Culture and Communication

Amongst the numerous resources given to me by the Friends of Ugunja before I left was a booklet produced by the Centre for Intercultural Learning. It is called "Below the Surface: Navigating Cultural Waters". I skimmed through it a while back but there is a story from it that has stuck in my mind, and one that I hope to think of and reflect upon while in Kenya.

It goes like this...

Everyone who lives in Bongobongo wears yellow sunglasses. Quite naturally, everything they see - the sky, the trees, the people, the food - has a sunny tint. It has always been like that and the citizens of B0ngobongo live quite contentedly in their yellow universe.

Into this world, comes a visitor, a citizen of Adanac. As you may have heard, all Adanacians wear blue sunglasses. When they wake up each day they kis their beautiful blue children, and they look out into the blue feilds, forests and farms, all of course, under a perfect blue sky.

Being a culturally sensitive visitor, the Adanacian feels it is only right that he tries to understand the Bongobongo perspective of the world. So he aquires a pair of yellow sunglasses. Then he puts them on over his blue ones. "Ah!" he says with some satisfaction, "Now I get it, Everything here in Bongobongo is green!"


It might be a cheesy little story, but the message is very clear. One may be culturally sensitive but may miss the most important part of the culture altogether if they keep viewing the world from the way they have always viewed it. I think it is a very good lesson for everyone who travels to spend time in a different culture, and one that I hope to think of often.