Your definition of culture as:
"The totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions and other products of human work, through attitudes that characterise the functioning of a group or organis ... read full comment
Your definition of culture as:
"The totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions and other products of human work, through attitudes that characterise the functioning of a group or organisations..." affirms my belief that the term is meaningless and is merely a tool for oppression by a dominant group.
Human behavior and conduct have been distilled to a universal code of acceptable ethics which must be promoted the world over. The elements you cite-behavior patterns, arts, institutions, human work-need not differ from one place to the other on account of "culture."
And the activities you recite with nostalgia- stories about my childhood, helping the fisher folk to bring the catch home,equitable system for sharing, method for smoking fish-are all characteristics of a primitive and agonistic society better left to the vagaries of eternal oblivion.
Culture, as I see it, must be progressive, scientific and evolutionary, not a static affirmation of archaic behavior and inexplicable conduct. If we Africans ask questions about our under-development, the answer should come in the form of our hereditary attachment to the small-minded cultures of our little language groups unrecognized and unknown beyond our artificial borders!
ebenezer nii amu first-quao 10 years ago
...fisherman(swearing that he did not know the Accused)and went back to his trade,only for the ressurected Christ to bring him back to his calling and teach him not to call profane what His Lord had hallowed,so we learn to be ... read full comment
...fisherman(swearing that he did not know the Accused)and went back to his trade,only for the ressurected Christ to bring him back to his calling and teach him not to call profane what His Lord had hallowed,so we learn to become who our Creator made us to be!
ELINAM 10 years ago
This first generation kids with problems and learning difficulties have to blame their Ghanaian parents who came to the West (US,UK, EU CANADA)with a lot of inferiority complexes. The educated ones are more at fault.They Eur ... read full comment
This first generation kids with problems and learning difficulties have to blame their Ghanaian parents who came to the West (US,UK, EU CANADA)with a lot of inferiority complexes. The educated ones are more at fault.They Europeanized before landed and found out that no one recognizes their false pretense, and as they have their kids, they've found out there's nothing they could offer them, thus making the kids rebelled and got lost.
No kid respects a mother that puts on weave to be a-wonna-be-white woman and tells her kids to wear an afro.
Africans are made by the almighty to be different as the original race, and if our women can stick to their beauty, the rest of the world would copy them instead as did 2000 years ago but they rather want to follow.
WE ARE SICK AND NEED A SERIOUS PSYCHO ANALYSIS!!
The key is with our women. If they could muster enough courage to put the ten billion dollar weave business down their feet, and embrace their true beauty, not only could they save a lot of money that the family needs but also there would be change of attitude with love for language and other important things now taking for granted or totally disrespected.
Ade Sawyerr 10 years ago
Very useful except that you do not explain why the Japanese or the Indian or the Chinese or the Malaysian can still keep certain elements of their culture and yet compete successfully in a developing world. Yes of course ther ... read full comment
Very useful except that you do not explain why the Japanese or the Indian or the Chinese or the Malaysian can still keep certain elements of their culture and yet compete successfully in a developing world. Yes of course there is nostalgia but there again i know that in the US and in UK, the biggest sport is fishing and angling. I do not know what is small minded about my culture
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 10 years ago
Those elements of culture which the Japanese, Indian, Chinese or the Malaysians keep are simply the universal culture which humanity must keep in order to advance. If you reference that culture as hard work, honesty, commitme ... read full comment
Those elements of culture which the Japanese, Indian, Chinese or the Malaysians keep are simply the universal culture which humanity must keep in order to advance. If you reference that culture as hard work, honesty, commitment to duty or altruism, how should they be any different from the perennial values which any civilized society must hold dear in order to prosper?
You agree with me if you say that in the US and UK, the biggest sports are fishing and angling. That simply means that those activities are not unique to your language group.
What I imply here is that if an activity or conduct is strictly unique to any group, then they are essentially "small-minded" and are not worthy of imitation or preservation....let alone celebration.
Ade Sawyerr 10 years ago
So you would call the Finnish and Norwegians small minded because they have to be preoccupied with snow, ice and their weather as they seek to survive and you will deny that creative talents should not feature in any culture ... read full comment
So you would call the Finnish and Norwegians small minded because they have to be preoccupied with snow, ice and their weather as they seek to survive and you will deny that creative talents should not feature in any culture because production is what makes the world go round. In my humble opinion you are wrong to suggest that the world has one culture
Kojo T 10 years ago
I am confused as to what Dr SAS is arguing about. Yes culture is dynamic and so evolves. It is a way of life as Ade has expoused. It does not mean in will not add and subtract. Is Ade still at the Chokor beach pulling in the ... read full comment
I am confused as to what Dr SAS is arguing about. Yes culture is dynamic and so evolves. It is a way of life as Ade has expoused. It does not mean in will not add and subtract. Is Ade still at the Chokor beach pulling in the fish ? He has left it behind and his people are busy using more modern fishing methods and soon the smoking of fish will be done differently. But do we still get married and do we outdoor our Should you abandon aspects such as respect , hard work community togetherness? When we talk about the chinese etc they eat their foods but we are even ashamed to eat our foods
Osei Yao 10 years ago
What you call universal values are packaged differently in every community of the world. What you have read about the Japanese, Indians or whoever is book-knowledge. Your cultural package alone can instil these values. I see ... read full comment
What you call universal values are packaged differently in every community of the world. What you have read about the Japanese, Indians or whoever is book-knowledge. Your cultural package alone can instil these values. I see you learnt the art of arguing for argument sake.
Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 10 years ago
Dr SAS, I agree with you. For me culture is simply, "a way of life" and must be a living culture that grows and develops with time as our way of life changes for the better over time. Otherwise, that culture become meaningles ... read full comment
Dr SAS, I agree with you. For me culture is simply, "a way of life" and must be a living culture that grows and develops with time as our way of life changes for the better over time. Otherwise, that culture become meaningless and irrelevant to contemporary life.
I also do not subscribe to the view that, "when in Rome, do what the Romans do". That means one must lose his her own identity and assume that of the host nation. In other words, assimilation. I believe in " when in Rome, be yourself but remember you are in Rome. That is, combing the good aspects of your culture and blend them with those of the host nation. That is integration. This is necessary because no one culture is perfect
Ade Sawyerr 10 years ago
Kofi Ata,
Where does one find the key to integration?I live in a host country that is obsessed with Britishness though despite several commissions. What i know is the culture of Mancunians is different to the cockney in the ... read full comment
Kofi Ata,
Where does one find the key to integration?I live in a host country that is obsessed with Britishness though despite several commissions. What i know is the culture of Mancunians is different to the cockney in their language, food, outlook and the things that they enjoy
Osei Yao 10 years ago
Dr Sas. By "universal" you clearly mean "approved by the white western world". By your use of words like, "archaic and inexplicable" to describe African culture shows how brainwashed and ignorant you are about "science and de ... read full comment
Dr Sas. By "universal" you clearly mean "approved by the white western world". By your use of words like, "archaic and inexplicable" to describe African culture shows how brainwashed and ignorant you are about "science and development". The West and USA "developed" by armed robbery-killing off the native peoples of the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, and using free African labour. Today, people like you worship God as others have told to, you think along alien paths. Get proper education.With what you have you are forvever hating yourself.
reincarnated Torgbui born in the US 10 years ago
as the "intellectuals" debate over the value of culture and tradition. Formal, white education has not taught them yet the dynamic of African Ancestors being re-born in places like the US, as 'African Americans'. They, like t ... read full comment
as the "intellectuals" debate over the value of culture and tradition. Formal, white education has not taught them yet the dynamic of African Ancestors being re-born in places like the US, as 'African Americans'. They, like the regular Africa-born locals that move to the US probably still call blacks born for generations in the America..."akata"?!!!
The inwardness of the black Africa-born keeps all blacks economically crippled worldwide.
I, Osei Yao, am one such reincarnant and possess within me the wisdom to create $10,000 per week incomes for black Africans worldwide...including our Motherland (Only two tools needed: Free internet access and global networking). The problem is that Africa-born, whom were taught that to go to the white boy's schools in Africa, they had to turn their minds deaf to their elders teachings of tradition and culture. White education ALONE was better, best. So, how is Africa really doing today for the masses?
Colonized midsets...still.
Kweku Donsuro 10 years ago
All you said here was about reminiscenes of the past to reflect who you are and the struggles of maintaining your culture whilst in the diaspora. Why couldn't you be brief? The more you wrote, the more grammatical horrors and ... read full comment
All you said here was about reminiscenes of the past to reflect who you are and the struggles of maintaining your culture whilst in the diaspora. Why couldn't you be brief? The more you wrote, the more grammatical horrors and howlers I discerned in your write-up. All the same, a nice piece with some food for thought to begin the day. Keep writing on but remember to be concise and spot on.
Ade Sawyerr 10 years ago
Kweku, Thanks for your comments. I will try and employ the services of a sub-editor next time. This was a speech i made that i turned into a write up. Thanks
Kweku, Thanks for your comments. I will try and employ the services of a sub-editor next time. This was a speech i made that i turned into a write up. Thanks
Kofi Akwa 10 years ago
Dr SAS is one of the lost ones. He feels ashamed to write his real name. He is using academic arguments to cover his inadequacy. I am certain that he is an African who cannot speak his mother tongue. He thinks his mother tong ... read full comment
Dr SAS is one of the lost ones. He feels ashamed to write his real name. He is using academic arguments to cover his inadequacy. I am certain that he is an African who cannot speak his mother tongue. He thinks his mother tongue is primitive because it is not universally spoken. You need to be retrained to become a good lawyer.
Nii Ashitey 10 years ago
SAS is misconstruing Ade 's nostalgia told within the context of his culture. Ade in his narrative used the classical definition of culture as ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people and to the extent th ... read full comment
SAS is misconstruing Ade 's nostalgia told within the context of his culture. Ade in his narrative used the classical definition of culture as ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people and to the extent that these values influence some important aspect of their lives. SAS on the other hand seems to be giving culture a broad definition in order to give it a universal character. Perhaps he belongs to that school of thought who defines culture as the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
In this context he seems to subscribe to to the one value argument that western value is civilize and therefore must be the universal value and suggest that our value is archaic and static further suggesting that since our African culture is not dynamic and is primitive it must be left at our cultural gates. When you read such trash from so called Drs you wonder whether the fight for the African emancipation is lost. When people like SAS jettisons their culture and acquire and defend foreign culture you can only blame western education for conditioning the mind of some of our people to thinking this abomination.
Our African culture is dynamic and evolving to meet the challenges of modernity and the SAS of this world the caricature of the white-man will be the losers.
Adede Ajibola 10 years ago
Culture is and has always evolved. I wonder how Ade explains his Ga culture with names like Ade Sawyer? Yes we enjoy our culture and must endevor to pass the best of it on to our children and grandchildren as it is their thei ... read full comment
Culture is and has always evolved. I wonder how Ade explains his Ga culture with names like Ade Sawyer? Yes we enjoy our culture and must endevor to pass the best of it on to our children and grandchildren as it is their their special asset which the majority population do not have. Judging from Ade's names he has abandoned his ?Nigerian/Sierra Leone ancestry in favour of his Ga background not even using his Ga name if he even has one?
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 10 years ago
1. We have not yet pinned down any working definition of culture here with any certainty. So we are discussing terms in abstraction.
2. If we do define what is culture properly, we will find that its essential elements are n ... read full comment
1. We have not yet pinned down any working definition of culture here with any certainty. So we are discussing terms in abstraction.
2. If we do define what is culture properly, we will find that its essential elements are necessarily universal....concepts and values distilled through the ages as a result of human sense and commonsense.
3. I can speak and write my language very well, but I do not take any pride in these skills as making me any different from any Ghanaian or any human being for that matter. Besides, I am not enthused about its preservation for any purpose, or as a marker of my identity.
4. Any cultural value worth my consideration should necessarily be the universal one, and here, I don't mean western or eastern ideas, but human ideas.....perennial principles celebrated over time as the core ethics of our common humanity.
5. Finally, I repeat that if we find ourselves unduly attached to the things that our language group does differently and strive to preserve these without reference to its utility and wisdom, we are merely asserting our innate bigotry and language group allegiances.
6. These instinctual separatist posturing is the source of the division within African societies as well as its relative backwardness. The measure of our cultural value should be gauged in terms of how we compete with the global society. And when gauged this way, we will be found one light year behind others! Is it then logical to say that what we deem cultural merely holds us back? I think so.
7. By describing himself as Christian, the writer impliedly accepts that he has already jettisoned a large portion of his own culture for another. Ironically, he now parrots its preservation for reasons of identity. Why must my identity be any different from the man next door. I am a human being, and must be treated as such.
Toronto T 10 years ago
Culture and Innovation don't mix. Culture says the White man is God. Innovation says the diffrence is skin pigmentation. Culture says you are a slave when you rollup your sleeves and work hard. Innovation say the ultimate s ... read full comment
Culture and Innovation don't mix. Culture says the White man is God. Innovation says the diffrence is skin pigmentation. Culture says you are a slave when you rollup your sleeves and work hard. Innovation say the ultimate source of innovation is hard work. please let me know if i should carry on?
Asiwome 10 years ago
The culprit is not Christianity. It is the traditions of the good news bearers. The western tradition which is overwhelming ours has to do with running everything by paper be it school certificates or land certificates. MONEY ... read full comment
The culprit is not Christianity. It is the traditions of the good news bearers. The western tradition which is overwhelming ours has to do with running everything by paper be it school certificates or land certificates. MONEY seems to be on the other side of the equation. Unfortunately it may be too late to return to the former ways of doing things. There is a dearth of real education in the home of our ancestors.
Christianity is injected with tradition such as in Acts 6 when the widows are taken care of. Paul told Timothy to encourage relatives to help them instead in his letter.
Your definition of culture as:
"The totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions and other products of human work, through attitudes that characterise the functioning of a group or organis ...
read full comment
...fisherman(swearing that he did not know the Accused)and went back to his trade,only for the ressurected Christ to bring him back to his calling and teach him not to call profane what His Lord had hallowed,so we learn to be ...
read full comment
This first generation kids with problems and learning difficulties have to blame their Ghanaian parents who came to the West (US,UK, EU CANADA)with a lot of inferiority complexes. The educated ones are more at fault.They Eur ...
read full comment
Very useful except that you do not explain why the Japanese or the Indian or the Chinese or the Malaysian can still keep certain elements of their culture and yet compete successfully in a developing world. Yes of course ther ...
read full comment
Those elements of culture which the Japanese, Indian, Chinese or the Malaysians keep are simply the universal culture which humanity must keep in order to advance. If you reference that culture as hard work, honesty, commitme ...
read full comment
So you would call the Finnish and Norwegians small minded because they have to be preoccupied with snow, ice and their weather as they seek to survive and you will deny that creative talents should not feature in any culture ...
read full comment
I am confused as to what Dr SAS is arguing about. Yes culture is dynamic and so evolves. It is a way of life as Ade has expoused. It does not mean in will not add and subtract. Is Ade still at the Chokor beach pulling in the ...
read full comment
What you call universal values are packaged differently in every community of the world. What you have read about the Japanese, Indians or whoever is book-knowledge. Your cultural package alone can instil these values. I see ...
read full comment
Dr SAS, I agree with you. For me culture is simply, "a way of life" and must be a living culture that grows and develops with time as our way of life changes for the better over time. Otherwise, that culture become meaningles ...
read full comment
Kofi Ata,
Where does one find the key to integration?I live in a host country that is obsessed with Britishness though despite several commissions. What i know is the culture of Mancunians is different to the cockney in the ...
read full comment
Dr Sas. By "universal" you clearly mean "approved by the white western world". By your use of words like, "archaic and inexplicable" to describe African culture shows how brainwashed and ignorant you are about "science and de ...
read full comment
as the "intellectuals" debate over the value of culture and tradition. Formal, white education has not taught them yet the dynamic of African Ancestors being re-born in places like the US, as 'African Americans'. They, like t ...
read full comment
All you said here was about reminiscenes of the past to reflect who you are and the struggles of maintaining your culture whilst in the diaspora. Why couldn't you be brief? The more you wrote, the more grammatical horrors and ...
read full comment
Kweku, Thanks for your comments. I will try and employ the services of a sub-editor next time. This was a speech i made that i turned into a write up. Thanks
Dr SAS is one of the lost ones. He feels ashamed to write his real name. He is using academic arguments to cover his inadequacy. I am certain that he is an African who cannot speak his mother tongue. He thinks his mother tong ...
read full comment
SAS is misconstruing Ade 's nostalgia told within the context of his culture. Ade in his narrative used the classical definition of culture as ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people and to the extent th ...
read full comment
Culture is and has always evolved. I wonder how Ade explains his Ga culture with names like Ade Sawyer? Yes we enjoy our culture and must endevor to pass the best of it on to our children and grandchildren as it is their thei ...
read full comment
1. We have not yet pinned down any working definition of culture here with any certainty. So we are discussing terms in abstraction.
2. If we do define what is culture properly, we will find that its essential elements are n ...
read full comment
Culture and Innovation don't mix. Culture says the White man is God. Innovation says the diffrence is skin pigmentation. Culture says you are a slave when you rollup your sleeves and work hard. Innovation say the ultimate s ...
read full comment
The culprit is not Christianity. It is the traditions of the good news bearers. The western tradition which is overwhelming ours has to do with running everything by paper be it school certificates or land certificates. MONEY ...
read full comment