UNCONCSIOUSLY ETHNOCENTRIC

Have you ever been exposed to something new and you think “That’s not normal”, you do not mean it, but it is the first thought you have. That was my reaction watching “My Stolen Childhood” a short BBC Eye documentary aired on YouTube, depicts the trokosi tradition of west-African cultures like the Ewe community. A tradition practiced for over 300 years, whereby the people, particularly girls and women, are sent to shrines to atone for the sins of a relative. It follows, Brigitte, who was sent to the shrine to be a wife of the god because her uncle committed adultery, who managed to be released by a charitable organisation. She now goes back, to reconcile with her trauma.

What is ethnocentrism? According to the Oxford dictionary, it is when an individual views the world from the perspective of their own group, establishing the in-group as archetypal and rating other groups from this basis (Baylor, 2012). This concept is mostly applied to cultural dimensions and thus forms a bias outlook. Culture is defined as a pattern of learned, group-related perception — including both verbal and nonverbal language attitudes, values, belief system, disbelief systems, and behavior (Singer, 1987). However, it has become so ingrained in our minds that sometimes we unintentionally speak these prejudices.

Watching the documentary, I instantly thought it was the heritage was barbaric; sending a girl to make amends for their relative, a decision she had no privilege of making, because of the belief their family will be plagued with illness and other generational misfortunes. That the girls in the shrine are subject to manual labour, being denied the right to education. And to consumate the union, once reaching puberty, they lay with the priest. However, I’m basing this from my upbringing and practice of western culture which is not my traditional culture.

Where would this stem from? Could it be from scientific racism, where we have been conditioned to our racial inferiority that any aspect of our culture would be, for lack of a better word, barbaric? From the era of colonialism, where the natives were forced into submitting to western culture and abandoning their traditional beliefs because they were crude, to present day when talking Kiswahili is deemed as a punishment in primary school.

In my Intercultural Communication and Diversity class, the lecturer posed a question “How many of us consume local content?”. Though some local media content were mentioned the likes of films such as Disconnect, Rafiki, Sincerely Daisy, Maria, biographical films too such as Softie, detailing politician, activist, photojournalist Boniface Mwangi’s life. That was from a handful of the over 80 students. The rest were quick to judge and from comparisons with Hollywood films; “poor story lines”, “poor camera quality”. For the likes of Wakaliwoods’, “Who killed Captain Alex”, everyone starts somewhere. A note worthy mention is “Nairobi Half Life”, the depiction of a boy, fresh out of high school, moving to Nairobi with dreams of becoming an actor, but faced with the harsh realities of city life. There are even plays put out at Kenya Cinema. I am an avid follower of “Too Early For Birds” which is a series of theatrical performances that tell the tales of Kenyan history, and not the one taught in 8–4–4 primary, the most recent based on Tom Mboya. We have started embracing a new genre of Kenyan music, Gengetone, that used to be largely frowned on because of the sheng dialect which resonated with inferior settlements.

Doing a degree in International Studies, the chances of being confined behind a desk are minimal, one has to learn to interact with the diverse international cultures of the world. One can not successfully do this if you already have preconceived biasness to your culture. As we strive towards globalism, we have to appreciate each others different backgrounds.

References

Baylor, E. (2012, January 11). Ethnocentrism. Retrieved from Oxford Bibliographies: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0045.xml

Singer, M. R. (1987). Intercultural communication: A perceptual approach. New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs.