Africa is filled with several hundred distinct tribes that all bear themselves in a different fashion, depending on each other, or even fighting each to get what they want. This exchange between the many tribes has resulted in a rich history of conflict, economic development, and culture. One small example of the possible hundreds of tribes is the Mossi tribe, who reside right at the border of sub- Saharan Africa, in Burkina Faso and also the second largest ethnic group in Cote D'ivoire . While a relatively small tribe compared to the likes of the Zulus or the Dinka, their tribe is made up of roughly 3.5 million people, which is still quite a large number.The Mossi are neighboring the people of the Dogon, Kurumba, Gourmantche,Gurunsi, Bisa,Dagomba, and Sisala tribes. The Mossi have an official language called More, pronounced Moray, that is spoken by the them and most of the population of Burkina Faso, as well as about 60,000 people in Togo and Mali. Like many African languages, More uses pitch to distinguish the meaning of words and phrases. Their political was very closely connected with their religion, so as the Muslim religion began to spread throughout Africa, they resisted conversion to the religion even as most of the tribes around them accepted the religion. This may be why there are some Muslim influences within Mossi society. As Africa was being colonized by Europeans, the Mossi were one of the last tribes to be colonized, and when French colonists conquered them in 1896-97, taxes were imposed that impelled many of the Mossi to move to Cote D'ivoire to earn money. While they did not leave their families behind, many Mossi men went south to Cote D'ivoire in between crop-growing seasons and would return with the money th...
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...eople of the tribe. As this mask is constructed out of wood, it is cut to the right dimensions (Height: 81 cm, Width: 73 cm) by the craftsman, and then the inlet on the back of the mask will be carved, allowing for Mossi people to use the mask. While a slit for the mouth is cut, there are no holes for the eyes, only two circles painted on where the eyes of the wearer would be. After the initial carving is finished, some form of paint is applied to add the patterns present on the mask. How I plan to go about reproducing this artifact is that, instead of using wood, I plan to use modelling clay to shape it. After the clay is dried, I will then paint it as the Mossi do. In Mossi society, the value of family is highly regarded and the sun mask represents safety and new beginnings (Just as a sun rise) to the villages as it wards off the evil spirits and promotes marriage.
Art originally in earlier cultures had a different purpose. Currently people create art for an aesthetic purpose for others to view in galleries, theaters, or museums creating distance for the audience. Initially art was created for purposes other than aesthetics, and people participated and interacted with the art and artist. This intertwined relationship between humans and art is especially seen in the Dineh and Wilbiri cultures. These two groups created drypaintings. People in both these groups directly interacted with the paintings instead of viewing them from a distance. Currently, there is a sense of distance instead of interaction. In these groups, humans participated directly with the artist and the art itself. In both these cultures, the people touched the drypaintings to evoke a response from the holy spirits. This physical interaction and participation with the dry paintings is termed contagion. The Dineh and the Walbiri both practiced contagion in different ways in order to evoke holy spirits because of similar religious beliefs, but their purpose for eliciting assistance from the Gods was different. Through contagion, both these cultures come into contact with the holy spirits.
Although the !Kung San of southern Africa differ greatly from the people in the west African nation of Mali, both areas share similar problems. Both suffer from diseases, illnesses, malnutrition, and having to adapt to the ever changing and advancing cultures around them. What I found to be the most significant problem that is shared between both areas is that the people suffered from a lack of education. In the book Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine A. Dettwyler, there is a lack of education in proper nutritional practices, taking care of children and newborns, and basic medical knowledge and practices. The Dobe Ju/’hoansi have recently started putting in schools to help children receive an education to help them have better success with the surrounding peoples and culture, but there is a lack of attendance in these schools. There are also many education issues in proper sexual practices that would help stop the spread of HIV and AIDS, in a place in the world were theses illnesses are at surprisingly high levels.
Underneath the tale of Segu is the hushed and disloyal question few people tend to voice: how did they lose the rights to use the land and resources of an entire continent? This novel explains that it was not just Europe’s greed and Christianity pretense that led to the fall of Africa. It shows that Islam was a major force that endangered Segu as well. However, aside from the tragedy’s that were outlined, there lies a captivating story about culture, spirituality, and diversity.
This piece called Transformation Mask (Sea Bear), as in the title it is a transformation mask from the Northwest Coast Cherokee/Kwakwaka'wakw tribe created by Don Svanvik in 2000. Masks such as this were used to reflect art and culture of specific tribes as well as used for cultural performances. This mask is currently hanging on the wall in The Montclair Art Museum (MaM). This mask was a gift donated by Alan and Audrey Bleviss.
One of ancient Africa’s wealthiest kingdoms, Mali, traded with other kingdoms which introduced new ideas and ways of life advancing their civilization. This is an example of how African empires, kingdoms, and cities were advanced civilizations bringing in new ideas and ways of life before the arrival of Europeans. Ancient Africa was able to advance their cultures by their government, trade, and education without the introduction of ideas from the Europeans.
Egyptian culture and the American culture are similar in their beliefs and industrialism, style and beauty. Egyptians and Americans both used and cultivated the natural raw materials around them, example Egyptian use silk for clothing and Americans use cottons and many different textual from the lands. Each culture thrived off the land and religion is a big part of life.
One of the biggest ways Africans were able to endure the institution of slavery was by finding similarities in the European culture that coincided with their native customs. “ The similarities between many European and African Cultural elements enabled the slave to continue to engage in many traditional activities or to create a synthesis of European and African cultures.”1 While there were many
Chad is an ethnically diverse African country that also happens to be one of the poorest countries in Africa. Chad gained its independence from France in 1960 after a sixty year rule. There are several national cultures in Chad that are based on ethnoregional and religious affiliations. There are more than 200 ethnic groups in Chad, and those in the north and east are typically Muslim; most southerners are Animists and Christians. Through their long religious and commercial relationships with Sudan and Egypt, many of the people in Chad's eastern and central regions have become more or less Arabized, speaking Arabic and engaging in many other Arab cultural practices as well (Azevedo, Graham, and Nnadozie, 1997). The people who reside in southern Chad took more readily to European culture during the French colonial period.
In the sixteenth century, there were several ways political and economic changes affected patterns of cultural life in different parts of Afroeurasia. Many larger regions began to spread more extensively. In the Ming dynasty, the rapid growth of city populations and a surge in economic change helped. Influences with new people and different products from abroad, brought a new way of life for this dynasty. During this time, Wang Yangming was a public official and a military officer. Wang's ideals differed in the fact that he preached individual creativity, education for the poor and respect for women's intellectual abilities. This caused conflict in many ways, amongst neo-confucian officials that believed in male authority and strict
The Middle Passage human trafficked millions of Africans to the New World (Holt & Brown, 2000). The preserved culture came across the journey in the form of memories and strength to endure such a journey and adapt to the New World (Handler, 2009). The culture resides in their person; all of which they known came across with them because of who they are. It is their belief system, their mentality, which displayed their power from within because they survived. There are some records which demonstrate material culture, such as beads, metal or bone jewelry, and pipes may have made it across the ocean, but mostly all arrived with nothing.
and were helped by the present day Somali, Borana and Rendille peoples. The Maasai later
As the Europeans started to invade Africa and split up the land, they paid no attention to the already existing natural boundaries. Over time, villages with different cultures had set these boundaries. The Europeans ignored these invisible borders as they invaded. This caused soci...
Few bygone civilizations fascinate us as much as that of the ancient Egyptians. The kingdom along the Nile River has been the subject of countless books, magazine articles, movies, and television shows and documentaries. There is even a hotel in Las Vegas with an ancient Egyptian theme! Museums all over the world dedicate entire galleries to excavated Egyptian artifacts, and Egypt itself receives millions of tourists flocking to photograph its ruins each year.
Buchi Emecheta’s literary terrain is the domestic experience of the female characters, and the way in which these characters try to turn the table against the second-class and slavish status to which they are subjected either by their husbands or the male-oriented traditions. Reading Buchi Emecheta informs us of the ways fiction, especially women’s writing, plays a role in constructing a world in which women can live complete lives; a world that may provide women with opportunities for freedom, creativity, self-expression, friendship and love. Welesley Brown Lloyd believes that; “of all women writers in contemporary African literature Buchi Emecheta of Nigeria has been the most sustained and vigorous voice of direct feminist protest” (35)
What is religion? According to (Muzorewa), “Religion is a set of beliefs in a higher being, God, or Gods or higher principle.” All religions come with characteristics such as a set of doctrines, rituals to celebrate certain occasions, sacred literature, and concern for life-after death. African Traditional Religion, or ATR for short, is the world’s oldest religion. African Traditional Religion originated on the continent of Africa because Africa was the only location for human beings to live comfortably during that era. African Traditional Religion has approximately one hundred million supporters. The phrase ‘traditional’ stems from the word “tradition” which is simply defined as long established or “doing” (Muzorewa). Judaism is one of the