INTERCULTURALITY: SOLUTION TO THE DILEMMA OF ETHNOCENTRIC MINDSET IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria is an ethnically varied society, the beauty in Nigeria diversity seems not to be maximally positioned for appreciation because, the ethnocentric mindset is the order of the day. Instead enjoying the diversifying cultures and ethnic groups as sources of ethnic colouration and strength, it is rather misrepresented with a mindset that sees a particular ethnic group as more important and superior to others. While culture is the consummate world view of a society, ethnicity is centered mostly on shared ancestry or lineage amongst other things. Thus, even amongst culturally relative groups, ethnicity often plays out as tool for conflict amongst them. This conflict is not some simple disagreement on opinions but complex matters of superior/inferior and majority/minority appropriations of liberal and social matters. The rising trend of interculturality, if applied as a prescriptive tool, may restore unity to our society while also maintaining the identity that is important to each group. It is therefore, the position of this paper that, interculturality carries a new order for human interactions that is capable of unifying seemingly divergent groups and orientations. Seeing that, the adverse effect of ethnicity has become a threat to our corporate existence as a country, every scholarly attention it is receiving is worth it, until a sustainable solution is reached. Using the conversationalist method, this paper argues that interculturality bears the solution to the problem of ethnocentrism and mindset of seeing a culture as superior and self sufficient in Nigeria. Through it, the need for interaction is promoted and the differences in cultures and the ethnic groups is seen as a point of learning and improvement to the society and not as a point of disunity and war.