Multicultural Nature Research Articles

Politics of Manufacturing Consent in a Post-Truth Society

This article critically examines how human life today is faced with issues of dishonesty and deception. Using the concept of post-truth in analyzing and understanding the context of change in a global society under neo-liberalism, it focuses on the way powerful people, groups, political parties, and media now take recourse to strategies such as falsification, manipulation, or deception to influence and control the human mind. Those involved in doing this use nostalgic narratives, idealize a fictional past and generate conspiracy theories to create false consciousness and thereby colonize the life world. Such colonization not only promotes social pathologies but also limits the democratic, secular, and plural spirits of multicultural nations like India. The article ends by arguing that there are limits to such politics and the best alternative to the conundrum is the assertion of human subjectivity and agency, and alternative media can play a major role in this endeavor.

“Tarred with the Same Brush”: Racist and Anti-racist Constructions of Muslim Asylum Seekers in Australia

Despite Australia's longstanding reputation as a multicultural nation, xenophobic and integrationist ideas remain embedded within political, media and public discourse surrounding migration, especially within discussions of Muslims and asylum seekers. Existing literature indicates that within arguments that oppose refugee resettlement in Australia, Islam is routinely constructed as incompatible with Australian society. Some research, however, has highlighted resistance to these ideas, yet few studies have explored how these narratives of resistance are constructed. This paper, presents a Critical Discourse Analysis of semi-structured interviews with 24 Western Australians who discussed their perspectives concerning asylum seekers. Participants who supported restrictive asylum policies reproduced integrationist attitudes toward Muslims, however those who expressed welcoming asylum views routinely challenged these ideas. I discuss the discursive and rhetorical features of these opposing takes on Australia's asylum debate, outlining some important implications for democracy and political communication, as well as for critical race analysis and sociological scholarship.

Fractured Landscape, Flowing Culture & Fabricated Identities: Exploring and Evoking the Transnational Middle Class in Amitav Ghosh's Fiction

The transnational middle class provides us with notions about culture-areas that overlap several nation-states, or of multicultural nations. Cultural diversity, historical memory, and societal organizations are never inscribed on a neutral grid in transnational space. Amitav Ghosh invokes a crucial inquiry of transnationalism: how do we locate the hybrid middle class transnational culture? Does the transnational encounter unsettle the idea that cultures and countries are analogous, leading to a new middle-class culture? In my paper I am going to explore how transnationalism complicates the relationship between space and culture. How the question of interpreting social change and cultural transformation as occurring within interconnected areas is raised by the fractured landscape of independent nations and sovereign cultures. We can see that identity of place emerges from a specific dialogic involvement in a framework of hierarchically organized spaces with its cultured fabrication as a community in the middleclass notions of locality or community, which refer to both a demarcated physical space and clusters of interaction. Ghosh's transnational middle class has been mobile and identities less fixed than the static approaches of classical anthropology. The rapidly growing and intensifying movement of the middle class, combined with a rejection of cultural products and practices, has created a profound sense of loss of territorial roots, erosion of place cultural distinctiveness, and anthropological theory ferment. In the world of Diaspora, transnational cultural flows and mass movement of populations, old-fashioned attempts to map the globe as a set of culture regions or homelands are bewildered by a dazzling zrray of postcolonial simulacra, doublings and redoubling.

Nation-building in Post-colonial Sub-Saharan African states: Tanzania, Zambia, and Uganda compared

In the form the nation-state is known until now, it formed in Europe and North America in the Early Modern time and flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, being adequate to realities of the world of industrial capitalism and cultural nationalism. However, other trends, related to super-intensive globalization and post-industrialism, are dominating in the world nowadays. At present, the Western states have to depart from the classical concept of the nation and seek solutions to a completely different problem - of supporting their citizens’ unity at preservation of cultural diversity brought by migrants from all over the world in recent decades. Under the current circumstances, it should not be ruled out that post-colonial states, most of which are multicultural initially due to their unique history of formation, can find themselves in an advantageous position, if they abandon attempts to build nations according to the outdated classical Western pattern. While irreversible globalization is associated with Modernity started in the West half a millennium ago, nation-building in contemporary post-colonial countries shows that globalization is by no means equal to Westernization, and that Modernity as a historically specific type of society and culture, splits into multiple modernities. The theoretical analysis is proved by comparison of the evidence from three post-colonial African states: Tanzania, Zambia, and Uganda. Although today, Tanzania is closer than Zambia and Uganda (as well as most other African countries) to formation of the nation in the classical Western sense, the author admits that the global trend towards multiculturalization of nations may become no less advantageous for countries like Zambia and Uganda. However, it is emphasized in the paper that proper leadership based on an ideology of multicultural nation is a necessary prerequisite for realization of these favorable conditions.

КРЕАТИВНІСТЬ В ТУРИЗМІ: РЕГІОНАЛЬНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The acuteness of the modern moment and the search for optimal solutions regarding the level of economic development stimulates the world society to think outside the box. States and regions in their development use advanced approaches and technologies. It is on creative thinking, as the chances of progress, that the emphasis is placed in the article. The historiography of creativity as a phenomenon, technology and process is analyzed with an emphasis on its importance in modern science. The practical usefulness of creative thinking is revealed through the understanding of modern tourism. The exceptional role of the tourism industry as a driver of the modern economy is noted. The multifactorial and multicultural nature of tourism is emphasized, because it is this segment of the economy that successfully combines historical retrospective, geographical conditionality, culture, education and digital. The creativity of tourism has an exceptional chance of local promotion and branding of various creative industries. Their set is transformed through a system of cultural events aimed at the implementation of creative ideas. Accordingly, the focus is on the development of festival tourism in general as a creative phenomenon. Cooperation with the EU countries is indicated among the features of the development of festival tourism in Ukraine. Taking into account the peculiarities of mutual development and research of European traditions, it contributes to strengthening the practical usefulness of creative industries, implemented through relevant programs: Cultural Bridges, Creative Europe, etc. As an example, the experience of involving creative industries in the tourist development of the historical "pearl" of the Poltava region – the city of Gadyach and its environs is traced. The historical and cultural significance of the city of Gadyach is monitored in the context of the development of event activities, which stimulates the formation of festival tourism on the potential of the city of Gadyach. The article analyzes a number cultural-educational and historical-cultural events in the period 2016–2021, which contributed to the branding and recognition of the city in the system of the tourism industry of Ukraine. Unfortunately, most of the planned events in 2022 have been postponed to the post-war period. However, today's challenges do not stop the development of tourism and require already now to develop creative solutions for the future. The creative environment emerging in tourism is critical for the production of commercial innovations, the development of the creative essence of a person. Festival tourism, as a creative phenomenon, is acquiring new forms and features in the system of the tourism industry of the world and Ukraine. This is one of the important drivers of the modern economy on the path of progress, even in times of uncertainty and challenges.

Nationalism is dead, long live nationalism! In pursuit of pluralistic nationalism: A critical overview

Rather than vilifying or rejecting it, an increasing number of scholars from two seemingly anti-nationalist cohorts, namely liberal political theory and multiculturalism, have come to argue that nationalism is not intrinsically illiberal or undesirable, but some forms of it (e.g. liberal, multicultural, pluralistic) can be a positive force to meet the demands for nation-building, national identity and national culture, on the one hand, and demands for recognition, respect and accommodation of diversity, on the other. This paper critically examines recent scholarly literature on liberal nationalism and multicultural nationalism. It argues that both projects have developed necessary responses to (1) growing diversity and (2) ethnonational and populist-majoritarian forms of nationalism and hence, are welcome. However, two substantial shortcomings need to be addressed. The first is the nation-building–education nexus and the limits of multicultural education (e.g. the teaching of history), and the second is the nationalism–transnationalism nexus or the normative desirability of dual nationalities. The paper concludes that a morally acceptable form of nationalism (e.g. pluralistic, inclusive or moderate) operating within multi-national and multicultural liberal democracies is theoretically possible, yet its viability is related to the extent to which it addresses the two issues raised, amongst others.

European multiculturalism and the specifics of modern interethnic communications (on the example of essays by Karl-Marcus Gauss «The European Alphabet»)

The study of the phenomena of multiculturalism and intercultural communication began in the middle of the twentieth century and continues to this day. The impetus for the emergence of a new scientific discipline was the development of humanism after World War II. European and American scholars have begun to study the phenomenon of multiculturalism and the need for intercultural communication, trying to find features of communication between nations, to reach an understanding between them, to find scenarios for resolving conflicts and more. Our article complements the study of the multicultural nature of the European continent, the achievement of understanding between different nationalities, the importance of intercultural communication as a science and age-old intercultural conflicts on the example of essays by Karl Marcus- Gauss «European Alphabet». Modern essay writing is designed to change the world, inspire new actions and rethink behavior. Themes of multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism and equality have become more and more common among contemporary European and Ukrainian essayists. A striking example of such works is the collection of Karl-Marcus Gauss «European Alphabet» (1997). This is the «adult alphabet» of national inequality, economic racism, migration, multiculturalism. In conclusion, we can say that the study and further development of intercultural communication should contribute to improving the policy of multiculturalism, which is implemented by countries in Europe and the Americas. Changes in the policy of multiculturalism are not only recommended, but also mandatory, because the situation now does not create fair comfortable conditions for life and development of migrants in Europe and America.

Invariant Component of Development of Targeted Programs for Formation of Russian Identity n Educational Organizations

The article presents the author’s theoretical justification for the need to develop targeted programs for the formation of Russian identity in educational organizations. At the same time, taking as a given the multicultural nature of Russian society, the author seeks to determine the invariant part of such programs. The purpose of the article is to determine the invariant component of the development of targeted programs for the formation of Russian identity in educational organizations. The methodology was compiled by sociocultural and systemic approaches to the analysis of pedagogical phenomena and based on the main non-pedagogical concepts of the identity of foreign and domestic researchers. The leading methods were analyze, generalization, interpretation of the results of philosophical, sociological, psychological and pedagogical research, mass and author pedagogical practice, modeling individual positions of the concept of the pedagogical process of forming the Russian personality identity. Attention is drawn to the fact that modern pedagogy (if it wants to be modern) is fundamentally important to determine the set of pedagogically significant ha-racterists of Russian identity, which will allow you to design the pedagogical process of its formation and indicate pedagogical permissible means and possible risks of its scientific and methodological support. The interdependence and mutual influence of the processes of development (main) and formation (accompanying) leads to objective limitations of pedagogical interventions. In order to improve the professional detail of pedagogical teams within the framework of the formation of the Russian identity of students, the structure of the modular program for the formation of Russian identity in educational organizations is proposed for discussion.

Revisiting Malaya: Uncovering Historical and Political Thoughts in Nusuntara ed. by Show Ying Xin and Ngoi Guat Peng (review)

Reviewed by: Revisiting Malaya: Uncovering Historical and Political Thoughts in Nusuntara ed. by Show Ying Xin and Ngoi Guat Peng Liaw Siau Chi Revisiting Malaya: Uncovering Historical and Political Thoughts in Nusuntara. Edited by Show Ying Xin and Ngoi Guat Peng. Petaling Jaya: SIRD, 2020. 511 pp. ISBN: 9789672165774 After joining the Singapore and Malaysia Office of the Inter-Asia School in Singapore, Dr Ngoi Guat Peng initiated a conference entitled 'Revisiting Malaya: Political and Historical Thoughts' in Kuala Lumpur in 2014 and another conference entitled 'Revisiting Malaya 2.0 International Conference: Links and Fractures in Political and Historical Thoughts' in Yogyakarta in 2016. At that time, Dr Show Ying Xin was the research assistant of the project. Ngoi and Show selected some English conference papers, facilitated the translation into Chinese and published them in Renjian Thought Review, a journal in Taiwan. They subsequently did the same to several Chinese conference papers and published them in the Journal of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. Producing translations of academic papers is one of the best ways for scholars to share their ideas despite the language barriers that stem from different backgrounds in terms of nationality, culture, and community. This also benefits the public by providing easy access to scholarly points of view. However, the current academic evaluation mechanism for scholars does not consider the production of quality translated academic papers. Ngoi and Show deserve great credit for their contribution on initiating the translations. The initial edition of this book Chong fan Ma lai ya:zheng zhi yu li shi si xiang (重返马来亚：政治与历史思想), was written in Chinese and published in 2017. It contains the transcript of the panel discussions in 2014. The English edition of the book was published in 2020, and it compiled papers presented in 2014 and 2016. It took almost six years to construct a communication channel for academics [End Page 234] from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines to exchange ideas and to facilitate better research to be carried out in different countries. In the Chinese edition's introduction by the editors, Ngoi (魏月萍 & 苏颖欣, 2017, p. X) defines the term 'revisit' as not just confined to the literal meaning of 'return' or to 'visit again' the history. It aims to reflect, redefine, and to a large extent, to reconceptualise. Both editors have credited this to Chen Kuan-Hsing's 'Asia as a method', and Show (pp. 3–5) has elaborated in detail what is the implication of 'Malaya as a method'. 'Here, we seek to explicitly address problems such as colonialism and its ruminations, the intervention of the global Cold War in local realities, as well as the historical links and fractures that emerged during the process of subjectivity recognition and formation during the last century' (p. 4). In this sense, 'Malaya' is not a simple geographical location or a nation-state territory but a concept of epistemology. This book is beneficial to those with an interest in historical and regional research, especially comparative studies on Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Some may feel that the subject matter of this book is too divergent. The implication is clear. When choosing one historical topic in a country within this region, we need counterparts to complete the story. However, this book is a collection of conference and subsequently published papers. As Jomo K. S. pointed out, not all contributors adopted 'Malaya as a method' to articulate the discourse (p. xiv). For the benefit of the readers, the editor arranged the twenty-one articles into five main topics, namely, envisioning Malaysia, Malaysia in art and literature, anticolonial struggle and nationalism, imagined communities in the Malay world, the nation-state and beyond. The historical processes of Malaya's independence and the formation of Malaysia are full of challenges and tension. Its influence on neighbouring areas and their reaction is the topic of many essays in this book. For the left-wing in Singapore, embracing Malaya was once the idea of nation-building. Hong Lysa revisited the process of turning this dream into a nightmare. The idea of a 'multicultural nation in which all communities would be treated equally; a nation independent of colonial rule…rights for all people - both political and civil' (p. 48...

The Disparate Impacts of Boko Haram Insurgency and Banditry on Teaching of English in Northern Nigeria

English in Nigeria is a medium of instruction and a tool that bridges the communication gap stemmed from the multilingual and multicultural nature of the country and other multifaceted problems associated with learning in a foreign language. When learners are denied access to the only means of instruction, employment opportunities and other paths to greatness are compromised. For over a decade, the educational system of Northern Nigeria has been embroiled and teaching of English language clogged. This study aims to report the activities of an insurgency group, popularly known as Boko Haram and Bandits in Northern Nigeria on the education system and the resultant effects on teaching English Language to students and the professional developments of English teachers. The study generates data through a questionnaire administered to twenty one English teachers in Northern Nigeria through Google forms and the reports of Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attacks (GCPEA). The statistical analyses of the data reveal vulnerability of female students and teachers than their male counterparts due to armed conflicts. The study further reveals incidents of anxiety on teachers and learners, closure and militarization of some schools and other traumatic experiences that inhibited teaching and learning of English in Northern Nigeria. While this study underscores government’s appropriate programmes and policies to support English teacher’s professional development and the teaching of English to children who are out of school due to the nefarious activities of Boko Haram and Bandits, and their impacts in achieving desirable performance goals in English, it could not report efforts the Nigerian government has employed in ameliorating the menace. The pedagogic implication of this study is that loss of performance skills in a target language is possible when learners have not gained remarkable mastery in all levels of language study. Again, in the next twenty years, only few Northern Nigerians would be good users of English in a country where the economic and social resource greatly depend on mastery of English.

Peran Guru dalam Pengajaran Pendidikan Multikultural: Inisiasi dan Praktek

Indonesia is a multicultural nation that has very high diversity. This diversity can be a potential for the nation's progress as well as its decline, depending on the quality of the management of this heterogeneity. It is undeniable that conflicts with the background of ethnicity, religion and race between groups (SARA) still often occur in Indonesia. This shows the importance of strengthening multicultural education in Indonesia. This study aims to review the urgency of multicultural teaching in schools. The research method used is literature study, explaining the phenomena that occur based on scientific studies that have been done before. Based on the discussion, it can be concluded that multicultural education in schools is very important to do so that students are able to accept all differences from an early age. In this process, the teacher has a very big role. Teachers must be able to master the teaching methods and concepts of multicultural learning itself. The teaching of multicultural education is so that students are able to be active and critical in facing all differences ranging from religion, language, ethnicity, gender, and social status in society.

Towards a ‘new’ Moroccan capital? Democratisation, diversity politics and the remaking of national space in Rabat

ABSTRACT This article addresses the ways in which the Moroccan state’s recent acknowledgement and promotion of cultural diversity has assumed form in the national capital of Rabat. It considers two cases – the official recognition of Amazigh culture and the development of new cultural infrastructure – in order to interrogate how urban restructuring in Rabat has become an expedient for transmitting a new sense of national identity to domestic and international audiences. In doing so, the article critically develops the idea of ‘diversity management regime’ to think about how diversity is operationalised in Rabat, the dimensions that get included and excluded within its remit, and the sorts of challenges it faces in the political arena. The contradictions that underscore Rabat’s transformation into a showcase for a multicultural nation are to be understood in the limits of the democratisation of Moroccan society over the last two decades.

The Teaching and Learning of English Sentence in Africa: The Nigerian Perspective

The chapter investigates the theoretical productivity and applicability of teaching and learning English grammar, using the sentence as a test case in Nigeria – a multilingual and multicultural nation. The chapter describes the basic syntactic rule for the formation of sentence, the two syntactic categorisation of sentence and the inability of the use of the Contrastive and Error analyses to effectively teach and learn the English sentence in a typical Nigerian classroom. The theories as noted in the chapter are pedagogically okay on their own but too regimented and pragmatically incongruous in a pluralistic sociolinguistic and sociocultural Nigeria. In addition to the inappropriateness of the theories, are issues of paltry budget and unfriendly policies of the Nigerian government; unqualified, and poorly motivated teachers, a-near non-existing curricula and modern pedagogical experience and non-conducive social environment. The chapter sues for the use of workable theories that are freely interactive, accommodating and environmentally friendly in teaching and learning English in Nigeria, such as, the Interactional, Environmental and the Accommodation theories. And concludes that for a goal-oriented and effective English teaching and learning exercise, to take place, all hands must be on deck: the government must live up to her responsibilities, and teachers must be professionals, who teach with passion.

Exploring culinary heritage practices among the younger Chetti generations in Melaka

Chetti or Peranakan Indian cuisine is a historical creolized minority ethnic cuisine of Malaysia that carries the gene of the country’s multi-ethnic sociocultural development. Its culinary heritage is a unique blend of South Indian, Malay, and Nyonya cuisines. Despite its unique role in symbolizing Malaysia’s status as a multicultural nation, little is documented about the ethnic cuisine. The fact that the Chetti ethnic population is extremely small and continually shrinking means that the future of Chetti cuisine is uncertain. In this context, this paper aims to investigate the role of the younger Chetti generation in reviving the ethnic culinary heritage and the transmission of Chetti traditional food knowledge (TFK) in the contemporary setting. There is evidence that the younger Chetti generation are straying from their culture’s traditional cuisine due to migration, modernization, and urbanization, among other reasons. There are concerns that this may lead to the extinction of Chetti culinary heritage. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight younger Chetti participants in the Chetti village of Gajah Berang, Melaka. The qualitative data obtained from the interviews was analyzed using thematic analysis and revealed four relevant themes. The study found that the younger Chetti generation is relatively knowledgeable about their ethnic culinary heritage but overall unskilled. Whilst they predominantly learn about their culture’s cuisine from their mothers, it was found that Chetti ceremonies and festivals, as well as participation in other cultural events, also contribute to TFK transfer among the younger Chetti generation.

Training future teachers to work in a multicultural environment

The multicultural nature of the environment in which the modern educational process is carried out imposes on the teacher the obligation to be able to work with children of different ethnic groups, different beliefs, from different cultures. Since, in practice, most novice teachers are not ready for effective activity in a multicultural environment, the purpose of the research was to study training pedagogical students to work in a multicultural environment. In the research the following methods were used: analysis of pedagogical literature on the issue; pedagogical experiment (the one group pretest-post-test design); diagnostic techniques, including interviewing pedagogical undergraduate students, ranking of activities to train to work in a multicultural environment. The experiment involved junior students (I-II year) and senior students (IV-V year) of the South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University, studying in the direction of “Pedagogical education (with two training profiles)”, where the second profile is English (84 respondents). After the pedagogical experiment, self-assessment of students' readiness to work in a multicultural environment improved: at the final stage of the experiment, on the basis of the sign test (G-criterion) at a significance level of 0.01, statistically significant differences were revealed between the pre-experimental and post-experimental values of self-esteem. The obtained empirical value of the criterion, equal to 7 (Gemp = 7), is less than the critical one (Gctit = 19), which indicates the transition of the group to a higher level of readiness to work in a multicultural environment. The preferences of the types of activity during the experiment changed: before the experiment, students chose the activity-based component of training, after the experiment they preferred information-based component. The results indicate that in order to train pedagogical students to work in a multicultural environment, a complex of activities, including both information-based and activity-based components of education, is to be applied. It was concluded that special attention should be paid to the study of the cultures of countries from which a vast number of migrants came to Russia, as well as to elements of conflictological education. The applied part of teacher training should include school-based experience in teaching classes with multicultural students.

The Making of a Nation: The Northern Territories and the Colonial Discourse of Nationhood in the Gold Coast, 1897–1950

This article examines the exclusionary experiences of northern Ghana in the empire, which kept it at the periphery of Gold Coast national consciousness up to 1950. If the “nation” is an imagined community, as Benedict Anderson asserts, then the Gold Coast was a product of colonial discourse merging varying interests into a multicultural nation. The article explores why the Northern Territories lagged in influencing that imagined consciousness until 1951. I argue that a multiplicity of factors constrained the north’s contribution to the burgeoning national consciousness of the Gold Coast. The constriction was a function of colonial intentionality, distinct constitutional and political set-ups, economic policies, and the social circumstances in the protectorate. This work adds to our understanding of colonial northern Ghana and how structural disadvantages absented it from early colonial political and constitutional discourses that produced Ghanaian nationhood.

Multiculturalism as a Mediator of Ethnic Identity and National Identity among Javanese Adolescents

The development of national identity in a highly multicultural nation begins by identifying oneself to a particular ethnic group and realizing that multiculturalism is the bridge between both identities. This research aims to discover the link between national identity, ethnic identity, and multiculturalism in Indonesia, specifically for Javanese. This study utilized three measurement scales: (1) National Identity Scale to measure national identity; (2) Ethnic Identity Scale to measure the sense of belongingness to the Javanese ethnicity; and (3) Universal Diverse Orientation (UDO), to measure multiculturalism. This study's participants consist of 441 college students in Yogyakarta (male = 115; female = 326), ranging from 17 to 21. The regression analysis result shows that the mediation model supports this research hypothesis, namely that multiculturalism mediates the relationship between ethnic identity and national identity. Therefore, the current finding generates a new conception regarding the related theme.

Editorial

Welcome to the first issue of the Journal of Modern Languages in 2021. During this tumultuous time across the globe, we are particularly humbled by and grateful for the generosity and support of our learned community. Despite the ongoing pandemic, contributors have been patient and productive, and we are on track to receive a good number of submissions for this issue. The review process has taken a bit longer than usual for some submissions as we have given reviewers extra time due to the extra stress everyone is facing these days. As in the past two years, we are pleased to publish six full-length articles in this issue. It features an excellent range of language and multimodal investigations. Readers will find such diverse sites of analysis as newspapers, poetry book, and hippie and punk concert posters. This is an encouraging sign for the Journal, and we would like to see more varied explorations and geographic diversity among submissions to be published in this Journal. We would also like to gently remind readers of the multilingual and multicultural nature of our Journal: we are interested in and encourage studies of all languages, not just English. The Journal of Modern Languages, like all other scholarly journals, depends on the support of individuals from a range of areas in modern language studies. The insightful comments and suggestions of reviewers allow the Journal to maintain the high quality of the articles. The number of submissions we receive for consideration of publication steadily increases each year. As a result, we need more and more external reviewers. If any readers of the Journal would like to be external reviewers, please contact us with an indication of the areas in which you have particular expertise. We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue of the Journal of Modern Languages. All of us involved in the publication of this Journal wish our readers and their families good health and many blessings. &nbsp

DANCE AND ITS POTENTIALS: IMPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES OF THE CALABAR CARNIVAL OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Carnivals situate a state or nation in the global cultural map, for their especial merit of fostering for the host community, economic advancement and a healthier international profile in the diplomatic comity. The present study engages the relevance of the Calabar Carnival beyond the realms of entertainment and tourism, but as a politico-cultural agent in the global environment where diplomacy conditions the reputation, acceptability, and sometimes fortunes of nations. In a multicultural nation like Nigeria, where autonomous ethnic identity is an intense superstructure of indigenous beliefs, dressing, cuisine, and native performance; cultural diplomacy can play a significant role in regulating intercultural relations. Culture therefore, can play a nationalistic function as a unifier of divergent interests and orientations, especially within the thematic and logistical organisation of festivals and carnivals, and the touristic benefits they have for diplomatic intentions. The Calabar Carnival represents that nationalistic intent to explore and promote the objective of cultural diplomacy, both on the national and international frontier. The objective of the present study consequently, is two-fold. Firstly, to analyse the sociocultural implications of the Calabar carnival on the national polity, such that it validates the carnival's potentials in economic and touristic development. Secondly, to discuss the logistical and ideational challenges of hosting the Carnival, as well as possible ways of ameliorating them. The study takes its foundation in the theory of diplomacy, which submits that the more we meet people through trade and other platforms the more we outsource and propagate our native culture, values and ideas. The study employs the participant-observation, interview method, and content analysis of relevant literature, to pursue its objectives.KEYWORDS: Dance, Potentials, Implications, Challenges, Calabar, Carnival, Nigeria

Immigration and Interculturality: Integration Models of Immigrant Students in Tunisia

Purpose: The study aims to examine the integration of immigrant students from sub-Saharan Africa within the Tunisian system of higher education. Methodology/Approach/Design: This qualitative study was carried out among 100 students enrolled in the top three accessible multicultural private Tunisian universities. To analyse the relations between native immigrant students, we have devoted second criteria forming thus two case studies: there are two groups of students (a group of 50 Tunisian students and another group of 50 students with different sub-Saharan African nationalities. Results: The process of integrating subjects from different yet similar cultures, in this case, sub-Saharan African students, is an anthropological process seeking to put cultural diversity at the service of an inclusive environment with a new cultural code. The metaphor of the bridge between cultures is no longer valid; the focus is rather on the concept of the salad bowl integrating different cultures. University experience constitutes, with respect to the future of students, a key element to achieve professional insertion. Practical Implication: The study proposes an integration model that transcends the functionalist determinist approach. It is not assimilation that fuses all subjects into one neither single entity nor communitarianism that maintains ethnic barriers above mixture and unanimity. Originality/Value: In this study, an intercultural sociological reflection is adopted while emphasizing the multicultural nature of Tunisia.