Basic Studies for National Development

A Challenge for Africa

Abstract

When Ruth Benedict first published her book, "Patterns of Culture" in 1934, she may not have envisaged that her psychological orientation would permeate Western mentality towards the peoples of the world, as has happened. A casual observation of how people from the West and more recently, from the East interact with others, will reveal that such interaction is based on some assumptions about their own and the other people's national character. If this assumption is largely true, it may justify the curiosity shown by American, European, and Asian nationals in studying people from other countries to interact with them in all spheres of life from a point of knowledge and thus, advantage. This paper seeks to review the nature and purpose of national character studies in the early part of the last century and the use to which such studies have been put. Using Kenya as a case study, the paper attempts to indicate how national character studies can be deployed for national integration and development, as Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya, tried to do early in his long political career. It is assumed that Americans, Europeans, and Asians such as Japanese, interact with the rest of the world advantageously because of self-awareness of their own identity and awareness of other people's national character.