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Showing posts from June, 2011

THE SOUTH AFRICAN TRAIN: A METAPHOR

THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED FIRST BY THE THINKER: VOLUME 20 ;JUNE 2011 ISSUE The use of metaphors and parables remains one of the greatest assets in the African education system. Supported by a rigorously used system of storytelling and use of symbols, metaphors have for centuries provided indigenous scholarship about and for African civilizations. The intellectual resilience of African wisdom cues and philosophy endowed idiomatic expressions have not only served as repositories of community values but also anchored a normative environment comparable to recorded philosophy of other civilizations. The use therefore of metaphors creates for society a rather neutral platform to reflect on itself in relation to presented phenomena. With the advent of technological advancement, machines have come to create new and interesting metaphors. The train is one such metaphor in the explanation of the evolution, growth and development of South Africa’s democracy. A train is a mass carrier of goods a...