Factors affecting Tanzanian culture

Factors affecting Tanzanian culture

The culture of a community or nation can be affected by many factors. Such factors include the following:

1. Development of science and technology The development of science and technology can potentially affect Tanzanian culture. This is because science and technology promote the development of transport and communication networks such as airports, mobile phones and television. These expose Tanzanians to foreign cultures. Some of the aspects of foreign cultures that are easily copied from outside the country include language, dressing styles, eating styles, ceremonies, love and relationships. Some of these may be harmful to our nation.

2. Environmental changes Changes in the environment can also have certain negative effects on culture. Changes in the environment such as climatic changes can affect an economy. Drought, for instance, can affect the production of food in a country. This may necessitate introducing a new culture of producing food into such a country. It may also force people to change the culture and patterns of food consumption by adopting new styles. Such adoption may lead to the loss of previous cultural practices.

3. Growth of the Kiswahili language While Kiswahili has played a very important role in promoting national culture and social cohesion, it has also undermined the culture of some communities in Tanzania. For example, as the Kiswahili language has become popular and almost common in Tanzania, the local languages of such ethnic groups as the Zaramo, Hehe, Nyamwezi, Chagga, Ndali, Nyakyusa, Haya, Ngoni, Yao and Zigua are losing words and may in the long run become extinct. Many people, especially the younger generation, prefer to speak Kiswahili rather than speaking the local languages. Over time, many words in the local languages will be lost among the young people of the areas where the languages are spoken.

4. Growing global interactions The growing interactions between Tanzania and the outside world have also affected our culture. While such interactions have some positive social and economic effects on our development, they have also negatively affected the culture of our nation. Tanzanians have been borrowing aspects of foreign cultures, some of which are not good. Bad cultural behaviours that have been adopted from foreign cultures include drug abuse, prostitution, gambling, unethical dressing styles and unethical hairstyles.

5. Social media and communication technologies Social media and communication technologies are very useful in facilitating communication and knowledge exchange. Technologies such as the Internet have produced many revolutionary tendencies that have brought the world closer. The problem is that in countries such as Tanzania it has been difficult to control formal channels of communication such as television, the radio and newspapers. It has also been difficult to control social media outlets such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram. Some of these outlets and channels do not observe ethical and moral values. Therefore, these media project programmes, graphics and images that are inappropriate to our cultural values.