Beauty-of-Africa

Misconceptions of Islam!

Am not the kind of person that gets irritated or angry easily, but one thing that really irritates me is hearing the misconceptions people have about Islam. Of course everyone is entitled to their opinions but it’s just annoying when people think they know the religion that you are better than you do. There is a big difference between culture and religion but most of the times people aren’t really able to differentiate the two and that’s understandable. One thing though…..we are not all VIOLENT. I am not perfect and am not going to say I know every single detail there is to know, but one thing I do know is that the Qur’an doesn’t teach us to go blow up buildings. Actually 0.1% of more than 1.7 BILLION Muslims are terrorist ..and only 6% of terrorist are Muslims! And just because your from the middle east, or of Arabic decent doesn’t mean your Muslim, there’s a lot of Arabs that are Christian or other rreligion.The media just shows people what they want people to see, no reporters sits on CNN and talk about all the innocent people America has killed in trying to catch Osama, am pretty sure their lives aren’t worth any less than that of an American!. -_- it’s just like how back than a person that knows nothing or never been to Africa think that all Africans walk around naked with spheres because thats how Africans use to be portrayed. Can you believe someone once asked me if we have CARS in Africa? I mean Africa isn’t New York but DAMMM!

10 ♥

Cousin marriages!! Humm,.....

One thing that I know would baffle Americans is to know that there are cultures out there that not only allows it but encourages cousin marriages! I know for the average American they will be outraged but in Africa there are some cultures that don't see it as a problem. Don't judge but I just feel like sharing this with you guys so that ..maybe you'll understand it a little more. I can't speak for all of African ethnic groups only for mines because I was raised in that culture so I can speak for it, but I know a lot of cultures do it too but i don't know the reason behind it. But in the Fulani culture, the reason why they encourage cousin marriages is because the idea is that if cousins intermarry, they'll retain the entire family and their wealth. When a women is married, she is now considered to be part of her husbands family because she'll move in with him, he's not moving to her house and so when they have kids, the kids are closer to the husband's family. So if she married her cousin, she's not leaving the family because the husband is already part of their family! Get it?So really they try to get the girl to marry in the family, for the guy is not really a big deal because his wife is moving inside their family, so he really isn't going anywhere. So that's the idea behind cousin marriages in my culture. Of course that's kind of an old custom(in the village..its very much alive..and noo..the kids doesn't come out weird) now people want to get married to the ones they love but back in the days, you were definitely getting married to your cousin weither you like it or not!! I mean they still try to do that to me but am too feisty to let that happen, not that I think it's disgusting but because it's weird because I already see all of my cousins as older brothers..soooooo..NO!

5 ♥

People need to start understanding the difference between a culture that is predominantly Muslim and the religion itself! There are a lot of things that Muslim cultures practice that aren’t permitted by Islam but most outsiders think that it came from Islam when really it came from their culture. For example female circumcision! A big No No! It is not mandatory for a woman to be circumcised but there’s a lot of Muslim cultures that practice that ex.somali ethnic groups and even my group,so I know. I can tell you though that in my culture although it’s not practiced as much as it use to, they circumcise girls because they believed they will stay virgins longer. Like pretty much the idea is that if they take away a little bit of the skin, it will prevent a girl from wanting sex at an early age!!!; And forced marriages! Thats a big one at that! Last time i checked in islam, marriage was a union between two people that agreed to get married but in my culture and many others, it is widely practiced. So there is a difference between Islam and our cultures but most of the times it’s mixed up together!

11 ♥

ipoopdoublerainbows asked: I love your blog, it's beautiful :)

Thankkk you! I appreciate it! :))

0 ♥

If you ever googled Fulani people and you see a lot of other words like, peul,fulbe(Singular:pulloh),fulfude,haalpulaar, Fula, bororo is also another word for wodaabe ..don’t get confused, it’s the same as Fulani it’s just written in a different language, like the French call Fulani people Peul ethnic group, whereas the manidinka people call the Fulani, Fula! So same word, just different ways to write it! :)

2 ♥

I must confess that when I was a bit younger, I disliked being classified as African American because of the negative stereotypes that is associated with being African American. Am sure am not alone on this one.

4 ♥

Everytimeeee am on google reading up on Africans ..lol …I always come across a thread or some kind of discussion about which African country has the prettiest African women. It gets me so mad to see people actually siting down and having arguments about a topic like that. Each country has its fair share of beautiful women and ugly women, matter fact everyone has a different definition of beauty so that’s not even a topic we can debate about. It’s just sad. Or how the lighter Africans look better than the darker Africans, all of that is BS in my opinion. Everyone has a different perception of beauty so there is no concrete definition of beauty. So why sit and argue about it. Africa is so diverse and if we ourselves aren’t aware that Africans come in all shapes and colors, how can we get angry when outsiders have this depiction of Africans as looking one kind of way?

13 ♥

iamhamdi asked: Can we do submission on here?

Now you can! Lol :))

0 ♥

I was reading up on some African ethnic groups and do you peep how many countries the Fulani ethnic group is in? Lol it’s crazy I wonder why we don’t have a country of our own…oh yea because we’re nomads! Lol

Arab see Demographics of the Arab League
Berber
Hausa in Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Chad, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Sudan
Yoruba in Nigeria and Benin
Oromo in Ethiopia and Kenya
Igbo in Nigeria and Cameroon
Fula in Guinea, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Ghana, Chad, Sudan, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire )
Akan in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
Amhara in Ethiopia
Somali in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya
Hutu in Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo
Ijaw in Nigeria
Mandinka in The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Niger, Mauritania, Chad
Kongo in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Republic of the Congo
Shona in Zimbabwe and Mozambique
Zulu in South Africa

3 ♥