Globalization and the Challenges of Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Conflict has remained one of the most significantly challenging problems affecting countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Several issues have been adduced as indicators or pointers to influencing these challenges of conflicts; however, globalization has played equally significant role in influencing conflict. The aim of the paper was to examine the role of globalization on conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. The methodology employed in the study is the method of content analysis through secondary sources of data on the subject of study. The paper observed that, conflicts Sub-Saharan Africa are aggravated by economic, political, social and cultural factors which are the main targets of the globalization process. The many conflicts which have devastated the African states from Somalia to Liberia, the genocidal conflicts of Rwanda and Burundi, the democratic Republic of Congo and a host of others including the most recent conflicts in Dafur, Sudan, are traceable to serious economic dislodgments caused by the effects of globalization and made worse by unemployment and widespread poverty, which result from staff rationalization, privatization and massive retrenchment of workers. It was also discovered that the increased incursion of small arms and light weapons and the uncontrolled cross-border exodus of rebels in and out of Africa is one of the natures of globalization which have been aggravated by ineffective border policing and extensive years of political volatility in the region. The paper recommended that African communalism should be encouraged. The reduction in unemployment and poverty must be pursued as a matter of urgency through policy and practical means.