And West African culture is extremely rich in wisdom and insight regarding both the necessity of cooperation in decision-making and the ways to obtain it. At the same time, proverbs frequently make it clear that differing points of view are an essential component of decision-making and that nothing is subject to one single interpretation. It s respect and kindness that allow one to lead a bull with a tiny piece of thread. Empiricism and Causal Analysis Evidence is scarcely less important in the local cultures of West Africa than it is in the Western scientific tradition, though it may not always be marshaled in the same ways. In fact, as Levi Strauss maintained in his classic La Science du concret, traditional culture is, if anything, more tied to the hard data of experience than is the academic one.
Local practices are typically the results of generations of observation, trial and experiment.
These reflexes are obviously important in evaluation and are expressed in a variety of proverbs and sayings throughout the region. The Hausa people comment quite simply, Ba a gardamar noma ga damana. In short, let each one use his or her own methods to cultivate their field, and we will see soon enough what the real results are. And another Hausa insight emphasizes the contextual circumstances that must be understood to explain even the most unanticipated behavior. The one who steals the chief s trumpet doesn t have the strength to blow it.