Growing Up African Be Like
- Molefi
- Dec 3, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 21, 2023
The bravest thing any human can do is to grow up as an African child with African parents.
It may sound like nothing to you if it doesn't resonate and that's okay. Our upbringing differs from one culture to another but there are minor similarities. The following will give you a perspective on how Africans go about developing character in children by instilling a specific kind of idealogy. It's neither wrong nor right buuh fully African.
As a child, you must never:
Cry too long after being beaten
Not cry after being beaten
Cry without being beaten
Stand where elders are seated
Be seated while elders are standing
Walk around aimlessly where elders are seated
Eat food prepared for visitors
Refuse to eat
Return home after sunset
Eat at the neighbor's house
Be too moody
Be too excited
Lose a fight with an age mate
Win a fight with your age mate
Eat too slowly
Eat too quickly
Eat too much
Not finish your food
Finish your food and scrape your plate
Talk while eating
Stay asleep while the elders in the house have already woken up
Look at the visitors while they are eating
Stumble and fall when walking
Look at an elder eyeball-to-eyeball
Blink when an elder is talking to you
Stare when an elder is talking to you
Look at an elder through the corner of your eye
But wait... There are more things that will get you a beating.
Join your mates when your mates are playing street football
When your mates are playing and you don’t join them
When you don't wash your dish after eating
When you wash your dish improperly
When you almost break your dish
When you break your dish
When you bite your nails
When you don't bathe
When you bathe too quickly
When you take too long to bathe
When you've been beaten in school for misbehaving
When a car almost knocks you down
When a car knocks you down and you don’t die
For not answering when spoken to
For answering back when spoken to
Going to Church or Mosque late.
Borrowing shoes/clothes from friends.
Giving salt or a needle to neighbors without permission.
Whenever we would get these beatings, they would always say that we will understand when we get older; WE DON'T UNDERSTAND! We simply realized when we became adults that we were cheap therapy for our elders. They never got the chance to heal from their traumas because they weren't aware of how broken they were and how much healing they needed. In most cases, we also became traumatized by that amount of violence in the name of discipline. Now we're trying our best to heal and become a better generation of Africans. There's being strict and then there's being African, surely we can keep our way of life going, minus the violence because damn!
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Lol! Well this sounds accurate 😅