Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
kenya's culture essay
kenya culture text essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: kenya's culture essay
Introduction Kenyan is a country that is in the East of Africa. The country straddles the equator, covering a total of 224,961 square miles (582,600 square kilometers; roughly twice the size of the state of Nevada). Kenya has wide white-sand beaches on the coast. Inland plains cover three-quarters of the country; they are mostly bush, covered in underbrush. In the west are the highlands where the altitude rises from three thousand to ten thousand feet. (http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Kenya.html#ixzz3El9fIIYC) Nairobi, the largest city and the capital of Kenya is located in the central highlands.
Religion
Kenyan 's do not share a single overview on religion considering the fact that they have more than45 ethnic groups
…show more content…
Looking at different kinds of culture, they all have something in common with their traditions. Kenyan 's value Morality, Respect for people 's property, and good leadership. There several things that different cultures value, but these are the universal values (Africa peace link). Traditional cultures are the most identified in Kenya, morality and respect for others illustrates righteousness. The children of Kenya are raised to follow all these values since its an important tradition in most Kenyan tribes (Africa Peace …show more content…
While making up the upper echelon of African academia, a large number of them exercise their right to exercise capitalist tendencies by owning small and large businesses in the country as well. Other ethnic groups that make up Kenya’s population are the Luhya (14%), the Luo (13%), the Kalenjin (12%), the Kamba (11%), the Kisii (6%), and the Meru (6%), with the latter amount constituting an “other” category .
Language
Kenya’s language makeup depends on the geographical location and/or the socio-economic profile of Kenya. In the same respect of the Kikuyu group, Kenya’s governing language preferences fall on Swahili and English. However, Kenya today has well over 62 languages and/or dialects that are spoken in both major metropolitan cities and rural areas. With Kenya’s population standing at an astonishing 36.9 million, it should come as no surprise that such a wide variety of languages exists.
Societal
Kenya is located in the East of Africa and has large plateaus and high plains. I am going to tell you why Kenya is a good place to live for the Bantu people. The Bantu people lived in Nigeria then moved down South to have more water source and cooler weather to live in instead of the Sahara Desert.
Value systems across cultures can help to explain the differences in behaviour amongst people from different countries (McCort and Malhotra, 1993), which tend to stay with people over time. There are many different cultures and in order for an organisation to be successful, they need to take many different into account to ensure that they are successful in different countries and cultures. Cultural values appear to have considerable effects on management decision making processes (Clark, 1990; Ken, 1985; Picken, 1987; Shane, 1988; Swierczek, 1991). Culture is defined as “the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs” (Unesco, 2002).
What is culture? Culture is commonly defined as the set of values and beliefs people have about how the world(both nature and society) works as well as the norms of behavior derived from that set of values.Culture is just a way of life shared with a group people. However,cultural competence refers to an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds, non-profit organizations, and government agencies whose employees work with persons from different cultural/ethnic backgrounds. To really understand what cultural competence is you have to first get the full meaning of what culture is. Cultural competence may also be associated with diversity and from an organizational communication perspective, a diverse culture. Developing cultural competence results in an ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures. Africa is divided into a great number of ethnic cultures.
What is culture, one might ask? According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, culture is the “customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group or the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life} shared by people in a place or time” (Culture). Five major characteristics that define a culture include culture is learned, culture is shared, culture is symbolic, culture is all-encompassing, and culture is integrated. Culture depends on the human capacity for cultural learning that encompasses shared rules for conduct and that are dependent upon symbols. Cultures can be integrated by using “social and economic forces, core values, and key symbols” (Mirror for Humanity, 2002). This essay will elaborate on the physical geography and military history of Sub-Saharan Africa, an analysis of its weather, and an overview of the ASCOPE acronym.
Most Kenyans also believe that Due to its vast ethnic background, Kenya is linguistically inclined, with most of the population speaking English, Swahili, in addition to 42 different dialects. Although being the dominant language in the nation, English is usually used in government and business. The language is associated with the corresponding education level. In recent years, there has been a push to make Swahili the common tongue for
Journeying back to year 2000 B C, Cushitic speakers from northern region Africa settled in east Africa, known as the land of Kenya. During the 1st century AD, the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa was chiefly settled by Arab and Persian traders by which Arab and Persian colonies were established. In the first millennium AD, the Nilotic and Bantu speakers migrated into the region and settled inland.
European colonization in Kenya had a large impact on Africa’s religion and culture. Africa had over 100 ethnic groups in which were effected from the colonization. (Doc.2). The Europeans believed that Africans did not have a developed religion and believed in bizarre thing such as witchcraft (Doc.6). But, in the Abaluyia Story of Creation, it told how the world and man was created, which was really like the European religion of Christianity in which Adam and Eve was made in a similar way. This proved that they indeed did have an organized religion (Doc.7). In 1962, 80% of Kenyans believed in the indigenous beliefs, but after in 2002, only 26% of the population believed in the indigenous beliefs. Because Europeans believed in Christianity, Protestant beliefs went from 7% in 1962 to 38% in 2002, and Catholic beliefs went from 3.5% to 28% (Doc. 8). Europeans felt they gave Africans the Christian religion, a “superior” form of government, and a more developed civilization (Background Essay). The colonization in Kenya changed their culture also. Kenyans changed their clothing. Leaders of Kenya including the first president Jomo Kenyatta wore clothing very similar to the clothing of the Europeans (Doc.5). This made people feel that their clothing was not in fashion and they had to follow the way of the Europeans. This decreased the amount of people wearing their regular clothing and the amount of people following their own culture. Kenya’s religion and culture truly converted, because of European colonization.
Kenya is a developing country in East Africa region with a total land area of 582,646 km2. It gained independence in 1963 from British colonial rule. It is neighbor to Somalia and Sudan which have experienced political instability marred with civil strife but the country has remained relatively stable despite the effects of such on socio-economic status of the country. According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2010), Kenya has 38.6 million people with a growth rate of 2.8% annually with a majority population living in rural areas (World Bank, 2010). Under its current constitution (promulgated in 2010), Kenya is headed by a president with a devolved county government system comprising of 47 counties. Its last concluded general elections in 2013 were peaceful compared to the conflicted 2007 that sparked violence in the country.
2004 From Mukogodo To Maasai: Ethnicity and Cultural Change in Kenya (Westview Case Studies in Anthropology), Westview Press, pp. 27-35
Kenya’s population is divided by language and culture into more than 40 different ethnic groups. The largest group is the Kikuyu which makes up 12 per cent of the population and is Bantu speaking. Swahili became the offical language of Kenya in 1974. It is grammatically a Bantu language even though it is heavily influenced of the population and is Bantu speaking. Swahili became the offical language of Kenya in 1974. It is grammatically a Bantu language even though it is heavily influenced by Arabic and is written with the Roman alphabet. English is also an official language and is still widely used.
Kenya is a very important country in the world basically due to its strategic location in the East African region. It is a country that has had an interesting political walk that despite the challenges it has faced, it has managed to pull through though with an interesting history to tell. There have been different regimes in the country since it acquired its independence. Worth noting is that these regimes have come into power through different ideologies and they have guided the country in different directions. The country was colonized by the British and acquired its independence in the year 1963. Notably, Kenya is considered to have been a colonial invention which had to contend with the colonialists.
A number of policy interventions have been originated since independence to address the growing employment problem in Kenya, and with that, make an attempt at bettering the lot of the Kenyan youth. The earliest among these were the Kenyanization policies adopted at independence in which it was envisaged that young Kenyans would quickly take over duties and responsibilities from departing colonial staffers. Other policy measures included promotion of growth and development of the informal and jua kali sector in the 1990’s.
On the eastern coast of Africa lies a land full of sunny blue skies and large plains in which zebras and elephants roam. This land is the country of Kenya. Outside of Kenya’s cities and towns lies many samples of natures beauty. Unfortunately, the people living in this land are troubled by their struggle with the government and trying to form a democracy. Matthew Carotenuto stated, “Much of the world had historically viewed Kenya as an island of peace and economic potential in a roiling sea of stateless chaos.” What he means is that people have long seen Kenya as a peaceful place that is surrounded by countries suffering from all sorts of violence and unfortunate circumstances. What many people do not know is that Kenya has a long history for political violence going way back to when the country was colonized. Understanding that Kenya’s past violence was due to their struggle for social and political authority helps us understand some of their violence issues today. According to Maina Kiai, violence broke out after Kenya’s 2007 election. Many people had thought that Kenya was a more peaceful country compared to others in Africa because they were working towards a democracy. Currently Kenya is a republic (“Kenya” The World...). Another thing Kiai mentioned is that one of Kenya’s major political problems is that Kenya's constitution gives the president full power to elect anyone he wants into a political position for any salary he chooses. Scott Baldauf and Robert Crilly also explain how Kenya is trying to become a democracy but its political system is weak and allows the president too much power, making the nation a dictatorship in disguise. This leads to many ethical issues within the governments systems. We should care about Ken...
Gaining their independence in October 1962, Uganda shares borders with Sudan in the north, Kenya to the east, Tanzania and Rwanda to the south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. There exists a wide variety of flora and fauna in the region with rainforests, vegetation is heaviest in the south and typically becomes wooded savanna in central and northern Uganda. Dry acacia woodland, dotted with the occasional candelabra and euphorbia and interspersed with grassland, occurs in the south. The steppes and thickets of the northeast represent the driest regions of Uganda (Uganda 2010). In the Lake Victoria region and the western highlands, forest covering has been replaced by elephant grass and forest remnants because of human incursions. The medium-elevation forests contain a rich variety of species. The high-elevation forests of Mount Elgon ...
The history of Kenya is like other African countries because they had ivory that European countries wanted. In the 19th century, Christian missionaries arrived from Europe, the Berlin Conference divided Africa into spheres of influence, and in 1890 Kenya was declared a British protectorate. In 1893, coffee was introduced to Kenya. In the 1920 Kenya was declared a British colony but from 1952-1956 a state of emergency was declared in response to the Mau Mau rebellion against the British. After the rebellion, in 1963, Kenya gained their independence from Britain. A year later Kenya became a republic and Wilson Kipurgut wins the first Olympic medal for ...