AFRICAN LIVES: TODAY AND YESTERDAY

A GROUP PRESENTATION IN ENGLISH 2

INTRODUCTION

AFRICA IS THE WORLD'S SECOND-LARGEST AND

SECOND-MOST-POPULOUS CONTINENT. AT ABOUT 30.2 MILLION KM² INCLUDING ADJACENT ISLANDS. WITH 1.0

BILLION PEOPLE, IT ACCOUNTS FOR ABOUT 15% OF THE WORLD'S HUMAN POPULATION. 

AFRICA IS CONSIDERED BY

MOST PALEOANTHROPOLOGISTS TO BE THE OLDEST INHABITED TERRITORY ON EARTH, WITH

THE HUMAN SPECIES ORIGINATING FROM THE CONTINENT. 

DURING THE MIDDLE OF THE 20TH CENTURY, ANTHROPOLOGISTS DISCOVERED MANY FOSSILS AND EVIDENCE OF HUMAN OCCUPATION PERHAPS AS EARLY

AS 7 MILLION YEARS AGO.

AFRICA IS CONSIDERED AS

THE “DARK CONTINENT” BECAUSE OF ITS UNPREDICTABLE CLIMATE, UNTAMED WILDERNESS AND SENSATIONALIZED PRESS COVERAGE OF DISASTERS.

TODAY, MANY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ARE BEING FACED BY AFRICA. IT IS N0W FACING ISSUES LIKE SOIL EROSION, THREATS TO FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT. AFRICA IS NOW BEING DAMAGED BY OUR FOOLISHNESS.

AFRICAN LITERATURE &

CULTUREAFRICAN LITERATURE REFERS TO LITERATURE OF AND FROM

AFRICA.

AFRICAN LITERATUREORAL LITERATURE

PRECOLONIAL LITERATURE

COLONIAL LITERATURE

POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE

ORAL LITERATURE

ORAL LITERATURE MAY BE IN PROSE OR VERSE. THE

PROSE IS OFTEN MYTHOLOGICAL OR HISTORICAL AND CAN INCLUDE TALES OF THE “TRICKSTER” CHARACTER. ORAL LITERATURE IS OFTEN DELIVERED BY POETRY, SINGING, NARRATIVE EPIC, OCCUPATIONAL VERSE, RITUAL VERSE,

PRAISE POEMS TO RULERS AND PROMINENT PEOPLE.

PRECOLONIAL LITERATURE

ONE POPULAR FORM OF TRADITIONAL AFRICAN FOLKTALE IS THE “TRICKSTER” STORY, WHERE A

SMALL ANIMAL USES ITS WITS TO SURVIVE ENCOUNTERS WITH LARGER CREATURES. ANIMAL

TRICKSTERS WERE POPULAR IN THESE TIMES.

COLONIAL LITERATURE

IN THIS PERIOD, AFRICAN WORKS BEST KNOWN IN THE WEST FROM THE PERIOD OF COLONIZATION

AND THE SLAVE TRADE ARE PRIMARILY SLAVE NARRATIVES, SUCH AS OLAUDAH EQUIANO’S “THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH

EQUIANO (1789).”

POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE

WITH LIBERATION AND INCREASED LITERACY SINCE MOST AFRICAN NATIONS GAINED THEIR INDEPENDENCE IN THE

1950S AND 1960S, AFRICAN LITERATURE HAS GROWN DRAMATICALLY IN QUANTITY AND IN RECOGNITION AND

SEVERAL OF THIS WORKS APPEARED ON “BEST OF” LISTS COMPILED AT THE END OF 19TH CENTURY

AFRICAN CULTURE

AFRICA’S CULTURAL TRADITIONS ARE EXTREMELY DIVERSE. TRADITIONALLY, ART, MUSIC, AND ORAL LITERATURE SERVED TO REINFORCE EXISTING RELIGIOUS OR SOCIAL PATTERNS.

RELIGION

VAST IN NUMBER, STAYS WITH EACH

OTHER

ISLAM

ISLAM IS THE LARGEST RELIGION IN AFRICA.

40% OF THE POPULATION IS MUSLIM LESS THAN 15% OF THE TRADITIONAL RELIGION OF AFRICA.

CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIANITY IS THE SECOND LARGEST

RELIGION IN AFRICA. 45% OF ALL THE POPULATION IN AFRICA IS CHRISTIAN.

OTHER RELIGIONS

SMALL NUMBER OF AFRICAN ARE HINDU, BUDDHIST, CONFIUCIANIST OR BAHA’I, AND THE OTHERS HAVE BELIEFS FROM THE JUDAIC TRADITION.

AFRICAN PEOPLETHEY SPEAK VAST

NUMBER OF LANGUAGES

PRACTICE VAST NUMBER OF RELIGIONS

AFRICAN PEOPLE

Traits

History

Tr ibes

TRAITS

AFRICAN TRAITS ARE MIXED UP OF AMERICAN CULTURAL TRAITS AND INDIGENOUS AFRICAN TRAITS.

HISTORY

IN THE EARLY TIMES, AFRICANS SPECIALIZED THEIR SKILLS IN FINDING FOOD ACROSS THE REGIONS OF AFRICA THAT’S WHY THEY ARE EXPERTS IN MIGRATING

AFRICAN TRIBESAKA

Ashanti

Hutu

Khoikhoi

Fang

Ewe

Zulu

Afr ikaners

Fulani

Fante

AKA

NOMADIC PYGMY TRIBE DWELLING AROUND THE BORDER BETWEEN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC AND THE REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO.

ASHANTI

ALSO KNOWN AS ASANTE. THEY’RE AFRICAN PEOPLE OF TWI LINGUISTIC STOCK, LIVING PRINCIPALLY IN THE ASHANTI REGION OF GHANA.

HUTU

THEY’RE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UP MOST OF THE POPULATION OF RWANDA AND BURUNDI, SMALL NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES IN EAST CENTRAL AFRICA.

KHOIKHOI

KHOIKHOI, TOGETHER WITH SAN, OCCUPIED THE WESTERN REGION OF WHAT IS NOW SOUTH AFRICA DURING 1000 AD

FANG

ETHNIC GROUP AT ACOACAN, IN MAINLAND EQUATORIAL GUINEA. THIS IS THE TRIBE OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE EQUATORIAL GUINEA, TEODORO OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO.

EWE

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE INHABITING THE COASTS OF THE REPUBLICS OF GHANA, TOGO, AND BENIN. THE NAME IS ALSO APPLIED TO THEIR LANGUAGE.

ZULU

BANTU-SPEAKING PEOPLE OF SOUTHERN AFRICA. NUMBERING BETWEEN 8 AND 10 MILLION, THEY LIVE MAINLY IN THE PROVINCE OF KWAZULU-NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA

AFRIKANERS

FORMERLY KNOWN AS BOERS, SOUTH AFRICAN CULTURAL GROUP DESCENDED FROM EUROPEANS. THEY SPEAK AFRIKAANS AS THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE.

FULANI

PEOPLE OF AFRICA NUMBERING ABOUT 13 MILLION AND DISPERSED IN VARYING, OFTEN SIZABLE, CONCENTRATIONS THROUGHOUT THE GRASSLANDS AREAS OF WEST AFRICA

FANTE

ALSO KNOWN AS FANTI. THEY’RE AFRICAN PEOPLE INHABITING THE TERRITORY OF THE FORMER NATIVE AFRICAN KINGDOM OF FANTE

MUSICAFRICAN MUSIC MAY BE

DIFFERENT TO OUR EARS, BUT FOR THEM, IT IS REALLY SIGNIFICANT

MUSIC (PAST)

BETWEEN 1950S AND 1970S, AFRICANS WERE INFLUENCED BY THE STYLE OF MUSIC THAT VARIES OVERTIME. “AFROBEAT” AND “HIGHLIFE” ARE EXAMPLES OF IT

MUSIC (PRESENT)

LATER, AFRICANS WERE INFLUENCED AGAIN AND ACCEPTED THE SOME STYLE OF MUSIC SUCH AS SAMBA, BLUES, JAZZ, REGGAE, HIP-HOP AND ROCK.

“

”

I KNOW NO NATIONAL BOUNDARY WHERE THE NEGRO IS

CONCERNED. THE WHOLE WORLD IS MY PROVINCE UNTIL AFRICA IS

FREE.

MARCUS GARVEY (1887 – 1940), JAMAICAN-BORN NATIONALIST LEADER AND

PUBLISHER, 1923

“

”

WE BELIEVE IN THE FREEDOM OF AFRICA FOR THE NEGRO PEOPLE OF THE

WORLD, AND BY THE PRINCIPLE OF EUROPE FOR THE EUROPEANS, AND ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS, WE ALSO

DEMAND AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS AT HOME AND ABROAD.

MARCUS GARVEY (1887 – 1940), JAMAICAN-BORN NATIONALIST LEADER AND

PUBLISHER, 1923

SOURCES

WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA

MICROSOFT ENCARTA PREMIUM 2009

MEMBERSKARLO ALONZO

GUIANG

REYMAR MELCHOR TUTAAN

MARK ELY NAMORO

JAYSON CUBALIT

PATRICIA JANE MATTERIG

PRECIOUS JANE GUERRERO

JESSA MEI ALONZO