Coexistence #6 by LLT

‘Co-existence or Convergence’ is a personal project examining cultural change, starting in Africa, where traditions and beliefs that transcend time, are now co-existing and converging with the modern world. I am fascinated by the idea of coexistence versus
convergence, whether a certain way of life can be maintained and balanced with the new influences that development brings. Modernisation is a phenomenon occurring across most of the developing world. The sharing of information across the globe fuels this.
Globalisation fuels this. The need to improve economic conditions of those around us, whether at their expense in the long term, fuels this. The need for poverty alleviation, fuels this. Africa is changing, at a rapid pace. Some embrace it others denounce
it. I think it is inevitable, as the seed is planted into the minds of these people over time. That the modern world is better than theirs, that certain rituals are not right, that certain practices are not efficient and should be left behind, that certain
body adornments should not be worn, that they need to embrace commercialism. That message grows. One day it will mature. That day, will the world’s ideologies converge? Will ancient rituals disappear altogether as younger generation tribesmen begin to question
their identity in the world, as warriors move into the cities in search of that answer? Will body adornments such has the Mursi lip plates cease to exist one day as modern generation Mursi girls concern themselves with how the modern world views them? A piece
of cloth – when did this start to define us? When did oversize rapper t-shirts replace the natural sanctity of the human body or a simple piece of goat’s hide that shades parts of it? Curiosity of the world beyond them, the world that is different to theirs’,
of wealth, of wide-screen TVs and the World Wide Web…. of Coca Cola… is it inevitable that one day, the world may become one monotonous state of being? Modernisation and globalization are displacing ancient traditions, cultures and even people. Culture is
defined as the distinct ways that differentiates people in different parts of the world. While these distinctions are being lost over time, certain practices still remain. How much will remain in 50 years’ time?