ABSTRACT
Over several centuries, European explorers, settlers, sojourners, and investigators encountered in Africa a social reality that diverged markedly from their accumulated social experience and knowledge. Their contemporary successors, be they cultural anthropologists, cross-cultural psychologists, or other social scientists, are still involved in grappling with the mixed legacy of observations, preconceptions, and misunderstandings that have accumulated over the long history of contact between Europe and Africa. On the one hand, the idealized image of the noble savage originated in part in the African context. On the other hand, the pejorative stereotype of the primitive, childlike, and immature African arose who, from the ethnocentric Western point of view, was even less than fully human. As an elaboration of this prejudice, indigenous cultures and the behavior of the people within them were dismissed as being barely worthy of study or, at best, condescendingly relegated to the status of stunned and vestigial remnants from Africa's nebulous past. Against the background of these distorted stereotypes, another trend gradually appeared and started gathering momentum. Cultural anthropologists concentrated their sights on the small-scale, tradi-tional, tribal groups and began investigating their ways of life. This approach preserved valuable information and yielded promising and seminal insights. However, it contributed to yet another misunderstanding. The collective picture that emerged from these ethnographies of African cultures was that of slowly changing, rural, and small cultural groups untouched by the worldwide social, political, economic, and technological transformations of the 20th century. Yet, the typical contemporary African is more likely to be the resident of the urban conglomerates in and around Accra, Dakar, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos, and Nairobi. Such a person may share neighborhoods and work environments with members of several different ethnicities and is forced to communicate in the prevailing lingua franca of the region such as English, French, Portuguese, or Swahili. Although the objective world of natural phenomena and human-made objects has been changing gradually, virtually a kaleidoscopic change has been experienced at the social level. This discrepancy has contributed to the disorientation and confusion of individuals, approximating to the condition of alienation or anomie (Davol & Reimanis, 1959; Merton, 1957). Yet, their socialization, experience, and outlook are to varying degrees shaped by the historically transmitted African way of life. What are then its features and, above all, its reflections in the characteristic patterns of behavior and subjective experience, that is, in personality? In this chapter, we endeavor to provide answers to these questions. As we embark upon this task, we are impressed by its tremendous complexity. Africa is home to a multitude of distinct ethnic or cultural groups, most of them with their own distinct language as well as worldview, philosophy of life, values, beliefs, and customs. Still, there are certain converging trends that may variously stem from Africa's shared history and experience. Thus, African cultures may be intrinsically characterized by closer bonds within the family and the community. They are also marked by the trauma of several centuries of European colonization and the enforced social change that was brought about by this experience of outside domination. Politically liberated, Africans are now challenged by the opportunities and risks of modern technology and, above all, by the fast pace of worldwide transformation and change.
