Families Values in Africa

One thing I am very proud about my father is that no matter what difficulty he has encountered in his life, my education has always been one of his main preoccupations. He always told me that if it was necessary, he would be ready to sell his house to pay my tuitions. There is no physical obligation for him of doing that, but they are more moral. In Africa, we give a great importance to the family. Family in Africa is not limited to the father, the mother and the children. An African family is also composed by the grand-parents, theirs siblings and all the descendants. Consequently, in my family we are 5 brothers and sisters, but my father took care of more than 10 of my cousins. Another thing is that at the contrary of what happen sometimes in the western countries, old people are never placed in retire center. Because their descendants will always take care of them, you will never see, in Africa, an old person that has to work to survive. There is only one word to explain this situation, it is what we call being grateful. We are grateful for what our parents have done for us, so we will never let them down. Old people here is the U.S. are sometimes disappointed by their progeny attitudes. But this is generally due to the way they used to treat their children. As the law of talion says: eye-for-an-eye, or the other expression: live by the sword, die by the sword.