Modou,
Gini, Prince, G-list members,
As
the current slogan of Gambians is **peace and respect** an aggressive activity
like invading the authors of “no problem in the Gambia?” seems to me not fit to
create an environment for a better understanding. Instead I very much support
the idea of writing a counter-declaration and forwarding this to the authors as
well as additionally publishing better information on the
Gambia.
As
we have the site address now (thanks Prince)I was able to read the German
article in original. I already did a brief text analysis. This showed my that
this article is characterised by ignorance and misunderstanding of cultural
differences as well as effects of personal bad experiences which partly derive
from these.
Their
interpretation of what they experienced is clearly done by their cultural
background.
I
use the term culture in the definition of Hofstede[1],
culture as a software of the mind, mental programs. These are learned in the
environment one grew up, since early childhood “within family, neighbourhood, at
school, in youth groups, at work place and in the living community.”
The
core of culture is formed by values. They deal with
evil
vs. good
dirty
vs. clean
ugly
vs. beautiful
unnatural
vs. natural
abnormal
vs. normal
paradoxical
vs. logical
irrational
vs. rational
They
are learned implicitly and remain unconscious to those who hold them.
They cannot be directly observed from
outsiders but only inferred from the way people
act.
Culture
is completed by practises that “carry a
particular meaning which is only recognized by those who share the
culture.” This refers to “symbols” like words, gestures,
pictures, objects…, “heroes” (people with a high reputation in a culture) and
“rituals” like ways of greeting, paying respect to others, social and religious
ceremonies, business meetings….
From
my own experience I can tell that it is very difficult for a European to
understand and interpret situations in the Gambian culture. Many issues seem to
match perfectly with current interpretations from the view of the European. Only
when knowing more detail on the culture one will become aware of the authentic
background and thus be able of a more accurate
interpretation.
People
travelling to the Gambia will hardly get a chance to experience the genuine
cultural background when staying separate from the Gambian society. Merely
living among Gambians for some time and being open to any differences could show
the way to a better understanding.
Furthermore
any travelling for tourism or even more for business matters should be
appropriately prepared by a cultural awareness program. Unfortunately for the
Gambia, and similar for the whole West Africa, there are only few sensible
materials available.
Therefore
I would like to ask all G-list members to contribute with any source of
information they know. I would like to collect this on a website as a source of
reliable information accessible to anybody in the world. Those who think of
books and articles which they strongly criticize would please be so kind as to
write a few lines of evaluation on it. For any contribution please direct them
to [log in to unmask]
As we all love the Gambia we should do our best to support the country. Especially today in the “information age” we could take care of peoples respect towards the Gambia by providing sensible information and promoting the Gambia.
So
far for now
my
best wishes for Independent Day to everybody
Angelika
Prox Dampha