Mkeka is African for Mat?!

Hello all. I said I wouldn't post for a while, and I shouldn't because I am crunching numbers on an excel sheet. However, as I was flipping through the newspaper, I saw something I thought was outrageous and I had to stop myself and analyze whether I should really be offended.

My conclusion was Yes!!! But slowly something is being done about the problem.

The Article was about the Kwanzaa celebration, and in it, the author referred to everything as an African tradition, or an African word. This is small sampling of a serious problem in today's world. Africa is referred to as an entire country instead of a continent of fifty three countries, each with unique cultures. Many African cities are modern, even if they are not at the same level as American or European cities. Yet Africa's problems are referred to as just that -problems- and attempts to solve them are handled as such. Now, if you wonder why it matters, it should be noted that the problems of one country can drastically affect the stability of another, a fact that becomes more true as the world becomes more globally connected. If you are wondering how does this tie into battle, well, I will tell you.

One of the fundamental steps for successful engagement and termination of a war, battle, or even a problem is clearly defining and understanding your it. In order, to conquer a people you have to understand their culture and what they value. You are then on the right path to developing a plan of attack, whether that include actual attack, or compromise. The very first step is to understand the people. The same is true of conquering a problem. You must understand who's problem it is and how it affects them and their culture.

However, a group of teachers decided to tackle this problem and has taken action. The Teachers of Utah State University have actually developed lesson plans for teaching students about Africa at the elementary level. These include lessons on the people, the cultures, the countries, and how the US and Africa compare. The lessons are simple, yet informative, and hold a wealth of information that the common person would not know about one of the world's biggest land masses. Although these lesson plans are for elementary students, they are actually a very good starting point for anyone how has caught themselves saying, 'how can I understand or contribute to solving Africa's problems.' Because as one teacher said, "Africa is not just one big safari." And understanding the people is part of conquering the problems.