What "Africa" means to me is the fact that it is more likely that reality is permitted to be real there, compared to anywhere else I have experienced. My experience there is that if something happens, then most people are likely to concede that it happened.
In other places, there are tighter parameters defined what can or cannot be permitted to exist. You have to learn what these parameters are, and soon, or you will get yourself into all sorts of troubles.
Some parameters that define reality in Australian culture, for instance, are as follows:
* An irrational male does not exist! That is a contradiction in terms.
* People whose cultural origins are politically incorrect cannot genuinely suffer: Their suffering is non-existent!
* Creativity that expresses dissent during heated political arguments does not exist! It is not geniuinely creative.
* Female high spiritedness does not exist, except in blue collar pubs and the like. Certainly it does not exist at work. That is called petulance.
*Psychological violence doesn't really exist --unless it's happening to someone we care about.
* Female trauma does not exist.
* Social injustice that cannot be resolved by quick fixes or by putting women back in their place does not exist.
* Points of view which differ in their parameters from those listed above do not exist.
1 comment:
U.S.: colonialism and imperialism do not exist, it is "mean" to notice their effects. To notice the effects of patriarchy is unfair to men. We are the country our patriotic history courses said we were in elementary school, and even if that is not strictly true we must say it is, because it would be hurtful for Americans not to conserve a virtuous self image, bleah.
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