Globalization and culture modification: reshaping the instruments of socialization towards African societal development

Abstract

Twenty-first century scholarship is replete with studies on the effect of globalization on indigenous culture in less developed countries. Such studies have accorded the African world ample space because globalization has fostered epochal changes in Africa’s cultural terrain. Though more subtle in recent times, in comparison to the hegemonic tendencies of the colonial past, it has created monumental changes in the social, economic, political and spiritual life of African groups. Notably absent, notwithstanding, are theories to explain the extinction of values and quest to recover pristine African cultural life which globalization has remodeled. Thus, this study seeks a philosophical insight into the historical realities, trajectories and impact of globalization in Africa. It captures what many regard as African existential predicament. It shows the character of globalization in relation to Africa, drawing attention to the objectives, actors, gainers, and losers of the process. To ensure this, this research reflects on certain fundamental questions such as; what is globalization? What are its objectives? What is the role of globalization in the formation of cultural identity? How are the West and its allies captured in the process? What is culture? Where is the African family, the African child and African religion in globalization? The basic interest of this study is to epistemologically establish that globalization has had corrosive effect on African culture, which is tantamount to distorting the vital force that could facilitate African development.