface, Africa is both the world’s second most populous continent and second largest in terms of total land surface. It is comprised of 54 countries which have a large variety of people, languages, customs, beliefs and culture. The music, art, literature, and cultural practices of Africa have provoked interest and respect throughout the world. Nevertheless, most indigenous Africans pride themselves in preserving the rich culture while neglecting development issues. For example, in certain parts of the continents, governments have created social benefits like free education but people are not seizing this opportunity. All because of cultural rigidity. Without any prejudice, I can say that culturally, Africans are adamant to change. In Ethiopia, many are those who are starving to death because of dryness of the land and failure of crops. The surprising thing is that there is a lake that is a stone’s throw to their land but due to the lack of irrigation culture with the lake water, they are not utilising it whilst the land and crops continue parching. One thing that someone would ask is that, “if they are not accustomed to irrigation, can’t they carry the water manually? Indeed they can but the herculean problem is that according to their tradition, carrying water is a woman’s job not for men and looking at the strength of women, how far can they go in carrying water with buckets to water their farmlands?
Talking about the worse side of culture does not mean that I consider culture to be a bad thing to be preserved. Culture and development are inseparable but being culturally-obsessed or the vice versa is what I think is awful. Upon the negative impacts of culture towards national development, the positive impacts are also incalculable. For example, Swaziland is the worst country affected by both HIV and TB and in the past 22 years and since it was first reported in Swaziland, life expectancy dropped from 56 in 1986 to 32.5 in 2003, but in such a country they have adopted the usage of cultural practices to deal with the effects of HIV and AIDS, including parents speaking to their children about sex and sexuality, and taking care of sick relatives and neighbours (Swaziland research report, Mbabane – 8th September 2009).
Fellow reader, as a dictum goes, “opinions are like noses, you have one and I have mine as well”, therefore my question is that what should Africans do to attain a balance between culture and development?
Swaziland research report, Mbabane – 8th September 2009
World Commission on Culture and Developmentc Report 1995
Research question: what should Africans do to attain a balance between culture and development?
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