this is deep, temidayo. I live the masters to the critique things.
quite a thought stirring piece you have compose up there.
You are like a "Guardian of the African Values" lol. nice

A grand look into the things that make you the person you are.
The same applies to the Western peoples that ravage the world through greed, they have their idiosyncratic ways laced with a hate of anything that is different to them.
Damn it, I was born on the wrong side of the Greenwich Meridian, let us hold onto our own ways and with them build a world where all can live without
strife or wanting to dominate the others, Yours Ian.T

i like some of this
'Dont make a face or look with disdain
when with my fingers demolish mounds of yam
yams pounded smooth by the pestle in a mortar.
You need not sneer cause I prefer
the tough labour of strenuous pounding,
to the quick fix, of an appliance that can cook, bash and mix.
To me the methods differ, so also does the results:
the former makes a better feel on my tongue,
while the latter lumps short and long.
... Stare not in fright, when waist deep in brackish waters I demand a child
from the river goddess at the hour of midnight
... I often boil tree barks, roots green herbs
overnight to make my shivering body fever-free.
Especially as I rub snail ooze like lotion on my body
I laugh cause now science copies me.'

other parts scare me
'Call me no tyrant if I like my women to kneel before me
while I am eating, as they do in greeting.
Spare me names if every now and then
I expect women to surrender to the wiles and caprices of men'

i have to say that there are some things in many cultures that belittle a person or sex (usually the female) and could well be phased out
- in african culture the castration of females is one obvious example

i think your write says much re the keeping of important traditions - but not enough about the necessity to lose those that result in subjugation and fear

having said that, the write itself is powerful and well written, something i am beginning to expect from you
love judy
xxx

I haven't read the above comments, but this is wonderful
how right you are, I too have lived at one stage in my life
alone and having to fetch water from a stream 100 yds
away, breaking the ice with a crow bar taller than myself
when I needed water, walking through the wet grass
on my way to the two holed wooden loo in the barn across
the meadow of lupins, dressed in all my woollen clothes,
hung rugs round the thin walls of wood as the temperature
dropped to -20%C. I almost WISHED that the earth was
the floor instead of wood, living closer to the earth,
closer to nature that man has forsaken like a much
loved lover.

You see I know you are right, and have the privileged right
to continue being in the life you live to the full and love to the
full, and why not? Missionaries did so much damage to cultures
that had established natural ways of life, thinking all ought to follow t
he norm of their own lands, so sad that we loose so much wisdom
by abusing the natural people of the world.

Things that were terrible, however, we have managed to stop,
like the abusing of women's natural sexual organs, among other
beastly practices, I think all would be in agreement about changing.

I think you could have divided it up a bit into a more readable
format, making verses as its a big block of writing.
I enjoyed reading it despite that fact.
Well done temidayo

" so also does the results:" so also DO the results.

"I laugh cause now science copies me." because.

Nordic cloud.

Wow, there is so much in this write, less of a poem than a statement in a way, one that I can very much respect & yet, like Judy, parts of it make me shudder. I just LOVE the speaking out in an effort, or as an advocate for retaining your cultural values & practices, (yet as a woman, I find it hard to welcome the suggestion that it's ok for a woman to be seen as being less worthy or should be more submissive than a man (we have had to fight hard for equality, even in Western cultures & still do even these days in many ways... & this made me reflect on the fact that even the most "natural" cultures have a down side, Western cultures have hideous practices of greed & capitalism, oppression & racism, & warring, the worst of all, yet as an Australian, knowing well the practices of traditional aboriginals, amazing & in only few places untainted by the most poisonous elements of Western culture (drugs, alcohol, sniffing petrol) there are still some practices that place young women in seriously vulnerable & dreadful conditions (it is interesting how women seem to have been so often at the bottom of the gender ladder in most cultures.

In any case I am one who would definitely second this call... to be honest, as an Australian I DO feel bereft of true cultural lineage, our ancestors from England & Europe did not plant the cultural burdens, perhaps rightly, they are long ago distorted, but I envy even the Scottish their kilts & bagpipes & wonderful accents... Here we have only transplanted or newly developed culture. & Also, I feel the changes & pressures coming from the mighty US (no offence guys, it's not about individuals here, it's about politics & culture), that are eating up the innocence & openness of my own culture, with it's racial paranoia & it's greed & bigger is better culture, that didn't develop over here as a natural course, so I can only imagine the gap between the cultures there & the grief of losing that culture, when I feel it myself & we are deemed a Western culture, from similar beginning to the US.

I do think it is a good cause to advocate... Look what happened to the poor culture that originally lived in America, their culture is barely surviving, many not at all I suspect ( not far from our own cultural invasion here I must say... White man has a lot to answer for really over history, not a bad thing to resist in my opinion, in the end, all the cultures will be watered down, sadly, I just hope some can be retained ( the Maori in New Zealand have faired a little better in the "invasion" of their land... But I have gone on too long.

I see that judy and Nordic both addressed the things I had issues with. I appreciate the viewpoint/aspect that you were writing it from. I don't know what I would've done if I had been born into that culture. I might have ended up running off and living like the Amazon woman, because I couldn't have handled submitting to any man! hahaha lol They would've had to kill me if I didn't leave the tribe - my will is too strong.

As far as the circumcision issue. My husband & I believe that's a barbaric practice if done to female or male. That's why our son wasn't circumcised either. (I find it a bit ironic that while our society in America thinks that female circumcision is horrific, most of them still practice the male circumcision on their sons.)

(rhetorical question, the answer is clear)

It is not in the poem.

I've been working with an African writer on this site for many years, we've become close friends, and I only now realise I' may have been doing him a dis-service, trying to teach him Western prosodic values. To be fair to myself, he does not write the subtle cadence of language that you do, that made me hear.

You are not only asserting your cultural existence but your poetic heritage as well.
I feel honoured to read this.