A young Ghanaian Poet, Gabriel Opare has tackled what he calls the decline in African cultural values influenced by the transformation in American culture.
In his latest book titled “The Face Of Poverty Is Black & Other Poems” the young writer tries to juxtapose mainly American and African cultures and exposed the unequal relationship between them.
In a short preview of the book, the writer in a statement to Africa Feeds said “the inspiration to compile” his poems into a book came to him at the University of Ghana. The 21-year old is still a student at the university.
His book was influenced according to the statement by “a course at the department of Sociology on development and underdevelopment.
Gabriel Opare, in his book tries to make a case that when “American culture became popular, more Africans subscribed to it and became Americanized… but African culture did not have quite the same effect on Americans.”
He said “because of this, Africans are dropping valuable cultural elements such as language, names, dressing and oral history in favour of more western alternatives.”
The poetry warns that a cultural death is on the horizon for many African ethnic cultures that didn’t have considerable influence on global culture.
The preview statement said “America does have a track record of eliminating ethnic cultures like the Crows, Comanches; the list goes on.”
The book however, doesn’t just lament, it also, as the description goes philosophizes on a range of other themes from love and betrayal, religion, political history, climate change and even the nuclear age.
The paperback goes for $10 on Amazon and as much as between $15-30 on other websites like Better World Books.
Source: Africafeeds.com
