[quote=masukuma][quote=tycho][quote=masukuma][quote=tycho][quote=masukuma]Let's just say the truth - we fear everything, deep sea diving, living at the coast (tsunamis), flying and roller coasters as seen here
We tend to think we are brave folk but that is just our brain making excuses - do you think a black fellow would have done a columbus or a vasco da gama? heading out to parts unknown not knowing of the edge of the world was actual and they would fall off?[/quote]
Fear isn't the only reason for an 'African' not to 'do a Vasco da Gama.
Then again we must have a common agreement on what 'African' means. And what time spans are involved.[/quote]
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.[/quote]
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!
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I agreed with you first time![/quote]
Let's have more agreement. Fear of an activity is natural to All humans.