What are ways "The Deep River" by Bessie Head relates to the theme of identity? Include both personal and cultural identity issues in your discussion.

In some ways, this story pits personal or individual identity against cultural or communal identity.Long ago, the Talaote tribe "lived without faces," meaning people lived without personal identity, having only tribal or cultural identity. They were content to have their identity be represented by their chief. Everyone followed the chief's orders, acting as one, accepting "this regimental leveling out of their individual souls" until, one day, conflict came and "the people awoke and showed their individual faces." It is when conflict arrives that we see how individuals can suddenly begin to privilege personal identity over cultural identity; or, perhaps, the emerging importance of personal identity over cultural identity is the cause of the conflict itself?

When Sebembele, the oldest son of the now-dead chief Monemapee, admits that he had an affair with his father's most junior bride, Rankwana, this causes conflict. The affair resulted in Sebembele fathering Rankwana's son, who he refuses to give up. Some tribe members feel he should be able to keep Rankwana as a wife, while others think a man who is so influenced by a woman is unfit to rule. Sebembele is unable to make up his mind, so his brothers choose for him, sending Rankwana away to be married to another man. When Sebembele learns of his brothers' actions, he goes to Rankwana's new home to retrieve her and their son; they walk through the village as one and seem prepared to leave the tribe together when something remarkable happens. Sebembele's supporters are so impressed with his actions that they feel "the time had come for them to offer up their individual faces to the face of this ruler." Sebembele's camp packs up and leaves the tribe, adopting a new name and trading their old cultural identity for a new one.

This story seems to suggest that cultural identity can only successfully take the place of individual identity until the individual begins to chafe under it. If one's identity comes into conflict with one's cultural identity, then personal identity automatically becomes more important, as the people are unwilling to live "without faces" when they disagree with their rulers or the rules.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

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