Re: Be-ing: From Afrikan Cosmology of the Ba
"The African sees his world as a unified world where every action is understood in terms of collective effort; everything is shared collectively in the process of life and change. The individual, the living sun (one in the collection of the community's suns) is understood as being sick, when he/she runs out of the wheel of the community suns. His world is basically a humanistic world. He believes that things exist that human knowledge cannot explain.
The Westerner, on the contrary, sees his world as divided and competitive. People are seen as separated entities whose actions are their own. The Westerner believes that people fail to succeed because they are unfit. His world is basically a mechanical world where nothing can be explained apart from his tools.
Africans live in a collective system with close family ties. The land, the source of everything to sustain life, is a collective ownership. The Westerner, on the contrary, lives in a very individualistic system where family ties are easily broken. Everything is individually owned; even children, between parents, are objects of controversy.
...The African therapist conducts therapy publicly outside or inside the house, but always in the presence of family members and close friends. The Western therapist talks of private sessions. An African therapist will not use the word private in any situation related to health, for the individual is not an isolated 'thing'; he is like a spoke in the social wheel. To heal an individual is to heal the whole wheel, the whole society and vice versa. The African therapist takes time with his patient, becoming one with him within the social wheel. The Western therapist is in rush; he does not have anything to share with the patient. From time to time he glances at the clock. The African does not worry about time, for his main concern is the patient with whom he shares the pain."
-Kimbwandende Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau
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