As you read, think about these ideas:
Africa was known as the "dark" continent. The author wrote the book in response to the racist depictions of Africa that he had read as a child in Nigeria.
White authority figures feared the end of Western Civilization and did not respect the cultural traditions or government of the Ibo people.
Examples of Igbo Cultural Concepts and Traditions:
Bride price
Dry Season
Egwugwu ceremony
Engagement ceremony
Funeral ceremony
Evil Forest Feast of the New Year
Kola-nut ceremony
Palm-wine tapping
Polygamy
Rainy Season
Titles
Week of Peace
Please read the following excerpt and write examples of racism or prejudice in your notebook.
And between whiles I had to look after the savage who was fireman. He was an improved specimen; he could fire up a vertical boiler. He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind-legs. A few months of training had done for that really fine chap. He squinted at the steam-gauge and at the water-gauge with an evident effort of intrepidity--and he had filed teeth, too, the poor devil, and the wool of his pate shaved into queer patterns, and three ornamental scars on each of his cheeks. He ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank, instead of which he was hard at work, a thrall to strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge. He was useful because he had been instructed; and what he knew was this--that should the water in that transparent thing disappear, the evil spirit inside the boiler would get angry through the greatness of his thirst, and take a terrible vengeance. So he sweated and fired up and watched the glass fearfully (with an impromptu charm, made of rags, tied to his arm, and a piece of polished bone, as big as a watch, stuck flatways through his lower lip), while the wooded banks slipped past us slowly, the short noise was left behind, the interminable miles of silence--and we crept on, towards Kurtz. But the snags were thick, the water was treacherous and shallow, the boiler seemed indeed to have a sulky devil in it, and thus neither that fireman nor I had any time to peer into our creepy thoughts.
2Next
Go to these websites and write your observations of Nigerian culture, traditions, challenges and successes in the comments section of the blog.
http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/index.html
29 comments:
i think nigeria looks like a wonderful place full of culture and beautiful art.My response to the man who wrote that passage is digusting and he is a ignoranat man.beacuse the way he looked upon africians. who does he think he is . we all bleed the same coulor of blood.
Hi Ms Grady Here some few Racist comments. "had filed teeth the wool of his pate shaved into queer patterns and three ornamental scars on each of his cheeks." Another is that "They tied to his arm, and a piece of polished bone, as big as a watch, stuck flatways through his lower lip."
The Racist word are savage, improved specimen, poor devil.
My question is how could they see though the mask and how they make them. What did the mask mean to them, was it like mascots.
Tommy-Wrote This...
So basically I learned alot of different interesting things like,Cameroon was incorpared in Nigeria. And that they alsohave different mask that has African names.
what i think about what i have learned form nigeria is that its a very strong country and has some very strong features that invloves exporting goods suh as oil minerals,cocoa, ruber i also found out that the country has gotten there indepdendece 48 years ago on oct 1
in nigeria they make a lot of face
paintings on people that are in there country. they also seem very poor over there.
the federal republic of nigeria
was adopted on october 1,1963
I think Nigeria would be a very interesting country to study. I would have never thought that their first language is english. Nigeria had weird masks, and tribal dances. In one of the tribal dances everyone was coverd with leaves.
By: Michael Hernandez Block D
Today I learned Nigerias cultral experience. I saw pictures of how they live there life, it is very different from us. It was cool to learn about the life of another country. -christopher Terrero
today i learned that the population in nigeria is really big they about about 123,337,822 poeple leaving in nigeria. Also there independence is on October 1, 1960, and there official language is english.
Erick Martinez
i think that nigeria is a nice place to go to and it will be good to go there because you can learn diff things there and its a wonderfull
I think that Nigeria is a nice place now. but back then the people had it really hard. i learned at the peole of Nigeria offical language is english. i would have never thought that.
I would want to buy one of those masks and the pics that i have seen are really pretty.Though the country is very poor,I would want to go visit there someday but I would probably chicken out.The things that they said in the passage written by Josepf Conrais, were very mean and he only said it because he didn't care to go and look for himself.
I think that nigeria is a very cultral place. The pictures that i viewed seemed to show more of the orginal customs as opposed to western colonized customs. Nigeria is nicer than what I expected.
Elieser
I would love to visit Nigeria. I never knew that they were colonized by the British meaning that there native language is english. So if i ever visit there i would know whats going on. Also Nigerian people just recently got there independence 48 years ago.
~alisha
block E
From the pictures I saw of Nigeria, it looks very desolate, the houses are very differnt then the ones in America. Their houses look like "mudhouses" as if they are made of mud, and alot of open space. I learned that the offical language is english that was the most interesting thing i read, i would of never thought that the people spoke english. when i was reading the first passage, i was kind of shocked at what the man was saying about the black man..he was calling him a "dog", and a "savage". thats harsh.
TATYANA<3 BLOCK E
Nigeria is not the place that i imagined it would be, is actually a much better place then what i thought it was. Now that i have seen and educated my self a little about Nigeria i think it would actually be a nice place for me to visit. I didnt know that their official language was english because the people in that country are muslims or christian and some also belong to the african religion.
Savill Diaz
Reading this article it was kind of hard to understand but i know that some things were racist. Comparing a man to an animal isn't right!!!
How did an Englishman discover the Nok... but was interested in the lady with the mask it is the second picture. i did not even know that 50% of Nigeria was Muslim that is really interesting to me!
Reading this article it was kind of hard to understand but i know that some things were racist. Comparing a man to an animal isn't right!!!
How did an Englishman discover the Nok... but was interested in the lady with the mask it is the second picture. i did not even know that 50% of Nigeria was Muslim that is really interesting to me!
this looks like a nice place to visit one day because it is completely diffrent from the united states. they do everything much diffrently. it would be a great experence to see how they live and get food and shelter.
Nigeria seems like a nice place to visit. i learned that Nigeria got its independence October 1, 1960. its a Republic country, with the official language being english.its population is 123,337,822.
I've never been very interested in the country Nigeria, after going over the pictures and reading some of the facts i would like to know more about the country.A few things i learned from reading was that the governement is republic, the types of religion in Nigeria are Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, African Religion 10%. The major exports are oil, minerals, cocoa, and rubber.
Lisandra Peguero
Seeing pictures of nigeria i seethat they have really interesting things out there.I feltthat thepassage was not good. africansare really diverse prople and they haVE A UNIQUE CULTURE. I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT AND TRY THE FOOD
i think nigeria looks like a wonderful place full of culture and beautiful art.Their art makes them stand out the most to me because its something I didnt expect them to have so much of.
As well As their country speaking a majority of English was a big surprise to me, meaning they were probaly colonized by the British. But the worse thing there is that only just over half there people can read which isnt that good of an accomplishment.
I found it very interesting to see the way that the people dressed themselves in tree leaves they looked like very long bushes. It was even hard to tell that they were people dressed in leaves. I also find that the passage from Heart of Darkness was very harsh and ignorant. I dont agree with anything that the man wrote, it is wrong to refer to anyone as a savage or a dog.
Today I Learned many things about Nigeria. The Ogoni masks are something creative something that I never seen before it cathes my attention. The official language is English which I was really appauled because I would have thought the language would be something more african. Also the population is 123,337,822 which for me is a lot of people. The climate is Tropical to arid which makes it sound relaxing mhmm =]. Theres many thing about nigeria but ill just leave it like this.
Hi Ms. Grady!. What i found really cool about Nigeria is that they became independent on October 1, 1960. Seemns like you can learn about people and how the they and try to surrive because it looks os dry and doesn't seen as rain passes by. also the population is 123,337,822! thats AMAZING!
As i see the pictures of the nigerian culture i see that it is very deifferent from mines. even though it is different you still have to respect what the nigerian cultutre is. in the passage there are alot of ignorant racist comments. one of them being "They tied to his arm, and a piece of polished bone, as big as a watch, stuck flatways through his lower lip.". the author had no respect or consideration for the people and culture just proving how ignorant people can be.
I believe that Nigeria is a very interesting and artistic place. Nigeria seems like a beautiful country with varieties of arts and performances. My response to the person who wrote the racist passage is that you should never put someone down like that. I think its messed up how he said that " He ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank." What is he trying to say about him? That he is not capable of hard work? He is a human being just like everyone else is. He is capable of doing anything that you can do.
I think nigeria looks interesting since is so different from other countries. I learned that the people dress themselves in tree leaves I don't know why though, maybe it's a ritual. I also think that Joseph Conrad is really selfish because he makes a lot of racist comments and that's not nice. It's really mean to judge other people because we are all human beings.
the book heart of darkness is ridiculous. the fact of how the author used disturbing words to describe his characters and put them down is very mean and cruel
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