Africa and Civilization
When: Aug 11th, 2005 11:59:56 am - Subscribe
I'm feeling: mad
Talk, Opinion, Music, Life, Stuff: Life
I had gone on a trip some time in October 2004, where I met an American girl aged 11 years. Since we were travelling to Tanzania, we got into a discussion of the continent. So this little sweetheart asks me, in a cute voice, "Is Tanzania as civilized as South Africa?"
My heart palpitated rapidly and beads of (really) hot sweat broke out on my forehead. I could literally feel my ears getting hotter and hotter. I caught my breath and asked her, "WHAT!?". She said to me "My dad says South Africa is the most civilised country in Africa". LAWD! Apparently, her father is a Professor of African Studies or something like that. Either way, he has a PhD after "studying" Africa.
What do you tell this young one? Like me, she believes her father's intelligence is only second to God. I am like 6 feet tall, towering over the girl who asked this question so innocently. I really wanted to pinch her teeth, LOL, but that would not have sorted out the issue. I cannot honestly remember what I told her (I know I was seeing red), but that question has lingered in my mind like a bad smell.
The question is this, what are the criteria for a society to be civilised? Civilization is defined as "conversion from a barbaric or primitive state". In order to be civilized you must have been primitive at one time. Therefore, those countries that are not civilized are still barbaric or primitive.
But who am I kidding, this is how Africa is viewed. When another friend on the same trip went back home to America, she would tell people of the shopping malls and other "modern" things she had seen in Tanzania and South Africa. She later told me that the people she talked to did not believe her. Africa to them is still one big jungle.
I guess, to many people, civilisation means how "westernised" a country is. To be westernised, a country must replicate the lifestyle of the western world, from the clothing, to the music, to the technology. To be truly westernised, you need to go a step further from the material and adopt the ideologies and thought processes of the western countries, i.e. think and reason as they do.
In doing this, you reject your individuality and uniqueness as a country for a token appreciation of your "development". You will quite possibly get some aid assistance from the already civilised, economically powerful nations who "appreciate" the steps the country has taken to become more developed (read westernised)
I do not know what this girl expected to see when we got to the destination, but it sure isn't what she is used to at home. Tanzania doesn't have many of the things she is used to, like McDonalds, but South Africa does. Maybe South Africa is more civilised than Tanzania. In related issues, rumour has it that a person who wanted to open a McD's franchise in Kenya was told our potatoes are not of the required "quality". So clearly, we Kenyans are not there yet!!
Clearly, I have had it up to here with westernisation.
Comments: (2)
Create your own Free Aeonity Blog Today
Content Copyrighted gatwiri at Aeonity Blog
