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." 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