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Dr Masimba Mavaza and Lean Chachoka
Culture is a very broad concept. It refers to the collective identity, behaviours, beliefs, arts, and modes of communication shared by a large group of people. While difficult to define, it is one of the strongest influences on how most people live their lives.
Conflict is triggered when there are cultural differences between individuals within an organization or through general interaction with one another.
This often leads to cross-cultural conflict which generally occurs in the context that individuals are not willing to understand each other’s diversity in cultures.
Crime becomes a natural consequence of a culture shift, almost a way of life. Many Zimbabweans who have just in England have jumped into a cultural confusion head on. For instance, illegal video streaming, from sports and movie channels regularly takes place.
Within a community many people may not see this as a crime, so it is not reported and hence becomes acceptable.
John Maseko from Harare, Zimbabwe arrived in the UK on Certificate of Sponsorship as a care giver. He started downloading songs and made a mistake of boasting to his new found friends.
One early morning he was awakened by a loud knock on the door. It was the police. He was arrested for illegal video streaming. His arrest then affected his visa. It was perfectly well in Zimbabwe, but not so in England. The cultural difference has landed a bubbling person in prison.
Culture, in all its myriad of definitions, is critically important to the events that take place within our criminal courts, be it in Zimbabwe or in England. Certainly, culture is present in ways that are obvious, like the use of the so-called “cultural defence” in its many variations.
Culture is also present in ways that are not obvious. Culture influences who will be arrested, charged, convicted, and what sentence they will receive. Indeed, the invisible hand of culture drives the process of criminalisation and helps to determine which acts we will sanction through criminal statutes.
Panashe Musawani from Norwich United Kingdom was blinded by the beauty of certain white girl. He summoned his charm as he is from the Sambiri clan who are known to be famous for charming women.
He started showing his love. The girl smiled but did not give him the answer. After some time the girl was not amused with the persistence. One early morning Panashe woke up to see the police in his house. He was charged for harassment and stalking.
His was a usual legal way of asking for love but the Zimbabwean way did not work. His cultural persists led him into trouble with the police. The cultures clashed and left him with a criminal record.
The notion that one’s culture determines behaviour and can make one unable to comply with the law and therefore less deserving of punishment is true to the letter. It is true that humans are made physically unable to act certain ways by their cultural upbringing. What matters in formulating moral judgments about punishment are not the possibility but the reason- ability of complying with the law.
Cultural influences may make an action reasonable that without similar cultural influences would be unreasonable.
Tatenda Matuka arrived in the UK in January this year. He was posted to a village in Kent. One morning he was on his way to the shops. He could not find the shops.
So he stopped his car and signalled a small boy to come to him. He asked for directions and he was given the clear directions. Tatenda took it a ten pound note and gave it to the young boy as a sign of appreciation.
The same night he was surprised when the boys in blue woke him up. He was arrested for trying to steal the child and that he has bribed him with a 10 pound note.
In Zimbabwe it is common to say thank you and give a child some monies for sweets. But this burnt his fingers and he is on a line to be deported as he is being charged with everything including attempted kidnapping of a child.
Many people in Britain consider immigration to be one of the most important issues facing the country today. Their concerns seem to be as much about the social impact of immigration as its economic impact, which economists typically conclude are small. It is not entirely clear what social consequences of immigration are feared – sometimes it is simply the dilution of ‘traditional’ culture; sometimes it is a more melodramatic fear that Britain is becoming a mix of mutually incompatible cultures, whose irreconcilable differences could end in a serious ‘culture clash’.
Culture affects the definition of crime, the reactions to crime, and the concept of criminality.
First, culture defines what constitutes a crime because culture defines how we understand the law. It’s true that some things are almost universally regarded as crimes (i.e. murder) but most cases the concept of crime reflects cultural ideas about right and wrong, as well as who has power to create and enforce law. In Zimbabwe you won’t be labelled a criminal if your shadow touches the shadow of someone in a higher position of power. In ancient Hawai’i, you would have been.
Similarly, culture defines how we respond to crime. Are crimes punished by execution, jail, or attempts to reform the criminal? Again, many of these ideas reflect cultural ideas of power, morality, and how society is constructed and maintained. Culture can have a big impact on our ideas about who is associated with criminality. It is easy to say that a criminal is someone who breaks the law, but the truth is not always so simple. Oppressed or marginalized populations tend to be associated with criminality, meaning there is an assumption that they are more inclined to criminal activity (often despite statistical evidence). When this happens, that population may be over-policed or more quickly judged. Cultural differences have many effects on communication. People with different cultural backgrounds communicate using different styles. In a recent radio programme, a group of workers lamented the fact that black youngsters did not have role models and might be suffering a number of difficulties because of this. In a brief moment the general problem was identified but there was a sense of hopelessness regarding the solution.
The specific question is whether widespread problems exist among now distant descendants from the grim history of African slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean.
By presenting an historical overview we are able to witness the stark realities of a migrant population better understood by its fractured interpersonal relationships and struggle to maintain an inherent dignity and semblance of its own identity.
Zimbabweans struggle to adjust. The ghetto youths coming here are not willing to drop the ghetto on them and the smiling doors of prisons swiftly wink them in.
Several Zimbabweans who have come to the UK have ended up in prison for being Zimbabwean culturally.
Things we do with a smile back home have turned into a frown.
Online Reporter