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The Westernisation of African culture: A ticking time bomb

  • nick
    5 Likes

    Often at times, people have wondered why the moral values which we are known for as Africans seem to be eroding us. 



    Though many people will argue that the world has gone beyond what it used to be in the past. As a growing up boy, certain things like the clothes and the way we wore them mattered a lot, it appealed to both male and female and we adored the fact that one can dress decently to people's admiration. This cannot be said of Africa today.

     

    When you look around these days, all you see most times are half naked or scantily dressed men and women. Social media has not really helped matters. African women especially are brazenly advertising themselves on various social media platforms to the point of asking whoever that care to listen for a fee to expose their bodies for their viewing pleasure especially to men. I find these extremely preposterous. How can one shamelessly and with disregard to her body expose that one thing that made u a woman, that one thing that should be an envy of all and that which should have been left to people's imagination in a manner that lacks moral with regards to our cultural standard?

     

    As much as I accept to an extent the positive impact of westernisation, I do believe that some aspects of our culture which we hold in high esteem as I mentioned earlier should and must be protected for posterity.

    It baffles me to see kids with just one parent and to see a parent with kids and with no husband or wife, and everyone seems cool with it. This is totally un-African. 

     

    A trip to London sometime ago opened my eyes to a lot which I see in today's Africa. A lot of kids on the streets of London from broken homes, mixed race kids who cannot even trace their fathers origin or whereabouts, kids doing drugs and a lot more are sights one sees daily. My attention was called to this by a friend and he said something that aroused my curiosity, He said that "in years to come, that these kids are the people who mostly like will take up positions of authority and that if the society allows this kind of weakness in the system to continue unabated then, the country will have itself to blame when these individuals become leaders.

     

    Coincidentally, in that same trip, I had an encounter with an elderly white woman as a friend and I visited a sick friend in the hospital. The woman also came to see her sick husband and in a twist of fate, we ran into each other. As a purebred African, I greeted good evening in my usual manner as she walked past me. 

    While we were waiting to be called in by the receptionist, the woman I had earlier greeted approached us and was full of smiles. I guessed her initial impression of me was that I was a Londoner, so she approached and  wanted to know more about me and why I greeted in that manner as against Hi and Hello which most people are accustomed to. According to her, it sounded strange because the last time she heard people greet like that was when she was much younger. She admitted that kids of these days don't greet like that anymore and she feels concern about it In fact, she took us to her husband who was also in sick bay and explained what had happened. You could see the happiness in her face as she was explaining to her husband.

    From what I deduced from that encounter, all she wanted was a just and morally upright society.

     

    With this in mind, I foresee an Africa that thrives on western mentality and ideologies, an Africa that is bereft of morals, norms and cultural values which are our core principle as a people.

    I do not want to dwell so much on this but I pray we leave a better, morally sound and well organised Africa for the ones coming after us.

     

    485 days ago

  • Gworthason
    9 Likes

    Its a shame how immorality has replaced our African moral values.

    485 days ago

  • Ama
    6 Likes

    This society we live in is just a ticking time boom as you captioned it, we need to do more if we want to have a society that is free of interference.  

    485 days ago