But, how is this book related to ANY of the topics we have covered in class? Well, a lot ( if you are creative enough). In this book , Handler tell the story of the first time she went to Africa for vacations. Only a few pages into the book , there is a quote that really caught my attention and , after studying Things Fall Apart has made me seen it in a different way.
" At the airport in Joburg, which turns out to be short for Johannesburg, we were greeted by a dark-skinned man who introduced himself as Truth. We introduced ourselves as Honesty, Happiness, Honor, Witness, Serengeti, and Schnitzeldoodle. We didn’t find out until later, when we met our tracker called Life, that Truth wasn’t joking with us about his name. Personally, I felt terrible for telling Truth my name was Schnitzeldoodle. I still think about it. Sometimes I just have to rock myself back and forth and say, “You’ve offended so many people at this point. Don’t try to keep track now, girl"
Thanks to Achebe´s work we have been able to discuss how european colonnies changed and influenced Africa. The have discussed about religion, lifestyles and traditions that were impossed by europeans, but as said by Eduardo's post a bit below, european colonizers are gone. Most African countries are independent territories , each one with their unique political system. Nevertheless, the influence has been so powerful that people still follow some european traditions, including such simple things as naming their kids with English names , such as Life and Truth in Handler´s book.
This might sound funny to us, but it is a very good example that shows the fight between traditions and change . African people are very proud d of their heritage and try to revive some old traditions, but still follow some european patterns.
For a country like Chile, that has been idependent for over 200 years is very easy to say " This is Chile and these are chileans and this is what chileand do " , but some countries in African have only been independent for no more than 70 years, thus they are always in a constant search of identity, balacing their old traditions with the new ones .
Really interesting post. I liked the way you related Chelsea with the unit covered in class.
ResponderEliminarAlso I believe that your post is pretty related with mine, especially with the topic of search for identity.
Search for an identity define how a country could be, and how their population can evolve and progress. I strongly belive that the answers for the main problems that a country have can be found by searching inside our own roots. To achieve that goal, we have to do a really hard work to discover where our main problems and symptoms come from, and how we can solve them..
P.S.: Thanks for the reference to my post.
P.S.2.: I really enjoy Chelsea Lately too. The Soup is the other trash TV show that I watch a lot.
First of all, I would like to say that everytime I watch Chelsea´s show a big smile appears on my face. She´s amazing!!
ResponderEliminarAppart from that I totally agree with you and Eduardo, and I must really say that maybe we as Chileans should take Chinua as an example to make our society a better place. As Eduardo said before, we need to make a self analisis and find the things we lack as a society as try to figure out a solution to make it a better place for everyone, not only for ourselves but for others as well.
First of all I would like to point out that I really enjoy your creativity in each post! However, I do not agree with the fact that as Chileans we have a firm sense of national identity. The fact that we have been independent for a bit more than 200 years does not mean that we have a a strong collective identity. It is clear in advertisments - for example - that the model of society that they promote are mainly blonde people. And we do tend to discriminate against social class and ethnicity. As "Chileans" we have not been totally mixed. There are some foreign collonies that still remain living in our country without mixing with the locals, and the remaining indigenous (Mapuche) people do not feel Chilean either, not to mention Rapa Nui people.
ResponderEliminarI think that the only thing that keeps us together is the fact that we live in the same territory but as a culture we still have a lot of work to do in order to achieve a common and solid identity.