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African Values Traditional And Modern In Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes And Asare Konadu’s A Woman In Her Prime
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―Igba Evo‖- A day when special homage is paid to all ancestors. ―Igo Idi
and Ihe Nshi‖, that is, sacrificing to the dead priests and elders of
the clan in commemoration of their past roles as keepers of the
conscience of the clan when they were alive. ―Ahor Nna‖, on this day,
Ahor, everyone whose father (Nna) is dead, sacrifices to him to enlist
his help and protection. (Ezugu 12-13).
The worship of our ancestors
is the basis for the honour and respect accorded to old people in the
traditional Africa culture is their closeness to the ancestors, for in
his, ontological conceptual scheme the African places his old relatives
on his great hierarchy of beings.
It must be noted that in the
African universe the living and the dead interact with one another. Life
goes on beyond the grave for the African and is a continuous action and
interaction with dead relatives.
These unseen ancestors called ―the
living dead‖ become part of one‘s living family and often are invited
to partake though spiritually in the family meals. The ancestors are not
just ghosts, nor are they simply dead heroes, but are felt to be still
present watching over the household, directly concerned in all the
affairs of the family and property, giving abundant harvests and
fertility and warding off enemies at the village gate.
Extended Family Unit:
Another important traditional value of the modern African is love for, and practice of, the extended family system.
This
extended family system is widely practiced in Africa. Indeed it is one
―in which everybody is linked with all the other members, living or
dead, through a complex network of spiritual relationship into a kind of
mystical body‖ consequently, it is not just ―being‖ that the African
values, ―being-with-others‖ or ―being rooted in kinship‖ is an equally
important existential characteristic of the African. He is never
isolated since several persons are assimilated into one parental role:
his father‘s brother are assimilated b extension into the role of
father, his mother‘s sisters into the role of mother, his patri-lateral
uncle‘s daughters into the role of sister. A person is an individual to
the extent that he is a member of a family, aa clan or community. (Seo
Ogbonmwan, 2008).
Sacredness of Life:
The African does not like
or nurture violence per se. this is because shedding of blood is
sacrilegious. In Achebe‘s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo goes into exile
with his family, for seven years to atone, for inadvertently killing a
clansman- a crime against the earth goddess. In Africa, people are never
killed unless it is an act of war. In the past were those whose
continued existence as a threat to the life of others and to the peace
of the community were usually sold into slavery.
Traditional African Religion
To
the African, religion is of indispensable value. ―To be‖ for him is to
be religious‖ as religion truly permeates his total life, there is for
him no ―Secular‖ existence or naturalistic vision of world order. In
this important way also, the African exhibits a cultural personality
distinct from that of western man, for instance, who easily makes a
radical distinction between the secular and the religious, natural and
the supernatural, this world and the next. Apart from ancestral things
that are awesome or humans that have been inspiring or transcendental
like the sun, the moon, the river, the earth, etc.
Communal Work
Preparation
for Onwa-Asaa festival (Ezugu 5). The African values communal work as
an opportunity to share his skills and give his best to his age group
and the community. In the preparation of the bush for farming, the age
group members arrange a date to assist Mr. A and the following day
assist Mr. B in bush clearing, bush burning, bush gathering, planting,
pruning and harvesting without money changing hands. This practice will
hardly disappear in tradition African communities.
Modernity
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