Globalisation is one of the most controversial issue in the world.

People have failed to reach an

agreement on whether globalisation has brought more harm or benefits to African societies
include the introduction of information and communication technology, the widening of African
markets, development of industries and so on. The negative effects of globalisation is that of
cultural imperialism, environmental degradation ,exploitation ,suppression of African industries
and many more .The key term globalization will be defined in the write up.

According to Chirume etal (2011) globalization implies creation of the global village as all
countries of the world are closely linked through communication and exchange of needs. Brooks
(2000) globalization is a process which is essentially about increased inter dependence and
dependence. From the above two definitions it can be concluded that globalization is the spread
of different aspects or factors of social, economic and political life throughout the world and the
exchange of these without national or regional restriction.

One of the positive effect of globalization is the introduction of information and communication
technology to African societies. According to Porter (2001) benefit of globalization is the linking
of African societies with others throughout the world .Information and Communication
Technology has availed the internet. This enables people to search for and exchange information
in commercial, social, political and other spheres of life without national or regional restriction.
This benefited the Africans as they are now able to access one another irregardless of the internal
boundaries.

More so, the widening of African markets is also yet another advantage to the Africans. Foster
(2007) asserts that commercially, globalisation has resulted in African countries enjoying goods
and services from countries all over the world. This implies that both producer goods and
consumer goods can be obtained by people in African societies from all over the world because
of globalisation .Variety is the norm as African peoples choice is not confined to locally or
regionally produced goods. For example, different models of motor vehicles are obtained from
Japan, China, United States of America, the United Kingdom and other countries by
Zimbabweans. Food, clothing, medicine and other products can flow to any country of the world,
thanks to globalization.

Furthermore ,Africans have benefited from the development of industries (Ayenagbo etal,2012)
The opening of industries and factories in Africa has seen creation of jobs for the local
population and improvement in terms of infrastructure .Multi-national companies such as Delta
Beverages ,Unilever and so on have opened industries in many African countries bringing in new
machinery and technology to Africa .This can be seen as a benefit to Africans though most of the
profits go to their so called home countries.

Moreover, the accessibility of external financing for borrowers also benefited the African
societies. Brooks (2000) says there was the emergence of worldwide financial markets and better
access to external financing for borrowers .This implies that the African countries are now able
to borrow money from organisations like IMF to use in their own development. The Africans can
borrow money and pay it back over a long period though this has its own disadvantages.

However, they are also demerits of globalisation towards African societies such as cultural
imperialism. Adams (2000) says that there is gross erosion on the culture of the people of Africa
as a result of globalisation. The revolution in information technology and rapid flow of
information, cultural diversity is gradually fading, social values and systems that sustained the
communities are equally breaking down. Most African societies are now changing their way of
life, language and there have been a breakdown of the extended family. This was influenced by
the western movies, music and dressing, the youths in Africa are now imitating these western
lifestyles. The African culture slowly fading away due to the youth being exposed to different
cultures and they end up imitating them and this is a negative effect on African societies.

More so, the incorporation of African countries into their global system has battered their
political sovereignty, Nnoll (2003). The wealth ownership and power are becoming concentrated
in the hands of multinational companies, the power of government is on the decline as they no
longer have the power to act in the interest of the people and implementation of economic rights
and policies are increasingly becoming very difficult. Government can no longer control the
movement of money into and out of their own computers, fax machines, internet banking have
made it possible for money exchange to take place without the knowledge of government. Hence
it is a negative effect as it undermines the governments power.

Another factor is that small scale industries operating in Africa are slowly fading away. Bucknor
(2004) propounds that the small scale industries operating in Africa are without any form of
protection and as a result they cannot survive the competition with foreign firms and are forced

out of production. Infant industries such as soap, salt and milling industries are being killed. For
example in Malawi there was an industry in which women were weaving baskets and selling
them. The coming of the Chinese into the country was a big disappointment to them as the
Chinese brought with them their cheaper baskets and this caused a great reduction in the
womens sales. This was a negative effect as it led to unemployment and automatically poverty
to the African societies.

Moreover the Western powers tend to take Africa as their dumping grounds Duddly (1972) says
that the African countries at the global level are recognized as playing a prominent role of a
dumping ground for the toxic wastes that are not needed in the world. This implies that the
advanced countries of the world tend to engage in dumping. This means that products
considered sub-standard or harmful in developed societies are sold to people in African societies
without the latter being aware of the undesirable nature of these products thus globalisation has
brought harm to African societies.

Another fact is that Africa is considered a producer of raw materials for European countries .As
it stands, globalisation has placed African countries in a permanent position of mere primary
producers of raw materials for the industrialised countries (Chimanikire ,2005).This implies that
the Western powers are extracting raw materials such as gold, cotton, maize etc. in Africa. When
they do this, they propose the prices at which they will be buying these and only to sell the
products back to Africa as processed goods for which they will be charging high prices. The
Africans get poorer while they are getting richer.

The other issue is that of environmental degradation. According to the world bank (2000) the
activities of multinational companies in the area of crude oil exploration and exploitation in
countries that crude oil have been associated with monumental disaster in form of spillage, fire
outbreak, flaming of natural gas ,degradation and pollution of the natural environment. This
shows that the environment when they are in operation be it mines, industries and factories. This
resulted in most of water sources in African countries being polluted and a decline in aquatic life
has been recorded as a result. This has disputed the social life of the people as it is impossible for
them to continue in their traditional occupations such as fishing, farming and salt making thus
globalisation is harming African societies.

Exploitation is also one of the harms brought by globalization to Africa. Barnet (2002) asserts
that there are factories set up in the poor countries where employees agree to work for low
wages. This shows that the multinational companies locate to Africa mostly because there is
cheap labor. This is for them to realize more profits. Bush (2008) says that when labor laws alter
in those countries and those countries and stricter rules govern the manufacturing process and
factories are closed down and they relocate to other nations with more conservative, laissez-fare
economic policies. This supports the view that the developed countries tend to sort for cheap
labor in Africa thus one more harm brought by globalisation.

Furthermore globalisation paved way for the spread of new diseases in Africa. This issue of
globalization has flooded the African markets with a variety of food .Some of this food is bad for
the health of people. African people have left their traditional food such as mhunga, nyevhe and

mova and they are now going for fast foods which have more fat. This has seen an increase in the
number of people who suffer from hypertension, diabetes and obesity which were less common
in Africa before. Also some of the movies that are filmed by the Westerns promote social decay
and this is seen by an increase in the rate of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immune
Virus prevalence. Therefore, globalisation can be seen as a tool of destruction to African
societies.

From the above, it can be suggested that globalisation has brought more harm than benefit to
African societies. Societies have suffered from exploitation, environmental degradation, cultural
imperialism and an increase in the spread of diseases .However Africa has also benefited from
globalisation as seen in the introduction of ICTs, widening of African markets and
industrialization.

References
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Barnet, R. Cavanagh, J. (2002).Global Dreams: Imperial Corporations and The New World
Order. London. Simon and Cluster.
Brooks, C. (2000). Globalisation: What Issues are at stake for Universities; University of Laval:
Quebac .Canada
Bucknor, Markus, Leder, D (2004) Trade Causes in Sub-Saharan Africa Policy Research
Working Paper 6007 Washington ,D .C .World Bank.
Bush, R (2008) Africa and globalization: London .Simon and Cluster.
Chimanikire, D .P (2005) Africa and Globalisation revisited. Institute of Development Studies
.University of Zimbabwe.
Chirume, C. (2011) Media Relations .Harare .ZOU.
Duddly, R. (2007) Environment: Implication of Human Migration .Human Ecology Review.
Foster, D. (2007), Community and Identity in the global village. New York, Routledge.
Porter, N.D (2001) .International Culture, London, Hodder and Sloughton.
Ayenagbo, K. Rongcheng, W .Wengjing, W.Nguhi, S. Josphert Patrick, J .M (2012) the impact of
globalization on African countries economic development at
http://www.academicjournals.org/AJM retrieved 22-09-16.
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retrieved 22-09-16.