BEYOND CULTURAL IDENTITY: REFLECTIONS ON THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW BREED OF PEOPLE IN THE GAMBIA

Cajetan Ifeanyi Nnaocha, PhD and Ibrahim Danmaraya, PhD
Volume 8 Issue 1

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of a new breed of people in The Gambia; occasioned by theadmixture of Western and Arabic values via Christianity and Islamic. As a result, a new type of people whose orientation, perceptions, outlook and view of the world profoundly transcends her indigenous culture is developing in The Gambia from the complex of social and educational interactions of the time. Essentially, it defines a people whose horizons extend significantly beyond their own culturalmilieu. The paper adopted descriptive, analytic model and content analysis to drive home its points and reliedmainly on syncretism, liberalism and religion to prove the effects of Western civilization and Arab influence on The Gambia. The findings of this paper shows that The Gambian people have imbibed new kind of culture and values that transcend their ancestral- giving cultures and now, a people who are socially and psychologically a product of the interweaving of cultures in this twentieth first century. The central argument of this study is that, although, a larger percentage of the indigenous Gambian peoples are converts to Christianity and Islam respectively, however, it is still the indigenous beliefs and values which, mainly, serve as the mediation for their religious and cultural expressions. The article concluded that the trend of cultural westernisation and arabization of The Gambia has become very pervasive and deeply ingrained, such that Western civilisation and Arab culture have taken precedence over Gambian values and culture and the latter is regarded as inferior to the former. This has led to a cultural dualism that often presents itself as a real dilemma in concrete, real-life situations and this is tellingly so when one examines the socio-economic life styles of Gambians. Key words: Culture, traditions, Christianity, Islam, Religion, The Gambia.

Download Paper