Culture: The Invisible Thread That Holds Us Together

Personally, when we talk about culture, it is far beyond tradition. It boils down to passing down the memories of through language, how we laugh, the type of cloth we wear, rhythm and even rituals. It is the reason why we do something and not just the type of food we eat or how we greet eachother. It is what we are known for, what makes us visible and what it truly means to us.

I am a cultural boy and I was brought up in a Yorùbá household in Nigeria, where we were thought how to respect the elders by prostrating and going on our kneels to greet, respectively if you are a male or female, with meaningful names been sang into our ears with powerful meanings. Just like the beating of a talking drum that chants deep meanings, that how exactly how the taste of freshly prepared hot Amala and ewedu soup bringing a lot of childhood memories. From Olojo festival to Oro festival, to Osun Oshogbo festival, New Yam celebration shows that our culture is not dead and very much alive even when we do not pay attention to it. In respect of our age, our culture lives from how we crack our jokes is our mother tongue and even the powerful prayers we say in native dialects.

Just like a compass, that is our culture is to me because it directs if we truly pay attention. And in my culture, the elders usually say, "a man who knows his culture will never be lost." And that reminds me of two things, in the fashion trend of today, there is this thing called Aso Ofi or Aso Oke as we usually call it, it was worn in those days during our forefathers, but fast forward to today, it has become what the majority of people now wear during their wedding and different outings. Some have gone to the extent of improving it to sew different types of outfit and that is culture, it has not been forgotten.

Another this is the different festivals that we usually observe yearly in my culture, the Olojo, Osun, Oju Ade, Oro and other festivals usually used to honour the deities, all these things have been passed down from generations to generations to the extent that it is now acceptable globally that even the whites all over the world usually travels down to witness it. In a world that is saturated with modernism noise and lost in globalization, culture refused to be wiped away by those local flavours and it has shown us repeatedly that, "This is who we are."

Nevertheless, I believe that culture should not be a cage and it should not stop us from evolving positively. While I admire my traditions deeply, I have also cherish the Indian Holi festival where everything is bubbling with different colours and excitement. I might not have visited this place, but at the same time, I see a little part of myself in their practice. And that is the beauty of culture, it is personal, have some depth to it and at the same time it is shared all over the universe.

Now, let us have this little discussion about waste of time because how we decide to spend our time speaks volume on our identity, culture taught me this. Personally, anything that makes me restless and steal my peace, give me full moments by reducing my growth or gives me discomfort from my sense of purpose is regarded as a time waster. But those time we spend trying to bond positively with people by understanding them, conserving our heritage and traditions and bonding with our source, those can never be regarded as time waster. Because that it a means of communicating to the world that this is who I am without saying a word.

My culture, my heritage.
Your culture, your heritage.
Our culture, our heritage.

Thank for reading.

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