Concomitants of Western Civilization and Modernity on African Cultural Practices

Abstract

Many seek to understand the benefits derived from traditional festivals hence the conduction of the study which looks at the reasons for the low patronage of traditional festivals. Many are of the view that Christian religion is the only true and revealed religion and therefore do not pay any attention to the traditional festivals. The study reveals also that modern education and civilization also play a major role in the low patronage of traditional festivals when this could actually be used positively to change certain dislikes about traditional festivals other than looking down upon it. Colonialism in its own way distorted and retarded the pace and tempo of cultural growth and trend of civilization in Africa. The era of colonial pillage and plunder led to the relative stagnation and often precipitous decline of traditional cultural festivals in the colonies. The effects of western civilization and culture on Africa are in several phases: political effect, economic effect and social effect. Western civilization is a commitment to neoliberalism, commitment to liberal democracy, commitment to consumerism and commitment to Christian world view as the origin of western civilization. Although no major effort of industrialization took place during the colonial period, and there has been no significant development since, Western technology has long entered the lives of Africans through familiarity with manufactured products imported from the West. Modern medicine has largely taken the precedence over traditional methods in matters of health.