AN INQUIRY INTO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMMUNALISM AND GLOBALIZATION AND THEIR IMPLICATION FOR CONTEMPORARY AFRICA

Abstract

Human quest for sustainable development can be traced back to the very onset of human existence. ‘The changes that have encompassed the world in the recent past have obviously not left Africa unaffected, including collapse of the Soviet bloc, the cold war, emergence of the uni-polar world, and marginalised role of the UN system and the victory of the neo-liberal economic and political agenda’, these have affected communalistic way of living, economy and political structures and policies in Africa. Globalization of African continent can be seen as one of the major historical factors, which have shaped the life and thinking of Africans, and also disorganized the social life of the Africa in a communal setting, and led to gradual disassociation from the usual collective interest. Dialectical method is employed using communalism as the thesis, globalization as the anti-thesis, then the effects which are both positive and negative factor as the synthesis. Dialectics is used critically to investigate African communalism in sheer face of globalization, which led to individualism in Africa. This study reveals that Africans are more of individualistic than communal, but not denying the fact that, there are still traces of communality in some parts of contemporary Africa, due to the long period of time in which societies were nurtured in communalist spirit. The research concludes that, what is been practiced in contemporary Africa incorporates both traces of individualism and communalism together.