The colors of Africa: Let's talk about South Africa culture!

The Model of the 6 dimensions is a theory created by Geert Hofstede and serves to identify the cultural behaviors of people or groups. This helps us to improve our understanding of other cultures based on the values they have, the way they act and how this influences their context. According to Hofstede, the 6 dimensions of cultures are: hierarchical distance (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS), Aversion to uncertainty (UAI), Long-term orientation (LTO) and Forbearance vs Containment (IVR). Taking into account what these dimensions try to evaluate, if we made a comparison between South Africa and Colombia, we would obtain the following graph as a result: As can be seen in the graph, in terms of hierarchical distance, South Africa has a much lower level than Colombia. This means that, although South African culture presents inequality to a certain extent, it does not normalize it and struggles to decentralize power. While, in Colombia, inequality is greater, it is naturalized

According to the three-category culture model, established by Richard Lewis, South Africa is a country with a culture that is located in the multi-active category, although it also has characteristics of linear-active cultures. Fig. 1. The Lewis Model (color coding) This is so taking into account that, although most South Africans are considered very emotional, talkative, lively, charismatic, etc; There are also often groups within the same society that are much more serious and less sentimental or emotional, more diplomatic, and more interested in achieving goals that help them progress, rather than building relationships with other people. This is because South Africa is a country full of multiple cultures with different customs and rules. The mix of cultures present in this area of ​​Africa provides members with many characteristics of multi-active cultures and and some of linear-active cultures: many people who are flexible in terms of their schedules and plans and some very rigid

Gender stereotypes are those beliefs deeply ingrained in society about what women and men are like, or how they should be. They are beliefs that dictate the roles that men and women must play in the society to which they belong. Each of the countries of the world, have these useless and harmful gender stereotypes, South Africa is no exception. South African women and girls are particularly vulnerable to these prejudices and stereotypes that they are technically forced to abide by. One of the strongest gender stereotypes present in this culture is that "the place of women is in the house, in the kitchen and taking care of children". Now, although this is a gender stereotype that can be seen in many cultures, I highly doubt that there is one in which it is so firmly rooted in the thinking of the inhabitants (both men and women) as in South Africa. This belief is so normalized in South African society that, even today and sometimes without protesting to avoid criticism or proble

There are multiple misconceptions, prejudices and, above all, stereotypes that are held about South Africa. It is for this reason that I have taken the time to identify which ones are usually the most common in order to clarify whether they are true or not. The first of these is that South Africa is an extremely poor country. This stereotype is false, in fact, South Africa has the second best economy and the seventh highest development index in Africa, but  it is true that economic income is poorly distributed, which means that wealth remains in the hands of very few and the majority do not have good economic stability.  Another very common stereotype is that in South Africa only "the African language" is spoken. This is completely false. In reality, there is not even a language called "African", since 23 official languages ​​coexist on this continent. Only South Africa has eleven official languages ​​and also recognizes eight non-official languages ​​as 'nation

Hi, I'm Lina Redondo! I am a student of social communication and journalism. I created this blog for my level VIII English class, although the reason why I have decided to talk about this country is more personal. I am a lover of culture in general, I like to read about the cultures of other countries different from mine (Colombia), but about South Africa I really do not know much, partly that is why I have decided to talk about it, I would like to investigate more and even learn more about it. I have read that it is a country with one of the most diverse and strong cultures that exists in the world. Their clothes are very colorful and they have very interesting traditions. It is certainly a very interesting country. Follow my blog and join me on this journey through the colorful cultures of Africa!