Explore the ways in which European values and customs are shown to effect African Society in three short stories

Obi had put all his efforts to make the school marvellous and beautiful. Still, one morning, Obi woke up among the ruins of his work. He was influenced by European customs and he disrespected the views of the villagers and for this he paid the ultimate price.

Snapshots of a Wedding is written by a South African, Bessie Head.

Neo is a well educated girl but is arrogant. She is pregnant and the father Kegoletile is also the father of another woman's baby, Mathata. Mathata is a completely uneducated housemaid but despite this she has much better manners than Neo. Kegoletile has a choice to marry one or the other and of course he chooses Neo. In this culture a good wife is seen to be a wife with good manners and therefore Mathata should be the obvious choice. Neo's relatives recognise that he has chosen Neo so that he and her may become rich in no time.

The aunts on both sides are the representation of tradition and modernity in the story. Kegoletile's aunts' representing the culture and what is lost. They demonstrate the importance of manners and tradition in the culture. " 'That girl has no manners!' the relatives would remark. 'What's the good of an education if it goes to someone's head so badly they have no respect for the people? Oh, she is not a person' ".

The African wedding is quite similar to our wedding in some aspects. Instead of having the bride's father to give his daughter away the aunts give the bride away. Other similarities include celebrations after the wedding.

The Train from Rhodesia is set in a train station in Rhodesia. A train arrives at this station full of Europeans on holiday. As the train arrives many Africans rush up to the train to try and sell various items to the Europeans. A little girl throws chocolates to the dogs. This seems rather disrespectful to the Africans as it is such a luxury to them and they rarely, if ever eat it and the little girl just throws this luxury to the dogs.

There is an old man who is selling a model of a lion. A young woman is interested in this lion and her husband tries to bargain the price down but the wife decides to leave it. When she is wandering about her purchases she thinks of the lion and it bring a smile to her face. The bell rings signaling that the train is about to leave. The sellers run along by the side of the train trying to sell their items as they never know when the next train will come. One of these sellers running alongside the train is the old man. The reason that the sculptor must accept this is because he does not know when there is another train and how long it will be before he can feed his family again. The husband must have been expecting this because he reached into his pocket for the money, 'as one automatically opens a hand to catch a thrown ball, a man fumbled wildly down his pocket, brought up the shilling and sixpence and threw them out'. The young man buys the lion for his wife for a bargain price of only one-and-six baas.

He shows his wife what he has bought but surprisingly she is not very happy. She questions him as to why if he wanted the lion didn't he purchase it earlier. This shows that she feels sorry for the old man. She thinks it is wrong that he has bought the lion for a cheap price when it such a beautiful piece of work which would have taken a long time to make.

In all three stories, European customs are shown to affect African society. In Dead Men's Path the headmaster is influenced by European beliefs and he shows no respect for the African beliefs and pays the price for this, in Snapshots of a Wedding Neo has a western education and pays disrespect to everyone. The man who marries her is not interested in her as a person but the money he could gain from marrying her. Finally, in the Train from Rhodesia an old man who is fighting mass production is exploited by a European as the old man has no choice but to sell the item cheaply so he can get some money to feed his family.

James Smye 4PL