4. “The Gods Must be Crazy” – or are they?

Great movie! Got it all – romance, humor, adventure, Africa – and a very astute analysis of cross-cultural differences.

The key role, as it turns out, is the lab assistant, an African who knows the ways of the white man and also understands the worldview of the bushman.

For the bushman life is simple, orderly, predictable, and all under the providence of the gods. Children are the children of the village. Crops are the food of everyone. There is no individual property. The common understanding is that everything belongs to everyone. Around that moral code life continued with great harmony and peace.

So when a bird in the sky drops a coke bottle, and fighting over it brings hostilities within the village, he resolves to return the bottle to the gods. Along the way he runs into the ways of strange people, and that gets him in trouble.

In his trek, naturally, he gets hungry and looks for food. Happily he spots a goat that is tied up, it turns out, near a police station. He speaks to the people in his language and thanks them for providing the goat for him. He addresses the goat with thanks for his life before killing it. Then he eats his meal.

Before the meal is over, of course, the bushman is arrested and put in a cell.

Then comes the important role of the lab assistant. He has learned the language of the Bushmen and knows their ways. He hears of the goat theft and immediately sees it for what it is – a clash of benevolent, enlightened, and indispensable worldviews.

The one, that of the bushman, comes from the basic African sense of community mores, of shared property, of compassion for the needy, and of welcome for the stranger. The other, that of the land’s judicial system, comes from the rights of the individual, the prohibition against theft of another’s property, the right to a fair trial based on these laws, and the consequence of punishment when the laws are not kept.

So who is at fault? Which worldview should win over the other? And on what grounds? Is one worldview flawed? Where? Why?

And if one worldview should win over the other, how do the winners go about dominating the people of the other? What should they do when the losers endeavor to maintain their own ways? How do the losers leave behind their old ways? How do the winners make sure they have left everything?

Or - can the language be changed, the attitudes adjusted, patience introduced, humility presented, listening and learning demonstrated, and respect be the main thing that is sought and gained?

And that by both parties.