Technology and Knowledge Expansion in Africa: Implications for Youth’s Socialization, Psychological Fulfillment and Nation-Building Responsibilities
Apart from compacting the entire world into a global village, the phenomenal breakthrough in technology, with its universally acknowledged impact of fast-tracking an unprecedented knowledge expansion, has, in turn, made the entire gamut of human society and life primarily knowledge-driven to such an...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Hradec Králové
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Modern Africa |
| Online Access: | http://edu.uhk.cz/africa/index.php/ModAfr/article/view/37 |
| Summary: | Apart from compacting the entire world into a global village,
the phenomenal breakthrough in technology, with its universally
acknowledged impact of fast-tracking an unprecedented knowledge
expansion, has, in turn, made the entire gamut of human society
and life primarily knowledge-driven to such an extent that the most
fundamental to the minutest human activities are now propelled by
technology-inspired knowledge. Given its quest for development,
Africa is inevitably within the fray of this critical bend in human
history. However, the extent to which this seemingly beneficial
development has influenced the thinking trajectory and perception of
African youths vis-à-vis their preparedness for the task of development
is open to debate. In this context the present paper argues that, in spite
of its admittedly beneficial impact, the technology and knowledge
expansion has far-reaching negative implications for the socialisation,
psychological satisfaction and potential of African youths to contribute
effectively to the nation-building process. Identifying family values,
language and indigenous marriage system as the hardest-hit African
cultural elements, the paper essentially posits that the technology
and knowledge expansion represents a furtherance of cultural
imperialism, having increased the African youth’s propensity for
Western values such that their life-defining decisions are mainly
shaped by Western culture as against their indigenous African culture.
It concludes that the emergent reality is a deepening of the intensity of underdevelopment of Africa and a widening of the gulf between the
Continent and other leading regions of the world, thus expanding the
frontiers of African paradoxical contradiction, namely a mix-grill of
knowledge expansion and underdevelopment. |
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| ISSN: | 2336-3274 2570-7558 |