The effects of globalization on culture in Africa in the eyes of an African woman.docVIP

The effects of globalization on culture in Africa in the eyes of an African woman by Fridah Muyale-Manenji Shonyala okhumanya inzu yowasio tawe. This literally means that you cannot manage or know the affairs of the house of your neighbour. This is a saying the people of Ebukanga village, Kisa location in Kakamega district of the Western Province of Kenya usually use when respecting ones privacy and affairs. At times this saying is also used when people assume they know what is going on in somebodys home. Here in Zimbabwe, the country in which I came to cook (in my culture, when a woman is married, she has gone to cook), they say Chakafukidza dzimba atenga (What covers the house is the roof). This saying is almost similar to the first one in the sense that it implies that it is only the people who live in the house who know what is happening in their lives, no matter what assumptions or concepts people outside the house have of them. For some reason, when ECHOES* asked me to write an article on globalization and its impact on culture, I spent a few days wondering how to approach this topic, and eventually decided to write as an African woman involved in the African struggle, and as a mother and wife who believes in justice. So if this article is biased in any way, it is because I have chosen to write from this particular perspective. Culture is such a broad term and when it comes to my mind, I think of values and norms people have which make them live in a particular way. A way of living in a particular community. In other words, the sum total of all things that refer to religion, roots of people, symbols, language, songs, stories, celebrations and all expressions of our way of life. It encompasses food production, technology, architecture, kinship, the way we relate to each other, political and economic systems and all the social relationships these entail. Culture is dynamic...Each culture has its own personality. The fact that we are all human does not mean t