#What makes Me a proud African...

Image credit

The issue with African culture today is the privilege to choose. In reality this should not be an issue, but rather it appears to be every one of the general population's decisions are about not being African any longer. I recently drew in a gathering of individuals in a discussion in which I was deploring the loss of our way of life in Ghana. I made a remark that today fried rice is viewed as a national dinner in Ghana, to which a young woman answered that if individuals wanted to eat fried rice, that was their business. In as much as I concur with that conclusion, I additionally believe that we have to take a gander at this at a more profound level. I have no issue with individuals eating fried rice. The issue emerges when customary dinners, for example, plantain and kontomire (a kind of spinach) stew, are downsized for fried rice.

Image credit
Kontomire stew with plantain and pear

For what reason should this trouble me? I will let you know. The rice we expend in Ghana is transported from America and Thailand. For long as we promote fried rice over plantain, it implies our plantain ranchers (in the event that we have any more left in Ghana) will have to a lesser extent a market. What's more, this will prompt joblessness, which can prompt wrongdoing. What's more, over the long haul, this can affect me when I am robbed by a young man who ought to be on a farm. The issue with the world is that we are becoming self centered is all about me, me, me that we overlook how some of our activities can affect society in all. Each time a lady in Africa purchases Brazilian hair, she improves the Asian economy since it isn't Africans who are manufacturing these items. As opposed to purchase nearby Shea butter and dark cleanser, which is reasonable for the upkeep of our normal hair, our ladies in Ghana will wear Brazilian hair and purchase every one of the items expected to make the Brazilian hair to look beautiful. The main problem for me is that under the guise of an individual’s freedom to be what they want to be, everything Ghanaian is being demonised.
So if you prefer to eat traditional foods, which are more healthier, you are considered as "colo" (out-dated). In the event that you urge ladies to wear their natural hair, you are viewed as radical.
If you want to do only the traditional customary marriage, you are made to feel that you are indeed not properly married. You have to do a “white” wedding in church. Yet legally, customary marriage is the accepted norm of the land.

Image credit
Customary marriage in Ghana

Thus, the flexibility to have a white wedding in chapel has degraded the quintessence of the traditional customary wedding. Definitely, individuals ought to have the right and freedom to do what they like to do and what they need to be. Nonetheless, in doing as such, they have to take a gander at the long haul impact on society.
I simply don't comprehend why the right to choose implies those of us who regard our cultures and traditions are made to feel as if we are rather wrong. When I talk about young guys strolling around the streets of Ghana with their saggy jeans and pants showing, I am told the world is moving, or has moved, forward. So I need to ask, forward to what? In the times of yore, men went about in loincloth and ladies ran about with their breasts uncovered. If I decide to go out like that today, I would be marked antiquated. Possibly insane. However on the grounds that saggy jeans originated from America, that is acknowledged as alright! There is an extremely well known artiste in Ghana called Wanlov the Kubolor. He wears garments and strolls around shoeless. Individuals think he is distraught. However no one inquiries the rational soundness of the young men who wear saggy jeans, Timberlands and hooded tops in the Ghanaian warmth!

Image credit
Wanlov kubolor

Today the way some Ghanaian ladies dress leaves very little to imagination. In fact I feel these ladies have debased womanhood. The greater part of these ladies are strolling around looking like hookers. But since they dress like Rihanna and Beyoncé, this makes it adequate. But If a lady were to dress as my ancestors and go out with her breasts hanging out, she would be considered a mad woman. However to dress like Nicky Minaj and have her breasts hanging out over a tight top is seen as in fashionable. You see the double gauges? In the event that it's African, it's insane. In the event that it's from America or Europe, it's fashionable and the right of the person to choose it.
Today in Ghana, the larger part of ladies wear Brazilian, Peruvian or Indian hair. This isn't all. They top the phony hair with Taiwanese nails and China-made eyelashes. In the event that a lady wear her common African hair, she is made to feel like a fool, as she doesn't realize what time it is. So once again freedom to choose implies those of us who choose the African way are stupid! I recall the delight I had growing up as a child in Ghana, at whatever point we went to the village and went to the farm with my grandma. It was energizing returning with food and firewood.

Image credit
I likewise recollect the innumerable number of trees that yielded natural product that we could simply pick and eat. Today, where are all the traditional fruits of Ghana? The norm in our shops and in the city is presently apples and grapes. Apples and grapes that are foreign made into the nation. Try not to misunderstand me. It's awesome to have the choice of eating a variety of foods, fruits and vegetables. Be that as it may, each time we ridicule our local foods for the imported ones, we kill the life of the nearby farmer. I would love a circumstance where, alongside the imported apples and grapes, we additionally advance and acknowledge our local fruit as normal.

Image credit

Image credit

Image credit

Dipo rites in Ghana

As Ghanaian who knows much about Krobos, I have watch dipo done to so many ladies(a rite of passage for ladies). Customarily, while doing the dipo, ladies are barechested. Once when I went by my town amid the season of dipo, I was appalled at the number of German men taking photos of the young ladies, with their breasts uncovered. Scoffing as they clicked away with their cameras, these men looked like pedophiles.
So I conversed with a portion of the queenmothers about modernizing dipo by enabling the young ladies to cover their breasts. That is going forward. Scratching off dipo by and large for the sake of advance isn't pushing ahead, yet rather, losing a basic piece of being a Krobo lady. Almost certainly there are some cultural practices accross Africa that should be abrogated, for instance, female circumcision and the widowhood ceremonies. I'm not for one minute saying we have to clutch all our cultural practices, regardless of how negative they are. Be that as it may, we have to acknowledge what is our own and helpful to our general public. Before, kids would return home from school and welcome their folks with a curtsey and a well mannered "Great evening, Mama". Today our youngsters can welcome a grown-up with '"Woz op?'", not even the right "what's up", yet their form of what they hear! That is the issue with the African of today. The right to choose – yet it appears to be every one of their decisions are tied in with picking not to be African any more. As one more year arrives at an end, and individuals over
Africa become tied up with the Christmas myth that we have to eat turkey, purchase plastic trees and put counterfeit snow everywhere on our homes, I think we have to take some time out and truly ask ourselves, what are the decisions we are making. What's more, more imperatively, how do these decisions influence African culture all in all? Be that as it may, hello, these are only the impressions of a common African @jakemore. I'm proud to be an African. God bless Africa.

As Africans we should cherish our values, cultural and our foods because they make us unique from others, it'll make Africa develop and move forward.. I will use you this opportunity to wish all Steemians a Merry Christmas especially #teamghana.