SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA AND THE ARAB CLUSTER

April 17th 2015

On the 11th class of intercultural management, my group did the African and The Middle Eastern cultural cluster presentation, where we highlighted the Gannon and the Hofstede approaches and  metaphors and with a briefly discussion on different facts that make those cultures similar or different.

I want to stand out two specific points that I found interesting, the first one was that religion, rituals, and costumes can interfere on how collectivist or individualists a culture or country is. 

In this aspect was very interesting that both clusters still have very extended families and a lot of rituals that make them collectivist cultures. According to Hofstede African culture has an average of 40 which means that is a collectivist culture, even South Africa being an individualistic country because all the remaining relationships with its colonizers still remain with all the costumes that have characterized that specific culture. Rituals and tribes relations, make them collectivist people.
According to Gannon, in Nigeria hometown associations are made with the specific task to improve infrastructures facilities, also, it is common to pay in a collectivist way for studies aboard of a prominent student with the hopes of that person returning home to implement his or her knowledge. With this we can see that there is a specific need to help the other members of the community and the family; they are always thinking that the blood is even thicker than water, which means that family is first that anything else.

The Middle Eastern cultural cluster with an average of 33,75 also has the same characteristics that the African one, due to the extended family and the roles within it. This not only is going to affect the Arabs way of life but also the business opportunities for foreign people, there are challenges because that collectivist way of life, for example according to Matthew Maclachlan ''... Suppliers and potential customers are more likely to sign contracts with people that they already know and being introduced by agents or third parties.''

The second point that captured my attention was the fact that each cluster have a country a little off of the chart, which means that even having the same religion, language and type of governance, those countries for different reasons were far from the common culture.
African cluster with South Africa, a country that in the most cases was on the extremes according to the Hofstede's dimensions, this is a fact because as I said before, the remaining relations with its colonizers and because of its diversity ''a nation diversity, with nearly 52-million people and a wide variety of cultures, languages and religious beliefs'' also the convenience between races ''Africans are the majority, making up 79,2% of the population; colored and white people each make up 8,9% of the total; and the Indian/Asian population 2,5%. ''Other'' population group makes up 0,5% of the total''

On the other hand Turkey a country from the Middle East cluster as a torn county -a nation with a single predominant culture that places it in one civilization while its leaders seek to shift it to another civilization (Huntington, 1996)- even being an Eastern country has moved its costumes and traditions to the Western culture, and this is the reason why it is different from the other countries of the cluster, however Turkey share a similar position and location.

QUESTION!!!

What is Ubuntu? Does this concept has the same perception and understanding in the Western culture?

''Ubuntu is an African concept of person-hood in which the identity of the self is understood to be formed interdependently through community'' (Michael, 2009). This concept is a little hard to understand for western people because in this culture everybody is thinking of themselves rather than being in the same way of living with the other members and ''...westerns understand self as over and against others''   
In conclusion, the Ubuntu concept definitely has a connection with how collectivist Africa is, ''Ubuntu means person-hood'' which means that everything is surrounded by the community and the health and the well-being of it.


Gannon, M. J. (2004). Understanding global cultures: Metahporical journys throught 28 nations, clusters of nations, and continents. (3rd ed). Sage Publications.

MACLACHLAN, M. (2010, September 15). CHALLENGES OF DOING BUSINESS IN MOROCCO. Retrieved April 17, 2015, from http://www.communicaid.com/cross-cultural-training/blog/challenges-of-doing-business-in-morocco/#.VTFhCdyG9wt

South Africa's population. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2015, from 
http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/population.htm#.VSQm4PmG9Dw#ixzz3WeQRXDTD

Huntington, S. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Battle, M., & Tutu, D. (2009). Ubuntu: I in You and You in Me (p. 166). Church Publishing.