Integrity and Culture

Ok, shoutout to Liz for the inspiration for this post.

She wrote a post about Achebe's famous quotes, and one really stuck out to me: "One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised." This quote is so important given the context of Things Fall Apart because it has so much to do with the Western impression of Africa. We discussed thoroughly about how little and how selective our viewpoints on Africa are. We relate the entire 11.7 million sq. mile continent with safaris, animals, starving children, and a sense of alienation because of cultures we don't know enough about. So we and people before us form opinions, and eventually our opinions form facts. We think we know enough about the continent, so we figure that the images we see in movies, ads, and social media are true. But that's the thing; it's not. Novels such as Things Fall Apart and essays like Equiano's show us just how limited our worldview is and how unjustified our opinions are. Integrity has been compromised from the false viewpoints we have inherited, but pieces like the ones I mentioned help bring back truth.

For me, personally, this hits close to home. I feel like there's a lot of misconceptions or just plain, untrue opinions about my family's culture. People latch on to certain aspects of Indian culture and think they know all about India. Just like in Nigeria, India is full of different cultures and can't be reduced to specific stereotypes. It bothers me that my peers can't fully understand cultures unlike their own because they're surrounded by false or exaggerated preconceived notions. I really could go into specific details and stories for hours, but I think I'll just leave it with my appreciation for our course and the literature we read that allows for us to broaden and question our horizons.