The Afterlife is Where We Come From: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa

Abstract

As Africans, we usually severely criticize Westerners who write about our cultures which they often consider to be primitive and inferior to theirs. Though this attitude may be justified, it would seriously lack balance if we do not recognize the efforts of other Westerners who love Africa, who even live simply among us and try to understand our cultures from within. Alma Gottlieb, an American anthropologist, is one of these Westerners. Having lived more than twenty years among the Beng people in Côte d’Ivoire, she was able to deeply understand how their religious worldview influences their child-rearing practices. This book is the final fruit of her research and contains two main parts.