African Values Traditional And Modern In Ama Ata Aidoo’S Changes And Asare Konadu’S A Woman In Her Prime
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African Values Traditional And Modern In Ama Ata Aidoo’S Changes And Asare Konadu’S A Woman In Her Prime
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
Values
In ethics, value refers to the degree of importance with the goal of identifying what action or life is best to do or live, or at the very least attempting to characterise the value of various activities.
It can be stated as treating actions as abstract things and assigning value to them. It deals with right conduct and good life, in the sense that a highly, or at least relatively highly, valuable action may be (Adjectivregardedsense), and anasactionethicallyoflow, or at least relatively low
value may be rega Values are long-held views or ideals shared by members of a culture about what is good and desirable. Values have a significant impact on people’s actions and serve as general guidance in all situations. (BusinessDictionary.com)
Tradition
Tradition is defined as relevant, long-lasting beliefs, culture, and rituals passed down from one generation to the next, imbued with concrete or abstract qualities or injunctions attributed to God, gods, goddesses, heroes, legends, humans, animals, and plants.
They include symbolic representations and actions in events, festivals, and rituals that are analogous to the sacred activities of Nkpologue’s Asaa Traditional Festival (Ezugu 6).
Traditional values:
Traditional values are physical or abstract characteristics of certain elements, events, rituals, or phenomena that are held in great regard, respect, and obedience by people. Such values govern and regulate the physical and psychological behaviour of people living in a specific culture or geographical area.
Africans, as we all know, are resilient people who have developed value systems and ways of coping with life, maintaining their communities, and surviving great hardships on the African continent or in the Diaspora.
In most African tribes, the traditional clan life revolves around the protection of the family and the perpetuation of the tribe. In his traditional life, the African values certain things greatly.
These values define his cultural personality and enable him to contribute to global knowledge, history, philosophy, and civilisation. It is not my responsibility in this study to articulate all of Africa’s cultural values, but rather only the dominant ones.
Large Families:
Having a large family is one of Africans’ most important traditional beliefs. Children are extremely valuable to the African. His primary goal for marriage is to have as many children as possible.
This is why polygamy, or the union of one man with multiple women, remains so appealing to him, as well as why Africa has one of the highest birth rates in the world. The fact is that the African continues to count his blessings by the number of children he has, whether they are educated or not, rich or poor, healthy or sick, well-fed or hungry
. The African smiles at the sight of his numerous children and is unconcerned about the chaos at his gate because he has a lot of arrows in his quivers.(Seo Ogbonmwan 2008).
Respect for elders:
Another great value in traditional Africa is one‘s parents, grandparents and relatives. Th linked with knowledge andhonourGod‘sbestowed onblessingstheancestors.
T percolate through the old people—one‘s parents, grandparents—asliving an embodiments of wisdom and of the good moral life who are expected sooner or later to join other good ancestors in the land of the ―living dead‖. Old age, theref
African. Even children look forward to old age, unlike today when hormones are used to stay young forever. (Seo Ogbonmwan, 2008)
Morning Salutation:
As part of the respect for elders, the Benin people of southern Nigeria have a unique way of respecting their elders and identifying their family of origin people say La tose (Edohen of Benin), La emore (Eni of Uzae(Ijare) , La Umogun (Royal blood from Eweka 1) La Ogiesan (Ezomo of Benin) of which there are 56 of them in total. These salutations are in electronic from at ( www.edoglobalorganization.org).
Worship of Ancestor:
―Igba- A Evo‖day when special homage is paid to all sacrificing to the dead priests and elders of the clan in commemoration of their past roles as keepers of the conscience of the isclanday,Ahor, when t 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 esteem and respect shown to old people in the traditional Africa culture is their closeness to the ancestors, for in his, ontological conceptual scheme the African positions his old relatives on his huge hierarchy of beings.
It must be recognised that in the African universe the living and the dead interact with one another. Life carries on beyond the death for the African and is a constant action and engagement with dead relatives. These unseen ancestors called ―the living dea invited to partake though spiritually in the family meals. Ancestors are more than just ghosts.
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 odypractic is linked with all the other members, living or dead, through a complex network of spiritual relationship into a kind of mystical body‖ c values,-with-―beingothers‖ or ―being equallyrootedimportantinexistentialkinship characteristic of the African. He is never alone since numerous people are integrated into one.
His father’s brothers are absorbed b sisters into the position of mother, and his patri-lateral uncle’s daughters int is a person to the extent that he is a part of a family, clan, or community.
Sacredness of life:
The African does not like or nurture violence per se. this is because losing of blood is sacrilegious. In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo goes into exile with his family for seven.
Years to atone for accidentally killing a clansman–a crime against the earth goddess. People in Africa are never killed unless it is in the course of war. Historically, those whose continued existence posed a threat to the lives of others and the peace of the community were typically sold into slavery.
Traditional African Religion
To the African, religion is of indispensable truly permeates his total life, there is for world order. In this important way also, the African exhibits a cultural personality distinct from
nature of western man, for instance, who easily establishes a fundamental contrast between the secular and the religious, natural and the supernatural, this world and the next.
Apart from ancestral things that are amazing or humans that have been inspiring or transcendental like the sun, the moon, the river, the earth, etc.
Communal Work
Planning for the Onwa-Asaa festival (Ezugu 5). The African sees communal work as an opportunity to share his skills and give his all to his age group and community. In the preparation of the bush for farming, the age group members set a date to help Mr. A and then help Mr. B the next day with bush clearing, bush burning, bush gathering, planting, pruning, and harvesting without exchanging money. This practice will most likely persist in traditional African communities.
Modernity
This refers to past-traditional, past-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from Feudalism (Or Agrarianism) toward Capitalism, Industrialization, Secularization.
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