www.maafanta.com

*Cultivating the ¨Common Good¨*
*–unity, freedom, peace, equality and progress*

*Ebrima Kamara, Senior Researcher Uppasala University Sweden**
**
*Diversity alerts people to something special, creating a sense of
excitement – it provides an intense and effective
medium for developing leadership and communication. Diversity is safe; it
transcends ethnicity, hierarchy, class and
language barriers. It has positive economical, intellectual and social
benefits. Diversity has a profound effect on
peoples´ moral, stimulates creativity and generates positive development and
collective spirit. However, the positive
effects of diversity and its blessings are a consequent of understanding it
as a resource, richness and an advantage.
The key to achieving national unity is “dialogue” beyond conversation,
dialogue where the aim is to reach agreement.

Understanding how cultural diversity is related to value judgement would
encourage a new and critical interest in the
relationship between cultural life and value judgement. This in turn would
engage a dialogue to safeguard the function
of culture in society and the development of a collective imagination. Hence
exchange of knowledge enriches the
debates, strategies and repertoires for a collective identity. Just the mare
questioning of how our diverse cultures
influence and impinge on everyday life stimulates a cultural awareness
beyond the confines of traditional understanding
and interpretation.

To choose the right dialogue-form that suits the purpose is crucial for
reaching a tangible result. Dialogue is a condition
for understanding but also a practical method to find tangible solutions
with a broad foundation. Peoples or political
parties use the dialogue-method to for example, to compile new strategies or
plans, to identify new areas of
development and to reach new agreements on how to deal with issues of
national interest.
Dialogue is enlightening and educative. It is a sense of camaraderie
important for personal development, reliability and
vital for democracy. Through dialogue democracy grows daily, the sense to
participate as equals increases, helps to
breed free citizens and in this way distrust and democratic shortfalls are
avoided. In addition dialogue favours self-
interest because it teaches us to “think” independently and yet find harmony
in the end. An open exchange of thoughts
and ideas gives all parts insight and increased understanding, strengthens
self-esteem, confidence, inspiration for new
ideas and perspectives. We learn from each others viewpoints. It is a tool
that helps in dealing with diverse point of
views and improves the ability to see and deal with them as one entity.

The difference between cultural-hegemony and cultural-tolerance is;
culture-hegemony is hierarchical whiles cultural –
tolerance allows cultural exchange on equal terms. Gambianess is defined by
the same token, tolerating diversity,
encouraging cultures to enrich each other and in some cases muddle up to
one. And provide a wide-ranging and
socially relevant value judgement that is inclusive, tolerant and less
sensitive to dissimilarities. A flexible, absorbent and
symbiotic value judgement increases sensitivity to the new that grows from
diversity. That is to say the quality of a
cultural expression is determined by its function in society not where it
comes from or who the practitioner is. It is well
documented that a purely ancestral, or gender, or class position has a
predisposition of “leaving out” and instead of
elevating similarities strengthens dissimilarities.

Dialogue is the opposite of confrontation.
Dialogue explicitly means here a method to reach the highest common
denominator different from for example a
“discussion” where one seeks compromise or a “debate” where one seeks to
convince the opponent. Dialogue is not a
discussion, to instruct, or to inform, or convince, or persuade, or to
defend a position. Dialogue is not debate, where the
point of departure is limited and always has one winner. The difference
between dialogue and other forms of
communication is, it does not depart from predetermined concepts about the
result and has a “higher purpose”, to
reach consensus. Dialogue is not a one-way communication rather a two way
communication where all partners are
equal. Its point of departure is broad therefore it has its base from the
horizons, classes, languages of all parties. In a
dialogue no one person or party, or language has more or less information
than the other, rather represents what is
brought to the table.

To appreciate diversity requires identifying a form of description that
highlights its benefits. In this era of changing
cultural images, our responsibility is to influence improvement through
narratives that portray true-life experiences
representative of the peoples to enhance positive and collective
consciousness.  Consequently a realistic assessment
of Gambia’s diverse peoples would facilitate the reassertion of a value
judgement that emphasises diversity. For
example, to illustrate and examine the dept of integration and
interconnectedness between our diverse cultures in itself
enhances the cultivation of a deeper understanding and value judgement that
is all-encompassing.

To understand the new that grows requires distinguishing between
“description” and “reality”. Description and reality
are two deferent things; reality is what “is” and description is what we say
“is”. In other words, description is a faint
recollection of reality. Reality is physical experience and description is
“thought” verbally constructed to represent
reality. It is the combination of the two that constructs our awareness,
opinion, understanding, acceptance or rejection
of an individual, or idea. For example we perceive a person not only based
on physical feature but also on how s/he
has been described to us by others.

Description that is true to context or that is contextually actual,
illustrates diversity in terms of achievement. And focuses
on what we have in common and not our differences. This perspective
describes and discusses the objectives of a
political party to get a better understanding of its intentions. But
description that is true to history or historically actual
describes and discusses diversity in terms of difference, race, religion or
tribe. This perspective describes and
discusses a political party in terms of who the members are. And it does not
give new knowledge or insight. Without
hesitation the most suitable is the description that is “contextually
relevant”, hence it is more valuable to understand the
agenda of a political party than who the members are.

Gambians do not only speak each others languages but have intermarried and
developed forms of coexistence since
time immemorial. This prevailing interrelationship does not only provide an
unbreakable bond between the peoples but
also a collective imagination essential for nation building. This deep going
relationship conveys a stimulating energy of
fraternity, which demands attention from both leaders and political parties
collectively. To arrive at the altitude of
national consciousness supposes a narrative of similarity transcending
differences. A narrative determined to illustrate
the dynamics, the people’s constant redefinition of themselves and their
cultural practices to intellectually go well with
the constant changes occurring in time and space, here and now. Our duty is
to cultivate the common good, in the long-
term.

suntou
I wonder then, if there is any need for some saying, they belong to any
tribe or culture.
Is that a valid opinion?

-- 
Surah- Ar-Rum 30-22
"And among His signs is the creation of heavens and the earth, and the
difference of your languages and colours. Verily, in that are indeed signs
for men of sound knowledge." Qu'ran

www.suntoumana.blogspot.com


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