The aggressive spread of market economics and communication technologies  this has been accomplished by imposing Western religion and cultural practices on those with a different way of life.

Wholesale Westernisation

Justified initially as a civilising mission and subsequently dubbed modernisation, in practice it was wholesale Westernisation with very little room for any viable middle ground. For instance, in the 19th century, Abeokuta (a town in West Africa), inspired by its Western educated former slaves, responded to the challenges of these pervasive foreign influences with a unique form of defensive modernisation and reform which eventually crumbled under the weight of the overwhelming imperial British power. Accordingly, until the late twentieth century, it was assumed that development for the colonised peoples must involve a denial of their history, a rejection of their cultural heritage and the adoption of Western cultural practices.

The effect of this policy in the case of Africa, as Professor Andah once noted, was untold damage to the African psyche, "so much so that most Africans have come to believe as truth, the myths and lies about them as being primitive, history-less, mindless, cursed, lazy, inherently evil and corrupt, third world, underdeveloped."

In short, today, African culture has been decimated. More importantly, colonialism paved the way for today's cultural globalisation by leaving the colonised in a state of cultural disorientation and consequently vulnerable to continuing cultural invasion. This disorientation manifests itself in one or two extreme forms: 1) exaggerated attachment to an often reinvented past in the name of tradition and culture; or 2) attempts at wholesale adoption of anything and everything foreign.

Disapperance of languages

It may sound extreme but academic language studies have proven that particular aspects of culture can and do disappear forever; even optimistic estimates suggest that as many as 90 percent of the world's languages will disappear in the next century.

While an important feature of globalisation today is its de-Westernisation (with the emergence of some non-Western nations - like Japan - as key actors), the reality is that in many important respects, Western culture (some would say American culture) remains the domineering force in the world today. Western culture fuels globalisation today and, as it did during the age of imperialism and colonisation, helps to reinforce the hegemony of the West. Information technology, as the driving force of economic globalisation, has also become a veritable instrument for propagating Western culture.

Perhaps by far the most important far-reaching effect of cultural globalisation is the commercialisation of culture. Production and consumption of cultural goods and services have become commodities, along with the essentials of social life (marriage and family life, religion, work and leisure), that are the crucibles of cultural creation. In a way very similar to economic globalisation, most people (and especially the poor) do not experience cultural globalisation on terms they have decided for themselves. Culture  this city has grown from a population of 18,000 in 1901 to over 12 million in 2001. The majority of these new immigrants end up in slum quarters leading to poverty, pollution and misery.

Such a radical undermining of people's existing values and cultures has a corrosive impact on their sense of who they are, what they want and what they respect. It attacks spiritual values and faith traditions. The cumulative effect in Africa is a crisis of cultural confidence, combined with the increased economic uncertainty and crime which global integration often brings.

This creates real problems for social solidarity, whether it is at the level of nation, community or family. While it offers shiny new goods as compared to old faded ones, the market offers no replacement for such community solidarity.

In conclusion, cultural globalisation, or worldwide McDonaldisation, destroys diversity and displaces the opportunity to sustain decent human life through an assortment of many different cultures. It is more a consequence of power concentration in the global media and manufacturing companies than the people's own wish to abandon their cultural identity and diversity. —

YellowTimes.org

WOLE AKANDE, a former opinion columnist with Ireland's Irish Examiner newspaper, is a freelance journalist. In addition to his work with YellowTimes.org , Wole also maintains http://www.abeokuta.org, a Nigerian community website. He is currently writing a book about Abeokuta's 19th century defensive modernisation.