Category: AFRICAN PEOPLE

The men of Egypt were usually clean shaven and sported both long and short hair styles. Men wore their hair long while boys had their heads shaved except for a lock of hair above their ear. A male body from a working class cemetery in Hierakonpolis dated around 3500 B.C. had a well trimmed beard. Ancient Egyptians sported curls, braids, waves, twists, wigs and extentions, They dyed their hair and cut it short like U.S. Marines.

Women sometimes wore long things in their hair. A female body from a working class grave dated around 3500 B.C. had evidence of hair coloring (henna was used to color grey hair) and hair weaving (locks of human hair were tied to natural objects to produce an elaborate beehive hairdo). A grave in the worker’s cemetery at Hierakonpolis revealed a woman in her late 40s or early 50s with a Mohawk. Egyptians darkened grey hair with the blood of black animals and added false braids to their own hair. The earliest combs are believed are believed to be fish bones. The earliest man-made combs were discovered in 6000-year-old Egyptian tombs. Some had single rows of teeth. Some had double rows of teeth.

Chopped lettuce and ground-up hedgehog spines were applied to the scalp as a remedy for baldness because baldness was not appreciated. Other cultures have tried everything from camel dung to bear grease to achieve the same result. A male body from a working class cemetery in Hierakonpolis dated around 3500 B.C. had a sheepskin toupee used to hide a bald spot.

Scholars often use hairstyles to date objects and even use them to determine foreign influences. There is evidence of influence from other cultures on the Egyptian hairstyles. One example is the cultural union of the Roman Empire and the Egyptian empire. There is evidence of a female mummy wearing a typically Roman hairstyle yet the iconography on her death mask was plainly Egyptian. At Tell el-Daba in Egypt, there was a statue portrayed wearing a mushroom hairstyle that was typical of Asiatic males. There is a statue of young woman in the Ptolemaic period (304–30 B.C.) exhibiting a typical Nubian hairstyle consisting of five small clumps of hair.

Egyptian men were generally clean-shaven and priests like the one above often shaved their heads. The Egyptians thought that an abundance of facial hair was a sign of uncleanliness and personal neglect. An exception to this was a man’s thin mustache or goatee. There was no soap so an oil or salve was probably used to soften the skin and hairs of the area to be shaved. Tweezers with blunt or sharp ends were used for removing individual facial hairs.
Men and women used to shave their heads bald replacing their natural hair with wigs. Egyptian women did not walk around showing their bald heads, they always wore the wigs. Head shaving had a number of benefits. First, removing their hair made it much more comfortable in the hot Egyptian climate. Second, it was easy to maintain a high degree of cleanliness avoiding danger of lice infestation. In addition, people wore wigs when their natural hair was gone due to old age. However, even though the Egyptians shaved their heads, they did not think the bald look was preferable to having hair. Even Priests were required to keep their entire bodies cleanly shaved. They shaved every third day because they needed to avoid the danger of lice or any other uncleanness to conduct rituals. This is the reason why priests are illustrated bald-headed with no eyebrows or lashes.

Hairstyles and Identity
As for the Egyptians of ths ancient times, hair styles were often express identity, religious position and class. Style and class were just as important after death. For ancient Egyptians, appearance was an important issue. Appearance indicated a person’s status, role in a society or political significance. Egyptian hairstyles and the common hairstyles of today have many things in common. Like modern hairstyles, Egyptian hairstyles varied with age, gender and social status. Children had unique hairstyles in ancient Egypt. Their hair was shaved off or cut short except for a long lock of hair left on the side of the head (side-lock of youth). This s-shaped lock was depicted by the hieroglyphic symbol of a child or youth. Both girls and boys wore this style until the onset of puberty. Young boys often shaved their heads, while young girls wore their hair in plaits or sometimes did up their hair in a ponytail style, hanging down the center of the back. Young girl dancers used to wear long thick braided ponytails. The edge of the tail was either naturally curled or was enhanced to do so. If the ponytail was not curled at the end, it was weighted down by adornments or metal discs.

Egyptian men typically wore their hair short, leaving their ears visible. Men often kept these hairstyles until their hair began to thin with advancing age. Another hairstyle for men was distinctive short curls covering the ears shaping a bend from temple to nape. It is doubtful that this hairstyle was natural. It was more likely a result of a process of hair curling that was done occasionally. More unique were the women’s hairstyles than those of men. Women generally preferred a smooth, close coiffure, a natural wave and long curl. Women in the Old Kingdom preferred to have short cuts or chin length bobs. However, women in the New Kingdom (around 1550–1070 B.C.) wore their hair long or touted a wig. Women tied and decorated their hair with flowers and linen ribbons. A stylized lotus blossom was the preferred adornment for the head. This developed into using coronets and diadems. Diadems made of gold, turquoise, garnet, and malachite beads were discovered on an ancient Egyptian body dating to 3200 B.C.

Poorer people used more simple and inexpensive ornaments of petals and berries to hold their hair at the back. Children decorated their hair with amulets of small fish, presumably to protect from the dangers of the Nile. Children sometimes used hair-rings or clasps. Egyptians also wore headbands around their heads or held their hair in place with ivory and metal hairpins. Beads might be used to attach wigs or hair extensions in place. Slaves and servants were not able to dress the same as Egyptian nobility. The way that they adorned their hair was quite different. Commonly, they tied their hair at the back of the head into a kind of loop. They can also tie it in eight or nine long plaits at the back of the head and to dangled them together at one side of the neck and face. So, just by specific hair tie, shape, cut and decoration with different ornaments, age, gender and status are clearly identified. Interesting!

Historians believe that the original inhabitants of Côte d’Ivoire were all either displaced or absorbed by the ancestors of the present inhabitants, because little is known about their origin. The first recorded history is found in the chronicles of North African Muslim traders, who, from early Roman times, conducted a caravan trade across the Sahara in salt, slaves, gold, and other items. The southern terminals of the trans-Saharan trade routes were located on the edge of the desert, and from there supplemental trade extended as far south as the edge of the rain forest.

Djenné, Gao, and Timbuctu are the more important terminals that grew into major commercial centers around which the great Sudanic empires developed. By controlling the trade routes with their powerful military forces, these empires were able to dominate neighboring states. The Sudanic empires also became centers of Islamic learning. Islam had been introduced into the western Sudan by Arab traders from North Africa and spread rapidly after the conversion of many important rulers. From the eleventh century, by this time the rulers of the Sudanic empires had embraced Islam, it spread south into the northern areas of contemporary Ivory Coast.

Ghana, the earliest of the Sudanic empires, flourished in present-day eastern Mauritania from the fourth to the thirteenth century. At the peak of its power in the eleventh century, its realms extended from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuctu. After the decline of Ghana, the Mali Empire grew into a powerful Muslim state, which reached its apogee in the early part of the fourteenth century. The territory of the Mali Empire in Ivory Coast was limited to the northwest corner around Odienné. Its slow decline starting at the end of the fourteenth century followed internal discord and revolts by vassal states, one of which, Songhai, flourished as an empire between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Notwithstanding, Songhai was also weakened by internal discord, which led to factional warfare. This discord spurred most of the migrations of peoples southward toward the forest belt. The dense rain forest covering the southern half of the country created barriers to large-scale political organizations as seen further north. Some inhabitants lived in villages or clusters of villages whose contacts with the outside world were filtered through long-distance traders. By the virtue of this, there is not only commercial interaction their cultures also interact. Villagers subsisted on agriculture and hunting.

In the pre-European era there were five important states that flourished in Ivory Coast. The Muslim Kong Empire was established by the Juula in the early eighteenth century in the north-central region inhabited by the Sénoufo, who had fled Islamization under the Mali Empire. Although Kong became a prosperous center of agriculture, trade, and crafts, ethnic diversity and religious discord gradually weakened the kingdom. The city of Kong was destroyed in 1895 by Samori Touré. The Abron kingdom of Jaman was established in the seventeenth century by an Akan group, the Abron, who had fled the developing Asante confederation in what is present-day Ghana.

The Abron gradually extended their hegemony over the Juula in Bondoukou, from their settlement on the south of Bondoukou. These were recent émigrés from the market city of Begho. Bondoukou developed into a major center of commerce and Islam. The kingdom’s Quranic scholars attracted students from all parts of West Africa. In the mid-eighteenth century in east-central Ivory Coast, other Akan groups fleeing the Asante established a Baoulé kingdom at Sakasso and two Agni kingdoms, Indénié and Sanwi. The Baoulé, like the Asante, elaborated a highly centralized political and administrative structure under three successive rulers, but it finally split into smaller chiefdoms.

Despite the breakup of their kingdom, the Baoulé strongly resisted French subjugation. The descendants of the rulers of the Agni kingdoms tried to retain their separate identity long after Ivory Coast’s independence; as late as 1969, the Sanwi of Krinjabo attempted to break away from Ivory Coast and form an independent kingdom. The living and existence of man is subject to change from time to time. Change constitutes a important part of human living that if man does not embrace in the right way, man will deny himself the necessary beauty of life. Even though, change from external communities are not welcomed, internal change will not always be defeated.

Malawi was called Maravi or ‘reflected light’ back in the days. The country was been addressed as such most likely as a reference to sunlight glittering on Lake Malawi. Early settlements around Lake Malawi, dating back to the late Stone and Iron Ages can be confirmed through Archaeological excavations. This geographical sphere is mentioned in early Arab writings and in Portuguese writings of the 17th and 18th centuries. The pre-colonial Maravi Empire was a loosely organised society covering an expanse of territory well beyond present-day Malawi and encompassed first the Chewa and later the Tumbuka ethnic groups. The Yao from the north and the Ngoni made successful invasions during the 19th century. The Yao became involved in the commercial slave trade, acting as agents for the coastal Arabs. David Livingstone visited Lake Malawi (then called Lake Nyasa) in 1859. British missionaries, traders and planters visited the lake in succeeding decades. Due to the with widespread of slave trade, this period was said to be unsettled.

In 1891, Britain declared the country the British Protectorate of Nyasaland. In 1953 the UK federated Nyasaland with Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe). The Federation was vigorously opposed and, in 1958, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda returned home from Ghana, at the invitation of the Nyasaland African Congress, to lead the fight against it. The government declared a state of emergency in 1959 and arrested Banda and other members of Congress. Following his release in 1960, a series of constitutional conferences was held, as were elections. Internal self-government was achieved in 1963, the Federation was dissolved and Malawi attained independence and joined the Commonwealth on 6 July 1964, with Banda as Prime Minister.

In 1966 Malawi became a republic, with Banda as President. A new constitution gave the President, who was also commander- in-chief of the armed forces, widespread powers. He held a number of ministerial portfolios, including External Affairs, Agriculture, Justice and Works. Malawi became a one-party state, with Malawi Congress Party (MCP) as the sole party.

The following decade saw widespread political unrest, much of it arising from splits and rivalries. Pressure for democratic reform intensified at the end of the 1980s. The one-party government held out for a period: thousands of arrests were made in the first half of 1992, among those arrested was trade union leader and multiparty democracy campaigner Chakufwa Chihana. Strikes, student demonstrations and political riots were suppressed by police, in the course of which at least 38 people died.

Western donors supported the campaign for multiparty democracy by suspending non-humanitarian aid to Malawi in May 1992. The reformers joined forces in a Public Affairs Committee (PAC) – an umbrella body of religious and political groups calling for change. The Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), chaired by Chihana, and the United Democratic Front (UDF), chaired by Bakili Muluzi, were formed in September 1992 and joined the PAC. The government then established the President’s Committee for Dialogue and agreed to hold an internationally supervised national referendum on the one-party system.

Over 78 per cent of the adult population voted in the referendum on 14 June 1993, and 63 per cent supported a multiparty system. The constitution was accordingly amended. Banda also announced an amnesty for all Malawians imprisoned or exiled for political activities. Laws passed by the National Assembly in November 1993 committed Malawi to human rights including freedom of expression. The Constitution (Amendment) Act introduced a bill of rights, the title of life President (which had been assumed by Banda in 1971) was dropped from the constitution and a number of restrictive laws were repealed.

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in May 1994. Bakili Muluzi won the presidential election, obtaining about one- third more votes than his nearest rival, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda. His party, the UDF, obtained the largest number of seats in the parliamentary elections, but not an overall majority. In September 1994, Muluzi appointed ministers from AFORD and other smaller parties, giving the new government a working majority.

In the elections of June 1999 Muluzi won the presidency with 52 per cent of votes cast while Gwanda Chakuamba – the candidate of an alliance of the MCP and AFORD – secured 45 per cent. In the National Assembly, the UDF won 93 seats, the MCP 66 and AFORD 29, a result that gave the opposition alliance a parliamentary majority. However, by August 1999, with the support of four independents, Muluzi gained control of parliament and his position was subsequently strengthened by a succession of by-election victories. However, the General elections were then held in Malawi on 20th May 2014. This was the first time Malawians voted for their local governments, members of parliament and president in a single election. Times and change are just unavoidable phenomena in human existence. These contribute to the beauty and the whole essence of history.

Some cultures believe that facial stripes (tribal marks) serves as a distinctive feature between tribes or ethnic groups. However, over time, it has come to symbolize beauty; this is the case with the Xhosa in South Africa and the Maasai in Kenya. Stripes on the face are not seen as violent but a sign of beauty. There are also many other tribes of sub-Saharan Africa with the same practices. These includes Nuba women who colour their faces. Ladies decorate their face with art using different materials, such as calamine lotion and a matchstick. Face-painting and body decoration serve an important aesthetic function. Women who are considered as most beautiful receive some form of social recognition, for example, they receive romantic attention. Face decorations also serve as social markers. They are used to distinguish boys from elders, women from men and members of the tribe from other tribes.

Africans have different physical expressions of beauty. In Mozambique, Makonde people perform facial cutting for beauty. Tribal marks of the Yoruba people from Nigeria, Benin and Togo are scarification. Barega people in DRC perform both facial cutting and scarification for both beauty and status; the Maasai of Kenya do ear piercing for beauty; the Koi Koi of South Africa remove teeth for beauty. Similarly, Wanyabungu from DRC trim teeth for beauty. These marks serve multiple purposes, including tribal identification of a person’s family, community or patrilineal heritage and beautification.

Internal Beauty is esteemed than external beauty by Africans. Internal beauty means love, care, compassion, respect, wisdom, faithfulness and truthfulness and non-violence. It is the sum of human cherished values that contribute to peace, harmony, wellbeing, security and development in the society. Therefore, it is not the appearance that counts so much, but the personality. A young person is not beautiful unless he/she displays some noble characteristics and this truth applies to both males and females. A young man who acts violently or prefers violence to peace, lacks internal beauty. Non-violence is a an internal value which is expressed through a way of life committed to justice, peace, common good, solidarity, compassion (ubuntu and ujamaa – community).

A young man’s beauty is to protect his personal internal dignity and that of others by showing love, care and being nice to people. Such a young man in a community is treasured and most families would express interest in their daughters being married to a man like that. Although in some African cultures violent men are seen to be treasured, but that consideration has its limits in the application – for example, a violent young man is valued when there is need to fight a battle for the family or tribe. Such an attribute is meaningless for arranging a marriage either for the boy himself or for a girl with the boy. A young man’s beauty is to show love. Not loving is hating and hating is a sort of inner murder.

Like a young man, a young woman’s personality and behaviour is mostly desired if, she is found to be similar to those of a mother who conducts herself in a worthy manner and has demonstrated herself to be noble. A woman who meets these special qualities such as kindness, politeness, submission, respect, compassion, who is teachable and cares for others, is the kind of a beautiful and desirable person that meets the African definition and standard of beauty. Judging a woman based on this standard could save a person from running into trouble, but any judgment that goes against these guidelines could result in disappointment. The secret behind this African wisdom is that, some ill-disciplined character hides beneath artificial beauty. Since the opposite of beauty is ugly – no-one wants to face a woman who is like a sleeping volcano that has the potential to unleash the beast when you accidentally step on her toes.

Africans valued and still do value marriage. The understanding here is that the beautiful woman is a kind of a woman who seeks to be beautiful in the eyes of men and whose chief goal in life is to be in marriage someday. This woman will seek to fulfil man’s sexual desire, to assure that he may not go outside the marriage bond and enjoy extramarital relationships. It is on the basis of this conviction that some marriages were and still are arranged by parents on behalf of their children. This is to ensure that the African traditional values are preserved, while maintaining a strong family bond and peace among members of the family. Hence, in an African context, the beauty of a woman may be defined as good inherited traits and habits that earn her a good reputation in public and is both internally beautiful and externally attractive.

In the African concept of beauty, a person is truly beautiful when he or she has what it takes to meet the above criteria. Though Africans value both internal and external beauty, the internal beauty takes precedence over the external one. This understanding of beauty may be different from other definitions of beauty. Once different meanings join together, there is often a culture shock, which may result in loss of meaning of the traditional meaning and the adoption of an alien model of beauty. In this case, such search for beauty would no longer be an African traditional understanding of beauty. In spite of this, traditional values will always have a place, therefore they will never lose relevance.

The obvious cultural diversity in Africa makes the continent unique in different aspects among which is language. Africa is one of the most diverse continents in the world with about 3000 distinct ethnic groups and more than 2000 languages. The linguistic capacity of Africans is one of the unique features that distinguishes them from other regions.

A typical example of linguistically diverse country in Africa is Nigeria which is rated top position worldwide in this aspect. In Nigeria, the spoken languages exceeds 514 languages. Though the three major languages are Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, there are many other tribes with their different languages. The number of native languages spoken in Africa is estimated between 1,250 and 2,100. However, one of the most remarkable differences between Africa and other linguistic areas is its relative uniformity, due to the fact that several languages are widely used for inter-ethnic communication. Arabic, Somali, Berber, Amharic, Oromo, Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Mande, Fulani and Yoruba are spoken by tens of millions of people. One of the major setbacks to such language diversity is inter-ethnic communication. Infact, there are instances of two neighboring ethnic groups who don’t understand each other.

Nevertheless, some pundits have been of opinion that a common language like Kiswahili can unite Africa. South Africa’s Julius Malema is one of those who strongly called out for the adoption of a common language in Africa. Following his call, the South African government announced that Kiswahili will be incorporated into South Africa’s school curriculum. Swahili is a language widely spoken in African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, DR Congo, northern Mozambique, and northern Zambia and has more than 100 million speakers.

The preservation of African languages is of utmost importance because the languages constitute one of the invaluable assets of Africa. In a bid to nurture the growth and development of African Languages, celebrating their uniqueness, the African Union declared 2006 the “Year of African Languages”. It had early created in 2001, the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), which promotes the usage and perpetuation of African languages among African people as a means to harmonize the various languages across the continent as well as preserving any that are on the verge of becoming extinct.

One of the problems facing any indigeneous value in Africa is lack of appreciation of such values by the African natives. Africans are always quick to abandon their rich culture for imported foreign cultures. Some of African languages are not spared in this aspect. Consequently, several of these languages face the risk of extinction. It was noted that about 300 languages have less than 10,000 speakers, which puts them on the UN’s endangered list, and 37 are in danger of completely dying out.

While Africa prides itself with such linguistic diversity, some citizens are yet to fully embrace it as their commonplace. For instance in some countries and tribes,some people feel ashamed discussing in their mother tongue in public. A majority of youth who grow up in the cities are not taught their mother tongue and many of them do not see any necessity in learning it. Some even forbid their children from speaking their mother tongue.

Nonetheless, the spirit of reawakening is currently blowing across the continent as many persons have begun to show increasing interest in native languages. It is now very common to see Africans on social media like twitter, engaging in discussions in their mother tongue. With persistent reawakening, Africans can preserve the uniqueness in their linguistic diversity.

The variety of the African cultures, beliefs, languages and ways of life have is large, detailed and blessed. From this unique background of the African people the idea of beauty is not uniform throughout the continent. Here are two distinguishing features that can be used as a bridge, consequently offering a unified view: the different pertinence given to external and internal beauty.

In some African cultures, such as the Kikuyu in Kenya, the Bemba in Zambia, the Bembe in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Hutu in Burundi, external beauty in marriage does not count more than hard work in families and communities. A hard-working young girl, who is less beautiful outside, could be married faster than a beautiful girl considered by the community as lazy. So physical strength resulting in hard work comes first and external beauty second.

When the woman is healthy and physically strong, fit to manage a home environment and endure labour pain, she is said to be hardworking. In some rural communities as well as conservative communities in Africa, this is still a reality. This is not only applicable to the above named tribes and ethnic groups but to many tribes and ethnic groups across the continent. The African concept of beauty does not depend so much on what a person thinks of him/herself but rather how that person conducts him/herself. Then, the behaviour is seen and judged by the community.

The External Beauty: Africans believe that external beauty can be deceptive in that it gives a false representation of a person’s true nature and personality – but this does not reject the notion that a woman is desirable and attractive when she has a beautiful face or an external elegance of shape, good hair and smooth skin, to name but some features. Stripes on the face are not seen as violent but a sign of beauty. In some cultures, it serves as a distinctive feature between tribes or ethnic groups but over the time, it has come to symbolise beauty.

In the DRC Fuleru people would say for example, “mdukula ata homba”. This literally means, a fair skinned girl (person) cannot become bankrupt. In other words, a girl who has fair skin stands a high chance of getting married. Interestingly, in many African cultures, a very dark-skinned girl also stands similar chances. That is the whole essence of ‘black is beautiful’. When a dark-skinned girl passes by, young men would say ‘dark and lovely’ or ‘black is beautiful’. As such, Africans love dark skin.

In modern days, both women and men are using special cosmetics to turn their dark skin into lighter ones, even with all the health risks that come with the application of such products. That is not what black is beautiful means. Black is beautiful is being comfortable and happy with dark skin, natural skin, being proudly black. It is the appreciation of God’s perfect design of a black person.

For the persons who are applying cosmetics to change their skin colour there are some forms of cultural violence in the desire to look what they are not. The application of such products is different from the practice of Africans who used soil or herbs to protect their face against sunshine, for example, the Zulu people. There is no harm in such practice because it does not have side effects. On the contrary, it helps to protect the beauty. In fact, the application of soil on the face is not intended to change one’s skin but to care for the natural black beauty.

Violence is seen as an enemy of external beauty. Physical or direct violence damages the external features, which should serve to attract. Whatever damages the skin is violence but whatever protects it is not, for example, the traditional marks and stripes used in many African tribes. The skin is an essential part of human external beauty as designed by God our creator. Do well to make sure you take good care of your skin and keep it protected and not endangered. Your skin has a lot to tell about your health.

Helping ordinary people through desperately trying times is a good act of generosity from a good heart with a good will. Giving or offering to help others, expresses a good sense of being human and of respect for human integrity.

When Covid-19 hit Africa, the effects were devastating – but some people have been crushed more than others, by the illness but also by the measures to deal with it. Private-school teachers, who make up a significant amount of the education workforce, have been particularly hard hit by school closures as they have no financial safety net and in most cases no firm return date either. Many turned to farming, cleaning and street hawking in the meantime.

The strain became unbearable, moving many to tears – among them Akindele Oluwaseun Oladipupo in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. He and other teachers were full of hope in July when the Nigerian government said it would allow schools to reopen for exams. But when that decision was reversed, the pain was too much. Akindele, who is married with three children under eight years, said in a telephone interview that he just sat in shock digesting the news, before tears ran down his face. So touching!
“My wife said to me, ‘Don’t cry, it’s ok, we’ll manage, somehow.’ But I was thinking of the many teachers who have nothing to feed their families. In many cases, both wife and husband are teachers. That’s the entire family income gone – indefinitely.” (Mr. Akindele)
Unable to bear his own and other teachers’ burdens, he turned to his mobile phone and poured out his sorrow in a video. A friend saw the video recording and urged him to post it online. It went viral, earning him the nickname of “the crying teacher”. Hmmm! What a tag. Akindele said he filmed it in the hope of encouraging people to help other private-school teachers in need. Lara Wise, a Nigerian journalist launched a Facebook campaign to find Akindele and urged him to post a second clip with his account details. Donations poured in from around the world. Nice one. There she was doing that which she could to help a fellow human being(the crying teacher).
The story just got more interesting!
Overwhelmed by the generosity, Akindele decided to re-direct the more than 1.2m naira ($3,100; £2,400) to dozens of needy teachers.”I said to myself – now that God has tested me and has opened a way for the money to come in, if I should sit on that money, it means I’m sitting on the destiny of my children.” “That’s how we started looking for teachers who were struggling. We reached out to more than 200 teachers and gave them enough foodstuff including rice, spaghetti. We also put some money in envelopes and gave it them.”
Hmmm! What a thoughtful human being.
Akindele only realised the scale of the problem when he started to distribute relief packages. Many teachers from different parts of Nigeria sought help from him.
“It was really difficult seeing elderly teachers who had given many years of service to the profession pleading for food.”
Facebook was full of comments lauding the crying teacher while also castigating the government for ignoring the plight of private-school teachers.
One Nigerian said: “Shame on the politicians who eat this country dry. If a man who receives grace from God can do all this, all those men in “agbada” (flowing robes) and those women hiding under (social media) filters, should bury their faces in shame.”
“God bless Akindele immensely,” wrote another. “
May God remember and help many who are ashamed to cry out publicly… who are dying in silence.”
Akindele confessed that Africans are great people. “People I’ve never met in my life – they don’t know me, they don’t know where I come from, they don’t know if I’m a scammer or fraudster – but they have been sending money to my account. I’m very grateful to them all.”
In Kenya, Michael Munene was also praised for his spirit of giving during the pandemic. “My suffering sparked empathy” Brought up in a poor family that could hardly afford one meal a day, he knows how hunger and poverty feels. When he started out in life working odd jobs, he kept falling behind on rent.
“Early one morning my landlord waited for me to use the bathroom, which was outside the house, and quickly locked me out of his house because of rent arrears. Stuck outside with no clothes and no money, I swore to myself I would never let anyone else suffer such humiliation.”
“It’s tough for my business but I can’t bear the sight of homelessness”
Today Michael is a landlord renting to nearly 30 tenants. When their incomes shrank he gave them a payment holiday on their rent, which they have not had to pay since May.
Amazing!
“It was tough for my business but I can’t bear the sight of homelessness. I’ve told my tenants that for now they should just focus on finding food for their families.”
Good heart!
In Ghana’s capital, Accra, when the lockdown was announced, Elizabeth Yawson’s thoughts turned to the vulnerable living on the streets. When the radio journalist launched an online campaign to help homeless people, the response was enthusiastic.

“People responded generously and we were able to feed about 100 people for one week.”
“I later got the support of two restaurants and we reached out to 30 health workers at a hospital in Kasoa, in the central region of Ghana, giving them free lunch for a whole week.”
What Lara Wise, Akindele, Michael and Elizabeth have shown is that although the cock belongs to one household, when it crows it is heard in the entire village. The report of their deeds and others like them incited to action many individuals across the continent.
To help another person, you don’t have to be a billionaire. Even with the little you have, choose to be generous. Consequently, when you become richer giving and generously helping other wouldn’t be difficult. What you have to help others might not even be money: It could be your good will, encouragement, influence, connection even prayers. Whenever you give or help you are definitely sowing seeds. Remember, seeds are meant to germinate and reproduce in multiple folds. Therefore, having sown you will definitely reap because harvest time will surely come.

African(s) may be referred to as any one or anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa. In other words, people who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa are Africans. In the study of language, African is an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to the Africa.

The indigenous people of Africa are the Africans with a way of life that identifies them as belonging to a particular land, social and political set related to some other dominant groups. The above constitutes in substantial marginalization within modern African state. They are regarded as politically underprivileged groups that are ethnic entities in the locality before the present ruling nations assumed leadership position.

Despite the fact that, a lot of Africans can be considered as been conceived, given birth to and raised in their localities because their continent of origin is African: In this case, they are also referred as Africa indigenes or indigenous Africans.

However, the address “indigenous African” is not generally used in the modern world. This is probably because it is seen in the modern community as pointing to the addressed as a local/uncivilized African/person. In the same vein, not every African ethnic group wants to be identified with the address “indigenous African”.

It is also worthy of note that, the groups and communities who identifies with the address are those who by a variety of historical and environmental circumstances are not part of the dominant state systems. Their traditional practices and land claims usually come into conflict with the objectives and policies made known and withheld by governments, companies and neighbor dominant societies.

Relegation and the desire to recognize, protect and preserve their collective and individual rights as humans, and to maintain the continuity of their individual cultures and uniqueness, has led many to desire being addressed as indigenous Africans, in the contemporary universal concept of the address.

The culture in Africa varies and is numerous, consisting of a mixture of countries with various tribes that each have their own unique characteristics. It is a product of the diverse populations that today inhabit the African continent and the African Diaspora. African culture is expressed in its arts and crafts, folklore and religion, clothing, cuisine, music, human relational attitude and languages.
Culture is abundantly expressed within the African continent Africa, with large amounts of cultural diversity being found not only across different countries but also within individual countries. Even though African cultures are widely diverse, they are also, when closely studied, seen to have many similarities and unique relational traits; for example, the morals they uphold, their love and respect for their culture as well as the strong respect they hold for the aged, the important, and the influential i.e traditional rulers/leaders, elites.

Other continents has influenced Africa. Likewise, Africa has been influenced by other continents. This can be seen in the willingness to adapt to the ever-changing modern world rather than staying rooted to their static culture. After all, dynamism cannot be ruled out of the beautiful attribute of life. The few that had being won over by the western way of life, persuaded by American culture and Christianity, first denied African traditional culture: but with the increase of African nationalism, a cultural recovery is taking place. The governments of most African nations encourage national dance and music groups, museums, and to a lower degree, artists and writers.

Having identified these about Africa and her people both current inhabitants and Africans in diaspora, it is also good to know that none Africans are interested in the African people and their culture. This is portrayed in the way westerner’s appreciate the African culture when they visit Africa. They come in contact with an element of the African culture either via internet or individuals that travel with them to other continents. These culture elements include language, dressing, hair styles (fashion), relational attitude (greetings) among others.