Can we speak of Africans?
Fri, Apr 30, 2010
Many African leaders have used the term ‘We Africans’ in their speeches and statements.
Subsequently, many researches and works based on findings in one African society have been deemed to be relevant elsewhere in Africa. For example there are books on African organizations, on the African management style, on African values…Those pieces of work are never based on empirical studies covering the entire continent.
For many years, I relied on the opinions and statements of prominent experts and leaders about Africa culture.
Only by living and working in different African countries, did I learn to understand the empirical evidence of the numerous cultural differences between Africans. Even when Africans share some common values, they can express those values differently. Therefore, what may be right and respectable in one culture becomes improper and disrespectful in another place. Even common values may have different ranks in a particular culture’s hierarchy of values.
But could so many distinguished experts and leaders be wrong?
It took me several years to solve this riddle. The mystery began to unravel when I attended a performance given by two groups of artists, an Ethiopian dance group and a Japanese group of drum players. In spite of the totally different performances offered, the officials of both countries went on stage and commented on how much they share in common. They could not be more wrong!
I was attempting resolve their incongruous emphasis on commonality and trying to figure out why they had not emphasized the beauty of their cultural differences, when I remembered a major difference between individualistic societies and group-based or collectivist ones.
In individualistic societies, differences are beautiful. They are studied and the subject of much interest and many comparisons.
In group-oriented societies, commonalities rather than differences are preferred as they ensure the harmony between the members of the groups.
The discovery of the explanation of African leaders and experts’ focus on their commonalities makes it clear that their true message had not been properly understood.
Subsequently many foreigners but also many Africans have been misled.
This situation yields many adverse outcomes:
Intra African cultural differences related to working with Africans have been widely overlooked in most literatures.
For all too long, Africans have been economically isolated from globalization . Now that they deal with new business and trade partners, they may commit many blunders caused by their lack of cross-cultural understandings.
International synergies between Africans and foreigners but also between Africans from different countries are critical to help African economies grow and compete globally.
Without additional research and without developing capabilities to handle the human side of the technical synergies, many efforts will remain ineffective.
This is why I am a fervent advocate of the development of cross-cultural competencies in Africa!
Tags: Africans, communication, management, Working in Africa
Africa does not have one culture but many cultures : Arab, Anglafone, Francophone and within each countries the tribes. You want to win, you need to know all learn all these and master them. Each countries of Africa has its own music. One finds it very tough to start business or work at the first time in a land of opportunities but opportunities.
But the one culture similar to all the countries in Africa is first to be accepted as a freind contrary to europe where you can’t imagine being a freind to your client.
You have to gain the trust. Second is to understand the culture thouroughly.
Private companies have their own culture and Public State companies have a different culture. Each government has its own policy. Countries differ from one and another. Its so fabulous when you learn to enjoy the work but you ought to go through the grilling phase which is inevitable. You learn by it.
The middle man culture is frequent in Africa. Thats how business works better.
Lets take some short examples of some countries within Africa :
Djibouti : A very small country, public or private, Djibouti ville is very reactive. Excellent place to work with a population of hardly 500,000. Djibouti ville. Hot wether, people are mostly dressed casual and are also casual. The culture is arab. One has to take into considerations the do’s and don’ts.
Nigeria : Baoni ! ( How are you ) If you learn to be a good Oga ( boss ), you are the guy. One nice place to work but its very important to understand all the tribes, the faith of christians and of islam. Reactivity is one thing that you can find in Nigeria. Lagos is very crowdy where as Abhuja is pretty sweet place. Mixed with lots of Indian expats and Lebanese expats.
Niger : Neigbours to Nigeria but far different in their cultural approach. They are mostly dedicated islams. People of the sahel as they are called. You may find it tough at the beginning if you are starting a business but you would be one lucky person if you get to understand the great people of Niger. Investments is one thing that is required and the “Nigerien” is one person that will give his entire support if you get to listen and understand him instead of always talking. “Grand Frere” is the key word to business partner ! I was a General Manager in Niger and I was given an award by the state for excellence in executing a project. But the fact was, everyday in the three years I spent there, challenge woke me up before going to office
Cameroon : Cameroon has an anglofone culture and a francophone culture. A country with more than 400 languages and tribes. The leading businessman are the bamilikais and the ruling party are the bettys. Football is a religion here and business is also like football.
Maybe I can share my experiences on specific countries if you have questions on Congo DRC, Tchad, Burundi,Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tanzania, Tripoli …..
Thank you very much for those cultural specifics Ananth.
You are raising important visible aspects of some African cultures. It is also interesting to understand African cultures from the perspective of the actors involved rather than through a description of their culture. You’ll read more about this topic in my next post.
Anyway thanks for sharing and have a great day
Pascale
Right on, Pascale. Thanks for this post. More power to you!
Hi Kwadwo
Africans should not be shy to explore their differences! It is very positive to focuse on commonalities but it is also great to uncover differences. That is also a way to work towards more tolerance and ultimately towards peace. In order to take off from an economical viewpoint, Africans critically need peace and tolerance. So let us encourage them to explore and learn to appreciate their differences
I am impressed about this post. Thanks
Hello Pascale,
That’s a really excellent thesis. It’s so surprising that Africans are always pooled togather as Africans. I’m sorry I’m saying the same thing also. But that’s the problem. It was when I started blogging on issues affecting africa that I came to realize how much difference there is from one country to another and even from one part of the same country to the other. There are issues are there common to West Africa and may not make sense at all to the East African community. I like the wat you brought out these differences and commonalities. Good job!
A really interesting read and a topical subject for me personally. I am currently working on my PhD focusing on the perceptions of personal development and career paths of Angolan professionals working in the oil industry. I’m particularly interested in the kind of impact being exposed to a Western (in this case UK) organisational and social environments (e.g. via developmental international assignments or education) has the the way Angolans see their own careers mapping out, the kinds of opportunities they perceive as available and the subsequent decisions they make about their personal development. The study is very much a qualitative study based on interviews and ethnography. As a developing researcher formulating my interpretations, it’s a challenging task, particularly as one presents their thoughts in writing, to find the balance between concepts, ideas, customs and values that may be generalised as ‘African’ (I do believe there are commonalities) and between those that are indeed very much contextual (Angolan, or even varieties of Angolan). With regards to my research topic, I have certainly been presented several times with the question ‘why Angola and what relevance does it have in the wider scheme of things?’. The first part, I find myself answering in terms of the specific cultural and socioeconomic context, but the second I find is usually answered in terms of what kind of helpful generalisations may be drawn within the wider context of human resource development or indeed leadership development in Africa. In the context of my study I tend to prefer to talk in context of Angola as I’m aware of the limitations in terms cultural scope of my research, however, from an academic perspective, I find that a pressure to generalise findings to Africa as whole persists, at least in the business and management field. Given that human resource management and organisational behaviour in African contexts are still sadly relatively under researched it is a challenging task to identify helpful generalisations with some kind of certainty, if that makes sense… Hence the reason I found this piece and the subsequent comments particularly interesting food for thought! I could go on, but I suspect I would probably go off tangent at some point….
Pasquale, I found your website through a Linkedin conversation and I’m very interested to hear more about your research and experiences. I shall a a further read on your website and get in touch.
Kind Regards,
Raisa