I choose culture and globalization to develop this topic. The one negative consequence I am going to focus on is the Americanization or westernization of the culture and the impact on African mores and cultures. I am basing my topic on black Africans.
Globalization has made easy access to information technology. With the new means of communication, African people can communicate; view what is going on to other parts of the world. The negative consequence of it is that, African values have been severely damaged. Moreover African cultures on food, clothing, music, language and so forth have negatively changed.
Food
Fast food or takeaways are not part of African eating habit. They are the result of introduction of American or foreign food
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Movies
American movies are everywhere, a great number with pornographic content. This could not be imagined in Africa years ago. Pornography has destroyed the sense of morality in African youth. Consequently, the rate of virginity has significantly dropped in young girls before marriage. Ceremonies to verify virginity in girls was and still is part of culture in many part of Africa. Through movies, young ones can notice how respect to authority is less considered in the west, contrary to Africa for decades. In western countries, there are laws preventing parents, teachers to discipline (even physically but temperance of course) their kids of pupils. This led to western children to be considered by African as “stubborn”. The fact of reporting their parent to police is viewed as rebellion, yet this is being imitated.TV program and movies made young one to be less respectful.
Language With less economic opportunity in most African countries, young ones tend to focus their future in travelling to foreign or western countries for more opportunities. They know from the start that language could be a barrier. So, to make a bridge, from their schooling stage, they show more interest in learning foreign language like French, English and Portuguese while neglecting their own. It has become rare for African children born in town, to speak correctly their mother tongues. Some dialects are even disappearing. There is a saying in English: “Before learning a
The years between the 1870’s and 1910’s brought a tremendous amount of change to Africa. This time period, known as the Scramble for Africa, was when Europeans invaded and colonized the African continent. Europeans at the time were much more technologically advanced than the natives because of the many revolutions that took place in Europe. Thus, they were for the most part very successful in their colonization; they were able to take over the entire continent, save Ethiopia. During and after this period of colonization, Europeans were as present and powerful as they’d ever been, thus inflicting their unfamiliar practices and ideas on societies in Africa. Even though Europe brought over their foreign knowledge and technology (like guns), they
Africa became known as the “dark continent” through the Europeans eyes. Not only from the skin color of its inhabitants but also from the vast lands still undiscovered. Due to the Europeans’ view that Africa had a backward sense, they believed it was their responsibility to help. Conflict arose from the creation of a new society resulting in ethnic feuds and imperialism. European imperialistic powers subjugated Africa to strengthen their own economy. Africa’s rich supply of resources such as a large population had extremely detrimental to its economy. Slavery Sentence. The welfare of Africa’s people weakened rapidly from the poor management of the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria. Africa is the least developed part of the world, given the impact of European imperialism, slavery, and an inability to deal with major diseases.
Social Upheaval and Low Self Worth was another one of the major impacts of the European commercial activities on West Africa. As a result of the slave trade through raids and trade, there is no doubt concerning the social ills that plagued Western Africa. Many Africans were betrayed by their own political leaders
of people from all shapes, colors, and sizes. They may look different, think differently, wear peculiar clothing, and even speak another language, but as humans, though we may fear it, we find that exciting--experiencing something outside of our comfort zone. With globalization, new technologies and ideologies become prevalent and traditional practices become almost extinct. In the article, Appiah discussed his first-hand experience on the effects of globalization in his home country of Ghana. He attended a ceremony where he assumed traditional festivities would take place, but
Culture is the characteristics of a group of people defined by language, cuisine, religion social habits music and art. There are many different types of culture including western culture, eastern culture, African culture and many more. Culture is influenced by the groups of people that make up the country (Zimmermann, 2012). The term culture was first used by an English Anthropologist named Edward B. Tyler. It was first mentioned in 1871 in his book named ‘Primitive Culture’. He stated that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. Since then culture is the main focus of anthropology.
Many different contexts group together to make up the term “globalization” such as: technology, trade, offshoring, outsourcing integration, migration, transportation, and environmental pollution. In plain terms, globalization can be described as a process that embraces economic and cultural transmissions between countries. This process is intended to improve the function of economic activities worldwide. The movement also supports the idea of internationalism. Influencing a nation to adopt new political views and educational values can be a potentially positive way to help a struggling nation develop. However, economic improvement in this situation is not always the case. Research provides an irregular pattern concerning economic development. Focusing in on the impact of globalization in South Africa, both positives and negatives have played a part in this country’s struggle to compete with the rest of the world.
From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern for the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as remembered traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art
European Imperialism and Colonization of Africa created many social and economic changes including superiority over different people, technological advances, and new territories for European countries.
The Nature of Ronald CoaseDecember 29, 2014The Ideas That Shaped AfricaJanuary 7, 2015 As protests in Ferguson and elsewhere have brought police militarization to the forefront of public debate, some voices suggest that reigning in police militarization requires stricter gun control laws. For example, Matthew Yglesias argues at Vox that “when civilians are well-armed, police have to be as well.” Yglesias claims, “The officer always has to worry that if he doesn’t reach for and use his own gun, the suspect will.” He further contends that the disproportionate rate at which blacks are shot by police means “Young black men pay the price for gun rights.” While “officer safety” is the common refrain used to justify police violence and police militarization,
Africa faced many serious negative consequences because of imperialism. The resolution of the All African People’s Conference held in Ghana in 1958 said, “...Whereas fundamental human rights… freedom to live a full and abundant life… are denied to Africans through the activities of the Imperialists,” (Document 3). This resolution said that human rights, which are rights entitled to all humans regardless of any difference, were taken away. Because of this, the Africans were made to feel inferior which is not healthy for people and can cause serious consequences like the Africans assimilating to the European culture instead of preserving their rich, diverse culture. Sekou Toure, an African nationalist, had similar ideas, he said, “Our continent possesses tremendous reserves of raw material… with its potential sources of power, give it excellent conditions for industrialization,” (Document 2). So as well as the Africans being stripped of their basic rights
These included deassis, death and loss of independence. Just like any time the europeans went to another country and got sick, they transmitted deadly diseases to the natives causing many to die. Another negative was the loss of independence the Africans faced. This included religion, home life, the ways the dressed, holidays, and their ethnic background. The Europeans came in and wanted the natives to act, dress, and talk just like them. The last was the loss of soldiers in battle. With the british machine guns Africans were killed by the dozen in a matter of seconds.
There are many myths and stereotypes of how the media portrays Africa to be. The media has stereotyped Africa to be poor, hazardous, hot, underdeveloped nation, violent and spiritual country (p, 37). In the chapter “How We Learn”, Curtis Keim focuses on the specific sources that stereotypes Africa to be over populated country with exotic animals. Also stereotypes the people to be illiterate and not well educated people. People take negativity from different sources of media and base their opinion upon the information given and that is how people learn about Africa.
Europeans colonization stripped Africans of their culture and ability to express themselves. Document 5, illustrates the cultural bondage that Africa was stuck in due to colonization. Being tied in European cultural hindered African from stating their beliefs and
The author of the article named Kwame Appiah who is also from Ghana, precisely analyzed and demonstrates examples of the ways in which the world is indeed becoming globalized. Depending on how one may look at globalization, it may appear as a good thing, or it may appear to come off as a bad thing. It will all be based on that person’s paradigm or personal experiences/beliefs. From the author Kwame Appiah’s standpoint he demonstrated globalization as a positive thing yielding good results.
Beginning in 1880, there was a growing desire for European countries to expand and control their rule. The only continent at that time that was left uncontrolled and, in the European's eyes uncivilized, was Africa. This was the start of Western Imperialism. All European countries wanted their piece of Africa and to get it, they would let nothing stand in their way. They would change the entire government, religion, market, and behavior of most of the African nation and affect almost every person living there. An account of the impact of Imperialism is given in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. This book shows the changes that occurred in Africa during Imperialism and its affect on the community and the people