African Civilization in the 21st Century

Book excerpt: This book took the task of conceptualizing the change of African Civilization in the 21st century. It examines African Civilization and its encounters in view of the last 500 years of European and American slavery, exploitation and diplomatic paralysis. In post-colonial Africa (1960-2014), foreign powers have more influence on Africa. However, Africa cannot claim to have the diplomatic prestige to influence European, American or Asian powers. The overwhelming challenges that Africa has been experiencing did attract global reaction ranging from military intervention, diplomatic push or pull (rarely in between), and frequent humanitarian involvements. It is still inconclusive if global attention on Africa has had impact as much as it has been a stomping ground for advisors, donors, politicians, international agencies and a phalanx of well-meaning NGOs. However, their impact can be exemplified by the fact that in Sub-Saharan Africa, every second individual still does not have access to fresh water and electricity in the 21st century. In this book, the focus is put on Sub-Saharan Africa, where every other habitant has no access to fresh water and electricity. In this book, the following modernization strategies are recognized and discussed in Africa today: Westernizatio, Africanization, Chinezation, and Globalization. The evaluation of these policies is done with the civilization approach which is characterized by a big-picture view of the integration of society, culture (including religion), and infrastructure over a long period of time on a large territory. Furthermore, in the 21st century, global civilization are forming and penetrating contemporary civilizations such as: Western, Eastern, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, and African enforcing the development of large scale global businesses and capital. In such a context, should African Civilization follow the questionable policy of Westernization and Globalization? Or should it not follow these challenges and avoid the temptations of fast development and look rather towards the Africanization approach, which could make it last longer than the so called more modern, mentioned civilizations. These kinds of considerations are debated in this book.