Francis Nyamnjoh: The Domestication of Hair and Modernised Consciousness in Cameroon: A Critique in the Context of Globalisation

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The Domestication of Hair and Modernised Consciousness in Cameroon: A Critique in the Context of Globalisation

Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Deborah Durham, Jude D. Fokwang

(Originally published in Identity, Culture and Politics, 3( 2), December 2002, pp. 98-124)

The concept of globalisation is becoming pervasive in social scientific studies,but its effects are still poorly understood, and its dimensions are only beginning to be explored in their wide range of subtleties. Although the movement of ideas, people and material items across parts of the globe has undoubtedly been part of all human history, the currently popular concept of globalisation is associated primarily with modernity and the modern - two concepts with subtle and often underexplored implications.

Against globalisation is poised the countervailing force of localisation: a disengaging of materials from the surging tides of modernity, from "McDonaldisation,” and their entanglement with conservative local knowledges. Modernity is, indeed, in one of its aspects, what is specifically nonlocal, and to accuse something of local meanings, of local contextualisation, is to defer its claims to modernity itself. It is this equation and more that have marginalised Africa and Africans in the “marketplace of cultures” and the “transnational flows” that are celebrated by champions of globalisation. In this paper, we will argue for the necessity of understanding the hegemonic nature of western globalised modernity, but only against the forms modernity takes and the orientations and practices through which it is recognised in Cameroon. In effect, we argue for examining the link between globalising, purportedly universalist modernity and the very real, very important oxymoron “local modernities.”

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June 28, 2005 in Cameroon, Globalization | Permalink

Tags: Africa, Consumerism, Fashion, Feminism, Globalisation, Women's Hair

Comments

Current trends in the diffusion of the so-called global culture reflect the underpinnings of a "magister" and "discipuli" mindset. You proof a mastery of the intricacies involved in this concept which is still in dire need of a redefinition if it is going to stand the litmus test of guided Afrocentric intellectuals.