African Culture

Before the late nineteenth century, the African culture was rich with colorful traditions. People in Africa used to live in scattered groups and villages with every village having its own cultural and traditional values. Every village was inhabited by families and a selected leader to lead them. Even some villages had their own small militia of army to protect them from invaders. Various cultural festivals were held that were for either human development, change of seasons or just passing through different stages in agricultural cycles of the year (Sayre, 2010). With rich in resources Africa was a prosperous nation and a market leader in trade. Due to domestic farming practices Africans had surplus food supplies in most of their regions. Traditionally women were had limited opportunities and were responsible for household and farming.

After nineteenth century Africans started to become more modernized and western technology was one of the major factor that played in their lives. With globalization starting to take its effect on African Culture their first change was the change in language. With their native languages Africans started to learn the languages of the west as they thought of it as the language of the world. New drinking and eating habits made its way in the form of fast food chains and cola drinks. Women were mostly related to farming sector started to get jobs as civil servants or got them involved in small scale entrepreneurship.

The main factor behind the loss of centeredness in the later nineteenth can early twentieth century was globalization. Due to developments in the communication sectors the world became a global village. With all the developments done in the west they created a monopoly over the world and controlled the main stream media which helped in promoting their culture. This caused the decentering of non-western cultures in various areas like: music, fashion, media, traditions, technology etc. All the areas started to become more modernized as with the west leading the way. In African culture it meant to part ways with their old traditions to evolve them to accept more scientific approach in life. This loss of centeredness in the African culture created a new bipolar culture in the lives of African people which had major influences from western culture. Following are some of the examples of decentering of the African culture:

1) Africans had a traditional small community cultural society where people lived in small villages and played traditional music and sang songs of ancestors or to please their gods. With the influence of western culture people just left singing such songs and went for fame in big cities. Traditional instruments started to be replaced by modern western instruments.

2) From traditional clothes Africans found charm in wearing western clothing. Most of their fashion changed and a mix of traditional and western style was also introduced which slowly turned in to a more