Paper Still in Progress...        

 

The continent of Africa occupies a special place in the history and consciousness of humanity. As the cradle of human civilization and the womb of mankind, its future is inextricably linked to our common future as a species on Earth.[1]  As such, it is important that we examine and attempt to determine whether globalization is in the long-term benefit of the continent. To best analyze this question, one must first delineate the cultural, socio-political, and economic aspects which define globalization. Then, properly associate those aspects to both the current circumstances and future outcomes of the African continent. Lastly, one should integrate this agreed upon definition of globalization, along with its social, political, and economic impacts, to a notion of what is ‘good’ for Africa’s future. Here, I will do so by presenting opposing theoretical socio-economic lenses, statistical evidence in various areas of the African continent, and local anecdotal narratives.

 

Globalization Defined

The term ‘globalization’, as is the case with many often-used terms, has become a catch-all phrase in the modern lexicon of various disparate social, political, and economic groups to such a degree it has nearly become meaningless. For example, economists may use the term to connote the extent to which national economies and private companies are connected by their commercial production, distribution, purchasing, and sales channels. While politicians may use it to imply the importance of cooperation by nations through international treaties and organizations, multilateral trading blocs, and ?. Finally, globalization opponents, both on the political left and right, may assert the term bespeaks either of economic exploitation of the poor by global elites or a usurpation of national sovereignty by faceless, unelected bureaucrats. “The globalization controversy consists not so much in perceptions clashing with reality as much as an ambiguous reality supporting numerous and sometimes contradictory perceptions”.[2] Therefore, each opposition group sees only a single aspect of globalization’s influence and effects and then adheres to a holistic, incomplete, and frequently inaccurate denotation of that specific aspect to fit their critique.

 

 

 

Theoretical Perspectives of Globalization on African Development

 

Pro-Globalization Enthusiasts

Those who advocate for African globalization are a varied lot, representing not only Western educated economists and neoliberal intellectuals from outside the continent, but also many indigenous African leaders and activists themselves.[3] The only common feature among those in this group is their dependence on a neoliberal theoretical perspective. From this perspective they advocate for increased globalization as a means by which to develop continental Africa. This group subscribes to the Huntington Theory of Political Development [4], as thus believes the unilinear process of African development and globalization should encompass and stabilize institutions.[5] They argue domestic African institutions should comply with the economic and regulatory wishes of supranational organization like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and multinational corporations rather than solely the self-interested whims of African leaders or short-sighted popular wishes of African people.[6]

 

 

Additionally, globalization enthusiasts argue for increased continental integration with the global economic and political world community as a means of improving African development and economic growth. They also believe African globalization will create intranational socio-political cohesion and political stability through enforced ‘good governance’ policies demanded by international financial institutions (IFIs). Exasperated historically by colonial powers and Cold War proxy manipulation, political instability throughout Africa due to tribal and ethnic conflict remains an impediment to development in many countries. Enthusiasts assert that, “…good governance is an essential ingredient for sound development. It is also in line with the Banks' vision for sustained African development into the 21st Century”.[7] This ‘good governance’ term is more accurately defined as the insistence African governments doing business with IFIs and multinational corporations (MNCs) decrease, or sometimes eliminate their public sector and social spending on expenditures like education and healthcare and instead pay down their international debt.

 

            From the perspective of the pro-globalization Western capitalists and economists, the most profound benefits to Africa of globalization are the potential economic growth and development it will bring to the continent. They argue that global integration and privatization brings increased low costs and choice to consumers and increased employment of skilled labor in the manufacturing good sector. As a consequence, unskilled labor will gain from increases in the construction and transportation infrastructure, expansion of global trade in domestic merchandise will decrease local population pressures on regional urban centers by increasing small business ventures, and the movement of labor across intracontinental national boundaries has, and will continue to, reduce production and distribution bottlenecks.

            Global Enthusiasts point to recent increases in African exports and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as evidence of the potential economic benefits of globalization (Africa Recovery 2003, 24). “African countries greatly increased exports to the U.S. in 2004, generating revenues of over $26 billion in that year” (Cudjoe 2005). Finally, openness to foreign technical expertise and management techniques has and will continue to greatly improve production efficiency in many developing countries (Ouattara 1997). The proponents of globalization believe that all of these capitalistic neoliberal economic benefits of globalization will have the net effect of reducing poverty and developing Africa. “If we look at the latter part of the 20th Century alone, the evidence that globalization reduces poverty is overwhelming” (eurogroup@yahoo.com). This position is built on the principles of Walt Rostow which argue Africa’s development and advancement are certain as long as they follow the instructions and example of the Western countries (Collins 2006). Of course, this assertion fails to mention the numerous economic subsidies employed by those Western countries’ industries like agriculture to the detriment of Africa and other underdeveloped regions.

 

Dependency Theory Global Skeptics

            The global skeptics that point to the failings of globalization to produce sustainable development and widespread social improvement have a dependency theory model as the foundations of their perspective. As such they argue that the rich Western countries are both connected to and depend upon the poverty and economic exploitation of Africa to maintain their power and are, thus, not genuinely interested in African development but rather Western neocolonialism. “The practice of one-sided adjustments does not make logical sense and benefits on the West in their relations with African countries. The hidden agenda is to keep Africans perpetually as cutters of wood and drawers of water for the West” (Osabu-Kle 2000, 519,524).

            Global Skeptics point to the extreme demand on African nations by IFIs to pay back high-interest rates at the expense of domestic social spending as an example of, “… worsening terms of trade between the core’s industrial exports and the primary products exported by the periphery”, as argued by Rand Prebish’s Reformist school (Collins 2006). The increased movement of labor, as seen by global skeptics, does not produce increased domestic production or employment but rather social, cultural, and environmental upheaval by the mass migration of people from rural villages to the overcrowded African urban core. “Consequently, people are being ‘pushed’ out of rural villages and ‘pulled’ into urban areas in expectation of a better life. Instead, more often than not, the cities they migrate to are congested and bereft of adequate public services” (Charisma Acey 2005). Some of the environmental and social effects of this huge internally displaced migration of labor are the increase of HIV/AIDS in urban African urban areas because of prostitution, air and water pollution, and urban crime. The global skeptics argue that any benefit in increased employment or lower prices of globalization are more than outweighed by the negative social, political, and environmental changes that globalization produces (Neubauer 2005). “Once migrants reach the city…they confront some of the same conditions of low productivity, joblessness, and poor income that they encountered in rural areas now compounded by overcrowded, pollution, and other urban problems” (Cheru 2005, 6).

            These global skeptics, like dependency theorists before them, see the increased strength of MNCs and IFIs to skirt domestic taxation and regulation as a neocolonial construct whose purpose is to enrich the nations of the West and maintain the poverty of Africa not to free up capital to be reinvested in the continent. They point to Structural Adjustment Program of the IMF which mandated privatization of domestic industries, decreased spending on health services and education, and high loan repayment rates as just a contemporary means of maintaining African economic servitude and extracting its wealth. They argue the Western nations are hypocritical and suffer from historical amnesia in asserting tariffs, subsidies, and government manipulation of markets is antithetical to development, while development of Europe, the U.S. and the ‘Asian Tigers’ historically used just these tools to protect their markets and develop their nations (Osabu-Kle 2000, 516-517, 522). Even today, this hypocrisy manifests itself in the agricultural subsidies of the U.S. and the European Union to the determent of the economies of Africa. Thus, these global skeptics, like Wallerstein and Frank see this push for privatization and integration of African markets and the other aspects of so-called ‘globalization’ merely as a third industrial phase of the exploitative global system, with agriculture and mercantilism being the first and second respectively (Collins 2006). Additionally, like Rodney, global skeptics believe aspects of globalization like single crop dependence of African economies, circumvention by MNCs of domestic taxation and regulations, and the expansion of power of supranational organizations like WTO and the IMF over domestic African sovereignty are meant to continue the historic African exploitation and underdevelopment for the benefit of Western corporate interests (Bly 1985, 118), (Osabu-Kle 2000, 523-524), (Schraeder 2004, 324).

 

The Failings of Both Schools of Thought

            In addressing the question of whether globalization is ‘good’ for Africa both the global skeptics and enthusiast look for the answer through the lens of their respective theoretical perspectives. The result of this skewed outlook is neither group can see evidence which points out the faults in their own positions. The global enthusiast while praising the benefits of decreased domestic regulations fail to see the political and cultural importance of national sovereignty and democratic accountability which are frequently eroded and usurped by multinational corporations and supranational non-governmental organizations. Additionally, they either fail to admit to the existence of the economic stifling effect of neocolonial structures in current globalization which moves huge amounts of capital and natural resources out of the African continent to enrich the Western corporations and nations and not to fuel domestic African development and social development. Finally, their adherence to neoliberal capitalist structures tends to blind them to the abuses of unregulated markets which can then produce violent domestic unrest and socio-political upheavals such as environmental degradation and human exploitation in pursuit of maximization of profits (Goodhart 2001, 537-538).

            Likewise, the global skeptics are unwilling to look outside of a dependency theory frame to recognize the potential benefits to ordinary African citizens of globalization. Instead, they solely focus on the unfair exploitation it can create. Global skeptics, in railing against the current system, do not offer a feasible alternative solution for development in Africa. They do not recognize how many aspects of globalization like market integration, economies of scale, and multilateral trade agreements Can help Africa better compete with the richer nations of the West. For example, globalization can facilitate the proper coordinated use of the African Union as a political and economic entity on the world stage which can better compete with the U.S., E.U., or China than anyone African nation could alone.

 

Redefining and Restructuring Globalization

            Given the predominance of the neoliberal economic system on international economic affairs as well as the continued integration of the world’s economies due in large part to technology and interconnectedness of social, economic, and political institutions, one must find a solution to the perniciousness of African underdevelopment within this context. The solution, therefore, must attempt to restructure and redefine the basic aspects of globalization in such a way as to eliminate or drastically minimize human and natural resource exploitation of Africa while concurrently harnessing the power of capitalism and globalization to widen and deepen African development so that it reaches and improves the lives of all Africans at all socio-economic strata and not just the connected elites. By altering what globalization is today, one can indeed make globalization ‘good’ for Africa.

            One way this can be accomplished is by using the integration of distinct and differing ethnic communities and markets within Africa without creating cultural uniformity or destroying Africa’s rich multi-ethnic diversity. For example, instead of eliminating ethnic and cultural distinctions and creating a sort of ‘WalMart’ effect across the continent, globalization can be restructured to connect geographically, culturally, and economically disparate communities, improving intra-African trade and relations. In this way, the differences of this culturally rich continent can be celebrated instead of pounding away by corporate greed and uniformity into some amorphous amalgam of blandness.

            Another way to restructure the current manifestation of globalization to benefit Africa is to use the increased movement of ideas and people, supercharged by technology, to inform and educate the people of Africa of the exploitative practices of private MNCs along with any instances of corruption and mismanagement by their government. A more active, free, and powerful media presence throughout the continent could help provide these positive effects of globalization by educating and empowering ordinary Africans, holding governments and organizations accountable, and stemming continent-wide problems that do not respect national borders like the HIV/AIDS and Ebola pandemics and the deleterious effects of climate change ( Daniel Scheer, Allison Milewski, and Huntsinger & Jeffer, Inc. 2005, 4), A UMNS News Feature 2000). Additionally, the rapid advancement of technology to move ideas and information which is unleashed by globalization can be harnessed to spread different forms of sustainable across the continent and improve the lives of its poor and rural people. Projects like solar wells, reforestation campaigns of eroded areas, and increased protection of endangered species can be much better achieved through the swift movement of information throughout the continent of the many local benefits of sustainable development, technology, and education (AllAfrica Global Media 2007).

            A third way globalization could be altered to a positive for Africa is to force the West, like the U.S. and the E.U., to end their hypocritical policies of agricultural subsidies in order to level the economic playing field and give Africa’s agricultural sector a chance to compete fairly. If Western neoliberals really believe in the power of free markets to ‘lift all boats’ then they should adhere to the same rules which they require Africa to through SAPs of the IMF (put something about the backlash in Europe to the Austerity measure after the Great Recession). “ Consumers and taxpayers are financing a system which denies African countries the chance to grow out of poverty while lining the pockets of the European sugar industry” (Frith 2005). Let the West practice what they preach economically to Africa and other Less Developed Countries (LDC).

            Lastly, the aspect of globalization which increases the power of supranational institutions and multilateral organizations over individual domestic regulatory and legislative power should be altered in such a way as to help individual Africans fight against the frequently abusive powers of the State or that of private corporations. By empowering supranational groups like human rights NGOs as well as regional and continental political entities to be watchdogs against the excesses of MNCs and oppressive governments, globalization can improve the lives and freedoms of the people of Africa. Groups like Amnesty International can expose abuses of workers by corporations to the rest of the world, while organizations like the African Union (AU), ECOWAS, and the EAC can, through both sanctions and regulations, force authoritarian regimes to respect its citizen’s human rights and be more democratically accountable.

            Globalization as apolitical, social, and economic force is a fact of life in the 21st Century which cannot be ignored or wished away. One should not look at the state of African development solely through theoretical blinders which prevent one from either clearly seeing and addressing its negative impacts on the continent, or the positive ones. However, the inescapable ubiquity and power of globalization can be altered and restructured in such a way as to minimize the negative impacts of African society while simultaneously being harnessed to protect and expand the freedoms of the African people.

 

[1] Rashidi, Runoko. Foreword. Huggins, N. Willis and John G. Jackson. Introduction to African Civilizations. 1st. Mansfield Center: Martino, 2001. 7 December 2018. 

 

[2] “Seven in ten Africans view globalization favorably, making the worlds poorest continent the most positive on benefits of greater integration” (World Public Opinion: Global Public Opinion on International Affairs 2006).        

 

Michael Jackson is a political analyst/researcher and freelance writer/editor living in New York City. He holds a B.A. in political science with a concentration in American Politics & Urban Studies from California State University, East Bay and was formerly graduate fellow at the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences' Ph.D program