Analyze/The transmission of a cultural heritage is always part of a transitional dynamic which arises from the interest we have in what we love, and which must be perpetuated by successive generations who have the duty to preserve the living memory of a set of landmarks which make the particularity of a group of peoples whose cultural identities at the level of departments and districts, are essential elements without which, we cannot speak of national identity. This means that everything must contribute to the good of the Nation. When a singular identity is characterized by counter-values which are perpetuated from generation to generation clandestinely, the entire Nation suffers because, it is full members of a Nation who are affected.
To speak of the promotion of African values is to implicitly recognize that the perpetuation of counter-values is a reality against which we must spare no effort to eliminate these detestable or degrading habits which tarnish the image of a Territory which is also characterized by practices from another time, which do not fit with a present which values gender equality, without however promoting the superiority of the female gender, but rather pleading more in favour of women and girls rights, to have better living conditions in Africa, and in particular to use their bodies as they want, just like their male counterparts.
What legacy do we want to pass on to our children? African tradition places particular importance on respect for elders. An essential value which, however, must not be put into practice in an unreasonable manner because in fact, when young children undergo genital mutilation under the devastating influence of “certain elders”, we can no longer speak of respect for others. It is the same for these widows who suffer public humiliation, the children who refuse to respect the last wishes of their ancestors, and these families who choose to dispossess a widow of everything, just after the death of her husband.
The image of African cultures is tarnished by a set of acts and attitudes still practiced despite the permanent fights in favour of a better condition of women. Acts voluntarily assumed by a certain horde of indoctrinated by preconceived and erroneous ideas from another era, which that horde of indoctrinated elders, wants to make believe in a youth who belongs to a time which does not mock tradition, but who would like to know its usefulness in the present world. How does excision contribute to the development of a country and the flourishing of the human species? Can we still speak of the sacredness of the family when a widow is deprived of her rights, or when she is humiliated because we consider that she does not have rights but only duties?
It is not because one generation has had to endure abominations that she must impose it on another in living environments where the elders have the right to do what they want to a youth who has the right to have a fulfilling existence, which is unacceptable for a brotherhood of malicious individuals determined despite everything to perpetuate a patriarchal will, which would like submission to be blind and irrational. However, the time of resigned victims is over. It is not only up to the elders to make known what is good, but also to the young to make known what is bad, and which is still practiced despite everything. The time of barbarism is over, and the fight continues against all those who do not want to respect the rights of others to say yes or no, to what they do not want.
The British anthropologist Edward Brunett Taylor (October 1832 – January 1917), established the theoretical principles of Victorian anthropology, in Primitive Culture: Researcher into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Customs (1871), by adapting evolutionary theory to the study of human society. Written at the same time as Matthews Arnold's Culture and Anarchy (1869), Taylor defiened culture in a very different terms : culture is this complex whole including knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, as well as any dispositions or uses acquired by man living in society. Here culture refers to the learned attributes of society , something we already have.» This means that there is a heritage to be transmitted to successive generations, who live in societies which have their specificities and which are also called upon to evolve because culture is not static. And we cannot talk about culture without talking about values. Just as culture may require readjustments at certain levels, the same is true of values, which are “principles which guide the action of the individual, a group or an organization in society.” Values strongly influenced by ethical, moral and religious systems. But having the same culture does not always mean that we share the same values. If some think that we must for example, continue to practice excision, others have the right to say that it is a bad practice, and that we must campaign more to stop it, by condemning those who nevertheless persisted in this practice.
The same goes for degrading or humiliating practices of widowhood which suggest that the end of a husband's earthly journey, is a curse for a wife who is obliged to endure public humiliations, which denote a lack of consideration for women's rights. Indeed, in many ethnic groups in Africa and in particular in Cameroon, when a woman dies, we cry, we mourn, and then forget everything; we move on because life must go on. But when it’s a man who dies, that’s not always the case. It is sometimes the beginning of a traumatic ordeal for some women. These attitudes which tarnish the image of African cultures do not fit with the true respect for others which translates into respect for the rights of others, and in particular these women who suffer a martyrdom inflicted in remote corners by malicious individuals who take the pretext of tradition to perpetuate abominations which no longer have the right to exist.
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