[Chameleon]

In Africa .."Time is a two dimensional phenomenon with a long past, a present and virtually no future. The linear concept of time in western thought, with an indefinite past, present and infinite future, is practically foreign to African thinking"

The above quote is from "African religions and philosophy a book by John S mbiti


If you want to understand why we Africans have a problem in keeping time which is basically planning, then the above book is the book to read.

In the book Mbiti explains that the way Africans traditionally interpreted TIME might be the reason why most African goverments have never been capable of good planning.

According to him, we Africans tend to interpret TIME as continuous, whereby instead of divideing TIME into definate units, we tend be very fuzzy about it.

Thus, instead of TIME dictating to us when we can do something or not, we tend to be the ones who dictate to time when we can do something or not. (we create our own Time)

A good example is an African party. When you invite guests at 6pm, most Africans will come 3 hours late and then they will leave when they want to without being concious that they were either late or they overstayed

This attitude of TIME might be good when it comes to leasure activities like parties, but it is not good if we Africans are serious about adapting in todays competitive world or for future planning.


Anyway I would also like you guys to read the links below and maybe buy this other book thats talks about time

"The African Concept of Time" by Ernest Beyaraza

http://www.polylog.org/lit/2/rvw3-en.htm

http://www.nationaudio.com/News/Dail...Comment19.html < brilliant article on TIME by Philip Ochieng




Tell me what you think?

[patapata]

Interesting place to post this... then again, maybe if Philosophy's being linked to religion I guess it works.

Very good reading you reccommended. I'd already done some of it a while back and enjoyed it. Summing it up with Philip Ochieng' and Ernest Beyaraza was mzuri.
My favourite quote: Philip Ochieng's "...the african... has only just emerged from hunting and gathering."
~ Very "apt" way of summing up thousands of different traditional lifestyles and cultures in one category.

Seriously, though, seeing what these different scholars have to say about the issue of time and Africans does make one think.
Some of their ideas may be abit extreme, but sometimes, they have helped to debunk certain myths.
And it is valid that a slight difference in the way something as basic as time is conceived would have a major effect on one's way of life.
I do have a problem with the generalisations, though. The idea that one system of thought accounts for the supposedly similar behaviour of the population of an entire continent is not one that I can easily accept.

It is highly possible that certain communities have a 2-dimensional view of time. And it does seem that our current view of time and the way that we manage it are keeping us behind. But, I think that reality is actually much more complex, with many other factors coming into play.

[Chameleon]

I believe TIME is God. The more we understand TIME the more we will understand Gods creation and intentions (life)

Many a times people wonder why God is taking so long to reclaim his world, We try and guess when the end will come or when he will come back.

But I wonder, is Gods perception of TIME the same as a human being?:)


Anyway, about Ochieng, I think he is a very brilliant writer, you can tell by his articles that he is a very well read person and has alot to teach and tell.

Back to the topic. If you analyze the TIME habits of people who live in advance nations like the US, Germany and Japan you will find that they are very particular about TIME.

They are always thinking about surviving the future thus they tend to be very good planners. But as Ochieng points out, this obsession with the future might have been conditioned by the Enviroment.

Africans have always lived in areas that has plenty of year around rain thus food was abundant therefore there was little point of hounding food.

But for the western world, the enviroment was not that predictable. For the westerners if they did not hound as much food in the first 6 months when things were okay, then they would starve in the next 6 months when the ground was frozen, thus creating the mentality of planning and always thinking ahead.

But Mbiti in his book gives a different different reason as to why Africans have never mastered TIME. He says that Africans interpreted life realistically. Whereby there is a long past, a present and a future which is hopeful and continuous with no end.

[stupak]

>I believe TIME is God. The more we understand TIME the more
>we will understand Gods creation and intentions (life)
>
>Many a times people wonder why God is taking so long to
>reclaim his world, We try and guess when the end will come or
>when he will come back.
>
>But I wonder, is Gods perception of TIME the same as a human
>being?:)

Let me start with a disclaimer: I did not read any of the articles (I am not a great reader) but there is one thing I know so far....God's perception of time is very different from ours (human beings). Taking your God to be my God, I could be wrong, I will quote from the bible:

St. John 16:16: A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father

This is what Jesus told his scared disciples before he died....in a little while you shall not see me and in a little while you shall see me, meaning when he returns:

My question is .....a little while? It's been what? a couple thousand years? Is he back yet? mhmhmhmhmh another story!

Another thing he said to the thief he died with:
Luke 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise....

Today??

Anyway my point is I think one thousand human years is one second God time!

The concept of time is very interesting and time is also very relative. We can tell time from the clocks, the sun, the seasons, the birds, the plants, the millipede etc...take your pick. The thing about the clock is it's particulate nature where it breaks time into particular units which is the western way of looking at time, compared to using say the sun or rain, a continous from. Is this different way of looking at time make one society more civilized than the other?? I don't think so. I agree with you that they had harsh weather and so paid greater attention to time but it is not the way they looked at time that made them more civilized, it was the weather!

Most African nations had good weather and were self sufficient which was not the case with most western countries. Due to bad weather this people had to work extra hard so as to stay warm in the cold season and so as to have food in that same season. This brought about a need to travel (developement of transport) and thus interaction with people( exchange of ideas) thus civilization. Look at the African nations that lived under the desert harsh conditions....kina Mali etc and also look at Egypt. This nations still looked at time as a continous measure.....but were very civilized....why??? Harsh weather (desert)...need for transportation (camels) exchange of ideas with the mediterannean greeks and Romans ( civilization)!

Am I making sense here???? It was not how a nation looked at time that made them civilized or not, it was the weather!

[Dem Gal]

TIME is an interesting concept to discuss. Does 'Time' even exist? Stephen Hawkings' book "A Brief History of Time" has a unique way of looking at it.

Time is a human measure to facilitate the management of their activities. The concept of "Time" to God is definately different from how we view it. God creates seasons and times, he is not dictatated by either.

Weather patterns and seasons have contributed to the way the western countries make use of Time and hence other resources. Since necessity is the mother of invention, when they were busy looking for ways to make a air-conditioned house to live comfortably, we were comfortable in our grass thatched, mud coated houses with no worries in the world. But for the influence of foreigners, who changed our ways of looking at time, we did not know better and we would still be living a comfortable life 'as is'. Seeing that we live in 'Westernized' times, the alien concept of 'Time' has to be learned to catch up with people who have for thousands of years lived 'on-time'. What does that make us?

[Chameleon]

"Time is a human measure to facilitate the management of their activities. The concept of "Time" to God is definately different from how we view it. God creates seasons and times, he is not dictatated by either" Dem Gal

I wouldnt have put any better as you have put it in your above quote.