时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(八月)


英语课

 


Nigerian Parents Mark Children's Faces for Safety



More than 500 languages are spoken in Nigeria and that number does not include traditional forms of communication, like “talking drums,” which have beats that can be literally 1 translated into words.


Nigerians also communicate with tribal 2 marks that have patterns identifying a person’s ethnicity and homeland.


Ahamed Sarkin Aska is a traditional doctor and the father of 29 children. He says the tradition of tribal marks goes back hundreds of years to a time when ethnic 3 wars and the slave trade made parents fear their children would be kidnapped, and later unidentifiable.


"When they see the mark they will call the family and say, 'We catch one of your family, is in our hands. If you have something to come and collect him?'" said Aska.


Aska said all 100 members of his immediate 4 family have marks on their bodies and faces to protect them, as Nigeria faces security threats like ongoing 5 insurgencies and outbreaks of diseases.


Onojah Abbah Samson is a banker and a father of four. He said his face was marked when he was two years old, during the Biafra War, a gruesome civil war that left between 1 and 3 million people dead in less than three years.


At the time, he said, people were getting marked for fear of being misidentified as a member of a rival ethnic group, and being and kidnapped or killed.


"During the war, both old and young, they starting getting marks for identification. It was not merely for those that were born during the war," said Samson.


It is commonly believed that the marks themselves have health benefits. Many young adult Nigerians say they were marked because they were sickly children, and will only mark their own children if they become ill.


Doctors at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, however, say the marks actually put children at risk for infections, like Hepatitis B.


Ayowumi Ayanwale Olayanju, Nigeria’s program officer for the U.N. cultural organization UNESCO, said the tradition is losing popularity because it is considered old-fashioned, but he does not believe it harms children.


He said the tradition also has spiritual roots and quotes a Nigerian proverb that likens tribal marks to the rewards of hard work.


"When you make marks, or when the mark is cut it is painful," said Olayanju. "When it is healed it’s like a free thing, something that you admire. You don’t even feel the pain, you only enjoy the beauty."


Olayanju said he hopes the tradition will be preserved by recognition from UNESCO in the future, even if it is not practiced. But many other parents say as long as Nigeria faces instability and disease, tribal marks will remain an essential part of raising healthy children.




1 literally
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实
  • He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
  • Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候,她不走到真正要昏厥了,决不肯坐下来。
2 tribal
adj.部族的,种族的
  • He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
  • The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。
3 ethnic
adj.人种的,种族的,异教徒的
  • This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏,这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
  • The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。
4 immediate
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的
  • His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
  • We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。
5 ongoing
adj.进行中的,前进的
  • The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
  • The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。
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