Multiculturalism implies the diverse perspectives people develop and maintain through varieties of experience. It stems from racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and class differences in a society. This is reflected in the social sphere, political system, economic landscape, geographical areas, and international relations. A multicultural country has an economic and social system and is engulfed by diverse cultures. In Africa, including Ethiopia, diversity is becoming the common feature of their people. This diversity complements activities of people as producer and consumer groups and partners.
A society in which the people of diverse cultures live and work together has a common goal to achieve. Multicultural countries as conglomerations of various cultures usually have the objective of accommodating a larger proportion of diversities of people. African countries, especially Ethiopia, have a great attraction to the rest of the world because of their huge potential for economic development, including natural resources and employable skills.
Though there are many instances of cultural variants in the different parts of the country, these variations could be used as inputs to the advancement multicultural development. Researchers believe that the cultural diversity of people helps in creating cohesive and colorful society. This builds trust, resolves conflict, advance collaboration within communities.
Studies show that the Asian people treat strangers like friends; and friends like strangers. But, Western communication is generally direct and explicit. The meaning of the message is very clear. But, this is not the case in other countries, where formality and etiquettes play a major role in their communication. As S. Hussein revealed for some cultures, eye contact is considered as discourteous while for others refraining from the same is considered as disrespectful.
Further, in Western cultures, and in Africa, giving a hug is considered very informal and fine but it may not be so in Asian countries. Furthermore, some cultures treat women as subordinate and for men belonging to such cultures it becomes near impossible to working shoulder to shoulder or having women as their superiors, except for diplomatic purposes.
In some cultures, greetings are communicated in various forms. The appropriate greeting may be with a handshake or a bow or an embrace. A study shows that some countries manage communication challenges in culturally diverse ways. Effective communication in multicultural communities is similar, but once it begins to “differ” the entire constituency becomes incommunicado, not in contact, or out of touch or not able to communicate. Such a community or constituency or society becomes dysfunctional in all aspects of its political, economic and social activities. As communication is a powerful tool through which information is exchanged, the reverse is also true in communities where it is rendered useless.
In a society where trust is built among people constructive relationship and conversation is maintained. In some societies, people maintain discussions looking directly into the eyes of conversing partner, while in others people engage in marginal gaze or no gaze at all during interactions. Keeping silence during discourse is taken as sign of respect among people in some countries, while it is considered as shyness or lack of interest among other people. Similarly, touching has different meaning in different cultures. In certain countries, it is considered rude to touch friends or strangers, while in Ethiopia, walking hand in hand with friends and opposite sex indicates only a romantic relationship or just friendship.
There are different approaches to communication in terms of understanding, attitude, and styles. These demand for the best human talent that possesses high morale, and responsibility for people. Persons with such talent should have broader perspectives and deeper ideas. They are expected to have clarity, tolerance, patience and lenience. It is expected of them to be efficient and productive with more technical and competitive attitude. They are creative and innovative due to their diverse background. In addition to that, they have sound relationships with key partners in the market and encompass greater problem solving ability. Equipped with better decision making abilities, they have also communicative abilities and exhibit change and flexibility.
The flow of communication within a community or a firm is multifaceted. It is formal and informal, vertical and horizontal, verbal and non-verbal, and written and oral. Managing communication in this situation is a herculean, colossal, enormous and phenomenal task. Communication in multicultural community or firm is like a network in the human body. If there is a failure, the network becomes inefficient. It is only through “effective” communication that the message or information is efficiently shared. Communication depends on trust, which is constructive and built on relation that has to be developed and maintained.
Societal communication is broad in its domain as it involves all concerned members. Studies pointed out that those communities are “created and recreated” in the acts of communication between members. Communication within societies is the key with which individual activity is coordinated to devise, disseminate, and pursue societal goals. As A. Scott pointed out that communities typically involve highly differentiated social systems, with formal and informal frontiers and negotiated distinctiveness. Because communities are in the state of continual change, communication processes are also changing both to create and to reflect the new structures, processes, and relationships.
Communities which fail to capture the cross cultural communication “barriers” face several problems in many aspects of economic and social activities. They also fail to devise strategic relationships between people of different cultures through negotiations beginning with interpersonal relationships, and team building. Dialogue, discussions, discourse, negotiations and agreements, pacts and settlements between and within communities begin with honorable, decent and noble “individuals.” A good beginning in negotiation ensures a good ending, provided that the intermediaries are acceptable by all members of a community. These persons break the cultural barriers and build both formal and informal communication between all groups of people in the community.
Despite the availability of reverend, respected and venerated persons who could create bridges between barriers within communities, some challenges are bound to “germinate.”The significant communication challenges in communities have different social colors. As S. Hussein revealed the major ones are language barrier, stereotyping, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and shock, attitude toward conflict resolution, task completion, decision making, privacy, trust building, and non-verbal language. Language barrier is the most common problem found in many societies. There is no denying the fact that English is the lingua franca of the modern economic world; and it has become the official standard language for business throughout the world.
Many non-English speakers are at a disadvantage to exchange ideas, notions, concepts and interests to others. Consequently, they can be overlooked because of their failure to communicate and comprehend English or convey what they want to say. This is also true for politicians and enterprise managers who could not communicate in English, unable to convey their messages to other English speaking stakeholders globally.
People hold some king of notion about a certain group of persons. This is known as stereotyping, which relates to the culture and values of persons in an exaggerated manner. For Y. Jenifer, these stereotypes are the main reasons for difference of opinions about culture and leads to miscommunication. The popular examples of stereotypes are bad-temperament and racism, business mindedness, hard work, exactness, lateness and futuristic. All these are stereotypes against a country and its people, which can negatively or positively affect people. Because of these stereotypes about people, biases are formed in their relationship, including ethnocentrism.
Ethnocentrism is defined as a cultural superiority complex, rationalizing that one’s own culture or group behavior is advanced and superior to all others. It is an attitude in which culture unintentionally induce people to think that their culture is “distinctive.” This feeling further increases the level of anxiety, which in turn affects the positive relationship of people. Thus, ethnocentrism interferes with other cultures and becomes a barrier of communication. Cultural relativism is thus a belief wherein one compares the standards and conducts of other cultures and “gauges” them against the norms of what is incorrect and what is correct. This becomes a hurdle when cultural norms, customs and traditions are assumed to be wrong if they “vary” from those of the other culture.
In a multicultural society, there is a high probability of cultural shock. It is the accidental encounter of a person with some unknown and unexpected cultural practice. When people enter another society or territory, they tend to undergo “cultural shock,” which is the timidity and bewilderment caused by encountering a different culture. They may not know how to act, may lose self-confidence, or may become emotionally confused. Some individuals segregate themselves, while a few even decide to come back home when the opportunity arise. Cultural shock is “virtually universal,’ which happens even on a migration from one advanced nation to another.
In a multicultural society communication barrier is rising due to conflicts caused by local and external factors. Locally, ethnic entrepreneurs create communication gaps for their personal political and material advancement at the expense of multicultural and cooperative communities. These entrepreneurs are fully “backed by foreign powers” who want to exploit inter-ethnic violence through selling arms and acquiring monopoly on African resources, including minerals, fuel and agriculture. The different cultures of Africa, including that of Ethiopia, have traditional conflict resolution methods which counter alien interventions.
The so called experts in conflict resolution provide partners in a conflict with solutions that are alien to their culture. Foreign and neocolonialist proposals to solve domestic conflicts have hidden agendas, which are divisive along ethnic, tribal, cultural and historic lines. The history books of the continent, including that of Ethiopia, which are written by aliens have the vicious agenda of dividing societies along class, race and ethnic lines. They are time bombs which explode now and then unless people are cautious, vigilant, alert and suspicious of foreign elements located in their midst. They should remember that Ethiopia, as a multicultural country, has repeatedly proven its power of resilience in the face of manmade disasters.
BY GETACHEW MINAS
The Ethiopian Herald May 18/2021
