Posted on : 26-11-2009 | By : admin
Nairobi is indeed one of the most interesting African cities one can be privileged to spend a couple of weeks. Its distinctiveness comes from the people who inhibit it coming from various cultural backgrounds. The city has a place for everyone to dwell irrespective of the language one speaks, the level of education one has attained, religious affiliation or better still, how much income one earns.
Without any doubt, the mixed culture has numerous benefits attached to it, however on the flip side of it is branding the city as a cultural melting point. A situation where one’s culture is replaced by Nairobi’s mixed culture that very few inhabitants have resisted the temptations of adapting it. How many times have we seen and heard our parents saying how someone has changed after living in the city for a while?
The most common thing that identifies people with this mixed culture is sheng, a language that results as an end product of broken English and broken Swahili. Despite the many efforts from the education sector to end the language, it has refused to melt away. Its roots continue to dig themselves deeper and deeper every day. The mixed culture has contributed immensely to the language’s evolving process. Sheng of the mid 1990s is very different from the one in the 2000s and so are the people who belong to those years.
The interesting things to note about the mixed culture are, one, it consumes one’s culture and replaces it with a mixed culture that will not last for a decade due to its ever-growing nature. Two the mixed culture itself is lead and justified by people, this is very different from our individual cultures that often lead the way.
To explain this, picture this scenario if you are living up country and you are about to get married, cultural values dictate that due processes should be followed before tying the knot blissfully. In the mixed culture where there is no value to dictate the terms, one will pursue a come we stay arrangement without anyone uttering a word.
This arrangement is comfortable with both parties on condition that they are living together within the borders of the city. Once they step out of the city, it suddenly dawns on them that something is not right somewhere.
The mixed culture is here to stay and no one can run away with it. Its existence will continue to enjoy its life as long as long as people continue to migrate in the city. The major challenge it faces is justifying its actions to our own cultures.
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/free-articles/nairobi-is-a-cultural-melting-point-1504027.html
