I am a big believer and supporter for more and more open-mindedness in the world. I don’t like close-minded people or cultures. I believe that it is important and essential for any society, culture, civilization to have a certain openness towards new ideas, thoughts, philosophies in order to grow and enrich itself. However last year I was in Burkina Faso for an extended period of time, and I faced a big dilemma.

Firstly, Burkina Faso is a small country in West Africa. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. Burkina is conservative compared to most first world cultures. They are trying to open up, become more developed, and most of the time they are eager to try things the way more developed countries would do it. I would tend to argue that we have certain aspects of our economy that make us more efficient than Burkina Faso such as better healthcare, more education, etc… However I came stumped on the subject of culture.

In Burkina Faso the role of the woman is to take care of the household, raise the children, clean the house, and have dinner ready for her man when he returns home from work. I was shocked one day when I was listening to the radio, and they were having debates about weather or not there existed situations where it was justifiable for man to cheat on his woman (not the other way around). Most people who called in, both men and women, agreed that a woman who did not do her job cleaning, cooking, etc…. was not worth staying with, and that the man could justifiably cheat on her if she wasn’t good enough. This idea appalled me. Hold on a second. It’s cultural. We must maintain an open mind. The women themselves uphold the system.

A few days later I was talking to one of my coworkers, and we were discussing the subject of marriage. I personally don’t believe that it serves any other purpose than getting you a tax break. I don’t believe that marriage does anything to the relationship except formalize it with a ceremony. The love is there regardless. But I digress. I was explaining this concept to my friend who was horrified, and told me that I was an upholder of concubinism. I responded with, “Well that makes me as much a concubine to her as her to me.” Obviously we have different views about the status of women vs. man. He might have won out though. In Burkina, a woman without a man is useless because she can barely find anyone willing to hire her. The woman’s reputation is very important as well. A woman who is not married stays at home and never leaves the house, but a woman who is rejected by her husband is shamed no matter the circumstances. Often run away women are sent back, by their families, to abusive husbands, etc… I got the impression that a man can justifiably beat his wife. More importantly though, an unmarried woman who is having relations with a man or multiple men over a long period of time is considered a whore, and will often be rejected by her family out of principle. A woman rejected by her family is also rejected by society. The family plays a HUGE role in Burkina.

So I got to thinking. How inefficient. One of the best things any country ever does, in its evolution, is liberating women. It increases the work force, boosts the economy in a big way, it’s also just simply more fair, right? Women and men are both human beings and as such have equal worth. The concept of subjugation of one of the two reminds me of slavery, fascism. Conclusion? Evil?

But here is where the problem comes in. It’s all part of their culture. People are scared every day of their lives about how culture is being lost amidst all the Mc Donald’s, the internet, mass media and communication. Culture must be preserved. But how can I justifiably defend an aspect of culture which I perceive to be morally wrong? In some parts of the world public executions are part of the learning process for children. “Don’t do bad things or we will cut off your head.” It’s cultural. Should culture be preserved as much as we think it should? Is culture holding us back from evolving? Should bad aspects of culture be eliminated? If so how and which parts?

I believe that the answer will be reached not by conscious manipulation. In many parts of the world we have evolved such that women are granted equal rights to men. There is an economic reasoning behind this, and a moral one. I believe that eventually, many aspects of culture will also fade away due to similar reasons. However it is also possible that such a force will wipe out other things which should be preserved, languages, religion, rituals, etc… which could be harmless. Inevitably we will all intermarry and form into one race so will our roots matter? Does it matter to wonder upon this subject seeing as we don’t know what to do with it, or how to manipulate it if we even had some direction?

I don’t think we will ever know.