African time

their own idea that morning and light are near. It is human nature to look toward the future to relieve fear and anxiety; but what if that future seems uncertain? What if the new day coming looks grim, foreboding, not hopeful at all? The 1980s were a time of excess and materialism. Fashion became more vibrant and eccentric. Movie plots were absurd. The music of the decade expressed a new need for material goods and the theatre was excessive and expensive. One might say that the American decade…

their hopes and needs. When one reads about characters in mythology he or she is able to reflect, internalize and learn about himself or herself. Among the many stories in mythology, creation is one that is interesting. African mythology presents stories of creation. Two of these African stories are The Creation of Universe and Ife and The Origin of Life and Fire. They have similarities as well as differences. Both stories began with chaos, they have animals that existed before humans, each has…

economic system and strengthen capitalist ideals. David Landes’ Revolution in Time and E.P. Thompson’s Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism were both written with obstacles of time-work discipline in mind. In Landes’ work, he focuses on the historical motives and origins of clock creation to support his claims and explains that “The clock did not create an interest in time measurement; the interest in time measurement led to the invention of the clock.” But the reader is left…

husband, and the younger ones, but that was a whole different time and generation where adolescents were mature. There’s this movie on Lifetime that came out in 2010, called “The Pregnancy Pact”. Where one…

Looking back at history is all about finding the threads that tie time and events together. Nelson Mandela’s story is one of those threads; in 1964 Mandela (the leader of the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC)) was sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage and treason. The ANC had campaigned peacefully for a long time but after brutal suppression of unarmed protestors and the banning of the ANC, sadly the leaders also turned to violence…

drew attention to Dana and Kevin repressing slavery. Dana was able to go back in time and experience slavery. However, according to Whitehurst-Joyner, Kevin was in denial about the situation even though the evidence was in his face when he saw his wife bloody and bruised up. But even so, Kevin got the message once he traveled back in time. From that point on, he came to grips that his wife was indeed traveling back time and he was able to acknowledge slavery and his white privilege. At the end…

“The life of man is a struggle on earth. But without a cross, without a struggle, we get nowhere. The victory will be ours if we continue our efforts courageously, even when at times they appear futile.” This quote by Boniface Wimmer, a German monk, perfectly sums up the capabilities of the human soul and what is necessary to happen in one’s life to ensure happiness of any kind, which is to surpass struggle. For that reason, the human soul is, by its very nature, designed to fight on despite any…

At the time, Mandela was imprisoned for sabotage and high treason because of the group he was involved in, which was conspiring to overthrow a government. He gave, “I am Prepared to Die,” as a defense speech within court. Mandela goes on to speak about how his…

with better hair and figure (Walker). Moving on from appearances, she describes Dee’s attitude. Mama says “Dee wanted nice things”, she wanted nice clothes and schools and fancy houses. Now, Dee arrives at the house in a car dressed in traditional African attire, and with her a man named “Asalamalakim”, a short man with long hair. Dee introduces him to Mama and Maggie, and then they move into the house. This is when Dee informs the family that she has changed her name. She says she will no…

community (Xu, 2014). Betty Wood writes that “the word slave meant a piece of conveyable property, a chattel, with no legal rights or social status whatsoever” (1997: 9). There is one more scene in the Beloved that presents having a name is important in African American tradition. After the funeral of her baby, Sethe does not want her daughter to be buried in an unnamed grave. Since she is poor and cannot afford to pay the engraver, she has sex with him “ten minutes for seven letters because she…