WHAT REALLY IS CIVILIZATION?

I was beaten in school for speaking Themne my own tongue a melody they called a wrong note. I ran to my father for comfort but he looked away called me foolish for not knowing the world had changed. I knelt beneath the old tree offering thanks for rain and harvest they said I was lost praying to shadows and myths. I wore my lion skin with pride feet firm in Crocs-hide sandals they mocked my walk said I was wild, uncivilized. But what truly is civilization? Is it silencing my mother’s voice? Replacing gods with shame? Or disguising erasure as progress?