King Peggy Analysis

656 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Poverty in africa introduction

Did you know that both men and women can be a king in Ghana? Are you familiar euphemisms that the people in Ghana use to substitute “dead?” Do you know where Otuam is located? I imagine that your answer would be no. Moreover, you’d be able to successfully answer these questions if you were to partake in reading the memoir of King Peggy, “King Peggy” by Peggielene Bartels and Eleanor Herman about the life of an unexpected king of Otuam, a community in Ghana. For this reason, and many more, I recommend this memoir to be used in an AP Language teacher’s class as a choice of focus because it reveals events that, though most people won’t experience and others will oppose the possibility of relating to, have central ideas that students could extract …show more content…

Firstly, when Peggy initially arrived to Ghana she made it clear of the struggles present in the lives of her newly obtained citizens, claiming that “Otuam...had no high schools,” asking herself how many of “her kids...left for Accra or Cape Coast to hawk stuff at traffic lights” and proceeding to question what she could do. Otuam was the furthest thing from land of luxury or privileges. It was even stated in earlier chapters that during the time Peggy’s uncle was ruling over Otuam, “[h]is palace was falling down around his head, with a leaking roof and mildewed walls begging for spackling and fresh paint[,]” for even the king wasn’t a rich man. Conditions in this community would be unbearable for most people in America, of whom could be considered privileged in comparison to these people. It got to the point where Peggy saw that it was no place for neither an able-bodied person nor a handicap person, saying that it was almost impossible for anyone to find a job and that she had never seen a single handicapped ramp. She went on to state that even relatives wouldn’t hire a handicap person, seeing them as “an object of pity and ridicule,” then saying that “The best place in the entire world to be handicapped... was in the USA.” Secondly, cultural differences were present in one of the most universally common process present: assigning a name to kin. In Otuam, like many places in Africa and unlike Americans, their names had an actual meaning behind them. For example, if more than one child in the family was born on the same day of the week, they were given additional names that corresponded to their order of birth: “Piesie” for firstborn children, “Manu” for second born, and so on. In addition to the differences in naming,

Show More
Related

  • Abina Gender Roles

    1842 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the graphic history of Abina and the Important Men, the social construct of gender played an enormous role, and became the major determinant of the outcome of Abina’s case. The protagonist, Abina, was a young woman who lived in the nineteenth century in the British Colony of the Gold Coast, which is presently the country of Ghana (Getz and Clarke, 127-128). She believed that she was sold into slavery at a time when it was illegal, and decided to testify against Quamina Eddoo, her supposed master. The premise of her case was the legality of Eddoo’s “ownership” of her, and what was problematic in this time and place was the definition of “freedom” while being a woman. By challenging Eddoo’s innocence in court, Abina challenged the extremely

    Read More

  • Queen Nzinga: African Ruler and Slave Trader

    1337 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thornton is a graduate from Millersville University, Pennsylvania. He is an American historian specialized in the history of Africa and the African Diaspora. He is also a history professor in Boston University. My paper speaks about the legitimacy of Nzinga’s coming to rule. I use Thornton’s piece for information about her rise to power.

    Read More

  • The Once And Future King Analysis

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    In literature, fictional stories can teach characters important lessons needed for their future. The Once and Future King, by T.H. White, tells the story of how the main character, Arthur, reaches his full potential of protecting and supporting his country. All of the knowledge Arthur learns in his youth is key in developing his skills and intellect. In the story Arthur has several unique learning experiences presented by his magical tutor, Merlyn. Learning from Merlyn’s lessons allows Arthur to lose the innocence of childhood and evolve into a wise and powerful king.

    Read More

  • King Leopold King Analysis

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, King Leopold II of Belgium invaded the Congo and used it to procure more wealth for himself and his nation. In doing so, as many as ten million Congolese were decimated, and they faced unspeakable horrors. Hochschild argues in King Leopold’s Ghost that all actions taken by King Leopold II were done out of nothing more than sheer greed and selfishness, and he used any means necessary to get what he wanted, and manipulated others into following suit by exploiting their own greed and racism. The only way the brutality was combated, Hochschild further goes on to describe, was through the actions of the few with a higher moral character.

    Read More

  • Disability In The Colonial Era Essay

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    Those with money or wealth were able to provide better care their disabled family members. Men and underprivileged people were far more likely to be placed in facilities outside of their homes. Regardless of wealth or gender, the lives of white people with disabilities were far kinder than the lives of Africans. Considered disabled by definition, Africans forcibly brought to North America and enslaved were considered to be both mentally and physically inferior to those of European descent. Africans with disabilities were often killed due to the inability to profit off of them. Those who weren’t killed were exhibited for monetary

    Read More

  • Justification Of Inequality In American History

    1607 Words  | 4 Pages

    Douglas Baynton’s “Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History” details the myriad ways disability has been applied to marginalized groups, especially racial and/or ethnic minorities and women, to justify unequal treatment and “as a marker of hierarchical relations” (Baynton 34). In Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, one of the primary hierarchies portrayed is between the white, English-speaking colonists and missionaries who live almost exclusively on the mission and in large cities, and the indigenous Rhodesian (now Zimbabwean), Shona-speaking people. Given that disability is often used as a metaphor or marker in any social hierarchy, the relationship between the white colonists and the indigenous Rhodesians is

    Read More

  • West African Kingdoms

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Trupin, James E. West Africa - A Background Book from Ancient Kingdoms to Modern Times, Parent's Magazine Press. New York, 1991.

    Read More

  • Alice Walker

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    •     AW’s work is deeply rooted in oral tradition; in the passing on of stories from generation to generation in the language of the people. To AW the language had a great importance. She uses the “Slave language”, which by others is seen as “not correct language”, but this is because of the effect she wants the reader to understand.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Taking Root

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most of this documentary supports and clarifies my understanding of contemporary African culture. During the course I’ve learned that traditional African leadership structures undertook great changes under colonial rule and continue to progress today. Pre-colonial Africa had several different states characterized by different types of leadership; these involved small family groups of hunter and gatherers, bigger organized clan groups, and micro nations. Many African communities are still being governed by a council of elders, which is responsible for facilitating conflict and making almost all the important decisions within the public.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart

    1974 Words  | 4 Pages

    Chinua Achebe?s Things Fall Apart is a narrative story that follows the life of an African man called Okonkwo. The setting of the book is in eastern Nigeria, on the eve of British colonialism in Africa. The novel illustrates Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs, and his eventual downfall, all of which basically coincide with the Igbo?s society?s struggle with the Christian religion and British government. In this essay I will give a biographical account of Okonwo, which will serve to help understand that social, political, and economic institutions of the Igbos.

    Read More

  • The Brass Plaques of the Benin Palace

    2152 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Portuguese arrived in Benin, in modern Nigeria, between 1472 and 1486 to find an established and ancient kingdom with remarkable social and ritual complexity, with art that was comparatively naturalistic, and with a political system that was, on the surface, recognizable to the Europeans: monarchy. Even more importantly, they found a land rich in pepper, cloth, ivory, and slaves, and immediately set out to establish trade (Ben-Amos 35-6). Though we often imagine "first contacts" between Europeans and Africans as clashes of epochal proportions, leaving Europeans free to manipulate and coerce the flabbergasted and paralyzed Africans, this misjudges the resilience and indeed, preparedness, of the Benin people. The Benin were able to draw on their cultural, political, and religious traditions to fit the European arrival in an understandable context. Indeed, as the great brass plaques of the Benin palace demonstrate, the arrival was in fact manipulated by the Benin to strengthen, not diminish, indigenous royal power.

    Read More

  • Colonialims and the Use of Narrative in Stories Helped Fight Colonialism

    1290 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chinua Achebe was an influential Nigerian author during the 1900’s who was credited with his three essays which have been fused together into the book “Home and Exile”. In his stories he discusses things such as his own Igbo people, the problems with colonialization, the strength that stories can have and many more topics. A big part of his essays are on his thoughts of colonialism, the impact it has had on his home of Nigeria, and how stories written by others either helped justify colonialism or rejected it. Chinua argues that stories have their own power to fight, and while stories themselves do not have the ability to directly fight colonialism; they do, however with their power of words, stories can motivate and encourage people to stand up against colonialism. In proving this thesis to be a true statement, I will be providing evidence of the how, why and the extent to which stories can fight colonialism.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequalities in Malawi

    1451 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rotberg, R.I. “Saidi, Christine. Women’s authority and society in early East-Central Africa.” Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. Jan. 2011: 969. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Dec. 2011.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart Theme Essay

    1621 Words  | 4 Pages

    Before the arrival of the Europeans, Achebe did a excellent job portraying how the life of Igbo was before they were forced to oppose their own culture. To support this theme, Achebe included detailed descriptions of social rituals within each family, the justice system, religious practices and consequences, preparation and indulgence of food, the marriage process and the distributing of power within the men. Achebe shows how every man has an opportunity to prove himself worthy to achieve a title on the highest level, based merely on his own efforts. One may argue that the novel was written with the main focus on the study of Okonkwo’s character and how he deteriorates, but without the theme that define the Igbo culture itself, we would never know the universe qualities of the society that shaped Okonkwo’s life. The lives of the Igbo people was no different to the actual lives of the Ibos people back in the early days of Africa. Just like in Things Fall Apart, in actual African tribes there was never a ruler. “Very interesting thing about these villages is that there is no single ruler or king that controls the population. Decisions are made by including almost everyone in the village” (AfricaGuide). Using the theme, Achebe educated readers on by mirroring real African life in her

    Read More

  • Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...’s depictions of both traditional and modern beliefs in varying degrees illustrate the importance of both in contemporary Nigerian culture, as well as the greater Africa as a whole, and how both are intertwined and cannot exist without the other. In effect, she skillfully subverts stereotypes or single perceptions of Africa as backward and traditional, proving instead, the multifaceted culture of Africa. She further illustrates that neither traditional African nor western culture is necessarily detrimental. It is the stark contrast of the fundamental cultures that inevitably leads to clashes and disagreements. In the end, what holds African countries such as Nigeria together is their shared pride. Modern, western influences can bring positive changes to society, but new cultures cannot completely eradicate the foundational cultures to which a society is founded on.

    Read More

More about King Peggy Analysis

Open Document