Pot of Dying Culture Stew

“Xiu Ying, you’re running late for the ceremony!”

“Ohmigods, Mom I don’t even want to go for the stupid ceremony”

“Young lady, this ‘stupid ceremony’ has been in your family for over 10 generations! Have some respect”

“I bet in the next ten years, this stupid ceremony won’t even exist.”

“What did you say?!”

“Nothing.”        

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Dear readers, 

This is an example of the fast disintegration of culture in the race to fit in with this ‘New Age’. There was once a time when we were all proud of who we were and what we represented but in the bid to be number 1 everywhere we discard our personalities and become shadows of shadows. I read an article about this and something there really struck me:

Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture, the global monoculture, or a homogenization of cultures, akin to cultural decay.

 It struck me because I realized that it synonymised with something a close friend had been continuously telling me about our lives as a whole:

If we continually insist on discarding our culture, there isn’t going to be an us anymore.

 

In the statement that struck me above, it’s basically saying that having one culture is a bad thing. It’s GOOD to be DIFFERENT. 

 

There are some girls in my school that get embarrassed when they travel out with braided hair. Unknown to them, one of my cousins who lives in London has been looking for a professional hair braider to do her hair!

 

Monoculture is everywhere: In our fashion, education, transport, it’s even entering our religion!

 

I. I don't know who the fashion gods are but I find it ludicrous that they pose and strut and expect everyone to follow and wear. If one of them should state that baggy jeans is the ‘in’ thing once more, stores get overrun by adoring fans rushing to follow their star. Suddenly, that silk gold sari that once belonged to your mother and was given to you as a coming-of-age present is thrown to the back of your wardrobe.

 

II. Also in our communication. It’s suddenly a thing to be able to speak English so you can start a business and make money. WRONG! We should be the ones speaking our home language and developing great businesses while speaking it. Be it Hindu, Yoruba, Igbo, Cantonese, Russian or even Languedocian! Some people say that the French are snobbish to foreigners because they don’t speak their language and I find that absolutely incorrect.

 

You can’t expect to come into my home and then turn the tables around so you’re comfortable speaking your language and I should then start trying to understand what you are saying. NO!

 

III. Now I’m not saying you can’t but look at this: We’re all in a rush to buy Bapestas and VaporMax Utilities but I’m sure we don’t have three things in our house made by our nation that we proudly wear. I’m Nigerian and I can proudly say that I have various ankara items in my house and one of my formal shoes is Nigerian-made. 

 

So please, regardless of where you come from, be proud of who you are and what you represent, because that’s how God made you.

 

Signing out (for now),

X