Your post resonates with me. I would go further to say that avoiding conflict is a cultural norm in my case and it makes modern life difficult. Children are rai

Your post resonates with me. I would go further to say that avoiding conflict is a cultural norm in my case and it makes modern life difficult. Children are raised to listen to adults and we all supposed to listen to people older than us. The standard procedure to handle conflict is to call a big family meeting where the elders speak on your behalf. This is Africa and this is one of the reasons we have struggled to kick out corrupt governments. Avoidance of conflict is also taking it's toll within families when someone goes rogue. I struggled for a long time and still struggle to be assertive. My first instinct is to say yes and I always feel bad when I say no. I would rather keep quiet than say no which is ambiguous. I am better now as I grow older. One of the reasons is because after some time unwillingly saying yes I would eventually explode and throw baby out with the water. I don't like that side of me so it is better to be firm and say no now than explode later. It is still a struggle but I get better every day.