My title is an economic term meaning holding factors constant that I learnt from my Economics class. I think its amazing what learning new things does to you. For me, its awesome, my brain has food and I get to do what I do best- think!Though sometimes, it gets crazy cause I keep on wondering if I'm doing the right thing, if I'm following my destiny,but I also think It'd be weird if i dont ask myself these questions.I'm on the right track and as India Arie can attest, I'm headed in the right direction...
Anyway, I think its actually interesting the way we live life and make decisions ' Ceteris Paribusly' so to speak.Completely oblivious to what will happen between now and then. "Are you going for a hike tommorow?" or " I'll meet you there in five minutes." These are so engraved in our daily minds that we forget to give thanks to God once we make it through another day!
So today I had someone speaking about "african Identity" This really interests me because I feel that as africans we are losing our sense of identity because we are currently embracing western ideologies in the context of modernity. However, sociologists are blaming this on the acculturisation process- whereby an individual or a society assimilates useful trends of the other.Identity refers to who you are. Everyone on the globe has an identity, this brings out your sense of worth.
According to Leopold Sedor Senghor a phenomenal African writer and poet from West africa ...“that we consider the Negro-African as he faces the Other: God, man, animal, tree or pebble, natural or social phenomenon. In contrast to the classic European, the Negro-African does not draw a line between himself and the object, he does not hold it at a distance, nor does he merely look at it and analyse it. After holding it at a distance, after scanning it without analysing it, he takes it vibrant in his hands, careful not to kill or fix it. He touches it, feels it, smells it. The Negro-African is like one of those Third Day Worms, a pure field of sensations... Thus the Negro-African sympathises, abandons his personality to become identified with the Other, dies to be reborn in the Other. He does not assimilate; he is assimilated. He lives a common life with the Other; he lives in a symbiosis.”
Its important that we look into our past to be able to identify with the future, a concept of reality that we have to accept because it makes us who we are today!
I've watched a couple of African movies; Tsotsi, Cry Freedom, Sarafina, Shooting dogs and Hotel rwanda among others and they display different concepts of reality that the African continent battles with today; tribalism, Racism among others. These are here with us, no matter how much we try to ignore they exist within the african boundaries if not everywhere else.
Recently, it came to my realisation that the HIV virus affects mainly the countries in sub- Saharan africa.Its crazy no matter what kind of theories we evaluate as to how the disease was manufactured, the fact remains that it is killing very many africans as I write this, whether this is a man-made catastrophe, it remains to question but what is evident is that the virus is spreading at a first rate.Sooner or later the virus will wipe out a whole generation. Cest La vie!!
Anyway i'll leave with the words of Mos def "The goodness of life belongs to those who believe." and we belive dont we?
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