What is African Cultural Urbanization?
the African youth and urban culture
“Really, times are changing and sometimes it takes us all by surprise — especially for those who are familiar with the African culture.”
Today, cultural imperialism is doing to what colonialism did to our forefathers and indigenous economies. When you travel to many African large-crowded cities like Lagos and Accra — you’ll barely come into contact with tradition or with the Black identity.
Our urban areas have turned into effigies of Western culture. And on the streets, you could easily hear the loud Western music playing from music cafes and noticed the youths dressed in ragged jeans. Anyway, there’s nothing bad about those material cultures of the West.
In many ways, this has created a stereotype of “the best culture or civilization” which is now believed to be true by many African youths, today. They’ve been illusioned by European media and publications that their indigenous culture and heritage is uncivilized, maybe antiquated.
The youths from metropolitan Africa have codified Western culture into their daily lives. And at the family level, parents often see this as part of civilization which they have misplaced meanings of it.
Our social spaces like the cinema projects White supremacist movies, and others that glorify European medicine, attires, architecture and languages over the indigenous African. Places of socialization are active spaces for creating social acceptance and identity labelling.
Our school curricula take a cue from the colonialists brochures, and they are pro-Western in many circles of depiction. A young, educated African lady would like to get rid of her blackness by bleaching her skin which could be said as her heritage. And an exuberant, young educated man would like to buy his wear that’s made of denim.
How far, cultural urbanization?
A school teacher from Uganda, Ssenyonjo Brian said that the influences of Christianity and Islam which were brought to Africans by both Europeans and Arabs immensely changed the African youth’s lifestyle.
African colonialists who first introduced Christianity through the missionary, and Islam through trans-Atlantic trade stereotyped many African cultural practices as evil and immoral — now it has eroded the minds of even the unlettered youths.
Brian also claimed that traditional African medicine gotten from roots, backs, and leaves of trees have been rubbed as ‘unscientific’ by the West and is mostly associated with backwardness or the lack of scientific rigour.
Opined also that the ways Africans speak local dialects is more often that not a consonant or vowel by foreign languages such as French, English, Mandarin, Spanish, etcetera.
It’s true that the African youth is enveloped in an avalanche of Western (European) cultural influence. Even our banking system, trade relations, and traditional music have been electrified or transposed to look trans-African, so that we may be accepted by our colonialists.
Sadly, the politics of Westernization is not only destructive to the indigenous African culture; it’s psychologically unrelenting.
Muhammed Shehu who’s a Masters student said that our contact with Western culture during the early times of colonialism gave way to the fading of indigenous culture and practices.
Look at this picture, the African way of marriage has changed significantly because in comparison with Western marriages, Africans used to have only traditional marriage ceremonies but now, it involves two marriages — that’s the traditional wedding and the modern Church wedding.
Muhammed introduced us to the politics of Western media to the fading out of indigenous culture where Western marriages, architecture, politics, and art are portrayed as ‘supremacist cultures’, as chunks of money are spent on programs to pitch such ideas to the Global South.
One wonders what will become of many African tribes in the future. Once there’s a massive migration of the youths from rural to urban areas, native dialects are susceptible to depletion.
Once parents cannot teach their children the African heritage, music, dance, poetry, and cuisine, all indigenous cultures will dwindle over time — so long as Westernization is widely and insanely embraced as ‘African urbanization.’
What should be owned or possessed?
What to do when we have such a scenario in our hands? Ghana’s famous photographer, James Barnor sees himself as a ‘Colo’ man. A Colo man is someone who doesn’t understand or move with the present — that’s someone who had old colonial upbringing and traditions.
Barnor believes that indigenous culture is lost in daily life and the African urban youth is deeply affected by modern living which is Western. “How can we make people be proud of their culture and not feel ashamed when wearing our Kente?” put forward by Barnor.
While we had a short, afternoon conversation about the Kente traditional cloth, quite a number of Ghanaian youths do not use Kente, a hand-woven cloth that’s loose, thick, and armless.
James Barnor is the first photographer to use colour in his works and now lives in London. His contact with Western culture spans a long time, although he belongs to that group of Africans who identify with indigenous heritage even in a foreign country.
Barnor is of the opinion that the African urban youth should possess within himself/herself of Black consciousness and knowledge of history and the environment. Although he believes it will take some time just like the wearing of Kente. People should think of it (African culture) first!
Joyce Wanjiku, a Kenyan poet said that the African youth must look closely, inward and find enlightenment in the beauty of indigenous material and non-material culture. She is trying to come to terms with the words of James Barnor that consciousness of Black Heritage has the power to cause a shift.
Cultural appreciation, especially of the African heritage can create modern movements of young Africans who are aware of the floss of Western depletion of their cultures and knowledges of origin.
Conclusion
This topic is concerned with the modern (urban) African youths who are facing friction between Westernization and indigenous culture. There have been clamours from many quarters that the urban youth are aliens of their heritage and are afraid to be immersed in it, in material forms.
African parents, cultural NGOs, and governments should recreate socialization spaces so that the youths would get well acquainted with historic knowledge and cultural materials. There’s so much potential when the African youths are troubadours of their culture, their future.
Please note, my use of both personal and collective pronouns are purposely to show my origin. — Francis Annagu
