Sabi ng lolo ng lolo ko..Traditions, Cultures and Respect to One's History

At this point I'm starting to think that Western/European Colonialism has its pros and cons. I'd like to thank the Spaniards for bringing out the writers in the Filipino society. Because of them we probably wouldn't have these kinds of strong and poetic literature. Same goes to Europe or America causing most Africans to stand up and also defend themselves or create awareness through writing. But this really isn't what we're here to talk about.


Igbo culture or Ibo(which is funny because the main character was named Obi definitely not because he was lazy to think of a protagonist name) is a ethnic tribe that resides southeast of Africa and like most Philippine cities, it went through the hardships of colonialism and was forced to swallow change in areas of religion, culture and tradition as a whole. We can see that the theme of Achebe's story is tradition and what it is about is how at that time it was more about modernizing the environment and the culture but these Westerners tend to eradicate tradition and their deity practices altogether which isn't how it should be. In relation our country went through the same  phase. A long phase at that. It began with the Spaniards, then came the Americans and the Japanese up until we couldn't create our sense of identity any longer. We we're completely westernized and lost track of history since we were busy fighting for our freedom for years. Being an archipelago it was hard to maintain traditions and keep what our ancestors were trying to preserve. Like the Igbo tribe we used to worship anitos and diwatas and other life form that was more tangible to humans. We formed barangays and our own form of "politics" along with this is our music, traditions and everything that comprises our culture. It was our own, parts of it were barbaric but nonetheless we did it out of our own capacity. But then these conquistadors came in introduced a new religion, did their act and finally took hold of everything that was ours despite our resistance as a country. Everything had to be modern and we had to be more educated to create classes among our society and this pretty much was like the big fence around the school of Mr. Obi. We were taught to laugh about our foolish history and somehow completely forget about it and move on to a more sophisticated culture that we had. 


Sadly it took time to write them down in our history books and only a part of it can be shared to the newer generations. We are lucky to have resisted them up until we gained our independence and others chose to preserve their cultural backgrounds and traditions so that their grandsons would have a story to tell. Our situation is very similar to the Igbos as I've said earlier. In this story he mentions the existence of a village, their old practices, the elder, their beliefs and their capabilities as a tribe. They were under monitor this "white Supervisor" and modernization seemed to be the trend because it was so ethnic all over Africa. Things were going backward and the country was "unprogressive" as many were uneducated. They were maintaining old religions, like their personal gods which countries would usually have as well. And what I see is not their resistance to modernization they do welcome it, it's just that they wish that their old ways didn't have to be removed or be forgotten for that matter. It was a simple request and because he had to meddle with it(not to mention that these are his people) his personal endeavors were affected. They wanted to keep tradition and they didn't want that being just part of the past but rather something they would keep for the younger generations. But like ours they(Europeans) wanted to improve the living conditions of society, have an improved educational system, incorporate modern practices and create a new age for Africans. Inevitably, this will not be allowed. People will retaliate or resist that to keep what is rightfully their own.


This is what Achebe mostly writes about. There are things we cant remove in our society especially those meant to be passed down from generation to generation. Things like our Lolo's Lolo has probably been passed to our dads and to us whether it may be religious practices or if you come from a certain province with specific traditions you just cant eliminate that because its what sets your identity as a person or as a tribe. Achebe was known to be the "the father of modern writing" and he believes in both keeping tradition and being updated. He promoted that through his writings and I quote from Wikipedia he says:In 1972, he said: "I never will take the stand that the Old must win or that the New must win. The point is that no single truth satisfied me—and this is well founded in the Ibo world view. No single man can be correct all the time, no single idea can be totally correct."


It may have been tough to try to blend in Christianity with their deities or modern society to tribal practices but we must always remember to respect what our ancestors have established in the past.