Change, change, change
Lately, I 've been sitting around thinking about about change. A lot of the things I see in Tanzania as issues that people grapple with have to do with change---a forced, unnatural, better hurry up form of change. In all of my classes we talk so much about how colonialism changed everything, how it forced a new culture on Africa and tried to kill off the "real" African culture. We talk about this longing to return to a culture that no longer exists and talk about current-day African culture as if it is a fraud, a shattered remain of what Africa should be (had only those stupid Europeans not messed it up forever). As I might have said in an earlier post it seems as if Tanzanians have to ask themselves every time they make a simple decision whether or not they are betraying their culture. Should I wear jeans or a kanga wrap skirt? Should I drink juice or coke?
What I think is odd as I think about all of this change is how it mirrors the same questions Marlboroites appear to be asking themselves as they see the administration and student body change. In looking over the recent nook posts (nook is the community online forum) as people debate the smoking question and talk of a deteriorating Marlboro culture, I see the same trends. There is a sense of powerlessness, blaming of external forces, and some hard core nostalgia.
The sad thing is neither Tanzanians nor Marlboro kids ever move beyond the idyllic past and look at what to do with "what you've been given." I should stop making this so 3rd person, as I personally don't know what to do with or about change, either. Why do we wish so hard to hold on to something? What do we do when something we think is precious looks like it's never coming back?
I guess I'm just going to make this one more post that ends in questions.
What I think is odd as I think about all of this change is how it mirrors the same questions Marlboroites appear to be asking themselves as they see the administration and student body change. In looking over the recent nook posts (nook is the community online forum) as people debate the smoking question and talk of a deteriorating Marlboro culture, I see the same trends. There is a sense of powerlessness, blaming of external forces, and some hard core nostalgia.
The sad thing is neither Tanzanians nor Marlboro kids ever move beyond the idyllic past and look at what to do with "what you've been given." I should stop making this so 3rd person, as I personally don't know what to do with or about change, either. Why do we wish so hard to hold on to something? What do we do when something we think is precious looks like it's never coming back?
I guess I'm just going to make this one more post that ends in questions.