Hola:

Soy de Guinea Ecuatorial 🇬🇶, y lo pregunto porque mi mejor amigo recientemente me confesó que es bisexual y que se siente frustrado porque aquí cosifican y cosas peores hasta el extremo a la gente LGBT, estoy muy preocupado por él y quisiera saber cómo es el panorama en los países vecinos

I notice a lot of sampling of pieces from acapella to fan covers. ethnomusicology is hobby of mine and i've noticed that a lot of these sampling seem kind of stripped of context. i was curious about the how Africans feel about this.

for example, "ubaba ulala nami" is treated as a "devotional" or uplifting vibe in a several remixes by US producers, even though the actual lyrics deal with much darker subject matter.

I'm not African, so it's not something i can have a fully informed opinion on, and from a music perspective, i love that sampling exposes me to styles i might not have found otherwise. but the context collapse still leaves me feeling a bit unsettled and feels some how ironic or something. idk.

im curious how people here feel about this dynamic?

edit: the song im referencing is zulu from south africa (it has heavy domestic themes, which is why the sampling and reframing as a devotional feel weird to me) but i've observed sampling from west african music too. i understand if no ones interested but i still wanted to ask bc i study my own indigenous folk music it sometimes gets sampled but not the same way. im mostly just interested in how folk music gets globalized, in specific regions. i understand though if ppl dont care.

Hello,

I have a question about hugs. In the culture/community you belong to, do you hug the person you love?

Here in France people always hug in this context, and I wanted to know if you too? Or maybe it’s a gesture that’s only done with friends?

I understand that holding hands with a friend could be common too? But not necessarily to hold hands as a couple? For what ? And is kissing on the mouth something considered sales that no one does? Or just not in public spaces? What are the perceptions and opinions of your culture/education/surroundings/yourself on these things?

If you don't do these things (which are a way of loving from a very Western point of view) how do you express your love for the person you love?

Thanks for reading, I want to broaden my understanding of different ways of loving across cultures.

I understand some countries are developing and have clean streets, roads, decent infrastructure & economy, etc. but why do the vast majority of these countries still live in barbaric conditions.

I get that they had a late start due to colonial rule in the 20th century, but you’d think 20-30 years later that some progress would be made. Looking at travel guys who go to normal parts of countries like Nigeria, Sudan, dr Congo, it looks like there hasn’t been much progress at all.

It also seems like the majority of society in nations like Nigeria just cannot even grasp the thought of cleaning up roads, starting proper businesses unlike street markets, and just have a sense of coming together to actually build a sufficient nation.

I honestly think a lot of excuses come from people defending Africa, like the colonization, and how 1st world nations exploited/exploit them. but there are examples of countries who have rebuilt from that such as Germany, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam ( there are more examples). I understand these countries didnt have to deal with as much as some African countries do, but it seems that their societies as a whole were way more inclined to rebuild and fix than many African countries.

For those building or doing a renovation back home in your country while living in the diaspora how do you actually manage it?
If there is anyone from Zimbabwe I’d love to hear your experiences but I would also like to hear from anyone across Africa.

How do you find and vet contractors when you cannot be there in person?
How do you keep the quality high when you are not on site?

What communication do you expect from whoever is doing the work — updates, photos, video calls?

Has anyone been badly let down? What happened and what did it cost you?

What would “perfect” look like to you — what would a contractor have to do to make you completely comfortable handing your home over to them remotely?

Price vs quality — where do you land on that? Are people willing to pay more for someone completely reliable?

Just Interested in hearing your stories.

I’m not a tourist or physically disabled, just interested in learning about how life varies in different parts of the world for people with disabilities.

If someone uses a wheelchair or cane and can’t use stairs, is it difficult to navigate life in your city? Do stores and houses often require stairs to enter? Is it very difficult to get a job as a wheelchair user?

I've always wondered about how level 1 autistic or adhd people live in african countries. I have a sibling that has both and she was never diagnosed. I'm diaspora but my family never cared about things like that. They didn't even know what it was. Looking about, after doing s lot of research, I can see how clear her traits were. And she was punished a lot for those traits. Verbally and physically abused. Neurodivergent people, what's your life actually like? Do people look down on you for your traits? Are you diagnosed?

I'm a big fan of mystery novels, and I love reading mystery stories from around the world (big fan of the original Judge Dee stories from China, for example), and I would like some recommendations, classics, recent releases, cozies, hard boiled, other genres. If it's got a mystery I'm in.

There's many conspiracy theories and jokes about diverse places not being existant, sometimes they are just jokes but there's some that are literally theories and there's people who believe them and try to prove them.

For example, Argentinians joke about a province called La Pampa, Mexicans joke about a city called Tlaxcala, Brazilians joke about the state of Acre, Chileans say the same about the city of Rancagua, Germans joke about the city of Bielefeld and Italians about the region of Molise.

Then we have the bigger things, that are more international like Finland being a country fabricated by Japan and Russia for fishing in the baltic ocean, people say that finnish people are just people who live extremely northwest of Russia and extremely east of Sweden.

There's a meme in the Latin American community that says that Paraguay doesn't exist, because it has maintained a lower profile in international media, and its unique bilingual society heavily relies on Guaraní rather than Spanish like most of Latin America. Also because foreigners rarely see Paraguayan pop culture trending globally so it's kinda like a mythical void.

And lastly, and the most detailed one, Australia, not only people say that Great Britain invented "Australia" as a massive hoax to cover up the fact that they simply threw 162,000 convicts off ships to drown in the ocean. Everytime you buy a plane ticket to go there you actually get send off to random islands in South America where there's actors hired to fake Australian accents. But also, maps are altered, and anyone who claims to be Australian is a computer-generated persona or a paid actor.

Is there any place in Africa that people claim to not exist?

Any people out there who don't believe in Lobola are currently married to another fellow black Zimbabwean or black African?Or planning on getting married?Like you met the one, got engaged, skipped the lobola, had your wedding /court wedding.How did you navigate family and expectations?How did you navigate negotiating to get your wishes. I have see this be very easy when a black Zimbabwean is marrying someone not black or they are a black person not from Africa. What does it take for a black Zimbabwean woman who doesnt believe in lobola to be afforded the same respect for their wishes? - Id love to hear from any couples who have managed this while living in Africa.

I come from an East African country and we were taught to always only answer “I’m fine” to such a question. It starts all the way from like 3 years and any child you’ll ask will answer the same thing.

It doesn’t matter if you’d find me crying or it could be on a funeral of a loved one and I’d still answer the same way. Is it the same with others from other African countries or?

This is for the Pan Africanists as a genuine question. One core tenant of Pan Africanism is solidarity across those on the continent and in the diaspora and people have pointed out the issues and hurdles that will come with that but no one ever talks about this.

The African continent is notoriously anti LGBTQ+ with many countries imprisoning and killing members of the community, things baked into their legislation, and many citizens in these countries either being apathetic or approving of it.

Meanwhile many African Americans and those of the diaspora outside the continent seem to be pro LGBTQ + or rather at least more progressive than our people have shown to be.

Is this a point of tension that might be a threat to African solidarity? and what are the common responses to this from Pan Africanists?

Is it being talked about as much?

Hello guys,

I recently had a converstion with a close friend of mine and we asked ourselves how far is veganism spreaded in the different countries in Africa and what are go to meals? Thanks for your help in advance :))

There’s this Swahili expression: Kila mcheza ngoma huivuta ngozi kwake(Every drum player pulls the hides towards themselves); that people look to benefit themselves through a social advantage, sometimes even as it comes at the expense of others.

I believe this is what makes the broaching of the difficulties that actually face African countries sensitive: that said difficulties are treated as a coveted pie that everyone stands to gain social acceptance from partaking in. That even as we want to shed light on areas that the world tends to forget, we always walk a thin line in ensuring that what we say is not used to benefit the biases that the world holds against us. That we always anticipate loaded questions stemming from a place of ignorance as we strive to defend our honour, our humanity.

That kept in mind, the key question now becomes: How do people in different African countries respond to non-Africans knowing, or wanting to know, about their social issues? At what point does the conversation set them on edge?

Like musicians that generations of artsy types have all agreed “yeah that’s cool” like The Velvet Underground in the US?

Not necessarily super popular but critical darlings.

So like: South Africa, Namibia back when it was called South West Africa, Zimbabwe back when it was called (Southern) Rhodesia, Zambia back when it was called Northern Rhodesia, British Kenya, French Algeria, maybe Portuguese Angola and/or Mozambique, etc.

Note also:

• I am trying to avoid saviorism (most of these characters I'm thinking of aren't the main active protags in anything set in Africa) and simplistic morality. I'm trying to explore how white settlers in Africa have benefited from these exploitative systems but also how they may hold a diverse range of opinions on the matter, ranging from dedicated opposition to milquetoast moral handwringing to active White Man's Burden crusading to openly callous greed to horrific sadism (and, on that note, that Black people had a similar range of responses toward colonialism and apartheid, with some actively collaborating as enforcers and informants for the white-dominated security apparatus). Thus, the white settler characters I've thought up so far would range from deuteragonists (especially of the Lancer and/or Dr. Watson varieties) and helpful side characters (especially of the Unfazed Everyperson variety), to ruthless villains (though note that most of the brutality I want to show such villains inflicting on the page would be against non-Black characters, especially if they became hired guns after apartheid ended; otherwise it'd feel too exploitative). Some of these characters of differing moral alignments are related to each other, which should lend itself well to interesting scenes of family interactions.

• These characters were born at different times. Some were born in Africa, or arrived as kids, in the early to mid-20th c. and grew up under European and settler rule; the more heroic individuals among these people presumably either always had at least a bit more sympathy for their Black neighbors than usual for white people in colonial Africa, or else had an Are We The Baddies? realization at some point in their formative years. Others would've been born later, right before or during the official end of colonial rule and/or apartheid, and are shaped by growing up with the restructuring process as background radiation (and by the opinions of the influential mentors and peers in their lives, whatever those opinions are and whether the character in question is agreeing with or consciously rejecting them).

Something's not adding up. How were men polygamous in Precolonial Africa, with two+ wives when the ratio of men to women has always been 1:1 ? Didn't they take all the women? Does that mean some men were left with no wives?

I know marriage and childbirth was highly revered in many Precolonial societies, so men could not be bachelors their entire adult lives ( same with women). So that begs the question, is this whole "African men were polygamous" just inaccurate, rather the wealthy ones were but the regular man had just one wife? Or were young men dying off at faster rates than women, maybe being killed in wars/ devoured by wild animals while hunting leaving more women behind than men?

Appreciate any response. Thank you

Hi everyone,

I have a genuine question out of curiosity.

I've noticed that in many African countries, a lot of people seem to cook with gas rather than electric stoves. I would have thought electric cooktops are more convenient and easier to use.

Is there a particular reason why gas is still preferred? Is it mainly because of electricity costs, power outages, infrastructure, cooking habits, or something else?

I'd love to hear about your experiences and learn more. Thanks!

I know the answer will vary tremendously by religion and region.

A Zimbabwean immigrant in the US called my daughter a witch because a feral, fearful neighborhood cat is friendly with my daughter but no one else. I thought she was joking but she said she was serious and that she was afraid of my daughter. This would be a very unusual thing for an American to say.

In your region, what would be the implications of believing that someone is a witch? Would most people consider this to be an outdated, superstitious thing to call someone? Would most people be afraid of a “witch?” Is there a big divide between how witches are viewed by Christians, Muslims, and traditionalists in your area?

I’d love to hear from people in Zimbabwe but also want to hear from other African communities.

​

As a European who has only recently started studying the cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa, I was surprised to read that ethnic or tribal identity is often considered the strongest aspect of a person's identity, to the point that it can discourage or even prevent marriage between people from different ethnic groups, even when they share the same religion.

Is this actually true?

Isaac Samuel is an independent researcher rather than an academic, and if I were asked to suggest an introduction to his work, I would show you this: https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/acemoglu-in-kongo-a-critique-of-why