The Cultural Background in Africa

Abstract

We wouldn't think of generalizing about Chinese culture from observations made in Pakistan, but we tend to lump everything in Africa as “African.” In this article the author makes a sweeping survey of the continent south of the Sahara, and divides it into its racial, linguistic, and cultural groupings. He then goes on to point out some basic unities which characterize all of these peoples. Any reader familiar with one part of Africa can place his own experience in a wider setting by reading this article. Others can get a brief, clear survey of this continent emerging to a point of enormous importance in the modem world.