MetaFilter posts tagged with culture and Africa

Black and White Moors

nickyskye — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:34:56 -0800

"The Beydanes, also known as White Moors, are the ruling caste in Mauritania. They are Arab Berber tribesmen whose ancestors established control in the seventeenth century. The Haratin, also known as Black Moors, are the descendants of black West Africans conquered and enslaved by the Beydanes centuries ago." from the New Yorker story, A Slave in New York, about a former slave who escaped in 1978, came to live in America and now works with the American Anti-Slavery Group. The Moor of West Africa. Chronology for Black Moors in Mauritania. About the Haratins. The White Moors: Chleuhs, a gallery of images of their part of the world l Vallée des Mgoun and their amazing adobe castles (kasbahs), cities in the desert (At present, it hosts one of the largest movie studios in the world) l music. A little more about the Chleuhs, a Berber ethnic group. The etymology of the word, Moors.The Haratin. Slavery still weighs heavily on Mauritanian society despite ban. Map. Previously.

"social problems of a somewhat mixed-up but dynamic, even brash, modernizing community"

amyms — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:59:18 -0800

From the Bookstalls of a Nigerian Market. Onitsha Market Literature consists of stories, plays, advice and moral discourses published primarily in the 1960s by local presses in the lively market town of Onitsha [in then-newly-independent Nigeria]... In the fresh and vigorous genre of Onitsha Market Literature, the commoner wrote pulp fiction and didactic handbooks for those who perused the bookstalls of Onitsha Market, one of Africa’s largest trading centers. Examples: How To Write And Reply Letters For Marriage, Engagement Letters, Love Letters And How To Know A Girl To Marry, Learn To Speak 360 Interesting Proverbs And Know Your True Brother, Struggle For Money [All full-text links are in pdf format, and some are quite large]. With links to additional resources.

Do you really care about the starving children of Africa.

Student of Man — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:24:37 -0800

Development porn and Humanitarian badges. A moment of Truth

witness the strangest customs of the red, white, brown, black and yellow races ... attend their startling rites, their mysterious practices ... all assembled for you

anastasiav — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:41:40 -0800

The Secret Museum of Mankind :: "Published in 1935, the Secret Museum is a mystery book. It has no author or credits, no copyright, no date, no page numbers, no index ... The tone of the commentary is dated, and uniformly racist in the extreme, often hilariously so. It reads like the patter of a carnival sideshow barker, from a time when the world was divided between "modern" Europeans and "savages" ... Presented here is the Secret Museum in its entirety, all 564 pages scanned and transcribed-- nothing is omitted or censored ... Treat it as entertainment instead of education (don't take it seriously and don't believe a word it says!), adjust for the blatant racial bias of the time, and enjoy."

"We, who are elders, will instruct you in their true meaning..."

a louis wain cat — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:43:48 -0800

Shakespeare in the Bush: in which an anthropologist tells the story of Hamlet to a group of Tiv, and ideas about the universal nature of literature get the worst of it.

National Geographic on Africa

Gyan — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 00:35:19 -0800

National Geographic has a special issue on Africa out this month. There's also their Africa resource site.

Vagina Monologues promotes sin in Africa

Kololo — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 05:13:12 -0800

The Vagina Monologues is, to the outrage of many, being staged at a cultural center in Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. For the past few weeks, the play has been a key topic of debate, with many radio stations even refusing to utter the name of the play out loud, and shaming call-in listeners that do. Today, the local media council announced that “to the extent that the play promotes illegal, unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution, it should be and is hereby banned, citing the play as "a smokescreen for graphic lesbian pornography" and that the play's "graphic descriptions of masturbation, rape, and genital mutilation in a manner that is “abhorrent, outrageous and disgusting." Local NGOs are even refusing to accept funds generated by the sale of tickets.

Mutilation losing favor in Africa

languagehat — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 16:10:23 -0800

Female genital mutilation is a blight on women's lives in many parts of Africa. Today's NY Times has a story, "Genital Cutting Shows Signs of Losing Favor in Africa" by Mark Lacey, that gives grounds for optimism:

Slowly, genital cutting is losing favor. Parliaments are passing laws forbidding the practice, which causes widespread death and disfigurement. Girls are fleeing their homes to keep their vaginas intact. And the women who have been carrying out the cutting, and who have been revered by their communities for doing so, are beginning to lay down their knives.

(If you don't want to register with the NYT, here's the Mathaba.net copy.)

Africaserver

plep — Mon, 16 Jun 2003 08:20:18 -0800

Africaserver. Contemporary African art and culture - San art from Botswana, Arms into Art from Mozambique, Dar es Salaam in Delft Blue - a cross-cultural comparison of favourite objects, Marthe Nso Abomo from Cameroon, a Rwanda Genocide Monument, and more.
Related :- Meshu, an artist and political activist from Lesotho who may have been southern Africa's first streaker.

Art & Life in Africa.

plep — Fri, 07 Mar 2003 09:21:22 -0800

Art & Life in Africa. A resource on African art and culture. Key Moments in Life is an interesting page which deals with different phases of life. The Peoples Index gives overviews of the different cultures. The snapshots of daily life in Mali and Burkina Faso are also worth a look.

ugly_n_sticky — Thu, 03 Oct 2002 13:55:57 -0800

The power of Western culture illustrated with the story of Miss World 2001. Agbani Darego of Nigeria is single-handedly responsible for a radical change in the feminine beauty ideal in her native country: voluptuous women are out, thin girls are in. A stunning illustration of the cultural power of the West, and a good example to think about what it means - for the better and for the worse - to those under its spell.