No.

6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding

1
African Culture and Internatonal
Understanding
is a quarterly publicaton of the
Insttute for African Culture and
Internatonal Understanding,
a UNESCO Category 2 Insttute
at the Olusegun Obasanjo
Presidental Library, Abeokuta,
Nigeria.
The journal aims to provide
insightul commentaries and
positon statements on all maters
relatng to the promoton of
diverse African cultures and how
these impact on internatonal
understanding.
No. 6 October-December, 2013
Regional themes
2 Potentals and Progress of Opening Up Africa to Africa
Olusegun Obasanjo
6 Deepening Regionalism in West Africa through the Protecton of
Migrant Workers
Ashimizo Afadameh-Adeyemi and Evance Kalula
12 Democracy and African Leadership
Angus N. Maduegbuna
Focus on West Africa
16 Ghanaian Case Study of Singing Games in Ethnomathematcs
D.W. Mereku, D. K. and C.W.K. Mereku
24 Nollywood: Using Theatre to Propagate African Culture
Omotayo Ikotun
Focus on North Africa
29 Role of Educatonal Insttutons in Mapping and Preserving Cultural Diversity
in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region
Gina Cinali
Focus on the Youth
31 Gazing Few Years Ahead: How the Youth can Shape the Future of African
Culture
Ibukun Olagbemiro
About the Institute
Published by the Insttute for African Culture And Internatonal Understanding
Olusegun Obasanjo Presidental Library, Abeokuta, Nigeria
JOURNAL OF AFRICAN CULTURE AND
INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
2
Potentals and Progress of Opening
Up Africa to Africa
Olusegun Obasanjo
His Excellency, Olusegun Obasanjo was President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria (1999-2007) and Military Head of State
(1976-1979). He was Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth
Eminent Persons Group on South Africa; Chairperson-in-Ofce,
Commonwealth of Natons, 2003-2005; Chairperson, African
Union, 2004-2006; and joint promoter of the New Partnership for
Africas Development. Email: obasanjonig@yahoo.com.
I
n 1963 when leaders of independent African countries
came together to form the Organisaton of African Unity,
they outlined some fourteen objectves that would drive
the Organisaton. Top on the list of objectves was to
accelerate the politcal and socio-economic integraton of
the contnent. This aspiraton remains as relevant today as
it was ffy years ago. The need to take a critcal look at the
success stories and challenges of achieving contnent wide
integraton as epitomised by a number of the Regional
Economic Communites will also help in providing critcal
inputs into the African Union 2063 Agenda which aims to
achieve an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa,
driven by its own citzens and representng a dynamic
force in global arena. Furthermore, this kind of refecton
and exchange between stakeholders from the public and
private sector will also assist in country-level policy making
partcularly in identfying critcal success factors that need
to be enhanced and replicated and failure factors that
should be avoided and eliminated.
Only two months ago, and ffy years afer
they identfed integraton as crucial to the contnents
development, African leaders gathered in Addis Ababa
and agreed that the ultmate goal of the Union is the
constructon of a united and integrated Africa. In that
solemn declaraton adopted by the 21st Ordinary session
of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the
African Union on 26 May 2013, African leaders outlined the
following critcal steps to deepen integraton.
Speed up the process of ataining the objectves of the
African Economic Community and take steps towards
the constructon of a united and integrated Africa.
Speedily implement the Contnental Free Trade
Area; ensure free movement of goods, with focus
on integratng local and regional markets as well as
facilitate African citzenship to allow free movement
of people through the gradual removal of visa
requirements.
Accelerate acton on the ultmate establishment
of a united and integrated Africa, through the
implementaton of our common contnental
governance, democracy and human rights frameworks.
Move with speed towards the integraton and merger
of the Regional Economic Communites as the building
blocks of the Union.
Other aspects of the May 26 declaraton were also
critcal to Africas integraton eforts and the contnents
overall growth and development. They include:
Accelerate Africas infrastructural development to link
African peoples, countries and economies and help to
drive social, cultural and economic development.
Develop our human capital as our most important
resource, through educaton and training, especially in
science, technology and innovaton, and ensure that
Africa takes its place and contributes to humanity,
including in the feld of space sciences and exploratons.
Take ownership of African issues and provide African
solutons to African problems.
Mobilise our domestc resources, on a predictable
and sustainable basis to strengthen insttutons and
advance our contnental agenda.
From my experience in and out of government,
the success or otherwise of these beautfully-crafed
declaratons largely depends on the level of commitment,
and in some cases involvement, of African leaders in
the private sector. While our leaders in the public sector
have expressed commitment to integraton, it is leaders
in the private sector that must take the wheel and drive
the process. I say this because the quest for integraton in
Africa is not new. In fact, it is as old as independent Africa
itself. It began in 1958 with the Union of African States, an
organisaton comprising the then newly independent states
of Ghana, Guinea, and Mali. Although short-lived, the
impact of the Union of African States and the benefts of
regional integraton in the fght against Africas colonisaton
were obvious to the rapidly growing number of African
countries which gained independence in the early 1960s.
This inspired the formaton of the Organizaton of African
Unity, primarily as a structure for the agitaton of self-
governance complete eliminaton of colonialism.
From my experience in and out
of government, the success or
otherwise of these beautfully-
crafed declaratons largely
depends on the level of
commitment, and in some cases
involvement, of African leaders in
the private sector.
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
3
With almost all African countries gaining
independence in the 1960s, came the desire for close
cooperaton among Africans. The contnent was moved
along two tracks in this regard those who wanted close
and immediate cooperaton on politcal and economic
basis and others who preferred gradualism. Despite their
diferent views on Africas integraton process, both groups
generally agreed on the contnents need for integraton.
Yet, the nature and character of the post-colonial African
state made it unatractve for the politcal leadership in
Africa to aggressively pursue integraton. By the mid-
1960s and 1970s, however, several economic arguments
began to emerge in support of rapid integraton. Indeed,
it became obvious to African leaders themselves that most
African states were too small or too weak to independently
negotate on the internatonal scene. This gave rise to the
birth of several regional economic communites which are
commonly regarded as the building blocks of the African
Union.
To be fair to them, regional economic communites
have played a key role as instruments for the further
integraton of the African contnent. In spite of this,
integraton eforts in Africa have not seen enough success
to give many Pan-Africans hope and satsfacton. Intra-
Africa economic, politcal, cultural, or even military
relatons have at best been minimal and insignifcant when
such relatons are compared to those between African
states and European or Asian countries. Figures in the early
1990s suggest that the proporton of trade for instance was
only 8.4 per cent in 1993 compared with Western Europe
(69.9 per cent), Asia (49.7 per cent), North America (33
per cent) and Latn America (19.4 per cent). The situaton
has hardly changed today. And let me say here I do not
buy the argument that we cannot trade among ourselves
because we produce similar or the same commodites. In
Europe, Germany and France produce similar or the same
commodites and they normally trade between themselves.
Sad Commentary on our Integration Efforts
Our inability to trade and relate with one another has meant
that we are unable to maximise and fully take advantage
of the synergies and complementarites of our economies
and take full advantage of the economies of scale and other
benefts (such as income and employment generaton) that
a larger market integraton would have brought about. Is
it not sad that we stll purchase roses and other beautful
fowers grown in Kenya from fancy stores in London and
other parts of Europe? Why is Kiwi shoe polish produced
in Kenya not widely distributed all over Africa? Cases such
as these where products and services could have been
sourced compettvely from other African countries but
were procured from outside the contnent is the greatest
sad commentary on our integraton eforts. Several factors
account for this slow progress including lack of politcal
will, weak inter-country infrastructural facilites, politcal
instability, economic natonalism, suspicions of dominance
by large states and divisions along colonial heritage. Clearly,
the challenges are mostly politcal in nature.
Our inability to trade and relate
with one another has meant
that we are unable to maximise
and fully take advantage of the
synergies and complementarites
of our economies and take full
advantage of the economies of
scale.
A major failing of these past eforts, therefore,
has been the focus on the politcal leadership and the
negligence of non-state actors in the integraton process.
Or put another way the politcal declaratons are not
synchronised with private sector eforts to move the
process forward on the economic plane. Indeed, it was not
untl the 1990s that African leaders gave non-state actors
a strong voice in the contnents integraton initatves. At
the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and
Cooperaton in Africa (CSSDCA) organised by the Africa
Leadership Forum (ALF) and held in Kampala, Uganda in
1991, there was, for the frst tme, an extensive analysis
and synthesis of how to promote regional cooperaton
and integraton for Africas socio-economic development,
security and stability which involved Africas civil society
and other non-state actors. Partcipants at the conference
agreed that the process of integraton is too important
to be lef to governments alone. Equally important is the
need to encourage and promote actve involvement in the
integraton process of various socioeconomic actors such as
trade unions, chambers of commerce, academics, women,
youths and other professional associatons.
In subsequent forums, ALF contnued to impress on
African leaders that the leading driver of integraton is the
private sector, afer governments have provided conducive
atmosphere. The result of these civil-society interventons
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
4
has been a signifcant shif of focus from state actors to
non-state actors in Africas integraton process.
Africas Investment in Africa: Contribution of
the Private Sector
In many more ways than are currently recognised, Africas
private sector has proven efectve in blurring state-border
lines and promotng the free-fow of goods and services,
capital, labour and markets. A signifcant catalyst for this
cross-border commerce is the emergence of African
multnatonals which were non-existent about 20 years
ago. The multnatonals are Africa-based companies that
are wholly founded by African investors with accumulated
capital that can be easily moved within Africa. As a result,
Africas investment in Africa are becoming signifcant.
Recent reports indicate that African multnatonals
are expanding across the region, building partnerships
with players from other African countries, and opening
up trade and manufacturing within the contnent. This
demonstrates that integraton is about people and their
constant aspiraton for opportunites, and not so much
about states and politcal insttutons. Kenyan, South
African and Nigerian companies have taken the lead in
this drive to explore the African market and integrate
commerce on the contnent. Examples of this include
companies like United Bank for Africa (U.B.A), Multchoice,
Dangote Group, Oando, Zenith Bank, Equity Bank, and
DAAR Communicatons, among others. Their impact is well
documented in publicatons like the 2010 McKinsey report,
Lions on the Move: The Progress and Potental of African
Economies, Pioneers on the Fronter: Sub-Saharan Africas
Multnatonal Corporatons and books like Africas Third
Liberaton by Greg Mills and Business in Africa: Corporate
Insights by Dianna Games.
A signifcant catalyst for this
cross-border commerce is
the emergence of African
multnatonals which were non-
existent about 20 years ago.
Within the last 15 years, these African
multnatonals have rapidly expanded in Africa and in doing
so have hastened the process of integraton and improved
relatons between their home countries and host countries.
For example, the Nigeria-based U.B.A Group operates in
about 19 Sub-Sahara African countries. As its deliberate
policy of integraton, a staf of U.B.A in Kenya, for instance,
is required to see himself as a staf of the multnatonal
U.B.A Group instead of U.B.A Kenya. Closely related to
the UBA example of how corporate Africa is removing
borders is the case of the Kenya-based Equity Bank. The
bank recently began its expansion into other East African
countries by acquiring local banks. Reconciling employees
of the acquired banks with Equity Banks corporate culture
was tme-consuming and expensive. To mitgate these
costs for new operatons in Rwanda and Tanzania, the
company brought 100 employees from those markets to
work at headquarters in Kenya before they began work at
the branches abroad.
Impact on Cultural Integration and Socio-
economic Development
This throws up an interestng aspect of economic integraton
which is that it ultmately enhances social and cultural
integraton. Today, Africans are learning more about their
cultures and those of other Africans because of companies
like Multchoice. There is hardly any Kenyan with a satellite
connecton who has not watched a Nigerian drama on
the very popular Africa Magic channel. In Nigeria, and
I believe several parts of Africa, a song called Khona has
been on the lips of young people for a while now because
it has been actvely promoted by African multnatonals in
the entertainment industry. I am told it is a song by the
South African music group Mafkizolo. The efect is that
Africans are more and more connectng with their brothers
and sisters than it was decades ago. Wherever I go in Sub-
Saharan Africa, people greet me Igwe! Obviously copying
what they had watched in Nollywood flms on African
magic.
The success stories of the private sector in
Africas integraton eforts are many. It seems to me that
whatever the public sector gives, the private sector makes
greater. Let me illustrate this with the private sector-
led telecommunicatons revoluton that has enhanced
connectvity in Africa and beyond. In 1999, when I returned
as President of Nigeria, the telecoms sector had only one
licensed operator which was the state-owned NlTEL. The
company had an installed capacity of 450,000 telephone
lines in the entre country, most of which owned by
government ofces or ofcials. Soon afer, we began the
process of liberalising the sector. By 2007, owing to the
mobile network, this number had increased to 38 million,
making Nigeria the country with the worlds fastest-growing
teledensity. By April 2010, the number of mobile phone lines
had increased to 85 million, with many people subscribing
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
5
to multple lines. That number has exponentally grown to
113 million actve lines as of December 2012.
To provide the infrastructure that supports this
high teledensity, another Nigerian company funded
by the Africa Finance Corporaton, the Pan-African
Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF) and a number
of Nigerian banks, has built and is expanding a submarine
communicatons cable with potental to connect at least
ten African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco,
Senegal, Gabon, Cote-dIvoire, Angola, South Africa, Congo
and Namibia. For these to contnue to happen, there must
be synergy, mutual confdence and mutual encouragement
between the private sector leaders and public sector
leaders.
But the growth in Nigerias telecoms sector is not
the focus of my illustraton. I would rather we pay atenton
to the fact that all the major players in the sector are African
multnatonals. They include the likes of South Africas MTN
and Nigerias Globacom. The Zimbabwean mobile operator,
Econet Wireless, was also a key player in the early days of
the mobile revoluton. Non-African operators like Vodacom
who thought the business environment in Nigeria was too
unpredictable refused to take advantage of the mobile
revoluton at the inital stage. They realised too late in
the day that the reforms were indeed real and proftable,
much to the advantage of their African counterparts who
had faith and moved on and reaped the beneft of their
faith and enterprise. I believe that this trend in Africas
telecoms sector can be replicated in several other sectors
to provide opportunites for African businesses in Africa. In
this regard, the ongoing privatsaton of the power sector
in Nigeria ofers African companies a huge opportunity to
move into a sector that urgently needs to generate and
distribute well over 40, 000 MWs of power from its current
4, 000 MWs if Nigeria is to be an industrialising naton.
Despite my optmism that Africa can be a productve
ground for African businesses, I am aware of the challenges
that need to be urgently addressed. There are issues of
inadequate infrastructure that limits producton as well as
the movement of goods, people and even capital; weak
insttutons that are unpredictable and unreliable; labour
forces that are unskilled; harsh politcal and business
environments; intellectual property infringements; cultural
diferences that impede growth; corrupton that drowns
corporate transparency and integrity. Let me conclude by
saying that I believe Africas rapid economic integraton is
possible and it will happen but it will happen faster with the
actve involvement of the politcal leadership. At best, the
expansion of businesses and the opportunites it will bring
along will force the hands of politcal leaders into acton. It
is therefore not only politcally wise but also strategic that
politcal leaders recommit fully to eforts aimed at ensuring
rapid integraton across the contnent by helping African
businesses grow on the contnent and beyond.
There are issues of inadequate
infrastructure that limits
producton as well as the
movement of goods, people and
even capital; weak insttutons that
are unpredictable and unreliable;
labour forces that are unskilled;
harsh politcal and business
environments; intellectual
property infringements; cultural
diferences that impede growth;
corrupton that drowns corporate
transparency and integrity.
Editors Note: This paper is an excerpt from the Opening
Statement made by His Excellency, President Olusegun
Obasanjo at the 4
th
Africa Governance, Leadership and
Management Conventon 4
th
September 2013, Leisure
Lodge Resort & Golf Club, Mombasa, Kenya.
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
6
Deepening Regionalism in West
Africa through the Protecton of
Migrant Workers
Ashimizo Afadameh-Adeyemi and
Evance Kalula
Dr Ashimizo Afadameh-Adeyemi and Professor Evance Kalula are
globally-renowned scholars in internatonal law at the Faculty of
Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Professor Kalula is
currently Director, Internatonal Academic Programme Ofce of
the same university. Email: afadameh@gmail.com.
A

prominent impact of globalisaton has been the
gradual disappearance of strict borders which
originally existed between countries. Although physical
boundaries stll exist, goods and services now fow across
natonal boundaries with relatve ease. Alliances are now
been forged by countries, thus enabling them to integrate
their economies. The resultant efect of integraton among
countries has been multfaceted in that it has resulted
in a convergence of ideas, norms and values among the
integratng countries. Axline (1968:2) has described the
broad idea of integraton among countries as one which
is social in nature in that it brings about cohesiveness in
society. The cohesiveness achieved by societes through
integraton helps to establish a common identty for
members of the integratng regime. One way in which
countries have been able to integrate their economies has
been through the use of regionalism. Regionalism has been
defned as the adopton of a regional project by a formal
regional economic organisaton designed to enhance the
politcal, economic, social, cultural, and security integraton
and/or cooperaton of member- states (Lee, 2003:8).
Regionalism thus seeks to transform a geographical area
into an identfed social space (Bach, 2003:22).
In 1975, the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) was created to foster a common identty
among West African countries. As part of plans to achieve
cohesiveness among West African countries, ECOWAS
made eforts through legal instrumentaton to create an
enabling environment to facilitate the free movement of
persons within the region. Invariably, the stage was set to
facilitate intra-regional migraton of workers within West
Africa. Globally, human mobility (migraton) has been
recognised as an inherent component for the development
of societes around the world (Adepoju, 2005:13). The
nexus between human mobility and the development
of societes is embedded in the fact that when persons
move from one society to another, they carry along with
them, their skills, technical know-how, culture, values and
ethos. Therefore, any society that creates an enabling
environment for human mobility, invariably paves a leeway
for the free movement of labour and cross fertlisaton of
culture, values and ethos.
Apart from the social value of migraton or human
mobility, migraton has been accepted as a veritable tool
for adjustng the skills, age and sectoral compositon of
natonal and regional labour markets and migrant labour
has become an essental feature in meetng economic and
labour market challenges (Taran, 2006: 1). Economists
argue that labour is an essental source of economic growth,
thus making it a vital component for the development
of societes (Appleyard, Field & Cobb 2005: 205). In this
regard, Sen and Koray (2000: 327) have noted that over
the years, the movement of labour across geographical
boundaries has played an important role in the social
and economic development of societes. In West Africa,
recogniton has been given to the fact that free movement
of labour is central to achieving regional integraton. West
Africans are noted to be among the worlds most mobile
populaton with almost 3% of the regions citzens living
in West African States that are not their country of origin
(ECOWAS Commission 2007:3). In other words, there is
a signifcant level of intra-regional migraton within West
Africa.
The high level of intra-regional migraton within
West Africa traces its origin to pre-colonial era when the
present geographical delineaton of West African States
was non-existent (Awumbila, 2007: 2). In pre-colonial
tmes, West Africans moved freely within the region ...in
search of security, new land safe for setlement and fertle
farming (Adepoju, 2005:1). However, with the arrival of
colonial masters, territorial boundaries were established
and economic structures were put in place which curtailed
the free movement of West Africans within the region.
Also, the free movement of persons within West Africa
was further curtailed when most West Africa states gained
independence.
Given the high level of intra-regional migraton
in West Africa and its importance to the development of
the region, it is imperatve to have in place an efectve
framework for protectng the rights of these migrants
workers. Protectng the rights of migrant workers is
essental in achieving regional integraton because enabling
the free fow of labour would boost the economy of the
region by making labour readily available in countries
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
7
of demand. Also from a social point of view, the free
movement of labour strengthens social interacton among
Community citzens and this is an essental component of
the integratve process (Robert 2004: 19-20).
With the formaton of ECOWAS, Heads of States
and Governments of ECOWAS saw the need to put in place
a formal structure that would aid free movement of West
Africans in the region. Putng in place a formal structure for
the free movement of persons was seen as a means of giving
impetus to the regions ambiton of achieving integraton. To
this end, ECOWAS Heads of States and Governments adopted
the 1979 Protocol Relatng to Free Movement of Persons,
Residence and Establishment, the 1986 Supplementary
Protocol on the Second Phase (Right of Residence) of
the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, the Right of
Residence and Establishment and the 1990 Supplementary
Protocol on the Implementaton of the Third Phase (Right of
Establishment) of the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons,
Right of Residence and Establishment. These protocols were
intended to replicate the pre-colonial homogeneous society
wherein West Africans freely traversed the region (Adepoju,
2002: 11). Furthermore, when the 1975 Treaty of ECOWAS
was revised in 1993, the Heads of States and Governments
reafrmed their commitment to remove all obstacles to the
free movement of persons and grant the right of residence
and establishment to citzens of ECOWAS in order to achieve
one of the objectves of the revised treaty, which was the
creaton of a common market (artcle 3(ii) Revised Treaty of
ECOWAS).
ECOWAS Framework for the Protection of
Intra-Regional Migrants
As stated earlier, artcle 3 (ii) of the Revised Treaty of
ECOWAS adopts the free movement of persons as a strategy
for achieving its objectve of developing a common market.
Artcle 59 of the Revised Treaty of ECOWAS specifcally
gives citzens of ECOWAS a right of entry, residence
and establishment. It further places an obligaton on
member-states to recognise this right (Artcle 59). The
supplementary ECOWAS Protocols give efect to the right of
entry, residence and establishment and acknowledges the
existence of the rights of migrant workers. The next secton
of this paper, examines the relevant provisions of ECOWAS
legislatons that guarantee community citzens the right of
entry, residence and establishment. It is important to note
that not all the provisions of these legislatons are dealt
with in this paper; rather emphasis is laid on provisions that
may act as botlenecks to the free movement of migrant
workers.
1979 Protocol Relating to Free Movement of
Persons
This Protocol was the frst atempt by ECOWAS Heads of
States and Governments to defne the content of the right of
entry, residence and establishment of community citzens.
It clearly sets out the various phases in which the free
movement of persons will be achieved in West Africa (Part
II, Protocol on Free Movement of Persons). This Protocol
does not specifcally create rights for migrant workers,
rather it lays down the basis for grantng community citzens
the right to enter, reside and establish in the territory of
member-states. Artcle 2 of the Protocol provides for these
rights to be progressively realised in three phases.
The frst phase entails the right of entry and
aboliton of visas for community citzens, the second phase
guarantees community citzens the right of residence and
the third phase provides for the right of establishment.
Although community citzens are allowed visa free entry
into the territory of member-states, they are required not
to stay in the territory for a period exceeding ninety days.
Where a community citzen decides to extend his/her stay
beyond ninety days, Artcle 3 of the Protocol requires the
community citzen to get authorisaton for further stay in
the territory.
Artcle 4 gives member-states the right to refuse
admission of a community citzen into its territory if the
community citzen falls into the category of inadmissible
immigrants. The challenge with this provision is that the
term inadmissible immigrant is not defned in the Protocol.
The defniton is lef to the natonal laws of the member-
state. This creates uncertainty in the minds of immigrants
because a member-state may arbitrarily classify natonals
of a member-state as inadmissible immigrants. Artcle 5
regulates the procedure for the movement of private and
commercial vehicles in the region. Private vehicles are
permited to remain in the territory of a member-state for
a maximum period of ninety days. There is no provision on
renewal or extension of the duraton. It sufces to say that
a community citzen who extends his or her stay beyond
ninety days might not be legally permited to use the
vehicle for the duraton of the extension.
Part V of the Protocol contains miscellaneous
provisions. Of interest in this secton is artcle 11 which
provides for the expulsion and repatriaton of a community
citzen from the territory of a member-state. This artcle
ensures that the security of the community citzen, that of
his or her family and property are guaranteed during the
process of expulsion or repatriaton.
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
8
Supplementary Protocol on the Second
Phase (Right of Residence)
In 1986, member-states of ECOWAS adopted a Supplementary
Protocol on the Right of Residence (Protocol on the ROR).
This Protocol for the frst tme, made use of the terminology
migrant worker. Artcle 1 of the Protocol on the ROR defnes
a migrant worker to mean any citzen who is a natonal of one
member-state, who has travelled from his country of origin
to the territory of another member-state of which he is not
a natonal, and who seeks to hold or proposes to hold or is
holding or has held employment. Artcle 2 of the Protocol on
the ROR creates an obligaton on the part of member-states
to grant community citzens the right of residence in their
territory for the purpose of seeking and carrying out income
earning employment. Artcle 3 defnes the right of residence
to include the right to:
apply for jobs efectvely ofered
travel for this purpose, freely, in the territory of
member-states
reside in one of the member-states in order to take
up employment in accordance with the legislatve and
administratve provisions governing employment of
natonal workers
live in the territory of a member-state according to the
conditons defned by the legislatve and administratve
provisions of the host member-state, afer having held
employment there.
Artcle 4 excludes the applicability of artcle 3 for the
purposes of employment in the civil service of a member-
state unless permited by natonal laws. Artcle 5 of the
Protocol on the ROR further stpulates that community
citzens who desire to reside in the territory of a member-
state shall be obliged to obtain an ECOWAS residence
card or a residence permit. In line with this requirement
for community citzens in the territory of member-states
to obtain residence cards, the Authority of ECOWAS in
1990, through a Decision Establishing a Residence Card in
ECOWAS set out guidelines for the issuance of residence
cards to community citzens.
Artcle 4 (1) of the Decision Establishing a Residence
Card lists a number of supportng documents that need to
be presented while applying for a residence card. For the
purpose of this discussion only three of these documents
will be mentoned. They are (a) repatriaton guarantee or
a leter of guarantee from the employer; (b) employment
contract stamped by the competent Department of the
host country; and (c) proof of registraton in the register of
trade names and business enterprises in the case of traders
and for the liberal professions, proof of membership of the
relevant professional body or any certfcate as proof of
educatonal qualifcaton. These documents are of interest
to this discussion because they presuppose that every
community citzen who is a migrant worker must either be
gainfully employed in the formal sector of the member-
state before they qualify to apply for the right of residence
or must have a business which has been formally registered
in accordance with the natonal laws of the member-state.
However, a migrant worker as defned in artcle 1 of the
Protocol on the ROR would include a community citzen
who seeks to hold or proposes to hold or is holding or
has held employment. The phrases who seeks to hold
or proposes to hold can be construed to accommodate
community citzens who are yet to be gainfully employed
but immigrate with the hope of getng employment
upon arrival in the territory of the member-state. Also the
phrase who has held can be interpreted to mean migrant
workers who were once employed within the territory of
a member-state. This analysis is strengthened by the fact
that the defniton of migrant workers expressly includes
persons who are presently employed in the territory of a
member-state.
It goes without saying that the conditons set out in
Artcle 4 (1) of the Decision on Residence Cards will invariably
exclude unemployed migrant workers and consequently
make them ineligible for residence cards. This is because
unemployed migrant workers may not have the necessary
documentaton to obtain a residence card. Also, unskilled
migrant workers who do not have stable jobs may also not
be able to fulfl this requirement. Furthermore, migrant
workers in the informal sector (such as pety traders), may
fnd it difcult to obtain a residence card because they are
required to furnish a proof of registraton of their business
enterprise. In some jurisdictons in West Africa, a business
registraton would only be issued to community citzens
with valid residence card. In other words, the residence
card for which the proof of registraton is sought becomes a
conditon precedent to obtaining the business registraton.
Another dilemma is created in Artcle 13(2) of
the Decision Establishing a Residence Card. This artcle
provides that the holder of a residence card shall leave
the territory of the host member-state at the expiraton of
the Residence Card, unless he has applied for its renewal
one month prior to its expiraton. The provision does not
stpulate the procedure for renewal. If the renewal process
requires the submission of the same set of documents
initally presented for the original applicaton, migrant
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
9
workers who lose their jobs shortly before the expiraton of
their permit will be unable to renew their permits because
they would neither be able to furnish an employment
contract nor an employers guarantee. The consequence of
this is that they either leave the territory (irrespectve of the
number of years they have spent and the social and cultural
tes they must have established) or stay in the territory as
illegal immigrants. From this analysis, it is evident that the
procedural requirements for obtaining a residence card
may efectvely serve as a botleneck to the free movement
of community citzens. This, in essence, defeats the purpose
for permitng free movement of persons. The inescapable
truth is that these procedural botlenecks would only
aid in the increase of migrant workers who live illegally
in the territory of a member-state. Records show that a
large number of migrant workers in West Africa are both
unskilled and undocumented (Adedokun, 2003: 12). For
these workers, furnishing the appropriate documents for
obtaining a residence card would defnitely be a herculean
task a task that might never be accomplished.
Going back to the provisions of the Protocol on the
ROR, chapter V of the Protocol protects migrant workers
from arbitrary expulsion. Chapter VI provides for individual
expulsion and respect of fundamental rights of migrant
workers. Artcle 14 stpulates that a migrant worker may
only be expelled from a host member-state for reasons
of natonal security, public order or morality; refusal to
comply with orders given by a public medical authority for
the purpose of protectng medical health; non-fulflment
of an essental conditon for the issuance of a residence
or work permit; and if the expulsion is in accordance with
the laws and regulatons applicable in the host member-
state. It is submited that giving member-states the lattude
to expel migrant workers in accordance with its natonal
laws creates room for abuse of the entre process. It means
member-states can enact laws to expel migrant workers
irrespectve of the fact that they have complied with the
provisions of the Protocol. Chapter VII of the Protocol
ensures that migrant workers can transfer their savings to
their country of origin, chapter VIII deals with co-operaton
between competent administratons of member-states and
chapter XI deals with miscellaneous provisions.
1990 Supplementary Protocol on the
Implementation of the Third Phase (Right of
Establishment)
The preamble to this Protocol on the Right of Establishment
(Protocol on the ROE) specifcally acknowledges that the
uniform implementaton of ECOWAS text on free movement
of persons is a pre-requisite for harmonious development
of the economic, social and cultural actvites of the
region. It also adopts the defniton of migrant workers as
contained in the Protocol on the ROR. The Protocol on the
ROE defnes the right of establishment to mean the right
granted to a citzen who is a natonal of the member-state
to setle or establish in another member-state other than
his or her State of origin, and to have access to economic
actvites, to carry out these actvites as well as to set up
and manage enterprises, and in partcular companies,
under the same conditons as defned by the legislaton of
the host member-state for its own natonals.
From the foregoing defniton, migrant workers
are guaranteed access to economic actvites on the same
basis as natonals of the member-state. Chapter II provides
for establishment of or access to enterprise. Chapter
III provides for sectors of economic actvity governed
by special measures where such actvity involves non-
natonals. In this secton member-states undertake to
accord non-discriminatory treatment to natonals and
in the event that the member-state is unable to comply
with this provision, the member-state is obliged to notfy
the Executve Secretary of ECOWAS (artcle 4). Chapter IV
provides for the promoton of and protecton of capital
for investment or already invested in the establishment
of an enterprise or for the purpose of obtaining access to
economic actvity. Chapter V governs the movement of
capital for investment and current payments, chapter VI
provides for cooperaton between relevant administratons
in member-states and fnally chapter VII deals with general
and miscellaneous provisions. The specifc provision of
interest in this Protocol is Artcle 12 (4). It enjoins member-
states to cooperate with the Executve Secretariat in order
to make possible the acquisiton and exploitaton of landed
property situated in the territory of one of the member-
states by a natonal of another member-state, in-so-far
as it is permited by the laws of the member-state. It is
argued that subjectng the exercise of the right to acquire
landed property to the laws of member-states is counter-
productve and defeats the idea of regional integraton. It
invariably means that a migrant worker who might have
resided in the host territory for a beter part of his life
might be unable to acquire landed property if the laws do
not permit.
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
10
Enforcing the Fundamental Rights of Migrant
Workers in West Africa
The content of what consttutes the fundamental rights of
migrant workers is not spelt out in the ECOWAS Protocols
on ROR and ROE. Rather, the defniton secton of these
Protocols deems the fundamental rights of migrant
workers to include any right granted in the Protocols on
ROR, ROE and Internatonal Labour Organisaton (ILO)
Conventons on the protecton of the rights of migrant
workers. Furthermore, the Protocols on ROR and ROE do
not state the extent to which the fundamental rights of
migrant workers are applicable. However Artcle 16 (2) of
the Protocol on ROR enjoins member-states to ensure that
the fundamental rights of migrant workers are protected in
the case of an expulsion (Robert 2004: 16).
Within the ILO framework, protectng migrant
workers forms part of the basis for the creaton of the
organisaton (Preamble to ILO Consttuton). In line with its
consttutonal mandate, the ILO ensures that the welfare
of migrant workers around the world is guaranteed. To this
extent, it has put in place Conventons which guarantee
these rights of migrant workers at an internatonal
level. Leary (1982:6) opines that apart from the ethical
consideraton for the protecton of human beings in their
workplace, internatonal regulaton is also needed to ofset
any economic and compettve disadvantages that might
apply if governments were lef alone to tackle the welfare
of migrant workers.
Several ILO Conventons have been adopted over
the years to protect the rights of migrant workers. These
conventons include the Conventon concerning Migraton
for Employment (No.97); Conventon concerning Migratons
in Abusive Conditons and the Promoton of Equality of
Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant Workers (No.
143); the Conventon concerning Forced or Compulsory
Labour (No.29) and the Conventon concerning Aboliton
of Forced Labour (No. 105). The rights provided for in these
Conventons have been summed up in one conventon and
adopted under the auspices of the United Natons as the
Internatonal Conventon on the Protecton of the Rights
of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
(ICMW).
The ICMW was drafed in conjuncton with the ILO
(Sen and Koray, 2000:331, Cholewinski, 1997: 145). The
ICMW Conventon has been recognised by ECOWAS and
member-states are enjoined to adhere to its provisions
(ECOWAS Commission 2007:4). Some of the rights
guaranteed under the ICMW include: the right to non-
discriminaton with respect to rights in the Conventon;
equal treatment between migrant and natonals and
regular and irregular immigrants; protecton against
violence; equal work and employment conditons; free
choice of employment, social security rights; right to
health; right to housing; right to family reunifcaton; right
to educaton; cultural rights; politcal rights and residence
rights (Cholewinski, 1997:154-186).
From the rights mentoned above, it is evident that
the scope of rights created under the ICMW is wider than
that of the ECOWAS Protocols. The principal challenge with
enforcing these rights of migrant workers stems from the
fact that there is a stark contrast between policy response
at the natonal level and that which is internatonally
recognised by the community of States (Cholewinski, 2006:
410). Though member-states may have commited to
protectng the rights of migrant workers at the internatonal
level through regional and internatonal instruments,
implementng policies and legislatons at the natonal level
to give efect to these rights is a diferent ball game. The
implementaton of these commitments is sacrosanct to
the enforcement of these rights because where there is
no structure for implementaton, violaton of these rights
would go unpunished.
In the context of this discussion, migrant workers
in West Africa may seek recourse for the violaton of their
rights either in the natonal courts of the host member-state
or in the ECOWAS Court. The jurisdicton of the natonal
courts to entertain such a complaint would stem from the
fact that sovereign states do have the competence to resolve
any dispute that arises within their territory. On the other
hand, the ECOWAS Court would derive its jurisdicton to
entertain such complaint from the relevant ECOWAS Treaty
which makes the Court the appropriate forum for resolving
disputes that arise from a Community instrument. While
migrant workers may be able to lay claims to rights that
accrue to them under the Protocol on ROR, ROE and other
ILO Conventons, the extent of enforceability of these rights
in natonal courts is dependent on how internatonal law is
applied in the municipal domain of each member-state.
There are two approaches to how internatonal
law applies in the municipal domain of member-states.
Some States take the approach that for the provisions of
internatonal law to be enforceable within their municipal
domain; such provisions have to be incorporated into the
natonal laws of the member-state through the enactment
of enabling legislaton (Wallace, 2005: 37). For ECOWAS
member-states that adopt this approach, the rights of a
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
11
migrant worker will only be enforceable if the member-
state has taken necessary steps to incorporate the rights
guaranteed under the ILO Conventons and the ECOWAS
Protocols on ROR and ROE into its natonal laws. On
the other hand, some States take the approach that the
provisions of internatonal law which have been ratfed by
the State are directly applicable in the municipal domain of
the State (Shaw, 2003: 121-122). In countries where this is
applicable, a subsequent enactment of a natonal legislaton
is not required to guarantee rights that are created through
an internatonal instrument. If this approach is adopted by
an ECOWAS member-state, the rights of migrant workers
as provided for both in the ILO Conventons and ECOWAS
Protocols on ROR and ROE will be automatcally enforceable
by the natonal courts.
From the above illustraton, it is apparent that
in some countries, the extent to which natonal courts
of member-states aford protecton to migrant workers
may depend on the commitment of a member-state to
incorporatng ECOWAS legislatons into its natonal laws.
Also the ability of a migrant worker to enforce a right
which is derived from the ECOWAS Protocols or other ILO
Conventons within natonal courts may vary from member-
state to member-state. However, irrespectve of a countrys
approach to internatonal law, if a community citzen is
of the opinion that a member-state has failed to protect
a right which is derived from ECOWAS legislaton, such
a Community citzen may seek recourse in the ECOWAS
Court (Hadijatou Mani Koraou v The Republic of Niger). In
this situaton, migrant workers may be able to enforce their
rights under the ECOWAS Protocol on ROR and ROE if they
can establish that the member-state either violated such
rights or failed to guarantee it. Be that as it may, it would
not be sufcient for the migrant worker just to claim that
a right has been violated. The violaton in itself must be
atributable to the member-state (ibid: 10-11).
As regards a migrant workers ability to efectvely
seek remedy in the ECOWAS Court, it is doubtul if a claim
would succeed if it is based on a right that is derived
from an ILO Conventon which has not been ratfed by a
member-state. This is because there is no direct regional
obligaton on the part of member-states to give efect to
rights provided for in the ILO Conventons. Even if is argued
that the rights enunciated in the various ILO Conventons
are enshrined in the ICMW, and ECOWAS member-states
are enjoined to ratfy them, the weakness of this argument
is in the fact that States can only be bound by treates
that they have ratfed. In other words, a more efectve
way of ensuring that the rights guaranteed under the ILO
Conventons are directly applicable to all ECOWAS member-
states, is to distl those rights into an ECOWAS instrument.
Conclusion
Bohning (1984:13) acknowledges that anthropologically,
migraton is an irrepressible human urge. People have
always wanted to move to places with more spiritual
freedom, greater politcal liberty or higher standards of
living. This asserton holds true for West Africans who
constantly sojourn within the region for the hope of a beter
future. As pointed out earlier, putng in place structures
that would help to improve the welfare of these migrants
is benefcial to the region. Although the existng eforts
to enhance free movement of persons in West Africa are
quite commendable, a lot more can be done to make the
system more efectve. Also measures can be put in place
that would enable the enforcement of the rights of migrant
workers.
In terms of the requirements for obtaining residence
permits, it is suggested that consideraton should be given
to migrant workers in the informal sector. Although it is
acknowledged that stringent measures have to be put in
place to curb illegal migraton, lattude should be given to
migrant workers who legally enter into the territory of the
member-state with the aim of seeking employment. This
will relatvely aid member-states in ascertaining the actual
number of migrant workers in their territory. As regards the
protecton of the fundamental rights of migrant workers,
it is suggested that ECOWAS should enact a regional
instrument which expressly spells out the fundamental
rights of migrant workers. This will help ascertain the
rights that accrue to migrant workers in the region. As
noted earlier, the existng framework makes references to
fundamental rights of workers in terms of ILO Conventons
and the rights provided for in the ECOWAS Protocols but
the rights provided for in the ECOWAS Protocols are not as
robust as the rights in the ILO Conventons and the ICMW.
The challenge with this dual source of rights is in the fact
that the ability of migrant workers to seek recourse for the
violaton of rights that derive from the ILO Conventons
or ICMW would to a large extent depend on whether the
member-state has ratfed these Conventons. However if
the rights provided for in the ILO Conventons and ICMW
are given efect to vide an ECOWAS legislaton, it might
be easier for migrant workers to beneft from these rights
and also to enforce them in the event of a violaton.
Finally, taking into consideraton that ECOWAS recognises
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
12
that human mobility is vital to both regional integraton
and the integraton of West African economies into the
globalisaton process (ECOWAS Commission 2007:4),
technical assistance should be given to member-states to
facilitate the free movement of persons. This would aid
strengthening the drive towards free movement of persons
and help close the existng gaps in the framework.
References
Adedokun, O. (2003). The Rights of Migrant Workers and
Members of their Families: Nigeria. UNESCO.
Adepoju, A. (2002). Fostering Free Movement of Persons in West
Africa: Achievements, Constraints, and Prospects for
Intraregional Migraton. Internatonal Migraton , 40
(2), 3-28.
Adepoju, A (2005). Migraton in West Africa. Geneva: Global
Commission on Internatonal Migraton.
Appleyard, D. Field Jr. & Cobb, S. (2005). Internatonal Economics.
Mcgraw Hill Irwin.
Awumbila,M. (2007). Intra-Regional Migraton in West Africa:
Changing Paterns and Dynamics. Retrieved August
28, 2010, from htp://www.iss.nl/DevISSues/Artcles/
Intra-Regional-Migraton-In-West-Africa-
Changing-Paterns-And-Dynamics
Axline, A. (1968). European Community law and Organisatonal
Development. Dobbs Ferry, N.Y: Oceana.
Bach, D (2003) New regionalism as an alias: regionalizaton
through trans-state networks in Andrew Grant and
Fredrik Soderbaum (Eds) The New Regionalism in
Africa. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
Bohning, W.R. (1984). Studies in internatonal labour migraton.
London: Macmillan Press.
Cholewinski, R. (2006). Internatonal labour law and the
protecton of migrant workers: revitalizing the agenda
in the era of globalisaton . In Craig, J & Lynk, M.(Eds),
Globalisaton and the Future of Labour Law (pp. 409-
444). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cholewinski, R. (1997). Migrant Workers in Internatonal Human
Rights Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
ECOWAS Commission. (2007). Meetng of Ministers on ECOWAS
Common Approach on Migraton. Abuja: ECOWAS
Commission.
Hadijatou Mani Koraou v The Republic of Niger, ECW/CCJ/
JUD/06/08 (ECOWAS Court of Justce October 27,
2008).
Leary, V.A. (1982). Internatonal Labour Conventons and Natonal
Law: The Efectveness of the Automatc Incorporaton
of Treates in Natonal Legal Systems. Dordrecht:
Martnus Nijhof.
Lee, M. (2003) The Politcal Economy of Regionalism in Southern
Africa. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.
Robert, R. (2004). The Social Dimension of Regional Integraton in
ECOWAS. Geneva: Internatonal Labour Ofce.
Sen, F & Koray, S. (2000). Migrant Workers Rights. In Symonides,
J (ed), Human
Rights: Concepts and Standards (pp. 327-341). Aldersot, Hants:
Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Shaw, M. (2003). Internatonal Law. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Taran, P. (2006). Imperatves for union leadership in defending
a rights based approach to migraton in the age of
globalisaton. Geneva: Internatonal Labour Ofce.
Wallace, R. (2005). Internatonal Law. London: Sweet & Maxwell
Limited.
Democracy and African Leadership
Angus N. Maduegbuna
Professor Angus N. Maduegbuna is Dean, Faculty of Management
Sciences, Tansian University, Umunya Anambra State, Nigeria.
Email: profangusmaduegbuna@yahoo.com
I
t is a source of worry that democracy as a model of
governance favoured in many countries of the world is
yet to fnd a frm foothold in Africa. With the beneft of
hindsight, it is easy to critcise the type of democracy that
is perceived to be in practce in Africa when compared
with the system in many developed economies. People
have always raised a voice over the nature of democracy
in Africa that gives room to multple of crises. While some
school of thought ascribe the system to the non-existence
of democratc consttutons, others say it is as a result of
wrong orientaton of governance. In the true sense of it,
democratc consttuton usually gives birth to governance
which is conceived by peoples consent through a
referendum or consttuent assembly. The practce of
democracy is that people are allowed to air their views
on the issue of governance without being gagged. The
essental thing is that people are recognised as the true
repository of power whose opinions are supreme in
maters which afect them. For democracy to take frm root
the consttuton should have democratc favour and exist
as supreme law of the land that dictates the dispensaton
of the law and justce.
In Nigeria, for instance, over the years, electon
has never been free and fair except in the case of Chief
M.K.O. Abiola which was widely believed to be free and fair.
The 2011 general electon which ushered in the present
administraton in the country is also largely acknowledged
to be free and fair to all intents and purposes. In Nigeria,
people wonder at the highhandedness and recklessness of
leaders especially afer electon into ofces. While some
atribute this behaviour to corrupton in high places, others
label it to a defect ab inito in the consttuton of the land
which was prepared by a handful of unelected persons. For
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
13
instance, the 1999 consttuton of the country apparently
was prepared, adopted and lorded over the populace by
the military and ever since, the country could not be said
to be at peace with itself, in spite of huge monthly revenue
allocaton to states. In the same vein, most of the countries
in Africa under military siege for a long tme experienced
similar harrowing stories. All this and all others seemingly
contributed to stunted growth of African economies.
Impact of leadership on the people
Two things are signifcant to make democracy blossom in
the African contnent, namely, democratc consttuton and
quality of leadership. In the words of Nwabueze (2010), in
The legacies of Dr. Alex Ekwueme to Governance and to
Politcal and Social Development in Nigeria, a democratc
consttuton is defned more essentally by the process by
which it is adopted and connotes primarily a consttuton
adopted through the democratc process of a referendum
or consttuent assembly. A leader is supposed to be a role
model and when a leader fails to demonstrate this essental
trait, he or she loses the grip of commanding followers.
African leaders are in the grip of poor governance due to
lack of democratc consttuton and the misuse of authority
for personal aggrandisement. Good leadership qualites
are necessary for sustainable governance. If a leader shows
exemplary life in the process of insttutonal governance,
the coming generaton will imitate him or her.
In South Africa, Mandela is a role model and
his exemplary leadership has opened up new vistas of
generatonal and vibrant leadership for the country that
can sustain the growth of the economy. No naton can
grow under a bad leadership. During the 8
th
Ramadan
lecture, organised by the NTA, FRCN and VON, with the
theme, Moral upbringing in Islam the Sultan of Sokoto,
Alhaji Saad Abubukar noted that the complete breakdown
of family and leadership values have lef the youths with no
role models to emulate, either at home or at the natonal
level (see Sunday Sun, July 14 Vol 10, 2013) . It is the wish
of the Sultan that parents, leaders and teachers would sit
up and nurture the youths to be leaders of tomorrow who
will be patriotc enough to develop their naton. When a
visionary leader is voted to power, he should have clear
ideas of what should be done to make the economy grow.
African states and their leaders have become enmeshed
in corrupton and this state of afairs has become an
obstacle to economic, politcal and social development.
Bad leadership and corrupton have linear relatonship
in African setng. Many African states achieved their
independence without a clear-cut politcal structure that
can ft into their environment, that is to say, looking for
a system of administraton that can best suit them, due
to their peculiar circumstances. Many have, therefore,
adopted a costly system that is at variance with their
culture and environment, leading to crises at various levels
of administraton. In Nigeria, for instance, the economy is
carrying the burden of the presidental system which is very
costly to run, in additon to unsetled issues of consttuton
which create immense challenges in the management of
the natonal economy. People stll believe that lingering
economic, politcal and social problems cannot be solved
without paying atenton to fscal federalism.
Even though Africa is endowed with mineral
resources as well as immense human resources, the
contnent refuses to grow to expectatons due to corrupton
in high places. Confrming this state of afairs, Transparency
Internatonal (TI) has released its 2013 global corrupton
barometer to say that four African countries namely,
Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Liberia among others in
the third world have very actve corrupton tendencies.
Since Liberia is one of the natons leading the table, the
countrys President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, fred the countrys
Auditor-General for corrupton (Daily Sun, July 15, 2013).
In Nigeria, for instance, politcians are largely to blame
for encouraging corrupton. In an atempt to address the
issue of corrupton which has eaten deep into the fabric
of the society, Natonal Judicial Council (NJC) led by Chief
Justce of Nigeria, Justce Mariam Aloma-Mukhtar, has set
up reform agenda to sanitse the judiciary and look into
corrupt practces involving judges in various courts in the
country.
African states have many social, economic and
politcal problems induced by corrupton. In Egypt, for
instance, the masses were disturbed over the corruptve
enrichment of former President Mubarak who was ousted
following peoples protests and demonstratons. Due to
insttutonalised corrupton in the African States, Mubaraks
successor, President Morsi, was overthrown by the military.
According to the editorial comment of Daily Sun, ousted
President, Morsi, took of on a wrong footng immediately
afer his electon. Instead of delivering on his electoral
promise to run an all inclusive government, tackle poverty,
unemployment, insecurity and stmulate the economy
which had been run down, Morsi, began a clampdown on
the state media and used the judicial system to persecute
perceived politcal enemies, the same accusatons he
levelled against his predecessor, Mubarak.
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
14
African leaders present their manifestos when they
seek for electoral ofces but immediately electon is won,
midway, they forget quickly what they have come into the
ofces to do. Some of them start amassing ill-goten wealth
as well as buy houses in choice cites in the world. This is
why politcal scientsts advocate for strategic and efectve
leadership structure in government business.
Mandela laid a solid foundaton in South Africa by
going into the leadership of the country with a purpose
and coming out with his head high. It is already a problem
in many African States that leaders in government do
not want to leave at the expiraton of their tenure due
to selfshness and tyranny. Some of them tnker with the
consttuton in order to perpetuate themselves in ofce.
This explains some stay in ofce upward of twenty years.
There are records of some dying in ofce.
African leaders hardly pay atenton to educaton
which would have reversed this ugly phenomenon.
Educaton is one of the major keys to sustainable
development but African leadership is interested in stfing
educaton so that the led will contnue to be enslaved. In
Africa many states have less than 10% of their natonal
budgets allocated to educatonal development, giving rise
to their leaders ignoring the rule of law and principles of
democratc governance. The African charter on the rights
and wellbeing of the child adopted by the Organizaton of
African Unity (secton II), reinforced the resolutons with the
call for the eliminaton of all forms of discriminaton against
women and girls. In 1990, four afliate organizatons of
the United Natons (UNESO, UNICEF, UNDP and the World
Bank) organised a meetng in Jomten, Thailand, to reach
an understanding which translated to a world declaraton,
on the right to educaton for all. In reference to this
statement, one of the advantages of the declaraton is that
if everybody is given access to educaton, the government
of any naton should be cautous of the policies it formulates
and executes because individuals will know their rights
and could raise their voice if their fundamental rights have
been encroached.
Educaton is a powerful instrument that can make
leaders in government sit up and in so far as the level of
literacy is high in a country, government is bound to be less
insensitve in maters afectng the citzenry. Added to this,
the more African countries start to think of investng in
human capital as an instrument of societal growth, the beter
for the contnent, in terms of quality leadership, insttutonal
governance and natonal development. When people are
properly educated and elected into ofces, chances are high
that they will respect the law of the land.
Factors that encourage sit-tight culture in
Africa
People aver that the sit-tght culture in Africa emanated
from colonialism. In the Nigerian experiment, for instance,
most of the Governors -General during colonial rule, in the
words of Ukpe (2011), from Lord Lugard to Sir Lytleton,
were military ofcers. This background could explain why
many African countries found themselves under military
rule immediately afer independence. With the passage of
tme, African leaders believed that acquisiton of politcal
power was a do-or-die afair and this mentality prevailed
untl the advent of the sit- tght culture due to the winner-
takes-all syndrome.
...the more African countries
start to think of investng in
human capital as an instrument
of societal growth, the beter
for the contnent, in terms of
quality leadership, insttutonal
governance and natonal
development.
On the eve of independence in many African
countries, the colonial masters resisted to relinquish
power afer realising that they were losing grip in the face
of natonalist agitatons. By the tme governance went to
African leaders, they believed that one could not handover
power on a plater of gold to ones opponent. However, apart
from this phenomenon is corrupton. This can be why many
communites celebrate corrupton when their sons win
electoral positons. Various clans in African communites,
honour politcians with chiefaincy ttles and other forms
of commendaton, just as in Nigeria, where people are
given natonal honours even when their characters are
questonable. As far as you are a strong politcian, people
see you as having joined the bandwagon of people to share
in lootng the natonal treasury and as such, the ttle given
to you might suggest your throwing money to them as part
of their own share of the loot. Due to atachment of money
to African politcs, only moneybags do the costly campaigns
for electoral ofces. In spite of ones eminence with respect
to qualifcaton for electon, you cannot do it successfully
without the splash of money and in some cases, this state
of afairs gives room to godfatherism.
Politcal campaigns in Africa is very expensive.
Afer expensive campaigns, the electorate will want you to
spend through your nose in order to atract their support.
Afer winning the electon, the elected ofcials will not be
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
15
in a hurry to meet electoral promises and manifestos before
recouping the enormous expenditure incurred during
the electon. In some cases, they may like to perpetuate
themselves in ofce if the consttuton can be manipulated.
If power of incumbency is not broken by right policies, the
right candidates may not have the opportunity to serve in
any capacity due to error in consttutonal arrangements.
In the words of Malan (2009), one of the problems of
democracy in Africa is short-termism, the inclinaton of
elected ofcials to disregard the bigger picture in favour of
the next electon date.
In a typical example of Nigeria, people who are
called to draf or efect adjustment in the consttuton
always place their interest above that of the naton. It
is indeed very difcult to explain the ratonale behind
people drafing a consttuton, making a sitng governor
or president to vie for a positon in an electon without
frst resigning his appointment in government. During
Yarduas administraton, he accepted that the electon that
brought him into power was fawed. Some members of the
ruling party regard their party as a family union that will
through their determinaton and power, rule the country
for the next sixty years. Some members say it openly that
their party had already won the electon that has obviously
not been contested.
It is a gladdening development that African people
are now waking up politcally, to understand the import of
democracy, that to survive, democracy must be practsed.
It is as a result of this understanding that in Senegal, the
citzens by vote, were able to unseat the sitng government
led by President Abdoulaye Wade, in the general electon
that took place in 2012. The European Union Foreign Policy
Chief, Catherine Ashton, said it was a great victory for
democracy in Senegal and in Africa (Daily Sun, 27
th
March
2012, p 14).
Security Challenges in Africa
The growing security challenges in the African
contnent has been a mater for worry. The insecurity is
exemplifed by youth restveness, robbery, kidnapping,
terror atacks and human trafcking among others.
In many developing countries inclusive of Nigeria, the
youth consttute the major segment of the populaton.
In Nigeria, for instance, the current security challenges
ranging from kidnap for ransom, Boko Haram insurgency as
well as other disturbances may be traceable to failed youth
development policy. Any country that ignores a policy that
can empower the youth is invitng crises. Policy thrusts on
infaton and unemployment if properly addressed will go a
long way in lessening crimes arising from youth joblessness
and neglect.
In African states, due to bad leadership, the youth
policy which is critcal to growth of African countries
is neglected, leading to various vices which assume
dangerous dimension. There are disturbances in African
countries resultng in wanton destructon of property, lives
and other state assets, due to avarice of leaders, greed
and corrupton in high places. In Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and
many other African countries, things have gone wrong
in the process of governance leading to unprecedented
level of unemployment, civil disturbance, highhandedness
of leadership, extrajudicial killings, intmidaton of rival
partes by the party in power. With what has gone wrong
in the contnent, the leaders should go back to the drawing
board and evolve concrete plans that will place premium
on true democracy by adoptng democratc consttuton
that is acceptable to the people as a means of moving the
contnent forward.
Conclusion
Concluding, I commend the Insttute of African Culture
and Internatonal Understanding of UNESCO, for its guts
and determinaton, in promotng internatonal peace and
understanding through scholarly research and publicaton.
Having gone through the gamut of analysis of African
politcal situaton, we identfed major obstacles that
slow the expected growth of African countries. The basic
legal requirements or documents the countries need
for insttutonal governance are completely absent in
the process of consttutonal administraton. Democratc
consttuton must be accepted in the contnent as a means
of achieving true democracy. One of the practcal steps
African countries can take is to consider the stand of the UN
on the educaton of the youth for all in this century. There
is the need for youth development policies to address the
issue of security challenges threatening the contnent .
References
Abubakar, S. (2013). Sultan blames parents, leaders over youths
immorality. Daily Sun, Newspapers July 14, 2013.
Ashton, C. (2012). Opinion of European Foreign Policy statement,
on Senegalese General Electon Daily Sun,
Newspapers 27
th
March .
Daily Sun Newspapers (2013) Editorial opinion of the paper, July
17 www.sunnewsonline.com
Dictonary of Contemporary English, New Editon (2009) for
Advanced learners, Pearson Educaton limited.
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
16
Faculty of Management Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka(2011).
Proceedings on the theme, Managing Public -Private
partnership for African prosperity.
Isa, G. (2013). Corrupt judges know fate today as NJC, sits (Daily
Sun, Newspapers, July 16,2013).
Malan, D (2009). Strengthening democracy through governance
in Africa, Ghana. A paper delivered at the conference
of the Business, Ethics, Network of Africa.
Nwabueze, B. (2010). The legacies of Dr. Alex Ekwueme to
Governance and to politcal and social development
in Nigeria, Awka, SCOA Heritage Limited (Educatonal
Publishers).
Ukpe, E. (2012). The sit -tght culture and the problem of
democracy in Africa, Cotonou, 5
th
Internatonal
Conference in Democracy and Governance in Africa.
Ghanaian Case Study of Singing
Games in Ethnomathematcs
Damian Kof Mereku and C.W.K. Mereku
Professor Damian Kof Mereku and Dr. C.W.K. Mereku are of the
Department of Mathematcs Educaton, University of Educaton,
Winneba, Ghana: Email: kof.mereku@yahoo.com
A
ll cultures have generated mathematcs ideas just as
they have generated language, religion, morals, customs
and games. In the last three decades, researchers have tried
to establish that mathematcal ideas exist in every culture
(Gay & Cole, 1967; Lancy, 1978; Zaslavsky, 1973; DAmbrosio,
1985). The Brazilian mathematcian, Ubiratan DAmbrosio,
termed such mathematcs ideas as ethnomathematcs.
DAmbrosio (1985) defned ethnomathematcs as
intersectons of culture, historical traditons, sociocultural
roots and mathematcs. He explains that ethnomathematcs
is the applicaton of mathematcal ideas and practces
to problems that confronted people in the past or are
encountered in present contemporary culture.
Other researchers and educators who have over
the decades supported the use of such cultural ideas in
mathematcs educaton have also atempted to defne the
concept of ethnomathematcs. For example, Gerdes (1997)
referred to it as indigenous mathematcs (Gay & Cole, 1967;
Lancy, 1978); sociomathematcs (Zaslavsky, 1973); and
oppressed mathematcs (Gerdes, 1982). But Gerdes (1997)
pointed out that these defnitons have been gradually
united under the more general common denominator of
DAmbrosios ethnomathematcs (p. 339).
Zaslavsky (1973) has shown that a range of
mathematcal ideas can be found in indigenous African
cultural actvites such as recreaton, language, architecture
and craf. From these actvites, mathematcs can be
said to be a kind of cultural knowledge which all cultures
generate. For example diferent cultures use diferent
bases of numeraton. This may lead to the arbitrariness
of selectng a base in which to work. Gay and Cole (1967)
assert that it is necessary to frst investgate indigenous
mathematcs in order to be able to build efectve bridges
from this for the introducton of the subject in school. It is
therefore important for teachers to begin with materials
available in indigenous culture, leading the children to use
them in a creatve way and from there advance to school
mathematcs. In doing so mathematcs teaching should
lead to the discovery of new facts about ones self, society
and culture.
...a range of mathematcal ideas
can be found in indigenous
African cultural actvites such as
recreaton, language, architecture
and craf.
According to Bishop (1988) mathematcal ideas and
culture interplay; that is, they cannot be separated from
each other. In an atempt to demonstrate that mathematcs
is not culture free, he pointed out that mathematcs can
be conceived as a cultural product which is developed as
a result of various actvites. Bishop (1988) summarizes six
fundamental actvites which he argues are universal because
they are carried out by every cultural group ever studied
and are necessary for the development of mathematcal
knowledge as countng, locaton, measuring, designing,
playing and explaining. Though these six fundamental and
universal actvites, which can be used to make mathematcs
learning more meaningful in school, exist in all cultures they
are taken for granted within many societes throughout the
world (Zaslavsky, 1998; Orey & Rosa, 2006; Davis, Bishop
& Tiong Seah, 2008; Zhang & Zhang, 2010). For example,
measuring is seen as a fundamental human actvity since
all cultures have evolved some form of measuring systems.
Davis et. al., (2008) observed that in Ghana, some form
of measurement is exhibited in the workplace and in the
market place, where people buy and sell things and carry out
mathematcal actvites including giving change, measuring
pieces of cloth and other materials and weighing meat.
But people see mathematcs as a subject that has litle or
nothing in common with their methods of working or their
cultural actvites.
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
17
Mathematics Games
For a whole issue (Volume 15, No. 1, January 1986)
of the journal Mathematcs in School to be devoted to
games is clearly an indicaton that games are considered
sufciently important in the teaching of the subject. We
have experienced ourselves the fun that can be obtained
from playing games such as ludo, cards and scrabble by
playing the games ourselves or watch others play. Games
generate enthusiasm, excitement, total involvement and
enjoyment (Ernest, 1986). Several games are used in
the classroom because children enjoy them and are well
motvated to play when learning them. Research indicates
that apart from knowing how to play the game beter,
children acquire and develop new concepts when playing
a game (Bright, Harvey and Wheeler, 1985).
Mathematcal games allow children to do real
mathematcs. Real mathematcs here means mathematcs
which is important and meaningful to children, and
doing what real mathematcians do, using mathematcal
processes and thinking in a mathematcal way (Ainley,
1988). Games, puzzles and play are interrelated human
actvites which have, for many years, contributed to the
development of logical thinking and mental capabilites.
Although puzzles and certain play actvites also allow
children to do real mathematcs, they are not necessarily
games. For an actvity to be classifed as a game, it has
to possess certain characteristcs. The interrelatonship of
these actvites makes it rather difcult to exclusively defne
a game. As Brighter, Harvey and Wheeler (1985) indicate, a
game can be described as an actvity in which:
Research indicates that apart
from knowing how to play the
game beter, children acquire
and develop new concepts when
playing a game.
players (one, two, three or more) challenge a task or
opponent;
there is a defnite set of rules. The rules describe all
the procedures for playing the game, including goals
sought; in partcular, the rules are structured so that
once a players turn comes to an end, that player is
permited to retract or to exchange for another move
made during that turn;
there is confict of interest among the players;
all alternatves available to a player at each stage can,
theoretcally, be examined by that player;
the sequence of moves of a player and a players op-
ponents each tme a move is made is likely to be dif-
ferent and unknown to all the players beforehand; and
a fnite number of moves is made before it ends.
In mathematcs, games are used for the
consolidaton of concepts (Oldfeld, 1991; Gough, 1999).
Through games many children are able to recall instantly,
certain facts such as the multplicaton tables of 1 to 12 and
apply the four basic rules on whole numbers in the range
1 - 100. It is critcal, therefore, that we understand not just
how games work but how diferent types of games work
and how game taxonomies align with learning taxonomies.
In their research, Brighter, Harvey and Wheeler
(1985), distnguished between three types of use for games.
These are pre-, co-, and post-instructonal, based on when
games are used in relaton to the existng curriculum. They
found that there were indeed diferences by learning level
and by whether games were used prior to, during, or afer
other instructon and also that there were interactons
between these two factors. They concluded that although
drill-and-practce-type games made up the vast majority of
edutainment ttles. Instructonal games could be efectve
for higher learning levels if designed and implemented
well. Ferdig (2009) added that instructonal or serious
games can promote learning at higher taxonomic levels
which require and promote problem-solving and situated
cogniton before they are integrated with instructonal
actvites or content.
Finally, mathematcal games provide the child
with enormous opportunites to develop his or her ability
to reason mathematcally. The desire to win a game puts
both players under pressure. Langdon (1989) identfed
the following as some of the mathematcal processes the
child undertakes under such pressures in the game of
wari: visualise or count the number of stones in each
hole; be aware of, and antcipate, empty set; count back
from a possible fnishing hole in order to recognise a good
startng hole; use rotatonal symmetry; antcipate the efect
of a move on the opponent; plan ahead; and reject poor
possibilites and eliminate positons which are vulnerable
to the opponent. These abilites are the foundatons of a
childs development of mathematcal thinking. A child will
not understand higher level mathematcs unless he or she
has had the opportunity to develop these basic abilites.
The Southern African Development Community
(2001) also outlined several advantages of using games
in teaching mathematcs to children including developing
positve attude towards mathematcs, consolidatng
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
18
mathematcal concepts and facts, developing mental
arithmetc skills, developing strategic thinking, promotng
discussion between students and between teacher and
student(s), encouraging co-operaton among students and
contributng to the development of communicaton skills.
Today electronic games are an integral part
of childrens lives all over the world. The goal of using
electronic games in mathematcs is to increase the
proporton of children who enjoy learning and using
mathematcs by engaging them through the play of
electronic games in the context of existng classroom
educatonal methods (Ferdig, 2009). Shin, Norris & Soloway
(2006) found such games to be benefcial to students in
learning mathematcs, especially for low-ability students,
regardless of gender and ethnic background. However
most electronic games are associated with violence but
litle connecton has been established between ant-social
behavior and electronic game playing (Lawry, Upits, Klawe,
Anderson, Inkpen, Ndunda, Hsu, Leroux, & Sedighian,
1995). Lawry, et. al. (1995) also reported that many
children who play electronic games have interests also in
music, programming, reading, and school. In view of their
numerous advantages, today there are myriads of excitng,
free, online mathematcs games to help children practse
mathematcs skills including countng, additon and
subtracton, multplicaton tables, fractons, measuring,
shapes, angles, telling the tme and lots more. But for many
children in less developed communites in Africa who have
no access to electronic games, cultural games can make a
lot of diference in their learning of mathematcs.
Critcs of the use of ethnomathematcs in the classroom
however argue that the over-reliance on use of cultural
actvites in the subject could lead to a watered-down
mathematcs curriculum that overemphasise inductve
reasoning (like contnuing visual paterns), because this
is supposed to be good for women and minorites, and
de-emphasising deductve reasoning and mathematcal
proofs, which is the heart of mathematcs (Olin, 2003).
Though research has shown that several fundamental and
universal actvites exist in all cultures, which can be used
to make mathematcs learning more meaningful in schools,
in Ghana such actvites are generally taken for granted and
ignored in school mathematcs.
...over-reliance on use of cultural
actvites in the subject could lead
to a watered-down mathematcs
curriculum that overemphasise
inductve reasoning.
Teaching mathematics with African games
The games to be described are pebble in fst, pebbles
picking, sansaw akroma singing game and the fring game,
which can be used in teaching certain concepts and skills in
mathematcs.
Pebble-in-fst game
This is a strategy game played in pairs with players facing
each other. A player takes his or her hands to the back,
hides a pebble in one hand and clenches both hands into
fsts. S/he brings the fsts forward for the partner to guess
and tap the fst containing the pebble. Finally the fsts are
opened for the partner to verify if the guess was right. The
player with the pebble wins when the partners guess is
wrong, otherwise the partner wins for a correct guess. A
partner takes her/his turn of hiding the pebble untl s/he
wins else contnues to do the guessing.
Mathematcal concepts the game can be used to
develop: Playing the pebble-in-fst game several tmes and
comparing the results captured on score sheets can be good
context for children to discuss the probability concepts of
fairness and chance.
Using the game in the classroom to teach
mathematcs: The game in this case consttutes the major
actvity of the lesson. Children can be made to compare the
results of Ata and Kuma in a pebble-in-fst game illustrated
in the score sheet in Box 1. Scores are not very important
for the purpose of the lesson, but serves as a source of
motvaton to the learners. Recording of results on a score
sheet as in Box 1 is however an important mathematcal
process that the children must learn. It is necessary for the
teacher to design an appropriate score sheet for childrens
use before the lesson.
Box 1 Ata and Kumas pebble-in-fst game
score sheet
Guessers
inital
Hand with
pebble
Hand
guessed
Outcome
Scores
Ata Kuma
Kuma Lef Lef C I
Ata Lef Right O
Ata Right Right C
Kuma Lef Right O
Kuma Right Lef O
Kuma Right Right C I
Ata Right Lef O
Ata Lef Lef C I
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
19
Kuma Right Lef O
Kuma Lef Lef I
In Box 1, a win is recorded by (or 1 in a blank circle)
and a loss by (or 0 in a shaded circle). From the score sheet
children can discuss the answers to such questons as:
Who began the game with the pebble in fst?
How many tmes was Ata a guesser in the game?
Who has beter chance of winning the game, Ata or
Kuma, if the game is contnued? Why?
Is the game fair?
When children are playing the game, they may try
as much as possible to be fair in the frst few rounds. But
as the game contnues, the fairness will be considerably
infuenced by how the players attudes and interest
change with the game. Some will try to cheat by dropping
the pebble behind them and sending forward empty fsts
or using smiles and eye movements to ofer clues to their
opponents. Through discussion and comparison of the
game, children will realise that such natural tendencies can
hardly infuence the results of the game and this will help
in a way to refne their understanding about games which
are fair and those which are not.
Pebbles-picking game
This is a strategy game played by two, three or
four players. Each player takes a turn in playing with fve
marbles. The player collects all the marbles into both
hands and drops them on the foor. S/he selects one of the
marbles and uses it to pick up others in the following way:
i. Throw up the selected marble, pick another
immediately on the foor with the same hand and
catch the air-borne marble with it.
ii. Put the marble you have successfully picked with the
selected marble aside and contnue with the process
untl all the marbles are picked with the selected
marble for the frst round.
iii. Do the second round in the same manner as above,
but this tme, pick two marbles at a tme (that is,
picking two and then two).
iv. In the third round a three and then a one are picked;
and in the fnal round a four is picked at a go.
At each stage, a player works out the combinatons
needed in order to pick the right number. A player fouls
when s/he is unable to pick the right number or is unable
to catch the air-borne marble with the marbles picked. The
winner is the one who completes the tasks successfully. The
game moves on to the next player when a player commits
a foul or successfully completes all the rounds. The game is
similar to the Cinco Marias (Five Marias) played in Brazil
(Lankford, 1996).
Mathematcal concepts and skills the game can be
used to develop: The pebble-picking game can be used as
an actvity to teach number facts and also as a practce (or
follow-up) actvity. When the pebbles are replaced with
numbered cubes the game can help children to practce
not only basic numbers facts but also problem-solving
strategies like trial and error, looking for patern, making
and testng hypothesis, reasoning and disproving.
Using the game in the classroom to teach
mathematcs: To help them investgate number facts,
children can play the pebble-picking game using numeral
cubes. All the cubes are numbered on all sides by the same
number as shown in Figure 1. Children start with the game
before the investgaton in order to visualise some of the
strategies they will need to carry out the actvity.
Figure 1 Numbered cubes for game
Children play the game several tmes taking the cube
frst as ordinary pebbles (i.e. with no regard to the
numbers). When they have done this sufciently to
revise the rules of the game, ask them to include the
following conditons:
change the goal sought for in the game from only
carrying out the tasks successfully to include also
a score;
the frst cube that is selected to be used in
collectng the others will not carry any score;
the number on a cube collected successfully
is recorded as a score, but if more than one is
collected, their product is recorded as the score;
and
the fnal goal is to get the largest score.
Children will need a simple score sheet like the one in Box
2 to record the results of the game.
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
20
Box 2 Senyo and Dzifas Cube-picking game
score sheet
Rounds Selected
cube
Player A,
Senyos
score
Total
score
Selected
cubes
Player B
Dzifas scores
Total
score
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
1
2
2
3
2+3+4+5
14+35
134+5
1245
Total
14
19
17
40
90
3
1
3
4
1+2+4+5
34 +25
245+1
1235
Total
12
22
41
30
105
Ask the students to study the results in Box 2 and
compare the scores of Senyo and Dzifa. The results
show that in round 2, Senyo selected the cube with the
number 2. He threw this up and successfully collected
the two cubes 1 and 4. He repeated the process and
then collected the other two cubes lef (that is 3
and 5) making a total score of 19. When children are
conversant with the game and the scoring they can be
asked to change the rule to making a total score of
100 or 150. Afer some tme they should be able to
work out the total scores without the cubes. With the
help of the teacher children can make a table of all the
possible scores a player can obtain at each round as
shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Possible scores a player can obtain at each
3 245+1 41


With the completed table children will be able to
investgate the highest possible score or minimum
score of the game. They may make conjectures on
the type of combinatons they will need in order to
win the game and try to verify these as they play the
game. The investgatons can be extended by asking
children to verify the number of cubes to, for instance,
four or six.
Sansaw akroma singing game
This is a singing game performed by three or
more people each with a small stone. The players squat
in a circular formaton, each with a hand grabbing the
stone on the ground. At the word go, they all start singing
and passing their stones to the next player on their right
according to the rhythm of the frst two lines of the song
enttled Sansaw akroma (see (Mereku, 2012) for the full
renditon and scoring of the song). The players agree on
whom to lead, and this leader begins to call the song with
all joining with the tap on the beat (2 tmes in a bar pass,
grab/pass grab) with their stones. They all pass their stones
contnuously in an ant-clockwise directon to the neighbour
to their right making the rhythm or sound illustrated in Box
3. The game contnues untl a player misses the rhythm
and is unable to pass on his or her stone. The player who
misses the game is the loser and withdraws from the game.
It is difcult to reach the fnal winner for it becomes
easier as the number reduces. The objectve is to avoid
leaving the game early. Figure 2 shows a picture of children
and a teacher playing the sansaw akroma singing game.
Box 3 Rhythm of the sansaw akrma song
round in the cube picking game
Rounds
Selected
cube
Possible scores that cubes
collected can make
Total
score
Round 1 1 2+3+4+5 14
2 1+3+4+5 13
3 1+2+4+5 12
4 1+2+3+5 11
5 1+2+3+4 10
Round 2 1 23+45 26
1 432+5 22
1 24+35 23
2 13+45 23
2 43+1+5 17


Round 3 4 235+1 31
4 123+5 11
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
21
Figure 2 Picture of children and a teacher playing the
sansaw akroma singing game
Mathematcal concepts and skills the game can be
held by the child in positon A will move to positon C; if the
game contnues it will move to positon E and at the end
of the third round go to positon A. This means it comes
back to A at the end of the rhythm afer 3 rounds of 8
beats each (or afer 24 beats). The actvity can be varied
by changing the number of players or the number of beats
in the rhythm. Children can be given the worksheet in Box
6, which has actvites based on a 6-beat singing game to
complete.
Number of
players doing the
6 beat singing
game
Position at which object in
Position A will land at the end of
each round
Total number
of moves
1
st
2
nd
3
rd
4
t
h

5
th
6
t
h

7
th

4 C A 12
5 B C D E A 30
used to develop: The sansaw akroma singing game can be
used to teach a wide array of mathematcal concepts. The
children can discover another applicaton of the concept
of Lowest Common Multple (LCM) which is taught in
primary school mathematcs. They will discover that the
total number of moves that an object will make in order
to end on the last beat of a rhythm at its original or start
point is the LCM of the number of players and the beats in
the rhythm.
Using the game in the classroom to teach mathematcs:
The places where the players sit around a circle in the
game is labelled A, B, C, D and E. for the purpose of the
investgaton. The players mark their objects so that they
will be easily identfed (see Box 4).
A
O

B
O
C
O
D
O
E
O
F
O
Box 4 Players positons around a circle in the
sansaw akroma game
In this investgaton, children are helped to fnd
the number of moves an object will make in order to end
on the last beat of a rhythm at its original or start point.
For example, let us consider the six players shown in Box 3
using a rhythm which has 8 beats as shown in Box 5. It will
be observed that afer the frst 8-beat round, the object
Box 6 Number of players doing the 6-beat singing
game by their positons at the end of each round
Afer completng the worksheet, certain paterns
become obvious. Help children to fnd the relatonship
between the beats in the rhythm b, the number of players
n and the total number of moves M, by rewritng their
results in a mapping (b, n) M as follows:
i. (8, 4) 8; (8, 5) 40; (8, 6) 24;
(8, 10) 40 and
ii. (6, 4) 12; (6, 5) 30;
With the mapping actvity some of the children
should be able to describe the relatonship as M is the
smallest number that n and b can divide or M is the
lowest common multple (LCM) of n and b. This can
become another applicaton of the concept of LCM and
primary school children can explore. The most common
applicatons of the concept found in their books are about
taps flling bath tubs which are very foreign to most children
learning in less-developed countries.
Poh! (or Firing) game
The fourth game is a response--rhyme game played by any
number of players. A player leads the game each tme. The
players agree on whom to lead, and this leader begins the
rhyme (see Box 7) then all join in with the right response.
The rhyme is usually about several elements belonging to
a partcular defned set. For example, the rhyme in Box 7 is
about plants that bear fruits. It can also be about animals
that fy, animals that have four legs, numbers that are
divisible by 4 or numbers that sum up to 10.
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
22
Box 7 A rhyme for the Poh! game
Leader Other players
Many plants yield fruits yield fruits
Many plants yield fruits yield fruits
orange plants yield fruits yield fruits
pawpaw plants yield fruits yield fruits
cocoyam plants yield fruits poh! poh!
mango plants yield fruits yield fruits
sugar-cane plants yield fruits .. ..
Mathematcal concepts and skills the game can
be used to develop: It can be used as a drill-and-practce-
type game for helping children to consolidate number facts
in mathematcs. The game can help them to recall their
number facts quickly and stmulate their mathematcal
thinking as they verbalise their decisions in order to win.
Using the game in the classroom to teach
mathematcs: Using number facts in the childrens natve
language in defning the set of elements in the rhyme (as
in Box 8) can make the rhyme an excitng drill-and-practce-
type actvity which help children to consolidate number
facts.
Box 8 A number rhyme for rhyme for the Poh! game
in Eve (a Ghanaian) language
Leader Other players All
Nmba wo kpea Wa wo(G) Woa wo(G)
Woa wo(G)
Nmba wo kpea Wa wo(G) Woa wo(G)
Woa wo(G)
kple O kpea wa wo
(G)?
Woa wo(G) Silent
kple kpea wa wo
(G)?
Woa wo(G) Silent
kple O kpea wa wo
(G)?
Woa wo(G) Silent
kple O kpea wa wo
(G)?
Woa wo(G) Poo!
Okple O kpea wa wo
(G)?
Woa wo(G) Silent
kple O kpea wa wo
(G)?
Woa wo(G) Poo!
Box 9 Numbers that sum up to 10, sum up to
10 (rhyme)
Leader Other players All
Numbers that sum up to
ten (G)
sum up to ten
(G)
O and O
sum up to
ten (G)?
sum up to ten
(G)
Silent
O and O
sum up to
ten (G)?
sum up to ten
(G)
Poo!
Box 9 Numbers that sum up to 10, sum up to
10 (rhyme)
Box 9 presents the English translaton of the rhyme
in Box 8. Anytme an ordered pair named the players have
to respond that it belongs to the set. This contnues
untl an ordered pair which does not belong to the set is
named. The response in this case is silence. The command
and response in the game follows the rhythm or sound
illustrated in Box 10.
Box 10 Rhythm of the rhyme Nmba wo kpea wa
wo
Box 10 Rhythm of the rhyme Nmba wo kpea
wa wo
A player who breaks the silence by responding
when the member named does not belong to the set,
commits a foul and consequently all the others fre at him
POH! POH! The player who loses or is fred at, usually takes
the turn as the leader to contnue the game. The teacher
can have several other pairs on numbers on a card for the
children to pick and use to do the actvity. The game can be
varied by changing the sum whose number bonds they are
to determine. e.g. numbers that sum up to nine, sum up to
nine, or numbers that sum up to twelve, sum up to twelve.
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
23
General Observations
Though the primary mathematcs curriculum in African
countries acknowledge the fact that games in mathematcs
can be efectve vehicle for teaching the subject, very litle
is made of traditonal African games in the teaching of
the subject (Southern African Development Community,
2001). The few games that are played in the classrooms
are largely foreign and used as motvatonal actvity to
introduce lessons or given to more able children as tme-
fllers to keep them busy when they have completed their
class exercises. The fact that most traditonal African games
are out-door games has prevented their use in teaching
mathematcs in schools. In such out-door games, children
chase one another, wrestle, throw, prick things, sing and
dance, and so it is not convenient to play these games in
a weather of an average temperature of 30
o
C. Although
some of the games involve estmaton, co-ordinaton of
senses and strategies, the mathematcs involved in such
processes are not very obvious. Also in most traditonal
games, scoring is non- existent.
The goals sought in most traditonal African games
are basically the winner or loser or who comes frst or
last. The reward of winning is an applause or praise and
that of losing is in many cases humiliaton. The humiliaton
takes various forms including teasing, hootng or beatng.
Many children have ofen wept at the end of games as a
result of such humiliaton. Sometmes even adults join in
such embarrassments. This has made some children as
well as teachers, especially those who have contnuously
experienced lack of success in their childhood games to
hate playing games. In view of its numerous advantages
including providing enjoyment, encouraging cooperaton
and discussion (Southern African Development Community,
2001), games should be used in the mathematcs classroom
for their intended purposes of providing drill-and-practce
for consolidaton as well as teaching of concepts and facts
and not for humiliaton.
Conclusions and Recommendations
It has been demonstrated that cultural actvites
can provide a useful context for teaching certain topics in
mathematcs as well as for consolidaton of mathematcal
facts and mental skills. Using numbers in the childrens
natve language in defning set of elements in a rhyme can
make the rhyme an excitng drill-and-practce-type game
actvity for making children to consolidate their number
facts. The game can help them to recall their number
facts quickly and stmulate their mathematcal thinking as
they verbalise their decisions in order to win. The sansaw
akroma singing game yields an interestng investgatonal
actvity that children understand as another applicaton of
the concept of LCM since the most common applicatons of
the concept found in their books are about taps flling bath
tubs which are very foreign to most children learning in less
developed countries.
The mathematcal processes and the deductve
reasoning in the game actvites described in the
sansaw akroma singing game and the pebble picking
game debunks the pessimists argument that over-
reliance on ethnomathematcs in the classroom could
lead to a watered-down mathematcs curriculum that
overemphasise inductve reasoning which is the heart
of mathematcs (Olin, 2003). Since there are no more
books that give pages with drill and practce exercises to
consolidate mathematcal facts and skills, teachers in Africa
should be encouraged to use games in teaching the subject.
There are lots of strategy, response and singing games, like
those described in this paper that can be found in most
African communites and teachers should be encouraged
to adapt these in teaching mathematcs.
Since there are no more books
that give pages with drill and
practce exercises to consolidate
mathematcal facts and skills,
teachers in Africa should be
encouraged to use games in
teaching the subject.
References
Ainley, J. (1988). Playing games and real mathematcs in D. Pimm
(Ed) Mathematcs teachers and children. London:
Hodder and Stoughton
Bishop, A. J. (1988). Mathematcs enculturaton: A cultural
perspectve on mathematcs educaton. Dordrescht,
Netherlands: Kluwer.
Bright, G. W., Harvey, J. G. and Wheeler, M. M. (1985). Learning
and Mathematcs Games Journal for Research in
Mathematcs Educaton. Monograph Vol. 1, pp. 1-189.
DAmbrosio, U. (1984). The intercultural transmission of
mathematcal knowledge: Efects on mathematcal
educaton. Campinas: UNICAMP.
DAmbrosio, U. (1985). Ethnomathematcs and its place in
the history and pedagogy of mathematcs. For the
Learning of Mathematcs, 5(1), 44-48.
Davis, E. K., Bishop, A. J. & Tiong Seah, W. (2008). Gaps between
inside school and out-of-school mathematcs in Ghana.
Mathematcs Connecton Vol. 8 2009. pp1-15.
Ernest, P. (1986). A ratonale for the use of games in the teaching
of mathematcs. Mathematcs in School, Vol 15, No. 1.
Ferdig, R. 2009. Learning and Teaching with Electronic Games.
Chesapeake, VA: AACE. Retrieved September 5, 2013
from htp://www.editlib.org/p/30431.
Gay, J. & Cole. M. (1967). The new mathematcs and an old culture:
A study of learning among the Kpelle of Liberia. New
York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Gerdes, P. (1982). Mathematcs for the beneft of the people.
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
24
Paramaribo: CARIMATH.
Gerdes, P. (1997). On culture, geometrical thinking and
mathematcs educaton. In A. B. Powell & M.
Frankenstein (Eds.), Ethnomathematcs: Challenging
Eurocentrism in Mathematcs (pp. 223-248). Albany:
State University of New York.
Gough, J. (1999). Playing mathematcal games: When is a
game not a game? Australian Primary Mathematcs
Classroom, Vol 4. No.2
Lankford, M. D. (1966). Jacks Around the World. New York:
Morrow Junior Books. p.10. also available at htp://
library.thinkquest.org/J0110166/jacks.htm
Lancy, D. (Ed.). (1978). The indigenous mathematcs project.
Papua New Guinea Journal of Educaton, 14, 1-217.
Langdon, Nigel (1989): Cultural startng points for mathematcs:
a view from Ghana, in: Science Eduacton Newsleter,
Britsh Council, London, No.87, 1-3
Lawry, J., Upits, R., Klawe, M., Anderson, A., Inkpen, K., Ndunda,
M., Hsu, D., Leroux, S. & Sedighian, K. (1995). Exploring
Common Conceptons About Boys and Electronic
Games. Journal of Computers in Mathematcs and
Science Teaching, 14(4), 439-459. Charlotesville, VA:
AACE. Retrieved September 6, 2013 from htp://www.
editlib.org/p/15207.
Mereku, C. W. K. (2012). We sing and learn: A legacy of songs for
Ghanaian schools. Winneba: University of Educaton,
Winneba, Music Educaton Department
Ministry of Educaton (2012). Mathematcs Syllabus for Primary
Schools. Accra: Ministry of Educaton, Science and
Sports.
Oldfeld, B. (1991). Games in the learning of mathematcs.
Mathematcs in Schools. January
Olin, D. (2003). The way we live now: Crash course,
Ethnomathematcs. The New York Times Magazine,
February 23, 2003. Accessed August 12, 2013 at htp://
www.nytmes.com/2003/02/23/magazine/23CRASH.
html?pagewanted=all
Orey, D. C. & Rosa, M. (2006). Ethnomathematcs: Cultural
Assertons and Challenges Towards Pedagogical Acton.
The Journal of Mathematcs and Culture, V1(1), 57-78
Shin. N., Norris, C. & Soloway, E. (2006). Efects of handheld
games on students learning in mathematcs.
Internatonal Society of the Learning Sciences 2006
Proceedings of the 7th internatonal conference on
Learning sciences. Pages 702-708 htp://dl.acm.org/
citaton.cfm?id=1150136
Southern African Development Community (SADC) (2001). Junior
Secondary Mathematcs: Module 1: Number Systems.
South Africa: The Commonwealth of Learning.
Zaslavsky, C. (1973). Africa counts: Number and paterns in African
culture. Boston, MA: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt.
Zaslavsky, C. (1998). Ethnomathematcs and multcultural
mathematcs educaton. Teaching Children
Mathematcs. 4(9), 502-503.
Zhang, W. & Zhang, Q., (2010). Ethnomathematcs and Its
Integraton within the Mathematcs Curriculum.
Journal of Mathematcs Educaton, Vol. 3, No. 1,
pp.151-157. Accessed on August 18, 2013 at htp://
educati onforatoz.com/i mages/_12_Wei zhong_
Zhang_and_Qinqiong_Zhang.pdf.
Nollywood: Using Theatre to
Propagate African Culture
Omotayo Ikotun
Omotayo Ikotun is a Visitng Administratve Fellow at the Insttute
of African Culture and Internatonal Understanding, Olusegun
Obasanjo Presidental Library, Abeokuta, Nigeria. She is a former
Registrar of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Email: iyaafn47@
yahoo.com.
T
he theatre, ever since incepton has presented itself
as a driving force in popular culture and as a valid
platorm for reconstructng cultural identty. It has helped
in sketching out alternatve ways of defning and measuring
the force of social signifcaton. This paper considers some
aspects of the propagaton of African culture via the flm
format of theatre. Partcular, it establishes its claims from
the perspectve of the Nigerian flm industry popularly
referred to as Nollywood. The paper has been organised
into the following sub-heads: concept of culture, African
culture, theatre, theatre and culture, Nollywood and the
propagaton of African culture, and conclusion.
Concept of Culture
Culture describes the many ways in which humans express
themselves for the purpose of unitng with others, forming
a group, defning an identty, and even for distnguishing
themselves as unique. Most formal defnitons of culture
describe it as the way of life of a certain group of people in a
partcular society. However, a more embracing perspectve
on culture will consider all the material and nonmaterial
expressions of a people as well as the processes with which
the expressions are communicated. Culture in that sense
could therefore depict glaring similarites between people
within the same territorial space that foster a feeling
of oneness that they would wish to preserve for future
generatons.
Taylor (cited in Luzbetak, 2002: 134), argues that
culture is a complex whole, including knowledge, belief,
art, morals, law, customs, and any other habits acquired by
people as members of a society. It is for Ang (1996), the
objectfed set of ideas, beliefs, and behaviours of peoples
and for Hall (1997), concerned with the producton and
exchange of meaning between members of a society or
group (cited in Gillian Rose, 2001: 6). Hence, culture is all
about living and the manner of doing things in the society.
Nanda (1984) describes culture as that complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom
and any other capabilites acquired by man as a member
of society. It is a paterned way of life shared by a group of
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
25
people. Although culture is not necessarily for the survival
of the human species, notons of culture and cultural
identtes are present in almost every human society
on earth. As the world moves closer together through
increased globalisaton, migraton, and technological
advancement, human beings are beginning to queston
the role (and reach) of culture within all aspects of human
existence. The questons have refected on how culture
has historically been used to justfy and legitmise certain
behaviours, practces, traditons, and overall ways of living.
Culture has some distnguishing characteristcs.
The World Book Encyclopedia (1992) identfes some of
these as: (a) satsfes human needs in partcular ways; (b)
acquired through learning; (c) based on the use of symbols;
and (d) consists of individual traits and groups of traits
called paterns.
Culture is a powerful consttuent and vehicle at
the core of possible transformatons, given that it mediates
and transfers ideas, values and intellectual refnement,
between generatons and between civilizatons. It is both
a preserving and a reproductve force, by transmitng the
paterns of the past and the present, to the future, and an
important innovatve infuence, by its power to inculcate
new attudes, thoughts, values and norms.
African Culture
Africa is home to innumerable tribes, ethnic and social
groups, some representng very large populatons consistng
of millions of people, others are smaller groups of a few
thousand. Some countries have over twenty diferent
ethnic groups, and also are greatly diverse in beliefs. The
culture of Africa encompasses and includes all cultures
within a contnent of Africa. There is a politcal or racial
split between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, which
in turn, is divided into a great number of ethnic cultures.
African cultures are diverse and dynamic, and like most of
the world have been impacted upon by both internal and
external forces. African culture includes all the cultures
that were ever in the contnent of Africa. These include the
music, art, literature and practces of Africa. African culture
is the general widespread core values, beliefs, cultural
themes and behaviours as they existed prior to European
contact and as they stll exist, especially in the rural areas
and to a lesser extent in the urban areas of Africa. It is
upon this which many, if not most, fundamental thought
processes and behaviours of contemporary Africans are
based and contnue to derive from.
The Theatre
The theatre is one of the most dynamic art form in the
contributon to the development of human society. Theatre
reinforces the natural crossover between the arts. Osanyin
(1983) describing the relatonship between theatre and
other art forms, says that Theatre encompasses all art
forms. The theatre is the meltng pot of all the arts. It uses
arts in their most dynamic state. Theatre is a composite
name which embraces other media like flm and television,
radio and live performances. It uses a form of art that
utlises performers such as actors, presenters and dancers
to present the experience of a real or imagined event to
an audience. The performers communicate this experience
through combinatons of gesture, movements, speech,
song, music, dance and other visual or aural aesthetcs.
African Culture and Theatre
In modern tmes, African culture is functonally linked to
theatre especially the popular media forms such as radio,
TV, and flms, since they played a very signifcant role in
the struggle against colonialism and exploitaton. Since
tme immemorial, the media have helped to rescue,
incorporate, preserve, and mediate elements which serve
the interests of these popular classes. These interests
include not only the peoples aspiratons, but also those
factors which defne their beliefs, expressions, and
historical and cultural development in general. Throughout
history, popular theatre forms such as dances, dramas,
musical compositons, narratves, and others have played a
role in the cultural struggle of the African peoples and their
development. The nature of struggle has dictated the role
of these art forms.
African culture is functonally
linked to theatre especially the
popular media forms such as
radio, TV, and flms, since they
played a very signifcant role in the
struggle against colonialism and
exploitaton.
Colonialism disrupted not only the politcal
organisaton and economic producton of the many
African politcal enttes; it also brought forms of cultural
alienaton, invasion, and disorientaton. Control of wealth,
natural resources, and cultural products were the main
aims of colonialism. New systems for the producton and
distributon of wealth were initated, along with mental and
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
26
psychological control of self-percepton and awareness.
Consequently, African culture was destroyed, undervalued,
undermined, and distorted. The systems by which Africans
had struggled with nature and organised their societes
became irrelevant in an incomprehensive and exploitatve
social order. However, elements of African culture survived
in its various languages, performing and other arts,
religions, oraton, and literature and depict the strength of
African culture. These elements also underscored African
resistance to annihilaton and cultural destructon. During
the fght for independence, African theatre and cultural
forms became elements of resistance and the struggle for
independence. Songs, dances, and ritual dramas mobilised
people to understand and reject their colonial situaton.
Africas cultural regeneraton has been an
integral aspect of post-independence naton-building on
the contnent, with recogniton of the need to harness
the cultural resources of Africa to enrich the process
of educaton, requiring the creaton of an enabling
environment in a number of ways. In recent tmes, the call
for a much greater emphasis on the cultural dimension in
all aspects of development has become increasingly vocal.
Today, using popular theatre, arts forms with the available
modern media have helped to strengthen the natonal
bonds that Africans need to forge ahead. Afer decades
of existence, the various African theatres, especially the
media form has given rise to a number of issues- questons
abound as to whether they are playing a signifcant role in
new development strategies and how they are meetng their
goals. However, despite severe handicaps, the theatre has
in its own way helped to fashion out a new consciousness
for African culture. We shall subsequently examine how
the flm form of theatre has helped to propagate the
African culture. The thematc focus rests on the Nigerian
flm industry popularly referred to as Nollywood.
Nollywood and the Propagation of African
Culture
Over the years, the medium of flm has come to be
closely associated with the culture industry. In Nigeria,
such a role for the flm industry is stll evolving although
certain factors are altering the profle of what could be
regarded as the countrys culture. Local cultures in their
original form have become secondary consideratons in
flm content. Local cultures are, of course, in transiton
all over the world. Globalisaton is setng the pace in the
interacton of cultures with the consequence that local
cultures are being submerged. Despite this setback, flm is
stll a great transmiter and propagandist item of Nigerias
culture. This view stresses the fact that flm in black Africa
is geared towards a reawakening of African consciousness,
developing the cultural ethos of the people, which had
hitherto been trampled upon by colonialism. Film is
one of the most versatle medium by which the identty,
image, culture, aspiratons and achievements of a naton
are impressed on peoples minds. The ability of flms to
create a psychological accord between audience and
screen characters emphasizes their relevance of cultural
development. Films can be used to correct distortons
by highlightng the indigenous social and cultural values.
Indigenous flms are one of the strongest link for Nigerias
culture and cultural identty.
As far back as 1979, even when the home video
industry is yet to berth, Arulogun (1979) remarked that flm
is a powerful tool for the transmission of cultural values.
He identfed three main areas where flm could further the
cause of cultural identty. First, as a propaganda tool, flm
remains a vehicle employed by governments and others
interested in the art of subtle diplomacy. Because of its
popularity as an entertainment medium, it easily becomes
a means of relaying and reinforcing informaton meant to
promote a certain reality. Secondly, flm also plays the role
of stereotype helping to shape perspectves on a peoples
culture. The impressions which viewers develop about a
people and their cultural values are greatly infuenced by
flm portrayals. Thirdly, flm as an educatonal medium
covers issues in the school curriculum or things about
their country of origin which tell viewers about diferent
countries and peoples.
Kafewo (1999) corroborates this view when he
remarked that:
Film, no doubt, is one of the art forms that are the
greatest carriers of our cultures and values. This is why it has
been deployed as comrade in arms by diferent countries in
the world to propagate their cultures. Lenin had no doubt
that the cinema held the greatest promise in the struggle
for the sustenance and spread of the Russian revoluton.
What we know today about the American, Britsh, Indian,
and the so-called Chinese flms (actually made in Hong
Kong) came from the arts ably carried by the flm medium.
The word Nollywood coined following the style
of Hollywood (referring to the American flm industry)
and Bollywood (referring to the Indian flm Industry) is the
generic name for the Nigerian flm industry. It grew from
the rich traditonal culture of Nigeria into a supposedly
modern internatonally-recognised industry. Since its
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
27
incepton in the early ninetes, the Nollywood movie
industry has progressively projected the African cultural
heritage to other parts of the world. This encompasses
both good and bad aspects of the culture. Today, many
Africans in Diaspora tend to feel at home whenever they
watch any of the Nollywood movies.
Signifcantly, Nollywood flms are exponents of
the social, politcal, economic, cultural, and technological
developments of Nigeria. Thus, their contact with an
audience from a diferent cultural background has some
implicatons. The flms could arouse the interest in such
audiences positvely towards the situatons so portrayed. In
other words, Nollywood flms would then be transmitng,
promotng and preserving the culture, and have the
likelihood of infuencing the audiences culture through a
development of interest. This agrees with the view that,
what movies ofer society, the manner in which it is ofered,
and its content are inextricably bound with the conditon
of industrialisaton (Ekwuazi, 1991). It can be said that
Nollywood flms are deep-rooted socially, in the sense that
they not only refect the ways of life of Nigerians, but also
tell stories of Nigerias past and present. If nothing else, the
village scenes, the politcal and traditonal justce systems,
land tenure, costumes, the hair-dos, tatoos, drumming,
singing and dancing, indigenous foods and drinks, as well as
religious beliefs exhibited in most of the flms, tell the past
history of Nigeria and its unity in diversity. For instance, the
frst Nigerian video flm, Living in Bondage, projected socio-
cultural traits and have a breakthrough in business. Thus,
Nigerian video flms are not only rebuilding such cultural
values but playing a very signifcant role in Nigerias socio-
politco-cultural infuence in Africa, and the Black world in
general. Hence, Nollywood, the acclaimed second largest
flm industry in the world, is a cultural product that tells the
story of Nigeria and Nigerias past and present.
...the village scenes, the politcal
and traditonal justce systems,
land tenure, costumes, the hair-
dos, tatoos, drumming, singing
and dancing, indigenous foods and
drinks, as well as religious beliefs
exhibited in most of the flms, tell
the past history of Nigeria and its
unity in diversity.
One of the greatest sources of stories responsible
for Nollywoods propagaton of African culture is the use
of African folktales to build their themes. Folktales are
valuable pieces of African culture. Stories refect a groups
cultural identty and preserving the stories of Africa help in
preserving an entre culture. Storytelling afrms pride and
identty in a culture. In Africa, stories are created by and
for the ethnic group telling them. Diferent ethnic groups in
Africa have diferent rituals or ceremonies for storytelling,
which creates a sense of belonging to a cultural group. To
outsiders hearing an ethnic groups stories, it provides an
insight into the communitys beliefs, views, and customs.
For people within the community, it allows them to
encompass their groups uniqueness. They show the
human desires and fears of a group, such as love, marriage,
and death. Folktales are also seen as a tool for educaton
and entertainment. They provide a way for children to
understand the material and social environment. Every
story has a moral lesson to teach people, such as good will
prevail over evil.
Arguably, Nollywood has impacted and
transformed Nigerian and African cultures. Unfortunately,
Nollywood movies in recent tmes now ply the glamorous
lane of materialism. According to Ukadike (2000), video
has become a fertle ground to display the current quest for
materialism. It has also become a cankerworm subject to
critcism. The flms now parade high-profle, working class
people, he adds, especially businessmen and women who
have made it, branding about in the latest expensive posh
cars, expensive cloths, and imported wines and whiskeys in
the get-rich-quick mentality of the fast age. Some of these
video-flms are signifcant for their outrageous fashion
shows rather than the entrenchment of an artstc traditon
that mirrors local content or natonal character. It is not
uncommon, sad to admit, to see a Yoruba movie (though
Igbo flms are the most afected) whose lead character is
jobless, yet living in an apartment that even an average
working class Nigerian would fnd idealistc to acquire,
with a delectable car in spite of the high cost of fuel.
Undoubtedly, this new phase in Nigerian flm, and Yoruba
genre specifcally, was heralded by the mad drive to imitate
Hollywood and its larger-than-life artstc realism. The
industry has exalted glamour to the gross neglect of artstc
truism of the social realites in Nigeria by merely recreatng
modern lifestyles found in most Hollywood flms.
Although there are concerns about Nollywoods
alleged distorton of cultures, the industry has been a tool
for transforming and preserving African culture despite
the forces of globalisaton. For example, Nollywood uses
Nigerian indigenous languages to tell African stories.
The language and culture of the people are central to
their identty and aspiratons for self-determinaton. In
additon, Nollywood tells the traditonal, hybridised and
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
28
contemporary lives of the people of Nigeria. Other African
countries have followed in the footsteps of Nollywood by
producing movies on video. This allows them to tell their
stories, which are predominantly done by the West and
a few African flmmakers. In additon, the afordability of
video makes it easier to showcase the culture of African
people.
Conclusion
In this paper, we reviewed the diferent dimensions of
culture and identfed the flm as a core element. We
narrated major highlights of the good, the bad and the ugly
sides of Nollywood- Nigerias flm industry and canvassed
the accentuaton of the edifying sides.
Film as a cultural element evolves out of the
cultural environment of its parent culture and should
therefore be employed by all cultures to accentuate their
individualites and perceived diferences. By implicaton,
the transmutaton of flm from western culture to African
soil necessitates its domestcaton or indigenisaton to
disrobe it of the inital western cloak and adorn it with the
peculiarites of the new culture. However, in Nigeria, flm
has not fully and truly atained this lofy height. It is stll in
the imitatve state with litle or no eforts by its practtoners
to free it from all forms of foreign dominaton. Nigerian
video-flm artsts are yet to be alive and responsive to their
cultural role, thereby using flm mainly as an instrument
of entertainment and commercialism. Nollywood flms
should be used to reject the supremacy of alien culture
as portrayed in most western flms. As Horato-Jones
(1979) asserts, flm is a propaganda and cultural tool
which every culture must utlise to make a voice and re-
write the Hegelian impression of the whites being superior
to the blacks. Hollywood, in recogniton of flms cultural
potency, has conquered the entre world with perceived
American superior culture through the silver screen and
brought other cultures to their kneels psychologically. It is
in a bid to refute this cultural subjugaton that the Indian
flm industry Bollywood strives to break Hollywood
hegemony by entrenching her hold within the flmic
landscape. Nevertheless, the culture-centred nature of
most Nollywood flms can be argued to depict the industry
as grounded on indigenous cultures like any other folk
media, produced and consumed by members of the group.
In this case, they reinforce the values of the people and
are the visible features by which social identtes and
worldviews are maintained and defned (Eilers, 1992).
Nollywood flms should be used
to reject the supremacy of alien
culture as portrayed in most
western flms.
References
Ang, I. (1996). Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences
For a Post Modern World. London and New York:
Routledge.
Arulogun, A. (1979). The Role of Film in Cultural Identty, in A.
Opubor and O. E. Nwudi (Eds.), The Development and
Growth of the Film Industry in Nigeria. Lagos. Natonal
Council for Arts and Culture.
Eilers, F. (1992). Communicatng Between Cultures. Manila:
Divine Word Publicatons.
Ekwuazi, H. (1991). Film in Nigeria. Ibadan: Abipint.
Kafewo, S. (1999). Culture, Development and Natonal Politcs:
Paradigm of Onyas Passage. Nigerian Theatre Journal,
Vol. 1, SONTA.
Gillian, R. (2001). Visual Methodologies: An Introducton to
the Interpretaton of Visual Materials. London: Sage
Publicatons.
Horato-Jones E. (1979). Historical Review of Cinema in West
Africa. In A. Opubor and O. Nwuneli O. (Eds). The
Development and Growth of the Film Industry in
Nigeria. Lagos: Third Press Internatonal.
Kroehler, R.B. & Zarden, V. (1996). Sociology: The Core. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Luzbetaz, L. (2002). The Church and Cultures: New Perspectves
in Missiological Anthropology. New York: Orbis Books.
Osanyin, B. (1983). Commited Theatre: A Cornerstone of Naton
Building. Nigerian Theatre Journal. 1 4.
World Book Internatonal (1992). World Book Encyclopaedia.
World Book Internatonal USA, Vol. 18.
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
29
Role of Educatonal Insttutons in
Mapping and Preserving Cultural
Diversity in the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) Region
Gina Cinali
Professor Gina Cinali is Assistant Director of Insttutonal
Efectveness at the American University in Dubai. Her research
and teaching interests include internatonal relatons theory and
practcal applicaton, globalisaton and the politcs of higher
educaton in the Middle East, as well as quality assurance,
assessment and global standards of educatonal excellence.
Email: gec11@columbia.edu.
W
hat role can and should educatonal insttutons play
in promotng a local cultural diversity agenda? How
might such insttutons best promote local culture, when
their very dtre is generally to promote an internatonal
and ofen western mode of educaton and seeking to
adhere to western accreditaton standards? How might
such insttutons collaborate with colleagues across a
region or globally while at the same tme serving and
adhering to local norms, rules and regulatons in the host
societes in which they are embedded? This paper presents
some answers from lessons learned from the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) region.
Educatonal planners insttutons and individuals
- can best advance educaton in their locale and worldwide
through honestly sharing the realites on the ground and
through celebratng and replicatng their successes. Only
then can we hope to increase return on investment for
individuals, countries and all regions of the world. From
egalitarian access, afordability, through careful planning
and monitoring of academic and insttutonal efectveness,
professional product delivery, academic and insttutonal
integrity to engagement of alumni, parents, business
leaders and all stakeholders fnd areas where they can
augment the end product: maximisaton of capabilites,
human capital and the possibility of meaningful lives and
livelihoods and hope for all.
Ironically, many foreign model schools - partcularly
those with a good porton of faculty and student body
originatng from outside a culture - might be uniquely
positoned, and perhaps more likely to perceive and
promote cultural diversity for at least the following reasons:
Coming from outside, many of the partes involved
see the richness and diversity with fresh, unbiased
eyes, new enthusiasm and no parochial interest in or
penchant for favouring one partcular cultural enclave
at the expense of another.
Foreign universites whether American or European,
ofen have a traditon of valuing, honouring and
promotng cultural diversity, built into their mission
statements and curricula.
It is difcult for local stakeholders to deny a focus
on all manifestatons of cultural diversites, when an
outside element calls atenton to its value and worth
of preservaton and promoton.
Some of these insttutons are trained in focusing on
cultural diversity, and sometmes have grant provisions
for supportng minority students, perform outreach to
minority communites, and mandates and funding for
collaboratve, consortum arrangements.
Liberal Arts insttutons in their very raison dtre -
focus on the holistc approach and value a multtude of
studies into human interacton, paterns and cultures
this has long been main-stream rather than exotc .
This might be seen as the more positve side of the
coin, in terms of outlook and potental for involvement.
On the more negatve side and equally ironic is the fact
that a foreign model school may in advertently work to
de-emphasise the local and the unique in terms of subsets
and enclaves, as the very reason some students, staf and
faculty are atracted to, say an American, Britsh school or
university. In other words, there is a pronounced tendency
to focus away from the local and more towards the global,
and in many areas of study, on common denominators
for efciency, expediency, at the expense of local, cultural
values, mores, and richness.
The responsibility on elite and foreign model
schools is great and the potental for infuencing cultural
preservaton is enormous. By calling atenton to cultural
manifestatons at risk of dying out, by celebratng the
cultural richness, by installing in local students, staf and
faculty a pride in and enhanced appreciaton of the cultural
diversity found within their own setng, and not least by
opening up this fascinatng universe to students, faculty and
staf coming from outside, who are likely to help protect,
preserve and promote these various and rich traditons,
can make a signifcant and lastng contributon.
...there is a pronounced tendency
to focus away from the local and
more towards the global, and in
many areas of study, on common
denominators for efciency,
expediency, at the expense of
local, cultural values, mores, and
richness.
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
30
The potental for foreign-model schools, to
perform as partner, supporters, and even originators of
programmes, actvites and services that help towards
creatng awareness and protecton of the rich variety, is in
fact enormous. The aggregate efect of such insttutons
working together with local governments, ministries of
educaton and internatonal organizatons such as UNESCO,
OECD, UNICEF and overseas groups interested in supportng
the cause in actons, spirit and fnance makes the good
foreign schools uniquely positoned to have a very positve
impact.
Example of Heritage Preservation Projects
Looking at other potental venues for inspiraton and
collaboraton, there has been a relatvely recent but growing
involvement of some of the natons of the Gulf region
when it comes to preservaton of local heritage. However,
such initatves are mostly either state sponsored, or the
proponents and benefactors are prominent individuals
with substantal means. It cannot be ruled out, that in
the process of gathering informaton, curatng examples
of artstc and cultural expressions in various forms, some
expressions may be edited out. With competng interests
at politcal, and sometmes territorial levels, it is easy to see
how some cultural expressions may be included or excluded
from a natonal heritage discourse. In such cases, outside
interference, in the form of bona fde expert opinion, as
well as layman interest from students and scholars of various
disciplines, could well serve as a correctve in some measure.
There is a strong interest from some actors in
the region, sometmes in partnership or guidance from
experts from abroad, to further professionalisaton and
standardisaton of heritage practces at the local level.
Sometmes the projects take the form of setng up a
museum or arranging cultural events and speaker series.
Qatar, which is ofen at the forefront in terms of new
initatves has engaged experts from the UK and elsewhere
to set up museum and heritage programmes at certain
universites.
In Kuwait, members of the ruling family are
traditonally great patrons of the arts and some have
opened their impressive private collecton to public view,
albeit in a very controlled fashion. Others in Kuwait have
been striving to preserve some traditons, for example
that of Sadu weaving, the vibrantly coloured pieces of
art that have been produced for hundreds of years, and
whose paterns appear on pillows, cushions, camel saddle
bags and more. As with so many traditons, Sadu weaving
remains a treasured, but somewhat quaint art form, not
transmited to the masses among the youth, but practced
by very few.
Lessons learned
What is needed throughout the MENA region is an
overview of the variety of heritage practces, a cataloguing
of manifestatons in which one might envision a way to
showcase and perpetuate some of these practces in the
region. While there is some nascent appreciaton of a
need for creaton of local heritage policies and heritage
preservaton the words cultural diversity seem to be
missing. Perhaps this is because the word culture is open,
while heritage might be defned by the ruler or powers
as something that has been approved. Culture has a
tendency to be more unruly and yes, diverse.
Even when a region a contnent such as Africa
agrees on the mandate as set forth in the UNESCO
Conventon, operatonalising and funding these important
actvites will present a gargantuan task. One that
nevertheless, needs to be embarked upon. No region has
all the answers, but together we can devise a magic bullet
to shoot down abuse, mediocrity and waste and instead
create some magic wands to propel academe- research,
professors and students our worlds future - into a more
promising future, and at the same tme teach students and
encourage teaching colleagues and administrators to explore
and propagate the cultural richness found in each society.
Globalisaton and Homogenisaton of educatonal
standards advance many things including those of
natonal priority, but can have the unintended outcome
of deemphasising and diminishing appreciaton for local
heritage. Local values and customs may impinge on stated
goals and endanger the integrity of a global approach -
ofen cited in a mission statement - by invoking respect for
local norms and cultural specifcity. The challenge will be
to reverse the +/- signs, to resolve the inherent tension in
the global vs. local. One must make the projecton to and
from global and tackle the challenge in non-accusatve
fashion and language and leave behind any non-productve
sense of victmisaton or inferiority. In order to advance
while preserving, one has to extract the best of all worlds
No region has all the answers,
but together we can devise a
magic bullet to shoot down
abuse, mediocrity and waste
and instead create some magic
wands to propel academe-
research, professors and students
our worlds future - into a more
promising future.
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
31
Recommendations
In the light of the foregoing, a number of recommendatons
can be made. Eforts should be directed at creatng a local
- diversity exchange programme. We should also encourage
universites throughout Africa to oblige students to know
at least one other region/language within their country/
region; create a portolio exchange amongst students
and scholars; initate exchange of students across the
region; hold compettons and award prizes for student and
faculty projects celebratng local culture; create on-line
communites for student projects, celebratons, exchanges
across insttutons, regions, countries; build and expand on
model UN type of events for students programmes across
countries in region; and make certain diversity courses
required components in schools and universites. Other
recommendatons are establish partnerships - community
and industry dialogue, input from industry, government,
community, NGOs to promote relevance and views to
establishing incubaton centres for actvites that explore and
display cultural diversity; award gifed student scholarships
and preparaton for gifed local candidates prepare them
for university and other higher learning in disciplines where
they commit to studying and promotng cultural diversity
mapping; foster collaboratve, interdisciplinary research
intra-insttutonal (across programmes, schools, research
centres and organisatons) - involving students; initate
and contnue internatonal collaboraton, especially to kick-
start research in cultural diversity.
Gazing Few Years Ahead: How the
Youth can Shape the Future of
African Culture
Ibukun Olagbemiro
Ibukun Olagbemiro is an Assistant Programme Ofcer at the
Insttute of African Culture and Internatonal Understanding,
Olusegun Obasanjo Presidental Library, Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Email: iolagbemiro@yahoo.com
T
he quest for social relevance is a major factor in the
way young people live their daily lives. The 2003 United
Natons World Youth Report emphasised that being local
in a globalised world is a sign of social deprivaton and
degradaton. The discomforts of localised existence are
compounded by the fact that with public spaces removed
beyond the reaches of localised life, localites are losing
their meaning-generatng and meaning-negotatng
capacity and are increasingly dependent on sense-giving
and interpretng actons which they do not control.
Youthful living in the light of the above could therefore
mean that young Africans may strive to meet up with the
social dictates in the global world even if it is at the expense
of indigenous culture. How do young Africans regard their
culture today? What are the resultant efects of such
percepton? What should be done to ignite their sense of
responsibility, interest and passion towards promotng,
preserving and developing African culture? Answers to
these questons are provided in this paper.
A Growing Africa Youth Population
The worlds populaton was estmated to be over 7 billion
in 2012 and Africas populaton second only to that of Asia,
stood at over 1 billion (Populaton Reference Bureau, 2012).
Africa is the most youthful contnent, as the proporton of
youth among the regions total populaton is higher than
in any other contnent (United Natons Regional Overview:
Youth in Africa, 2010). About 65% of the total populaton
of Africa is below the age of 35 years, and over 35% are
between the ages of 15 and 35 years - making Africa the
most youthful contnent (Youth Homepage of the Africa
Union). This populaton profle has been characterised by
expectatons, critcisms and fear as echoed in the Bureau of
Crisis Preventon and Recovery report in its 2005 Strategic
Review of Youth and Violent Confict which focused on
West Africa. It posited that:
There is ofen an automatc tendency to
problematse youth as a factor in violent confict while
overlooking their many positve contributons to society,
including their potental role in sustaining the social
fabric and peace, as well as their survival in impossible
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
32
environments. Even this dichotomy of youth as a problem
or youth as soluton, perpetrator or victm, as economic
asset or resource for change is limitng as a framework
for understanding the complexity of the youth situaton in
developing countries.
The infuence young people may have on the
contnent in no distant future could have been evident from
the protests that had been witnessed in some countries
against certain government decisions. It can therefore be
said that what is done or not done would determine the
impact of young Africans on their contnent in years to
come. Putng our gaze on culture therefore, this youthful
populaton growth should not be underestmated in terms
of the positve potental to promote culture and the inherent
danger if such prospect is not utlised constructvely.
African Culture and Globalisation
Culture has over the years had diferent defnitons.
According to UNESCO (2001) culture should be regarded
as a set of distnctve spiritual, material, intellectual
and emotonal features of a society or a group, and it
encompasses, in additon to art and literature, lifestyles,
ways of living together, value systems, traditons and
beliefs. As a contnuing, fexible and changing process,
culture remodels tangible and intangible cultural heritage
while inventng new forms of expression, thus revealing its
infnite diversity (UNESCO CLT/CEI/DCE/2007/P1/32, 2007).
Cultures are not distnct, self-contained wholes;
they have long interacted and infuenced one another
through war, imperialism, trade, and migraton. People
in many parts of the world live within cultures that are
already cosmopolitan, characterised by cultural hybridity
(Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2010). Cultural
practces in the 20
th
century are not exactly what are
obtainable in the 21
st
century as changes have occurred
overtme. Obioha (2010) posits that culture is learned. Such
learning does not take place through natural inheritance.
It is not genetcally transmited. Rather, it takes place by
a process of absorpton from the social environment or
through deliberate instructon, or through the process of
socialisaton.
The concept of the African traditonal religion (one
of the major elements of African culture) was explained
by Awolalu and Dopamu in Omotoye (2011) that when
we speak of African traditonal religion we mean the
indigenous religion of the African. It is the religion that
has been handed down from generaton to generaton by
the forebears of the present generaton of Africans. It is
not a fossil religion (a thing of the past) but a religion that
Africans today have made theirs by living it and practsing
it. This is a religion that has no writen literature yet it is
writen everywhere for those who care to see and read.
It is largely writen in the peoples myths and folktales, in
their songs and dances, in their liturgies and shrines and
in their proverbs and pithy sayings. It is a religion whose
historical founder is neither known nor worshipped. It is a
religion that has not zeal for membership drive, yet it ofers
persistent fascinaton for Africans, young or old.
The changes that humanity has experienced have
of course afected its social and religious life. Colonisaton,
civilisaton, globalisaton, informaton technology, cultural
exchange and so on, have had its impact on the way of life
of Africans. Culture is constantly changing, African culture
being no excepton due to its contact with other cultures.
As benefcial contact with foreign culture may seem, it
portends grave danger for the sustenance of African culture
if deliberate eforts are not made to regulate this interface
between cultures.
This paper sums globalisaton up as a process of
exchange of diferent ways of life between natons and
territories economically, politcally and socially where virile
countries dominate and infuence the codes and ethics of
the aspiring and developing ones, and the later also having
minimal form of infuence. This means that no one naton,
forces down its ethos on other natons, at least not directly.
However, it may seem so when treates and global policy
frameworks are reviewed. While this may contravene the
many existng thought processes, it should be said that
globalisaton in efect has in its cofers many things to ofer,
all of which are not wholesomely negatve. Even Obioha
(2010) afer many critcisms acknowledged that certainly
not all traditonal practces are worth keeping in this
cultural evoluton. There are aspects of the African culture
that have consttuted a bane to the development of society
and personality. Hence for Africa to develop there is the
need to jetson or modify aspects of traditonal culture that
impede the development of these attudes. Therefore,
it may be safe to say that while globalisaton may seem
like a redefned modern day colonisaton, it has some
positves to ofer. Part of the weakness of the traditonal
African culture, Wiredu (1980) explained in Obioha (2010),
is that it is authoritarian. Wiredu further observes that the
traditonal culture lacks the habit of exactness, and rigour
in thinking, the pursuit of systematc coherence and the
experimental approach. Another defciency, Obioha (2010)
noted, is that the traditonal African culture is oral. As a
result, it does not give much room for the development of
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
33
the features of the scientfc mind. The aboliton of harmful
African traditonal cultural practces is also some of the
benefts of globalisaton.
Why Youth are not Committed to the
Development of African Culture
Some of the factors that discourage young people from
being proponents of African culture include:
Poor Cultural Educaton and Documentaton: A
major cause of disinterest in edifying African culture by
its youth is the advent of western educaton. Oni (2005)
opined that the foreign culture embedded in Western
educaton has dealt a serious blow to African culture and
has even almost wiped of our culture. It has produced
a set of Africans with colonial mentality. The eforts to
dress, talk and act like the westerners have taken over
the indigenous way of impactng formal educaton in
Africa. Another challenge of African culture is the lack
of proper documentaton as it is ofen oral. Hountonji,
(1983) in Obioha, (2012) noted that oral traditon favours
the consolidaton of knowledge into dogmatc, intangible
system. It is dominated by the fear of forgetng, of lapses
of memory, since here memory is lef on its own resources
beref of external or material support. This forces people to
hoard their memory jealously, to recall them constantly, to
repeat them contnually, accumulatng and heaping them
up in global wisdom, simultaneously present, always ready
to be applied, and perpetually available. In these conditons
the mind is too preoccupied with preserving knowledge
to fnd freedom to critcise it. Well documented cultural
precepts would make it easier to access knowledge and
make room for diligent study of African cultural traditons.
Violence and Confict: The memory of war and
confict lingers more than the past centuries of cultural
richness. For example, the internal confict in Sierra
Leone has disrupted the development process through
the massive destructon of material, human and socio-
economic resources and actvites. Through the civil war,
out of a populaton of 4.5million, about 2 million became
internally displaced persons and refugees, over ninety
per cent of these causalites being civilians. The war also
had devastatng efects on cultural heritage and posed a
serious challenge. In Nigeria, the civil war of the 1960s
asides the irreparable loss of life and abrupt distorton of
socio-economic actvites, had some cultural consequence.
Fatunsin, (1994) observed in Diamitani, (2005) that the Oran
Museum which was located in the eastern part of Nigeria
and had housed 661 out of the 800 Oran Kepi ancestral
fgures when it opened in 1959 was bombed and destroyed
during the war. The collectons which were moved a few
tmes for protecton was fnally moved to Orlu which
became a refuge afer the war. Unaware of the importance
of these wooden objects, the inhabitants used them as
frewood. Many were stolen and some were looted. When
the war eventually ended, only 116 carvings survived and
these were poor examples of what were originally in the
collectons. From a cultural standpoint, cultural identty
is threatened by the destructon of cultural symbols, the
outward cultural signs of the other community, and the
dislocaton of the traditonal core and values that make up
identty. Conficts in West Africa have forced hundreds of
civilians to leave their homes and villages for refugee camps
where they are cut of from their traditons and roots. In
additon, during conficts natural heritage is subjected to
degradaton with incalculable consequences. This leaves
incomplete artefacts for young people to have a grasp
with their historical heritage.
Poor Governance: Libyas late Moammar Gaddafs
had over 42 years of dictatorship, Egypts Hosni Mubaraks
31-year rule, Zimbabwes Robert Mugabes 24-year rule,
Togos Gnassingbe Eyademas 37-year rule, Cameroun
Paul Biyas 31-year rule, late Mobutu Sese Seko of the
Democratc Republic of Congos 37-year rule; are few of
the many present and past long-serving Presidents, a faw
that is far from democratc principles that are preached by
the United Natons, a global body to which most African
countries belong. Such democratc ideals which are well
played out in the west may have atracted more young
Africans to perceive leaders in these countries as the
epitome of good leadership hence the atempt to emulate
the lifestyle of their people at the expense of Africas cultural
practces. As more youth fnd themselves caught in this
circle, they tend to relegate the traditonal African practces
to the backwaters. If the present trend of globalisaton in
Africa is not checked and its youth encouraged to embrace
their cultural heritage, it poses a grave challenge for the
promoton, protecton and development of Africa culture.
Some of these threats include:
Undervalued Cultural Commodites: The cultural
industry, which is the industry concerned with the
producton, marketng, sale of cultural commodites and
the market that consume these commodites, is one with
untapped potentals. Despite the rapid development of
Nollywood, young Africans may be more infuenced by
products from Hollywood and Bollywood, primarily due
to the vanity to appear civilised. The implicaton this brief
is that subdued African precepts will make young Africans
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
34
more atracted to cultural commodites from the west thus
undermining the potental of Africas cultural market and
its export potentals.
Threatened Cultural Ingenuity: In Africa, culture
can be a tool for strengthening the social cohesion. Africa
comes from culturally, ethnically, linguistcally and radically
diverse societes; yet we all aspire to natonhood, a single
shared natonal identty and cohesive society that exist
in harmony, argues Aborisade (2011). However, this
cohesiveness, like many other African cultural traits, had
since fzzled out with indigenous language and technology
undermined. Profciency in African languages is declining
on the contnent because people are ofen quick to
embrace western culture and civilisaton. This has caused
alienaton for people who cannot speak foreign languages
as language has been used as a vehicle of culture which
has literally created a dichotomy between the elite and the
masses. There is therefore the need for deliberate eforts
to promote and protect African culture so that a few years
from now, the present generaton of young people would
not have commited cultural suicide.
Recommendations
In no uncertain terms, the present level of dispositon of
young Africans to cultural practces needs to be refocused
and redirected. Some of the actons that would help correct
this anomaly are listed hereunder.
Economic Development: In less than three
generatons, it is estmated that, 41% of the worlds youth
will be African; at the end of the century, Africa will have the
lowest dependency rato in the world (Ibrahim Forum Facts
and Figures, 2012). A critcal acton required is to provide
an economically thriving community for young people.
Youth on the contnent would not embrace culture when
they fruitlessly have to strive for economic wherewithal.
Economically relapsed and socially unhealthy young people
will turn deaf ears to any tangible evangelism on the need
to promote culture.
Eliminaton of Poor Cultural Practces: Eforts
should be made by all stakeholders to document cultural
practces that are dangerous and harmful while others are
modifed to ensure safety and development. For example,
it would not be safe to wear traditonal atres into factories
and places with heavy machineries as this poses grave danger
to such individual. The practce of female circumcision is
also another cultural practce that should be abolished in
Africa. Custodians of certain masquerade festvals should
not impose curfew on other people and infringe their right
to free movement and associaton just because they want
to celebrate a festval. For African culture to develop, many
of such regressive cultural practces should be eradicated.
Cultural Educaton and Documentaton: Teaching
should be modifed to educate children about the
diverse cultural practces, the historical backgrounds,
modifcaton and hybridity experienced through the tmes,
the retrogressive aspects of the cultures, the beauty
of the diversity of the cultures and the huge potental
of our cultural market. This will help to develop the
interest of young people in promotng culture from their
tender age which would eventually translate into their
improved percepton and regard for their customs as they
grow up, thus engaging in a culture of preservaton and
development of African heritage. Eforts should also be
made to document existng African traditons for posterity
to access. This can be done by ensuring that all museum
and archives with Africa historical artefacts and documents
are well funded and well preserved. Such collectons should
also be replicated into movies and other media format that
will prevent damage and also make easily available for
research.
Language Educaton: Languages are vehicles
of our cultures, collectve memory and values. They are
an essental component of our identtes, and a building
block of our diversity and living heritage. Yet, about half
of some 6,000 languages spoken today are in danger of
disappearing. (UNESCO, 2011). Civil war, genocide, politcs
of dominaton; are just some of the factors that militate
against the development of indigenous languages. It is
important that Africa takes afer China by entrenching the
use of indigenous language for teaching and learning in our
educatonal systems. Though the diversity of the languages
poses a major threat to this propositon, it nonetheless can
be explored to look at the best ways to formulate such a
policy.
Insttutonalisaton of Culture-Oriented Groups
among Youth Circles: The embrace of science and technology
has led to various technologically-motvated groups among
youths in secondary schools and tertary insttutons.
Concerted eforts should be made to insttutonalise
culture-focused groups in primary, secondary and tertary
ters of educaton and vocatonal centres. This can be
extended into rural areas with actvites such as leadership
development and cultural festvals organised regularly.
It is in this light that the Insttute for African Culture and
Internatonal Understanding, the publishers of this journal,
have set machinery in moton to establish a Cultural Security
Forum across tertary insttutons in Africa as an acton-
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
35
oriented follow-up to its March 2013 Regional Summit that
held in Abeokuta, Nigeria. The forum which would soon
be inaugurated would a platorm for cultural educaton,
promoton and preservaton in a relaxed atmosphere while
creatng an avenue for cultural exchange programmes and
skills development. More of such initatves would, to a large
extent, assist in rejuvenatng the interests of these young
minds in African cultural practces and its preservaton.
Eliminaton of Violence and Confict: This feat
would be impossible without politcal-will and good
governance on the part of African leaders. Confict and
violence maims and destroys heritage and customs. It
strangulates communal cohesion that characterise rich
African culture. It also creates in young people the shallow
mind-set of the culture of violence. Leaders across the
contnent must begin to show practcal willingness in their
style of management and work relentlessly to eliminate
politcs of biterness and marginalisaton. No minority
ethnic group should be cornered into irrelevance by any
major ethnic natonality. It is usually the percepton of
marginalisaton that instgates the need to seek liberaton
and freedom. Areas from which natural resources are
derived should be seen to refect wealth and comfort on its
people and infrastructure. Violence can wipe out in days,
the cultural heritage that had existed for centuries.
Promoton of Pan-Africanism and Renaissance: As
Africas contnental organisaton celebrated fve decades
of promotng Africas unity and development in May 2013,
it rallied member states and heads of government to
promote pan-Africanism and renaissance a call for a virile
and united Africa and the contnental rebirth necessary
to achieve that unity. As indicated in the 50
th
Anniversary
Solemn Declaraton of the Heads of State and Government
of the African Union, Secton A, subsecton iii and iv which
states that:
iii) Our commitment to strengthen AU programmes and
Member States insttutons aimed at reviving our
cultural identty, heritage, history and shared values,
as well as undertake, henceforth, to fy the AU fag
and sing the AU anthem along with our natonal fags
and anthem;
iv) Promote and harmonise the teaching of African
history, values and Pan-Africanism in all our schools
and educatonal insttutons as part of advancing our
African identty and Renaissance.
African leaders must follow-through on these
declaratons and create a resounding and efectve
awareness in their respectve countries. Such ideals, if
properly and tmely implemented, will certainly help
strengthen cultural exchange on the contnent and promote
diversity. And in twenty years to come, the contnent
will blossom in myriad of cultural pride, authentcity and
acceptance the world over.
Conclusion
This paper has atempted to evaluate the present
relatonship between African youth and their culture and
what this portends for the contnents culture a few years
from now. It argued that young people are more in-tune
with the culture of globalisaton which propagates the way
of life of the westerners, leading to the marginalisaton and
subjugaton of African culture. The feeling of backwardness
associated with indigenous cultural practces is one of
the factors that causes young Africans to fee their own
contnent at almost any cost for that of the economically,
socially and politcally more virile natons. It recommended
some steps that should be taken to ensure that this trend
of cultural inferiority and asphyxiaton is curbed such that
a few years from now, African culture would resonate with
pride among other cultures of the world. However, looking
at some years from now, if nothing is done to consciously
promote African culture among its youth, African Unions
projecton of the next ffy years of a virile pan-Africanism
may be a farce and cultural atrophy may contnue to plague
African culture more severely.
References
African Union (2013). 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaraton of
the African Union. Retrieved from htp://summits.
au.int/en/sites/default/fles/50%20DECLARATION%20
EN.pdf on 15 July 2013.
African Union (2005) Document of UNESCO on Educaton and
Culture in Africas Quest for Development AU/
Educ/5(1) adopted at the Conference of Ministers
of Educaton of the African Union (COMEDAF II) 1st
Ordinary Session 8-11 April, 2005 Algiers, ALGERIA.
Retrieved from htp://ocpa.irmo.hr/resources/docs/
COMEDAFII_Unesco_EdCultRole-en.pdf
African Union Commission Homepage. htp://www.africa-youth.
org/home Retrieved 24 June 2013.
Bureau of Crisis Preventon and Recovery (2005, April). Youth and
Violent Confict
Diamitani, B.T. (2005). Armed conficts, peace culture and
protecton of cultural heritage. Presented at the
ICCROM Forum held on October 4-6, 2005.
Farah I., Kiamba, S., and Kesegofetse, M., (2011). Major challenges
facing Africa in the 21at century: A few provocatve
remarks. Presented at the Internatonal Symposium
on Cultural Diplomacy in Africa Strategies to confront
the Challenges of the 21
st
Century: Does Africa have
what is required? Berlin 14-17 July 2011.
Ibrahim Forum Facts and Figures (2012). Africa Youth: Fulflling
the potental: Presented at the 2012 Mo Ibrahim Forum
in Dakar, Senegal. 11 November 2012. Retrieved from
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
36
www.moibrahimfoundation.org/downloads/2012-
facts-and-fgures.pdfon 20 May 2013
Obioha U.P., (2010). Globalisaton and the future of African
culture. Philosophical Papers and Reviews, Vol.2(1), p.
1-8, April 2010.
Omotoye R.W. (2011). The study of African traditonal religion and
its challenges in contemporary tmes. Ilorin Journal of
Religious Studies Vol 1. No. 2, 2011 p.21-40
Oni, A.A. (2005). Globalisaton and its implicaton on African
Culture and Development: Challenges for Educaton.
Internatonal \journal of African and African American
Studies Vol IV, No.2, July 2005. p 9-12
Owoye, O. and Bissessar N. (2012). Bad Governance and
Corrupton in Africa: Symptoms of Leadership
and Insttutonal Failure. Paper presented at the
Internatonal Conference on Democratc Governance:
Challenges in Africa and Asia, University of
Pennsylvania, USA.
Populaton Reference Bureau (2012). 2012 World Populaton
Data Sheet, Washington, DC, USA. Retrieved from
http://www.prb.org/pdf12/2012-population-data-
sheet_eng.pdf
Society and Development in Crisis? Strategic Review of youth
and violent confict in West Africa. Retrieved from
http://www.unicefinemergencies.com/downloads/
eresource/docs/Adolescents/Youth%20and%20
Violent%20Confict%20UNDP-BCPR_160.pdf on
3/06/2013
Song, S. (Winter 2010 Editon), Multculturalism, The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy EdwardN. Zalta (ed.),
htp://plato.stanford.edu/archives/ win2010/entries/
multculturalism/
UNESCO (2007) Conventon on the Protecton and Promoton
of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, CLT/CEI/
DCE/2007/P1/32.
UNESCO (2011). Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger (3
rd

editon). pp. 4. Paris. Retrieved from htp://unesdoc.
unesco.org/images/0019/001924/192416e.pdf on 3
July 2013
United Natons Regional Overview of Youth in Africa (2011).
htp://www.social.un.org/youthyear Retrieved on 20
May 2013.
Young People in a Globalizing World. United Natons World
Youth Report (2003). p. 291-294. Retrieved from
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/documents/
worldyouthreport.pdf
Youth website of the Africa Union. Retrieved 24 June, 2013.
htp://www.africa-youth.org/home
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
37
News of the Institute
Africa Regional Conference on Harnessing Culture For
Sustainable Development and Human Security in Africa.
This conference is scheduled to take place between the 4th
and 5th of March 2014 at the Internatonal Conference
Centre, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidental Library, Abeokuta,
Nigeria. It will bring together a broad range of stakeholders
from across the world including Heads of State and
Government, Ministers responsible for Educaton,
Agriculture, Economic Development, Health, Youth and
Women Development, community leaders, academia, civil
society groups, private sector, youth organisatons, women
groups and other individuals and groups that are engaged in
the promoton of culture, human security and development
in Africa. The conference is a response to the increasing
celebraton of Africa as the second fastest-growing region
of the world today on several socio-economic indicators,
trailing only developing Asia. For a region that has long
been debased in development discourses as a liability to
the rest of the world, the current image of Africa calls for
celebraton. While the rest of the world celebrates Africa,
Africans must approach the emerging scenarios with a
soberly, diagnostc and prescriptve mind. Some of the
questons that the conference will address are: How do
we push discourses on development in Africa from the
export-oriented economic growth strategies towards the
transformaton of culture into a basic tool for meaningful
growth and value-added commodity? What policy
framework and internatonal understanding is needed for
this consideraton?
Database of experts on culture and human security: The
Insttute has initated the development of a database
of experts on culture and human security under the
directon of Chief Moji Ladipo, mni (Associate Expert) and
the Natonal IT Ofcer, Tunde Sobola. The database will
be a unique resource providing electronically-searchable
informaton including detailed curriculum vitae, email and
phone contacts and areas of specialisaton of the experts.
Policy Briefs: The Insttute has approved the publicaton
of Policy Briefs which will research topical issues on culture
and internatonal understanding in Africa. Analysis of the
data on the issues will be basis for drawing policy optons
that the Insttute will make available to governmental and
non-governmental organisatons as well as the private
sector in prosecutng their agenda related to such issues.
The frst Policy Brief is enttled: Rebuilding Timbuktus
Cultural Heritage in Mali. Professor Isaac Albert (Associate
Expert) is the Coordinator of the Policy Briefs Project.
Cultural Security Forum for African Youth: Preparatons
for the Cultural Security Forum are progressing. The event
is expected to commence early in the frst quarter of 2014.
Coordinator: Ibukun Olagbemiro, Assistant Programme
Ofcer.
Intercollegiate Debate on Human Security: Preparatons
for the 2014 editon of the debates have reached an
advanced stage. Coordinator: Damian Oyibo, Natonal
Programme Ofcer: Advisers: Professor Isaac Albert and
Ayo Tella (Associate Experts).
Capacity Building: The Insttutes Accountant, Oladiran
Olaniyi, has just returned from a 10-day intensive training
programme in London on modern methods of accountng.
One of the benefts of the training is the reinvigoraton of
the Accounts Unit.
News from UNESCO
Headquarters
Director-Generals Ofcial Visit to Nigeria
From 10 to 12 September, the Director-General of UNESCO,
Her Excellency Irina Bokova, paid an ofcial visit to Nigeria.
The Assistant Director-General for Strategic Plans, Hans
DOrville was part of the Director-Generals entourage.
During the visit, the DG met with several ministers working
in UNESCOs felds of competences, as well as the UN
Resident Coordinator, Daoda Toure. The high point of her
visit was the meetng with the Vice-President of Nigeria,
His Excellency Architect Namadi Sambo.
In the course of the visit, the Director-General
signed an Aide Memoire towards a new strategic Plan of
Acton, to enhance UNESCOs cooperaton with Nigeria
and take on new areas including higher educaton, gender
equality, bioethics, youth policies, natural heritage,
oceans, the General History of Africa, the Slave Route,
African cinema, the Living Human Treasures programme,
community radio and journalism educaton, Memory of
the World, and Open-Educatonal Resources.
While in Nigeria, the Director-General also
inaugurated the UNESCOs Regional Ofce in Abuja. The
countries that will be covered by the new Regional Ofce
are Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cte dIvoire, Ghana,
Togo, Benin and Nigeria. The opening of the Regional
Ofce marks a turning point for UNESCO, and is the result
of a pledge by the Director-General to strengthen the
Organizatons presence in the feld and to sharpen its
ability to respond to the needs of Member States. IACIU
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
38
congratulates the newly-appointed Director of the UNESCO
Regional Mult-Sectoral Ofce in Abuja, Professor Hassana
Alidou and wishes her every success as head of the Ofce.
Forthcoming UNESCO Culture Events this
Quarter
5th October, 2013 Belgrade, Serbia: Experts Group meetng
on the contributon of audio-visual productons to the
safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage Experts from
South-East Europe will meet, within the framework of the
22nd editon of the Internatonal Festval of Ethnological
Film, to discuss how documentary flms and other audio-
visual productons may contribute to the safeguarding and
viability of intangible cultural heritage. The meetng will
include a round table on the realisaton of a possible regional
audiovisual producton on intangible cultural heritage
in South-East Europe challenges and opportunites.
Partcipatng experts will include representatves of heritage
safeguarding agencies, anthropologists, flm makers and
other individual practtoners.
6-10 October, Halifax, Canada: Experts Group Meetng
on University-based Research on Global Cultural Issues
fostering Development. Partcipants will include researchers
and policy analysts and will examine contemporary and
future agenda for research in cross-cutng cross-regional
issues on culture and development.
21-27 October, 2013, Apia, Samoa: Workshop on
Community-based Inventorying of Intangible Cultural
Heritage. The Workshop will bring together some 50
partcipants ranging from ICH custodians, traditonal
leaders, senior ofcials responsible for ICH safeguarding,
NGOs, community-based organisatons, to faith-based
organisatons. The workshop will provide stakeholders with
training in community-based ICH inventorying with hands-
on exercise at Gataivai Village in Savaii Island.
30 October-3 November, 2013, Baku, Azerbaijan. Regional
UNESCO/ICOM Thematc Museum Training for museum
specialists from CIS countries and expert meetng on
Museum Service as a Basis for Quality Services to Visitors
and the Factor of strengthening of a Social Role of a
Museum.
No. 6 Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
39
About the Insttute
The Insttute for African Culture and Internatonal Understanding, a UNESCO Category 2 Insttute of the Olusegun
Obasanjo Presidental Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State was approved by the Executve Board of UNESCO
in October 2008 and formally commissioned at its OOPL site on January 9, 2009 by Koichiro Matsuura, the
immediate-past Director-General of UNESCO. The Governing Board of the Centre chaired by HE Dr. Christopher
Kolade, was inaugurated on March 4, 2009.
Vision
The vision of the Insttute is to increase inter-cultural dialogue and internatonal understanding between Africa
and other civilisatons.
Mission
The mission of the insttute is to preserve Africas cultural heritage, promote and strengthen renaissance in
African cultures both at the regional and internatonal levels.
Aims of the Insttute
The insttute aims at:
raising awareness among stakeholders at the natonal, regional and internatonal levels about the
important role played by cultural diversity and its corollary, intercultural dialogue, for social cohesion
in pluralistc societes;
facilitatng the network of sister insttutons working in these felds and inducing relevant academic and
scientfc studies;
providing a platorm of genuine cooperaton for specialists in African culture;
providing capacity-building through the promoton of knowledge-sharing about spiritual and other
religious traditons and their underlying values in order to strengthen harmonious coexistence; and
highlightng the values of diversity and dialogue by studying tangible and intangible heritage as well
as contemporary cultural expressions in the African region and the Diaspora (through inventories
and catalogues, including in digitsed form, disseminatng and exhibitng collectons and other relevant
materials).
Governing Board
Chairman: Dr. Christopher Kolade
Members: Ambassador Dr. Mary M. Khimulu, Ambassador Denise Houphouet-Boigny, Ambassador Mohamed
Sameh Amr, Ambassador Dolana Msimang, Professor Hassana Alidou, (Director, UNESCO Abuja Regional Ofce);
Mr. George Ufot (Representatve of the Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Natonal
Orientaton), Magdalene Anene- Maidoh, Secretary-General, NATCOM-UNESCO, Professor Peter A. Okebukola;
Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Saad Abubakar III, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe.
Secretariat
Professor Peter A. Okebukola (Director), Omotayo Ikotun, Vitalis Ortese, Damian Oyibo, Oladiran Olaniyi,
Ibukun Olagbemiro, Akintayo Peters, Tunde Sobola, Femi Jenrola.
Associate Experts and Experts Group
Professor Isaac Albert, Moji Ladipo, Ayo Tella, Professor Gbenga Ogunmoyela, Professor Wole Ogundele, Dr.
Anthony Onwumah
Journal of African Culture and International Understanding
No. 6
40
Editor
Peter A. Okebukola
Editorial Ofce
Insttute for African Culture and Internatonal Understanding
Olusegun Obasanjo Presidental Library
Oke-mosan, Abeokuta, Nigeria
Tel: +2348022904423; +2348023400030
Website: www.iaciu-oopl.org
Invitaton to Potental Authors
We welcome artcles and reports for publicaton in the journal. Such artcles should be succinct and should convey messages in line
with the aims and objectves of the Insttute. Artcles should be sent to peter@okebukola.com.
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in the artcles in this journal are those of the authors and do not represent the ofcial view of
the Insttute.
Insttute for African Culture and Internatonal Understanding, OOPL, Abeokuta
AI R MAI L
POSTAGE STAMP
Insttute for African Culture and
Internatonal Understanding
Olusegun Obasanjo Presidental Library
Oke-mosan, Abeokuta, Nigeria
Tel: +2348022904423; +2348023400030
Website: www.iaciu-oopl.org