Manthia Diawara, a Malian writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, and art historian, wrote this in his book "We Won't Budge" (an excellent read that documents his migration from Mali to France to the United States):
"The notion that you can leave one culture and walk into another without contaminating it or being contaminated by i…
Manthia Diawara, a Malian writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, and art historian, wrote this in his book "We Won't Budge" (an excellent read that documents his migration from Mali to France to the United States):
"The notion that you can leave one culture and walk into another without contaminating it or being contaminated by it is erroneous. Cultures are no longer that different from each other; they have lost to each other, and they have gained from each other. Although at a surface level, there are differences marked by color and physical characteristics, which are still capable of activating prejudice, at a deeper level the desire for modernity has considerably reduced the differences between people. What people want everywhere today - whether they are dressed in dashikis or three-piece suits, whether they claim to be authentic Africans or Europeans - is the shortcut to things that only modernity can give them. …Africa has lost some characteristics of its cultures, and gained some new ones. The same can be said about everywhere in the world today. Because of modernity, we can have anybody's culture at every corner of the world, and anybody can lose his or her own culture to a new one anyplace in the world."
Manthia Diawara, a Malian writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, and art historian, wrote this in his book "We Won't Budge" (an excellent read that documents his migration from Mali to France to the United States):
"The notion that you can leave one culture and walk into another without contaminating it or being contaminated by it is erroneous. Cultures are no longer that different from each other; they have lost to each other, and they have gained from each other. Although at a surface level, there are differences marked by color and physical characteristics, which are still capable of activating prejudice, at a deeper level the desire for modernity has considerably reduced the differences between people. What people want everywhere today - whether they are dressed in dashikis or three-piece suits, whether they claim to be authentic Africans or Europeans - is the shortcut to things that only modernity can give them. …Africa has lost some characteristics of its cultures, and gained some new ones. The same can be said about everywhere in the world today. Because of modernity, we can have anybody's culture at every corner of the world, and anybody can lose his or her own culture to a new one anyplace in the world."