Some Thoughts on Guinea Culture

We have been learning a lot about culture.  With over 30 nationalities on the Africa Mercy, one hears a lot of different accents from all around the world.  It seems  there is always a conversation taking place in Russian or Dutch.   In the hospital wards, we have translators.  The languages that the patients speak is posted with their names above their beds:  French, Susu, Fulani or English.  There are lots of interesting languages and conversations take place all day long.

But culture is much more than language.  One of the ways to describe cultural differences is using the terms hot climate cultures vs cold climate cultures. 

I come from a cold climate culture.  I tend to be task oriented and value accuracy and efficiency.  I’m concerned about time.  I want to respect others time.  Guinea, however, is a hot climate culture.  The people are relationship oriented.  Communications must create a feel good atmosphere.  People always take priority over time. It is considered inappropriate to talk business upon arriving at a business meeting or making a business phone call.   

Honor or respect is very important in West Africa.  Trust has to be earned.  It is never assumed.

If you go to the market place, you always have to negotiate price.  This could be a taxi or an African Drum.  It is disrespectful not to negotiate.  There are some places with set prices such as a supermarket, but on the street, everything is negotiable. 

If you ever need directions, no one will ever say they don't know.  That would be disrespectful, so they will send you on your way.  We also heard that maps are useless.  People don't know how to read maps or want anything to do with them. 

If you ever hand anything to anyone – money or an object, you always use your right hand.  Giving anything to anyone with the left hand is very disrespectful.

Music is also very cultural.  As part of our Christmas celebration, we had dinner on the dock followed by singing Christmas carols and songs by candlelight.  In the west we have verses with lots of words and lyrics and sing in harmony.  In Africa, everything has lots of percussion, repetition and there’s always a lot of dancing to accompany the music. Four part harmony is not part of the culture.  I wonder what our African friends think or our traditions and celebrations?

In a church service, there could be 15 minutes of drums for clapping and dancing as an expression of worship with no words.  Most of the songs are repetition of a phrase or idea, over and over and over again.  There’s tremendous energy that goes into physical expressions of worship.  Services last 2-3 hours.

Traffic is another experience too.  There are no traffic lights in Conakry.  One man said they had some lights once, but people stole them to use for decorations in their homes!  If you enter a traffic circle, you have the right of way.  Once you are in the circle, you give up all rights of ever getting out of it.  We were stuck in a traffic circle for 15 minutes because no one could move, but cars kept entering the circle and would not let anyone continue around.  After some negotiations, we got the cars on the right of us to go move and let us through so we could take that road.

I have certainly developed a greater respect for those who actually move and adapt to a new culture.  It's not easy, but it rewarding.  It stretches us to new levels of understanding and appreciation for the great diversity we have as fellow human beings.

Chuck