African Friends and Money Matters, Second Edition. David E. Maranz
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambara_people">Bambara proverb (Mali)56
56 Richmond and Gestrin 1998:143.
Across Africa, people are ranked according to different social criteria. The most basic ranking puts men at the top above women, with children below women. Each of these categories may be further divided. “Men” may be subdivided into men who are senior, men with children and those without, unmarried men, and so on. The scheme is broader than just humankind and includes both animate and inanimate components of creation. Most Africans believe in a High Creator God, and that it is He who has established the cosmic hierarchy, which is:
1. God
2. Man
3. Woman
4. Child
5. Animals, nature
This list does not include ancestors and spirit beings such as angels and jinn, which most Africans believe are present and active in the world of humans. The consideration of such unseen beings and forces is outside the purview of this book.
Most African societies hold that placing people in hierarchies is not only proper and represents the way things should be, but is even cosmically ordained. This contrasts greatly with the Western ideal of equality of persons. Foster describes the importance of hierarchy from Kenya in the east to Senegal in the west:
Secular life and ethic group membership…is rigidly stratified.… Individuals…play their roles—children, women, and men in relation to one another, hosts in relation to guests, religious leaders and other elders in relation to the community. Defining for others one’s rank is important and status symbols (for example, the jewelry that women wear, the ritual scarification imposed by the ethnic group, the pattern used on the traditional robe and, most especially, the property that one owns, which is typically land or livestock) are traditionally important. It is critical that everyone show respect for elders and devout (religious) observers.57
57 Foster 2002:115.
Some of the differences between the ways Africa and the West deal with hierarchy are revealed in an experience of an African student:
A Malian student attended Texas AandM University as an intern. He went on an extended field trip from College Station to far West Texas and New Mexico. The trip included a tour of Carlsbad Caverns, many large cattle ranches, vast cotton fields, countless oil wells with their derricks and pumpjacks, and lush irrigated farmland. At the end of the trip he was asked what impressed him most. He replied, ‘I could never tell who was in charge of the trip.’ So throughout the long trip, he was disoriented because everyone was treated as virtual equals. Authority structures were hidden, without outward deference shown to those in leadership positions. He was uncomfortable to the extent that the lack of deference shown to whoever was supposed to be the leader, stood out to him as the most memorable part of his trip (personal communication, 2012).
Three basic elements that manifest the hierarchy of human interactions are deference, respect, and precedence. Of course these elements are well known in the West. What makes them different in Africa is their required expression in settings that in the West would call for informal interactions. That is, there is generally more formality required in African social intercourse than with similar settings in the West. These three elements of prescribed behavior are defined as follows, according to Merriam-Webster.
Deference: Proper respect and esteem due a superior or an elder or persons of particular positions or categories.
Respect: A high or special regard.
Precedence: The right to superior honor…on a formal occasion.58
58 Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary 2003.
Often these three elements exist together in ways that are difficult to separate. So, for example, showing respect may involve deferring to a superior in giving him precedence in a particular situation. A common expression of respect is refraining from open disagreement with a status-superior person, or with a person of advanced age. To openly disagree is a very serious breech of decorum. I found this out on one occasion when I had ordered panes of glass to close in a porch. The man who came to install the glass was a bit elderly, but not much older than I. He came with a stack of custom-cut panes and began to install them. They clearly did not fit, yet he continued to try, breaking one pane after another. The stack of panes was disappearing while the pile of shards was growing. I told him to stop. I don’t recall my exact words. To me I maintained my cool, but told him it was useless to continue. Afterward several Africans, who had witnessed the scene, severely criticized me for my disrespectful behavior toward an elderly man. I asked them if I was supposed to let the man continue to break all the panes, or what? They told me that nothing mattered, compared with showing respect to a man of age. Upon reflection, I am sure I could have found, or at least tried to find, a face-saving pretext when telling the man to stop but in the exasperation of the moment I did not think to do so.
Ketil Hansen writes of a recent experience involving multiple facets of deference in Cameroon.59 A local man returned for the first time from the capital where he recently had been named a government minister. A delegation received the minister and speeches followed. The delegation included the governor of the state in which the town is located, the prefect and sub-prefect (“county” heads), the city mayor and deputies, the traditional ruler of the area, the chief of the militarized police, the most important businessmen and cattle owners, and the wealthiest man in the area. All these important people went to the airport to receive the minister.
59 Hansen 2003:204.
Certain aspects of this delegation and the ceremonies that followed illustrate deference and some general characteristics of African culture.
1. The governor, other regional officials, and the traditional ruler (lamido), arrived later than the announced time, thus indicating their high status. A general rule is, “the later one arrives for an appointment, the more people who await one’s entrance, then the more excellent one must be.”60
60 Dealy 1992.
2. As it happened, the lamido was fortunate in the timing of his arrival. Had he actually arrived after the minister’s plane, which happened to be late, it would have been seen as extremely impolite or worse—a refusal to acknowledge his importance.
3. The late arrival of the lamido created tension, as by the official hierarchy, the governor and other governmental officials outranked him. The lamido asserted his importance, and the others honored him in allowing his affront to pass.
4. When greeting the lamido, the governor took off his shoes and shook hands with both hands, while kneeling and looking into the eyes of the lamido. These actions communicated many signals. By taking off his shoes and kneeling, the mayor showed respect. But as no one should ever shake hands with a lamido, who was virtually “untouchable,” the mayor signaled they were peers and both were modern men. That the lamido accepted a handshake showed the influence of the modern world. Yet by using both hands, the mayor showed extra respect.
5. The new minister arrived and was greeted by the dignitaries present, the entire event being filmed for national television. When he greeted the lamido he used both hands, thus honoring the lamido. The lamido accepted the handshake but put his hand on top of the minister’s hands, showing himself to be a superior with fatherly concern.
In sum, the arrival of the minister was a small event, yet the participants took it seriously, giving much attention to the pomp and circumstance, and to many symbolic details. Expatriates would probably have missed most of the significant details, of how deference was shown and even contested in nuanced ways by the various actors in what could be called a drama. It would have been very difficult for an expat to navigate how he or she should have