Africans, What Happened to Our Own African Identity?
For centuries, Africa has been a continent of rich culture and tradition. But in recent years, there has been a growing trend of Africans abandoning their own identity in favor of Western culture. This is evident in the way we speak, the way we dress, the way we eat, and even the way we think.
Take, for example, the names of our entertainment industries. In Nigeria, we have Nollywood. In Ghana, we have Ghollywood. In Cameroon, we have Collywood. And so on. These names are all derived from the American entertainment industry, Hollywood. Why can’t we come up with our own unique names?
The same is true for our celebrities. Many of them try to imitate American celebrities in terms of their style, their mannerisms, and even their accents. This is a clear sign of a lack of confidence in our own culture.
We also see this trend in the way we consume goods and services. We often prefer to buy foreign-made products, even if they are more expensive. We also tend to travel to foreign countries for vacation, even though there are many beautiful places to visit in Africa.
This trend of imitating Western culture is not only harmful to our own identity, but it is also harmful to our economy. When we buy foreign-made products, we are sending our money out of Africa. And when we travel to foreign countries for vacation, we are spending our money there instead of supporting our own tourism industry.
So what can we do to reverse this trend? The first step is to be more aware of it. We need to start to appreciate our own culture and traditions. We need to start to support our own businesses and industries. And we need to start to be proud of who we are as Africans.
It will not be easy to change this trend, but it is possible. We need to start by educating ourselves about our own culture and traditions. We need to support our own businesses and industries. And we need to be proud of who we are as Africans.
If we can do these things, then we can start to reverse the trend of imitating Western culture and start to build a stronger, more prosperous Africa.
Africans, why do we love to copy and follow everything Americans do? Imagine the names given to our Entertainment industries in Africa.
Nollywood -Nigeria
Collywood -Cameroon
Ghollywood -Ghana
Lollywood -Liberia
Sollywood – South Africa
Soon we will change Nigeria to Nigerica, Ghana to Ghanarica and Cameroon to Camerica, etc . What prevents us from choosing our own unique names? Must we copy like that; at least we should try to copy with style. Look at all our so-called celebrities fighting hard to imitate American celebrities.
WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR OWN IDENTITY?
If we want to speak English, we position our mouth to speak like a Briton or an American -arguing that our own language and accents are outdated.
If we want to eat, we try to eat… I don’t know – arguing that our own style of eating is unrefined.
We see our locally made kinds of stuff as inferior; instead, we travel to Dubai, China, London, New York to patronize other economies while we still complain and condemn our government for doing nothing to improve our economy. Have you asked yourself, the quality of those kinds of stuff we get from China, are they really better than ours?
Just like a few Intractable, immature or Ex-convicted parsons in the Western music industry that displays flashy cars as a sign of wealth; our celebrities now acquire a fleet of expensive cars and houses and post them on Facebook as a mark of wealth. Even when some of them are acquired through dubious means…
We abandon our own local languages and prefer to learn Nepali (Nepal), Pashto, Dari (Afghanistan), even Kurdish, (Iraq) etc.
We bleach to look lighter just to look like them, feeling that our own colour makes us less human.
Likewise, we leave our original and ethnic and cultural musicology to do the American style of music; just to make sure we do as they do. Worst of all is that we don’t even copy the good musicians. The trend thing now is even to sing rubbish, say nonsense and call it songs. What lessons are there in the lyrics of our so-called modern Westernized songs?
We even copy their social ills, divorce, Abortion, Drugs, Suicide, prostitution, Religious intolerance, deviance, abuse, manipulation, and superiority complex attitudes and see them as trending things
WHAT HAPPENED TO US, PEOPLE? WHO DID THIS TO US? PEOPLE, LET US RETURN TO ORIGINALITY. LET US RETURN TO THAT, WHICH MAKES US AFRICAN.
NO MATTER HOW WE COPY AN AMERICAN, NO MATTER HOW WE COPY AN EUROPEAN, NO MATTER HOW YOU BLEACH TO LOOK WHITE, NO MATTER HOW YOU TWIST YOUR TONGUE TO SPEAK LIKE QUEEN ELIZABETH, NO MATTER HOW MANY PASSPORTS AND CITIZENSHIP YOU HAVE ACQUIRED. YOU CAN NEVER DELETE THE FACT THAT YOU ARE AN AFRICAN AND WILL BE SEEN AS AFRICAN. SO WHY THE IMITATION?
BOKO HARAM CAME, WE WANTED AMERICA TO COME AND SAVE US
CHIBOK ISSUE CAME, WE WANTED AMERICA TO COME AND HELP US
BUILDING OF ROADS, WE INVITED CHINA TO COME AND HELP US
EBOLA ISSUE CAME, WE BEGGED AMERICA TO COME AND HELP US
YET EVERY YEAR, THOUSANDS OF GRADUATES ARE PRODUCED FROM OUR UNIVERSITIES….EVEN TO GET A JOB, YOU HAVE TO PAY MONEY TO THE EMPLOYER TO EMPLOY YOU. WHO DID THIS TO US?
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Please let it be known to you that:
Our languages are wonderful,
Our colour of the skin is second to none, (Black is beautiful)
Our foods are exotic and delicious,
Our true African women are beautiful, industrious and lovable
Our locally made goods are fantastic, and we can even encourage them to improve on the quality by patronizing them.
Our styles of music are superb,
Wealth is not by acquiring the latest 2014 Hummer or Ferrari while your mother, your neighbours, your brothers and your country are wallowing in poverty. Let us rise up and take that that belongs to us.
Mental reconstruction 101