People are constantly evaluating and making judgements about other people and events. We react to people and situations on the basis of how we evaluate and judge them. This chapter focuses on reactions towards disability and disabled people in historical and contemporary terms. The generally held view that attitudes in non-western cultures are very negative is closely examined through an analysis of attitudes in Africa as epitomized in the folklore from Tanzania.
The author declares his bias towards people-centred, or autonomous development in which local communities and nations reflect on their own situation and take action to solve their problems (Freire, 1973). The phrase "non-western cultures" is used in this chapter to refer to nation states and local communities popularly known as "developing countries" or "the developing world". This is to avoid the economics-centred, material accumulation, stage theory of development which these phrases suggest. Likewise, industrialized or "developed countries" are referred to as "western cultures".
The use of the concept of culture places disability in its proper context, especially in relation to attitudes and attitude change in the community. It is also an attempt to encourage positive intercultural relations without which stereotyping, domination, oppression and imposition of foreign values in education and social work often occurs. Gadamer stresses the need for cultures "entering into an openended dialogue, where neither party is in control (and) there are no privileged...cultural positions" (quoted in Welch, 1993).
Historical Perspectives on Attitudes towards Disability
History is replete with examples of disabled people worldwide being ridiculed, killed, abandoned to die or condemned to permanent exclusion in asylums and ridiculed (Pritchard, 1963). Anang (1992) claims that the Greeks abandoned their disabled babies on hillsides to die while early Chinese left their disabled people to drown in rivers. In Europe, Nero Commodus is said to have targeted bow and arrows on physically disabled individuals and the Church in the 15th century sanctioned the extermination of disabled persons (Durant, 1944; Onwuegbu, 1988).
Coleridge (1993) traces through history the killing of people with disabilities, beginning with the Spartans who killed disabled persons as a matter of law; the endorsement by Martin Luther to kill disabled babies because they were 'incarnations of the devil'; the English eugenicists who eliminated disabled people under the Darwinian evolution theory of the 'survival of the fittest' and the Nazi Euthanasia Programme under Hitler to exterminate disabled people as they could not make any contribution to society. These persecutions recorded in western cultures are still evident today.
In a world guided by economics, with its concern for investment and maximum rate of return, inequalities of opportunities are created for people with disabilities. There are people today who are strongly in favour of non-treatment of newborns with severe disabilities, much as were the nineteenth century eugenicists (McDaniel, 1989). Termination of life is now affecting foetuses. For instance, Gudalefsky and Madduma (1992:7) give an account of the "shocking and unacceptable" statement by a European delegate at a recent world conference who reported "that his country has solved the problem of defectives by the introduction of widespread amniocentesis and other prenatal testing procedures".
However, amid the raging persecutions, history also presents rays of positive societal perception and action. For example, Anang (1992) reports on the interest in the problems of blind people which became manifest in Egypt in 2650 BC. Subsequently Egypt began to provide opportunity for blind people "to engage in gainful employment" and to be known as the "country of the blind". As a result of this fame, Anang (1992:17) writes: Pythagoras travelled to Egypt and observed the work being done with the blind in Egypt and carried the story of their work to Greece.
Pythagoras' visit to Egypt created interest in the study of eye diseases and influenced public attitudes towards people with blindness and other disabilities.
Favourable practices in rehabilitation and community care were found all over the world. For example, Miles (1983), in his review of literature, reports of the use of prosthetic and artificial eyes in India around the 6th century BC. and "a remarkable tradition of community care for the mentally disordered" which began in Belgium in the 5th century AD.
On the educational scene, the contributions made by such educational thinkers as Froebel, Russeau, Locke and Montessori, to name but a few, have had an indirect influence on the understanding of disabled learners (Ishumi, 1976). The history of special education is in fact a story of changing attitudes towards people with disabilities; from private tuition, institutions, special schools to integration and now gradually to inclusive education. It is worth noting that the idea and practice of integrated education is not a 20th century innovation.
Johann Wilhelm Klein advocated it vigorously in Austria in 1810, prepared a guide to assist regular class teachers who had blind children in their classes in 1819, and this led to the issuing of a policy statement on integration in 1842 (Gearhart and Weishahn, 1976). Historically, therefore, attitudes towards disabled people have been a mixture of persecution as well as tolerance. However, the tolerance shown has been paternalistic. Disabled people were perceived as incapable of making their own decisions and of taking control of their lives; they were viewed as people who always need to be helped or as objects of pity and charity (Coleridge, 1993). This paternalistic conception of disability is clearly evident in the work of voluntary organizations, especially in their fund-raising activities (Ralph, 1989).
Unfortunately, paternalistic attitudes tend to create dependency and an incapacitating learned helplessness in people with disabilities. It erodes the self-esteem of the recipient of charity (Oliver, 1990). Modern practices recognize and respect the disabled person as a person first and as disabled second. Disabled people are not perceived as inferior or second-class citizens, but capable of communicating and participating, entering into dialogue with other people (Freire, 1973). These are the empowering practices, the very basis of people-centred development, which recognize that disabled people, or any other group of human beings in society, need to be responsible for their own affairs.
Attitudes to Disabled People in Non-Western Cultures
There is ample evidence that all cultures - western and non-western - exhibit reactions to disability and disabled people which form a continuum (Ingstad, 1990). Yet much literature on non-western cultures is dominated by descriptions of negative attitudes. O'Toole (1988) has summarized these descriptions thus:
In the West the disabled have been stereotyped as being dependent, isolated, depressed and emotionally unstable...Such negative feelings are amplified in LDCs [Least Developed Countries] where the overwhelming impression, from published literature, is of attitudes towards the disabled which are very negative.
Ingstad (1990) argues against this stereotyping of non-western cultures and describes it as a recently created "north-south myth". In order to raise money, create awareness..., a picture of the situation for disabled people has often been painted as negatively as possible, emphasising shame, hiding, killing, etc.
Particular caution must be exercised when reviewing western literature on attitudes or literature that has been written by, or on behalf of, a charitable organization. However, regional, country and community-specific initiatives which are aimed at developing relevant strategies for changing negative public attitudes in favour of disabled persons are indeed laudable. The study carried out in Pakistan following the International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP) in 1981 provides an excellent example of a country-specific action-oriented attitude consideration, whatever the researchers' initial assumptions (Miles, 1983). Kisanji (1993) and Walker (1986) have similarly provided an overview of the situation in Africa.
There are also a number of studies on attitudes at community level (Bickford and Wickham, 1986; Muya and Owino, 1986; O'Toole, 1988). Most of these published and unpublished works reveal a mixed pattern of attitudes which are a mirror image of the worldwide situation. Hence it is misleading to argue that attitudes in non-western cultures are very negative.
An examination of the published materials on non-western cultures shows that most of them are impressionistic, anecdotal (Miles, 1983) and written for a western audience often by westerners. Although the studies which are reported in literature are sometimes carried out with or in consultation with local professionals, the interpretation of data cannot escape the inevitable influence of western culture.
Each culture has its own unique characteristics which usually are best understood by indigenous people. However some of the local professionals, products of non-indigenized western education, may not understand their own culture (Thairu, 1985; Thiong'o, 1986). Misinterpretations of practices, therefore, may be made by both local and foreign researchers and caution needs to be exercised when reviewing findings on attitudes in non-western cultures.
Further problems in attitudinal research include difficulties with sampling procedures, attitudinal measurement and attitudinal biases (Gajar, 1983). A recent computer search on attitudes towards disability and disabled people, with DISABILITY, ATTITUDES, DISABLED PEOPLE as the keywords, gave 133 entries which included both rigorous studies and non-empirical descriptions of attitudes. The studies focused on perceived causes of disability, parental reaction immediately following the identification and confirmation of the impairment in the child or family member, educability and employability of disabled persons. Child rearing practices, despite their importance in showing action oriented attitudes, were not covered.
Data were collected from disabled persons, parents, students, teachers, co-workers and other specific professional groups who have gone through western schooling. The findings of these studies may not be generalisable to oral (orate) cultures.
Studies of attitudes in orate cultures are bound to face even more problems. Ethnographic research takes a long time to complete. Mastery of the local language to a native speaker level would take many years. It is no wonder, therefore, that there have been so few studies on attitudes in non-western cultures. Local professionals have largely been content with impressionistic descriptions which may express mainly personal perceptions rather than genuine community attitudes.
However, community attitudes are an expression of a people's culture. A study of some aspects of culture ought to reveal generally held views about disability and disabled people. These aspects may include customs, paintings, drawings, carvings, and the folklore and language used in relation to disability and disabled persons and folklore. Ingstad (1990) provides a hint in this direction when she writes:
In the old days in Europe a disabled family member was considered a shame, a sign of God's punishment and thus someone to be hidden, killed, etc. This may have been true to some extent, but if we go to what is probably our best source, folktales and literature, we get a different picture (p.188).
The study described in this chapter was based on the realization, that folklore may shed more information on attitudes. The main purpose was to identify community rather than individual attitudes and to represent both orate and non-orate cultures. It sought to find out whether communities in Tanzania understood the characteristics of disabilities and to survey the general attitudes towards disabled people. Although Africa is such a vast continent with diverse cultures, an examination of proverbs in various regions may yield patterns of attitudes similar to those reported in this study. A cursory search points to such Jabo proverbs from Liberia (Herzog, 1936) as "the arm is beautiful, yet it has a knot" and "one trusts his wrist before he speaks contemptuously".
Serpell (1993) uses proverbs from Zambia to point to three themes related to child rearing or education in Chewa society as it is "afforded by non-specialized adults to their young charges and apprentices" (p.70). The themes are (1) elders have a responsibility for the upbringing of children, (2) early experience has profound influence on later behaviour; hence the effectiveness of educational intervention early in life, and (3) instruction is essential for success in life and it requires an awareness of how learning takes place. Although the proverbs listed in each case do not refer directly to childhood, parenthood or disability, their deeper meanings are immensely relevant to disabled persons, as the analysis of proverbs from Tanzania will show. These and other similar proverbs suggest that community attitudes in Africa can, with minor variations, be generalized. To this end, community attitudes in Tanzania are presented as a case study.
Disability in Tanzanian Proverbs
Proverbs, sayings, riddles, folksongs and tales which carry notions related to disability and disabled people were collected by the author using documentation and interviews. A literature search for the period 1935-1990 was carried out. Interviews were also conducted with tribal elders (N=44), primary school heads (N=10) and teachers (N=45). The data obtained was then analysed thematically by disability.
The thematically arranged proverbs, folksongs and tales were circulated during 1994 to 11 Tanzanian students at the Universities of Bradford, Cardiff and Manchester in the UK to verify their meanings and usage as well as to elicit their contributions to the disabilityrelated folklore. A few additions were made, especially with regard to folksongs and folktales. The content and editorial comments received were incorporated into the analysis.
As the proverbs have been in existence for many years, as noted by the community elders (60 years of age and above) and from published material (Omari, Kezilahabi and Kamera, 1978; 1979), the dominant attitudes in the proverbs have existed for at least 50 years. In order to present a trend and pattern analysis, the data were arranged according to themes. These are (1) disability characteristics, (2) disability in various aspects of community life, (3) attitudes which show persecution (cruelty), and (4) attitudes which show accommodation, equality and human rights.
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