I don't find African culture to be less intelligent than Western culture. Comparing both, at the level of popular culture, we find that they are just on about something different.
In the case of Western culture, tragedy in soap operas serves the purpose of getting the viewer to respond by feeling anything at all. In the popular Australian soapie, Neighbours, one tragedy strikes after another, all in the effort to get the viewers to feel something.
In the case of the Nigerian soap operas I've watched, the tragic events that happen are obviously staged. Their purpose is to get the audience to laugh about the trials and tribulations of life.
I think that the differences in philosophies behind these two approaches reveals something significant. Human nature is not the same everywhere you go.
3 comments:
To the contrary, Jenny. Human nature is one of those things that escapes definition, precisely because it is formed by different social and historical contexts.
Hi Jen,
I think that human nature is comprised of tendencies we all share, tendencies that do not differ between me, and someone in Asia for example. However, I think the expression of these tendecies is shaped through social and historical contexts. As I see it, the sublties and differences between cultural perspectives manifest in the social mileau, such as pop culture entertainment. The emotional expression and how that's staged derives from the natural human response to a particular cultural context.
The right wing, who are the ones speaking about "human nature", consider that we are all virulently competitive, misogynistic, and materialistic.
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