A Heart of Darkness

Before this class I had never read Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, but now I can see why many people find this to be the best written book in our language. The words he brings together create beautiful descriptions and pictures. I found his way of writing to be more interesting than the story, though that to is high-quality.

Conrad has this wonderful gift of drawing the reader into his story. My favorite line by this man can be found on page 70, "The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much." This was stated by Marlow right before he started his long tail to the other men. Before I read this line I didn't have much interest in the story.

What I found most intriguing about the before mentioned line was that it is pure truth. No matter what there is always fighting, always has been. It's sad to see that we base many things on color and religion. This quote proves to me that the white man had just a ego that others lives didn't matter, self gain is where our hopes lay.

What I found most inspiring about Conrad was his ability to draw pictures through his words and there are a few other quotes that help me step into the world of the Congo:

1. Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him -- all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. pg 70

2. Though the house was as still as a house in a city of the dead pg 76
3. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. pg 79

4. This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who I might be pg 82
5. One evening a grass shed full of calico, cotton prints, beads, and I don't know what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you would have thought the earth had opened to let an avenging fire consume all that trash. pg91

Every line I have listed stuck out to me as being profound. Heart of Darkness, is a work of art. Conrad created a novel of splendid poetic lines of adventure. I sank into the words as if they had attached an anchor to my feet. Africa is rotten but full of character.

The Kings Ghost Part 2

From reading this novel I have found that William Henry Sheppard was the first black American missionary in the Congo. When I first started this novel I didn't think that a black man would have been able to walk free in the lands of Africa. So once I learned that he not only was free of the prison of slavery but also was able to visit different villages and share the word of his lord I was amazed.

Sheppard is a rather unique man with a wide variety of occupations throughout his lifetime. To begin with he not only had some schooling but also finished college. The Congo is where he grew his real fame. He spent many years there leading or co-leading expeditions and interacting with the locals. While there he learned the language of the people; he was the first to do so. After visiting the Congo he returned to his life of ministry and was praised by both black and white followers of the faith. It seems odd that his man has celebrated many different experiences when other men the same color as he were being treated like animals.

Though I find everything Sheppard to be remarkable I wish that he didn't have to experience the Congo. If there was an instance in time where he didn't have to visit that would also have been a time of no murder and slavery in the Congo. However, we are not in a perfect world and I find it horrifying that today a hundred years after this story of holocaust and butchery that we Americans are still participating in similar acts.

The Kings Ghost Part 1

When I picked up this book I really didn't know what to expect. I knew about the slave trade from my high school history classes but I was never taught about what was happening across the world in Africa. This novel presented to me a new world and a different look at history. A view from people in distress and missery.

I found this novel to be full of wordful images of gruesome slature and beating. This was a lifestyle I have never piered into. This book showed me that even in this day in age there are still evils in the world promoting us to harm others for our own well being and status. I have gain a new respect for the things that I hold dear and the cush lifestyle I have been blessed with.

There were many quotes in the first half of this book that really shook me up because of the truth behind them. There is a few lines on page 129 that really eye opening. The part I am talking about it where Father Achte is with a group of rebels and they treat him with a bit more respect than he was expecting and he learns of their hardships. "With his own hands poured salt and pepper on the bloody wounds made by the chicotte and ordered the sick from his post thrown alive into the Lualaba River." This passage really showed me how cold hearted and ignorant the white men in Africa where. Kill a lot to gain a little. Great motto.

End of the Slave Trade in Africa

Africa has seen many horrors in its long history and it is hard to say what is worst the holocausts, the slavery, or just the overtaking of the european government. Slavery for the continent began in the 16th century and lasted till the 19th and in it's time took many millions of lives and ripped apart numerous villages and families leaving the native people in a state of panic and distress.

The African slave trade has a few different titles in our history supported by the white man the most common are the Atlantic slave trade and the transatlantic slave trade. They supplied the New World of colonies with workers/slaves by shipping over packed boats of slaves across the sea. Most slave traders we stationed in West Africa and Central Africa and obtained their merchandise (slaves) by trading, raids and kidnapping. This was a very disturbing process that supplied the Americas with between 9.4 and 12 million slaves but that does account for the ones who didn't make it there. More than five times as many slaves were taken to the Americas over Europe because they were more in need. In the americas there were developing colonies who needed slaves to work their plantations and in the mines. Mainly slaves were shipped to Brazil, the Spanish empire and the Carribean.

The white man saw the slave trade as just a means of work or a way around work but the Africans saw it differently. Africans called the trading Maafa which means "holocaust." These people witnessed a loss of a nation and a way of life. The trading of slaves killed off or tore apart many different cultures and beliefs leaving us with missing pieces to parts of Africas' history. To add to the all this miscommunication of this period there rumors/myth among the white man that slaves went willingly and enjoyed their lives of misery. This is proven untrue by the number of revolts and killing slaves committed in the quest for freedom. Due to slavery we find the most displacement of African in the American Continents.

Around the time of 1787 is when people first started to protest the act of slavery and question the moral rights of it. Many countries contributed to the abolishement of the slave trade but Denmark in 1792 was the first to but a ban on it soon followed by Britian. Britain then slowly tried to convert everyone to the belief that the slave train was immoral but the owning of slaves was permitted. It was a very hypocritical approach. But finally in 1831 when Brazil finally abolished slavery there was a global agreement that their would be no more slaves. Thought Brazil and Cuba agreed their would be no more there was still an illegal trade till the1 1860's but that to was eventually shut down.

A day in the village...

During my first visit through the Village of Umofia I was caught up in the pictures that so clearly illustrate this story. I loved the pictures of the people dressed in their paints and beads it was just another reminder to me on how different our cultures are when it comes to personal attire. In visiting this the village I felt as if I was really in African walking amongst the natives and living among them.

What I found to be the most interesting was the the actual houses/huts. They weren't at all what I was picturing and it was nice to get a real look at what this people lived in. I was picturing plain flat walls but from what this pictures show us they are filled with amazing designs that must have taken a long time to complete. This village really is a beautiful place and I plan on exploring further soon.

Things Fall Apart

This was my first time reading, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. This novel was very moving and present issues from other cultures I have never learned about before. I found this book to be facinating with all the diversity and different views on life.

This novel addressed many things that I wrote about in my second blog about mythology and the passing on of stories through different villages and timelines. After doing research on this topic I found it intersting to see different views this novel presented that were condridictory to what I already learned. In my research I found that twins were suppossed to be seen as sacred and to be a twin was a great honor. In this novel being a twin was not so "sacred." To be a twin was a death sentance not a gift.

My favorite part of this novel was all the different stories these characters told to one another. Be it for a young child to learn a lesson or for older people to explain something from the past. I find these stories to be a great was to keep morals present in the lives of our offsprings and a great sence of history.

Along with the theme of storytelling this novel presented a new lifestyle I have not yet come across in another readings. I never seen the lives of African people present in such vicious and murderous ways before. I understand that the killings that occured in this novel we a way of life and a part of "religion" but it was just so shocking to actually find the reasoning behind them.

The end of this novel brought about a shocking relization for me about ones beliefs and lifestyles and what can happen to someone if their way of like is comprimised. Okonkwo has strong faith and believed in the teachings of his ancestors that he couldn't bring himself to convert to the ways of the white man. He would much rather take his own life and be cursed than to follow in something he didn't believe. Okonkwo is a strong character full of a strength we rarely see. I admire his faith.

African storytelling and mythology

The African culture is deep in beliefs and values that date back from thousand of years ago. Throughout time these people have found many different ways of keeping track of track of their ancestors and then beliefs of the people before them. We can see this is the form of myths and storytelling.

The myths of the African people are not only a record of the past but many myths are still part of everyday life for these people. Many different cultures in Africa base their lives around the ancient stories and myths.

Myths for these people can come in many forms. Many of them are base on the origin of the world or what life after death will be like and how you get there. The reason for so many versions of a single story is because of traveling tribes and the split of religions throughout time. At one time the Sahara not only split the continent by region but also my religion. To one side you could find Christianity accompanied by large numbers of missionaries and to the other there were the beliefs of Islam. Migration along with conversion between the regions brought many new stories and meshed together older ones. Development is an ongoing process in the preservation and creation of myths.

Though there may be many different beliefs and varieties in the African culture there are a few things their myths have in common. Many myths present characters that are spirits, deity, pantheon, ancestors, rules and heroes the people lookup to. Also, in many cultures the earth, sun and moon are seen as gods; gods and goddesses are key to many myths. There are many themes seen in African mythology. The subject of god is always a big issue. In many stories it isn’t clear whether god came from an egg or if the earth did. It presents many issues and subjects the believers to numerous question and disbelievers. Another theme seem amongst the thousand of myths is that of twins. African view twins as being very special beings and are seen as almost sacred. And finally, the trickster, in many different stories there is a trickster of some sort shown, normally in the body of an animal. The trickster is seen by many as the messenger between the world and the gods but also as a destroyer. The trickster shows that survival is possible in all faces of devastation.

Every culture has there own myths and folklores but none compare to the soul and history of those of Africa. These myths not only are not only a key to the past but also a gateway to thousands of cultures all sharing their beliefs.

For more information:
http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/african-mythology.php
http://www.a-gallery.de/docs/mythology.htm
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/A-Am/African-Mythology.html

For more information on gods:
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mythology/african_culture.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:African_mythology_stubs

Sarah, the basics.

My name is Sarah Pollard. This is my third year here at Western. I plan on majoring in English, secondary education with a minor in communication. I've spent much of the past two years trying to figure out what I really want to do with my life and just recently decided on teaching. After I put my time in here at Western I would like to join one of the teaching fellows and travel to different parts of the country and teach in new environments.
Though Kalamazoo has been home to me for the past two years my heart is back in my hometown of Saint Joseph. It is a smaller town right on the shores of Lake Michigan. I graduated in 2006 from Lake Michigan Catholic with a class of 31 kids. Coming to Western after high school was a sort of culture shock. I have found the people here to be much more accepting and open-minded
I took this class not only to gain more credits but also because of my roommate and her family. My roommate, Saskia, was born here in Michigan but her parents weren't. Her father was born in South Africa and her mother (I am not sure where from) was a missionary there. After her mother Paula came to campus last semester and read from her book about life in Africa I found an interest in the African culture. I am hoping that this class allows me to gain more knowledge and a better understanding of a different lifestyle and culture.