Colonialism is a relative term that is often used by historians to describe the epoch history of African continent. Colonialism began as a result of the changes in the mode of production in Europe after World War two and was believed to be the revolution that changed the history of the world.
Colonialism is seen as the direct and complete domination of one country by another which brought about civilization, western education and religion amongst others. This period changed Africa from uncivilized, uneducated to a simple and more organized and mechanized pattern of fishing and farming as well as way of worship.
Culture according to an anthropologist Edward B. Taylor is a complex that includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs, material and non-material possessions occupied by man as a member of the society. This shows that there is no society that exist without a culture and any society that has no any form of social organization, norms, values, beliefs and so on can said to have lost its culture.
Africans have a culture embedded with political, social, economic, religious and aesthetic among other values which African people share as common before the advent of colonialism. These values are African traditional marriages, family, clan, individual gifts and names, talents, Cultural Practices, arts and sculptures, dress, music, dance and folk stories.
Sadly, traditionally African cultural practices paved way for foreign culture to infiltrate which became partly instead of dully "westernized". As a result of the colonialism and westernization of the African society, some cultural practices such as offering of sacrifices at shrines, river banks, top of the mountain to appease or thank the traditional African gods were abolished.
Similarly, the traditional ways of dressing are regarded as uncivilized as majority of African had adopted western dresses like suits & jeans, while the ladies dress in skirts sometimes mini-skirts which exposes some sacred parts of their body.
In the area of speaking, it is obvious that the recognition of English language as the Lingua-Franca has affected our mother tongue as our kids cannot speak our languages. In the area of Festival such as the new yam festival, fishing festival, marriage festivals amongst other notable African festivals are no longer celebrated because Africans look at them as not fashionable. This can be seen as a result of colonialism because Africa is losing its true identity due to influence of western culture.
Therefore, there is need for Africans to join hand against this cultural liberation by being proud of an African, speaking their languages where ever they find themselves and teach their children our local African dialects so that the dyeing African culture can be revived.
John Michael
300 Level Student Department of Mass Communication
University of Maiduguri.
