WESTERNISATION - by Oluseyi Vandy

As a secondary school student sitting in Social Studies class (or was it Government? 🤔) I never knew how much relevance that word held. Yes, I knew on some level the cartoons I grew up on as a kid influenced my thoughts and educated me a lot. But now, many years later, I see how much it has advanced and derailed us. Anything done in excess, no matter what it is can have a negative impact. This is why Nigerians' ability to assimilate and adopt other people's cultures has had such a negative effect on us. This quality is one to be praised and makes someone a beacon, but when done in excess you not only lose the core of who you are, but you stand the risk of taking traits and habits that can be detrimental to you. This is where Nigeria finds itself.  Over time we have adopted The Good, The Bad and The This Shouldn't Even Be A Topic. We took in all these with the shaming tactic that our ways were primitive and in some cases barbarian. While I will not argue that some customs or traditions needed to be left in the past, the problem now is that there is this underlying inferiority complex and belief that most of the things from the West are better than ours.  We forget that they are human and are prone to being wrong as well, or some cultures were made to solve specific problems. Let me set an example. The idea of disciplining children. This topic is so horrific for many, but humans (and yes even kids) by nature want to test boundaries to learn what they can get away with. Why? Because human nature prioritises pleasure and immediate gratification, call it our animal Instinct. If a kid could have candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner, they would find a way to get it, but the parent has to be the firm hand to tell them no and then instil discipline in them so they don't end up with diabetes. This is what disciplining children does, it shows them what is and what isn't acceptable. This frees them to know how to interact with the larger world and not be confused when an action their parents never told them was wrong, gets them punished or ostracized by others in society. We forget that also, life has stages and as much as we are enamoured by how awesome the Western standard of life is, they have the freedom to live the way they do because either the government or the people fought to preserve it no matter how imperfect it may be. In translation, you cannot live in a developing nation and want to mimic the same culture of a developed nation that has the luxury to do so, you will just plainly appear delusional and out of touch with reality. Before we copy from them we owe it to ourselves, and our family to analyse and think through what we want to adopt. Cultures are different because realities are different. Take the best of other cultures and use it to build yourself, but know where to draw the line, do not underestimate and belittle the beauty of your culture and traditions.

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