Monday, March 11, 2013

Blog #4: Culture in Pictures

This blog post, as was the last one, still concentrates on the topic of culture. Today's project is to talk about my culture using pictures. So, to start us of, I would like to share with you a few pictures that represent my culture.


This is a picture of the national anthem. It is essentially a prayer that asks God for blessings and protection, asks the people to put in the hard work required for nation building and asks for peace to prevail. To me these first two pictures represent the dominant ideology. It is also a manifestation of the values that we share as a nation which includes belief in a higher power and communalism. This version of the anthem is in the Kiswahili language, one of the national languages.
  My country is made up of 42 unique tribes, each with its own set of cultural artifacts. The people in this picture have on their person some of the cultural artifacts and objects that can be found around the North Western part of the country.                                                                         
The national flag itself, and the colors are symbolic. Red is for the blood shed during the fight for independence from British colonialism, green is for the productive land that we have been blessed with, white is for peace and black represents the people, while the shield and spears symbolizes the defense for the country and its people.


This is the screenshot of the website of Bomas of Kenya, a government organization that recognizes multiculturalism, and nurtures it.




One of the biggest cultural wars going on right now is the recognition of gay people. The logo on the left represents one of the organizations that is fighting for the rights of gay people in the country.


Since the text book talks about a lady who went to my country and experienced culture shock with the public transportation in Kenya, I thought it best to should share a picture of the transport madness that are matatus. They also represent an urban, hip and young at heart subculture in the cities and big towns.