ABSTRACT
There are at the moment numerous studies of globalization but, of those that mention Africa, there are only a few and they often bracket Africa with the dependency regions with “weak” cultures that succumb to the assault of global forces that drive consumerism among them. Globalization is a multifaceted phenomenon that began in the 1980s in the West, especially the United States, and involves the shrinking of distances and the flow of people and goods at a fast rate as a result of new means of communication and new technologies. The inter-relationship between globalization and cultures has for long been noticed. Early scholars of globalization, as will be seen from a review of some, have acknowledged that it will bring cultural changes. The concerns of those in the West were about absorbing new migrants to their countries, especially Britain, Canada, and the United States and the efforts of the host countries to deal with new cultures. Multiculturalism, as a buzz word in the 1990s, dealt with not only the unacknowledged minorities within these Western countries but also the influx of new immigrants from varying cultures outside the West.
