Anthropology
Colonialism has left lingering unwanted side effects nearly just about everywhere it has been practiced, and specifically in The african continent. The film N-ai, the Story of a? Kung Woman simply by John Marshall is a documentary that evidently shows the legacy of colonialism as well as the perpetuation of ethnocentrism and an unjust social buy. When determining how to proceed, and what recommendations to make the governmental and non-governmental groups doing work in Namibia, it is advisable to understand the background and legacy of colonialism through this part of Africa. Only simply by learning from the mistakes of the past will it be possible to envision and produce a bright future for all residents of the area.
As D! ai says in the documentary, “Before the white people came, we all did that which we wanted. inches This is a deceptively basic statement, nevertheless one that reveals the complicated current interactions between the citizens of Namibia and the overseas interests that continue to inflict their will certainly on the persons. Before the white people emerged, the! Kung people led a simple your life. Food was easy to discover, because a feasible population and a hunter-gatherer lifestyle reduced social conflict while increasing the availability of food. Performing “what we all wanted” means the a shortage of political, interpersonal, and economical oppression.
However, much damage has already been carried out. The! Kung community, and this of the Ju/’hoan tribe, has been altered perhaps irreversibly. People like And! ai have been completely forced to live a non-active lifestyle totally natural to get the European, but totally unnatural to them. The sociable order from the Ju/’hoan has been upset, and thus too, has got the environmental buy. Shifting from a hunter-gatherer to a inactive lifestyle is going to impact the land and the availability of regional foods.
This kind of report outlines recommendations for how to proceed. With debatably good intentions, some government and nongovernmental groups strive to “modernize” and “civilize” the! Kung making sure the project the availability of flowing normal water, permanent real estate, farm animals, and medical products. On the area, these elements are good for those. It is not each of our intention to deny the Ju/’hoan anything, but to cease interfering inside their lives by providing them possibilities for self-determination.
Recommendation: Consult, Consult, Talk to
No organization, especially those not really culturally linked to the! Kung bushmen (or the Ju/’hoan tribe in particular) should carry out virtually any initiative with out first consulting the people whose lives are affected. Therefore , the first step in the process of healing will be to make a database of individuals who will be willing and able to offer assessment services to the organization and any other firm involved in enhancing the community. The individuals classified by the repository should be picked on the basis of their very own willingness, although also prove respective position within the community. From this databases, we can produce teams that always have a Ju/’hoan affiliate serving to symbolize the community. It ought to be mandatory that no conference be organised, and no decision made, with no presence of any local.
Ultimately, the consultants will be diverse in terms of age and gender and will be Ju/’hoan individuals. People like And! ia will be perfectly suited for inclusion inside the database, because of their familiarity with the motives and methods of the whites. Throughout the forethought, planning, rendering, and analysis stages in the program to get community improvement, consultation will be ongoing. The Ju/’hoan consultants are once and for all parts of the team, and are indispensible to it is operation. And also the will come to look at our position as regarding facilitator, planner, helper, and consultant instead of as being in control of the region, the land, and particularly, the people. Human relationships with the Ju/’hoan will be carried out with admiration, and we shall defer to the wishes from the community. Ultimately, a nature of effort based on distributed goals can emerge.
Recommendation: Feasibility Record on Dismantling Government Camps
The film N-ai, the Story of a? Kung Woman unequivocally reveals the down sides inherent inside the government camps. They have fractured a delicate sociable order, and also have threatened to obliterate Ju/’hoan culture totally. Before that culture is usually extinct, it can be our work to find out if this can be restored and if therefore , how. The scourge of cultural imperialism must be stamped out. We could no longer imagine the European model performs everywhere and for everyone. American modes of business, connection, and management have failed the Ju/’hoan.
Unfortunately, it could not end up being possible to reverse destruction. Young people who have grow through to the camps will be not sure of how to hunt and gather foodstuff; in some cases, hunting and gathering is no longer conceivable. As the film remarks, horses have already been banned. The natural natural state has been tampered with, and reverting to it could be difficult. A feasibility report displays if dismantling the camps is (a) desirable for the people; and (b) feasible. Questions just like, “Will classic community leadership and interpersonal structure be re-established? inch And “How will persons actually move from the camps to the rose bush? ” should be raised and answered. Given that money and also other elements of deal have been presented, will it be likely to revert back to a looser, even more informal program?
Consensus is usually important. Who support existence in the federal government camps? N! ai plainly sees the drawbacks from the camps, whilst she is aware of how to make it through in these people. Her important reminder from the death of her contemporary society – a dire caution at the end of the film – shows that it may not at all be likely to move the Ju/’hoan people back to the way they had been before the whites came.
Recommendation: Environmental Research
Future success of the Ju/’hoan community as well as the lands it depends on intended for survival requires an complex understanding of the area ecology. It is vital to know what damage, if perhaps any, had been done due to the required relocation of the Ju/’hoan people, the insistence on a inactive cash-crop diet, and the upsetting of the all-natural order of hunting and gathering. Hunting and gathering has a comparatively small ecological footprint, theoretically. Data through the environmental research can be used to propose changes in how the Ju/’hoan make a decision they want to manage their community, as it is likely to be advised that they identify their own foreseeable future by choosing whether or not to return to a traditional lifestyle.
Recommendation: Addressing Opposing Concerns
Both foreign people and Ju/’hoan are interested in some of the benefits of modern civilization such as access to medical supplies. Entry to water must be ascertained, and will be evaluated based on environmentally friendly surveys. Yet most of the opposing concerns can be met judiciously via a win/win situation. A win/win scenario will offer choices for education and advancement to those who choose to keep the Ju/’hoan community, but actually will also permit the opportunity to come back to the traditional ways in which did not require such things.
One of the most important arguments in favor of the government camps relates to gender issues. In N-ai, the Story of any? Kung Girl, gender issues are investigated with sensitivity. It can quickly be asserted that the Ju/’hoan concept of sexuality, Ju/’hoan male or female roles, and Ju/’hoan gender norms are not any more patriarchal or sexist than those which exist in Europe. Therefore , simply no argument in favor of the camps can be built based on male or female issues alone.
Concluding Feedback
One scene of N-ai, the Story of a? Kung Woman shows the filming with the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy. This kind of clip reveals the deepest prejudices and ethnocentrism that characterizes the white thinking towards non-white Others. The director of The Gods Has to be Crazy includes a preconceived notion of what “bushmen” are like, and how they should act. If the bushmen will not conform to his expectations, the director scripts their activities and words. The director wants the bushmen being caricatures