Introduction

In her essay “Arts of the Contact Zone”, Mary Louise Pratt defines a contact zone as “… the space of colonial encounters, the space in which people geographically and historically separated come into contact … and establish ongoing relations, usually involving … radical inequality, and intractable conflict” (498). In other words, it can be either, a place of exchange where the values of the articles can be determined by the buyers, if they are stronger than the sellers, like colonization. Or, a place where different cultures, religions, races, etc. meet and learn from each other in order to live together in harmony. As a result, people explain and document their communities, auto-ethnography, and learn how to use each other’s tools and adapt them to their environment and beliefs, transculturation. Basically, auto-ethnography and transculturation are outcomes of the contact zone. To understand how those three terms are related, one may think about how colonization led West African countries to speak French, Portuguese, Creole, and so on and how people from these countries are using those languages.

Understanding the Contact Zone

To begin with, let’s consider the contact zone. A contact zone is an environment shared by people from different sides of the world who have different cultures and beliefs. That environment can be as small as a book, or like Filipe Guaman Poma’s letter to King Philip III of Spain in 1613, which Pratt details in her essay. Or, as large as a country like Guinea. Before colonization, Africa was divided into kingdoms and empires. One language was spoken in each territory. But, after the Europeans decided to share the continent like a piece of cake, those African powerful kingdoms and empires disappeared. Then, people from different kingdoms were then locked inside single limited areas like sections of a chicken coop – those became countries. For example, Guinea is a mix of four different main groups of people speaking different languages, having different cultures and traditions, and holding different beliefs. Those are the Fula people from the theocratic state of Fouta Jallon who speak Fulani, the Soussou of the Sosso empire who speak Susu, and the Mandinka people of the Manding kingdom who speak Maninka. Those ethnic groups were torn apart by the colonizers and forced to live together. And they have been living together since then. As time has gone by, those tribes learned each other’s language, beliefs, history, and behaviors; which has led them to become one community of communities. Thus, Guinea is a contact zone. Generally speaking, almost everything can be considered as a contact zone as long as it requires two or more people to interact with each other. And, from what is stated above, one can assume with no doubt that history and countries are contact zones. We are, and we live in contact zones because every person is a result of the connection between two different others, the individual’s parents, and every person is living in a designated territory, which is, most likely, a country.

Language as a Contact Zone

Language itself is contact zone. Pratts states that “Auto-ethnography, transculturation …, bilingualism, … – these are … arts of the contact zone” (506). If we consider an African country like Guinea with several tribal languages where people choose one with which they communicate with each other, that common language is a contact zone. During the colonization, the French taught French to the indigenous people in order to communicate in a more efficient way with them and control them. At the same time, Europeans who didn’t know in Africa were informed about Africa and Africans by the explorers, colons, and missionaries. Those tales were not very accurate, but biased – that is “ethnography”. The Europeans needed a way to validate their actions, which were inhuman towards African people. So, the newspapers in France described Africa, Africans, and Europeans’ domination in ways that the French people should understand and support, which is, generally, minimizing the black person, who was not really known, as a being that is less than a human. Then, when Africans who did well in school were given the opportunity to go study in France, they realized how misinformed the French people who lived in France were and started writing their own stories about Africa – that is “auto-ethnography”. African movements started in France and then later in Africa with the purpose of explaining to the French that a black person was a human being as they are and pointing out how savagely they were treated by the white Europeans. In short, ethnography is when one group describes the other group, as the French did. And Auto-ethnography is a reply to ethnography, such as the African novels and texts written at the time of colonization and after the independence of their countries. Colonization is an example of a contact zone where one party is dominating the other. It is a contact zone with no aim for harmony. And, language is a very powerful contact zone because it is the most useful and efficient tool to connect two people.

Transculturation in Practice

Transculturation happens when people within the contact zone adapt to each other. When African singers use Western beats and vice-versa, when people use African fabric to make bikinis and other Western fashion as Vlisco does, that can be considered as transculturation. The main reason for contact zones’ creation is to connect with other people who are different from us, and, sometimes learn from them. Schools and museums are examples of that type of contact zone, where people learn and understand others’ histories and beliefs. In Guinea, right now, there are many Europeans, Asians, and Americans visiting historical sites, from colonization, exploring the beautiful landscape of the country, and even learning to speak and sing in Fulani. At the same time, those tourists buy African statues and bring them to their countries to explain those statues’ significance and share their experiences with others who don’t know a lot about African cultures. Additionally, Asian companies are making phones with more powerful torchlight for African markets, because of the lack of electricity in many African countries. And, leppi, which is a traditional hand-made Fulani fabric, is now made by some companies in China. In fact, we live in “hybrid, multicultural, [and] multiracial” societies (Arenas 182). After all, many French words are from African origins. Namely, “Chimpanzé”, which means “Chimpanzee”, comes from the Tchiluba tribe from the Democratic Republic of Congo; the original word “kivili-chimpenze”; “Banane”, which means “Banana”, is from the Bantou tribe from Guinea; the original word is “Banana”, and “Balafon”, which means “Balafon”, comes from the Malinké tribe; the original word is “balafo”. That is to say that transculturation is a “…Cultural transfer between…” communities (Kirby 684). And, we live in a “…Compressed global situation where everything … [is] shrinking except languages and cultures…” (Kirby 684).

Negative Contact Zones and Their Consequences

Some contact zones, such as Colonization, are not for good relationships, but dangerous endeavors since they can result in wars. Some examples of this kind of contact zones are: the colonization of Africa, slavery, World War I and two, and wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, etc. When we take a look at the speech of Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK), “I Have a Dream”, it’s clear that the speech is about the kind of contact zones that are for evil intentions. In his speech, MLK fought racial discrimination in the United States of America (USA) after the abolition of slavery. In a very organized way, MLK uses transculturation in his speech, as he uses tools, such as the Bible and the Declaration of Independence of the USA, to strengthen his opinion about black and white Americans’ relationships. Notably, he adds “…yes, black men as well as white men …” to the Declaration of Independence to support his view that all Americans, black and white, have equal rights. Similarly, in Arenas’ research, transculturation is described as “… A key strategy utilized by … [African] authors in order to construct postcolonial narratives …” (182). To sum up, some contact zones are, as Pratt says, source “… Of coercion, radical inequality, and intractable conflict …” (498).

Conclusion and Future Perspectives

The world we live in is a contact zone. We live in a world where ethnography, auto-ethnography, and transculturation are part of our daily lives. People are traveling all over the world to visit and get in touch with others and use the others’ knowledge. Not to mention that, nowadays, a man in China can apply for a job in England and the role that multinational corporations, such as Coca-Cola and Adidas, play in connecting the continents. Hence, contact zones are created everywhere, every day. Another example is the fact that people are now learning several languages. For instance, a Guinean who grows up in Conakry, the capital city, learns to speak at least four languages, which are his mother tongue, another tribal language, French, and English. Let’s say, a Fulani girl speaks Fulani and learns French and a little English grammar at school. Next, she learns Sousou, and then attends an English school to be able to communicate with more people. Meanwhile, it’s easy to spot the fight in the media about who is good or bad, since each community is defending its own beliefs and rejecting what is not. Until now, people have been trying to dominate others which leads to war. Then, people who run from different parts of the world find themselves grouped in one place where they start new lives as refugees. The actual situation in Syria is an illustration. As well as the African immigrants being enslaved in Libya. Such contact zones should not exist nowadays with all the progress humanity claims to have achieved. Instead, the emphasis today should be on eradicating that atmosphere of anger and disgust in schools, public places, streets, and countries. As Kirby states, we need to “… Look beyond our cultural blinders and the various cultural assimilation models to a mutual flow of exchange integrating lives and contributing to workable global standards” (685).

King, Jr., Martin Luther, “I Have a Dream.” 28 August 2013, https://youtube.com/watch?v=147Y6VHc3Ms. 1 March 2018.

Pratt, Mary Louise.  “Arts of the Contact Zone.” Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers, edited by David Bartholomae, and Anthony Patrosky, 8^th ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008, pp. 498-515.