STORY TELLING AND WORLD VIEWS: How come the Western view of the world is dominant, pervasive and widely accepted? Its all about Story telling. Stories reveal fundamental truths about who we are as human beings. It was Chinua Achebe who once said that “If you dont like someones story, write your own.” Chinua Achebe also posits that “nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself.” THE BLACK RACE NEEDS TO FIND HER VOICE: Who is telling the African story? What are we communicating through our music and our books, our culture and our way of life? How are we projecting that to the world? Again I turn to the words of Chinua Achebe: “the white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” HAS AFRICA LOST HER ORIGINALITY AND HAS NOTHING TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE WORLD? A borrowed garb, remains what it is - a borrowed garb! To get the world to listen to us, we must be original in our thought and fresh in our perspective. We must persuade the world about the authenticity of our point of view. We cannot abandon our own thing, call it barbaric and expect the world to elevate it. We must tell our strong side and explain what we are doing about our weakness. In truth, nothing is entirely bad or entirely good, but we can elevate our experience and call the world to journey along with us through lucid and fluid stories that open up the African landscape and paint a picture of hope and beauty. Achebe says:“there is no story that is not true, [...] The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.” Its time to change the narrative on Africa and the Black Race. https://youtube/watch?v=WTZdDJ-Cx0Q&feature=em-subs_digest
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 19:20:31 +0000
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