Gadamer’s Threefold of Understanding And its Relevance to Cultural Synergistic Approach to Globalization (Published)
The inevitable metamorphosing of the world into a global village with several cultures contesting for relevance through dominance at different levels of cultural encounter, calls for an understanding of globalization capable of enhancing cultural synergy as a panacea to the perceived cultural imperialism that is often viewed by several schools of thoughts as the major drawback of globalization. The idea of cultural synergy calls for equality of cultures and as such can be a viable antidote to cultural imperialism. In this essay, we shall attempt a presentation of Gadamer’s threefold of understanding as a precursor to cultural synergistic approach to globalization. Gadamer’s threefold notion of understanding comprises of the hermeneutical circle that does not separate the whole from the parts or the parts from the whole; the prejudice that entails the components of judgment before an encounter and fusion of horizon that regards the past and the present inseparable in giving the interpretation. The systematic pattern of Gadamer’s threefold of understanding has the potential of solving the problem of cultural imperialism associated with globalization to an extent. The possibility is embedded in ‘understanding’ as a fundamental precondition for cultural synergy. With the aid of an analytical method, we shall present to what extent the threefold of understanding signals cultural synergistic approach to globalization as the ideal approach with viable solutions to the danger of cultural imperialism inherent in globalization, also we shall apply the hermeneutic method in line with Gadamer’s hermeneutical view. The aim of using Gadamer’s threefold of understanding is to show the practicality of the hermeneutic theory in creating new knowledge of how to overcome the loopholes of the globalized world in cultural terms. This essay recommends the threefold of understanding for cultural groups ready to establish a solid cultural synergistic approach to globalization as an antidote to the cultural imperialist aspects of globalization.
Keywords: Cultural Imperialism, Cultural Synergy, Flows, Homogenization, Modernization
The Untold History of Neocolonialism in Africa (1960-2011) (Published)
After the Second World War, the imperialist trends of the eighteenth and nineteenth century began to decline. Through collective struggles, the Africans achieved independence from the whites. But though they attained freedom, they could not imagine the fact that it was just a treacherous exchange of power between the out-going masters and few of their faithful heirs. In the colonial period, the European rulers propagated that as the Africans had no culture and history of their own, it was their holy duty to civilize the native Africans. Thus, they regarded themselves superior to Africans whose culture they considered inferior, uncivilized, and savage. In the name of spreading civilization, they dominated, oppressed, tyrannized and persecuted the native Africans not only economically and politically, but also culturally. When the Europeans left, the Africans got political freedom, but the foul practice of imperialism did not end. It appeared in a new form namely neocolonialism which the scholars had branded as the worst form of imperialism. This camouflaged imperialist practice is turning Africa into a museum of acute poverty, hunger, corruption and famine. The paper aims at elucidating the effects of neocolonialism in Africa from four major perspectives– economic, political, cultural and literary.
Keywords: Africa, Cultural Imperialism, Disillusionment of African Writers., Imperialism, Neocolonialism