Intercultural Understanding

Tier 1: Make distinctions between the values, beliefs, and norms of two or more cultures.

Fall semester 2009 I took my first college English class. Little did I know that I would learn just as much about history and culture as I did about literature. In ENG 180D “Everyday Hybridities” we not only focused on the technical writing aspects of the novels, poems, and memoirs that we read but also on the history and cultural differences that lead to the conflicts within the stories. Most of the books we read had to do with biracial characters and their struggle to define themselves due to the opposition of society. Many of the characters we read felt confused or divided due to the fact that their multiple races seemed to conflict with each other. Throughout the class I found this concept hard to understand because I don’t think of myself as being defined by my race. If anything, I define myself by my ethnicity or more simply as being American. For this reason American Chica by Marie Arana was the work that we read that I could most relate to. In the memoir Marie struggles more with conflicting cultures than races. This book helped me understand the distinctions between the values, beliefs, and norms of Peruvian and American cultures.

American Chica details the childhood of Marie Arana, a half Peruvian half American girl, growing up in the 1950s in both Peru and the US. While this book did highlight a few of the racial conflicts that Marie ran into during her childhood such as being too dark in Wyoming and too light in Cartavio, most of the conflicts had to do with a difference of cultures. Marie’s Peruvian family was family centered, traditional, and spiritual while her American family was independent and free thinking. These differences created conflict not only internally within Marie but also externally between her mother and her grandmother. 

Marie’s mother conducted herself with the same independence while living in Peru that she did when she was living in the United States. Marie’s mother did not seek nor did she want the help and support of her Peruvian mother-in law in the raising of her children. In America this is fairly common practice, for a mother to raise her own child. But in Peru it was seen as an insult to her husband’s family that Marie’s mother did not leave the child raising to her mother-in law. It was this initial difference in cultures that created the inseparable divide between Marie Arana’s mother and grandmother. 

Marie’s mother also didn’t condone or fit into the class system that was hard at work in Peru. To Marie’s mother it was what was on the inside of every person she met that let her make her own judgments about people. But the Peruvian people, Marie’s grandmother included, were most concerned with family lineage, religion, and language. And while Marie’s mother married into a well respected Peruvian family she did not speak the language nor believe in the spiritual phenomenon that many Peruvian people did such as brujas, quosco, and Pachamama. These differences between Marie’s mother and grandmother caused a lot of external conflict throughout the book, but more importantly, these cultural differences caused great internal strife within Marie. 

Marie, like many of the characters we read in my ENG 180D class struggled to find her identity. But for her, unlike some of the characters we encountered, it was more a matter of clashing cultures than opposing races that created the divide. Luckily, by the end of American Chica Marie comes to terms with her cultures and finds a way to blend them into one cohesive identity. The idea that there are major differences between cultures and races that must be overcome in order for a biracial person to become self identified was a common theme of my ENG 180D class. And while it is not a theme that I can personally identify with on a deep level I found it very interesting to learn about how so many people struggle to have a true sense of self due to the sometimes blatant and other times intricate differences between cultures.


Tier 2: Explain how structures of power and privilege and the historical, cultural, social or political context influence the status, treatment or accomplishments of a particular cultural group.
Note: Privilege is a word can have a lot of meanings, but in this context it mostly refers to implicit (often unstated, indirect, or unacknowledged) advantages held by powerful or historically dominant groups in a society.
What is power? “Power is the measure of an entity's ability to control their environment, including the behaviors of others within their environment" (Power, 2010). And privilege is “a special entitlement granted to a certain group based on certain circumstances” (Law of privilege, 2010). Indeed, these two phenomena occur on a daily basis within any cultural group and they affect the achievements and statuses of cultural groups as a whole.
Throughout my time here at Miami, I have been able to slowly observe the effects of power and privilege within the context of the sub-Saharan African cultural group. The very fact that I am in a whole new culture and environment is the core reason that I have been able to identify differences and to clearly understand the effects of these two important phenomena. Also, as a native of the sub-Saharan Africa area, I have experienced first-hand the full effects that power and privilege play on a daily basis on this culture. Secondly, I took a class (Black World Studies 156) whose sole purpose was to purely examine the full effects that traditional African society experienced and the changes they endured in three concrete periods of time; namely pre-colonial times, colonial times and postcolonial times. Pre-colonial times are the times in ancient history before the coming of the colonialists, explorers and the missionaries from Europe. The colonial period is the period from about 1880-1950 which marked the period when explores, missionaries and colonialists came in large numbers to Africa to carry out trade, to explore unknown areas and to spread Christianity. By examining these three periods of time, I will effectively demonstrate my mastery of the effects that power and privilege have played on the native inhabitants of the African continent; and the changes and effects that they have endured within these periods of time. 

Taking this class indeed was the epitome of my understanding of power and privilege within the traditional African context. Dr. Cyril K. Daddieh, the director of the Black World Studies program, instilled a whole new philosophy in me about traditional African culture that I had not experienced before. I thought that I knew a lot about this culture, being the culture that I was born in and grew up in pretty much my whole life. But indeed there is a difference between present day post-colonial life and the traditional African ways of pre-colonial times that I was not old enough to experience. In the same way that these time periods are different, structures of power and privilege have also undergone significant change and have influenced the achievements of the African culture over time.
Power and privilege was an issue of great importance in pre-colonial African times. Indeed, the community was structured in a hierarchy that was greatly respected by all members of the community. At the top of the hierarchy was a governing body referred to as the council of elders. These were old respectable persons of both gender who were specially chosen by the community to settle conflicts, punish wrong doers and to make crucial decisions affecting the community such as when to harvest the crops, whether or not to go to war with neighboring communities, what to do in the event of disasters such as flooding and droughts, etc. Their decisions were greatly respected and rarely ever challenged. This position of power was more of a responsibility than an opportunity to control and influence the environment in a manner that favored the individuals themselves. Indeed, even the leaders themselves rarely ever abused their positions and they treated everyone with respect. They were of true service to the community. This phenomenon was what was at the root of success for many traditional African communities. Power was a chance to serve, and not a chance to feel specialor to portray superiority; a phenomenon which is widely observed among present day African leaders.
To ensure that power was in the hands of the right persons, age was a primary factor in determining who was to be placed in a position of authority. Indeed, experience was always the best teacher within traditional African community for those who had lived longest had experienced more satiations. They had seen droughts, wars, famines, weddings, etc. They had learnt from these experiences as well as from their elders when they were young. Traditional African society encouraged their young ones to learn from not only their biological parents but from the community as a whole. Therefore as a person grew up, the community raised him and not just his parents. This phenomenon served to make an all rounded leader who was fully aware not only of his own needs but of the needs of the community as a whole. Selfishness and self service, although it happened, was not a common occurrence among traditional African leaders as it is today. So how does privilege come into play in traditional African society? By the very fact that an older person had lived longer and experienced more than a younger person, the older person was entitled to certain privilege over the younger person. He was able to correct the younger person if he was on the wrong, request certain errands to be done for him and give advice and encouragement to the younger person. Leaders had a similar status of privilege. Having been chosen by the people, a leader could give advise, correct what he saw was wrong, and request certain errands to be done for him (such as farming and harvesting of crops in the field), based on his additional responsibilities. The occurrence of privilege was rare and everyone was treated equally. 

After this period of pre-colonial times, came the European explorers and missionaries. Literature that I read from the class attributed that they came because of several reasons; trade, to spread Christianity and to explore new lands and expand their leadership and authority to different areas. Their coming caused great changes to traditional African culture. Indeed, as the missionaries came, they redefined what was meant by authority and privilege. The very susceptible African leaders of the time became drawn into the new and exciting prospects brought about by the colonialists. These include the importance of monetary status (money), the view and the use of land, and the introduction of formal education. Agriculture and the use of land (which was the source of livelihood of the traditional African community), evolved from a simple activity to a commercial profit-seeking business venture. In a paper that I wrote in the class, I specifically mentioned this tendency when I said:
The highly commercial approach to the use of land by the Europeans was the complete opposite of the traditional African practices. The land was now a commercial commodity which was used to produce cash crops for exportation to the European countries. And to that effect, the Europeans took all the fertile land in hundreds of thousands of acres, and the Africans were the laborers in these farms. 

The greatest and most pronounced effect was the introduction of formal education. This is infact the epitome of the present day structure of power in Africa today. Those who have received formal western education are viewed as “more privileged, and specially entitled” to influence their environment than those how have not. Education has become the defining aspect of establishing a structure of authority in present day post-colonial Africa. There are advantages and disadvantages in the introduction of formal education. Its advantages are it has been used enormously in the economy of Africa. The new sets of skills that have been adopted have served to boost the economy in terms of trading, international relations and the enhancement of the education of the community as a whole. Indeed, it is important to understand that the culture needed to undergo change at some point and these educated leaders have served to guide the community through these complex changes and the transition to a digital and highly technological world. Disadvantages are it has been misused to propel privilege with a purpose of self entitlement and greed. Certainly, corruption has been at its highest point in recent times. This can be attributed to the tendencies of privilege in present day society. Most leaders feel that since they are educated and well equipped with innovative skills, that they are more special and useful than other ordinary citizens, this viewpoint has led to many leaders seeking self-entitlement and feeling that they are the only ones well suited for the job. They also feel that they deserve the best living conditions, such as extravagant salaries and lifestyles. This has had an overall detrimental effect on present-day Africa. Apart from corruption and embezzlement of the economy, it has also caused the damage of the image of Africa to the world as a whole. Poverty has increased, and many people are suffering. 

Indeed, power and privilege in present-day Africa differs sharply from the ancient African times. My intention has been to demonstrate my ability to express the effects of power and privilege within the African culture. Learning this class within the context of another culture served as the biggest strong point of this learning outcome. The energetic environment that the class was filled with by students from different background and cultures brought interesting perspectives to the class and expanded my intercultural viewpoints as a whole. I was amazed by the amount of knowledge of multiple cultures that my fellow students possessed. I thought I would be the most knowledgeable of the class being that the class was based on my very own culture, but I was greatly humbled and had a lot to learn from both my instructor, my fellow students and the large amount of reading we had to endure on a daily basis.