# I find parts of Africa cultural practices annoying **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 15, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397 "2014-10-15T13:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/81 "2014-10-18T06:47:07Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Which is why I pointed out that if we have so many wealthy and educated first world people irresponsibly ignoring contagion risks, we shouldn’t be taken aback to see such behavior in poor and ill-informed third world people too. Taken aback or not, the virus spreads regardless. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/82 "2014-10-18T12:26:55Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > So what do you suggest? I already know a bit about geography, geology and anthropology so does your blanket statement apply to me as well? > > Obviously, using an entire continent as a basis for describing a cultural norm is too vague. We are clearly beyond using a single country and in any case, those state lines are blurred by tribal land divisions anyway. West Africa, West Sub-Saharan Africa, Or should we specify which groups and cultural mores specifically? I think the real issue here was lumping together a couple practices that happen in West Africa with a completely unrelated practice that happens nowhere near there. Kind of like saying “US-European cultural practices are stupid, with their plastic surgery and anti-vaxxing and Nazis.” One of these things is not like the other, and it makes your “bucket” kind of look like an excuse to smear as many people as you can. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/83 "2014-10-18T15:53:59Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I think the real issue here was lumping together a couple practices that happen in West Africa with a completely unrelated practice that happens nowhere near there. > > Kind of like saying “US-European cultural practices are stupid, with their plastic surgery and anti-vaxxing and Nazis.” One of these things is not like the other, and it makes your “bucket” kind of look like an excuse to smear as many people as you can. Yes. Correct. And some practices from what is the forest zone of the West Africa (which have nothing to do with farther north) which are then put together with no sense at all with practices of the southern Africa as if it makes sense that something in the Zimbabwe and the South Africa, thousands and thousands of kilometres away have something to do with the Liberia. But Black persons… it is all the same and to claim otherwise of course is the “political correctness” not mattering if ten thousand kilometers separate. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/84 "2014-10-18T20:18:37Z")
Funny how incidents from New York, LA, and Missouri can be considered together but things from Zimbabwe and Liberia can’t be. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/85 "2014-10-18T20:39:12Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Funny how incidents from New York, LA, and Missouri can be considered together but things from Zimbabwe and Liberia can’t be. > > Regards, > Shodan It is\*\* funny\*\* how some prejudices and ignorances blind persons to the difference between a comparison between one country with a common culture in grosso modo and a common language and a common legal system and a common national government - against comparison between people who do not have anything of a common history or a common culture or a common language (not even a shared language family at all) or a common government or anything at all in common _other than_ they have skin that is called black. There is a word for this of course. But then by this logic , if something happens in the Mexico or the Guatemala it most be considered together with what happens in Los Angeles. It is logical. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/86 "2014-10-19T04:27:21Z")
“Liberian funerals typically include washing the body and keeping it for a wake that can last days as relatives and friends come by and kiss the corpse before it is buried, often in a family cemetery nearby. In addition, Ebola infection carries a stigma in the country and people sometimes don’t want to admit a family member died of the disease.” They do it because of ignorance. Now if we could just get the entire population of Liberia to sign onto the SDMB… Oh, and the state of Texas and Mississippi too… ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/87 "2014-10-19T08:18:07Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I think the real issue here was lumping together a couple practices that happen in West Africa with a completely unrelated practice that happens nowhere near there. > > Kind of like saying “US-European cultural practices are stupid, with their plastic surgery and anti-vaxxing and Nazis.” One of these things is not like the other, and it makes your “bucket” kind of look like an excuse to smear as many people as you can. No, no, no sven: just say “_Some_ US-European cultural practices are stupid, with their plastic surgery and anti-vaxxing and Nazis.” Then we’re good, according to arguments presented in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/88 "2014-10-19T10:53:53Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > No, no, no sven: just say “_Some_ US-European cultural practices are stupid, with their plastic surgery and anti-vaxxing and Nazis.” Then we’re good, according to arguments presented in this thread. Ok, but it still doesn’t really work. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/89 "2014-10-19T11:06:02Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Funny how incidents from New York, LA, and Missouri can be considered together but things from Zimbabwe and Liberia can’t be. > > Regards, > > Shodan Let’s see. What do New York, LA and Missouri have in common that Freetown and Harare do not? ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/90 "2014-10-19T12:53:22Z")
I’d like to say arbitrary lines drawn on a map, but they all have that. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/91 "2014-10-19T20:23:21Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Let’s see. What do New York, LA and Missouri have in common that Freetown and Harare do not? Very few things, other than the fact that the former are in the same country sharing the same language whereas Liberia speaks English and Liberian Kreyol, while Zimbabwe speaks 16 languages, with 3 official ones (Chewa, Chibarwe and admittedly English), Zimbabwe has a little under twice the per capita income as Liberia -a rather larger gap in development, we’re mixing countries, US states and cities, Zimbabwe and Liberia have entirely different ethnic groups, Liberia had brutal civil war during the 1990s while Zimbabwe’s war was 20 years earlier, etc. etc. There was some rather high octane ignorance in the original comparison. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/92 "2014-10-19T21:43:34Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Funny how incidents from New York, LA, and Missouri can be considered together but things from Zimbabwe and Liberia can’t be. Which “incidents” would those be? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/93 "2014-10-19T22:37:56Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Which “incidents” would those be? Ferguson is located in Missouri. So the reference is presumably about US police violence against African Americans. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/94 "2014-10-20T05:20:40Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Ferguson is located in Missouri. So the reference is presumably about US police violence against African Americans. Ah, a subtle dig at “liberal hypocrisy” I presume. Well, others have already dealt with the difference between a country that is not an entire continent (with its unified federal laws and overall culture) and vastly separated countries in a (larger) continent. I get that **Shodan** must think US States are the same as foreign countries, but…that’s really not the case (sorry, Yank exceptionalists, but it’s not). He’ll have a point when Mexican bad cops are lumped in with Canadian ones. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/95 "2014-10-20T05:56:26Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > He’ll have a point when Mexican bad cops are lumped in with Canadian ones. Canada has cops who were Mexicans. So, does the US. No one is lumping one culture in with another other than saying these cultures exist in Africa. Which is undeniably true. If someone was to say, “I find parts of human cultural practices annoying”, I doubt that you’d take issue with any discussions on which parts we would be talking about. Yet replace ‘human’ with ‘Africa’ and people get bent out of shape. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/96 "2014-10-20T08:34:15Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > If someone was to say, “I find parts of human cultural practices annoying”, I doubt that you’d take issue with any discussions on which parts we would be talking about. If somebody said they found parts of human cultural practices annoying such as picking one’s teeth, idiotic fads, the Armenian genocide, tuneless humming, _gullibly_ believing in the face of all evidence that tax cuts are the key to economic growth, Ted Cruz, Tom Cruise, furbies, Thomas Kinkade, Nixon/Reagan, dying strip malls, pig waste ponds, pointless Republican wars and instant Republican amnesia of the same and saccharine elevator music, people would think you are either socially maladjusted or making a bizarre and ironic point. Hey! I just said _I_ found them annoying! Why are people looking at me funny? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/97 "2014-10-20T09:51:46Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Canada has cops who were Mexicans. So, does the US. Which is a complete _non sequitur_…the statement isn’t about the ethnicity of the cops, it’s about the country they’re working in. > [@](#): > > No one is lumping one culture in with another other than saying these cultures exist in Africa. Errm, nope. The OP is very much lumping them together in one rambling rant. Now, I agree with you that it doesn’t seem to be a _coherent_ rant, but “lumping them together” is very much what he’s doing. > [@](#): > > If someone was to say, “I find parts of human cultural practices annoying”, I doubt that you’d take issue with any discussions on which parts we would be talking about. You doubt wrongly. I’d very much kick up a fuss if someone were to post a rant grouping all human cultures as a collective entity. I’m knowledgeable enough about human cultures to know that there’s _no_ generalization you can make about them that will stand any scrutiny, other than the tautological “they’re _human_” > [@](#): > > Yet replace ‘human’ with ‘Africa’ and people get bent out of shape. I’d have been equally as “bent out of shape” if he’d ranted about “Eurasian” or “North American” cultures as an exclusive set. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/98 "2014-10-20T10:22:47Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Errm, nope. The OP is very much lumping them together in one rambling rant. “I find **parts** of Africa cultural practices annoying” The word ‘parts’. What does it mean and how is it used in this context? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/99 "2014-10-20T10:47:20Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > “I find **parts** of Africa cultural practices annoying” > > The word ‘parts’. What does it mean and how is it used in this context? I took it that he can’t spell “African” ,as that made the most grammatical sense, so he was saying “parts of African cultural practices” (where “African cultural practices” was a monolithic entity), not “cultural practices of parts of Africa” which is your gloss. But even your reading still involves **grude** bundling Liberia and Zimbabwe _and nothing in between_ as though they were in any way related. And I’m not going to be giving **grude** the benefit of the doubt for cultural sensitivity, for … [reasons](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17829617&postcount=1). Involving his penchant for using the word nigger. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397/100 "2014-10-20T12:09:39Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Is there a deadly disease going around? Do these Chinese scientists have a valid, well-supported, reasonable explanation why these weddings must stop? It was my impression that in the context of a hypothetical she was proposing, the answer to the first question was “yes.” And the answer to the second question was “Yes, according to the Chinese and Mexican governments.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-parts-of-africa-cultural-practices-annoying/701397.md?page=6)