Revitalizing African Youth for Unity and Peace Building: Celebrating African Culture, History and Values (Published)
The study examined revitalizing African youth for unity and peace building: celebrating African culture, history and values. The study highlights the potential of African cultural revitalization to foster a sense of shared identity, pride and belonging for unity and peace building. Two research questions were raised and answered in the study. Survey design was adopted for this study. The population for this study comprised all African youth. The sample for this study was 1000 respondents. Stratified random sampling method was used to select youth while cluster sampling technique was used to select 5 countries in Africa in the study. The instrument used for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire titled “Revitalizing African Youth for Unity and Peace-building Questionnaire (RAYUPQ). The questionnaire were administered using online platform such as Google Forms and Microsoft Forms. Descriptive statistics of simple percentage, mean score and standard deviation was used to answer research questions. Benchmark of 2.50 was established to accept any item with a mean rating of 2.50 or above as agreed while any item with a mean rating less than 2.50 was regarded as disagreed for research questions. It can be concluded that revitalizing African youth for unity and peace building requires a multifaceted approach that celebrates African culture, history and values. By embracing their rich heritage, youth can develop a strong sense of identity, pride and belonging. This in turn can foster a culture of unity, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. It therefore recommended that government, traditional rulers and African leaders should integrate African culture history and values into educational curricula. Support youth-led initiatives. Foster regional collaboration. Promote cultural exchange.
Keywords: African Culture, Peace – Building, Unity, Values, history
The Traditional Mbaise Society: Perspectives on Igbo Scio-Cultural History, 1500-1900 (Published)
This article examines aspects of the socio-cultural institutions and practices in the context of traditional Mbaise society and culture. The process of evolution and growth of Mbaise society was predicated on a number of institutions and practices which had socio-cultural, political, economic and religious implications. Appreciating the fact that social development is a vast area in socio-cultural history, the paper concentrated on the family structure, marriage institutions, religious beliefs and practices. Traditional Mbaise society was endowed with these great institutions and others which Christianity sought to wipe out, though without success. The impact of Christianity and other western influences notwithstanding, the paper argues that these institutions generated ideas, values, and norms which crystallized into the Mbaise identity and cosmology. Against the backdrop of the popular opinion held by the western writers to the effect that pre-colonial African societies were not part of world history and civilization (and hence incapable of initiating change), we argue further that this negative and bias narrative about pre-colonial African societies is now very anachronistic and no longer worthy of intellectual attention by scholars of both African and European persuasions
Keywords: Africa, Christianity, Mbaise, Religion., Socio-cultural, Tradition, history