Globalization and identity change among the San people of Africa

¶ … globalization and how it impacts identity in Africa. The writer looks at group as well as individual identify issues as they relate to the globalization process.

GLOBALIZATION TEACHES MODERN WAYS THEN EXPECTS OLD FASHIONED HABITS TO CONTINUE: THE IDENTITY OF THE AFRICAN BUSHMAN BECOMES CONFUSING

Globalization is a worldwide blending of cultures and other elements that create society. As the world continues to globalization barriers come down and the subsequent examination of need results. In many areas of the world the globalization process produces fair trade discussions, technological advances and other things that create a more modern society, however for some of the underdeveloped nations it means much more simple desires. Identities are developed by personal beliefs, outside environment and the world as it shapes those who live in it. Identities are impacted by globalization as people begin to see themselves as compared to the rest of the world. In South Africa for example global activism is a unified effort by the San (Bushmen) to improve the rights and lives of the indigenous that live there. The identity of groups and individuals in Africa has recently begun to change because of the experiences that globalization provides.

Globalization has pressured the San to promote their culture and society as primitive and isolated (Sylvain, 2000).

HISTORICALLY

Historically the San have been exposed with increasing frequency to the modern affects of globalization. Regardless of how isolated it may have been in the past, the process of globalizing is reaching the farthest corners of the world. The San have recently become exposed to the impact of liberalizing trade markets, as well as a booming tourism industry and all it involves. There is no way for the San to remain isolated and primitive among the current explosion of growth that the area is experiencing.

The current integration of the San into the new global order introduces important opportunities for empowerment and "development" but is also fraught with contradictions and challenges inherent to local identity politics and global indigenous activism. One of the most puzzling features of postcolonial life for the San is that, at the very moment they are beginning to travel the world, speak at international conferences, and keep in regular e-mail communication with interested parties overseas (Sylvain, 2000), primordialized and essentialized representations of primitive "Bushmen" are being vigorously reasserted in mainstream media and NGO rhetoric. These representations are often difficult to distinguish from colonial stereotypes (Sylvain, 2000)."

The term Ethnotourism refers to a location where identify politics crosses market demand. The development of this union has created concerns about the commodification of the culture and the way it perpetrates the Western culture on every area of the world (Sylvain, 2000).

A naturalized and territorialized conception of culture is advanced most conspicuously at the confluence of ethnotourism and international indigenous identity politics: Here the ubiquity of localizing and essentializing identity-based movements is not a paradoxical result of globalization at all but a very understandable outcome of the globalization of a particularly potent idea (Sylvain, 2000)."

When it comes to the identity of people in Africa, primarily South Africa one must look at a group identify as well as individual identity factors to draw an accurate picture.

According to recent examinations of the globalization process the act of globalizing actually serves to disenfranchise and dispossess the indigenous people (Sylvain, 2000).

The roots of the indigenous people can be traced to the end of World War II when worldwide movement towards standardized human rights issues moved to the forefront of society.

Ronald Niezen identifies four features of the postwar world that facilitated indigenous rights activism (Sylvain, 2000):

First, the Holocaust in Europe sensitized the world to issues of racial discrimination and the need to protect minorities.

Second, the process of decolonization established new international norms that could be used to promote self-determination for indigenous peoples.

Third, assimilationist policies produced an educated elite equipped to organize and lobby for rights.

Finally, a rapidly expanding global NGO community (Sylvain, 2000)"

Studies concluded that a movement for the rights of the indigenous people would provide a sense of nationalism and therefore provide a foundation for a group identity within the indigenous society.

The process of globalization however has recently begun to drive the San to act in ways in public that are against the recent changes they have adopted. The globalization pressures have created a demand for them to act in primitive fashions and as the pressure mounts for them to do so, for the purpose of tourism and revenue they begin individually to buy into it as a group identity (Sylvain, 2000). In other words the process of globalization has created a new world for the San as it brings to the members of that population the ability to support themselves through the use of tourism interest, however, the same globalization process pressures the group to act primitive and isolated as that is the very element that tourism finds attractive about the group.

While this pressure is forcing individuals of the community to react in ways that were left behind long ago so that the tourism revenue can be had the actual changes taking place within the group are creating a new group identity which is the primitive mindset that has been promoted for the sake of tourists.

Today, the San's activism as indigenous people is most positively received in public forums when they present themselves, in stereotypical terms, as Bushmen whose identity is organically linked to the land. For example, the South African Khomani San won 65,000 hectares of land in and around the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in March 1999, and, as Steven Robbins notes, "Media representations of the San land claim comprised a series of stereotypical images of timeless and primordialist San tribes' reclaiming their ancestral land" (2001:833-834). Robbins also points out, however, that "the colonial stereotype of the pure and pristine bushman hunter gatherer has also been "embraced 'from below (Sylvain, 2000)." "

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Once one understands the process of globalization and the way it promotes the blending of cultures and the sharing of tourism and other industries one can begin to understand how group and individual identities in Africa are influenced by the process of globalization.

In drawing a visual one can compare it to a phenomena commonly referred to as peer pressure in the world. It has long since been known that if one chooses to associate with a certain type of people it does not take long for that individual to begin to accept the mindset of the group. It does not take long for that person to begin excusing behaviors that may be questionable. In fact, there is a syndrome called the Stockholm Syndrome in which victims of kidnap and violence eventually begin to identify with their captors and become sympathetic to their cause.

The same method can be applied to what is currently happening with the group and individual identities of people in Africa.

As the world began to globalize the San in Africa became exposed to many things that had never been in their society before. Internet abilities, email and other elements became a desired way of life. Of course once this happened the San who at one time in history were content with living in the Bush decided they wanted to become more civilized and have the comforts that the rest of society enjoyed. The San soon discovered that through globalization the world became very interested in their way of life. People from other parts of the world and cultures were fascinated with their customs and traditions and wanted to expose and explores them for financial gain.

This was initially a method by which the San would be able to use their lifestyle to attract tourists and subsequently be able to pay for the life they had become accustomed to with the process of globalization however, the expectations of the world when it viewed the San was that it remained a primitive and isolated society without the creature comforts or desires of modern life or technology.

The San played into this as it was expected of them and as they did so they began to accept the expectations and beliefs of the rest of the world with regard to their identity. As a group it became what was expected of it and the individuals of the group did the same.

Two years ago the bushman took their government to court because they alleged they had been effectively evicted from the land that was rightfully theirs. In a catch 22 they seem to be losing their identities on all fronts as they work to embrace modern society and culture, while at the same time feel themselves being pushed out of the land that they have occupied for many centuries as the tourism industry and the government take over (Leithead, Alastair (2004) Botswana's Bushmen Battle for Land (http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sovereign/sover/emerg/2004/0712bushmen.htm).

Thousands of bushmen used to live traditional hunter-gatherer lives inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, but now there are just a handful. And few still wear their loincloths or use bows and arrows to hunt game. The waterholes the government provided years ago changed them gradually into farmers - ironically the authorities' refusal to continue supplying that water is now driving the bushmen from their land. "People would go back if the supply of water was returned by the government," Chief Segwaba said (Leithead, Alastair (2004) Botswana's Bushmen Battle for Land (http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sovereign/sover/emerg/2004/0712bushmen.htm)."

CONCLUSION

The process of globalization has provided many benefit around the world. For the San of South Africa however it has come with a double edged sword for the purpose of determining identities.

The globalization allowed the San to discover the modern technologies of the world and as a group it began to identify itself as an emerging force that wanted to move forward in society. However, part of the process of globalization involved tourism growth and the world expected the San to present themselves as primitive isolated societies that shun modern society. This created a need for individual members of the San to comply and as they did present themselves in that manner that became their identity individually as well as within the group. Globalization has had a significant impact on the identity elements in South Africa and its inhabitants by forcing a preconceived idea about who they are on them.