gosh!!! that comment.... haven't laughed this much in a long while.

when was the last time you ever saw a random african go on 'deep sea fishing' or even hiyo story ya surfing and scuba diving... for all we know THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS IS IN THOSE WATERS... MERMAIDS, QUEENS OF DARKNESS AND OTHER THINGS LURK BENEATH THE SURFACE OF THE DEEP!

What do you do when while you were growing up you constantly were reminded
1. dont point at the grave with the finger..you will die
2. If an owl like perches on your house..someone is dead...n they did die..
3. Dont go through the forest alone..u will meet the devil
4. Teenage boys-Dont Susu in bed...you will never get it up
5. Girls..dont play around with boys..they sting
6. Dont walk around at night..you will meet marimu
7. dont
8. Dont.


....men you FEAR

@Muheani this is exactly what I mean in my post above

Everywhere we were just being scared... from night stories to initiation ceremonies to some niosy birds at night! Why!

My sisters were kept safe (my assumption, but I think it worked ) by two scares from mother and grandmother:
a). Don't ever let boy hug you, you'll get pregnant and have a baby while you're still young. Take care!
b). Yearly examination of the socket by the grandmother.

I think it worked, because after they were married, they used to come thank her while she was still alive! And I could see the love, gifts, hugs and adoration they gave the grand.

indeed you are right... by the way it's not only 'africans'.. coz I don't know of any red indian who goes bag packing into the dense african forests just for kicks! the problem (if any) is much more a cultural difference than a race thing. What do you grow up being told? is risking life and limb appreciated in your society or are you scolded when you try? it's much deeper. Tafakari hayo.

They say that its Africanswho first sailed to USA Africans discovered America before Columbus

I would say it has to be the environment. You see a traditional masaai for instance will grow up surrounded by lions and get used to them with nothing to fear. You try to put @kiash or his white friends under the same environment!

These rides have been known to get stuck in the air, or some folks have fallen to their deaths so there is every reason to fear.

PS: I would like to know where that ride is located. I don't even think Disney has such.

Firstly, I can understand the fear that's gripping 'me' as an 'African'. The things I have heard and read, seen done, about Africa. But then the question of what one must make for himself is and has always been open. Regardless of lessons.

Freedom entails choice. To do or not to do. If you look at the history of Man you'll find a balance of goodness in all cultures.

I got a clearer view of the African by reading H.M Stanley's 'Through the dark continent'. Clash of values, and similarity in essence.

Vasco da Gama used a Ptolemaic Atlas. Was/is Ptolemy an African?

What's fear? How do humans become fearful? Can one learn not to fear? Can an African love life, himself, 'others', equally? That, ironically, is all that matters. It's the greatest one can do. Has the African done this?

Stanley says it over and over, the Africans were mostly so eager for brotherhood. Even when they marveled at the 'white Man'.

He(Livingstone) narrates an encounter with the people of 'Uhyeya' "a tribe who are decidedly lower in humanity than their 'ingenious' neighbors." People who ate all flesh except that of dogs. People who were rumored to be cannibals. Yet these people "were admirable for their readiness with which they supplied all our wants, voluntarily offering themselves, as guides to Uvinza, the next country we had to traverse."

Africans had all they needed. Even the most 'primitive'.

The Mayan Calender is still alive, it's going deep into the 'future'. Or the wisdom of the 'Aborigines'. So much Afrikana!