The Evolution of African Diaspora and Culture with Civilization

Introduction

The African culture has a rich history by itself. It is allegedly said by anthropologists, who found fossils in African in the mid-20th century, that the first Africans lived around seven million years ago. The Africans passed their beliefs through music and poetry, oral, tradition ceremonies. There were different songs designed to accompany marriage, birth, death, rites of passage, hunting or even political activities. Music was often used in different African cultures to ward off evil spirits as they mostly believed in black magic, Voodoo, and to pay respects to good spirits, the dead and ancestors. The peculiarity of the African History and culture is very vivid thus making it a very interesting topic to read on.

Education

Education is the important tool for social, mental and economic mobility at the personal level and a tool for transformation of society at the national level. The African education long ago, before civilization, was based on. Similarities and differences between traditional (indigenous) education and modern education were brought by the missionaries. Education is taken to be a condition of human survival though it is a secondary need. It is the means where by one generation transmits the wisdom, knowledge and experience which prepares the next generation for life’s duties and pleasure according to their previous customs and beliefs. This also helps us to act with more insight and more intelligence in moulding the youths in an acceptable manner as.

Although occupations varied according to the geographical, the major ones were farming, wine tapping, trading, fishing, craft work, animal rearing, traditional medicine and black-smiting, there were mainly practical and if any intellectual teachings were to be done, the young ladies and men would sit with their elders and they would be taught. These methods were effective at the time as the topics of discussion were not as complex as to those of the modern education. The greatest limitation was, in the absence of writing and recording information, people depended on the power of their memories to facilitate the retention and transmission of all learned ideas to future generations (Njoh, A. J. 2016).

Food and Farming

Food gives us the energy and nutrients including protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins and minerals, used for growth and development for all living organisms. It is also important to be healthy and active, in moving, work, play, think and learn. The Africans witnessed the introduction of new food crops from America such as maize, peanuts and manioc (cassava). These new crops diversified the agricultural economy of the continent as well as transforming the culinary traditions of most African societies. This helped as the African were able to diversify their food menu thus helping them to be able to farm and trade different crops.

Also the traditional methods of farming were primitive as the goal was not on quality eg. Open casting of seeds. These methods resulted in the wastage of farming products and leading to the harvesting of a small yield. But after civilization occurred, most Africans where taught of techniques that they would apply to improve their yields tremendously e.g. irrigation, inorganic fertilizer, chemical pest control, and genetic manipulation of crop plants (grafting), which lead to the increment of the yield and the overall quality.

From that, Africans got to start various businesses in the line of agriculture over time leading to the generation of wealth and most importantly feeding themselves. This has led to the reduction of starving incidences and also an increment in their population (Droppelmann, K. J., Snapp, S. S., & Waddington, S. R., 2017). For Africans living in diaspora, they are able to cultivate tuber crops which sustain them. They are also able to practice some modern methods of farming e.g. Animal husbandry. Although, there is still a big room for improvement.

Job Creation

In the traditional African societies jobs were more of the role that you had to play in the society, not based on the monetary value that would be generated. For examples warrior would protect the communities, chiefs pass rulings, black-smith make tools, farmers cultivate crops etc. But due to civilization and the introduction of currencies, the hungry for wealth creation in the African societies began the started teaching themselves skills that would make them unique so as to work for the white man. This pushed most Africans to learn these new skills so as to adapt to the new world that was being formulated for them. This gave all them equal grounds to compete as all they had to do was attend schools, from there they would be taught. This also equipped them with knowledge on how they would develop themselves. Shortly after they started large scale farming in which they employed may farmers thus creating employment for them. Over time most Africans have embraced self-employment and in doing so, they are creating jobs. The Africans in the diaspora are also adapting to the new ways as they are getting involved in practices such as irrigation of large vast masses of land, zero grazing, mining etc. (Nattrass, N., & Seekings, J., 2016).

Traditions

This how the African people lived, their laws and guidelines that directed them on the decision they were to make. Looking at the traditional ways, most African communities side-lined ladies when it comes to the betterment of the society. That led to the wasting of potential strengths from within as women were mainly given the task of feeding the men and getting children. But after civilization, women were given equal chances to practice what they wanted which lead to the total use of the available human resources, labour, which was untouched for a long time. Although this is yet to be improved in the diaspora communities as most women there are still task with the basic traditional duties of a woman (Cornwall, A., & Rivas, A. M., 2015).

Conclusion

It is inevitable to negate the changes that were brought by civilization to the African culture. So of these changes impacted the communities positively e.g. being taught on job creation, being taught on farming techniques, eradication of some traditional practices such as the female genital mutilation (FGM), cattle rattling etc. But there are some important traditions that dissolved during the African civilization e.g. the freedom of communicating in their own native languages, the traditional methods of disease treatment, the practice of the traditional religion without stigmatization etc.

Although the Africans living in diaspora have not yet fully embraced the new world civilization taking place, they are finding it hard to cop up especially because the world is advancing very fast. It is also important to ensure that Africans do not get changed too much, to an extent they lose all their sense of culture and heritage with a goal of adapting the white man’s ways and teachings of life (Longman, C., & Bradley, T. 2016).