People go to Africa and confirm what they already have in their heads and so they fail to see what is there in front of them.
Interpretation
People often overlook the reality before them due to preconceived notions.
This quote emphasizes the idea that individuals often let their biases and preconceived beliefs cloud their perception of reality. When people approach new experiences or places, such as Africa, with fixed ideas about what they expect to find, they may miss the genuine truths and beauty that exist. This serves as a reminder to remain open-minded and receptive to new experiences, rather than only seeking validation for existing beliefs.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about cultural understanding and biases.
In fact, I thought that Christianity was very a good and a very valuable thing for us. But after a while, I began to feel that the story that I was told about this religion wasn't perhaps completely whole, that something was left out.
Writers don't give prescriptions. They give headaches!
Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord Himself stressed the importance of fewness. Narrow is the way and few the number. To fill the Lord's holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence. Our Lord used the whip only once in His life - to drive the crowd away from His church.
It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.
Writing has always been a serious business for me. I felt it was a moral obligation. A major concern of the time was the absence of the African voice. Being part of that dialogue meant not only sitting at the table but effectively telling the African story from an African perspective - in full earshot of the world.
An angry man is always a stupid man.
The judgment: You are now before Yama, King of the Dead. In vain will you try to...deny or conceal the evil deeds you have done. ... the mirror in which Yama seems to read your past is your own memory, and also his judgment is your own. It is you yourself who pronounce your own judgment.
Bolshevism is to be reckoned with Mohammedanism rather than with Christianity and Buddhism. Christianity and Buddhism are primarily personal religions, with mystical doctrines and a love of contemplation. Mohammedanism and Bolshevism are practical, social, unspiritual, concerned to win the empire of the world.
What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.
The fictive is an emormous territory it turns out, its boundaries vague, and there is little certainty about where it begins and ends.
Using words to talk of words is like using a pencil to draw a picture of itself, on itself. Impossible. Confusing. Frustrating ... but there are other ways to understanding.
Our life is a creation of our mind.
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