completed paper, and final thoughts...
Thus completes my first Anthropology class at Eastern Washington State University, and HERE is my paper, completed.
Some final thoughts on the class I took, Peoples of Africa. First, and foremost, I'd have to say that there is too much content to cover in this course for one quarter. It should be a two or even three quarter course. Other than that, the course content, what I learned from the professor, and the readings, was very interesting and valuable, at least to me.
As we, as westerners, think about Africa, we need to remember it's grand diversity. Africa is several different places. It is Muslim and middle east influenced in the north, and Christian in the sub saharan regions. It is pastoralists, urbanists, modernists, nomadic, and in rare occasions, hunter-gatherer. Africa is tribes. This last point, we as westerners, don't understand fully. Which is why we don't understand ethnic conflict, such as was seen in Rwanda and Sudan.
Africa is politically unstable. But this, too, we do not understand fully. We want to import capitalism, American style, to Africa, and it doesn't work, because it appeals to greed. This doesn't work for Africans, not because they are especially egalitarian, but because they despise disparity, and American style capitalism thrives on disparity, creates disparity. In addition, soviet style socialism only seems to work on rare occasions in Africa, and is often a recipe for revolution. Still, perhaps some sort of African style socialism will emerge in the hopeful countries of Ghana and Kenya, two of the best examples of good government in sub-saharan Africa. Perhaps, someday, Pan-Africa will work, at least on a regional scale, but who knows, it's all very unstable now.
To that instability, our professor seemed to indicate, that for better or for worse, religion and it's prescripts, was the only thing currently keeping Africa from tearing itself apart. Ironic, I would say, in the least, knowing what initial damage the import of religion had on Africa. Still, it's possible I suppose. As I witnessed first hand, religious groups can ease the pain and suffering of many of the people in Africa who have been thrown suddenly into the disparity of capitalism and greed in urban areas. I wonder about the future though. With disease rampant, education faltering, and a new, more deadly form of AIDs appearing on the scene now, the future seems grim.
One more topic, close to my own heart regarding Africa, is Africa's children, of which there are millions. Owing to the fact that I lean heavily to the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate, this one concerns me greatly. Millions of children in Africa are growing up in loveless orphanages, or loveless homes. Feral children, if you will. What possible future will this have on Africa, when feral children, who have known no loving embrace, and are becoming more and more sociopathic, are released on the world? I don't know.
All is not gloom and doom, however. These challenges are NOT insurmountable. The problem is western blindness, as it has been for years.
