African creation myths Essay Example for Free

African creation myths Essay 1. Perhaps the answer that would best suit the question why life is so hard and then you die is how death is portrayed in these stories. There is suffering and hardship in one’s life because of disobedience of the hardships and commands of his gods. Death ultimately becomes the only â€Å"salvation† after so much hardship.   Had the living things and man obeyed the orders of their god, death would not have overcome these lives. In the story of the Plant of Life, the second wife, in her jealousy of not being considered by her husband despite the death of the first wife decided that in order to end her suffering must kill the plant that has taken the time and affection that would have been hers. Hence, ultimately, it is no wonder that in the end, the wife bears the consequent death of all living things. 2.  Ã‚   Basically these African myths hold women in the same way that women are being viewed today. Women are seen as being responsible for the ills that happened to society and life in general.   For example, in the story of the Plant of Life, the second wife was blamed for being the source of death when â€Å"she saw the plant and was jealous and cut it down with a hoe.† (Plant of Life). Such story shows how of little value women are because if the god did not play favourites among his wives, the story would not have ended that way. As a whole, women are viewed as being the cause of tragedies. 3. This myth basically starts out as a story of creation of the world and its five elements.   However, as the story intertwined itself it became a story not of creation but of destruction as each element became defeated by the other until at last Doondari, the god who created these things came down to earth and became the eternal one.   A very good point of interest here is how the story incorporated the attributes of men like sleep, blindness, worry and death and how these attributes became defeated when all of them became proud. It would seem that the writer wanted to emphasize that pride became the reason for the fall of its attributes and in the end, it was the god who has to put everything in its place. 4. One interesting thing about this myth is how Shida Matunda got afraid when the jealous wife killed the plant which what became of his favorite wife when she died. He is a god and yet he had no hold over life when in fact, he created the world and its living things. It would seem that as a god, he too depended on â€Å"higher beings† than himself and that he attributes life on these beings such as the plant which became the plant of life. 5. Between the myth of the Disobedience of Man and the story of creation in Genesis, one common factor emerges as to why one man disobeyed his Creator.   In this African myth, the root of the disobedience is the woman who failed to follow the orders of her god not to till the soil for food while in Genesis, Eve did not take heed in God’s warning not to eat the Forbidden fruit lest they will be punished. Hence, when they disobeyed the order of their gods, they were punished: the first beings in this African myth were sent with Death while Adam and Eve were banished out of the paradise that God created for them. 6. Indeed there is a great similarity between the myth Revolt Against God and the great Flood in Genesis although the manner of wiping out the face of the earth vastly differs with the version in Genesis.   In the myth of the Revolt against God, the gods wiped out the earth through fire whereas in the version of Genesis, the world was wiped out by the Great Flood.   Perhaps the reason why there is a similarity between the two stories is because we all came from the same roots.   Just like in the religions of   Christianity and Islam that traces its roots to Abraham, these stories of cleansing the earth may have also come from one original source and just branched out after generations of passing it. 7.   Ã‚  The gods in these African myths are not at all like gods but rather seemed like counterparts of men.   Although they have created the world, the living things and men, they never ceased to be like human beings who still feel the emotions of human beings or maybe they are simply reflections of the image and likeness of the beings they have created.   However, these African gods tend to be fickle-minded sometimes and would do whatever they feel like doing at the heat of the moment and that analyzing these myths, one can surmise that they are just exercising their power over their creations.

America and Haiti Essay example -- American History

America and Haiti The United States interest in Haiti, as mentioned above, began a huge increase in the first decade of the twentieth century. The extent of U. S. economic penetration was not as great as that of France and Germany, but by 1910 it controlled sixty percent of Haiti’s import industry. Unfortunately, the Haitian banking system did not follow this path and was, at this time, "perilously close to domination by European interests." (Langley, 1982, 70) In an effort to gain more control over Haitian economic affairs, the United States engaged in a battle with France and Germany over the Banque Nationale. Two banks from the U. S. attempted to obtain control of the bank but lost out to a German bank, which proceeded to ally itself with the Banque’s French managers in an effort to acquire domination. But the United States protested the exclusion of American banks so forcefully that the French and Germans folded and agreed to let the two American banks have a fifty percent share in t he Banque Nationale. With a foot in the door, the Americans essentially took control of the Banque’s management. In doing so they gained much influence over the Haitian government executives, who relied on the Banque to cover monthly expenses. This would prove to be a huge asset in terms of fulfilling American interests in Haiti in the future. The administration under William Taft that was in power in the United States at this time saw Haiti experience almost continuous insurrection and political disorders. American warships were constantly present in the region, and by 1911 there were never less than five patrolling the Haitian waters at any given time. Things became so unstable in August that the Naval Command in Haiti was granted the power to ... ...ars: An Inner History of the American Empire, 1900-1934; The University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, 1983). Langley, Lester D. The United States and the Caribbean in the Twentieth Century; The University of Georgia Press (Athens, 1982). Shannon, Magdaline W. Jean Price-Mars, the Haitian Elite and the American Occupation, 1915-1935; St. Martin’s Press, Inc. (New York, NY, 1996). http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com/awcatlin.htm Marine officer who participated in almost all the major US military interventions in the Caribbean, from the Spanish-American War to the occupation of Haiti!! http://www-cgsc.army.mil/csi/pubs/intrvene.htm Great bibliography for sources detailing U.S. inteventionism in the early twentieth century. http://aristotle.schreiner.edu/worldpac/eng/r000010/r009697.htm Book detailing U.S. intervention in Haiti. http://www.medalia.net/Hhistory.html

In the Eye of the Storm Critque Essay

In The Eye of the Storm filmed by ABC News in 1970, Jane Elliot, a teacher at Riceville Community Elementary School, puts her third grade students through an experiment to show them how horrible colored people were treated. Since 1968, Jane Elliot always has something planned for National Brotherhood Week. On Tuesday, Elliot segregates her class by the color of the students’ eyes. The brown-eyed kids were to wear special collars around their neck so they could be seen from afar. In this situation the blue-eyed kids were all around better than the brown-eyed. They got to sit in the front of the classroom, five extra minutes of recess, and went to lunch first. At recess, the brown-eyed kids were being teased by blue-eyed kids that were their best friends just a few hours before. After lunch and recess, Elliot discussed what was happening. She asked why and what was going on between friends because of the segregation. She watched her students change into discriminating little monsters in as short as one day. The next day, the brown-eyed are treated with respect instead of the blue-eyed. The blue-eyed realized that it wasn’t very fair, and apologized to the brown-eyed for the day before. Jane Elliot got her point across and asked one more favor from her students; simply respect the colored. Jane Elliot accomplished exactly what she wanted; to show her students the under treated side of segregation. One strategy that Elliot used is figurative language. She argues the idea of segregation and teaches her students how people felt and how they will always feel if the color of their skin differs. Elliot’s lesson was strongly supported by cause and effect. In the classroom situation, having brown eyes lead to being treated poorly. The blue-eyed changed into completely different kids once they were declared the â€Å"better† party. Classification is the major strategy used. Jane Elliot classified or grouped her students according to the characteristic of eye color. One group, the blue-eyed, was considered superior. The other group, the brown-eyed, were under treated and had very few privileges. By using these example strategies, and more, Jane Elliot taught her students the many disadvantages of having colored skin and she leaves her students wanting to respect all people, disregarding their physical features. Teaching me how quickly people can be judged, I enjoyed watching this film. Even though the problem of segregation by skin color isn’t as strong in our period of time, I would still recommend this short movie to teenagers. Teens tend to immediately judge people by appearance rather than personality and it’s just not fair. For example, in the movie, the children were judged in a matter of seconds because of the collar around their neck. In our world today, people are judged by the style of their hair, the price of their clothes, and more accessories that really shouldn’t matter to others. Before the lesson, blue-eyed kids all had brown-eyed friends. During the lesson the two parties were fighting like nobody’s business. This shows how quickly you can lose yourself and people that you care about. This also happens in the typical high school world. Friends go off and try new things and they stop caring about people they were once close with because two different paths of life were taken. I just think that people should do what they want, but never lose the touch of true friends no matter their appearance and judgments made by others. The true friends will never fail to have your back as long as you have theirs.

Reflection Paper On Psychology And Psychology - 1135 Words

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