Our Culture: A Burden or a Path Worth Treading?

For the longest time, African culture has been deemed fetish, archaic, primitive, and something that should not be associated with sophistication. Gradually, we replaced the vibrant colours of our Ankara fabrics, Kente, tie-dye, and countless other indigenous textiles with the legendary suit and tie.

Our rich African proverbs became “old school” and out of vogue, while the use of English idioms and sophisticated vocabulary became associated with intelligence and social status. We replaced the captivating sounds of our talking drums and gongs with the piano and guitar. We replaced our moonlight tales, stories through which generations transmitted wisdom, history, morality, and identity, with Netflix and chill.

And perhaps the most concerning part is not that these changes occurred, but why we began to perceive what was ours as inferior.

Africa, for too long, you have been taught to believe that you are less.

You were taught to look at your coily hair and see something that needed to be altered. To look at your dark skin and measure it against standards that were never created with you in mind. To hear your language and feel embarrassed, while speaking with a foreign accent became a marker of education and sophistication.

We accepted Eurocentric standards, hook, line, and sinker.

But let us be clear: this is not an argument for cultural stagnation. Culture is not a museum exhibit. It changes, adapts, and evolves as societies encounter new ideas and realities. There are traditions that should absolutely be questioned, reformed, or abandoned when they conflict with human dignity and progress.

But cultural evolution should not require cultural amnesia.

There is a profound difference between evolving beyond your culture and evolving away from it.

History is not merely a collection of events that happened in the past. It is a framework through which people understand who they are, where they came from, and how they arrived at the present. When a people become disconnected from their history, they can become disconnected from their identity. And when identity becomes fragile, external standards can easily become the measure of self-worth.

Perhaps that is why the question is bigger than Ankara, music, food, hairstyles, or traditional dances.

It is a question of identity.

What happens to a people who are repeatedly taught that everything foreign is sophisticated and everything indigenous is backward?

What happens when an entire generation learns to admire the world through someone else's lens, while slowly losing the ability to appreciate the beauty of its own?

Africa, you have been stripped of more than traditions.

You have been stripped of the confidence to recognise yourself.

But it does not have to remain that way.

We can embrace modernity without abandoning our roots. We can learn from other cultures without despising our own. We can question harmful traditions without declaring our entire heritage worthless. We can evolve without erasing.

So, Africa, wake up.

Study your history. Speak your languages. Tell your stories. Listen to your music. Wear your colours. Eat your food. Celebrate your art. Dance your dances. Preserve what is beautiful, challenge what is harmful, and build something even greater from what remains.

Because the goal should never be to return Africa to the past.

The goal should be to build Africa's future without making her ashamed of where she came from.

After all, a people who know their history are far less likely to spend their future searching for an identity that was theirs all along.