Another World Cup is over: Well done, Fra…frica!

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/07/2018 (2607 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

France just won the World Cup. That is a fact.

As anyone does these days, I went straight to my Facebook wall and posted about it. I wrote: “This is the first African team to win the cup, with some French reinforcements.”

It is a fact that 14 out of the 27 French players are from Africa. I did write the post knowing that some people were going to take issue, but I wanted to recognize that without the influx of immigration, the French national soccer team would probably not be so powerful. Africans from countries such as Congo, Mali, Algeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Togo, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo created what could be called an African all-star team in France, conquering the world with their amazing body type, agility, speed, and talent — attributes that are perfect for playing the world’s favourite sport. Some of them are second-generation immigrants while others hold dual citizenship.

Some of my Facebook friends and acquaintances took issue with my post.

Very soon I had a friend from France claiming that the players are French, and that is all that matters. The friend also stated that now that they are French, they don’t need to be reminded of their “horrible past” or cultural heritage. She also claimed that being a multicultural country, it wasn’t good for France to highlight racial differences. I was completely shocked!

So, can someone be French and African at the same time? Of course you can. Not only is dual citizenship possible in France, but you should also be able to keep your cultural heritage. Africans around the world celebrated the success of their French-African stars the same way they celebrated U.S. President Barack Obama’s election. Yet this French girl’s complaining on my Facebook wall wasn’t able to recognize the African contribution.

The notion that multiculturalism is about eliminating differences and living all in harmony, forgetting your cultural heritage, is just wrong.

Dr. Milton Bennet created the DMIS, the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, after research that explored and explained the reactions people have to cultural differences.

The six stages of the DMIS form a continuum that ranges from ethnocentric to highly ethnorelative. The theory proposes that cultural awareness is accompanied

by improved cognitive sophistication. This model is acceptable for both children and adults as they progress through cross-cultural sensitivity.

The first two stages are “denial” and “defence,” which are self-explanatory. People who develop culture sensitivity beyond those stages arrive at the “minimization” stage. If successful in moving up the continuum by challenging one’s own views and perspectives, the three last stages of acceptance, adaptation an integration can be possible. But it is not easy.

Reaching the last stages implies changing some of the ways in which history, reality and social interactions are perceived. Most people tend to stay in the minimization stage where harmony and multiculturalism seems to be possible because it is assumed that you can accept your multicultural neighbours because they are similar (“we are all human” sort of rhetoric), minimizing cultural and historical differences. That experience of similarity outweighs the experience of difference in the minimization stage. People recognize superficial cultural differences in food, customs, dances (Winter Festival, anyone?), but they emphasize human similarity in physical structure, psychological needs, and/or assumed adherence to universal values. People at this stage are likely to assume that they are no longer ethnocentric, and they tend to overestimate their tolerance while underestimating the effect of “privilege” of their own culture.

For my French friend, moving up from a minimization stage would imply answering difficult questions about France’s overlapping colonial and athletic legacies. Players like Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba and even the legendary Zinedine Zidane find their ancestral roots in countries that France once subjugated, and still antagonizes via Islamophobic policies and discriminatory practices.

Would its African and Muslim players be celebrated or accepted as Frenchmen if not for their extraordinary football success? Was France really the last African team standing in the tournament? Can sports and nationalism ever be fully disentangled?

Recognizing the African contributions to all aspects of society, economy and history in France is a step toward true interculturalism.

Moving up in the DMIS continuum often involves painful and challenging identity process such as that one; becoming aware that a great nation such as France is only possible because of centuries of exploitation of colonies.

These French colonial wars meant continuous, looting, killing, humiliating, colonizing or devastating other countries and their people. Many of those nations haven’t recovered and from them come the thousands of immigrants that reach Europe each year.

Not being able to celebrate these players beyond their Frenchness is undoubtedly symptomatic of intercultural minimization.

» Jaime Chinchilla is part of Brandon’s Latin American community and a member of the popular Son Latino Band. His column appears monthly. jaimech@gmail.com