Cultural Narratives and Their Impact on Society

Cultural Narratives and Their Impact on Society

 

Once upon a time an Australian psychologist traveled the world to learn from different cultures about peace and human happiness. This particular woman had a good nose for sniffing out the stories cultures have about themselves that create their experience of life and the actions of the people. That psychologist is Celia Bray from Hobart, Tasmania. That psychologist is me. After 10months on the road, I am noticing the power of cultural narratives on the lives of people in their communities. I also notice the impact the narratives have on me as I adjust to each new culture.  The photos I use in this blog are of the work I am doing with people who are motivated, proactive and making a difference in their communities. They are not indicative of much of what I speak about in my experience in Kenya. I celebrate them in the work they are doing and we are all working together to turn around many of the narratives that hold Kenya back. 

 

In India I saw the contrast between rich and poor. Yet I also saw an empowered community who knew that it is through its own efforts that its future would be determined. There is a self confidence and a spirit of anything being possible. This is a creative culture.  One of the things I respect about the Indian culture is the focus on the collective good. There was a willingness to sacrifice self interest for the good of others. It was humbling for me and a gift to see that human beings can live that way after growing up in Australia, where individual success is key.

And then I landed apprehensively in Kenya. Apprehensive because I had heard that Nairobi is the most dangerous city in Africa and I had no idea how I would respond to Kenyan culture. As I was alighting from the Swiss Air flight (noted as they gave Swiss chocolate on the way out of the plane) I told myself that no matter what happened I would be fine as  I can get a taxi to a hostel if the organisation I was coming to work with forgot to pick me up. Deep breath!

 

As I walked to the arrival hall I was greeted by a man with a warm beaming smile holding a sign saying Celia Bray. I was relieved. It was there that I met Silas, a colleague who introduced me to the lovely generosity of Kenyan people. Since then I have been participating in Do No Harm training, facilitating workshops, hanging out with youth dance groups, building networks, researching youth needs and applying for work permits.

 

It seems that people like me in Kenya. My psychology training combined with community building has given me a piece of the peace building picture that people think is missing in Kenya. People know the rhetoric about peace and train people in the traditional didactic learning ways. However, as a pragmatic psychologist, I design processes that give full ownership of learning and participation to the groups I work with and empower them to be the solution. The learning is embodied. The gap between theory and practice has a bridge in the work I do. The feedback I have been receiving has delighted me and I feel like I have something to contribute to peace building in Kenya. The search is over. I have found my natural niche. My authentic passion has a place in the world and now it is time to fly.

 

Now, we started this story with cultural narratives. What do Kenyans say to themselves about being Kenyan and Kenya?

 

I know my narrative about Kenya is not neutral, as it is through my filters that the experience of Kenya is being sorted and made sense of. Bias included. This is what I have s to say so far...

 

‘Kenya, you are a country of warm hearted, fun and engaging people. There is a charm and cheeky flirtation behind the freely given ‘hello’ which is endearing and builds rapport. Women and men are relaxed around each other and there is an openness. There is a gushing and joyous willingness to help and it is given with love and graciousness. This is especially the case when one finds oneself lost somewhere. It is a place where security guards have a sense of humour and are happy to say hello. It is a place where high 5s are common. Humanity is first and hearts are full.

 

Yet I find a heart broken Kenya. Where so much hope for the future has been trampled on through corruption, inequity, not being given a voice and constantly being let down by those who promise but do not deliver. There is a sadness in the hearts of many people in Kenya that is akin to the passion, talent and dreams Kenyans have that they want to fulfil but feel powerless to live. The stories about why this is the case go back far, but one of the issues seems to be the hope that independence from British rule in 1963 brought and the lack of fulfilment of that hope by Kenyan politics.  Apparently the first Kenyan President, Kenyatta, gave a lot of privilege to his tribe (there are over 47 tribes in Kenya) of land and wealth which has resulted in inequity that other tribes have been struggling to overcome since. It has fuelled division between tribes and been a way politicians can use tribal alliance to advance their political careers ever since.

 

Over 1200 people were killed and 100,000 displaced in violence that occurred in the months after the Kenyan election in 2007. A key narrative about the cause of violence seems to be the perception of corruption and lack of fair play with the election results. The narrative held by the people is that the outcome of the elections was not accurately reflecting the voting of the people. People suspect corruption. This may or may not be the truth, and it is not the truth of this belief that I am here to explore, but rather the impact this perception has on the community.

 

Some of the cultural narratives I have heard so far in Kenya that impact on the social and economic health of the country seem to be:

·         ‘Our government should give us the jobs, infrastructure opportunities we need. We can’t do anything until they do what they are supposed to do.’ It is a sense of entitlement and a sense of waiting for the government to fix the country. This is also the attitude and expectations of NGOs and the perceived rich.

·         ‘White people have money and power.’ – resulting in white people being asked often for money, opportunities and marriage.

·         ‘We have it harder than other people’. A sense of being the victim

·         ‘If you have money you are above the law. It is all about money. Money is power. We MUST get more money.’ More than anything else people talk about needing more money. They are willing to manipulate and exploit each other to get it. The desperation for money is strong and it is not related to poverty exclusively. The rich talk about it the same way as the poor.

·         ‘No matter how hard it gets, we never give up. We keep on fighting.’ This is an optimism and a sense of resilience that helps the communities to keep hoping and keep motivated.

·         ‘After the corruption at the last elections, there is no point voting or getting involved in politics. Politicians are just out for themselves. There is nothing we can do.’ – learned helplessness and resignation

·         ‘Women belong in the home and are to obey men. They do not belong in positions of power.’ – which prevents women from standing up as leaders and they may also not get much support from men.

·         ‘Individual is more important than the community.’ Individuals will undermine each other to get a small piece of the pie rather than work together so everyone can gain. Examples are grants given to youth groups to run a project. Young people will divide the money amongst themselves and receive a very small amount each rather than use the money to for to generate a project which will benefit everyone and lift them out of their situation in the long term. They do not trust each other and do not work for long term collective gain, which keeps them all poor.

 

Some of the narratives are strengths that assist Kenya to be a peaceful country and others create division. The victim narrative, the helplessness and the sense not being responsible for their future is a key barrier to Kenya’s prosperity and peace. Time and work needs to be done to assist Kenyans to create a more empowering narrative and innovative spirit.

 

The individualistic narrative and the lack of innovative spirit is a big contrast to my experience in India and the situation I have encountered in Kenya has surprised me. In India there is a huge gap between rich and poor but all levels of society have pride in who they are and a sense of creating their own future. Corruption is present in India, but not the corruption of the spirit to the point of helplessness and despair that is found in Kenya.

 

There is no doubt the government could do a lot more and even if all Kenyan’s  grievances are correct, it does not need to stop Kenyans taking their future into their own hands and being proactive. The dependence on others and giving responsibility for their lives to others is a disempowering context and has implications on every aspect of Kenyan society.

 

Three may be several reasons for this. An obvious one is the history of Western cultures coming into ‘help’ through aid, charity work. For years westerners have seen images of starving children in Africa and so money is given to help. This is a noble intention, however it may be one of the reasons Kenyans see Westerners as the suppliers of money and put themselves in the role as passive receivers with their hands stretched for money. Kenyans may have given away some of their confidence in their own capacity to innovate, create their future and NOT need foreign aid. The fact that Kenya has more NGOs in Africa than anywhere else is interesting. Clearly a lot of people want to help, which is great when there are so many people who want to be looked after.  I am aware that aid and assistance can be a great thing when there is a crisis and the aid genuinely empowers communities to stand on their own, not when creating dependence. With so much money being poured into Africa, when one assesses the results, it does not add up. An example of this that still astounds me is as follows:

 

In Australia, the USA, Canada, India and most of the countries I know about, if a training program or workshop is offered, participants sign up and pay for their place. When they put their own cash into the program they are investing in their future and go to the program for the learning that they want to use when they leave the training to improve their lives.  There are circumstances where a workplace or organisation may pay for their staff to participate, again because it is an investment in the future for the organisation. There is ownership by participants at some level for what they gain from the program.

 

In Kenya. If a workshop is offered, participants are paid to attend. Their transport is covered, food covered and often they are given cash to be there (called a sitting fee). They are paid by the people conducting the workshop. I am shocked!  Who do you think attends in these circumstances? How much ownership or investment is there by the participants for the learning they gain? The purpose of the workshop for many participants becomes the promise of being paid to be there. I have been told that if I want people to attend then I have to provide money for participants.

 

So, what to do? There is a team of us who are keen to turn the hand out culture, the individualism and the helplessness around. We are not going to pay people to attend something that benefits them. We want genuine ways of engaging communities to create their own future so we are going to conduct an experiment. We are travelling around Kenya for a month to consult youth. We will run an open forum and invite young people from all walks of life to attend to discuss their ideas for their communities and their lives. Young people in Kenya range from 15yo to 35yo. We will not charge people to attend, but they will need to get themselves there and feed themselves. The invitation to attend will be on the basis of giving young Kenyans an opportunity to start a dialogue about their future and generate ideas about what they can do in their community. Some in our team excited about the new way of doing things and others are justifiably nervous about my approach. Kenyans have grown up in a culture where the NGO supplies everything. This experiment is a call to Kenyans to put themselves on the line to be the authors of their own destiny. It is a call for them to invest in themselves and develop the confidence in their ideas, wisdom, passion and leadership.

 

There is a lot of great work being done where communities are genuinely being engaged in creating their own solutions, however the general cultural narrative is one of passive dependence and powerlessness. Any spark of a self reliant culture is fragile and needs to be nurtured.

 

The finger pointing and blaming of others for our problems is not unique to Kenya. It is everywhere and we all do it. Creating space for people to create their own solutions and draw on the wisdom of their community is unusual in most parts of the world. We blame the government, big business, various ideologies, family members, people we don’t like... but it doesn’t always result in the dominant cultural narrative being one of expecting others to save us. Whenever we blame others, we give our power away, so it helps us to let go of blame and step powerfully into our own future.

 

I don’t think our western cultural narrative has helped. The cultural narrative of the West of being a super power that has ‘got it right and others should do things the way we do’ has resulted in the imperialism that disempowers indigenous cultures. The arrogance of the West in thinking it is needed to save the less economically powerful countries is difficult for me to swallow. Economic power does not mean wisdom, nor does it mean happiness. If we measured success through human happiness, the West would not rate so highly. For Kenya to catch the disease (dis – ease) that is caused by thinking that happiness comes through material wealth and money is a great tragedy.

 

I am not immune to the hypocrisy of my position, as  is a westerner coming to another country to work for peace, hoping to assist, just like all those who have come before and stuffed things up. At least I am in good company and perhaps I will also contribute nothing useful. ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions.’ – A good heart and good intentions are not enough. Wisdom is required. It is a partnership. To use the words that have become well known in many Australian circles;

"If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time.

               But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine,

                                      then let us walk together…”

           Lila Watson, Australian Aboriginal woman, in response to mission workers

 

I am in Kenya for my own reasons, because it is fulfilling my own dream for a peaceful planet, from the peace in the hearts and minds of all human beings and its natural expression of peace in our world. Whether I contribute this to others is yet to be seen.  I hope that I am going to walk together with communities and allow others to contribute to me as much as  can contribute to others.

 

The research in Kenya will have its own natural journey. It is designed to empower a community but if no one participates then that is learning. If no-one attends or supports the process then questions can be asked. Finding out the reasons are part of what is needed to work out what communities want and how they want it. It could mean the narrative of ‘you have to give everything to us before we can do anything’ may be confirmed (of course it may be other reasons too, so we can’t assume anything at this point). If lots of people participate then it breaks the story that people in Kenya need to be spoon fed and that they won’t participate otherwise.

 

So, that is the challenge. What will the outcomes be? 

Stay tuned.