African Culture And Women

The 2012 GAA Heritage Arts Award

2012-06-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

Originally from Benin, West Africa, Charles Ahovissi is a professional artist, dancer, drummer, choreographer, educator, costume designer and tailor. Charles began his dancing career in 1984 when he joined the National Ballet Company of Benin. He left the National Ballet in 1987 and joined the Super Anges Dance Troop that toured extensively throughout the world performing and teaching traditional African Dance and music. In 2000, he relocated to the United States.

Since moving to Omaha, Charles has taught and performed at many schools and organizations as a Nebraska Arts Council and Iowa Arts Council teaching and performing artist. He has also conducted on-going public classes in dance and drumming in connection with The Moving Company at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

In 2006, he co-founded the non-profit African Culture Connection to be able to reach more schools and organizations in and around Nebraska. Charles teaches in order to share his knowledge and love of Africa. He uses his art form to foster understanding of Africa’s diverse and beautiful cultures. Through dancing and drumming during public performances, school assemblies, residencies, and workshops, Charles promotes unity and multiculturalism while offering students a fun, social and physical activity. He provides multicultural lessons by giving students authentic, hands-on experiences with African culture. He creates an authentic African village ambiance and uses ceremonial African clothes as well as traditional instruments to teach about African culture.

Charles continually seeks knowledge and experience to enhance his residency and performance programs. He has participated in three John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Seminars at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls: 1) Planning Effective Arts-Integrated Residencies for Students; 2) Laying a Foundation: Defining Arts Integration; and 3) Anatomy of a Lesson: Designing Instruction.

Source: nebraskaartscouncil.org

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2011-04-28T12:32:00.001-07:00

African Women and who they Are In The Society.

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5. Conclusion: Prospects for World Peace from the Perspective of African Traditional Religion and Culture

2011-04-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

In a world so full of injustice, so short of harmony among humans as well as between humans and God, the divinities, the ancestors and other beings in the universe; in a world where billions profess faith in God but few have any regard for the divinely established moral order; in a world where human blood flows constantly like steams and so many innocent lives are taken in many ways, some violently and some subtly; in such a world as ours today, what possibilities does African
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4. Peace: A Religious and Moral Value

2011-04-19T04:41:00.000-07:00

In traditional African societies, peace is not an abstract poetic concept, but rather a down-to-earth and practical concept. In ATR peace is conceived not in relation to conflict and war, but in relation to order, harmony and equilibrium. It is a religious value in that the order, harmony and equilibrium in the universe and society is believed to be divinely established and the obligation to maintain them is religious. It is also a moral value since good conduct is required of human beings if

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2011-04-18T04:51:00.000-07:00

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3. The World-View Implicit in African Traditional Religion

2011-04-18T04:37:00.000-07:00

While examining the objects of belief in ATR, we have already seen that traditional Africans believe in the existence of God, the divinities, other lesser spirits and the ancestors. Below these beings are humans, animals, plants and other inanimate objects. All these realities are believed to exist in a hierarchical order established by God who is the Source of all. In this
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2. The Essential Features of African Traditional Religion

2011-04-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

I would like to group the essential features of ATR under three headings, which may be regarded as the three principal dimensions of religion: belief, worship and morality.[2]

a) Belief
Considering Africa as a whole, the main objects of traditional religious belief are: God, the divinities, spirits and the ancestors. Belief in God, conceived as one Supreme Personal Being seems to be shared by the
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Introduction

2011-04-18T04:33:00.000-07:00

1. Introduction
It seems quite safe to assume that all human beings desire peace. What is not always very clear is what each person means by peace and how it can be attained and maintained. Religion and peace have been almost natural companions in the minds of humans in different periods of history and in different cultures of the world. This is because, although far too many adherents and leaders of the different religions in the world have
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THE MEANING OF PEACE IN AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION AND CULTURE

2011-04-18T04:31:00.000-07:00

Prayer

I would like to begin this reflection with a prayer, a litany for peace, from the Kikuyu of Kenya. It is addressed to Ngai, the Supreme Being:

Praise ye Ngai… – Peace be with us

[Say that the elders may have wisdom and speak with one voice.

Praise ye, Ngai. Peace be with us.]

Say that the country may have tranquillity

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2011-04-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

African Women and who they Are In The Society.

The Influence Of African Indigenous Religions On Roman Catholicism The Igbo Example

Inculturation Of African Traditional Religious Values In Christianity - How Far?

'Africa's fatal sexual culture spreads Aids'

2011-04-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

Black film-maker confronts the causes of the epidemic killing millions and admits: I lived the way these men are living

Joshua leant forward, raising his voice over the blaring music: 'Myself, when I finish drinking I just go for any girl and have sex with her. I do flesh to flesh. There is no reason of using a condom once I am HIV. I'm dying.'
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South Africa and its Culture

2011-04-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

Culture in South Africa is about as diverse as it can come. South Africa is a multiracial society and defining distinct subgroups by skin colour only will potentially get you into trouble. Those of Afrikaner and British descent won't be too happy to be confused with one another, and there are several major and many minor groupings in the traditional black cultures.
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African Wedding Attire

2011-04-08T05:20:00.000-07:00

African weddings are a family affair and involve the combining of two lives, two families, and sometimes even two communities! There are many different wedding traditions in the African continent and no two are exactly alike.

However, in all the communities the bride plays a very special role and is treated with respect because she is a link between the unborn and the ancestors. A bride might eventually bear a very powerful child, so she is treated with respect. In some areas of East Africa the grooms family would even move to the brides village and set up a whole new house there.

African Weddings

2011-04-08T05:18:00.000-07:00

AFRICAN WEDDINGS

African weddings are a family affair and involve the combining of two lives, two families, and sometimes even two communities! There are many different wedding traditions in the African continent and no two are exactly alike. However, in all the communities the bride plays a very special role and is treated with respect because she is a link between the unborn and the ancestors. A bride might eventually bear a very powerful child, so she is treated with respect. In some areas of East Africa the grooms family would even move to the brides village and set up a whole new house there.
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Bayimba Regional Festival of the Arts: Jinja

2011-03-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

Bayimba Regional Festival of the Arts: Jinja

“What should the audience expect from Rachel”

“This time, it’s different from my usual performances: I am doing a fusion with African Instruments comprised of Students from the Music Department of Kyambogo University and I am very excited about performing in my home Town and I hope they too are eager to watch me perform live” says Rachel Magoola.

Rachel Magoola is one of the artists who will be performing at the Bayimba Regional Festivals of the Arts that starts in Jinja on 26th March 2011 at the Main Street Primary School along side Siraje form Iganga, Inkwanzi and Munaku Kaama Dance Group, Mbikko Brass Band, Dizzoman and Ivulungo who will be performing Live with a Jazz Band.
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Festivals in Nigeria

2011-03-26T05:46:00.000-07:00

Festivals

Nigeria has many local festivals that date back to the time before the arrival of the major religions, and which are still occasions for masquerade and dance. The local festivals cover an enormous range of events, from harvest festivals and betrothal festivals, to the investing of a new chief and funerals. It seems odd to Western ways of thinking to see a funeral as something to be celebrated. But for many of the tribes, death means joining the ancestors, and so the deceased must get a good send-off.

The dances that were once performed by members of each village have now been taken over by professional troupes, who tour villages performing at each local festival.

Arts Festivals, Craft Markets and Cultural Events Guide : South African Tourist Attractions

2011-03-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

From theatre to dance, opera to cabaret, fine art to craft art, classical music to jazz, poetry readings to lectures, every art form is well represented in all South Africa's cities and larges towns. The growing range of arts festivals around South Africa offers visitors the opportunity to combine their pursuit of culture with sightseeing, wine tasting, beach visits, wildlife viewing, history, palaeoanthropology and relaxing in some of South Africa's most beautiful spots.

South African Arts Festivals:
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Tunisian theatre pays tribute to revolution

2011-03-26T05:37:00.000-07:00

Tunisia's once tightly-controlled theatre enjoyed a remarkable outburst of creative humour, inspired by the revolution. "Intox", a one-man show played by Atef Ben Hassine, premiered last week in Kasserine.

"This is the first time we staged a play without the supervision of the Theatrical Guidance Committee, which always acted as a censor, clipping off many parts of the script," Ben Hassine said. "The Tunisian actor, however, always outsmarted them and still managed to get the message across in a number of plays."
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Algeria welcomes Pan-African festival

2011-03-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

Thousands of artists and visitors from dozens of African and diaspora nations converged on Algiers for the official start of the second Pan-African Festival. After a 40-year absence, the event returned on Sunday (July 5th), also Algeria's Independence Day, as a large-scale endeavour to revive the continent's culture and arts.

The event, set to run through July 20th, began in spectacular style on Saturday. A grand parade wound through the streets of Algiers, from Sofia Park to Bab-El-Oued. Showboat-style floats from each African participating nation, along with thousands of performers, brought Algiers colourfully to life and raised anticipation for the official opening ceremony on Sunday night.
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African Harvest Festivals

2011-03-26T05:24:00.000-07:00

African Harvest Festivals
In Africa the festival is of a religious nature and has lots of dancing and music. Dancers wear masks and each dance tells a story. The stories range from a good ghost who looks after their crops and scares away the bad ghosts who try to spoil the food.
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ISLAM'S RESPONSE TO AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION IN NIGERIA

2011-03-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

The history of Islam in Nigeria has examples of a wide range of interaction with African traditional belief systems and practices. At certain times, particularly when Muslims constituted a minority, a pluralist response to other cultures and religions occurred. Muslims took the view that different forms of primal religion could exist side by side with them in the same society. Coupled with this was the recognition that the social and political structure of the wider society could be accommodated. Individual Muslims, and whole communities, throughout Nigeria have incorporated into Islam to varying degrees different aspects of traditional life....
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CREATION IN AFRICAN THOUGHT

2011-03-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

African theologians have stressed that the substratum upon which all future Christian theologizing in Africa must be built is African Traditional Religion. So the question of African conceptions of nature is certainly an appropriate one. By far the largest portion of African theological discourse relevant to ecology thus far has been on the conceptions of creation and/or "nature" found in ATR. As part of the quest of the 1970s, much was written on nature in ATR during this period. We shall discover that in the 1980s African theologians have paid more attention to explicitly Christian theological reflexion on Christian ecological responsibility. In the pages which follow I shall first present some of the salient aspects of some African conceptions of nature, then move to a survey of the more recent theological responses.
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CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE IN TRADITIONAL AFRICA

2011-03-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCTION

Generalizations about traditional Africa are always dangerous because of the distances of time and space that are involved. How far, for example, does " traditional Africa " co-exist with " modern Africa or is it wholly a thing of the past? The question is a difficult one. One cannot deny that there are many threads of continuity, linking the past with the present, the old social order with the new, but how important are the elements of discontinuity? One of the assumptions behind this paper is that the discontinuities are of diminishing importance and that traditional concepts survive because they find a new dimension and a new application in the modern situation. Traditional Africa " is now history, mainly oral history, but that does not mean to say it can be ignored. On the contrary, to recognize traditional concepts and to understand their workings in the modern Africa, it is first of all necessary to see them as part of a political and social order which no longer exists in its pure form. That is largely what we shall be doing in this paper.
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Matis Indians: The Jaguar People

2011-03-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, not that far from Iquitos, Peru you can encounter recently discovered tribes of the Amazon. In the Javari (Yavarí) Valley (the frontier of Peru with Brazil) the Matis Indians (not to be confused with the Matsés) still live like they have for thousands of years – hunting and gathering. At one time, before inventing agriculture and pastoralism, the entire human race survived as hunter-gatherers. Today, only a hand-full of Amazonian tribes practice this ancient way of life. An encounter with a tribe like the Matis is more than a curiosity; it is a glimpse into the past – into our past and gives us a chance to see how our ancestors were.

Women and Politics in Nigeria

2011-03-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

Analyzing the effects of women in politics and their various activities, including their names and portfolios.

Politics can be said to be the act of making public choice and making decision on behalf of people through the medium of the State and its apparatus. It is accepted that for development of any kind to be successful woman which make up a larger proportion of the population should not be left out because there is no doubt that both men and woman have some potentials and rights to contribute meaningfully to the development of their countries through out the world. Africa inclusive. There is abundant historical evidence that African woman have for long been playing crucial role in political life of their countries. So many great women of yesteryears have help in shaping. African politics. They have played crucial roles in redeeming or elevating their countries.
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