It's amazing that being curious about culture raises some major concerns in our day and age! People begin to wonder what's not happening with you when you curl up into the ball of cultural discovery. I mean outward concern; so much that the general perception is that you're considering your future mate and decided to read up on what to expect.
I recently started reading a book on Acholi culture- seeing as I'm Acholi and you'll be shocked how much dust it seems to be raising. I mean even from my tribe mates... A lot of what should be cultural pride has dwindled with our generation into cultural shame. We are so ashamed of our roots that we'd rather pretend not to know where we're from than be identified as a particular societal segment!
I know so many young people who purportedly cannot speak their 'language' and fall back on that shady 'American accent' to try and be cool. I must ask though, what cool is and who decided that those particular things should be categorised as 'cool'.
The more I grow, the more I understand how rich and important culture is in the life of the individual. How one way or the other our behavioural patterns are tied to culture. But what or why is it easier to be identified by other cultures that do not directly affect us than be identified by that which we are a result of? Because one way or the other you will always notice cultural undertones in the things people do, say and even in their view of life.
So, love it or hate it, we cannot escape who we are and we really shouldn't be fighting to do so. On the contrary, we'd rather embrace who we are and work towards changing that which we don't like about ourselves. Improving our response to culture; not running away from it, not shunning it but improving our response to it! That's what we need to do.
I recently started reading a book on Acholi culture- seeing as I'm Acholi and you'll be shocked how much dust it seems to be raising. I mean even from my tribe mates... A lot of what should be cultural pride has dwindled with our generation into cultural shame. We are so ashamed of our roots that we'd rather pretend not to know where we're from than be identified as a particular societal segment!
I know so many young people who purportedly cannot speak their 'language' and fall back on that shady 'American accent' to try and be cool. I must ask though, what cool is and who decided that those particular things should be categorised as 'cool'.
The more I grow, the more I understand how rich and important culture is in the life of the individual. How one way or the other our behavioural patterns are tied to culture. But what or why is it easier to be identified by other cultures that do not directly affect us than be identified by that which we are a result of? Because one way or the other you will always notice cultural undertones in the things people do, say and even in their view of life.
So, love it or hate it, we cannot escape who we are and we really shouldn't be fighting to do so. On the contrary, we'd rather embrace who we are and work towards changing that which we don't like about ourselves. Improving our response to culture; not running away from it, not shunning it but improving our response to it! That's what we need to do.
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