The African diaspora is spread across the world, soaking up cultures as diverse and rich as their own and enriching their already amazing heritage with exotic perspectives. Naturally a nomadic race, the African individual already moved around inside their own continent. So, it was only a matter of (little) time before they went beyond these boundaries. Unlike a more modern perspective in which the environment is made to submit to the inexhaustible demands of humans, the African life and culture is built around a respect of the environment, at the worst to the point of submission if not adoration, and at the best, in a way that nature is never violated in order to satisfy any unreasonable whim of the people.
The preservation of nature and culture has been an arduous task with the arrival of un-knowledgeable strangers, some locals’ own greed and the climactic changes. However, these challenges faced daily by the people are also observed first-hand by the griots, who preserve the music and history, ambassadors as they are of their tribes’ culture across the African continent and beyond. The tribes and clans’ chiefs have had the task of keeping the cultural traditions and values in a world where internationalisation increasingly blurs local identities and its requirements almost dis-acknowledges them.
Capitalism and other ideologies, alongside internationalism, have also played their part in the shift of priorities, and African farmers have had to face re-conversion to plantations that are more profitable in relationship to exports to the detriment of local provisions and diets.
With the renaissance of the awareness in African treasures such as the power of the foods now increasingly re-discovered or recognised as super-foods, the understanding of the importance of the preservation of African nature and culture in domains such as health, beauty and ecological balance, a new era is rising for a better understanding of African life and culture.
Once a continent of powerful kingdoms, Africa then lost her crown to slavery, colonialism and their psychological remains. With international maturity and her own emancipation, she is regaining the place that is naturally hers, within the circle of life, with her own voice no longer majorly echoing that of others, her own perspective shining through (and enriching the discovery of a more complete truth) and a heritage that has healed its wounds and built its foundations on the self-re-education of its people, its true capacities and treasures.
