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| Birkaskolan students in Stockholm participating in a twin-school project to increase empathy and wellbeing. |
We live in an interconnected world, yet our understanding of one another is still distorted by preconceived notions created through the differentiating ethnocentric gaze of “Us” and “Them”. Homogeneous cultures are gradually becoming a thing of the past, giving way to more complex societies in which human interactions must seek to embrace and reflect unifying human values that promote peaceful coexistence. Our bewildering situation evokes the historical moment when Fernando Ortiz coined the term “transculturation” to describe the cultural dynamics of Cuba, where multiple cultures shared the same geographical space simultaneously, with each culture “always exerting influence and being influenced in turn”.
This short essay argues that a “transcultural gaze”, as a way of knowing and being, can function as a universal human virtue that enables us to navigate the labyrinth of information overload, with its many cultural blind spots that often cause disharmony and disrespect among individuals, groups and nations.
The cultural blindness of the past allowed one culture to define and discredit another through the use of highly negative differentiating paradigms. Understandably, this was a consequence of the limited ethnocentric gaze, because cultures were largely homogeneous owing to restricted technologies of transport and communication. This was the period when the few European travellers who reached the African continent described it as the “Dark Continent”, completely overlooking what local people knew, believed and understood. To them, Africa was in total darkness — socially, culturally and intellectually — and it was their responsibility to shed the light of civilisation upon it. The discourse of civilisation constructed enduring myths about many cultural others, who were frequently described as “beasts”, “savages” and, at best, “primitives”. Brantlinger (1985) observes that “at the time, reporting about the ‘Dark Continent’ back in Europe created excitement that can be likened to space exploration today”.
A transcultural gaze towards phenomena about which we know little can, in fact, result in useful categorisations and functional stereotyping that help facilitate engagement with cultural others. Nineteenth-century Swahili ancestors in Tanzania, for instance, fondly described white European explorers as wazungukaji (“wanderers”) because they appeared to travel constantly. Although this represented a form of categorisation into “Us” and “Them”, the term carried no negative connotations; rather, it was a descriptive reference to what the visitors were doing. Today, in spoken Kiswahili, the term has evolved into the nouns Wazungu (plural) and Mzungu (singular), referring to Caucasians in an entirely positive manner. This explains why Wazungu are rarely offended when local people, often with broad smiles, address them as such. This simple cross-cultural encounter demonstrates how meaning can be safely created and sustained when the observer’s gaze is not clouded by negative prejudices about cultural others, but instead is guided by wisdom, rationality and empathy.
Regarding what Black Africans think of themselves, the late academic and political writer Ali Mazrui notes:
“One of the paradoxes of history is that it took Africa’s contact with the Arab world to make the Black people of Africa realise that they were black in description, but not necessarily in status. The term ‘Sudan’, meaning ‘the Black ones’, carries no pejorative implications. That is why Africa’s largest country in territory (capital Khartoum) still proudly calls itself ‘Sudan’. In a European language one cannot imagine an African country calling itself today ‘Black Land’, let alone ‘Negrostan’, as the name of a modern state. On the other hand, it took European conceptualisation and cartography to turn Africa into a continent. To Europeans, ‘black’ was not merely descriptive; it was judgemental. Whilst Arabs alerted the people of Africa that they were black, the Europeans tried to convince black people that they were inferior.”
Mazrui’s observation captures the need for an enlightened and compassionate framework for being, knowing and interacting in today’s world. A transcultural gaze allows individuals to acknowledge human differences respectfully whilst embracing shared values. Its practical application lies in ensuring that transcultural awareness becomes embedded within human consciousness, particularly among young adults. Such awareness will improve not only self-esteem and well-being but will also contribute to the development of more empathetic, inclusive and prosperous societies globally.
References
Brantlinger, P. (1985). “Victorians and Africans: The Genealogy of the Myth of the Dark Continent.” Critical Inquiry, 12(1), 166–203.
Mazrui, A. A. (2014). African Thought in Comparative Perspective (pp. 277–278). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Ortiz, F. (1995). Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar (p. 98). Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press.