About time

"The European and the African have an entirely different concept of time. In the European worldview, time exists outside man, exists objectively, and has measurable and linear characteristics. According to Newton, time is absolute: "Absolute, true, mathematical time of itself and from its own nature, it flows equably and without relation to anything external." The European feels himself to be time's slave, dependent on it, subject to it. To exist and function, he must observe its ironclad, inviolate laws, its inflexible principles and rules. he must heed deadlines, dates, days, and hours. They impose upon him their requirements and quotas. An unresolvable conflict exists between man and time, one that always ends with man's defeat - time annihilates him. 

Africans apprehend time differently. For them, it is a much looser concept, more open, elastic, subjective. it is man who influences time, its shape, course, and rhythm (...). Time is even something that man can create outright, for time is made manifest through events, and whether an event takes place does not depend, after all, on man alone. (...)

Time appears as a result of our actions, and vanishes when we neglect or ignore it. It is a subservient, passive essence, and, most importantly, one dependent on man."

From: The Shadow of the Sun, by Ryszard Kapuscinski