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Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to show that globalization as a practice and a phenomenon is 
attuned to the norms, traditions and mental makeup of many African societies. 
Incidentally, it has equally demonstrated that, more than formal institutions and complex 
legal systems. The earliest and most enduring superstructure of globalization are to be 
found in norms around salient social practice, and this is where African societies not only 
differ from, but also have an edge over Western ones. Five major norms that support 
globalization in Africa on areas including: Trade; strong economic activities has existed 
in Africa before the emergence of slave trade, Communality; norms around the practice of 
communal help have existed in Africa before colonialism, and still exist today, Arts and 
literature; a deeper look into the African artistic tradition would reveal that the continent 
has been gradually moving towards unity of form, taste and purpose in arts, literature and 
music for centuries, Language and Communication; nothing speaks loud about the 
common root and complex relationships of African civilization than language, and 
Gendered division of labour; a common chord runs through traditional societies in sub-
Saharan Africa with respect to economic sex-dependency.  The paper passionately 
submits that Africa is most amenable for globalization and further predicted that African 
norms will continue to make conditions favorable for development of globalization in a 
way in which the continent will be less exposed to globalization's excesses.

Keywords:

Introduction 
When modern scholars write about the rediscovery of Africa, it is not the opening up of 
hitherto impenetrable swathes of forests and unnavigable rivers that they often allude to. 
More often than not, their focus is on bringing to light instances where Africa has blazed a 
trail in human civilization, or, (in the worn-out metaphor of classical imperialism), 
aiming to bring out the lighter side of the presumably 'dark continent.'   
The rationale for Afrocentric scholarship (or whatever it is called) is not just to prove that 
those who propagated the Africa-has-no-history hypothesis were actually bent on helping 
to 'justify the colonial mission and its dispossessions' (Davidson, 1992: 52). 

Rather, it is also determined to show that Africa did not just make equal contributions to 
the progress of the human race, but actually was at the vanguard of this progress.    There 
seem not to be a corresponding consensus in identifying ontological factors which 
predisposed African nations to adapt effectively to globalization. 

GLOBALIZATION AND AFRICAN COMMON NORMS: 
A PHILOSOPHICAL   INTROSPECTION

Jude Chibuzo Udenkwo, PhD.
Department of Philosophy,

Nnamdi Azikikwe University, Awka.

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This study was able to identify five major norms that both drove the proto-globalization 
of Africa in pre-colonial times, and facilitates its ability to leverage on contemporary 
globalization.

Africans were the first globalists, due to the ability of African societies to develop norms 
and practices that cut across tribal, political, regional, economic and social matrices. 
These norms persist till today, further propelling Africa's march to globalization as we 
have it today.

The Nexus Between Philosophy, Philosophers and African Norms
Philosophers have always set the pace as well as announced the closure of any meaningful 
area of human knowledge. Their initiating forays direct a whole army of scholars into a 
knowledge frontier; their grim resignation signals the end of a slow and steady process of 
demystification, which transforms a body of knowledge from being a mere branch of 
philosophy to a full-fledged science. In accordance with this Kondratieff cycle of 
philosophical journey, it is not surprising that the scholar who blew the first trumpet for 
globalization was the philosopher Martin Heidegger. 

Norms are accepted standards or ways of behaving or doing things that most people agree 
with. Merriam-Webster has three interrelated definitions of norms. One, as as an 
established standard or average; two, as a set standard of development or achievement 
usually derived from the average or median achievement of a large group; three, as a 
pattern or trait taken to be typical in the behavior of a social group. 

From the above analysis, we can see that norms do not necessarily have the seal of the law, 
though long accepted norms can be instituted into the legal structure in the course of time. 
They are sociological rather than political; consensual rather than legal. To borrow from 
the evolutionary school of law, norms grow with the growth, matures with the maturity 
and dies with the osteoporosis or death of a people.

Following this perspective, the norms of globalization would be understood in this essay 
as consisting of those practices and praxis which have developed over time to shape a 
pattern of relationship as well as create a bond of unity between coexisting contemporary 
societies. 'So far as Africa is concerned, norms have developed around salient areas of 
interrelationship as African societies intermingled, synthetized, fractured, warred, and 
reconciled, even during the times when most parts of the world was plunged in 
darkness…' (Rodney, 1972). 
Can we therefore say that Africa is the cradle of globalization? Definitely yes. Most of the 
complex systems and inventions of today are simply improvements on what is 'a broad 
and vivid process of human development.' (Davidson, 1974:16-17). 

Africa: Background to Globalization  
Globalization is seen in different spectra. Two major views, however, dominate. The first 
presupposes the fact of bringing the entire globe into a common sphere, in which 
countries that emerged victorious in the race to industrialization/modernization, and, 

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within them, the lords of finance and captains of industry—the big bonus bankers and the 
fat-cat capitalists (Ferguson, 2008)—predominate. 

The second views it from a rather rudimentary lens, as the gradual economic and 
sociocultural integration of the world leading to the death of distance (Friedman, 1995) 
and making the world flat (Cairncross, 1997). It is against the first view of globalization 
that critics react, like the controversial reactions to the WTO meeting at Seattle in 1999. 
The second conception of globalization has left critics, scholars and observers blowing 
hot and cold over its mixed legacy. On a positive note, it accounts for the upsurge in 
international trade which picked up during the period that is now referred as 
mercantilism, but also sowed the seeds for capitalist exploitation of a fast rising 
proletariat population.

 Other free economy dispensations in global trade and finance, like neo mercantilism, 
classical liberal and neoliberal capitalism, have been sources of great increase in global 
income as well as sources of misery to increasingly large sections of the world population.
This paper does not intend to dwell on the merits and/or demerits of any of these 
measures. Rather, it aspires to take a more historical perspective to globalization, and to 
locate the phenomenon in the matrix of reinforcing relationships among disparate 
societies, and the mutual exchange of ideas and practices in ancient societies, with 
emphasis on pre-colonial African societies.

Norms Based On Common Trade Links 
In reality, the experience of economic relationships between African kingdoms and 
empires dates to the distant past.
From very early times, there has been 'considerable trade going between Arabia and the 
whole of the Indian Ocean area, especially the East African coast, Zanzibar and 
Madagascar' (Davidson, 1974:17). Again, in a classic study of trade and politics among 
kingdoms around the axis of the Niger Delta, Dike provides solid evidence of economic 
interrelationships which gave rise to common economic practices among these people, 
centuries before the start of the slave trade (Dike, 1952). This has been affirmed by later 
studies. Rodney (1982) traces a long trade network between the forests of Eastern 
Nigeria, across Benin, through the Yoruba and Dahomey states, to the old kingdoms of 
Ghana (Rodney, 1982). 

Today, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) has been designed to 
help African countries put in place a system that facilitates free movement of capital and 
labour. One remarkable thing about AFCFTA that tends to escape the attention of the 
uninformed is how the trade routes designated under AFCFTA run in the same direction, 
as trade routes through which societies in old Africa exchanged goods and services with 
each other. Clearly, the old norms prevail. 

Communality and Mutual Aid Norms
The most widespread example of mutual help practiced in most parts of Africa is the 
isusu--a system of contribution and sharing of small savings among groups of micro 

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lenders and micro consumers. Though social and political theorists, especially Marxists, 
contend that communalism is purported to be one of the most primeval types economic 
systems, only ante-dating primitive subsistence, aspects of communalism are still present 
in contemporary African economic practices. 

Thus there is empirical evidence that sharing economies or mutual aid societies have 
existed in Africa before the age of globalization. What globalization has done is to simply 
give a fillip to what is essentially part and parcel of the African (to use the words of Joseph 
Stalin) mental make-up. Take the merry-go-rounds in Kenya, for instance. The merry-go-
rounds have survived in Kenya, from the ashes of mutual aid practices several centuries 
ago. These are groups of consumers pledged to provide mutual aid to each other, often in 
the form of small business capital contribution. 

There is also the asakya, a system of sharing water according to need. It was practiced in 
Arab-speaking countries in olden days, and have been exported to Spain (Neuwirth, 
2017). It helps address acute water shortage prevalent in the Middle East and North 
Africa. A prominent example of African norms that have been adapted and improved with 
globalization is the Igbo Apprenticeship System (IAS). Originally developed around self-
help norms at the level of the clan, the IAS has been transformed to a veritable tool of 
national economic participation and international trade (Ekekwe, 2022). Alaba 
International Market-- the flagship project of this business model--- is ten thousand 
merchants-strong, and does over 4 billion USD worth of business per annum, making it 
the biggest electronics market in West Africa. Neuwirth rightly refers to it as the largest 
business incubation platform in the world (Neuwirth, 2017). 

Common Norms in Arts and Literature
The ease with which African societies adapted to the centrifugal forces of globalization in 
arts, literature and entertainment has been interpreted as evidencing the unique gifts 
which Africans have in the arts and humanity pursuits, in contrast to Europeans and 
Asians who have made more invaluable contributions in the sciences. 
In fact, Africa has been a source of artistic creativity and inspiration to people from other 
continents, with whom it had related in matters of trade, war, diplomacy and other aspects 
of political economy. There may not be enough substantial proof of the exact nature and 
extent of this influence, but there is no denying the fact that there were 'literary 
consequences' to the early 'contact between Arab merchants (and other non-Africans) and 
local cultures' in Africa (Gerard, 2007: 17).

It is paradoxical that Africa, being one of the primeval human civilizations that left no 
enviable written records and books, has 'left graphic marks of its history everywhere' even 
more than literate civilizations. In fact, Africa is the continent with the largest number of 
recorded rock art paintings, populated by crowds of painters who are eager to record, to 
pray, or to celebrate. (Ricard, 2007:7). Graphic representation is present everywhere in 
Africa. In view of this, the claim that Africa bestowed no form of script or writing to 
mankind can be argued, given that 'cave paintings are indeed a kind of writing,' that can 
communicate across cultures and eras because it is a universal code (Ricard, 2007:7). 

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Language and Communication Norms
The origin of many languages seem to be lost in antiquity, but the study of language can 
reveal to us how deeply connected the human family has been, and for how long. In other 
words, though 'it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tell, for instance, who first 
spoke Igbo, where, when and how it was spoken, how related Igbo is to other languages 
and how long this relationship stretches to the past can however be known (Odoemenam, 
2006). 
In a groundbreaking research, Atkinson found not only evidence of the African origin of 
languages, but how what could be regarded as the first language which was born in Africa, 
was progressively developed, modified, re-made, and split from earlier sources as the 
human migration chain continued to elongate (Atkinson, 2011). 

 Thus, language was the first carrier of norms, cultures, practices and folk spirit between 
one African society and another, and from Africa to the rest of the world. What one could 
call 'the primordial interconnectivity and interrelationship within African societies and 
between African and non-African societies' are proof that inter-group communications 
have long been occurring in Africa. African kingdoms and tribes have been forging 
relationships, alliances and connections using language as a tool, long before the idea of 
globalization was ever conceived. It is certainly difficult to put a date on it, but we can be 
sure that this has been ongoing for thousands of years. Unarguably, these common 
linguistic patterns or norms evidences a primordial form of globalization. Today, linguists 
have developed a complex pattern of classification of languages, where language families 
and divisions attest to common origin from a proto-language. How best to determine the 
length of this cross fertilization of linguistic patterns is a crucial task. Let us, again take 
Igbo language for instance. Igbo language, “started when the Igbo nation started, and has 
since come to   be known as the indigenous language of the people. All other African 
languages are also indigenous to their owners.” In fact, “all vernacular languages pre-date 
the country' (Odoemenam, 2006).

Norms on Gendered Division of Labour
Taken to a higher level of analysis, what contemporary scholars call Feminist Economics 
and Gender Political Economy (Bechio, 2020) actually started in Africa.
Women were (perhaps wrongly) regarded as being placed below men in the 
socioeconomic calibration of most traditional societies, which still persists in some 
modern societies. This was an exigency which traditional societies fashioned to ensure a 
steady source for the replacement and continuation of the society. This has given rise to 
norms which totally ceded the child care industry and its allied institutions to females 
(Nwaogwugwu, 2021; Nnajiofor, Anozie and Onyiluka, 2022). 

Though the situation detailed above developed from what universal norms were guiding 
male-female relationships, we are not to lose sight of the fact that different societies 
developed norms on the proper balance of male-female power, which were unique to their 
conditions. For instance, in traditional Igbo societies in particular, and some parts of 
Nigeria in general, women were participants both in economic production and social 
replacement, in different degrees. 

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In the pre-colonial times, there was a pattern of division of labour along gender lines 
peculiar to some indigenous Nigerian societies, which enabled women to control such 
occupations as food processing, mat weaving, pottery making, and cooking. Though 
communal land rights precluded women from owning land, women had access to land 
through their husbands or parents. Although headship of the household was reserved for 
men in Nigeria as in every patrilineal system, older women had control of the labour of 
younger family members.

In addition to the fact that women performed strategic functions by default, it is also on 
record that in some Nigerian societies, women were constitutionally empowered to 
assume leadership positions. In politics, women were not as docile or powerless as 
contemporary ideas tend to portray them. The basic unit of political organization was the 
family, and in the common matrifocal arrangement (which), allowed a woman to gain 
considerable authority over her children, a woman and her offspring could form a major 
bloc in the household. 'Power and privileges in a household were also based on age and 
gender, thereby allowing senior women to have a voice on many issues. Because the 
private and public arenas were intertwined, a woman's ability to control resources and 
people in a household was at the same time an exercise in public power. She could use 
food production to gain respect. She could control her children and influence men through 
this power. She could evoke the power of the spirit or gods in her favour. Or she could 
simply withdraw and use the kitchen as her own personal domicile for interaction with her 
colleagues, friends, and children' (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010:4).

Drawing from the above ideas, one can advance the thesis that the disempowerment and 
economic disenfranchisement of Nigerian women is a later-day development. In a classic 
summary, it can be seen that:
The most serious threat to the influence and privileges of women occurred during the 20th 
century, when patriarchy combined with colonial changes to alter gender relations. As 
male chiefs collaborated with the British colonial administration in collecting taxes and 
governing, the position of female chiefs declined in importance. When the economy 
became increasingly geared toward the production of cash crops for export, Nigerian 
men and European firms dominated the distribution of rubber, cocoa, qq (peanuts), and 
palm oil. Women, pushed to the background, were forced to shift to the production of 
subsistence crops. A previous land-tenure system that had prevented land alienation gave 
way to land commercialization, favouring those with access to money gained from the 
sale of cash crops. Western-style education also favoured boys over girls and thus largely 
excluded women from many of the new occupations introduced by colonialism 
(Encyclopedia, 2010:6)

Conclusion
The impact of globalization on Africa is a subject matter of considerable interest to 
scholars of African and non-African persuasion. Within this praxis, the rate at which 
Africa has been integrated into the so-called “global village" has been a source of marvel 
to observers. 
This study therefore concluded that Africa was the cradle of globalization, and African 

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nations could still experience a unique form of globalization greased by their peculiar 
norms, in which they will be cushioned against globalization's excesses and backlashes.

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