Culture is the way of life of a group of people, the behaviours, symbols, values, and beliefs that people accept, not thinking about them. It is passed mostly through communication and imitation from one generation to another.
With the introduction of Western cultures into our way of living, traditional African practices are slowly being washed off.
Building a young man a house after his circumcision was a practice many African communities practised but was slowly overpowered by events in the new digital world. Many Kenyans are unhappy with this development, although some are very comfortable.
Photo: Hoang (Freepik)
A frustrated online user, Kiprono Onorpik, has begged parents to construct houses for their teens, saying it is very frustrating to be 20 years old and stay with your parents in the same house.
“The digital generation parents, kindly and urgently build your sons small houses after circumcision. You cannot be living with a 20 year-old-boy in your 3 bedroom house in a trend witnessed nowadays,” Kiprono said.
Photo: PDU Delivery (Twitter)
Wamboi Kuria opposed the statement, saying that not all parents live in the village and have a big chunk of land in the towns to construct their sons’ extra houses when they reach adulthood. She added that some live in rental houses with less income; hence difficult to implement their wishes.
She added that parents should invest in educating their children, who will later buy big pieces of land and build big houses on their own when they grow up.
Regarding African culture, people perceive most of its practices as something in the sense that many practices are attributed to gods.
Some people, especially Africans, who have not fully experienced the indigenous culture believe that being too culturally aware makes one backwards or ancient.
Article by Agnes Aboo (@wilfrida_agnes)
Email: agnesaboo@upeohubdigital.co.ke