...Fall Apart; the center cannot hold” (Achebe, 2009). The title of this book is symbolic to the turnout of events in the story and foreshadows the inability of Umoufia to resist the pressures of change. In the novel, we see a clash between cultures and change that leads to the fall of the Igbo society, a clan that used to be strong and powerful before the white people came. The Igbo people face a dilemma on whether to accept the change, keep their way of life or better still balance both worlds in one. The way Achebe presents the arrival of the colonists and their imposition of change on the Igbo Society raises some thought to me on the true intention of colonialism i.e. did they come to spread Christianity or to acquire the land? The rapid unfold of events in the novel makes me harness the latter view; they took the stronghold of the Igbo society i.e. religion, turned it into a weakness, in the name of change, to enable them exploit the land. One thing that held the society together was their religion/tradition and once the colonists introduced Christianity, we see that conflict arose and broke the unity that always existed amongst the Igbo society giving them more control over the land. This is not to say that colonialism had no benefit for the Igbo/African society but rather the approach to change brought more harm than good to the people and the land. This approach to change, in my view, was a tool of oppression rather than a...
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...cultureless and subhuman light of view. “Things Fall Apart” portrays the conflict between the White colonial government and the indigenous Igbo people in Nigeria, illuminating the European and African perspectives on Colonial control, race, religion and culture. The Igbos believed that each man was responsible for his fate or destiny. They believed that a man has the ability to change his life and achieve status through economics and military accomplishments, the latter being through agriculture, and that all of this results solely from hard work. The Nigerian society, unlike European societies, was characterized by a Darwinian society in the way that people who achieved great feats were rewarded, rather than a caste-like system where there was no chance of improving one’s status. The ability to move up in rank in Nigerian culture is portrayed in the story of Onkonkwo. Born to an indebted and effeminate father, Okonkwo strives to rise through the social system and achieve everything his father could not. He is intolerant and biased towards women to the point where he describes weak men as women. Okonkwo views emotion as a weakness and thus only expresses anger. Okonkwo proves to be extremely deterministic, as he is continuously trying to better his situation in society all the while adhering to the religion and the principles of the clan. Okonkwo had numerous wives, a commonly accepted practice in Igbo culture as it was a patriarchal society. Okonkwo is filled with grief as his son...
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...give his people a voice in the global society. Achebe announced that one of his purposes was to present a complex, dynamic society to a Western audience who perceived African society as primitive, simple, and backward. It was also a response to the Western beliefs that the Africans were uncivilized and barbaric. Achebe got most of his view from his own culture through the writing of Europeans. At first he related to the European writings, but as time went on, he felt they were poor caricatures and stereotypes of the actual people, and he tried to show this through his writing. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe illustrates this vision by showing us what happened in the Igbo society of Nigeria at the time of its colonization by the British. Because of internal weaknesses within the native structure and the divided nature of Igbo society, the community of Umuofia in this novel is unable to withstand the tidal wave of foreign religion, commerce, technology, and government. Unless Africans could tell their side of their story, Achebe believed that the African experience would forever be "mistold.” The events in Things Fall Apart take place at the end of the nineteenth century and in the early part of the twentieth century. Although the British did not occupy most of Nigeria until 1904, they had a strong presence in West Africa since the early nineteenth century. The British were a major buyer of African slaves in the...
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...Elements of Religious Traditions Religion comes in a number of varieties. What one group of people believes will find another believes something completely different. With all the various religious rituals and beliefs it is hard for anyone to understand all the customs and worship. Humans are constantly striving to find a sense of tranquility and harmony and searching for what will give them that sentiment and understanding. People bring thoughts from the religion they are brought up or predisposed too. under or from the principal religion of their circle. For example they may think that all religion has a sacred book, worships a heavenly being, or that it has a set of commandments (Molloy & Hilgers, 2010). Religion has eight elements, belief system, community, central myths, rituals, ethics, characteristics emotional experiences, material expressions, and sacredness (Molloy & Hilgers, 2010). Each religion has its own belief system and thoughts. It is no surprise that each religion characterizes in a different way the nature of sacred reality, the cosmos, the natural world, time and human purpose. Religions also vary in their way of thinking toward the role of words in conveying the sacred in their connections to other customs. Some religions speak of the sacred as transcendent, existing primarily in a space further than the everyday world. In other religions whereas sacred reality is spoken of as being immanent that is, it is within nature and human...
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...Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Jarica Linn Watts* University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA Downloaded by [Indiana University Libraries] at 16:43 24 February 2016 jarica.watts@utah.edu Jarica 0 100000February 46 2010 &Article OriginalofFrancis 1744-9855 (print)/1744-9863 JournalandPostcolonial 10.1080/17449850903478189(online) RJPW_A_448194.sgm TaylorLinnWatts 2010 Writing Francis This article delineates different strains of Achebe’s narrative technique in Things Fall Apart, arguing that earlier critics have failed to account fully for two fundamental principles in Achebe’s narrative: the myriad phrases that are repeated throughout the first part of the work; and the formative shift, the poetic volta, that takes place between parts one and two of the novel. Drawing on Achebe’s assertion that “anyone seeking an...
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...Kumina in Jamaica Kumina or CuBa is a cultural form indigenous to Jamaica.[1] It is a religion, music and dance practiced by, in large part, Jamaicans who reside in the eastern parish on St. Thomas on the island. These people have retained the drumming and dancing of the Akan people. Like the Kongo practitioners from Cuba, who have kept a large amount of the Kongo language alive. Bantu-speaking peoples of the Congo. In the Americas there are many Kongo-derived religions still being practiced today. There are two main aspects of Kongo religion that are quite distinctive. One is the practice of bringing down spirits of the dead to briefly inhabit the bodies of the faithful. The purpose of this is so that the ancestors may share their wisdom, providing spiritual assistance and advice to those here on Earth. Without exception, all such faiths in the Americas retain this central feature of Kongo faith. The other feature is the extensive work with Inquices (Enkises, Nkisi). The Inquices are very like the Orishas of Yoruba tradition, but also different. In Cuba and Brazil, where Yoruba influence was strongest in the Americas, they are often syncretized with the Orishas. They may best be described as being both the most ancient of ancestors as well as being associated with specific powers in nature. The Inquices do not tend to possess as detailed a mythology as the Yoruba gods. Kumina is an Afro-Jamaican religion influenced mainly by the Bantu peoples from the Congo-Angola area. Kumina...
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...The Impacts of Foreign Education in Obi Okonwo's Life as Depicted in No Longer At Ease Irwandi Hidayat F1F011040 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE JENDERAL SOEDIRMAN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTEMENT OF HUMANITIES ENGLISH LANGUANGE AND LITERATURE PROGRAM PURWOKERTO 2014 Abstract This paper titled "The Impacts of Foreign Education in Obi Okonwo's Life as Depicted in No Longer At Ease" will mainly focus on finding how foreign education changes Obi's Life. This paper will explore this issue by explaining how his foreign education affected his life and what impacts it brings to Obi's life. This paper will use Post Colonialism Criticism to try to explain what happens to Obi after his foreign education. As a theoretical approach, postcolonialism asks readers to consider the way colonialist and anti-colonialist messages are presented in literary texts. It argues that Western culture is Eurocentric, meaning it presents European values as natural and universal, while Eastern ideas are, for example, inferior, immoral, or savage. What post-colonial literary criticism does is analyze literature written both by colonial powers and by those who were colonized in order to look at the cultural impact of colonization. After further analysis are done regarding the impact of foreign education in Obi Okonkwo's life, the analysis concludes that there are three main impacts that are caused by Obi's foreign education. The first is the loss of identity...
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...Table of contents Introduction…………………………………………………..3 African Traditional Religion……………………………….5 Christianity, Islam…………………………………………..6 Influences of Religion on African Culture……………….6 Conclusion……………………………………………………13 References…………………………………………………...14 Introduction Africa is a continent of diversity. In this diversity there are hundreds of tribes and communities each practicing its own culture and religion. It would be very difficult to define Africa’s traditional religion as it would be difficult to define its culture. More so, it is extremely difficult to establish the dividing line between African Culture and African Religion. However, as much as there were many African Traditional Religions, their similarities were more dominant than their differences. We take up these similarities and encompass them as one African Traditional Religion. In this report, we explore the important aspects of Africa’s Traditional Religions and cultures that cut across the entire continent. This essay is based on various researches done by prominent scholars, historical background of Africa, news and books relevant to African studies. This report attempts to define religion, culture, and explores the major religions, African Traditional Religion (ATR), Christianity and Islam and their influence and impact on African culture. Africa is one of the World’s six continents. It is the second largest and second most populous...
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...onaryDictionary of Ònìchà Igbo 2nd edition of the Igbo dictionary, Kay Williamson, Ethiope Press, 1972. Kay Williamson (†) This version prepared and edited by Roger Blench Roger Blench Mallam Dendo 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804 E-mail R.Blench@odi.org.uk http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm To whom all correspondence should be addressed. This printout: November 16, 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations: ................................................................................................................................................. 2 Editor’s Preface............................................................................................................................................... 1 Editor’s note: The Echeruo (1997) and Igwe (1999) Igbo dictionaries ...................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Earlier lexicographical work on Igbo........................................................................................................ 4 2. The development of the present work ....................................................................................................... 6 3. Onitsha Igbo ...................................................................................................
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...NIGERIA Country Description | Cultural * Major Languages: English (Official Language), Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba. * Religion: Christianity and Islam. * Nigeria is a multinational state. It has more than 500 ethnic groups.Administrative. * Nigeria has maintained its political stability successfully. * Three distinct systems of law in Nigeria: Common Law, Customary Law and Sharia law.Geographic * Nigeria is a costal country, so it has access to the shipping routes. * Inadequate infrastructures for logistics and supply chain.Economic * High potential for growth in economy. * Significant Difference in income levels between rich and poor. * Abundance of workforce. * Untapped market. | Relative Importance | With reference to Essential Business Requirement of COSTCO, we evaluated the significance of the four factors: * Culture *** | * Administrative **** | * Geographic **** | * Economic ** | {key: (****-Most significant) - (*- Least Significant)} | Business Challenges | * Culture * Nigeria has local informal retail shopping market. Significant difference in culture (high context). * Variety of people from different cultures, challenge to please each one. * Administrative * It has an inefficient property registration system. * Government has restrictive trade policies. * Geographic * Inadequate infrastructure. Difficult to reach out to rural customers. * Economic * Regional disparity affects target customers. * Presence of...
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...A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.[note 1] Many religions have narratives, symbols, and sacred histories that aim to explain the meaning of life, the origin of life, or the Universe. From their beliefs about the cosmos and human nature, people may derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle. Many religions may have organized behaviors, clergy, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, holy places, and scriptures. The practice of a religion may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of a deity, gods, or goddesses), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture. Religions may also contain mythology.[1] The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or set of duties;[2] however, in the words of Émile Durkheim, religion differs from private belief in that it is "something eminently social".[3] A global 2012 poll reports 59% of the world's population as "religious" and 36% as not religious, including 13% who are atheists, with a 9% decrease in religious belief from 2005.[4] On average, women are "more religious" than men.[5] Some people follow multiple religions or multiple religious principles at the same time, regardless of whether or not the religious principles they follow traditionally...
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...University of Lagos. In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the award of the Degree: Masters of International Relations and Strategic Studies. (MISS) AUGUST 2012 PROPOSAL This work, adopting a multidisciplinary approach, seeks to analyse aspects of Nigeria’s diplomacy, specifically the effect of the leader’s personality on the conduct of Nigeria’s external relations. To effectively do this, the work shall comparatively assess Nigeria’s diplomacy under Presidents Obasanjo and Yar'Adua from 1999-2010. Seeking to see the effect their personality type had on the manner, trends and approach to Nigeria’s diplomacy during the period. On record President Obasanjo undertook a shuttle diplomatic effort across the globe especially between 1999 and 2002, this is said to have reintegrated Nigeria into the comity of Nations, where she was previously a pariah. How did his personality affect these efforts? Was his personality added value or reduced value? At the point of his death President Yar’Adua was ECOWAS chairman, previously in 2009 he attended the G20 meeting in Germany, visited President George Bush at the start of his term and other diplomatic engagements. How did his personality affect all these? On the whole how did the respective personality of both leaders affect Nigeria’s Diplomacy within the period under review? And what does the country now enjoy as a legacy of their efforts, specifically the nature of their individual personae and leadership style and what lessons...
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...business. (Tilly, 1985) According to the UNODC (n.d.). Organized crime threatens peace and human security, violates human rights and undermines economic, social, cultural, political and civil development of societies around the world. Organized crime manifests in a variety of forms, drug trafficking, firearms, human trafficking. Every year, countless individuals lose their lives at the hands of criminals involved in organized crime, being succumbed to drug-related health problems, and inflicted injuries by firearms or even losing their lives as a result of unscrupulous methods and motives. Organized crime has diversified, gone global meaning that the criminal networks forge bonds across borders as well as overcome cultural and linguistic differences in the commission of their crime. It transcends cultural, social,...
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...Introduction International human resources management (IHRM) may be defined as the total knowledge, skills, innovative abilities, and aptitudes of an organization's workforce, as well as the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the individuals involved in the affairs of the organization. It is the heart and soul of business’s or organization’s success. According to Think+Up, “Human resource management is a business function focusing on the staffing needs and responsibilities of a company. Because employees are often the largest business asset in a company, companies may spend copious amounts of time and effort evaluating their human resource management systems”. In today’s organizations, to guarantee their viability and ability to contribute, IHRM managers need to think of themselves as strategic partners. In this role, the IHRM person contributes to the development of and the accomplishment of the organization’s business plan and objectives. The IHRM business objectives are established to support the attainment of the overall strategic business plan and objectives. The tactical IHRM representative is deeply knowledgeable about the design of work systems in which people succeed and contribute. This strategic partnership impacts IHRM services such as the design of work positions hiring, reward, recognition and strategic pay, performance development, appraisal systems, career and succession planning, and employee development (Heathfield, n.d.). The globalization of human resource...
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...Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 i RTNA01 1 13/6/05, 5:28 PM READING THE NOVEL General Editor: Daniel R. Schwarz The aim of this series is to provide practical introductions to reading the novel in both the British and Irish, and the American traditions. Published Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel 1890–1930 Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Daniel R. Schwarz Brian W. Shaffer Forthcoming Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel Paula R. Backscheider Reading the Nineteenth-Century Novel Harry E. Shaw and Alison Case Reading the American Novel 1780–1865 Shirley Samuels Reading the American Novel 1865–1914 G. R. Thompson Reading the Twentieth-Century American Novel James Phelan ii RTNA01 2 13/6/05, 5:28 PM Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Brian W. Shaffer iii RTNA01 3 13/6/05, 5:28 PM © 2006 by Brian W. Shaffer BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Brian W. Shaffer to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and...
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