For the sake of transparency, it behooves us to begin the discussion in this book by disclosing that its impetus was birthed by the Call for Papers and Panels for the 15th triennial General Assembly of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) convened in Dakar, Senegal from December 17 to 21, 2018. The general theme of the meeting was âAfrica and the Crisis of Globalisationâ and its rationale reads as follows:
The coming session of the Assembly will be an opportune moment for scholars in Africa and its diaspora to revisit the issue of globalization which has been a subject of intellectual engagements in the last two decades or more. This is mainly because of the continued contradictions that the process of globalization has engendered especially with regard to the question of Africaâs development. From the outset, globalization promised a greater opening up of the world to the movement of people, goods, services and ideas. This was captured in the image of the transformation of the world into a âglobal villageâ; marked by greater prosperity for all, more vibrant economies, greater democratization and respect for rights. (CODESRIA 2018, p. 1)
The rationale continues:
However, the current versions of globalization have had a distinctly neoliberal inflection, representing a significant change in the historical process of globalization in which Africa played a key role even if with devastating implications on the continent. The free market that globalization continues to promote as the pathway to the âglobal villageâ has facilitated the shrinking of the state and its regulatory capacities with adverse consequences worldwide. Deregulation and privatization sought to reduce the state to its barest minimum, and transformed state welfare institutions into narrow âmarket-enhancing institutionsâ in the name of efficiency. The zest with which various compulsions have been deployed to pave the path for the free market suggests the presence of political and social goals that go beyond the purely economic and utilitarian objectives that are often voiced and illustrates the âchoicelessnessâ embedded in the promises of globalization. The political and sociological fields that inspire the idea of globalization and the pathways that are portrayed as leading toward it are, for the reasons above, worthy of further intellectual engagement. (CODESRIA 2018, p. 1)
In response to the call, we organized and submitted papers for three panels: (1) âDiopian Pluridisciplinary Treatises on Globalization and Africaâs Socioeconomic and Political Development in the 21st Centuryâ; (2) âGlobal Knowledge Production, Development, and Economic Transformation in the Era of Globalizationâ; and (3) âLessons from Old and New Pan-Africanism for Dealing with the Challenges of Globalization in Africa.â What appear in this book are the thoroughly revised papers that we submitted that were vetted and reviewed by panels of experts. The resulting chapters represent the three parts of the book.
Utilizing the perspectives of multiple disciplines because of the complexity of globalization, the book, with each chapter theoretically and methodologically grounded, seeks to reconsider the issue which has been a topic of scholarly debates during the last several decades. This is mainly because of the limited scopes of previous books and the continued disputations that the globalization process has generated, particularly vis-Ă -vis Africaâs development. The aims, scope and multidisciplinary approach of the book can be best discerned in the three thematic rubrics of the three parts that undergird it.
In order to address the subject in a coherent manner, the book, as previously stated, is divided into three parts. The first part entails five chapters. The first chapter by Emmanuel D. Babatunde examines how culture is a created design for survival in a given environment. He shows that language is the physical expression of thought, art is culture in form, music is culture in sound, dance is rhythm in action, and value is the weight of importance that is attached to the essential elements of a peopleâs culture as demonstrated in their institutions such as the family, religion, economics, politics, as well as the cultural form of education peculiar to survival in oneâs environment, using the level of technology that is available for making anything needed for survival easier, cheaper, and faster.
JP Afamefuna Ifedi in the second chapter investigates how globalization has facilitated the ability of humans to reach all parts of the world, propelled by continuing perfection of information technologies, migration and movement of people across national boundaries, with effect on political and economic disparities and inequalities in Africa. He demonstrates that since the 1990s, the issue of âglobalizationâ has been a critical fixation for scholars and analysts, and its meaning and effects are still strongly contested. He also shows that political and economic globalization are twin realities that are often viewed as being in a relatively nascent stage in the evolution of the capitalist global economy in which transnational capital is dominant in national and international domains and has impacted political conditions in Africa. He further reveals how European contact with Africa in the fifteenth century led to the political marginalization and economic exploitation of Africa.
The third chapter by Kehbuma Langmia delves into the unsettled paradoxical relationship between Africa and the West, from a socioeconomic and political viewpoint, that is yielding much needed dividend in the communicative landscape among Africans in Africa on the one hand and African immigrants in the Diaspora on the other. He then reasons that what constitutes African and African immigrant communication in the age of media globalization is anybodyâs guess. He points out that social media, the virtual public spheres for âtrans-humanâ communication, have overturned the age-old face-to-face communication between elders and young people, women and men, children and parents, dignitaries and commoners, socio-political elites and average citizens in Africa. He demonstrates that we are now breeding a generation of texters than talkers. Consequently, mediatized communication and in-person communication are now uncomfortable bedmates, a kind of double-edged sword. Communicators and communicologists on the continent and in the Diaspora are confronting communication through the lens of what W. E. B. Du Bois calls âdouble consciousness.â Similarly, African immigrants to the Western world are equally torn between abiding by the tenets of African forms of oral, in-person communication and embracing the individualistic, self-centered, hyper-reality infested social media interaction on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn or Africanize their communicative patterns on Whatsapp and YouTube. On the other hand, communicators, aware of the disconnection between the Western and African forms of communication have created African-centered communicative platforms like Mxit for South Africans, Naija Pals for Nigerians, Kokakoliko for Ghanians, Blueworld for Kenyans, etc. on the Internet to fight against media globalizationâs neo-colonial exploitation.
The fourth chapter by Nichelle S. Williams probes how oil and petroleum products are resources traded as energy commodities with global demand that has steadily increased over the past 25 years. She informs us that in 2015, crude oil was one of the largest exports for many African countries, including Chad, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea. She pegs her analysis on what Mohamed Elnagar of Egyptâs National Research Center identifies as the three major sectors of the oil and gas industry: i.e. (1) the upstream sector that includes searching for crude oil, drilling of exploratory wells and drilling and operating wells that bring oil and raw natural gas to the surface; (2) the midstream sector, which includes the transportation, storage and wholesale marketing of oil and refined petroleum products; and (3) the downstream sector, which includes the refining of petroleum crude oil and processing of raw natural gas, and distribution of these products.
Abdul Karim Bangura in the fifth chapter makes the case that it is not farfetched to assert that one area in which globalization (i.e. the process of going to a more interconnected world by diminishing the worldâs social dimension and expansion of overall global consciousness) has affected Africaâs socioeconomic and political development the most has to do with African languages and linguistics. In this chapter, he analyzes how globalization has impacted African languages and linguistics, with a focus on the state of language deaths across the continent. Employing his theorem of accelerated language deaths, he postulates that since the significance of accelerated language deaths in African countries is doubly contextual in being both context shaped (its contribution to ongoing sequence of linguistic actions cannot adequately be understood except by reference to the context in which it occurs) and context renewing (the character of linguistic actions is directly related to the fact that they are context shapedâthe context of a next linguistic activity is repeatedly renewed with every current action), context then helps an analyst to rule out unintended activities and suppress misunderstandings of certain activities that take place in a linguistic community.
The second part of this book also encompasses five chapters. The first chapter here by Kelebogile T. Setiloane broaches how African countries have some of the highest child undernutrition and mortality rates globally. She argues that more than 50% of child deaths could be averted if children were not undernourished. She posits that the protection, promotion and support of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life is acknowledged in parenting as the single most critical strategy to be employed if African countries are to reduce their child mortality rates. She delineates that while breastfeeding is tradition in every culture in Africa regardless of socioeconomic status, in the late 1960s it took a steep downward turn when it was discouraged through the aggressive marketing of commercial breastmilk substitutes. The introduction of these commercial breastmilk substitutes to African societies, she purports, shifted breastfeeding as the traditional way of feeding infants to more âmodernâ ways of infant formula, preempting the increase in infant mortality. This shift, she proposes, also helped to entrench Eurocentric ideas in the guise of modernization. Consequently, European practices became the norm to be copied, first by African recipients of Western culture, education and life-style, and then by others who see these recipients as ârole modelsâ to be emulated. She also deliberates on the verity that the long tradition of breastfeeding has been neutralized in many parts of âmodernâ Africa by the influences of European colonial cultural values legitimized by Christianity, Western money economy, industrialization, migration and urbanizationâall forces and outcomes of globalization.
Gerald K. Fosten in the second chapter of this part of the book begins with the assertion that globalization (the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale) has some benefits is hardly a matter of contention. Thereafter, he argues that with these benefits, however, come certain adverse consequences. He then examines how globalization has a direct impact on consumerism (the preoccupation of individuals with the acquisition of consumer goods) in terms of the many nations in Africa that are experiencing rapid economic growth. He also broaches the fact that the African Development Bank estimates that by the year 2060, the population of Africaâs middle class is expected to grow by one billion people. He contends that such a development will present huge challenges to nations on the continent and their respective citizens. As byproducts of globalization and economic development, he observes, consumerism is rising rapidly and will continue to do so. He then asks: What are consequences of consumerism in terms of globalization? His answer is that the more negative the effects of globalization, the more negative the effects on consumerism. Thus, his hypothesis that underlies this chapter is that while globalization has produced benefits, it has also increased consumerism in Africa.
In the third chapter of this part of the book, Cindy McGee exhibits that when other major epidemics such as the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) broke out, more attention was shifted to those diseases while HIV/AIDS received less attention. But while certain gains have been made against HIV/AIDS, she maintains, it still remains a quite deadly disease having serious impact on development in Africa. She notes that according to the World Bank, HIV/AIDS remains a major public health concern and causes significant numbers of deaths in many parts of Africa. She adds that the organization estimated that the continent is home to 15.2% of the worldâs population, and more than two-thirds of the total, some 35 million infected, were Africans, of who 15 million have already died. In addition, AIDS has raised death rates and lowered life expectancy among adults between the most economically productive ages of 20 and 49 by about 20 years. Therefore, she also points out, the life expectancy in many parts of Africa is declining, largely as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with life expectancy in some countries reaching as low as 34 years.
The fourth chapter in this part of the book by Billie Dee Tate deals with poverty as the scourge of a civilized society. He probes the following questions: What comes to mind when one tries to define abject poverty? Do we think about starvation? Do we think about contaminated water sources? Does the lack of adequate healthcare and access to free education constitute poverty? Who defines poverty? Is it the governmentâs responsibility to address poverty or the perpetual suffering of the people? Does governmental policies and fiscal ineptness cause poverty? Is poverty the result of systematic policies instituted through the evils of colonialism, imperialism, and Western capitalist institutions and policies? He then proffers that one has to wonder how the African continent which holds much of the worldâs natural resources has the highest levels of poverty and despair. Africa and perpetual poverty, he posits, seem to go hand-in-hand and are interwoven in virtually all aspects of everyday life for most Africans. Consequently, he points out, Africa constitutes the majority of the worldâs poorest population.
Abdul Karim Bangura in the fifth and final chapter of this part of the book begins by pointing out that almost half a century ago, Cheikh Anta Diop rang an alarm bell which was ignored. The consequence of the failure to respond to his red flag, Bangura asserts, is evident in our major African linguistic peril today: the consequences of accelerated language deaths (i.e. when communities shift to new languages totally so that the old languages are no longer used) across the continent. Given this peril, he argues in this chapter that one area globalization (i.e. the process of going to a more interconnected world by diminishing the worldâs social dimension and expansion of overall global consciousness) and the new world order (i.e. the dramatic process of change of globalization) have affected Africaâs socioeconomic and political development the most has to do with African languages and linguistics. In order to support his reasoning, Bangura analyzes how globalization and the new world order have impacted African languages and linguistics, with a focus on the state of language deaths across the continent.
The third part of the book comprises four chapters. The first chapter is by Janeen C. Guest who analyzes how Pan-Africanism is alive today in Africa and around the world and is seen much more as a cultural, social and economic philosophy than the politically-driven movement it was in the past. She shows that historically, Pan-Africanism was developed as a way to build relationships among people of the African Diaspora. Early Pan Africanistsâ focus was on eliminating racial oppression, establishing equal rights, de-colonialism and unifying the political and cultural ties of Africans around the world. She also alludes to the fact that early Pan-Africanists such as Marcus Garvey formed the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914, which sought to promote racial pride among Blacks. Garvey also popularized the phrase âAfrica for the Africansâ and established the âBack to Africaâ Movement. There were other Pan-Africanists such as W. E. B. Du Bois who organized several Pan-African Congresses to fight for African countriesâ independence from European colonialism. In addition, there was Kwame Nkrumah who fought for the liberation of Africa from colonial domination and stated that âAfricans Must Unite!â In addition to the political focus, early Pan-Africanists brought about cultural and literary movements through the Harlem Renaissance, which enlightened the world about the cultural and intellectual contributions of Black people. She then discusses how more recently, tech...