In Africa, the art of listening.

IThis article is a recounting by HENN’s time spent in Africa and the lessons he learned. He says that he went to Africa because of a desire to see the world from a different perspective. He tries to summarize what he learned on his travels with the phrase “Humans have two ears but one mouth,” an allegory with the central message that we are meant to listen more than we speak. Mankell contrasts the culture of listening he encounters in Africa with the fast-paced, chatter-driven nature of the Western world. He argues that in Africa, listening is a deeply ingrained practice, unlike in the West, where silence and reflection are often feared.

This article made me think about my own travels, the things that I've learned, and the differences I've noticed about different cultures. Stories are the foundations of our society, and it is interesting to see how a small deviation in folklore or ancient history can have ripple effects on today's culture.    

While I do agree with Mankell throughout the article, I wish that he could have gone into more detail on the stories he heard that will supposedly alter my view of the human condition. The examples he gives of characters being able to interact in a story long after they die or a story whose multiple timelines converge into one cohesive narrative while being cool story devices are all things I've seen and heard from stories here in America.

The image I choose is a frame from the first recording of the ghost dance, a ritual started by the Sioux tribes in the Black Hills of the Dakotas, the dance is meant to tell the story of the Native American people and the plights they faced while pushed further and further from their homes by American settlers. The dance was outlawed by the US government fearing that it would spark "rebellious nature and violent uprising" by Native Americans across the continent. Congress then issued this recording of the dance as the consensus at the time was the the Native Americans would be totally replaced by white people and their culture and stories lost to time. However as you and I know in the future that didn't happen, Native Americans and their culture and still very much alive an well and certain tribes across American still practice today.