The Hare Krishna sect was a religious novelty to me. They were not adherents of the Christian, Islamic or traditional religions to which I was accustomed. As an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan in the late nineteen eighties, I came across members of the Hare Krishna sect frequently because the sect’s Ibadan temple was located almost opposite the main entrance to the university. Like me, most students viewed them with suspicion. The periodic ‘gyrations’ of Hare Krishna devotees adorned in orange colored tunic and back-stripped hairstyle, around the university gate always rekindled memories of Indian talismanic powers made popular by Hindi movies. So when Kingsley (my friend and room mate) chose to conduct an ethnographic study of the sect as his project, not many people were amused. Our expectations ranged from the weird to the absurd. We had fears that he could be kidnapped, hypnotized or turned into a Zombie. Unfortunately, as his closest friend, accompanying him to the temple for the studies was a matter of duty.

Over the course of several months in 1989, Kingsley with me in tow would walk across the gate of the University to the Agbowo temple. We partook in worships, symposia and enjoyed the free meals on offer. It turned out to be a good experience, eye opening and eliminating all preconceived notions of evil worship. Rather than my preconceived notion that the sect was a cult, I found out that the God they worshipped is the same Christian God and that the only difference between ‘them’ and ‘us’ was their system of which is largely influenced by the Indian origin of the sect. The experience of my interactions with Hare Krishna devotees and observing at first hand their worship helped in elimination my hitherto held fear of the unknown. I was challenged by that experience to be more open minded and receptive towards things I do not know.
So when a dear friend raised the issue of ‘Cultural Humility’ during a discussion a few days ago, my mind went back to my Hare Krishna experience. I realized that at the root of our national malaise is the issue of cultural bias and ill-conceived notions as folk tales to every Nigerian child in the course of upbringing and socialization. Why won’t a Yoruba child feel superior to an Igbo child when he was told that the progenitor of the Yoruba race ‘Oduduwa’ climbed down from heaven with a rope and had Igbo men as slaves? What of a Fulani child who is told at infancy that all other ethnic groups south of the Sahara are meant to be subservient to the Fulani man, or the Igbo child who is told repeatedly that Yoruba people are cowards and haters of the Igbo? So the hitherto innocent child grows up being suspicious of Yoruba people or sees them as members of a cowardly race. It is this biased socialization of the young that transforms to the absence of cultural humility in our nation. That is the reason an average Yoruba man with no skill, low education and no job will mock an Igbo trader who is doing well in a legitimate business. It is the same reason that an Igbo man assumes that the Kanuri people of Borno State are Hausa/Fulani and failing to appreciate the distinctive Kanuri heritage of people of that part of the Country.

Cultural humility is the “ability to maintain an interpersonal stance that is oriented towards appreciating aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the other person (Hook et.al 2013). It is a philosophy anchored on love, compassion and empathy. Cultural Humility creates a sense of equity and equality by way of understanding the perspective of other people rather than projecting ones assumption on others. It preaches respect for other people’s ways of life and an acceptance that those other ways were influenced by experiences and environment. So when you find yourself dealing with people of a different culture perhaps you could eliminate all preconceived notions and open yourself up to learning new ways. When you genuinely learn about new cultures and even attempt to mirror them when dealing with the people, it is an indication that you respect and honor them. That way, socializing, assimilating and communicating within that culture become easier, whilst areas of potential conflicts are eliminated. Have you ever wondered why an old village woman lights up in excitement when the ‘Oyibo’ corps member attempts to speak her dialect?

Cultural Humility guides how we interact and relate with others at work, places of worship, markets, on the road or even at home. It advocates that we recognize the environmental context of different behavioral patterns and not assume that distinctive traits represent the entirety of a culture. So it is not enough to assume that the indiscretions of Fulani herdsmen represent the behavioral pattern of Fulani people. The same way it would be wrong to judge a Yoruba man by the madness exhibited by Molue drivers or stereotype an Igbo man based on the ‘culture’ of the traders at Idumota market. So to be culturally humble we need to be open to learning and be humble to accept that ‘we don’t know what we don’t know’ rather than making assumptions.

I once read of a story of an American marketing company that was hired to promote a fledgling detergent brand in the Middle East. After extensive brain storming at the company’s head office in Michigan USA, they settled on a campaign that involves the display of several billboards with images showing the benefit of using the detergent. It was a picture that had dirty clothes on the left side a bowl of water diluted with the detergent in the middle and then sparkling clean laundry at the right. After two months of the display of the billboard, the company observed that sales went to near Zero. A consultant was then hired to find out why the campaign achieved a negative outcome. Within two days of going to the field to interact with the consumers, the consultant came up with the problem. Arabs read from right to left, whereas the pictures were arranged from left to right. So from the perspective of the Middle Easterner, the advert portrays that clean clothes would become dirty when washed with the detergent. This story may sound simplistic, but it emphasizes the power of perspective. The need to understand other people’s culture rather than making assumptions based on preconceived notions.

No man is all knowing. Our leaders too can learn useful lessons through open and sincere conversation rather than assuming that they know everything. How better to explain this than the Federal Government’s recent decision to import grasses from Brazil to stop the menace of cattle herdsmen. What stops the Minister of Agriculture from engaging stakeholders including representatives of the herdsmen to understand the perspective of those who are directly impacted? What if we spend Millions of dollars to import this greener pastures from Brazil and the cattle herdsmen refuse to graze on them? Didn’t we learn any lesson from the refusal of some people to use polio vaccines on account of cultural fears? We can only get better by learning everyday. We must continually use our national institutions to encourage lifelong learning and interaction between our different cultures. That way each culture can take bits from the other to facilitate cross-cultural socialization of the young. That way we can fast track integration of our diverse cultures.

Picture credit: https://sph.umich.edu/findings/fall2014/world/images/humility.1.jpg