SOCIAL OSMOSIS

Osmosis is the movement of water molecules across a semipermeable membrane from a region of low solute potential to an area of high solute potential. This is a biological phenomen that explains how a solid material like cube sugar dissolves from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration through a semi-permeable membrane.

In everyday terms, it is apparent that when a tea bag is put in hot water, the soluble contents of the tea bag spreads throughout the hot water. This process is called diffusion by scientists. In the same way, when the spread of the solid molecules (which is the content of the tea bag in our example) is through a surface that is not totally permeable, the process is called osmosis.

In the socio-cultural set up of a given society, traditions and cultures from aliens keeps on entering and going out of the society. Since society is dynamic, social osmosis is always on-going. In comparing social osmosis to physical osmosis, it must be noted that before every culture accepts a foreign culture, there is always a number of obstacles that the foreign culture would face. Any attempt to force a foreign culture on a given people ends up with disastrous results.

The most reasonable means of explaining the cause of social osmosis stems from the days of the Tower of Babbel in Genesis 11. This was a point where the languages (and effectively the cultures of people) were confused by God. After that point, it is noticed that individuals began to live in groups that were significantly different in terms of their cultural practices.

JACOB AND SOCIAL OSMOSIS

After God called Abraham, He gave him a distinct culture and social system that was different from all the peoples who lived around him. Jacob also ended up getting the blessings of Abraham and he began to live according to the codes of God. In Genesis 34 when Dinah was raped by Shechem, Shechem was moved to marry her so he came and asked Jacob for her hand in marriage.

Shechem’s father made the move but Jacob gave him a condition of absorbing them into their family through social osmosis. In this proposal, Jacob and his sons told Shechem and the males in his family to be circumcised. This was their obstacle to being absorbed in the Abrahamic culture!

MOSES

After several centuries in the land of Egypt, the Israelites became numerous and they needed to be controlled by a set of laws. After the exodus, Moses gave the Israelite community a set of laws which was a set of principles that absorbed the Israelites to the Abrahamic covenant.

JESUS CHRIST

For many centuries, the law was for the Jews alone. When Jesus Christ began his ministry, he gave the touching parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-37 that proposed that a man should move with anyone he could move with irrespective of his religion or creed. This changed the concept of social osmosis amongst the few saved ones (who were then Jews). At this point, it became clear that one had to make compromises on the culture of people around them but make sure that he kept his customs intact to prevent persecution from God. This is method of social osmosis preached by Jesus Christ is what most nations are using to prevent discrimination in most nations of the world.

THE APOSTLES

After Peter got the vision in Joppa that the Gospel would be preached to the Gentiles, the process of social osmosis became pronounced. Since Christianity separates spirituality from issues pertaining to the state, it was absorbed into the culture of the nations where it was preached. This usually led to disagreements and persecution and this attempted to stop the social osmosis process of Christianity.

THE ROMANS

When the Gospel was accepted by the Romans after long periods of persecution, the Romans began to spread the religion through various means. Amongst them is the use of miltary force. The method the Romans used was quite interesting. It is summed up in the following steps:

1. The organisation of a powerful and strong army.
2. The mapping up of a territory that they wanted to conquer
3. Invasion with a huge indomitable army
4. Imposition of a Roman government in the territory, resident in a castle that could protect them from angry locals for a period of time (to enable military back up to be summoned in times of an uprising).
5. Levying of huge taxes to made it impossible for the local people to gather enough money to begin a rebellion.

Traditionally, the Romans were ecclectic in religion (they had many religious beliefs as Africans do today). However, when they accepted Christianity, the church was funded by the state. Branches of Roman Catholic churches were set up in the provinces that fell to the Roman Empire. Through this, many Europeans and territories in the Roman Empire had their peoples converted into Christianity and their customs were gradually influences to change into purely Christian practises. This was usually complemented with legal systems that had roots in the Laws of Moses.

ISLAMIC CONQUESTS

Mohammed, who some Jews even recognise as the ‘Ishmaelite whose teachings would assist in the fulfilment of the Abrahamic covenant’ began to rise mightily in the AD 600s. Mohammed’s teachings blended religion with the state since he believe that Islam was a way of life but not a mere religion. After his death, other successors began to spread the religion of Islam in two arms; one as rulers of states and two as religious disciples of the teachings of Prophet Mohammed.

The process of spread of Islam was tightly bound to the jihads of the mainly Arab Muslims. Their policy was to invade a nation, rule the people and in some cases, give them two choices; either to practise of Islam or die. Many argue that the early Islamic patriarchs were just behaving like the Romans. However, the only critical difference between the early Islamic patriarchs and the Romans is that the Romans conquered before Christianity came into the scene later on whereas the Muslims conquered whilst they were still Muslims! This issue on the procedure of social osmosis used by the Romans and the Arabs has been the centre-point of many debates concerning terrorism!

THE PRESENT SITUATION

Presently in our era of democracy and freedom, the only method of social osmosis is the proper use of information as a weapon. It is only by the use of diplomatic techniques and a very wise method of absorption that the message of a particular culture can be spread far and wide.

THE GHANA-NIGERIA SAGA

Citizens of these nations look very much alike in many aspects of their lifestyles and cultures but when it comes to mixing, the barriers of social osmosis are quite pronounced. Many Nigerians work together with Ghanaians with no problems in Europe, America and elsewhere in the world but in their homes, they mix amidst so many disagreements.

The apparent difference between Ghanaians and Nigerians seem to lie in their value systems. The commonest is the observation that many Ghanaians believe in working on the little details to achieve much whilst many Nigerians believe in working on much because when the ultimate is achieved, the little details would be take care of! These reflect in the attitudes of most citizens of these two nations. However, this appears to be a symptom of social osmosis and will die out with time. This prediction is rooted in the fact that there was a huge disparity in the mentality people in the south of Ghana or Nigeria saw people from the north of their countries. However, after almost 50 years of their nationhood, people in Ghana and Nigeria are uniting.

SOCIAL OSMOSIS IN THE CHURCH

With the Ghana-Nigeria saga, it takes maturity to deal with people from other nations. Most Ghanaians and Nigerians at the top in churches have learnt how to respect and honour their members and subordinates. However, amongst the members, there seem to be tensions and immaturity amongst them. This is seen by the fact that people from one nation refuse to sing songs from other nations and also the refusal of some citizens to relate with people from another nation. These could be solved in a number of ways like:

1. THE PRINT OUT OF POPULAR SONGS DURING SPECIAL OCCASIONS: Certain songs from one dialect that would be sang could be written down on papers and distributed on special ocasions. These would cause people who can read to try to sing songs in other languages. For a start, the words of Yoruba hit songs like Kilo Leshe, Anosibitoga or His Name is Jesus could be documented alongside the Akan songs Ayeyi wura and Onyame Kokroko to promote co-operations.
2. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES like businessmen’s groups could formed to promote tighter knit communication amongst people in a certain class of the church to interact since they are likely to have the same level of spiritual maturity.
3. FORMATION OF A DEPARTMENT IN CHARGE OF THE INTEGRATION OF BUSINESS AND SOCIAL NEEDS OF INDIVIDUALS: This could promote rent and business deals for multi-national members in the chruch.