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May
22, 2005
 Today,
we visited the Lesedi cultural village where I was
terribly disturbed by the lack of realism. My discomfort
does not lie in the fact that their reenactments of
tribal life were simply not real, but I am disturbed
because that "showcase" is representative
of how Europeans awe filled interest in African culture
has jaded the meaning of its traditions.
Our
journey through their village began in the cafeteria
where a tribesman playing the character of the chief
comically presented the menu to us. To me, his acting
was reminiscent of the many minstrel characters that
delineated Africans and black Americans as vulgar
and lewd. The last item on the menu were beans, which
the chief described as potent enough to "blow
up the buttocks." After lunch, we attended a
presentation in which we entered a show room that
look like the standard theater. There were was a huge
screen, surround sound system and Hollywood-like props.
While
the other tourists and I were invited to engage in
the village experience, I felt that each facet of
the tour was embarrassingly depicted through the lenses
of whites. Westerners have pillaged African culture
and reshaped it with capitalism and pop culture to
produce a misrepresentative brand of reality palatable
to western culture. By no means do I question African
peoples engaging modern society or seeking reformed
ways of life, but to watch human beings subjected
to such harsh colonialism and cultural oppression
has, for me, been particularly saddening.
 One
of the greatest crimes committed against modern civilization
is the effacing of one our last frontiers of genuine
humanity.
For
centuries Africa has been the home of tribal nations
and villages composed of peoples whose sole means
of survival has relied upon building an authentic
community. The virtues endowed to many Africans by
their means of communal living sustained them mentally,
spiritually and physically; because of their focus
on men and women’s deepest needs they experienced
a higher quality of life than occidentals may ever
achieve.
In
the village setting greed hardly had a place, stress,
disenfranchisement, class struggles and political
oppression as we know it were not realities to African
people. As western society continues to "civilize"
this continent by means European languages, religion,
government, corporations and economies it will perpetually
rape the land of its purity and natural existence.
Mark
Rainey '05, from Huntsville, Ala., graduated from
Morehouse College with a bachelor's degree in religion.
In the fall, he will enter Princeton University's
school of theology where he will obtain a master's
in divinity.
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