5 key cultural insights: *Create a paragraph explaining each of these insights to someone that does not know about the culture*
- Pg. 236 – Creation myth/Religion
o Establishes them as an agrarian society.
- Pg. 240 – Bloodlines
o Titles earned rather than given.
- Pg. 243 – Marriage Customs
o Polygamy
- Pg. 248 – Homicide
o Different for men and women
- Pg. 251-52 – Missionaries
o Ex: Mr. Brown/Mr. Smith
1 – It explains why they are so agrarian way and rural form in culture.
2 – You earn everything you get in this society. Nothing is given to you.
3 – Explains the role and titles that women had.
4 – Was not just a crime against the family but against the goddess Oni
5 – Shows how the culture got taken over by the Europeans.
In the Igbo society the creation myth was the foundation explaining their everyday actions. The bloodline provided a hierarchical system that required those to individually earn their titles. Igbo polygamy and marriage customs enhanced the man’s status and established the role and title of the first wife. At the same time marriages assisted with
African History Chapter 5-7
- Pg. 108 – Town life (picture)
- Colonialism and how they built around it. *Berlin Conference*(Bryce)
- Pg. 8 – black Africa and a not black Africa (Bryce)
- Pg. 19 – different forms of architecture (urban)(Koch)
- Westerners brought in different forms of architecture which changed the landscape.
- Pg. 95 – colonial empire in Africa before 1914(map) (Koch)
- Pg 140 – picture of post colonialism (statue falling over) (keys)
- Pg. 78-81 – Slave trade (roz)
- Missionaries(roz
- Pg. 76 – Christianity vs. Islam. Both were westernized. (Africanization) (keys)
- Post-colonial map (Koch)
- Africa today (demographics i.e. cultures, languages, ethnic groups, religion)(Roz)
Berlin Conference: The Berlin Conference met in November of 1884 and was called together by the German Chancellor Otto Von Bismark. Fourteen major western powers got together in an effort to divide up Africa for colonization. The reason they did this was to prevent wars between the colonizing countries. They were successful because no western nations fought on African soil until World War One in 1914. At the time of the conference eighty percent of the continent was still under the control of Africans. Africa was carved up and borders were put in place that did not take into account the tribal and cultural conflict that would arise (like we can see today in Nigeria.)
HR:http://geography.about.com/cs/politicalgeog/a/berlinconferenc.htm
Size of Africa: The continent of Africa is absolutely massive and is home to over a billion people. It is also the world’s second largest continent. Over 1500 different languages are spoken in Africa. There are also many different ethnic and religious groups on the continent. The diversity of the Continent combined with the countries that were created by western imperial powers have created a great deal of conflict.
HR: http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/african_languages.htm
Black Africa vs North Africa: Sub Saharan Africa is sometimes referred to as “Black Africa” this is because most of the population there is black unlike North African countries like Egypt which is more Arab than black. This causes confusion for many people who don’t realize that North African countries are actually in Africa. The terms “Black Africa” and “Sub Saharan Africa” are criticized because they carry a connotation of inferiority.
HR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_Africa
The Slave Trade:
The slave trade was important because it started the interaction between western civilization and the african people. The slave trade would spark many modern day misconceptions that westerners have of Arica. As a whole, Slave trade laid down the groundwork for the many dangerous stories of Africa (i.e. Kant, Conrad) that lead to modern day outlook of Africa that Achebe tries to combat with Things Fall Apart.
HR: Page 78-81 African History text, Notes, Class discussions
Missionaries:
Missionaries are important in Things Fall Apart because their presence represents the decline of Igbo culture. This is in many ways an iconic and representative display of Africa as a whole. Missionaries were there to spread Western culture and religion and do away with native cultures. While they did bring medicine and other positive attributes Missionaries in general brought with them diseases, dispute and civil unrest.
HR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Christian_missionaries_in_Africa
http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhr5Ia0wKGKb9N7568
HR:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Niger-Congo_map.png
*JAKE KOCH*
Map p.95
The map on page 95 shows the colonial empires in Africa before 1914. Africa was colonized by Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Portugal before 1914. Towards the end of the 1800s these European countries rushed to colonize as much of Africa as they could. Britain, France, and Portugal were the major countries that colonized Africa, while the rest did not play as major of a role. All in all, these countries went to colonize Africa not only to expand their countries and establish areas for trading, but they did so to help the people in Africa who were no “civilized” and needed to be saved.
Modern Day Map
In comparison to a modern day map, northern Africa was predominantly under French rule.
Algeria, Mali, Niger, and Morocco are all examples of current countries that were colonized by France. Britain colonized Egypt and Sudan, but mostly focused on the southern region were modern day South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe are. Nigeria was also under
British colonization. Portugal colonized Angola and Mozambique.
Different Forms of Architecture
Architecture in Africa had a lot of tribal influences. African architecture, like their art, was popular among more westernized civilizations because of its uniqueness.
*JAKE KOCH*
Postcolonial Violence: If you turn to page 140 in the African History book you will see a picture of an African standing next to a statue that is knocked over. This is a soldier of the “Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA)” standing next to a broken colonial statue. It was said that the 20th century was a very violent century, not just in africa but worldwide. There were two world wars and numerous other wars that contributed to this violent century. It was also the century when a majority of the european powers rule ended in Africa. That being said the man in this picture probably is just expressing himself by destroying this Portuguese statue to make a point that their rule is over.
HR: http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5796#.VtSLUvkrLIU
Africanization: Africa was a continent that was introduced to christianity by the europeans. As we saw in the book Things Fall Apart, there were very strict rules put in place by the europeans in order to keep it favorable to them. Africanization is basically the africans trying to take these european christian teachings and turning them into to something that is based off of things that the average African can relate to.