One of the most amazing things about culture is the way of life. It amazes me every time  I travel to a different country find many different ways that people live and interact. One can be amazed at the reception they get from individual families and at the same time be shocked by the community, and thus from the different encounters, they make conclusions. This however, depends on individuals and their perspectives on life. Our different experiences may determine how we react to other cultures. Culture in itself is a people’s way of life. Below are a number of definitions just copied off the internet.

• Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.
• Culture is communication, communication is culture.
• A culture is a way of life of a group of people–the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next
• Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon further action.
• Culture is the sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation.
• Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another

These definitions all tie into the collection of ideas and behaviors of a society, transmitted over time to each new generation. The way of life of a people identifies them uniquely from another group. One of the things that anthropologists scholars emphasize on, is for us to appreciate the uniqueness of every culture. From experience, in as much as a culture looks similar to another, how they practice it may be different. The media has portrayed the beauty of many different cultures and anthropologist have dug up hidden cultures that have not yet been explored, making them fascinating. Based on the definitions, we need to ask ourselves if culture is a bad.

There are in every culture beautiful aspects that makes life look like paradise. When you take a look at this image below, it shows so much grace and beauty in how the women dance and smile in Korea.

  Taking it home to Africa, I will find children presenting during school events or the beautiful women of Rwanda gracefully dancing. They all give us glimpses of beauty and music in our cultures and these aspects of culture should by all means be appreciated and valued. They should be promoted and encouraged so as to pass on to the next generation.       Even people from outside have come to appreciate other cultures and their outfits. As I tried to look for artifacts of cutlure that represented Cameroon, I came across a photo that surprised me. I realized I knew a number of the people within the photo, and it gave me so much pride and joy. I would like to share with you the following photo of a friend.  Watching people like these beautiful ones on this photo appreciate another’s culture, gives us pride and joy, because culture invites others to be apart of its people.

However, culture becomes questionable, when valued aspects of it becomes a threat to individuals within it. What happens when culture become a threat to human security? Should we hold unto it and claim it as ‘part of our culture’ or should we revised those long held traditions? Let me get personal here. We live in the 21st century and my generation and the new generation are embracing different cultures and practices that are both good and bad. However, when our children and our young women pressured into doing something they do not want to be a part of, where then do we define beauty? Culture should be beautiful and inviting, such that others would like to be a part of it.

When did watching volleyball become a crime? Ghoncheh Ghavami, a British-Iranian woman has gone on hunger strike after being held in a Tehran prison for more than three months for attending a men’s volleyball match. What crime did she commit in the 21st century for watching a game of sport? As a government, what part of your culture are you selling to people? I know some people out there will tell me that she should have asked inquired. That will not be wrong. Was this only done to her or to other foreign women who had gone to watch the game? It really pains and hurts me when a country treats their own like dirt and treat outsiders like people. If you are going to enforce a law then let everyone be governed by the law. By enforcing such a law, a government might lose allies and create enemies and from within the country, nobody would want to be a part of it.

If you do not agree with me on the volleyball scenario, then help me understand the beauty in giving your 8-year-old daughter into marriage to pay off your debts to a man three times her age. In Nepal and especially Yemen, there’s no age limit at which a child can be given into marriage. Stories of children around the world have been told, and World Vision is an organization specifically tackling some of these issues. A report online on September 9th last year revealed that an 8-year-old girl died on her wedding night at the hands of yer 40-year-old husband. It is reported that she died from the trauma and physical practice of sex. Weddings are meant to be beautiful, celebrated by all and loved by all. In cultures were weddings are celebrated at the interest of one party, it deprives the bride the beauty and joy of being a wife. Children are decorated and given into marriage without their consent and they have a party thrown for them, and yet they are unaware. Child marriage was band in Yemen, but some people refused to have it legalized. Saying that their religion does not define the age at which a person should not be married. In the same country, an 8 year old was given into marriage to pay her father’s debt and two years later, she took her case to the court. How can a child be married at 8 and divorced at 10? She will never want to marry again. Read the full story by Cynthia Gorney ” Divorced at Age 10″.

Don’t get me talking about our cultures which basically take away the voices from children, such that they grow up believing that their opinions do not matter. By the time someone wants them to have a say, they will not know where to begin. I don’t need to go looking for an example far away. I grew up in a culture where I barely spoke, looked a grown up in the eye and questioned anything done by the grown ups. I went to school where I was basically told to do things a certain way and accept what the teacher told me as right. I did my best not to upset anyone and always tried to please people, not knowing I was doing harm to myself. When I tried expressing myself in the University, I didn’t know how to logically express my thoughts, such that my professors thought I was immature. I lost confidence in my abilities and skills and always thought myself inadequate. It is in my year as a master student that I started fighting back in my writing, my blogs and my daily life. I want to do everything and anything to speak out.

I wanted to share these stories because in my dissertation on child soldiers, I came across many references to culture, as being one of the reasons why International legal instruments are not functioning well. Basically, the argument is that International laws didn’t consider culture when designing the legal instruments for protecting child soldiers. Let’s go back to the earlier statement of how we live in the 21st century. Children nowadays want education, a good future and they have big dreams. Their parents encourage them to go to school and make a better future for themselves and the family, and they know very little about their parents and grandparent’s past. They are oblivious to the cultural practices, and if we continue to uplift cultural practices that bring harm to individuals, then we not only promote oppression, but also murder.

In Sri Lanka, child soldiering was prone because of the cultural aspects such as adult domination. Children were not allowed to complain when they got less food and were to accept what the adult said as right. Due to this practice within the culture, the different armed groups found children cheaper to use than adults, because they would give the children less food. This qualifies as starving a child and they also beat them up when they refused to do what they were told. Using the culture as a means to harm children is utterly unacceptable in the 21st century. It really kills and pains the heart when people who can make a difference sit around and pass judgment over laws that should protect children from such practices.

The Bible says in Matthew 5:30 “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell”. In our daily lives, we have friends and things that we love and care for. But if what we love and care for brings harm to us, then we should let go. If you have friends that do not add value to your life, especially if they always get you in trouble, then you should probably reconsider hanging out with those friends. In the same way, culture should build us and mould us and enrich us. However, if it start bringing harm to us, shouldn’t we re-evaluate it, so as to create harmony?

Maybe I have just babbled my way up till this point. If you have not understood anything I have said, then look into your culture and ask yourself if you accept every little thing that is happening. If not, what can you as an individual do to contribute to making a difference? Is Culture BAD?