THE EMBRACE OF ILLITERACY AS TRADITIONAL VALUE IN AFRICA

The festival of virgins

Africa is a vast continent filled with varieties of customs, traditions, cultures, and languages. Some of these outdated traditions and customs are seen as senseless, useless, valueless, illiteracy, and complete ignorance.

Female Circumcision: It is estimated that about 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the disastrous effects of female circumcision. Horrific procedures have severely traumatized and psychologically affected thousands of women. Female circumcision is practiced in 26 countries across Africa.

In the Republic of Sierra Leone, an ethnic group called “The Bondo Society” still carries this outdated tradition. Gambia launched a three-year program aimed to abolish Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Female circumcision is the number one on my list as illiteracy taken as traditional or custom.

Horrible tribal marks in Nigeria: In the olden days, tribal marks were used as identification, especially in Yoruba lands, such as Ogun, Oyo, Ondo states, and Benin. 

Should in case something happens to you, your tribal marks would help to identify the tribe you originate or where you come from. The illiteracy behind this barbarous act has disfigured the face of thousands of Nigerians.

Some of the marks are so horrible that they attract people and gossip. Some women have to live with it for the rest of their lives without husbands.  

Time changes as we step into the world of technology and development. Disfiguring of the face as tribal marks are gradually fading away or completely stopped in many places thought out the country.

In South Africa, is a relatively landlocked country called Swaziland. The king of the country, Mswati III has 14 wives. This illiteracy which had been in existence for years is followed as a tradition.

The 46-year old monarch has ruled over Swaziland, which is on the brink of economic disaster for 28 years. He can’t even solve the problems of 40 percent of Swazis that are unemployed, the country’s highest HIV infection rate per capita in the world, and the life expectancy of 46 years among the world’s lowest.

 Yet at every annual reed dance, the king takes the opportunity to take a new wife. Is this king ignorant, serious, or a joker?

Horrible tribal marks of a Yoruba woman

He recently married a girl of fifteen. Apart from the continued abuse of young girls, the king’s  wealth includes  expensive cars (fleets of top-of-the-range Mercedes and BMW cars, at least one Rolls-Royce and a $500,000 Daimler Chrysler flagship Maybach 62) and the private jet ($17 million), while the citizens wallow in poverty. 

This money can be invested in education and health care to develop his country. Have you seen how stupid and ignorant some of these African leaders are?

When Asia is making headlines around the world, it’s about business, but in the case of Africa, it’s about poverty, corruption, war, conflicts and such stupid traditions and customs, draining Africa’s coffers and under-developing Africa. 

I have said this and I will repeat once again “If African leaders want the Advanced World to respect them, they should show a little intelligence and maturity because they underestimate and laugh at Africa.

FEMALE CIRCUMCISION IS BARBARISM

Dangerous implements used for female circumcision in Africa


Oppression and discrimination against women have become major concerns in many parts of the world, including Africa. 


Many women have become subject to all kinds of horrible situations, ranging from rape, sexual harassment, and physical battering, to psychological abuse.

In some parts of Africa and Asia, men hold the view that "as a husband, to that woman" they have the right to beat up their wives any time they wish to do so. The ignorant idea that girls are not as important as boys views women as sexual objects rather than industrious, hard-working people.

An outdated practice going on in Africa, which has caused many health hazards to women, is female circumcision. In the Republic Of Sierra Leone an ethnic group calling its self "The Bondo Society" still carries this practice. 

Why female circumcision? The idea behind this barbarous act, which has caused so much misery and sickness to thousands of women across Africa, is to "help" the woman to be faithful and stay with only her husband.

Female circumcision is practiced in 26 countries across Africa and the significance behind this act is totally meaningless and not beneficial to women in any way. Women are not going to be tied down by this outdated tradition. The world must fight against this wicked act. It's totally inhuman.

TRADITIONAL VALUES ARE DOING MORE HARM TO AFRICA THAN GOOD

Culture of disgrace in Africa


Some traditional values, such as female circumcision, polygamy, and other outdated customs, handed over by ancestors to tribes are doing more harm to Africa than good. 


Female circumcision has caused more health hazards to females than ever imagined but this old tradition of female genital mutilation is still widely practiced in many African countries.

Polygamy in royal households in Africa is another factor draining some of the African countries' financial resources. A couple of months ago, King Mswati III of Swaziland caused public outrage by sending his favorite wives on a globe-trotting shopping spree. 

The royal ruler, despite the poverty of his people, used 7 million dollars of state money to send five of his thirteen wives and dozens of their aids to France, Italy, Dubai, and Taiwan on a secret shopping trip.

The Swaziland people are suffering but they are smiling, the fact that it is a criminal offense to criticize the king's private life in their country. Campaigners have reacted angrily against the British government, which gives aid totaling 65 million pounds to the African country. Swaziland also receives about 235 million dollars from the US.

The king of Swaziland has a personal fortune of $240 million and also receives money from the national budget for the upkeep of his family, yet more than two-thirds of the country's 1.2 million population survive on less than fifty cents per day, and more than a quarter of the adult population suffers from the HIV.

In a country like Swaziland where education and health should be priorities, he spent $5 million on 20 armored Mercedes-Benz cars. A journalist from Swaziland Solidarity Network told the British times newspaper 

"They shout about Zimbabwe but they keep quiet about what is happening in Swaziland, even though they are one of its biggest aid donors. They are wasting British taxpayers' money on this tyrant."