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Akinte Olamide

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"Contest Start & End Date "Jun 21, 2025, 5:44 AMJul 7, 2025, 7:00 PM (Europe/Berlin)
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In the words of professor P.L.O. Lumunba, the Kenyan lawyer and human right activist, "the greatest assets of African States are not our gold, coal, columbite, diamond, iron-ore, or our crude oil rather it is our human resources".In a similar remark, the Awo of Africa, chief Obafemi Awolowo, during his lifetime, once remarked: "Our greatest beauty as African people is our rich cultures and tradition which need to be preserved at all times" The fore-going remarks of two of Africa's elder statemen underscore the importance of the African people; their culture and tradition as an identity. The Ilaje people, as a sub-group of the Yoruba ethnic group, has, perhaps, one of the richest cultures and tradition in the whole of Africa.Culture, which is the total ways of living of a group of people, covers wide areas of human life such as language, music, religion or belief, food, greetings, mode of dressing among others .No doubt, the Ilaje people are rich in all the aforesaid cultural traits.Our land is equally rich in traditional practices such as our festivals, rituals; Our occupational activities among others. However, advancement in technology has been stimulating the growth of urbanization, globalization, and modernization with their attending effects, the monster called civilization. Ayemafuge Ilaje, my beloved people, it is a pity, we are rapidly loosing our rich cultural heritages to the invisible monster called modernity in the guise of civilization or civility which is nothing other than multiplicity of immorality!We are rapidly loosing all our ancient cultural values to Western civilization through globalization and modernization. Each time i see an African leader promoting the Western ways of life to the detriment of ours, i feel bad about my roots and ancestry.Today in Africa, we are being brainwashed to believe that Esu-laalu' (A benevolent Yoruba deity) is the much -talked about Satan or devil, which he is not! The Westerners who tagged the religion of our forefathers as idol-worshipping were the same people who enslaved us for over 300 years with the bible. These days, our youth jettison our ways of life only to be embracing foreign ways of life .As effects, civilization is making us to loose our cultural identities as a people. If i may ask where is our 'Malokun'festival?,where is our 'Oghoye'festival ?,where is our 'Ere'festival?, and where is our 'Odun Ijesu'? Today,in Ilajeland hardly can you find an Ilaje boy or girl who can speak an undiluted Ilaje dialet! Our boys now dress with crazy jeans while the girls go braless.What a shame?! Civilization has really dealt our culture a great blow! Now, what is the way out of this silly menace?We certainly need to orientate and re-orientate our young ones on the need to see our culture as the best while also raising them with our mother tongue and not a foreign language.

OUR CULTURE AND TRADITION IN THE FACE OF CIVILIZATION AND TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENT

in  AFROSKY ESSAY COMPETITION 2025

by Akinte Olamide

on 29-06-2025 | "Voting Start & End Date "Jun 28, 2025, 7:00 AMJul 7, 2025, 6:00 PM (Europe/Berlin)

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Media Type: Writing Contest
Category: Education & Arts

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