What is culture?
Culture
is the total way of life in a given society.
Is a
phenomenon that is practiced by all societies in the world. As a universal
phenomenon it has bees held as a mankind asset which un-holds and perpetuates
his time announced virtues. Culture links the past and present and synthesize
man achievement and as nation.
Culture can be defined as a total way of life of particular society in a given time and environment as a total way of life it embraces all that has been created by man excluding all that has been given to him by nature. Therefore it includes thing like art and craft, language, education, politics, beliefs, technology, symbol, value, norms, customs, tradition and many others.
Culture
is acquired or absorbed by man through living and participate in the cultural
life of his group and changed by contact which outside cultures or inspiration
from within.
IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE
The
notable importance of culture include the following;
- First, through culture a society passes on the knowledge, skill and wisdom from the elders to the young generation. Culture for that matter is used as a medium of bringing up the young to become respectable member of their society. Such knowledge and skill are passed on to the young generation through various cultural activities such as initiation ceremonies.
- Another importance of culture is that teaches the youth about various social values such as language, taboos and beliefs of the societies. It can also inculcate political and economic values and beliefs of the societies. It can also inculcates political and economic values of the society
- Third importance of culture is that, it serves as an identity of a particular society. Culture helps one society to be easily identified from other societies, or a nation from other nation. For example people from Tanzania can easily be identified from other people of East Africa simply because of the fluent speaking of Kiswahili language when compared with people from Kenya and Uganda. Maasai people can be identified from other people just because of their style of dressing known as "LUBEGA" and the way they plait or cut hairs which is quite different from other societies.
- Fourthly, culture is importance because it helps to promote unity among the people. It binds people together as one society or nation. This becomes possible because of the same culture value that the member of the particular society share together such value includes things like language, taboos, customs etc.
- The fifth importance of culture is that it exposes the younger to tasks similar those of their elders. This is achieved through such things initiation ceremonies where both the girl and the boys are given special training concerning with proper morals of their societies. Another place where the young ones learn various tasks similar to that of their elder is in the family. Family as the first institution of socialism play a significant role in educating the young ones about various task similar to those of their family member and their society in general.
- Through work of art culture can serve as a means of providing people with enjoyment or entertainment. For examples various kinds of tradition dances, music, sport and games etc. are used for entertainment people after long period of work or passing through hard or difficulties such as war, hunger etc. Cultural traditional dances, music and game are also used to entertain people during various ceremonies such as wedding birthday and many others.
- Lastly, culture equips the young people with insightful knowledge concerning with bad and good cultural practices. This help to refrain them from bad cultural that might have a bad impact to them.
ASPECT OF CULTURE
Culture
consists of two main aspects;
- · Material culture
- · Intellectual culture/ non material culture
1. MATERIAL CULTURE
Material culture refers to tangible or
physical artifacts (objects) made by human being. They include such things like
spears, cooking pots, houses, coins, computer, stools, sofa sets and many
others. These cultural objects reflect the nature of the society in which they were
made. Material culture shows the extent to which man has achieved in mastering
the nature. Such achievement include the level reached in the production of the
instruments of labour, the technical skills developed, the scientific
organization of labour, the availability of everyday needs of human and many
others achievements.
2. INTELLECTUAL CULTURE/NON-MATERIAL CULTURE
Non - material culture: These are intangible or
abstract creations of human society. They include such things like values,
beliefs, symbols, norms, language and institutional arrangements.
ELEMENT OF CULTURE
The
following are the element of culture;
- Cooperation
- Language
- Law
- Customs
- Tradition
- Ideology
- Recreation
- Art and creation
- Norms
- Fashion
There
are ten element of culture
i)
Cooperation
These elements
manifest themselves in physical and social bond of the society in various
activities. It gives chances for members to learn and do things together in
community e.g. harvesting, initiation ceremonies
ii)
Norms and laws
Law is a
deliberately from adopted rules of behavior that are enforced by spend
authority.
Are
social rules that guide behavior. They specify the behavior that is appropriate
or not in a given society. Norms give as guideline an hour we should act so
that we can get with our daily activity. Norms have to categories Mores and Folkways.
- Mores- Are those norms which society considers them to be of great Moral significance. Those who violate them are defined as sinful, evil, wicked and offender. The punishment to them is various including death, imprisonment torture e.c.t. Such more that may lead to harsh punishment are also called taboos e.g. murder, treason, rape, theft e.c.t.
- Folkways- these are customary and habitual ways by which the members of a group do things. Folkways are considered as less important norms in which the violators of them get mild punishment. Example of the common folkways is time for appointment, greetings and washing clothes.
iii)
Arts and crafts
As
elements of culture arts are expression, which reflect feelings attitude and
the level of development of a given society as struggling for existence and
survival in a particular environment. These achievements could either be bound,
political or economic ones.
- Craft- Refers to the objects fashioned or created and used by a particular society example of craft include furniture, clay pots, baskets, sculptures, graphics and many others. Crafts can also reflect the cultural values and technology of the concerned society.
iv)
Recreation
Reaction
means relaxing and amusing work makes the body and mind to get tired so that
mean med a roast. E.g. To participates in sports and games or dance hand: of
show ground where sports and games are formed.
v)
Ideology
Is a
systematized and interconnected set of ideas about the social- economic and
political organization of society as a whole. It contains ideals, ends purposes
that a society should pursue. Ideology lay down the principle and condition to
be followed by given society.
vi)
Tradition
Traditions
resemble custom they are experienced of the past are inherited by a society and
they are unchangeable. Examples Marriage, funeral ceremonies, family care and
courtship, sport and game.
vii)
Language
Is a
socially structured system of sound patterns, written words or signs with
specific and arbitrary meaning used by a society for communication. It has a
major role of creating interaction between and among people in short it binds
the separate human lives together. Language is the most distinctive and complex
achievement of human beings it is used to express physical and spiritual
wishes.
viii)
Customs
Customs
these are pattern of habit, transmitted from one generation to another
generation such customs include foods, clothes, shelter, argument, education,
worship, names, greeting, love another generation such customs include foods,
clothes, shelter, argument, education, worship, names, greeting, love and
beauty obedience.
ix)
Values
Is
abstract idea of what is described correct and good that most member of a society
share. They are conceptions or standards by which members of a society evaluate
people, objects and events as to the relative worth, merit, beauty or morality.
Value is used by the member of society to distinguish the desirable from the
undesirable, what is good and bad the beautiful from the ugly.
x)
Fashion
Are
highly passing pattern of behavior fashion allows many change in norms Example
Arts dressing etc.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EACH ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
1) Language
Is an
important in element of culture because it is used as a medium of communication
in the society. It can also serve as an identify of a given society in particular
or nation in general. For example Kiswahili language in Tanzania.
2) Traditions
Some tradition
such as marriages and burial ceremonies play a key role of uniting people
together when the meet to conduct or cerebrating the event.
3) Norms
Are
social rule that guide behavior they specify the behavior that is appropriate
or not in a given situation, norms a given as guideline on how we should act or
not act not act on our daily activities.
4) Value
Help
society to adopt acceptable behavior shape and individual personalities. A
decent dressing for instance, can mark some one look smart and presentable in a
certain occasion like wedding ceremony.
5) Ideology
Is
important because it enables that society to explain, justify and order several
existential condition which would otherwise prove impossible to explain .It
also serves as mean for self identification for individual and group that
adhere to it.
6) Art and creative
Are used
by the people to express their feeling or attitude toward a certain events. The
feeling can be expressed through such things like song, drama, picture e.t.c,. Other
forms of arts such as painting and drawing are used for decorations.
7) Custom
Used by
different societies are very important to the members of that particular
society. Among other things are used to represent various object and events to
the people.
8) Recreation
Provide
household with necessary material such as furniture, pots, which are daily,
also some of them can be sold to earn people income.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECT OF OUR CULTURAL VALUES
Positive aspects
1)
Respect and hospitality; Refer to polite behavior
that a person has towards other especially those he/she thinks are older or
important to him/ her. For example in many societies the children are taught
various way through which they should show respect. Those include greeting,
receiving and handling property. How to talk to the elder etc. Through these
way children grow up knowing how well they can behave in their families and
community at large.
2) Caring for other people and property; Among the people who may need
special care in the society are children, old people, disabled, the sick people
and other people with special problem. It is a positive cultural value to help
people belonging to the mentioned group to get various services because they
are the most disadvantages.
3)
Proper dressing; As one of the important cultural
value proper dressing helps to maintain ones personality. It makes people look
smart and acceptable to other member of the society. Currently in many societies
there is an increase of parent outcry over the whole issue of indecent dressing
among the youth. This problem is associated with the ongoing globalization
process which among other things contribute to the decline in moral is the
societies and more particular to the youth.
4)
Hard working; This is another positive cultural
value, certainly because through hardworking the people in the societies are
able to produce more and better quality goods and service for the individual
and national development.
5)
Accountability and
transparency; Refer
to a situation in which a person is held responsible for a certain task
assigned to him/her and she /he may be expected to give satisfactory
explanations concerning that task if there is any to need so. Transparency for
that matter it means openness or without secret. Accountability and
transparency are therefore important cultural value that should be promoted by
the society.0nce these are observed the society expectation and wishes can be
easily met.
6)
Honest; This refer to a state of
person being fair and trustful. It is another important cultural value that any
society is supported to impart to its member .If this value is successfully
imparted to the society member the immoral practices such as corruption, theft,
embezzlement of public found etc. can be minimized.
7)
Patriotism; This refers to a situation
in which one loved his/ her country. Patriotism is an important cultural aspect
since it enables the member of a given country to participate fully in the
development activities in their country. Because of the love for their country
people can even be ready to die for it.
8)
Co-operation or participation
in various social activities; Is important culture value because it helps to
create unity and increase strength towards accomplishment of certain task for
the sake of attaining common goals in the society.
Negative Aspects
- Female Genital mutilation; According to the world Health organization is define as all procedure that involve partial or total removal of the external genitalia or other intentional mutilation of the female genital organs, whether for cultural or any other non therapeutic reason.
- In inheritance of widows; This is practice of taking a woman (widow) after the death of her husband. This act has negative effective because it can lead to the contracting of the HIV/AIDS if one of the partners is a victim of HIV/AIDS. This act is also a violation of human right because it turns the woman as object of pleasure and sometimes the property of the inherited widow are taken by the new husband and the humans left with nothing.
- Early and forced marriage; Early marriage is the situation where by a person gets married while he/she is below the legally acceptable age for having marriage i.e below 18 years for a boy, 15 years for a girl. Forced marriage refers to a situation in which a boy or girl is being forced by parents or relatives to get marriage to a person he/she don’t want. This practices is more common to girls than boys. Both early and forced marriages have contributed to several negative effects including marital conflicts which in turn lead to separation and divorce hence leads to an increase of street children.
- Polygamism; this is the situation whereby on man get married to many wives. This practice can also leads to having many children that parents may fails to take care of them thus end up being street children.
- Belief in witchcraft; Is common among some illiterate societies has greatly contributed to various negative effects. The notable effect include the killing of the innocent people include the old women with red eyes due to some allegation that they are the one ones who bewitch other people. This practice is very common in area like Shinyanga and Mwanza in Tanzania.
- The killing of twins and handicapped people, in some tradition societies twins and other people with handicaps such as albino were being killed due to the belief that having such as people in the family or societies was a curse from the God and if such people are left the society will be facing misfortunes. However, in recent years the killing of the albinos has been associated with the belief that some of their body organs bring fortunes to people engaging in various activities such as business, especially in the mining and commercial sector. This belief has contributed much to the killing of albinos in different part of our country.
- Paying of bride price; Is payment made to the parent of daughter or women who is to be marriage by the person or the family of man who want to marry. The paying of bride price has led to misconception that the married women has been bought just like any other items. As a result of this misconception same man in some societies tend to mistreat their wives.
- Food taboos; These refer to practices where by women and girls are restricted or forbidden from taking same kind of food varieties especially those, which are delicious and nutritious such as eggs, liver. Chickens etc. These practices may have negative effects on omen health.
IMPACTS OF NEGATIVE ASPECT OF CULTURAL VALUE
Female genital mutilation
this can lead to various effects such as;
- Prolonged bleeding during and after the mutilation.
- Disturbance of the natural vaginal elasticity during delivery due to the scar left after mutilation
- Reduction of sexual pleasure during sexual intercourse
- Spread of sexually Transmitted infection because the instrument used are not sterilized and are used by the whole group being circumcised
- Death because of excessive bleeding and STI’S Such as AIDS/HIV
Gender biases can lead to;
- Unequal distribution of powers in a community
- Women being left out in areas of development
- Lack of spirit of competition hence poor performance
- Few women in managerial and decision making levels
- Violence and aggression.
Belief and practices of
witchcraft can lead to;
- Transmission of STI'S
- Despise modern health services
- Family conflict.
- Unnecessary death
Inheritance of spouse (widow)
can lead to;
- Contact of STI'S
- Conflicts
Early marriages can lead to;
- Toxemia
- Long difficult labour
- Blocked birth which may damage the bladder, vagina and womb
- Deaths
Polygamy can lead to;
- Rapid population increase
- Transition of STI'S
- Death
- Street dwellers.
Forced marriage may lead to;
- Family conflicts
- Contracting of STI'S
Bride price can lead to;
- Violation of sexual human rights
- Forced marriage with its accompanied impact
- Domestic violence
The most
outstanding gender concept among other includes the following;
Gender discrimination; It is the situation in which
one kind of the sex in the society is denied of its right and opportunities
simply because of belong to that sex category.
Gender oppression; It is the situation whereby
a certain sexual category is treated harshly or oppressed simply because it
belong to that category for example giving heavy tasks and depriving of their
important social needs.
Gender gap; It is an inequality in job
accessibility between two different sexes. Culturally, some societies give men
the first priority to job opportunities than women. This situation prevails in
both public and private sector in many developing countries, including Tanzania
where whereby most attractive and highly paying job are occupied by men.
Gender inequality; Is a situation whereby a
certain kind of sex in a society is given priority in all aspect of life at the
expense of another sex. For example inmost African societies women are marginalized
in all sphere of life while men are favored.
Gender
equity; This is the principle of fairness and justice that advocate gender
equality such as principle include making of laws which prevent men from
undermining and denying them of their rights.
Gender equality; This refers to a situation
whereby there is no kind of practice which undermines a certain sex. It is the
situation whereby there is equal treatment of both male and female in all
aspects of their lives.
Gender analysis; It is the systematic efforts
to identify, analyze, document and understand the roles of men and women within
a given context. It is about who does what, who has access to and control over
what, benefits from what etc.
Gender sensitive planning; It is the planning that considers
both women and men in term of needs. These needs are planned equally.
Generally, there are has been some effort for discouraging bad cultural
practices that undermine women worldwide. Due to these efforts, the people
consciousness about gender equality have been raised hence, made to see the
importance of analyzing gender, formulation principle of enhancing gender
equality and waged war against the multicultural practices such as child labour
and female Genital Mutilation.
Gender Mainstreaming; This refers to ideas about a
given gender that are considered ordinary or normal, hence, accepted by most
people in societies. It is a global strategy for promoting gender equality.
Mainstreaming involves insuring that gender perspectives and attention to the
goal of gender equality are central to all activities, policy development,
research resource allocation, planning implementation and monitoring of
programmers and project.
Gender stereo typing; This refer to people perception
and attitudes create by the socialization institution
Customs which lead to gender discrimination;
Are
those which have their origin from the patriarchal societies
- Patriarchal societies are those societies which are organized and run by men; In these societies it is only men who are the decision maker and holder of the power over the women and resources. Patriarchal systems are common in many African societies including those of Tanzania. The system are now world wide strongly discourage because they favor males over females, and thus perpetuate gender discrimination
- Exclusion of women from decision making; In many patriarchal societies there has always been a common practices to exclude women from making decision on important social, economic, political issues right from the family level to national level. This practices has greatly affected women as most of the decision made by men lead to favor them at the expense of women.
- Paying of bride; The practices of paying bride price to the parents of the girl to be married is considered by men as the condition for buying that girl/ women. Hence the fulfilling of this condition means that the women are put under the control of that mantises.
- Denial of the right to property; In many societies women and girls are not allowed to own property or to inherit any property after the death of their of their husband or parents .As a result women and girl are left with no economic base, hence became dependents to men.
- Initiation ceremonies; Include "Jando" and “Unyango” for men and women .In these ceremonies base the teachings provided to boy are quite different from those given to girls. For example among other things taught to boys one of them is to educate them how to exhibit masculine behavior such as dominance, confidence, strength, competition and rationally while girls and women are taught to exhibit feminine behavior such as submission, caring nurturing, sensitivity and emotionally. As a result, these behavior are used to justify men holing most power position and women reaming in subordinate position
- Habit of food eating; In some tribe, women are forbidden form eating certain types of food. They are not allowed to eat chicken meat, eggs, liver etc, when they are pregnant. This was due to the fear, that the child to be born will grow too big to born in in a normal way .The effect of this was that, the health of the pregnant women and eventually that of the expected baby was affected. Institution which perpetuate gender discrimination.
Institutions which perpetuate gender discrimination
1. The family
At the
family level there is belief that boys will propagate lineage and support the
family, while girls have to get married. Due to this belief many families
prefer to educate boy spend more money on them at the expense of the girls, when
a choice has to be made between the two. As a result girls have been
marginalized in may issues.
2. Religious institution
Some
religious doctrine and leader reference to the Quran or Bible on the submissive
nature of women tend to deny them of the opportunities to hold position of the
leadership and decision making in various levels, For instance in some mosques
and to churches decision made by men usually discriminate women.
3. Learning institution
In these
institutions it is common practice to find that boys at re offered science
subject and mathematics while girl are forced to study subject such as homes
than e economic subject and typing. More intelligent than girls, hence, girls
are not encouraged to work hard.
4. Traditional initiation institutions
Play a
major role in perpetuating gender discrimination. Girl who have undergone initiation
ceremonies become passive in school. This is because the traditional counsel
and elder who initiate girls have always put more emphasis on submissiveness of
women to men. Because of that women are therefore do not fully take part in
decision making at home and in other placed.
5. Work places
The
socialization process in the community has effects on the gender division of
labour between men and women. At work placed, employment of men is given more
emphases in other places.
Major effects of gender discrimination
- There is unequal distribution of power in all sphere of life such in political, economic, social sector
- Women continue to be left out in various area of development.
- Women continue to face violence and aggression as they do not have any economic power base to support themselves. As result, majority of women live in extreme poverty.
- Enrollment of girls and women in various learning institution has not been keeping up the same pace with that of boys and men that is boy and men are many than girl and women in such institutions.
- Women are badly affected by beliefs in witchcraft, poor nutrition and ignorance about health care.
- Unequal distribution of property and wealth between men and women has totally ignored women contribution this economic harassment.
- Women are adversely affected by both early and forced marriages.
- Teaching of initiation which very often urge girls to be submissive to their future husband (boy) and men in general have greatly made girly and women passive to take part in various issues.
- Many women are ignorant of laws and procedure of claiming for their right. This problem has contributed to their discrimination and violence in different areas.
- There are very few women in managerial and decision making level .For example the number of woman in the parliament of Tanzania is one-third that of men.
The strategies for women
empowerment
Women
empowerment can be improved if the following things are considered;
- Improving and increasing education opportunities to women .lf education opportunities will improved to women, development will be achieved in the poor countries like Tanzania and the slogan that say “You educated a women you educated the whole society" will practically observed.
- Improving access to the resource such as land, the situation which has been to difficult for quite a long time in many societies. This will help women to have right to inherit resource such as land.
- To allow women to establish various social organization. This will help them to have a collective barraging power for their deprived rights. Through these organizations, women can ask for assistance from the government or donors in order to enable them open various project.
- The government should commit itself to the prohibition of all cultural practices and custom that oppress women such as female genital mutilation, forced and early marriages etc.
- The government to ensure that women receive equal opportunities as men in all social, political, economic issues.
- To establish special programmers for improving life standard of the women especially in rural area
- To educate men to abandon the idea that they are created superior to women.
- Improve rural technology this will help to provide women with modern working facilities. For example the use of solar and biogas energy will free women from dependence on firewood which usually contribute to environment destruction through cutting tree.
Customs and cultural
practices that lead to spread of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI'S).
HIV
stand for human immunity deficiency virus and aids stand for acquired immune
deficiency syndrome. Getting HIV infection leads to weakening of immunity
system. This makes a person with HIV vulnerable to illness HIV/AIDS is a killer
disease which has no cure or vaccine.
The following are customs and
cultural practices that lead to spread of HIV/AIDS and STI’S
- Female genital mutilation; (Women circumcision) can lead to the spread of HIV if the instrument used are not sterilized and are used by the group being circumcised. Most of the instrument used is knives razor blades pair of scissor and any other sharp tool. Some tribes do out tribal marks on bodies of. Some kinds claiming that they want to shed off dirty bloods. Since the instrumental used are not sterilized this practice can lead spread of HIV/AIDS to the kids.
- Inheritance of widows; May contract or spread HIV from or to man who inherit them.
- Traditional dance; Certain traditional dances are accompanied by alcohol drinking which always tend to draw men and women into sexual intercourse.
- Use of traditional midwives; who are not well trained may lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS to both mother and the newly born baby due to using of unsterilized instruments.
- Polygamist; May also be a potential cause of HIV/AIDS. Once one the of them gets HIV/AIDS all will also get.
- Early and forced marriages; can create problems when someone is forced to be married to a certain man and woman who has HIV/AIDS.
In brief
each negative aspect of cultural values that have been discussed above and may
other can leads to the following;
- Female genital mutilation; This can lead to various effects such as prolonged bleeding during and after the mutilation, disturbance of the natural vaginal elasticity during delivery due to the scar lift after mutilation. Other effects include reduction of sexual pleasure during, intercourse, spread of the sexually transmitted infections because of using unsterilized instrument by the whole group being circumcised and death because of excessive bleeding and STI’S and HIV/AIDS.
- Gender biases; which is perpetuated by various institution which as family, schools, media and other can lead to various negative effects such as unequal distribution of power in community, women being a left out in area of development, lack of spirit of competition, few women in managerial and decision making levels and violence and aggression.
- Beliefs and practices of with craft; which have been practiced by some societies have led to some effect such as despise of modern health services, transmission of STD and STI’s family conflicts and unnecessary death.
- Polygnamism; which is a practiced of man having manage to more than one wife can lead to various effect during other such effect include, rapid population increase, transmission of STI’s, death and increase of street children as some parent may not be able to maintain their families.
- Inheritance of spouse/widows; this occurs after the death of women's husband. The effects of the inheritance of windows includes the contract or spears of the STI’s marital conflicts, denial of the right to own property etc.
- Early marriage; This is marriage whereby one of the spouses or both spouses having being forced by the parent to be marries to a person that they don't want. Inmost cases it is the girls/women who are being forced to be married.
- Bride price; After paying bride price to the parent of the girl/women to be married some men tend to mistreat their wives giving the reasons that they have boughs them first like any other property, hence they have might to treats them any how.
Ways or actions to be taken
against negative aspects of our socio-cultural
In brief
the following measures should be undertaken
- To educate the people on the impacts of negative aspect of cultural value.
- Improving women access to resources such as land cattle and forms of property.
- Equal participation in political matter. This will enable women to participate in decision making in various.
- The government should enact strict laws for those who entertain negative aspect of cultural value.
- The community should be aware of all things which cause gender inequality
Promotion and preservation of
our worthy cultural values
Is a
combination of efforts made by people under their government to enhance growth
and existence of the national culture which has to be practiced in the nation.
Importance of promoting and preserving of our worthy cultural value
i)
To
maintain our national identity.
ii)
To
provide a foundation for stable governance.
iii)
To
maintain our useful value systems
iv)
To
protect our country from cultural deculturalization through globalization.
v)
To
maintain our cultural heritage.
vi)
To
create a sense of nationhood and promote cohesion in the daily life of Tanzania
The roles of different groups and institution in promoting and preservation of our worthy cultural values
1. The National Kiswahili
Council; was
established in August 9.1967 with its major roles being to promote and develop
Kiswahili as a national language .The council enable Kiswahili to be used in
all area of national communication .To day, Kiswahili is spoken and understood
by a lost all Tanzania .The first president of Tanzania Mwalim JK Nyerere used
Kiswahili to unite the whole of Tanzania as nation.
2. The Nation Sports Council;
was
established in 1967. The role of this council is,
(a)
To
develop, promote and control all amateur sports in the country. The council
does this in co-operation with voluntary amateur sports organization. Amateur
sports are sports played for enjoyment not for money.
In order
to carry out this the national sport council does the following,
·
Provide
training of staff member
·
Make
grants or gives aid to national sport association or organization
·
Provide
playing fields and other sports facilities
·
Provides
sports equipment and other sports items necessary for international sport
competition and festivals
(b)
To
provide medals, diplomas, certificate, or any other rewards.
(c)
To
provide scholarships for the training of the coaches and sports administrators.
(d)
To
advise the responsible minister on all matter related to sports.
3. The national festival and
state celebrations; the
council facilitates celebration of important national occasion. The council
ensures that the nation does not engage in meaningless and unending
celebration. The council deals with national public holiday. These national
occasion are celebrated with demonstration, speeches, songs, dance, feats
sports and games. There are religious holiday as well, which are public holiday
but are not under this council. The holiday includes Christmas for the
Christians and Eid for Muslims. Prayers, sports and games dances and feast,
mark these religious holidays.
4. Departments of museum,
Antiquities and National Archives; These department preserve national heritage in
the form of cultural treasure and writings. Hence they stimulate much cultural
enthusiasm among the people.
i) Museums; there are national as well as
regional museums in Tanzania. They provide a safe permanent place for preserving
national tradition, customs and work of art. They serve as cultural and
recreational centers for the people of the united Republic of Tanzania. They
are also important as attractions.
ii) Antiquities; Are import objects that have
existed for very long time. They include remains of ancient buildings such as
tradition, church, places and tombs. Tanzania is very rich in antiquities for
example the ruins of old building, found at Kaole (near Bagamoyo) Kilwa and
Mtwara Mikindani.
iii) National film censorship
board; This organ
hand one main role , that was to censor films before they are shown .To censor
a films means to examine it and decide whether it is suitable for the public. The
board was supposed to censor all the films which were intended to promote
national culture, education and development. But due to liberalization of trade
the board has not succeeded to reach goal.
iv) The council of arts and
crafts; Africa
countries through their governments and communities encourage creativity in art
and crafty as a way of identify their cultural needs .The main purpose was to
make art and crafts a servant of the people. They are supposed to be tools to helps
African understand and shape their societies according to their collective
needs That is the meaning of creativity.
v) Education institutions; After independence, African
government, church and communities improved the educating system inherited from
colonial master to suit African national culture. There were various reason for
the education system inherited at Independence to be improved. Those reason
were as follow;
·
The aims
and content of the colonial education promoted values and interest of the colonizer.
·
The
colonial education system was intended only to train the African for the
clerical and junior administrative posts
·
The
education system emphasized theoretical learning. It ignored practical learning
and experiments. African students lacks skill and creativity.
Factors which hinder promotion of worthy cultural values;
Despite
all attempts made by the government to build, promote and preserve national
cultural values still there are some factors which act as hindrances. These
factors include the following;
1.
Colonial legacy; Because of colonial legacy
many Tanzania by the government are not confident in creating things. They are
still having the mental attitude of being inferior to the white men
colonialists established policies of assimilation and association together with
the administrative and educational system.
2.
Low level of science and
technology; The
capacity of production in Tanzania both materially and morally is doomed
because much of technology is brought from abroad. There fore this creates
sciences and technology dependence.
3.
Ignorance; A great number of people are
illiterate. Thus they are limited to their environment and they can hardly
effectively control it. As they are trapped by the environment it there fore
hinders them to promote and preserve their worthy cultural values.
4.
Poor leadership; some of the leader are not
committed to the task of promoting and preserving the worthy cultural value
.Due to this have failed to established concrete policies which promote worthy
cultural value. Those few who have managed to do so they have also failed to
make thorough follow up as result most of national cultural value polices ended
remaining in shelves.
5.
Lack of enough funds; This problem leader and
other people to contract research concerning with promotion and preservation of
worthy cultural value.
6.
Globalization; The growing interaction
among people of different cultures, history, origin and beliefs have
contributed much to the hindrance of the promotion of the worthy cultural
values. A good example can be observed from the change in our traditional
wedding and burial ceremonies, religious beliefs etc .In these ceremonies
people are no longer interested in their traditional dances and songs but
mostly they prefer foreign ones.
Solutions to the problems
arising from the process of promoting and preserving of our cultural values
- To integrate our culture with education and work.
- To educate people on the importance of our cultural values.
- People should choose or put into power the committed leaders who will be able to advocate for our worthy cultural values.
- Strict laws, rules and regulation for those who despise our cultural value should be enacted by the government.
- Government should formulate good police that promotes our cultural values.
- Excessive dependence on foreign science and technology should be reduced.
- Government should allocate enough funds for making research concerning the promotion and preservation of our worthy cultural value.
- Establishing cultural clubs in school and other places with the aims of promotion and e our worthy cultural value.
- Law for protection of intellectual property which have been enacted by the government should strongly be enforced
Culture of preventive care and maintenance of personal and public property
Preventive care and
maintenance can be
defined as a system of planning maintenance which involves inspection and
making necessary modification so that properties can be used for a longer
period. Maintenance involves timely repairing of property before it gets
damages completely.
Importance of culture of
preventive care and maintenance of personal and public property.
i)
It helps
to keep the property in a good condition for a long time, hence be profitable
to the owner and other users.
ii)
It
reduces cost of making major repair by protecting the property from being
severely damage.
iii)
It
enables people to inherit the property to their young ones or to the future
generations.
iv)
The
culture of preventive care and maintenance of the personal and public property
can help can help to preserves or keep record their cultural value that that
can be used later as source of information by the researchers.
v)
Culture
of preventive care and maintenance of personal and public property can help to
promote tourism if the preserved properties are of higher value and attractive
to other people especially the foreigners.
vi)
It helps
to preserves the environment by reducing the piling or random throwing dumping
if the damage or ruined property.
The ways for ensuring
preventive care and maintenance of personal and public Property
i)
Cleanliness
of the surrounds.
ii)
Making
frequency check up and inspection of property.
iii)
Regular
maintenance that minimizes the costs of up keeping of building furniture and
fixture.
iv)
Regular
maintenance that creates a conductive environment to user.
v)
Regular
care and maintenance of existing building and facilities so as to ensure and
prolong the life span of building and equipment.
Consequence of neglecting
timely repairing and maintenance of person and public property.
i.
Increase
the cost of repairing and maintaining the property.
ii.
Decrease
the durability or lifespan of the neglected property which may in turn
necessitate the losing of the of the property or unplanned buying of the new
one.
iii.
It
reduce the quality or worthy of the property i.e it can make property less
attractive to the people.
iv.
It may
lead to conflict in the society.
v.
Environment
destruction.
vi.
May lead
to the loss of important information and various properties.
Cultural change
Culture does
not remain stagnant since it is influenced by the life of the societies. As the
system of life change can therefore be define as a process in which societies
charges their pattern of culture. The following are some of the factors which
influenced cultural change;
1.
Internal factors; These are forced which
emerge within the societies and cause the system of life to change so as to
cope with the new environment .one of best example of the internal forced that
can lead to cultural change is invention of new technology.
2.
External factors; cultural change can be
traced as far back as to the time when African continent started to have a with
different country from a board. Those countries came with their way of life
like dressing styles, language, religion and education.
Other factors influencing cultural
change
- Migration/immigration; This is the movement of people from one place to another such as from rural to urban and from one country to another. A person may be affected by the ways of life of the destination area
- Communication; Always people communicate with other from different parts of the world. As explained before that people differ in culture and total system of life. Through communication, people imitate new culture from different groups.
- Liberalization polices; means removing something that bring restrictions. Liberalization policies can be in political, economic and social aspect.
- Influence of socialization agents; include peer group, schools, religion and mass media socialization agent are instrument through which a person can learn and get different information about the society.
Advantage of cultural change
i)
It
enables people to master their environment due to acquisition of new skill from
other societies.
ii)
It helps
people to cope with environment due to acquisition at new skills
iii)
It helps
people to improve their welfare in all aspect of life such as economic social,
political aspect to due to new technology acquired from other society.
Disadvantages of cultural
changes
i)
Education
and knowledge acquired from outside may cause antagonism with tribal cultures
and traditional which opposite with the new ones.
ii)
Change
of culture may need a lot of realized and, may have limited resources to be
realized and may limit resources example it requires large same as money to
interpret and write in Kiswahili all English reduce used in Tanzania school.
iii)
Strange
custom like wearing short dress tight clothes have been temptation to men
towards a cause of commuting of fence like rape. Wearing of short dress,
miniskirt and using cosmetics were copied from abroad.
iv)
Cultural
changes is not a rapid event. It is gradual change and needs long period of
time for a society to be totally changed. This is because some people are quick
to imitate and adapt but others are slow.
READ ALSO:
TOPIC NO 2: GLOBALIZATION
READ ALSO:
TOPIC NO 2: GLOBALIZATION
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