The Root Of Afric African Culture - 881 Words

Some have speculated that the root of Africa s inability to be as successful as the western countries is African culture. Culture is defined as the shared set of assumptions, values, and beliefs of a group of people by which they organize their common life. Culture is both a process and an intuition. Roots of a culture lie within families, schools, music, art, and sociopolitical institutions. Each culture is difficult to describe in detail because there are so many aspects to it. There is an iceberg concept of culture, the majority of it cannot be seen. Surface culture includes languages, accents, behavior, food, dance, arts, physical appearances, rules, and regulations. Deep culture includes much more: such as value systems, emotions, attitude towards elders, class distinction, and socials norms. African cultures are changing to accommodate to western ways. Oral traditions are transitioning to written. Globalization encourages the homogenization of society and civilization, the worl d is becoming a global village. As English is becoming the dominant language in the world, many countries are teaching their children English in schools instead of their native languages. As a result, the native languages are dying out and the children begin to disassociate with their home cultures in favor for western culture. Africans are raised differently than westerners, instead of being independent individuals they are taught to be interdependent members of a community made by