Oil

How upsetting is it to realize that you are completely oblivious to what is going on around you? Well for me, when reading these articles, I realized that I really have no idea what is going on around me. Day after day Americans complain of the gas prices and how we can't afford them, but when you look at the bigger picture and realize that although we may be cheated out of money at the pump, those in Africa are getting cheated out of land, fresh water, food and a way of life. These articles brought me a new view of how big businesses operate, and exactly how oil companies that are home based here in the U.S. can make billions of dollars a year drilling oil overseas.





Above: Offshore Oil Rig in Africa
Right: Gas Flare in Africa

Medical Care in Africa

As I was looking up information on the health care in Africa many of the sites made me think about how Hawa's mother, Tenkamu, had to travel three days in order to see a doctor. Also how Hawa had to travel to the city to try and find a doctor who could reverse her tubes being tied.


A lot of the sites that I looked at talked about the medical care in Africa for U.S. citizens. In Senegal there are many hospitals and clinics in the capital of Dakar, however, the states of the hospitals do not meet the U.S. standards for hospitals. Also, they require you to pay your bills in cash and they will not allow you to leave the hospital until your bill has been paid in full and even sometimes will refuse you treatment unless you pay upfront. On the U.S. Embassy site for Senegal they have a list of doctors available for people to go to in order to get treatment, but just above it they have a disclaimer about the ability of the doctors! If this is how they treat U.S. citizens, meaning those who have money, I can only imagine how those who live in Africa are treated.


In Zimbabwe, the country's two largest hospitals are closed because the nurses and doctors are on strike or have just stopped working because the conditions they have been working in are horrible. A quote from the article said "They (the doctors) believe the conditions are unbearable for them to come to work and watch patients die" (allAfrica.com) Patients have been turned away and left to die at home because they are not being treated. This article was released on October 25, 2008.


In Mozambique there are only 7 ear, nose and throat specialists. Seven! In the whole country! There are also only 800 medical doctors for more than 20 million people. "That means there is one doctor for about 26,000 people. This figure compares with one doctor for 1,000 inhabitants in Europe and other developed countries" (allAfrica.com).






This link is to a website of current news articles about health in Africa:
http://allafrica.com/health/

Ancestor Stones Blog 3

Well I'm all finished with the book now, and I have to say I did like it. However, it did bother me a little. I didn't like the fact that so much is left unanswered or untold. We are learning about so many different people in such a short amount of time that there are huge gaps in what has happened. That is the one thing that is frustrating about the book, I feel as though there should be so much more to read. I may be contradicting myself in saying that is what is good about the book because I kept waiting to read hoping that in the next chapter something would be clarified or be told a little more in depth but that never really happened.

My favorite part of the novel was the very end when Abie's daughter is playing with the stones. These stones are the ancestor stones that belonged to Mariama's mother Sakie.

"'This is my favourite,' she said, holding up a stone roughly in the shape of a
hexagon, smooth to the touch, but with a pattern of ripples. Then she gathered up all the
stones, bent her head down over her cupped hands.
She remained that way for a long time until I asked: 'what are you doing?'
'Listen,' she beckoned me down.
I lowered my head to join her. 'What is it?'
'Listen to the noise they make,' she replied. 'It sounds like they are talking.'"

I honestly can't really tell you why this part catches my attention, or why I like it so much, but I do!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11615790

Ancestor Stones Blog 2

It was a little harder to keep track of who was who, and keep track of the experiences that the girls talked about in the previous section of readings and how they matched up. Throughout this reading it made me think a lot about how a woman's worth was measured. She must marry, the wealthier the man the better. A woman was looked down upon if she married below her. She was looked down upon if she did not remarry after her husband's death if she was still of an appropriate age. The woman had a specific purpose, and although the times and the beliefs were gradually changing, those purposes seemed to hold on in some sort to measure their worth.

As I looked at how the woman's worth was measured it made me think a little of how we measure a woman's worth here in America. Apparently we are supposed to be a superior, more knowing country. But here in America we measure a woman's worth by her looks, by her size, by her possessions and sometimes by her education. Which is comparable to how those in Africa measured a woman's worth. So what makes oh so much more "civilized", knowing, and what not?

We discussed in last class how we were to solve this problem that has been created in Africa of disease, poverty, and corruption. One student made the comment of how are we to go over there and try to make things right, who is to say what we implement and do over there to create their lives better (like ours) is really what is best for them? It just made me think while reading this book that many times people are too quick to judge. Before we say who's wrong or right we need to think about the backgrounds and history of those other people. Things we've probably never experienced influence a persons everyday move. If we are so different and "civilized" than those in Africa than why do we treat our women in similar ways?

Ancestor Stones

When I first went to read Ancestor Stones I was a little afraid because Allen had said we would want to keep our finger in the family tree pages of the book. When he said that I thought he meant that the book would just introduce character after character and I would be completely lost. I was afraid that I was going to once again be lost completely! However, the book really didn't end up the way I had anticipated. Although at first I was confused about the fact that the narrator of each chapter was a different person I quickly grasped what was going on.

From what I've grasped thus far the book is laying the foundation for how different each families lives are and also, how differently each of the narrators view the lives of themselves, their family, and the other wives' families. This book is definitely one that I have been able to read and actually enjoy, rather than put my effort into understand what is going on, which is a plus!! I can't wait to read more!

Xala

Xala was definitely an interesting book. The polygamy in the book stood out to me. I noticed that although some stood firmly against polygamy, such as the daughter Rama, many could care less about it. Meaning that although polygamy was accepted and was still seen as a way of gaining status many did not practice it, however, they did not look down upon it. The interaction between the families was one that left me a bit stunned. I did not expect them to be best friends but from reading Things Fall Apart, although the wives may not have been good friends they still had interactions with eachother. It also seemed to me that when El Hadji remarried there was a given amount of time in between his marriages. It almost seemed that he remarried when his most recent wife started becoming "old" or a "bore". If you looked at how he saw his first wife he noted her as one who was deeply religious and who kept her place as the wife. He seemed to think she really no longer needed him other than for financial support and the status of being married but when we met with her alone she spent her time weeping because she felt alone. I would have to say that for a 100 page story Xala had a lot packed into it!

Links:
http://www.bartleby.com/65/se/Sembene.html

Cheikh Anta Diop

Born in 1923 in Diourbel, Senegel Cheikh Anta Diop is known as one of the greatest African historians of all time. While originally studying physics, he is known as a linguist, anthropologist, and politician. Cheikh Anta Diop is most famous for he research and claim that Egypt's beginnings were that of African descent.

As Cheikh Anta Diop continued to study the history of Africa he stated that, "The history of Africa will remain suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until African historians connect it with the history of Egypt." Cheikh Anta Diop has published many books regarding his research. He died in 1986.

A New Way of Reading

"An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" gives a whole new image of the novel Heart of Darkness. After reading Conrad's novel once, and having a hard time understanding it Achebe sheds a new light on how to read it the second time.  

While we spoke in class on Tuesday of the fact that we felt Conrad did not fu

lly agree with how the African natives were being treated Achebe points out that his racism still shone through in his book.  In Achebe's essay he says that Conrad is as "careful as ever with his words" which can be seen when Conrad explains his kinship to the native as a "distant kinship".  

Chinua Achebe's essay gives Conrad's Heart of Darkness a whole new meaning that I may have missed the first time.  When reading it a second time it is almost as if I'm reading a whole new book.

Interesting Article.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/feb/22/classics.chinuaachebe