Every time I come across a
story with any aborigine background a question comes to my mind: how did we lose
the ability aborigine people had/have to connect with the earth, with Mother
Nature? Or even worst, how and when did we lose the respect for the others?
It strongly called my
attention the way the Ibo people reacted when Okonkwo broke the peace in the
Week of Peace and how they felt almost personally offended by him. Moreover, Okonkwo also felt guilty and
regretted having broken the peace.
That sense of belonging to
something bigger than your own space and interests is what dazzles me every time
I find it in books, classes, songs or anything else about aborigines. And it is
not only about Africa, it is also found in South American cultures and the ones
in Oceania. Their worldview shaped the way they were and also the way the related
to each other around them. However, it seems that European people forgot that
basic principle, and they took the time to ‘erase’ all tracks and marks of that
sense of belonging, of that worldview when they were ‘colonizing’ the
territories they ‘discovered’.
In my personal opinion, we - as students and future teachers - should pay attention and respect to those traditions because the subtle message they carry is an exceptionally powerful one.
In my opinion, what we actually lost is the sense community. We are now, just highly individualistic and we a taught to be individualistic, society tells you to be individualistic.
ResponderEliminarAnd that sense of community can be felt and represented with nature as well, and as we became individual who care for themselves we lost the connection with everything that surround us.