The past three decades have proved extremely challenging for Africa and its peoples, both at home and in the Diaspora. Coincidentally, these were also the decades that globalization reached maturity and that the world became more interconnected and interdependent. The paradox of globalization for Africa has included increase in marginalization, poverty, inequality, migration and instability. This book highlights global asymmetries by interfacing the notion of one world or flat world with the challenges thrown up by transnational migration, brain drain, citizenship, identity, multiculturalism, religion and ethnicity. It presents researches and discourses on globalization across disciplines and across regions, and fosters ongoing inquiry into important assumptions, beliefs and perspectives about the implications of globalization for Africa and Africans. It covers major areas of concern-movement of refugees, xenophobia, transition from economic migration to citizenship, challenges of integration, and conflict of identity. The authors investigate the experiences of Africans in various economic sectors and geographical locations, and the trends in hegemony, inequality, cultural changes and the dynamics of social movements and struggles. Through illuminating narratives and copious explanations, this book assists readers to make sense of globalization and the position of Africa and Africans in it.
About the Author: Akanmu G. Adebayo is Executive Director of the Institute for Global Initiatives, and Professor of History at Kennesaw State University, Georgia. He is author of Embattled Federalism: A History of Revenue Allocation in Nigeria (1993), co-author of Culture, Politics and Money among the Yoruba (2000), and co-editor of Instructional Technology Training for Basic Education in Ghana (2003). Olutayo C. Adesina is associate professor of history at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has held many distinguished academic fellowships, including Salzburg Seminar, Austria; Charles Warren Centre, Harvard University; and Rhodes Chair of Race Relations, Oxford University. He was the founding editor of the Nigerian Journal of Economic History (NJEH), and co-editor of Consolidation and Sustenance of Democracy: The United States of America and Nigeria (2002).