The following was contributed by African Students For Liberty Local Coordinator Stephen Oyedemi

One of the beautiful things about most African countries is the diversity of cultures that define them; from Kenya to Nigeria to Ghana, Africa celebrates rich cultures that have evolved over many years. Culture simply put can be defined as the predominating attitudes and behaviour that characterise a group.

Cultures evolve; African cultures should come into modernity.

Many of us believe that the cultural settings of our forefathers were shaped by their society, what they saw, and their limited exposure to knowledge. We live in the times of Google, smart phones and apps, to mention a few; our thinking is highly influenced by the enormity of knowledge we are exposed to and there are no reasons for us to be confined to the ‘ancient’ cultures, or to pretend we love certain parts of them that in actual sense, we find extremely barbaric and irritating. Certain parts of cultures are good and could be exalted, but it is up to us to also decide those components of our cultures that we should forfeit.

Yoruba children for example are required by tradition to prostrate (male) or kneel (female) for their elders, but while this is a sign of respect and reverence for the elders, it is taking things too far when youths are expected to continue the practice in its undiluted form of a flat-faced form of genuflecting. While showing reverence should not go out of fashion, forms of expressing reverence should evolve.

Those parts of our cultures that do no uphold individual rights, liberties and dignity should be abandoned; those components that tend to crush the dignity and life of the girl child, render the lives of women worthless, dominate and frustrate minorities, should be discarded. We should be bold enough to evolve cultures that serve us well and guarantee human flourishing. This will be built on mutual respect, free trade and human dignity. The times of domination, injustice and torture must give way for modernisation. The time we live in require that things be done is much more reasonable ways. Too many hopes have been cut, too many dreams shattered as a result of unreasonable traditions.

Our history is full of many admirable and inspiring acts, stories and traditions. While we may feel we should be continually loyal to these cultures, we should know that cultures didn’t create people, people created cultures, and if cultures can be created, they can also be changed. It is all a matter of time. We live in times when we have to subject our cultures to logic and see if they stand the test of reason.

Mary L. Cumings in her book, Surviving without romance, explored the pains many young women face in many parts of Africa as a result of the tradition of early marriage and the entrenched patriarchal system; she wrote, “the old African cultures must give way. There is something noble beyond pains.” Truly, the old African cultures must give way so we can live freer and better lives.