Culture Diaspora and Afropolitanism in the Wake of Globalisation (original) (raw)

2020, Working Papers: Journal of English Studies

This paper interrogates culture, diaspora, and Afropolitanism within the concept of globalisation. While these concepts are not recent, the aim of this study is to offer fresh insight to the debate on the foregoing and a new way of making sense of these concepts, particularly the intersection of cultures, in the wake of contemporary globalisation. The method of analysis adopted in this study is qualitative and descriptive. This is within the tenets of Cultural Hybridity Theory as a theoretical framework. The data for this study are drawn from deductions from literary texts, and material culture, practices and trends. Some of the questions this paper raises for critical reflection are: how has the ongoing global cultural intersection and flux affected the African culture and identity? In what ways have these present global cultural intersection and realities mapped a new African identity and consciousness? Significantly, this paper underscores the forms of cultural intersections and hybrid connections ongoing today and the new identity such phenomena are capable of instigating particularly for Africans. This study stresses that though culture is polymorphous, the idea of culture autochthony is no longer tenable. Also, this study makes a strong case for the consideration of the internet or cyberspace as a diasporic cultural digital space, while it concludes that what differentiates the globalisation of today and previous globalisation is the rise of the internet. For the African, the interplay of culture intersection, globalisation and digital propagation through the internet signal the emergence of Afropolitanism as an epistemological framework for marking the African identity and culture today in its unity-in-diversity, within the continent and in the New African Diaspora.

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact