rather than by them.
Cultural competence is not just about collecting data; it is about humility and genuine curiosity. And let’ s be honest- this gap is not confined to outsiders. Even within Africa, I’ ve been in rooms where people could not locate Eswatini or São Tomé and Príncipe on a map, or where the continent was lazily reduced to the shorthand of“ Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa.”
To truly grasp African culture is to resist those shortcuts. It is to recognize that the lived reality of Africans is richer and more complex than colonial cartography ever allowed.
Pre-Colonial Kingdoms-The True Map
The Ashanti Empire is a fine example. At its zenith in the eighteenth century, it stretched from present-day Ghana into Côte d’ Ivoire and Togo. To assert that Ghanaian and Ivorian cultures are wholly distinct is to ignore their shared Ashanti heritage- chieftaincy, drum language, golden rituals- that remain vibrant to this day.
Consider too the Yoruba civilization. Its reach extends across Nigeria into Benin, and across the Atlantic into Brazil and Cuba. Naming traditions, cosmology, festivals- these are not defined by passports but by peoplehood.
And along the Swahili coast, centuries of trade created a cultural blend that tied together communities from southern Somalia through Kenya and Tanzania down into northern Mozambique. Its continuity lies not in colonial categories but in shared architecture, cuisine, and language.
Have you ever heard of the Jolof Empire? Yes- the Jolof Empire. It flourished between the 14th and 16th centuries in what is now Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania, and its cultural footprint still lingers today.
Few realize that today’ s famous“ Jollof wars” between Nigeria and Ghana- fought with ladles, not spears- echo a much older history. It gave its name not just to people and a language, but arguably to a dish that now stirs more national pride than many a football match.
When Nigerians insist their party jollof is unmatched, and Ghanaians counter with their smoky waakye-tinged version, what often goes unsaid is that Senegalese Jolof( thiéboudienne) may be the original ancestor of them all- and yes, it is delicious. To complicate matters further, Cameroon has its own Jollof tradition, showing once again that food culture in West Africa rarely obeys the neat borders of colonial maps.
For makers of spices, rice, and readymeal brands, this is not just banter- it is market insight. Why frame Jollof as a twohorse contest between Nigeria and Ghana when in fact it is a pan-West-African phenomenon with deep historical roots and vast, overlapping consumer bases?
This, then, is the cultural map that matters. For when businesses enter African markets, they are not engaging abstractions such as“ a Ghanaian” or“ a Tanzanian.” They are entering into dialogue with Akan traditions, Yoruba networks, or Swahili values- systems of meaning and authority that long predate European cartographers.
Shared Cultural Logics Across Borders
While Africa is anything but monolithic, there are cultural logics that repeat across regions like familiar flight patterns:
Communalism over individualism. Decisions are rarely solitary. Families, clans, and elders shape choices from marriage to land to consumption.
Traditional authority. Chiefs, elders, spiritual leaders coexist with state institutions, often commanding deeper legitimacy.
The collective ethos. Whether expressed as Ubuntu in Southern Africa, Ujamaa in Tanzania, or Harambee in Kenya, the principle is the same: I am because we are.
Oral tradition and narrative. Knowledge flows through story, proverb, and song as much as through data. Any message that ignores this risks irrelevance.
These logics fly across borders. A programme that resonates in Zambia may find ready reception in Malawi. An initiative built for Kenya may be intelligible in Tanzania- if grounded in Swahili culture rather than colonial boarders.
On the Ground, Where Culture Decides
Mining and Community Authority. Barrick’ s North Mara gold mine in Tanzania has long held national licenses, yet its operations have repeatedly been disrupted by local protests and fatal clashes. Similarly, Newmont’ s Ahafo projects in Ghana only stabilized once chiefs were brought into formal benefit agreements. A license from the capital, it turns out, is only your boarding pass; chiefs and elders still control the runway.
Healthcare and Family Planning. Programmes in Nigeria and Kenya that focused solely on women often faltered because husbands, elders, and extended kin were the real decision-makers. By contrast, Senegal’ s“ schools for husbands,” which actively engaged men and religious leaders, saw uptake improve. Households decide as households, not as isolated individuals.
And these cultural spillovers are not confined to mines, clinics, or banks. They flow directly into what people eat, drink, and buy. To assume Ivorians and Ghanaians have starkly different diets because of a colonial line is to miss the Akan heritage that runs through both. Banku, fufu, plantain, palm oil- the staples overlap more than they diverge.
Landing on Truth
To re-centre African culture is disruptive. It unsettles tidy frameworks, forces companies to remember that culture spills freely across colonial borders.
Impact in Africa is earned through cultural resonance.
To brace for impact, then, is not to brace for disaster. It is to brace for reality- the reality that in Africa, culture is not soft, not secondary, not symbolic. It is the runway on which every other ambition must safely land.
No mosquitoes, humans, or trees were harmed in the making of this article.
Soyinka Witness spearheads the ESG practice for Ipsos Kenya and leads the Ipsos Strategy3 team across Sub-Saharan Africa, guiding and mentoring colleagues towards impactful work. You can commune via email at: Soyinka. Witness @ ipsos. com.