In America, do as the Americans know.

Is it a culture or a norm?
 I wish I knew. Preliminary discussions with my friends revealed the vast differences that exist between the American and African societal setups, at least where I come from besides the huge environmental differences like the the powerful cold chill that hits you in the face and knocks the breath out of you as you take your baby steps on the continent. Everyone foreign to this land had this feeling even the founders of modern America I believe had this feeling when they stepped out of the water. Then comes the blazing heat that enervates you to the core, no wonder someone had to be genius enough to invent the apparatus to contain the extremes of nature. Then is the ever dynamic culture of America that is unique in its very own way. Say something in the same exact words but in a different tone of speech and an American person will not understand you, not because they are deliberately trying to shut you out but strange sounds in their ears just make little to no sense. They are like a blubber and you have to encounter the question, 'What's that?' which in normal circumstances will be, 'Pardon me or I beg your pardon?'. The land of allergies where it is a common thing to have an allergy. People sneeze or have runny noses, some have red eyes and some do not eat peanuts and they all take loads of prescriptions to curb them and they proudly take ownership of these conditions, if they are not feeling well, " I have allergies". They can not enjoy so many of things at their disposal like take a closer walk with nature because nature has these nasty little grains not visible to the naked eye at the time when she is adorned in the most beautiful apparel. I remember where I am from, there are people who have allergies too but many do not know that they are intolerances, they think they are normal sicknesses that occur at certain times of the year or after eating certain foods. For example in Spring and Summer when the Jacaranda is in bloom, lighting up the sky with purple flowers, my niece has runny eyes and she says they are always itchy and my friend's nose runs uncontrollably. Every time we took a walk along Jacaranda Avenue in Northend, they had severe cases or their eye and sinus irritations and I got to sympathize with them. Not to say I was the strongest without allergies, I would not stomach groundnuts without a visitation from pain and would not even enjoy a glass of fresh milk which I loved so much, I still do not unless its lactose free, that surely, in American parlance, it sucks.

The ever growing and expanding capitalistic lifestyle of the society is quite perturbing to a soul that has lived most of its life in a community where new things were bought not everyday. In America, there are gluttonous shoppers as well as gluttonous businesses that have you buying things just to throw them away when you get home. They name it consumerism, which is fuelled buy all sorts of triggers from music to health. Daily television screens show messages from blaring loud enticements to subtle ones that have people scrambling to make purchases for things that they believe are ' Now better than ever, number one rated, guaranteed to work or their money back, offers not affordable to be lost, Hurry Hurry Hurry!' Now in a nation where 99% of the population owns a television set and on average a household member watches the tube for at least four hours a day, there is a lot of selling and a lot of convincing that happens through the set. With the conveniences provided in the nation, one does not even need to leave the house to get things, they just pick up the phone, or go online and purchase while sipping o n a drink, in the comfort of their homes. Sellers have long discovered the trick to sell and they package usually shoddy products covering them in attractive wraps and sending it off with praise words and selling them through the music that is known to move the needy part of human beings, making them buy subconsciously. Ask advertisers, they will tell you that its true.

In terms of relations with the whole world, I have to high five American founding fathers and the stewards of this great nation for instilling in the people what is the envy of many, patriotism. Although they may say, the same is, 'The last refuge of the scoundrel', I say kudos because the difference between the patriotism in Africa, particularly where I come from, is that in America, they provided the people with all sorts of creature comforts, even exceeding them to a point of sterility (not the opposite of fertility), super-exceeding them them that its like a dream (which it somehow is) and in my part of the world, Zimbabwe to be specific, there is patriotism with no creature comforts. Only the elite who rule have all sorts of imaginable comforts while the rest of the people are poor. This has however made the nation to be a country of improvisers, many people still live to make money and buy things needed in life by thinking out of their boxes. But there would be none fully committed to patriotic causes because the word is associated with the ruling guys who are greedy and want nothing else but to squander the resources of the nation. An average American is in full support of his country's ideal which is sweet, and would rally behind whatever the country is doing around the globe because of the fact that the people are patriotic to the point of absurdity. One fine gentleman in a coffee place was labelled as a bad man by his relation and he snapped at her, 'What, I am American and I pay my taxes!'. Jeez, if the president hears this he would be shaking his hand right this instant.

As a result, of the many factors and the hope contained by the nation, many immigrants have flocked to the nation and have been assimilated into its system. Some come by ways authorities disprove and some come in with the approval of the same. For may reasons people come, to seek refuge from persecutions, to seek for opportunities in life, to get everything that is promised by The Dream. A walk down the street can confirm this, you meet and hear languages that confound you. Its quite surprising that with so many people from so many different parts of the world, little is known by average people about where they come from. Maybe its because people from other parts of the world do not want to share the stories with their hosts. Some would do everything possible to shake off anything that ties them to their original culture. Their children born in America they do not teach them the ways of living of where they are from. Some, however are resilient, holding on to their cultures and enthusiastically doing whatever they do in the ways they have always done things even before crossing the high seas to discover this nation. Average people in the street think that Africa is a country and that its inhabitants roam about amid their wildlife picking berries, hunting animals to eat wearing nothing but loin skins. They think people speak one language (African)  and that's the clicking language they heard in some African movie like 'The Gods must be crazy'. There some who have had the opportunity to travel there and they know the truth and some who have been taught in school or have had enlightenment from their friends and neighbors that know more, and they do not make such wild assumptions.

In this way, is the general way of living similar also to the way of living from where I come from. Drinking, a pastime. Many people have generally drinking habits here, some drink at the bar after work, others drink during the day while some drink at social gatherings and some do not touch alcohol at all. The difference is that no one is supposed to drink at work which is also the same thing with Zimbabwe except in the past. This I heard from my grandmother- People used to have events called 'Nhimbe' in the villages. A Nhimbe was a call to a household's neighbors, friends and family to come and help them harvest their field produce. The hostess would brew traditional beer and the host kill a beast or a goat and prepare the meat. People would come to their homestead early in the morning and go to the field to be harvested and begin working. When they were through, the party began. Calabashes of frothing beer would be brought out as they all sat under the shade and food accompanied the beer. By the end of the day, the work would have been done and the people full and drunk. That was how a 'Nhimbe' was conducted, collective effort with food and drink as a thank you.

It is considered neighborly to greet those that live close to you. Here you may be intruding their privacy, in Zimbabwe, you smile if you see a kid as a sign of kindness even in a supermarket. A person may talk to some body's little child and it would not be anything at all. Children can wander off in a park and a stranger picks them up and bring them back to their parents. Of course there are some people who are sick like any other pervert you will find in any other state. People interact loudly in the streets, not so loud to disturb the peace of the surrounding and people care. If somebody is in distress, people offer to help them out of their dire situation. It is a different case altogether in this land of dreams. People tend to shrink into themselves and want to live life by themselves even if they are in danger, they would rather dial a number and call for help than call out for help. Even if they do, they may or may not get any response. Its such a cold environment, isn't it?

There are stereos that exist among the society and like a friend of mine remarked the other day, 'Stereotypes only exist only because we live up to them'. What a mouthful? Well, I was watching ABC's and host John Quinones' 'What Would You Do?', the episode where they put actors to act as if they were stealing a bike in a public place. One was white man, the other was black man and the other was a beautiful white girl. The reactions they got were reactions from real people who had no idea they were acting. The white man got very little attention from the passerbys as he was sawing the chain off a bicycle that was parked in a park. The black man came and he was met with outrage. People thronged to him and tried to stop him right there and there. The beautiful lady came and got help from gentlemen who admired her beauty. Well, at the end of the day I saw that the black male was treated so differently from the other two. Here, if I walk down a street in a neighborhood where the rich live, I may be hurt because of people who have a sick mentality that any black person is a criminal. That is the worst stereotype to exist on this earth ever. Some people do not even believe there are black people that do not steal, do drugs and live violently. They have no sense of knowing the truth but to live in perpetual ignorance and fear. A lot of tongues are wagging currently over the unfortunate and untimely death of a young black kid at the hands of a George Zimmerman, early in the year. It is unjust and grossly unfair to take a life, worse of a young person and I do believe the killer was enveloped by this stereotypical thinking, thinking he was saving the world, he took the life of a person. Now read the following by our former president and tell me where today's people get such horrible stereotypes: Written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776,

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Shona Table Manners.

By Clem C.

The Shona people  of Zimbabwe have a variety of tantalizing cuisine that you all should at some point have a chance to enjoy, and I am pretty sure, your taste buds will thank you.

On a perfect evening, the father and or the leader of the home sits with his male children and sometimes male neighbors or relations under the starry night discussing critical issues of the community. During the harvest time, they will be roasting maize on the cob, or groundnuts and any other field produce at their disposal. Heroic feats of past warriors are told to the younger men to inspire them, cultural teachings and other vital aspects are passed on to them, success and love stories are discussed over the flickering flames that dance and their shadows dance on their faces. Curious young men listen attentively, their minds actively assimilating every bit of the details so as to tell them to their playmates. The slow breeze transports the aroma of the cooked food from the kitchen hut where mother and girl children as well as other women of the homestead will be preparing dinner, the main meal of the day. After a day's hard work in the fields, at the pasture lands herding cattle,or wherever they would have been, every member of the family, present at the time the food is served settles down to enjoy the food food, which usually is the staple Sadza (made from maize, rapoko or sorghum mealie-meal). The head of the family usually has his food alone, in two plates, one containing the Sadza and the other what it is eaten with, usually meat or vegetables. The younger men and children eat together in their groups. They sit around to plates containing the sadza and the relish and before eating, they clap their hands and ask to be excused by saying  'pamusoroi' then the oldest of them all breaks a piece and eats then the rest of the children follow, giving each other turns to get pieces of food, mixing and eating it. The oldest of the group usually is the first to pick a piece of meat and the younger ones follow suit. No one is allowed to pick a the meat if the oldest hasn't and breaking that rule results in punishment from the mother and punishments vary according to the mother's discipline regime. Before eating again, the family may pray to bless the food.

Quiet is observed during meals and meals are eaten whilst everyone is seated down. Children sit on the floor, on mats with their legs crossed. Women sit on mats, older women with their legs out in front of them kept close together while younger ones sit cross legged like the young boys. The parents may talk during meals. If the children need some more food, they request from the mother by sending usually the youngest with the empty plate and the mother replenishes them and so the dinner goes on.

One interesting thing about this is that before every meal is partaken, the girls who would have helped their mother prepare the food wash the cooking utensils before eating, usually the cooking sticks. There are two sticks used to make sadza, one is a flat wooden stick (mugoti) with a broad base used for mixing mealie-meal in the pot into a thick paste and the other is used initially to mix water and mealie-meal. The mixture is let to boil and cook for about ten minutes and this stick is a thin straight stick with thin wire pieces crafted into its one end in semi-circles to beat the lumps that arise when one mixes boiling water and mealie-meal (musika). When that  process is done, the resultant is a thin paste that is usually part of breakfast and it is called porridge. Sometimes the porridge is made from mixing mealie-meal with boiling milk and sometimes one can add peanut butter to it or just butter. Nowadays people have oat meal and other meals of this sort for breakfast. So before meals, the utensils are supposed to be cleaned and after the meal is over, everyone starting from the father, thanks the mother for preparing the tasty dish and the children follow suit by thanking the mother and the father by their different totems. Then they rise to leave the eating room, the girls to clean the utensils and the boys to go and sit somewhere out of their way, if they had not had their meal at the dare, they then take leave to go to their room(s) or may sit around and plan the following day's chores with their parents. Sometimes, on moonlit warm nights, they sit outside and listen to each others' stories and watch the starry night, dreaming dreams bigger than themselves.

Japanese Culture and Cherry Blossoms--Part II

毎年の春に桜を咲きますから、桜は春の象徴的です。その時にも新学期を始めます。高校の卒業間に桜の下で写真を取る事はさすが日本人です。そして、日本人は桜を見れば懐かしいに成ります。（私は高校の時に日本で留学生でした。そうですから、私も桜を見る事が懐かしいと思います。）
来週の週末に最後を書くつもりです。お待ち下さいね。
お質問があれば、メールを送って下さい！

Because the cherry blossoms bloom in spring every year, they are symbolic of the spring.  The spring is also the time when the new school year begins (in Japan).  Taking high school graduation photographs under the blooming cherry blossoms is a very Japanese thing to do.  Therefore, when Japanese people see cherry blossoms in bloom, they become nostalgic.  (When I was in high school, I was an exchange student in Japan.  Because of this, I also think that cherry blossoms are nostalgic.)
I plan to write the last part next weekend.  Please wait for it.
If you have any questions, please send them in!
culturevillagers@gmail.com

The thievery of a culture.

Whatever happened when capitalism began spreading its tentacles to Africa? It found the continent quiet in its own way, marred by the fighting of natives using spear and shield, barter trading, leading pastoral lives, wearing loin skins, led by royal families, living, thriving, working hard to convert nature's provisions into things useful in their lives. They succeeded and whatever European or Western scholars had to say about Africa being the dark continent is utter malarkey and if you are one to accept it, then you may not have to be offended if you are one day classified with the gullible. I do believe that as a people, we have to clearly identify the foibles that mar capitalism and its great contribution to the corruption of pure African culture. As everyone knows, capitalism sparked imperialism, the need to expand in capitalism and create markets and cheap raw materials and all that. Economics and society are linked together closely and for capitalism to flourish perfectly well in the African continent, culture had to give way to a new way of thinking and surprisingly, people welcomed the change as if they were tired of their own ways. That is what had them under the pin and colonialism spread its wings. Today we are reeling from the effects of this.

There is need to know, with the amount of education and enlightenment in the world today, a lot about one's origins. Just like ongoing studies to reveal where mankind came from, every man needs to be in an ongoing process to know where he came from in terms of regional ways of living. That is what makes us different. What is happening today is that a lot of people from cultures of lesser developed nations despise their cultures and the lack of development in their nation states. There is an equal amount political leaders who in my view have no clue on how to solve the quagmire they are in and for third world nations to develop, there is a need of a paradigm shift. Not to run to the world bank for bailout packages, not even look up to developed countries that have sort of assumed the big brother positions over these nations that come scurrying to them every time they are in trouble. A friend whom I was helping with his speech therapy sessions was in one of them with his therapist when she thought that it would be better to remind him words in his native African language. He vehemently refused her to do that saying he wanted to stick to English. I was quite saddened that the man had actually denied his native language to a secondary language that he was having trouble with. A lot of people believe that speaking in English makes them better people. To me that is just a sign of capitalism victory.

In my culture, like I had said in the last article, respect was central to the existence of a people in a society. Sadly, some African leaders try to employ this tool to suppress their people, ruling their nations in a capitalist way (by way of wanting to maintain class differences and them being in the top 1%) yet singing about being cultural, their supporters naming them titles only past cultural leaders deserved, because they were father figures to their subjects who ruled with fairness and justice. Of course there were bad apples among the rulers but they were not as rampant as they are today. Leadership positions for them were a responsibility they took proper care of.

Today, the most saddening thing is how imperialism, which was fought against by many African states left a permanent mark among the nation states. This mark, is the mark of self contempt among the natives. Africans anywhere and everywhere have little faith in the ability of their motherland and its people. They do not love to be associated with the cultures that their forefathers' societies thrived on. They do not believe that      their languages are worth displaying their riches and are nothing compared to the queens language, which is a beautiful one for that matter, so are countless other languages on this earth.

Finally, I want to say culture is beautiful and culture is the one definitive aspect of one's life.

Cherry Blossoms and Japanese Culture

-By Mark Olson.

敷島の
大和心を
 人問はば
 朝日に匂ふ
 山桜花

The poem above was written by Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801).  A loose translation reads "If someone asks about the spirit of Japan, it is the flowers of mountain cherry blossoms that are fragrant in the rising sun.".  These words shows the importance of cherry blossoms in Japanese culture.

Cherry blossoms only bloom over a short period of weeks each spring.  Of course, the blossoms are very beautiful.   Because of the short duration of the blossoms, when Japanese people view the flowering cherry trees, they are reminded of the transience of life.

Next weekend, I will write more about cherry blossoms.  Please look forward to it.

Mark

その和歌は本居宣長を書きました。英語の翻訳”"If someone asks about the spirit of Japan, it is the flowers of mountain cherry blossoms that are fragrant in the rising sun." その言葉は桜が日本文化の大切物とわかる。
毎年の春に二週間だけ桜を咲く。もちろん、桜の木はとてもきれいです。そうですから、日本人は桜を見えば、人生の無常をしみじみと感じる。

来週の週末に、桜についてもと書きます。お楽しみ下さいね！

 (This is a photo I took when the cherry blossoms were blooming this year in Washington, DC.
This year (2012) was the one hundredth anniversary of the Japanese government giving cherry trees to the city.)

Respect and hand clapping- Fundamental parts of the Shona Culture- By Clem C.

Respect, is one of the core elements of the Shona culture of Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. Mutual respect exists and binds the society together and this dates from way back. The Shona people are a patriarchal society. Children and women adopt their fathers' last names. There is a whole lot to this but for the purposes of this article I shall dwell mainly on respect. In a typical society, every adult is regarded as a parental figure, that is, they have the privilege to reprimand misbehaving youths in any way they deem necessary. They can beat, stop a fight or administer any form of punishment to preserve the wellness of the society. Elders, every adult is supposed to set an example to the younger members of the society, thus can not afford to be caught misbehaving. For anyone to be listened to, one has to maintain a clean record and if they do they have to make sure they do not get seen or leave any trails whatsoever, or else, they lose all the respect they have.

Whenever approaching a homestead, one is supposed to clap their hands to notify the residents of the home their arrival. Usually the clapping is accompanied by salutations of the man of the home, usually by calling out his totem repeatedly and going on in a sort of praise poetry. The man, if present would respond usually after identifying the approaching visitor by granting them access to their home and thus, one proceeds. After their arrival, a new set of clapping hands begins in exchange of greetings, the visitor or the family head, depending on who is older, the younger party asks about the health of the older one till everyone present has been asked and responded. Then usually, food is brought out, normally, if on a hot day, cool drinks in the form of the traditional mahewu (a traditional brew), if on a hot or warm day. Children would not be allowed to linger in the presence of the elders and after greeting the visitor, they would retreat to wherever they would be out of earshot of the conversations of the adults.

Whenever a son in-law meets with his in laws, he has to look to the ground and if in their way, get out and clap respectfully and whatever he does, their eyes never have to meet (kidding). People clap when showing gratitude. After someone performs an act of kindness to someone, the beneficiary claps while thanking them. Usually when the benefactor hands a gift to a beneficiary, the latter claps before taking the gifts. This, every child is taught to do when growing up. If a child does not clap when receiving anything from a parent or any other person, they are not given. They may cry, rant or rave because they do not know, but with time, they get to know that, a person is supposed to clap hands when receiving something. After eating, people are supposed to thank the food preparer usually by clapping their hands together.

In schools, when a classmate gets an answer correct, the teacher usually has the other kids applaud for them by way of clapping. Clapping is also important in song and dance, being part of songs, dance or otherwise. In churches, at weddings, parties and even funerals. Men and women have different ways of clapping. A man hand clap is comprises men cupping their hands and beating them against each other lengthwise, producing a shallow sound. Women on the other hands, cup their hands and clap sideways, usually their clapping, if in salutation, is following by bowing at the knee. Sometimes, they go down on both knees and do their clapping while on this position. When asking to be excused, it is the same thing except that the clapping duration is lesser than when greeting and all that.

At traditional courts or meetings of people like village elders or kingdom chiefs, to approach the bench, one would have to go through a session of clapping, usually saluting everyone according to rank till they present their case, at which time they cease clapping. It is also done during family meetings, usually the greetings are done before raising an important issue to be discussed, that is people greet while clapping and the case proceedings begin. Shona people greet pretty much often like any other society does in every part of the world I know. In the morning, children are supposed to greet their parents and elder siblings by asking how they are feeling, Mamuka sei?, translated 'Good morning', to which the elder responds, 'Tamuka mamukawo', meaning 'Good morning, how are you?, to which the enquirer responds, 'Tamuka', which is 'I'm well'. Greetings again are supposed to be exchanged in the afternoon, greetings have to be exchanged again, 'Masikati/Maswera sei?', meaning, 'Good afternoon/ How are you faring this afternoon?'. To this, the greeter claps and the respondent does not clap, except if they are being greeted by another adult. The response is 'Taswera maswerawo', which is 'I'm well, how about you?' The evening greeting is 'Manheru', sometimes, this phrase goes along with the afternoon greeting, that is if the greeter and the greeted had not met during the day.

Clapping is an exciting way of showing respect among people of the Shona culture, and I remember, my friends who are Ndebele (another language spoken in the country) make fun of Shona people who greet by way of beating their hands together. I find this respectful, of course, they also shake hands when greeting.

Welcome to The Villagers, a cultural promotion programme. Having realized the differences that have sat among us for as far back as people existed, we have made it an organizational pledge to institutionalize the celebration of differences that are among us. Daily, and increasingly, people are getting more and more swallowed up by existing dominant cultures and this is an impending peril on the smaller cultures. If nothing is done today, now, then we may speak of many little known cultures as existences of the past and that will be an unpleasant thing. In the developed world, there is little or no significant representation of smaller cultures and the ever-increasing pop culture seems to be heading off with the rest of the world, amazingly, to nowhere. It brings no fulfillment that a human being seeks in life, neither does it create or promote unity. Many people by the day are getting more and more swayed by just existing in this culture.
What if people got back to the basics. Not entirely to camping out in caves or tents and hunting and gathering but going out and camping in caves in our values and morals to find that which brought up our present day civilisation. In most nations today, there is no more populations entirely constituted of one race of people or one tribe or one social group but people have travelled wide and far settling wherever they found habitable. With the advent of the internet and other modes of fast communication, business is now done on a global scale so has communication, it has been reduced to one standardized way majorly in the English language. Nothing wrong with that, however, many other languages and subsequently their cultures have been sidelined, being not the major communication tools, their cultures have been regarded as inferior even by those that belong to the culture.
It is a shame that children, many of whom are born in countries other than their own do not have clues whatsoever to the ways that brought their people up. I am not suggesting that they entirely be ignorant to the particular culture they would have been born in, but I am pointing at an element that makes one feel complete, to know who one is and what it means to be you, what defines you and the ways that you have to meet and greet and kill time makes complete one’s life. I believe God created us different to brin but the beauty of the human race to the fore. Our differences are not meant to be abhorred and looked down upon, that is just but wrong and evil a way of looking at life.
The Villagers initiative brings together people of different tribes and races to showcase their talents in different ways that bring out their differences distinctly. This is done through collection of cultural projects in visual and oral arts, cultural exchange visits; this shall bring to the Villagers platform things like folklores of different cultures, morals and values.
The Villagers also shall push this agenda via theater and filmography as well as all other means of communicating with everybody around the globe.
To be a member, contact the site administrator at mcclemz@yahoo.com and or join us on this site.

Many love and thanks all, good tidings!