How Western culture erodes values among Nigerian youths
Cultural imperialism is a term used to describe the imposition of western culture on the culture of people in developing countries. Cultural imperialism often refers to America’s cultural influence on other countries, for better or worse.
A man’s right lies in his confidence and personality which is greatly nurtured by his culture. Man is essentially the product of his culture. It beats and moulds a person into a particular shape. Culture makes one think, speak, dance and behave in a particular manner. It’s culture that makes one Kanuri, Jukun, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Alago, Tiv, etc.
Africa as a continent and Nigeria as a country have their given cultures which are unique in their own respect. This culture may not be absolutely the same among all countries and even within a country, a lot of cultures exist but there are features that differentiate Africans from other people of the world. The issue here is that any person with passion for the African culture today will believe that, the very material, spiritual and aesthetic fabric of African people had been destroyed by western civilization.
Nigeria which is made up of rich and diverse cultural values is beginning to lose most its cultural ideals especially through the adoption of foreign culture showcased through the mass media. Nowadays, it is observed that our young men and women have abandoned our local attires such as the ‘Adire’ and ‘Ankara’ for alien attires. It is common to see young people walking across the streets half nude putting on micro-mini skirts, handless top, trousers and other outfits that are not part of our cultural identity.
Africans and indeed Nigerians have their traditional attires, but how many people proudly wear such traditional attires today? A visit to our banks today will give you a perfect example. In fact, it is mandatory in the banks that you wear a suit except on Fridays that you are allowed to wear native attire. The question we must answer is whether wearing of suit part is of African culture or western culture? Must we copy everything western? Can’t we promote our rich cultural and traditional outfit so our local industries can boom?
The dress code aspect is of importance in our present situation especially now that there is a global economic meltdown coupled with the need to be inward looking in exploring and exploiting the potential inherent in our local fabrics particularly the “Ankara”. A paradigm shift from nude dress code which characterizes the dress code today will not only boost the country’s economy but will go a long way in generating employment opportunities for the teaming unemployed youths in our society today.
It is disheartening that most Nigerians no longer patronize shoes, clothes etc made in Nigeria. They often tagged them as “Made in Aba”. This will not help our country’s economic growth because, when we do not patronize our locally manufactured product, our economic fortunes would continue to dwindle. We must take pride in our homemade product rather than rushing for foreign materials.
Another negative effect of cultural imperialism is the rising cases of immoral dressing and nudity especially amongst the youths. These have also occasioned rapid rate of sexual harassments among students and lecturers in the tertiary institutions as well as bosses and their employees in the offices. Raping of girls has been on the increase in our society today due to recklessnesses in dressing amongst our ladies all in the name of copying western fashions.
Apart from losing our cultural and traditional attires and dressing code to western imperialism, we have also lost our local food delicacies as well as our traditional worship to the alien culture. The kind of food we eat and even the mode of worship in our churches today have been altered. For example, the Igbo’s are known for “Akpu”, the Yoruba are known for “Amala” and pounded yam, the Igarras are known for “Uka” and the likes. We have our traditional food, but we discover today that most Nigeria people are no longer interested in their local food as they now prefer the western food.
More so, our local dialects are gradually going into extinction due to preference for foreign language. The younger generations can hardly communicate in their local dialects. White men colonized Africa; those colonial masters arrived Africa with their own culture and languages, which Africans consciously and unconsciously imbibed. In the process of accepting the new culture and language, they forgot to sift carefully and select the important and discard the less important ones. They forget the existence of their true (culture and language). The colonial masters provided Africans with their own language and painted array of benefits that would accrue him (the African) once he mastered the white man’s language and culture.
Today, many people are even ashamed to speak their local dialect in the public. They prefer to speak English because they believe that is the best language to speak. We often see couples who hail from the same village in Nigeria whose children cannot speak their native language instead, they speak English and even in most cases, they do not speak simple and correct English but pidgin. What an aberration!
Our cultural heritages have been watered down by western civilization. Gone were days where life was treasured and values were welcome and held with high level of respect. As of then, parents hide their faces in shame when their daughters are found out to be non-virgin by their husbands during wedlock. The notions of chastity and virginity have been rendered absurd. The moral excellence of Africa/Nigeria society has overnight transformed into moral decay. Elders are no longer respected; our rich cultural festivals and ceremonies are now seen as “old school”.
The mass media are the core influence of cultural imperialism on Nigeria society today. Nigerians , especially the youth now imitate values like gansterism, bribery, drug addiction, rape, semi-nudity, etc. These values have dangerous effects on the youths, who ignorantly mimic them as a way of life.
The mass media in this case is seen as media imperialism which is described as the overconcentration of the mass media from larger nations as a significant variable in negatively affecting smaller nations, in which the national identity of smaller nations is lessened or lost due to media homogeneity in mass media from the larger countries.
One of the negative roles the mass media plays in our today’s society is the dominance and propagation of violence particularly on television and video film industry. A lot of the foreign film content on television is mainly scenes of violence. The actors who engage in murder and other violent actors are portrayed as heroes. Home video, which is very popular now with Nigerian films, also carries the same theme. Research has shown that children who watch violence on screen are most prone to violent behavior in adulthood.
The proliferation of pornographic films in our society is also another negative issue of this cultural imperialism. Imported ‘blue’ movies as they are known are as popular as other movies circulating among both adults and youths. These movies corrupt and defile the minds of people-patronizing them is a practice alien to our society. Public discussion of sex for us is regarded as a taboo, which should not be practiced.
What is the way out? Since Africans/Nigerians have inherited enough from her foreign colonizers, it is time for us to start appreciating these things and blending them into traditional Nigeria society in order to bear a trade mark of our own. Gone were the days where local made product are cherished. Now we tend to enjoy using foreign product to the detriment of our own local made products.
We should be on the revival of traditional morality which our country Nigeria was known for. Parents here should play the major role of ensuring moral behaviour of their children, in paying attention to the kind of films they watch, the kind of clothes they buy for them or they are allowed to wear. This in the long run will surely helperadicate moral vices and crimes in our society. It is high time we said no to cultural imperialism and uphold our rich cultural values in high esteem
Deborah Yakubu Dangana is a Mass Communication student at the Taraba State University, Jalingo.