How Africans Survive In Rural Africa Religion Essay

Introduction

The huge continent of Africa is so rich and diverse in it ‘s civilization with it non merely altering from one state to another but within an single state many different civilizations can be found.

Much of Africa ‘s cultural activity centres on the household and the cultural group. Art, music, and unwritten literature service to reenforce bing spiritual and societal forms. The Westernized minority, influenced by European civilization and Christianity, foremost rejected African traditional civilization, but with the rise of African patriotism, a cultural resurgence occurred. The authoritiess of most African states foster national dance and music groups, museums, and to a lesser grade, creative persons and authors.

Africa was the place of birth of the human species between 8 million and 5 million old ages ago. Today, the huge bulk of its dwellers are of autochthonal beginning. Peoples across the continent are unusually diverse by merely about any step: They speak a huge figure of different linguistic communications, pattern 100s of distinguishable faiths, live in a assortment of types of homes, and prosecute in a broad scope of economic activities.

Over the centuries, peoples from other parts of the universe have migrated to Africa and settled at that place. Historically, Arabs have been the most legion immigrants. Get downing in the seventh century ad, they crossed into North Africa from the Middle East, conveying the faith of Islam with them. A ulterior motion of Arabs into East and Central Africa occurred in the nineteenth century. Europeans first settled in Africa in the mid-17th century near the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern terminal of the continent. More Europeans immigrated during the subsequent colonial period, peculiarly to contemporary South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Algeria. South Asians besides arrived during colonial times. Their posterities, frequently referred to as American indians, are found mostly in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa.

Africa has faced some of the great societal alterations in this century in footings of race, ethnicity, political relations, force, labour dealingss and industrialization. Graduates in the societal scientific disciplines are traveling to be a critical constituent to the success of African democracies as they struggle to emerge from the muss in which they have been. Universities are non merely indispensable for the preparation and nurturing of highly-skilled bookmans in this country, but are poised to do a alone part to the overall development of post-colonial Africa ( 1997:180 ) .

( T ) he African has ever and everyplace presented a construct of the universe which is diametrically opposed to the traditional doctrine of Europe. The latter is basically inactive, nonsubjective, dichotomous ; it is, in fact, Manichaean, in that it makes an absolute differentiation between organic structure and psyche, affair and spirit. It is founded on separation and resistance, on analysis and struggle. The African, on the other manus, conceives the universe, beyond the diverseness of its signifiers, as a basically nomadic yet alone world that seeks synthesis… .This world is being, in the ontological sense of the word, and it is life force. For the African, affair in the sense the Europeans understand it, is merely a system of marks which translates the individual world of the existence: being, which is spirit, which is life force. Therefore, the whole universe appears as an boundlessly little, and at the same clip boundlessly big, web of life forcesaˆ¦ ” ( 1966:4 ) .

“ The effects of capitalist economy are already being felt in our households. Individuality in society is increasing. Even households in rural countries like to run in isolation, and those who offer any aid are acute to assist their immediate households merely. The ( conjugal ) household is going more independent. The loss of community webs and the development of individuality have resulted in ( increased happenings of ) self-destruction, solitariness, drug maltreatment and mental unwellness. The communal system is interrupting down. The drawn-out household had certain maps to execute, for case, to accommodate twosomes at dunces with each other, but this is no longer the instance. It is no 1 ( else ‘s ) concern to cognize what ‘s go oning in one ‘s matrimony today ( Kimani 1998:1 ) . ”

“ Colonization and Westernization have brought a permanent and irreversible alteration in Africa.aˆ¦ As long as we continue speaking of Africanisation and ‘going back to our roots ‘ yet we remain quiet on the world of modern society, we will sound foolish, out-dated and out of touch with world. … What African authors and bookmans should make is cover with the issues that are afflicting our society such as force, corruptness and lifting costs of basic demands, instead than waste clip on the issue of ‘Africanness ‘ . … ( T ) he effects of Westernisation are here to remain and the faster we adapt to populating with them the better for us and the coevalss to come ” ( 1998: III ) .

How we survive:

Life in Africa is tough. Life is really hard in Africa particularly in the small towns and little towns. Most village people in Africa are subsistence husbandmans who grow harvests and existent animate beings merely to feed themselves and their households. Most small towns in Africa have no schools and the kids in these small towns end up subsistence husbandmans merely like their hapless parents. In Sub-Saharan Africa, most husbandmans have big estates of chocolate farms attached to their regular farms. Even though chocolate is a hard currency harvest, the hapless husbandmans get really small from their chocolate farms because most of the times the chocolate farms get infested and since the husbandmans have no money to spray their chocolate farms, their difficult work merely travel in vain.

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Besides, since most of these husbandmans are subsistence husbandmans who depend on their farms for nutrient and support, whenever there is a bad crop ( in times of drouth and bad conditions conditions ) , their full households go hungry for the full season.

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Most small towns in Africa have no entree to good imbibing H2O. Most kids wake up really early in the forenoon and walk stat mis upon stat mis to nearby watercourses to bring imbibing H2O and H2O for domestic intents. Most of the watercourses in Africa are full of water-borne diseases such as river sightlessness, kiping illness, diarrhea, cholera, enteric fever, and other H2O based diseases like guinea worm, and Bilharzias. Malaria ( water-related disease ) kills people in record Numberss in Sub-saharan African states such as Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leon, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Togo, etc. Guinea worm disease for illustration is a major wellness job in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Due to H2O scarceness in certain parts of Northern and Eastern Africa, most village people in these countries suffer from water-scarce diseases like trachoma and itchs.

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Since most kids in African small towns do non acquire entree to primary instruction, they become trapped in their assorted small towns all their lives. Those who manage to get away from the trap into large metropoliss and towns find themselves trapped once more in slums ( some worse than life in the small towns ) .A

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Here is a true life narrative of an African Child. Life in the metropolis is non the same as life in the small towns. There is electricity in the metropoliss and large towns but merely kerosene lamps in the small towns. Life in the metropoliss run 24/7 non-stop. Life in the small towns run from dawn to sunset. Darkness and insects take over one time the Sun goes down. This narrative shows the manner of life and how people survive in rural Africa.

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Poverty is non something new in Africa. In fact, poorness was there before adult male and it has become portion of life, attaching itself to nature like the blood through our venas. We can non see it clearlyA or experience its presence under normal fortunes but particularly when the bosom is crushing so fast and the blood moves up and down harshly through our thoraxs but the injury might hold been done already.

The Poor is hapless and the rich is rich but life still goes on in Africa, exposing all degrees of poorness. There are assortments in civilization and natural resources but a specific civilization common to all, The civilization of Poverty. The Culture of poorness appears to be the same throughout the communities in Africa particularly around the sub-Saharan Africa. From Senegal to Gambia, Guinea to Guinea Bissau, sierra-Leone to Liberia, Ivory seashore to Gold Coast ( Ghana ) , Togoland to Benin, Nigeria to Cameroun and above all, DR. Congo. Within these single communities per Se, there exist different groups of people organizing folks, kins, drawn-out households, small towns and towns who are categorize based on their single typical features such as different linguistic communications, staple nutrients, tabus and norms. However, all these groups partake or portion about every bit in this alone civilization ( civilization of poorness ) . Taking a little small town like Fuman in Ghana, it should non be a surprise to see it expose if non all, most of the facets of poorness in Africa. Life in poorness, some causes of poorness and may be its prevention.A A

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Life is still the same in Fuman and it is remaining out on the monkey-bread tree tree all these seasons. Going from the chief Sunyani-Kumasi route, notice the face of poorness along the manner. It appears to be have oning a head covering in Sunyani but tends to be a slingshot and finally a huntsman near the viridity. It hides itself beyond the mountains and hills but reveals its true colourss beneath the green. The birds continue to sing its favourite vocal even though it refuses to dance to the melody. Going from the chief street is nil but a admiration, a different universe all together. The route is rough and the conditions is cheery. Beside this route is the evergreen. The tall trees continue to boom, canopying the shorter 1s who depend on the clemencies of the Godhead, for a small sunshine. Nowadays, beside the sound of the birds do non be surprise to hear the boom voices of the concatenation saw along this route, drawing down the mighty odum and sapele trees of ancient times merely for lumber.

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Descending down the route taking to the small town appears these legion pes waies, ramifying north and Forth from the chief route, like a web of channels in the termitarium ( Ant hill ) , taking people into and out of their chocolate farms. Just a few stairss appear these erected constructions, thatched and roofed with dry grasses sometimes with some rusty sheets on them, lodging human psyches from the snakes and Scorpios at dark. Mosquitos do their portion at dark, seize with teething even the orbs, delving through the organic structures in hunt of gold and raising the temperature to a 1000 degrees Celsius within a few yearss.

Because there is no pipe borne H2O in my small town, you will largely happen small kids with large pails and pans heading towards the riverbank to bring H2O particularly in the forenoon and in the evenings.A the life conditions in Africa A

This river serves as the chief beginning of imbibing H2O and H2O for domestic intents. Even when boiling was intended to kill the source the causes Cholera, what about the legion black flies that cause dark sightlessness. When the guinea worms approaches thee with heavy Black Marias, who are you to turn the temperature down and so goes the tradition of decease. When Cholera designs the pharynxs of work forces, bury about the deathly diphtheria that tears kids into pieces and above all, when mighty infantile paralysis captures the legs, how good is soccer to the psyche. Dry season on this river is nil but joy but the little canoes kids make for their expedition in the dry season, paddle themselves in the following season.A A diseases in Africa

Cutlass and Hoe for the male child, Kitchen for the miss. Education depends on the male parents pocket and when more custodies are needed on the farm, kids born in the farm remain at that place all the yearss of their lives. On Mondays, few kids are seen steping downhill or siting on their male parents 2nd manus bikes, sometimes whistling their Sunday school halleluiah melodies, beckoning friends and neighbours or declaiming the hard ABC alphabets, all the manner downhill. Even when Cutlass and hoes should turn into pencils and chalks, Kitchen still remain the formal office of the miss kid.

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How good is girl child instruction to the empty pocketed? Would non the miss bead out of school when she gets pregnant or acquire married and mess things up along the manner? Is non it the responsibility of a responsible adult female to make the family jobs and take attention of the kids? If everybody is go forthing the house for school, so how good or what is the intent of matrimony and in this society of drawn-out household systems, who will take attention of the half-departed psyches ( Old work forces and adult females ) ? Such are some of the inquiries that keep most misss out from composing their names. If you educate a adult male you educate merely one individual but if you educate a adult female, you educate the whole state. ( A wise stating ) . However, this is merely the doctrine of the rich and the educated themselves in the metropoliss but in a rural community like Fuman where traditional establishments and norms are the parliament of the twenty-four hours, tradition remains the same particularly among the traditional believers.A A A A A miss kid instruction in Africa

Subsistence farming instead than commercial agriculture. Farmers grow harvests and rear animate beings but merely to feed themselves and their households. Hoes and cutlasses alternatively of tractors and combined reapers and hence merely a smattering of farm merchandises from the Fieldss. In this age of irrigation, merely two agrarian seasons remain in Fuman. The Dry season and the Wet season. The dry season is accompanied by drouths and shrub fires taking to about six months of hungriness and adversity. There are rampant bush fires in and around adjacent small towns that destroy about all the corn on the Fieldss and sometimes the few yams in the hills and therefore assisting plan the legs of childs and drawing off the few hairs off their caputs during this season. Bush fires do n’t merely destruct the farms but cause catastrophe to the virgin woods, killing even the millepede and the centipedes that fertilize the dirt. Sheep, caprine animals and the cowss suffer the effects the most. No fresh grasses but merely dust-covered air that blows across the Sahara desert. Most farm animate beings die from eating toxicant foliages. They are sometimes led to different Fieldss of croping which may incorporate toxicant species ( foliages ) . Some of these actions are due to illiteracy. Poor farming patterns particularly firing the field after uncluttering the land. Most husbandmans are nonreaders and unable or are non ready to accept new ideas.A A A A A life in AfricaA hapless agriculture patterns

Bush fires truly destruct the virgin forest but it is non just to fault bushfire for all the dangers poverty airss to the environment. Man must eat Yam in order to last but yam must be cooked before feeding. The three-footed ruddy clay ranges truly execute their responsibilities but merely when supplied with adequate Firewood. The few coal-pots truly cook faster than the three-footed ruddy clay ranges but nevertheless they need plenty wood coal to fuel the procedure. Some trees are pulled down merely for firewood and others are burned for wood coal and hence the addition in population becomes straight relative to the figure of trees pulled down per unit square country since more oral cavities to be fed.A populating conditions in Africa

The Wet season to most people is better than the dry season because there is plenty to eat during this clip. Up and down the Fieldss, are greenish grazing lands for the farm animate beings. Beside the chocolate farms are booked Fieldss for subsistence agriculture during this period. Maize tassels across these Fieldss and the slender leaves of yams coil around the base of trees in their effort to make the sunshine. The old leaves autumn and are replaced by new 1s making one time once more, peaceable shade beneath the chocolate workss. Not merely this, Mango trees, Pear trees, Pineapples, Guava, Oranges, all display their natural values and therefore plentifulness to eat. Tomatos are found lying here and at that place. Mangos in the troughs and oranges left to decompose on the trees. Cassava truly looses its value during this period while yams merely remain in the hills waiting for rescue. During this period, since there are no storage installations or better saving methods, these perishable goods merely go rotten while nutrient bends into blood in the dry season. Furthermore, despite the fact that this season brings more nutrient to eat, it is besides accompanied by most of the deathly diseases within these parts of the universe. Malaria, the most deathly disease is really common during this period. The adequate rain during this clip are collected in the chuckholes and broken pots lying here and at that place beside the houses and within the shrubs around, making comfy genteelness topographic points for mosquitoes. Temperatures are largely high, accompanied by terrible concern, cold and chill and if non lucky, decease. The per centum of cholera and diarrhoea besides rise during this period doing more deceases than usual. Meanwhile a mosquito cyberspace is merely about two dollars.A A

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Can I assist Africa? How can I assist Africa? good, there are many more things you can make to assist AfricaA You can patronize a kid today. You can donate to charitable organisations such as UNICEF and “ feed the kids ” . You can travel to Africa and see things for yourself and see what you can make to assist. You can assist salvage a kid ‘s life today and you can assist alter the rough life conditions in Africa for the better.A You can distribute the word to others and assist give voice to the hapless in Africa. You can give person a nice life and assist construct a happy place for the less fortunate. Do n’t be afraid to go to Africa because Africans are really friendly and hospitable and the truth about Africans is that ; A “ AFRICANS DO NOT FAKE THEIR SMILES ”