Culture is the total way of life of a people in a particular geographical area but I believe that culture entails shared values, customs, behaviors, and traditions of a society. There are certain factors like music, language, dance style, adornment patterns, food and dressing that highlights a person's culture and these factors when they are shared make being together worthwhile.
Would I be willing to pass on my culture to my kids?.....Yes but would I be willing to pass on all my culture to my kids? Well no. I love my kids (both born and unborn) too much to Introduce them to the harmful side of my culture.
Every culture has its beneficial side and also its not so beneficial side. I'll use my culture to illustrate. I hail from the South Eastern part of Nigeria. A state known as Akwa-ibom state, the people's paradise.
My state is a very wonderful place to be and it is full of cultural heritage. There's shares hospitality, togetherness and cooperation amongst my people but there's one aspect that still remains a stigma to date. Whenever I tell someone my state of origin, you would hear remarks like “so you're from that state where they kill twins?” I get that a lot and sometimes I try to explain that it was in the past and sometimes I just let the remark slide.
The aspect of my culture that I would never pass on to my kids is the aspect of carrying masquerades and idol worship. Not even in participating in their masquerade carnival which my culture is widely known for.
This is because I would not want them to mingle with supernatural activities that might have lasting consequences. Carrying of masquerades is not a task for the feeble minded not the weak. There's a lot of spiritual fortification that goes on before the masquerade comes out to meet the people and secondly, that stuff is freaky and I wouldn't want myself not my kids near such all in the name of upholding culture.
I will introduce them to other aspects of culture that are basic like language speaking, cooking cultural dishes and even dressing in the appropriate traditional attires but no idols please.
With this, I believe that not all aspects of culture should be introduced to children because of their mental, emotional, spiritual and psychological well-being.
Thank you all for reading. This is my entry to the #hivenaijaweeklyprompt #95.