This phenomenon has slowly produced a unified African world distinct from and comparable with Western and Asian worlds. In the f inal section, it provides some suggestions on 1how best to address mental health in the Region. The traditional African culture . Vietnamese don't readily accept Western mental health counseling and interventions, particularly when self-disclosure is expected. According to the report "Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity: A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General," there are many ways in which culture showed its influence on a diversity of experiences. The body is then carried by loved ones to the pyre in which the body will be burned. Recognizing the importance of Eliade's work, anthropologist Michael Winkelman (2010:45) said that . The African Belief is the strong hope in Spiritual powers. They say that there is evidence for it being in the Maghreb, and there were know trade routes that crossed the Sahara through which it might have been carried. *Culture (Anthropological), *Death and Dying, *Grief, Coping Behavior, Religious Affiliation, Social Casework. This paper looks at the social and cultural contexts of mental health in Africa and the current approaches to care. This will lead, in section B, to a comparison of Locke's conception and that of . « UTARATIBU WA KUTIZAMA DUNIA » (*) : AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AND WORLD-VIEW. In these cultures, life is seen as cyclical rather than linear and the dead are believed to have powers over the living, such as the ability to bless or curse. Many people experience grief and a sense of loss after the death of a loved one. In Akan, for instance, pa or papa means good and bone means bad or evil (see below). -398-05697-8 (Hardcover) Keywords. discuss this issue of death and its related psychological effect on a surviving Vietnamese family member / suggest some cultural considerations . Traditional African concepts of reality and destiny are deeply rooted in the spirit world. The concepts of good, bad (or, evil), right and wrong feature prominently in African moral thought, as they do in the moral systems of other peoples and cultures. African Context: Implications for Mission and Theology. This is what Magesa (1997:51) termed the effect of life force. Social Stratification:-___. The concept of social death was originally described by Orlando Patterson in Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (1982) where he argued that the dehumanization of enslaved Africans . South Africa Note: Dr Peter White is a postdoctoral research fellow of Prof. Nelus Niemandt, . The African Conception of Death: A Cultural Implication. It insists that the individual should be seen in the light of the whole - family, group, community, the past and the future generations" (p . They prepare for the ceremony by washing the body, wrapping it in a white cloth (silk, if it is available), and adorning it with the finest jewels (Laungani 192). In section A, to provide a useful and familiar contrast, I draw on Locke's conception of a person. The new countries were poor and often in conflict with each other. The implications here are that social work research and practice. Heralded as the first complete cross-cultural study on shamanism, Mircea Eliade's work "Shamanism: The Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy" explored variation and similarities in religious specialists, who were often healers in smaller societies. Book Description. False Freedom and the Culture of Death. The death rate for African Americans has declined about 25% over 17 years, primarily for those aged 65 years and older. to African culture that continues to erode the fabric of the African society hence put a death knelt to what brought people together, tradition. During the reign of Henry VIII of England, an estimated 72,000 people were executed for crimes ranging from petty theft to murder. Traditional Africans posited that reality is made up of material or physical and . Desmond Tutu, South Africa's renowned Nobel Peace Prize winner, remarks, "When we want to give high praise to someone, we say Yu u nobuntu; Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu." [1] For many black African cultures, the more one displays ubuntu, that is, develops human excellence, the better one's life. Concept of family in Africa. However, the structure in African American families is often extended to include non-related "family" members or "fictive kin.". In part II, I will assess the philosophical merits of the Akan conception of a person. Prior to the arrival of Mary . This culture, once living and open to the future, becomes closed, fixed in the colonial status, caught in the yoke of oppres sion. What they believed to be the cause of disease and disharmony, how they also approached the promotion of health and harmony, how Afrocentric social work research adpots the Sankofa . The death penalty is a government sanctioned form of criminal punishment, where a person is put to death by the state.Crimes that are punishable by the death penalty are called . 2014 Abstract From an African perspective death is a natural transition from the visible to the invisible spiritual ontology where the spirit, the essence of the person, is not destroyed but moves to live in the spirit ancestors' realm dead. In Vietnamese culture, mystical beliefs explain physical and mental illness. Let us now look at the concept and meaning of culture, as this is fundamental to our understanding of what African culture is. 1) potentiates the cellular damage, but also initiates organ regeneration. The behaviour of Africans is motivated by what they believe, and The African Belief . 4. I . This is what Magesa (1997:51) termed the effect of life force. Many aspects of African American culture today reflect the culture of the general US population. As Mbiti (1970) states, it starts before birth and does not end after death. Family is considered a basic cell of the society. They do not make any attempt to separate the two; and it is impossible, for them to do so without disastrous consequences"21. African Cultural Concept of Death and the Idea of Advance Care Directives Indian J Palliat Care. Ubuntu as Cultivating One's Humanity. The ethos of a culture, rooted in its WV narrative, its questions and answers, and its symbols denotes the fundamental and distinctive character of a group . ISBN Number. It presents a practical frame-work that can inform therapists working with African clients. concludes illnesses/diseases like malaria, typhoid, HIV/AIDS, cultural practices carried on by Africans makes the whole efforts a child's play. details. The great empires and kingdoms of Africa, including Egypt, Mali and the Moors, experienced vast triumphs. God is the first Initiator of a people's way of Life, its tradition. 1. SOCIO-CULTURAL ISSUES IN DEATH AND DYING IN AFRICA Death rituals and the mourning practices of Africans are varied because of the existence of so many religious and cultural practices. Metrics. City. E. Ethos . For African-Americans (and perhaps other marginalized groups) death remains a queer dyad, consisting of the social death in addition to the physical death. By scientific lenses I mean, they may be drawing their conclusions based on what they may claim as either evidential or non-evidential. And with the end of the Second World War the African Second, the description of African philosophy as experiential analyzed in African traditional aesthetics , myths, proverbs, folktales, and dilemma tales. Adelowo (2015: 5) argues that in an African context an individual's cultural worldviews and philosophies influence his or her reality and his behaviour. Records of tremendous successes, such as those led by Mansa Musa, Hannibal, Queen Nana Yaa Asantewa, Shaka Zulu and Amenhotep IV, demonstrate the great . The implication of the essay is that study abroad should encompass religious studies that help study . SAMUEL LUMWE 1 Education System: ____. Death and dying: Ghana Women handle the bodies of women and men handle the bodies of men. In an ever-changing world with the rise of values and ideologies that run counter to African pro-family and pro-life values, FACH is committed to advocating for the truth of the dignity of the human person and all its attendant implications: the right to life from conception to natural death, the right to freedom, justice, progress and health. For instance, culture affects the way in which people describe their symptoms, such as whether they choose to describe . [ 4] African societies are communalistic and do not acknowledge advance care directives which according to many Africans encourage "atomistic individualism." In the midst of a culture that congratulates itself on being enlightened and progressive on matters of human rights, he said, we are very much in danger of giving in to a "culture of death." Modern . The consequences always . effects of language of endangerment: Language endangerment affects both the languages themselves and the people that speak them. The ethics of a society is embedded in the ideas and beliefs about what is right or wrong, what is a good or bad character; it is also embedded in the conceptions of satisfactory social relations and attitudes held by the members of the society; it is embedded, furthermore, in the forms or . the African context may be viewing the phenomenon through "scientific" lenses. This paper reviews cultural concepts of the person in relation to communal values, practices, and systems of thought observed across many African cultural contexts. dehumanising aspects. There are psychological, social, religious, political, medical and legal aspects associated with euthanasia or assisted death. They prepare for the ceremony by washing the body, wrapping it in a white cloth (silk, if it is available), and adorning it with the finest jewels (Laungani 192). Social Structure. culture that represents the totality of the meaning-making schemes of the African. It signifies an inextricable spiritual connection between the visible and invisible worlds. The Cosmology of Witchcraft in the . The historical record of people of African descent is filled with triumphs and trials. Death is as good as any way to read the values of a society at a particular point in time, a central component of any . African ethics is the conceptualization, appropriation, contextualization and analysis of African values within the African cultural experience. Political Situation 3. Without a thorough examination of the . This is the consequences of analogous existential experiences of life in an isolated and difficult environment. 1. change must consider the cultural concept of the person. 7 Altmetric. Learning Objectives. At one time, it is said, the country was thickly populated, and the number of inhabitants became constantly greater, for there was neither sickness nor death. Origins of the Death Penalty. Fill up the blank with the possible implications of the elements of his environment and time. Any form of materialism which ultimately leads to the destruction of life is alien and destructive of the African culture and concept of human life and should therefore be avoided. Black Africa shows certain cultural unity. Nearly a half-century ago Gresham Sykes wrote that "life in the maximum security prison is depriving or frustrating in the extreme," (1) and little has changed to alter that view. The activities and the actions of the spirit beings govern all social and spiritual phenomena. By scientific lenses I mean, they may be drawing their conclusions based on what they may claim as either evidential or non-evidential. Seventh-day Adventist witness among the nomadic peoples of the East Africa region is faced with a number of challenges. Death will therefore be presented using the African epistemological paradigm and worldview as an underlying philosophy. The consequences always . traditional African world-view, for this knowledge will enable us to recognize its expressions and manifestations in African American life and culture. All social and cultural practices find their connection with a notion of family, either supporting or distorting it. African Ethics. • Identify the differences between armchair anthropology and participant-observer fieldwork and . Culture is the mix of beliefs, values, behaviors, traditions, and rituals that members of a cultural group share. ;The thesis is presented in the following order: First, a general introduction which presents the problems of the thesis: African philosophical concept of time. help us grapple with the issues we will be dealing with in this paper. Contextualizing Eschatology in African Cultural and Religious Beliefs addresses the African consciousness and nuances of eschatological beliefs as part and parcel of the holistic African Indigenous worldviews within the context of the people's traditional heritage.. The word "Spiritual" as seen in the aspects of the Biopsychosocial (s) approach to healthcare and illness [11] is based on beliefs which can be connected to the history and culture of Africa [4]. Introduction African continent is one of the largest continents of the world and it's a multi-ethnic society with its (Hauerwas, A Community of Character, 1981: 54). However, in most of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) there are no legal guidelines regarding BD. Health is viewed as the result of a harmonious balance between the poles of hot and cold that govern bodily functions. Among the Korongo, a Nuba tribe, we find over-population as the cause of man's desire that death should come into the world. At the sidelines of the recently concluded African Studies Association (ASA) annual meeting held in Boston (November 21-23, 2019), Prof. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, a prominent voice on the debate on decolonization, had a conversation with Duncan Omanga, program officer for the African Peacebuilding Network and the Next Generation Social Sciences program, on the future of African studies in . The aim is to present the African conception of death as a culturally salient psychological material whose meaning needs to be differently understood in mainstream psychology in general, and in the workplace in particular. They are simultaneously engaged in scientific investigation of "what is" an d also constructing a redefinition of "what is" in Journal of African History 51.2 (2010). eisenbruch ( 11) has defined cultural bereavement as "the experience of the uprooted person - or group - resulting from loss of social structures, cultural values and self-identity: the person - or group - continues to live in the past, is visited by supernatural forces from the past while asleep or awake, suffers feelings of guilt over … They talk about a major collapse of a precolonial ironworks in Ghana, and argue that the only decent explanation is the plague. (Goodman, 2006). • Describe the role that early anthropologists Sir James Frazer and Sir E. B. Tylor played in defining the concept of culture in anthropology. 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