My Father Character Analysis

As stubborn as he was, a trait that remained with him throughout his life, my father was equally in love with his new wife. Regardless of the pressure that was brought to bear, he stuck to his decision not to accept the widow. This immensely affected the dynamics of family members’ relationships throughout their lives. Emanating from this, resolution of conflicts, education of his disadvantaged communities and development of support structures of the whole extended family became an area of great interest and devotion for my father. He applied his knowledge diligently both to his employment and society. He regarded education as a liberator and as a sure way to a noble and better life from material poverty. He was a very strict disciplinarian, …show more content…
As his children, we preferred preferential treatment but it was not to be. Later in life, he was saddened to see the little he had achieved atrophying into oblivion. Some of the children he sponsored through school ended up loitering unproductively at the small local business centres. At that time, self-employment was despised and anyone engaged in it was considered a failure.
The markers of success and excellence then were renowned professions such as doctors, pilots, engineers or any other profession acclaimed by foreigners, especially Europeans and Americans. Our society only valued employment that was with an established known institution or an organisation administered or owned by foreigners, preferably Caucasians. This view of employment still stands to date in calculating local unemployment rates. Whilst maybe gainfully employed within their communities, the general view regards all employees outside the so called formal employment as unemployed or …show more content…
Its over-emphasis created deficiencies elsewhere in us. My mother did most of the disciplining and regularly meted out corporal punishment. Major problems were dealt with through my father’s intervention. I remember my father belting me only once when I was ten, but had regular spankings from my mother until I was fifteen. The discipline in earning what one owns was strongly emphasised. This has created a challenge for me in business on the short term as the ethical boundaries of business are now blurred in most contemporary economic and socio-political contexts. Some societies now perceive rewards, corruption, cronyism and marginalised respect for the rule of law including many other societal ills as acceptable ways of doing business. I now go back to my upbringing from childhood to try and expose how that can help in my present and future integral design to my self–awareness of who am