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POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF GLOBALIZATION IN NATION BUILDING IN AFRICA
© 2020 Alexander Kavina
KAVINA Alexander, PhD, Department of History, St. John’s University of Tanzania
Abstract. There is no doubt to the fact that globalization has become a buzz word of our time and has significantly impacted the whole world and Africa without exception. Despite it being a buzz word, it has also become very confusing. Some people when asked to specify how they understand it, reply with considerable hesitation, vagueness and inconsistency. However, whether one understands it or not, the fact remains that globalization is real and it is impossible to avoid it, but we have to act. In recent decades globalization has become a factor that obstructs nation-building process in the developing world and Africa in particular. Increasing inequalities between social classes, ethnic groups, regions and nations are on the rise while nations are becoming more powerless to solve these problems. On the other hand, globalization will represent a golden opportunity for nation-building process, if Africa manages to grab the opportunities presented.
Keywords: Globalization, nation-building in Africa
DOI: 10.31132/2412-5717-2020-50-1-59-70
Introduction
Nation-building is an abstract process of developing a shared sense of identity or community among the various groups making up the population of a particular state (Dinnen, 2006:1). It is a self-conscious production and dissemination of national consciousness and sentiment of a felt sense of national identity. In many cases nation-building process is undertaken by a small minority of intellectuals and state officials (Dinnen, 2006:1). It is basically aimed at enabling a nation to be viable politically, economically as well as socially in the long run.
The idea of nation-building is a continuous process which is very pertinent in Africa, and equally important for developed countries. It is, however, very important to understand that most nations have their unique circumstances and each one, throughout history, has built and developed itself around certain distinguishing core characteristics. Among them, cultivation of a national identity, establishment of institutions and laws of governance, citizen participation and economic emancipation have been common.
For the purpose of the current discussion, it is important to understand, as pointed out by Scholte (2005:227), that a nation exhibits four key characteristics. First, a nation encompasses
a large population, where its size is substantial enough that each member has a face-to face contact with only a minor proportion of the total national group. They are distinguished from small-scale affiliations like neighborhoods and traditional kinship circles whose members have regularly direct interacted with one another. Second, a nation is distinguished as a form of collective identity by attachment to a specific territorial homeland, which usually has larger propositions than a district or a province. Third, a nation defines itself through an emphasis of attributes that set it apart from other national groups. Each nation declares itself to be unique on the basis of a specific difference. These distinguishing features may relate to language, customs, sensibilities, art forms religion, race or more. Nationalists generally connect these marks of distinction to a shared heritage in the past, a joint struggle in the present and/or common destiny in the future. Fourth, nations are mutually constitutive. This means that they do not arise autonomously, but through international relations. Thus, a nation identifies its purportedly unique characteristics largely by drawing contrasts with other nations. In addition, nations have usually forged and sustained themselves in a good part through acts of collective defense against external intrusions such as military attacks or colonial domination.
Nation-building is something that has been in existence for many years (Mukwedeya, 2016:6). At the beginning of the 21st century there were over 200 nation states that were recognized by the United Nations. In Africa the notion of real nation-building is not new; it is as long as history itself. But for the purpose of clarity and understanding it can be traced back from the time when colonial powers began leaving the continent. The process of nationbuilding in Africa began as a result of peoples’ consciousness, a factor that was common everywhere in the world (Rejai and Enloe (1969: 140) in Mukwedeya, 2016:9) . The objective of nation-building everywhere in the world is to bring together heterogeneous population under a common and collective banner of the nation-state. In this process it is hoped that a distinct identity would evolve and that the population would with the nation.
Nation-building in Africa
Since independence Africa has been involved in building their nation after a long period of colonialism that shattered the hopes and aspirations of African people (Bandyopadhyay and Green (2013: 109). Nation-building is expected to establish the climate and mechanisms for economic development for the whole nation. It is worth mentioning that the process of nationbuilding can only be internally generated and led; it cannot be achieved by the outside forces. This, however, does not mean that we cannot learn from others about the initiatives they have taken and are taking in building their nations.
The post-colonial states in Africa are an alien implantation. This means that they were created through colonization without the consideration of the diverse identities and the need for cultural integration, e.g. it was common to have borders separating a cohesive group of people. That is why after the expulsion of the imperialist powers attempts were made to bring closer societies that were separated by the colonial powers through the formation of new nations of Africa.
Nation-building project was one of the most challenging and time-resource consuming, and many tools and policies had to be used (Kessler, 2006: 44). Some of the most important tools included the propagation of national language, promoting national unity by discouraging divisiveness and the official use of symbols and slogans. The second was the establishment of institutions and laws of governance, which formalize the relationship between the leaders and citizens, and their expectation of service delivery. The third feature is the participation of citizens in the governance process by choosing a system that serves them best, selecting their leaders and playing an active role in the decision making process.
The process of nation-building during the early days of independence was done through the use of various processes and policies. This process was driven by the desire to unify the
newly independent states and engender development to uplift the African population that had been oppressed under colonialism. Some of the mechanisms that were adopted to achieve that were the adoption of a single national language to avoid political and cultural fragmentation in the society. This was basically sought to evolve “a cultural system through establishing collective meaning and identity for all envisaged members of society (Bogdangy et al, 2005: 579-613 in Rwegabo, 2016:7). Homogenization of the society at the time of independence was necessary due to the division that existed before and after the attainment of independence.
The main purpose of language policy was to create conducive environment through which the system of communication between the various social groups in the society is set, so that they would easily understand each other (Green, (2011) in Mukwedeya, 2016: 9). At this time the selection of national language that could be spoken by all ethnic groups in the country was very important as identity differences, whether based on religion, ethnicity or race could have encouraged ethnicity, or religion, intergroup suspicion, competition, and prejudice.
While the adoption of a national language was an inevitable aspect for creating common national interest, the adoption of a clear political ideology as well as instituting a strong leadership became an important tool through which legitimacy and nationhood could be attained. This went hand in hand with the process of overhauling of local government institutions, which were very powerful during colonial days. According to Miguel (2004:327-362), traditional rural authorities and customary tribal law, which were inherited from the colonial masters, had to be completely dismantled upon independence in order to create an environment, which could help the new governments in Africa to run the newly created nations without any interference from the local chiefs, who were mostly loyal to the former colonial powers. In Tanzania, for example, in 1963 the African Chiefs Ordinance was repealed (Hayward (2013), Mukwedeya, (2016). This significantly helped to bring people together, as tribal chiefs were seen to be divisive based on their ethnic interests - something that was hampering the struggle towards national unity.
In addition to that, African states attempted to reform their education system. The main reason, why this became important, was that for over a century education systems in the colonies were structured and provided purposely to serve the metropolis, where they served to ensure that colonial production was achieved with minimum cost. It was not an educational system designed to give students confidence and pride as members of African societies, but rather to instill a sense of deference towards all that was European.
As Rodney argues, colonial education meant “selecting a few Africans to participate in the domination and exploitation of the continent as a whole. It was not an educational system that grew out of the African environment or one that was designed to promote the most rational use of material and social resources”1. In many cases, colonial education divided the Africans, because only a few got the chance, while the majority were left out, which created a gap between the learned and those who did not get the chance. It also had the effect of undermining traditional societies: on the one hand, by introducing an individualistic euro-centric value system that was alien to African communal mores and, on the other hand, by isolating students from their local communities.
According to Woolman (2001:1), the relationship between education and national development in Africa continues to be a question of critical concern in many countries after independence. It had to function as an agency of cultural transmission as well as change. Sadly, however, the colonial education did not meet that purpose. After the attainment of independence African governments started investing heavily in education expansion and diversification by building more schools, both primary and secondary, technical colleges and universities. This went hand in hand with the increase of enrollment, training skilled human resources and
1 Rodney, W. (1972), How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, East African Educational Publishers Ltd, p. 240.
increasing educational facilities. In some countries, which took a socialist path, such as Tanzania, all institutions that were owned by religious organizations were nationalized.
In the same vein, many African countries after independence radically attempted to deemphasize sub-nation (ethnic) groups in public life. These moves were seen "as a step to eliminate divisive and tribal forces which militated against national unity and progress"2. To deal with religious pluralism and in order to encourage the formation of a national identity, some African governments sought to mitigate the importance of religion for a person’s identity. There were other countries, however, which failed to bring national consensus because of either weak leadership that took power after independence, or due to the fact that some leaders were themselves tribalistic, as they inherently perpetuated the situation. This became so in some countries such as Kenya, where the first president Jomo Kenyatta, who was from one of the biggest tribes in the country, failed to reduce the dominance of the Kikuyu community and thus, as time went on, the problem of tribalism started to gain strength. This was also true in Rwanda, Burundi and Nigeria. In Nigeria, for example, since the attainment of independence in 1960, religion has been an instrument of political manipulation of the masses for the pursuit of power and resources (Adebanwi, 2004 in Akipu and Edward, 2014:47). Since the 1990s, Nigeria became increasingly divided along religious lines, and open confrontations via most religious messages became fierce (Akipu and Edward, 2014:47).
The effect of failing to solve the problem of tribalism has created a serious unity challenge in many African countries. Tribal hatred in Nigeria in the 1960s, for example, triggered the Biafra war, which claimed the lives of more than a million people (Harden, 1987). In Uganda, animosities that were largely tribal led to the wholesale slaughter of about a quarter million people during the rule of Idi Amin. After Amin, under Milton Obote, another 200,000 or more people, most of them members of an out-of-favor tribe, were killed (Harden, 1987).
Colonial rule produced profound changes in the way African peoples identified themselves. Unlike the pre-colonial ties of family, clan and lineage, ethnic identity became popular during colonial rule. The assumption that all Africans must belong to a tribe conditioned virtually every aspect by which colonial authorities administered their subjects, e.g. the Tanganyika had to create tribes that functioned within the colonial framework. The influence of European culture indelibly shaped the class that took over power after independence.
After independence, it was therefore very important that African culture is restored. Colonialism with its western culture precariously contaminated the traditional values of the African people. According to Arowolo (2010:2), African ways of doing things became primitive, archaic and regrettably unacceptable in the public domain. Again, as it was argued by Mimiko (2010:641-642), “the social fabric was completely devastated and a new culture of violence was implanted. Traditional African systems of conflict resolution were destroyed and, in their places, there were no replacements. The democratic process, rudimentary though it was, but with great potential as accompanies every human institution, was brutally uprooted and replaced by the authoritarianism of colonialism”. In general, colonialism disrupted not only the political organization and economic production of many African entities; but it also brought forms of cultural alienation, invasion, and disorientation.
During the struggle for independence, African theater and cultural forms became elements of resistance and the struggle for independence (Puye, 1998). Songs, dances, and ritual dramas mobilized people to understand and reject their colonial situation. After independence, Africa was confronted with a challenge on how to have a true identity, a new culture that would be African in nature. According to UNESCO (1974:23), governments of post-colonial
2
Mukwedeya, T. (2016), Nation Building in Africa: Lessons From Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Namibia, Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS), Youth Dialogue, 3-4 August 2016, Discussion Paper, p 10-11 in Halloran, K. 2013. Then and Now: Engaging Religious Diversity in Tanzania. Berkley Centre for Religion, Peace & World Affairs. Georgetown University.
countries took various steps to decolonize the way of thinking and the outlook of their people, to define the direction, the role and place of culture of their nations.
Historically political parties were seen by both governments and political thinkers like Hume and Rousseau as factional and not conducive to nation-building (Przeworski, 2009 in Bandyopadhyay and Green, 2013). After independence many African states adopted a one-party system. One of reasons given to justify this was to reduce political factionalism. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the belief that the one-party state was akin to the African traditional political system became a common reason to defend it. Aknirade (2000) claims that the one-party system ensured stability within a democracy, that multipartism and democratization are accompanied by struggle for power and division in the people among political party’s lines. Therefore, monopartism was considered to be the most suitable system of government for a modern African nation. Most often, proponents of a one-party state argue that the existence of separate parties runs counter to national unity, and because African countries were still young, monopartism was the best system for them.
With regard to Tanzania’s success in this project, as Kessler (2006:43) pointed out, the social, political, and economic policies adopted by the post-independence government created a political culture that is largely responsible for Tanzania’s peace in almost six decades since independence. A self-perpetuating set of norms, values, and institutions has fostered widespread acceptance of national identity and rejection of political violence as being “unTanzanian”.
Nation-building in the age of globalization
Globalization is a phenomenon whereby social relations become relatively delinked from territorial geography, so that human lives are increasingly played out in the world as a single village (Scholte, 2001:14-15). The term came into popular usage since the end of the cold war (Reich, 1998:5). Yet the concept is full of ambiguities and has generated a great deal of debate and controversy. Some countries are concerned and are taking it as a big problem, thus missing the opportunities it is offering. However, it is probably more important to be clear about the negative aspects of globalization and the fact that its benefits are unevenly shared and its costs are unevenly distributed among and across countries. This is very true especially when seen in the light of nation-building process in Africa.
Many scholars regard globalization as a force which will inevitably bring about the decline of the current nations of the world (Held 1995 in Amaldas, 2009:982-1002), erosion (Hall 1991:1) or the end (Ohmae 1995:13) of the nation state. As the argument goes, the process of globalization in its various manifestations is increasingly undermining the territorial boundedness, sovereignty and traditional role of the existing system of the modern nationstate. Whereas some believe that globalization, in the sense of its negative impacts, has fostered resurgence in emphasis on individual and national identities, others believe the impact to be positive in nature. Cvetkovich and Kellner (1997) take a close look at the dichotomies created between the global and the local, concluding that “it is a mistake to overlook focus on one side in favour of exclusive concern with the other” (p. 1). They go on to state that “Our challenge is to think through the relationship between the global and the local by observing how global forces influence and even structure ever more local situations”
It is important to note, optimistically, that globalization offers opportunities which if well utilized can significantly help the nation-building process in Africa. Probably one of the major positive impacts of globalization on Africa is that it has enabled information availability, which has again helped citizens to be aware of how other countries are governed as well as of freedoms and rights of the people. This has therefore opened African countries to far greater scrutiny than in the past, making it somewhat more difficult for African nations to get away with blatant and excessive abuses of democratic governance and transparency. It has also
helped to promote greater respect for human rights and has contributed to the development of an African press as well as shaping Africa’s public administration.
Economic globalization offers the potential for economic growth through greater economic openness, foreign direct investment and transfer of technologies (Bertucci and Alberti, 2001:5). Economic globalization has opened for African countries the doors to new markets for export, attracting foreign capital which, in turn, enhances development. According to the World Public Sector Report, (2001:17), evidence is strong that real GDP growth is related mainly to domestic productivity growth, not to balance of trade or to productivity relative to competitors. Moreover, social globalization has created greater social awareness of human rights violations, child labour abuses and corruption. As mentioned above, the reduction in transport and communication costs has provided people with new tools of information dissemination on human rights, democracy, poverty alleviation and transparency.
Despite these exciting possibilities, which are offered by globalization, it has, on the other hand, ushered in unprecedented miseries especially when considering the question of nationbuilding process in Africa. According to Majid (Majid, 2002:39), the process of globalization undoubtedly contributes to the change and reduction of the scope of nation sovereign power. The list of threats to nation sovereignty often includes global financial flows, multinational corporations, global media empires, the Internet, government and non-governmental organizations. These are overstepping the authorities of nation states by promoting their universal standards for everything, which, in turn, alters the scope of state authority.
Ever since the 1990s, it has become fashionable for corporations and world institutions to make decisions that undermine the ability of national states to make their own decisions. According to Camilleri and Falk (1992), the International Monetary Fund with its structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) insists on certain conditions on its loans to a government, namely: cut in public expenditure, subsidized welfare programmes and currency devaluation, thereby monitoring the policy or performance of the economically weak nations. The impact of SAPs on African nations, however, remains a matter of intense debate. The World Bank (1994: 131-153) has claimed that adjustment is working in countries that followed its prescriptions both in agricultural and industrial sectors, where Uganda and Ghana have been exceptional examples to point. Also the World Bank (2000:3-4) has argued that SAPs have significantly helped to induce growth and reduce poverty in some African nations which successfully implemented them. On the other hand, however, Heidhues et al., (2004) argues that because of SAPs various sectors suffered and still suffers as a result of expenditure cuts on public support for infrastructure, education, social services, as well as for research and extension. The rural areas, with their high proportion of poor people, were particularly hard hit by SAP measures.
The implementation of SAP policies in Africa was something that was not the desire of African people. It should therefore be clear that nations are responsible to their own people in mobilizing the available resources to ensure that basic services are equitably provided for their people. The process of globalization undoubtedly contributes to the change and the reduction of the scope of nation sovereign powers. With the advent of globalization what we are witnessing is that major decisions that affect the welfare of people in African nations are made by persons or institutions that are far away from Africa and not responsible to its people. Consequently, the ability of nations to make their decisions is diminishing, and this is very dangerous for building independent nations.
Another political aspect of globalization, as defined by Brown3, is the focus on the global structures and processes of rulemaking, problem solving, the maintenance of security and order in the world system. This clearly undermines the characteristic of a nation’s sovereignty in relation to having supreme legitimacy over politics within its state. Although these global
Brown, S. (1992), International Relations in a Changing Global system, Boulder, CO : Westview, p. 90.
structures acknowledge the continuing centrality of the state and geopolitics, it does not give them the authority to decline laws that are employed on them. Under condition of globalization, nation states are increasingly embedded in worldwide webs of multilateral institutions and multilateral politics from World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other international institutions.
The dizzying rise of the “Gutenberg Galaxy” and recent development of electronic media and the Internet have radically changed the world. As a consequence of this technological revolution, we are now in the time of the electronic global village, in the phrase of Canadian professor MacLuhan (Reljic, 2003 in Nikola, 2011:29). This means the end for time delay in the diffusion of cultural contents. News does not spread faster, rather it is everywhere at the same time. Satellite, global television networks and the Internet raise awareness of one world. And with this, and as the process of globalization accelerates and deepens, national cultures change. The technological revolution has made possible a global market in cultural models and values, where a fruitful synthesis of the local and global can occur.
The most popular and controversial debates about globalization has to do with the rise of global culture (Guillen, 2001). There are some scholars who agree that our world is witnessing the emergence of a world culture. According to Appadurai (1996:4, 21), “individuals and groups seek to annex the global into their own practices of the modern”, and “consumption of the mass media worldwide provokes resistance, irony, selectivity, and, in general, agency”. On the other hand, Guillen (2001) and Leslie Sklair (1991) argue that under globalization we are witnessing how a new “culture-ideology of consumerism - driven by symbols, images, and an aesthetic of the lifestyles and self-image - has spread throughout the world and is having some momentous effects including standardization of tastes and desires”.
Frankly speaking, I am quite skeptical of a singular “culture” to be adopted throughout the world. I agree with Menenji’s (1998:1) assertion that each culture has its own personality. The fact that we are all human beings does not mean that we are all the same. To ignore this would be destroying God's own beautiful rainbow made from the many colours of cultural diversity. Culture is learned. This is the most common attribute. I, on the other hand, may agree that, with the advent of globalization, we are witnessing a significant change in African cultural values. In many ways globalization is contributing to the decline of local arts, Ngoma and African dances.
African nations are also experiencing the decline of traditional ways of transmitting values, attitudes and norms to the youth. As Menenji (1998:3) and Smith (2000) argued, “today’s children no longer sit around the fireplace in the evening to listen to stories that promote the values of respect, integrity, peace and unity”. Instead, the television, actors from Hollywood or Nollywood and famous musicians have become the teachers as well as the role models for our children.
As I have argued, culture is learned and each society has its own way of doing that. The learning process does not take place through natural inheritance; rather it takes place through the process of absorption from the social environment. What is more disappointing in this age of globalization, it’s the fact that native languages, which are very important in learning African cultures, are being undermined by foreign languages, such as English, since it is conceived by many that speaking it is a sign of civilization. Also, due to microchip revolution, our children have been exposed to such environment that dictates everything for them. The microchip revolution is also becoming toxic to the culture of many African nations, as it carries the culture of violence to the youths. Through watching violent movies youth learn that violent acts are becoming a common thing.
The Internet, too, is not conducive to oral cultures. In these circumstances, some scholars like Wurm (1996) argue that globalization can crush cultural diversity along with biological diversity. For instance, up to half of the languages currently spoken by humanity are already threatened with extinction, and some linguists have forecast that over 90 percent could die out
during the 21st century. According to FATF (2004, in Scholte, 2005:285), the Internet has proved a boon for many fraudsters and pedophiles.
Global finance has greatly enhanced opportunities for money laundering, which now stands at levels equivalent to 2-5% of world GDP per annum (Scholte, 2005). Criminal elements have also often exploited transplanetary trade. Many gangs have dealt globally in restricted goods, prohibited goods like illicit drugs, taxed goods, stolen goods and undocumented migrants. Also, as a result of globalization, transworld criminal networks have figured as a powerful form of global organization in contemporary history. All these are a threat to nation peace, unity and stability. According to Ibrahim (2013:89), globalization has also encouraged illicit trade, prostitution, pornography, human smuggling, dumping of dangerous waste and depletion of the environment by unscrupulous entrepreneurs. As a result of these developments, Africa has become a victim.
In the globalization age the main engines of the economic system are the transnational corporations, which set the unfair rules for the global economy to benefit them. The rules are biased in favour of the rich and powerful nations as well as the multinationals. Kofman and Youngs (2008) argue that, with globalization, nation states have been constrained both by market forces and through the delegation of some governance functions to global organizations. As with this I argue that nation states are not responsible to the multinational or global government but to their own citizens. Nations should be left to serve the people in their territories and should be left to make decisions for their people without interference as well as choosing modalities on how to cooperate with other nations for the purpose of ensuring that nation’s interests are achieved.
Also in economic sphere globalization is explained by Golpin as the integration of the world economy, whilst Hirst describes it as the continued development of the international system of commercial liberalism. This worldwide economic integration has significantly been intensified due to the expansion of global commerce and finance. This expansion has been a result of the emerging global market economy. This economic development seems to be one of the positive developments; however, it has a great effect on national economies, especially African nations whose economies are still struggling to catch up. In theory, it is able to insulate itself from the contagion effects of the turmoil in the world financial market. The economic collapse in US in 2008, which began with the drop in stock shares of a company called Lehman Brothers, affected many countries worldwide. This basically explains how the global economy has a significant impact on local economies and the sovereignty of the nation states as external forces affect individual nation states. With this situation, the Westphalian principles are in jeopardy.
Also, with globalization, there is a widespread concern for African countries for inmigration and out-migration alike. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Africa has already lost one third of its human capital and is continuing to do so at an increasing rate with an estimated 20,000 doctors, university lecturers, engineers and other professionals since 1990 (Nwokoye, 2009). On the same vein, African nations spend a lot of money to pay foreign expatriates, who come to the continent to do skilled works that could have been done by Africans, who are leaving the continent. It is estimated that Africa spends almost four million US dollars to pay these foreign expatriates (Nwokoye, 2009).
It is also very unfortunate that African nations spend a lot of money to fund education for their people, but only to see them contributing to the growth of the economy of developed nations of the North. This again contributes to increasing dependence on foreign. This in particular undermines efforts to build national capabilities. As with globalization, African nations are experiencing massive in-migration of many people from other nations as a result of many forces. This has again threatened nation-building, because the inflow of people disturbs nation’s security as well as the budgets and, on the other hand, inflow migration threatens job security and availability to the native citizens, which again is a political risk.
The central reason for the rise of the nation state was the national security. The nation state’s most important role is to protect its national borders and preserve the physical intactness of national life. (Lakic, 2011:12). Contemporary security threats and challenges that are in nature trans-national and largely a product of globalization (terrorism, organized crime, proliferation of weapons, disease, environmental threats, drugs, pornography, international corruption, etc.) have made nation states so vulnerable and interdependent, that they almost no longer have a monopoly on individual troubleshooting. As the state is geographically limited and security threats come from non-state actors, security is increasingly sought through regional organizations, and as soon as the state seeks assistance from outside the country, this means that it is not capable of ensuring security any more (Lakic, 2011:13).
In addition, progress in information technology has facilitated the emergence and growth of computer-based crimes, especially fraud. Indeed, global terrorism has figured as a prominent source of insecurity since the 1970s. Terror politics are not new, insofar as various nation states and non-state actors have long used campaign of fear, death, disruption and destruction to promote their causes. However, intensified globalization has given terrorists new tools and higher profile (Booth and Dunne, 2000, in Scholte, 2005:285). Global trade in weapons has supplied many of the means for terrorist acts, while global finance has often channeled the necessary funds. The development of science and technology also has significantly helped individual terrorist units across the globe to exchange information and coordinate operations. While new security challenges are emerging, the level of preparedness among our law enforcement agencies in Africa seem to be very low. These developments have recently become one of the most significant setbacks to nation-building process in Africa.
On top of that, globalization has emphasized on investments (Scholte, 2005:167). However, on the whole, it reinforced the economic marginalization of African economies and their dependence on a few primary goods for which demand and prices are externally determined. This has, in turn, accentuated poverty and economic inequality as well as the ability of the vast number of Africans to participate meaningfully in the social and political life of their countries. Not only that, but also global actors are pressuring African governments to open up more and more to maximize foreign investments and capital inflows, and as big multinationals and local enterprises utilize this environment to cater for their interests, the government is having less and less room to pay attention to the abject poverty amongst the poor and rich both in and between countries. The African state will have to be encouraged to pay more attention to the fate of its poor populace than to the fate of big global actors. The big global actors can talk for themselves with little problem. The issue is, who will talk for the poor people of Africa. As pointed out Ibrahim (2013:90), it is necessary for African states in these global times to make the task of poverty eradication an indigenous agenda.
Conclusion
Generally African states are in the predicaments of having to face globalization while at the same time undergoing the painful process of nation-building in a highly hostile global environment. The structural and economic weakness of African nations is creating more hardships for African nations in facing these challenges. To overcome these challenges, there is a need to strengthen African states and their institutions of governance, through socioeconomic, electoral and bureaucratic reforms. Also African countries have to invest in education, skills and technological capabilities across the board. Education systems need reforms and illiteracy has to be tackled. In fact, to label globalization in absolute terms as either a totally positive or negative phenomenon is a simplistic approach. Ultimately, globalization benefits society at large in countries that enjoy great degree of political stability, countries, which have in place adequate infrastructure, equitable social safety nets and in general strong democratic institutions. Experience has shown that globalization requires strong, not weak states. Thus, one of
the main preconditions to ensure that the benefits of globalization are evenly spread throughout African nations is good governance, including an efficient and effective public administration.
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ПОЛОЖИТЕЛЬНЫЕ И ОТРИЦАТЕЛЬНЫЕ АСПЕКТЫ ВОЗДЕЙСТВИЯ ГЛОБАЛИЗАЦИИ НА ПРОЦЕСС НАЦИОНАЛЬНОГО СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВА В АФРИКЕ
© 2020 Александер Кавина
КАВИНА Александер, кандидат наук, Департамент истории Университета Сент-Джонс (Танзания).
Аннотация. Статья посвящена исследованию влияния глобализации на процессы построения нации в африканских государствах. Автор рассматривает динамику национального строительства на Африканском континенте и анализирует происходящие в ней изменения, связанные с интенсификацией процесса глобализации. Признавая ряд положительных сторон этого процесса, таких как повышение доступности информации, облегчение коммуникации, возможность привлечения внимания мировой общественности к фактам нарушения прав человека и проявлениям коррупции, а также порождаемое глобализацией увеличение потенциала экономического развития, автор в то же время предупреждает об опасностях, которые несет в себе глобализация как для культуры африканских стран, так и для их экономики. Анализируя соотношение положительных и отрицательных сторон глобализации для государств континента, автор приходит к выводу, что глобализация открывает для них новые уникальные возможности развития. Однако для того, чтобы воспользоваться этими возможностями, не утратив национального суверенитета и национальной идентичности, страны Африки должны уделять первоочередное внимание национальному строительству, развитию институтов управления и инвестициям в культуру и образование.
Ключевые слова: глобализация, национальное строительство в Африке
DOI: 10.31132/2412-5717-2020-50-1-59-70
