An Analysis on the Cultural Strains Present on the African Short Stories "The Invitation", "Coming of Age" and "Call to the People"
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An Analysis on the Cultural Strains Present on the African Short Stories
"The Invitation", "Coming of Age" and "Call to the People"
Introduction
Culture holds a great importance in a certain society. It determines individual and group of specific period, race or people. It is also what binds them. Culture is what determines the people of Africa and the one that binds them.
For how many years of existence, Africa, though the world she was into had denied its existence, had flourished their culture. It is seen in their literary works. Their writers look into the richness of their cultural heritage, their economic, social and political values. Some explore the conflict of old and new and effect of change on traditional African life and the search for identity in the African world. Others ignite the spirit of the Africans to pursue political freedoms.
This paper will discuss about the function of the African short stories which is to tell the world about their traditions and cultural strains in the chosen work of John S. Kado (Coming of Age), T.M Aluko (The Invitation) and Peter Abrahams (Call to the People).
Coming of Age
by: John S. Kado
Summary
The boy awoke with an unusual silence in the air when suddenly a sound of warning horn was heard. It is the sign that the important day for the brave youths has come. It is the day when a group of youths was going to be tested and enlisted in the tribe’s defense force as men. The boy hurried himself, rushed from his hut and caught a hen to offer a sacrifice to his dead ancestors. He butchered the hen with an ancestral knife, then put his back on the sun and threw the dying hen towards the sun-rays. They believe that their ancestors live in there. After the deed, he goes to the "oak of the ancestors" where the test was to be. There was a big crowd waiting in there when he arrives. Not long after, the African drums started to beat which signals the start of the test. The test start with the whips on the...
"The Invitation", "Coming of Age" and "Call to the People"
Introduction
Culture holds a great importance in a certain society. It determines individual and group of specific period, race or people. It is also what binds them. Culture is what determines the people of Africa and the one that binds them.
For how many years of existence, Africa, though the world she was into had denied its existence, had flourished their culture. It is seen in their literary works. Their writers look into the richness of their cultural heritage, their economic, social and political values. Some explore the conflict of old and new and effect of change on traditional African life and the search for identity in the African world. Others ignite the spirit of the Africans to pursue political freedoms.
This paper will discuss about the function of the African short stories which is to tell the world about their traditions and cultural strains in the chosen work of John S. Kado (Coming of Age), T.M Aluko (The Invitation) and Peter Abrahams (Call to the People).
Coming of Age
by: John S. Kado
Summary
The boy awoke with an unusual silence in the air when suddenly a sound of warning horn was heard. It is the sign that the important day for the brave youths has come. It is the day when a group of youths was going to be tested and enlisted in the tribe’s defense force as men. The boy hurried himself, rushed from his hut and caught a hen to offer a sacrifice to his dead ancestors. He butchered the hen with an ancestral knife, then put his back on the sun and threw the dying hen towards the sun-rays. They believe that their ancestors live in there. After the deed, he goes to the "oak of the ancestors" where the test was to be. There was a big crowd waiting in there when he arrives. Not long after, the African drums started to beat which signals the start of the test. The test start with the whips on the...