Madumo

Globalization and the Clash of Cultures Our world is globalized, meaning that ideas, businesses, technology, and even people are spreading around the world. Immigration is an impressive thing from an outsider’s perspective, however second generation immigrants such as myself will disagree with this first glance appearance. What happens when an old culture is introduced to a new one? Is there adaption, assimilation, or is it simply mixing oil with water? Being a second-generation female immigrant from Egypt, I can vouch that it’s very much like mixing oil with water. Many second generation immigrants from middle eastern countries immerse themselves in the cultures that they are born into, while their families fight against this in an attempt
MaMfete is the ideal incorporation of two contradicting beliefs coinciding, on page 45 MaMfete describes her experience with witchcraft but then immediately dismisses it because she was raised Catholic. This dismissal would make it seem she does not believe in witchcraft, however Adam asked her specifically about her personal experience with it, so for her to believe she had experienced it must signify that believes in it to a degree. Adam describes MaMfete still practicing her cultures non-Christian beliefs when she needs to on page 49, yet she maintains her Christianity. She represents the product of second-generation immigration, such as myself. The ability to draw from both cultures, from back home and the one we are born with and be able to proudly draw on them when we need to. In my position, I am able to speak Arabic fluently, yet I can also speak English, I can cook middle Eastern foods as well as North American foods, and so on. Many other second -generation immigrant women are able to maintain this, however they families do not see it like that, instead they only see the North American aspects intruding on the Eastern and even beginning to replace
Obviously, murder is a massive sin within the more common religions in the East, so why is it practiced? Adam similarly questioned contradictions between religion and culture, when it came to Madumo who was blamed by his church for practicing witchcraft in order to kill his mother, he states “I wanted to know more about these people who, in the name of Christianity, could condemn a man to perdition of social death as a perpetrator of witchcraft” (146). Clearly, the tone of this line is very questioning and upset about the actions that were taken out. What happened to Madumo was not at all Christian, in fact it was more in line with his native South African culture. This mirrors the situation with Eastern women as well, because what happens to them is not a product of the culture they are born into and nor is it actually apart of what their parents believe in, surprisingly. The concept of honor killing is a product of the combination of both cultures since in contrast to each other; Eastern and Western cultures are polar opposites. I’ve heard my parents discuss what they hear in the news, including honor killings, one thing I’ve repeatedly noted was how my father would explain that that wouldn’t happen in Egypt (his home country), nor would it happen in most Eastern countries. Of course,