The purpose of this essay is to deal with "Traditional Values vs. Modern Concepts." Each society had been organized with different norms and rules which should be respected by all people for a better living. From one community to another, people were rooted and remained totally closed to their own customs and values which served as an identity.
Because of this diversity, we intend to focus on the case of Africa by talking first about the traditional values, second the modern concepts, and finally the conclusion.
As we know, the African society has a very rich civilization. This is due to the high ethnic and cultural diversity and also to the various social structures. It was a society in which solidarity, friendship and also brotherhood had been the key elements. This appeared in the education through which, the younger obeyed the elders and women had no right to make decisions. That's why in some communities for example, fathers could chose a husband for their daughters and the latters were compelled to accept such a choice. African children, in the past, were educated in many ways such as the story tellings, tales, and also through maxims and proverbs. These meetings were held by old people with a very important and strong wisdom.
That's why any child could be corrected, when he commits a fault, by any person because, at that time, any individual were considered as a member of all other families.
As far as marriage were concerned, men, when they were about to choose a wife, were sent by their parents to their uncle's house where they could choose among their cousins.
They were always willing to accept any girl because they trusted their parents. Africans formed a very big and happy community. In most of West African countries, when children were six or seven years old, they were sent to the Koranic school in order to learn the holy Koran and many things about the religion. These moral values were very important and they were one of the fundamental keys in life of people.
Women, at that time, when if they hadn't any power of decision in the society, respected themselves and were afraid of making some bad things such as "adultry". If a woman or girl were pregnant without being married, this were seen as a shame on the family and the victim could be killed by her parents. This make them be very careful.
People at that time were solitary among them; they had their own ways of life, their own cultures through which it was possible to identify people. There was also a time when people had the possibility to be together in family just to talk about many things and to discuss about the family's problems. African people had a strong sense of brotherhood, friendship and so on. It was really good and interesting to live in such way.
But nowadays, things are changing and many of those traditional values are being lost and the world is moving on the rhythm of modernism.
In our days, we notice that, the world is becoming a kind of village in which there is a wide interaction between people and their different cultures. This phenomenon happens thanks to the new technologies. People have today the possibility to be aware of what is happening all around the world. They also have the opportunity to discover other cultures, other ways of life and behaviors thanks to the talking box (television) and other various means of communication.
Such situations leads to a fall of some traditional values. People have no longer as it was in the past to sit together in order to talk about their daily activities or to discuss about some social problems; it's a kind of break of the family's unity. We look somehow disappointed and we no longer know or recognize which values are ours. People tend to forget their customs, they are most of the time exotic and consider western cultures as better than theirs.
Old people (grandfathers and mothers) are no longer those persons who educated children by means of stories, tales and so on, they are most of the time seen as boring and talkative.
Children spend all their time watching: Television; they are fond of films through which they discover some actors that they admire a lot. A part from the TV, people also have many opportunities to get in touch with other realities for example: books, newspapers, the Internet…etc., they also travel all over the world; this helps them to develop new ways of thinking and are able to cope with any kind of subject.
With these modern concepts, we realize that, "Art" is becoming more and more important; a strong mean of communication, a manner of behavior, a way through which people express their researchs of the sense of life, of beauty and also the relationship with others.
The increase of the population, in front of the world wide economic crisis, makes the parents neglect the education of their children and the latters, because they have no possibility to make their ways in life, are most of the time, compelled to become delinquents. They begin to use drugs. To believe in what those children say, this helps them to forget their sorrows, their problems. This makes the situation more and more harrowing.
Even if this modernity is good and helps people to develop their mentalities, it has also some disadvantages which are not to be forgotten or neglected.
In my opinion, I think that the traditional values are very useful and should have positive effects on the behavior of people. Even if some of them are outdated because of the intellectual development, there are other values which we must keep with us. I really wonder what will happen if one day we, Africans, realize that all our values, are kept aside thanks to the western culture. I wish that Africans be aware of this dishonorable situation.
We don't need to remain closed to traditions but we have to be selective. We must try to conserve some traditional values and mingle them with other modern concepts because each of them has it's own importance.
This is, for me, the only way to create a good society, a "universal civilization."