PANEL II
ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL NETWORKING IN AFRICA
One of last year's Africa Day panels was dedicated to regional integration and regional economic
communities. This year we would like to further elaborate on the discussion, as economic and
cultural networking is a follow-up to the regional integration and one of its enabling factors.
In many ways, the African continent is divided and even fragmented. It is divided in terms of the
economic development level, religion, and incompatible and non-integrated infrastructure, and is
still characterised by poor regional integration. To introduce the notion of networking into such a
fragmented world might seem utopian, but it is vital for establishing closer economic ties, and for
converging economic and fiscal policies, while in culture, networking may lead to intercultural
dialogue, which is the foundation of mutual understanding fostering cooperation.
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The African continent is one those parts of the world with the highest level of regional
integrations. What is the situation in terms of networking within these integrations and what
could be done to achieve closer cooperation and ties between various regional associations?
Which factors hinder and which encourage the dialogue and exchange of views, ideas and
concepts?
Among other things, reasons for poor economic cooperation could include the relatively small size of
African economies, lack of their complementarity, seeming self-sufficiency, modest primary exports
with low added value, and – on the other hand – imports of expensive end products and industrial
goods, crude oil, medicines, etc.
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What impact does globalisation have on Africa? How seriously has it been affected by
neoliberalism? What are the effects of real decrease in the volume of development
cooperation (both at the level of concept and in terms of the inflow of funds) as a result of
the crisis which erupted at the beginning of this decade?
The African diaspora in developed countries has always had a prominent economic and social role in
the traditional African societies of origin. Assimilation pressures are causing various tensions in the
otherwise quite closed national communities within the big cities of the developed world, being in
stark contrast with the traditional rural African communities and their values, and also as a result of
the dwindling concept of multiculturalism. Remittances have always been a very strong economic
pillar for individual countries, particularly the poorest ones. And last but not least, expatriates are a
kind of bridge between the traditional African communities and the global urban culture, which is
often dubbed "modern".
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Does the diaspora have a significant impact on the changing patterns of traditional life and
values in the environment of its origin? What might be the reason for the relatively modest
level of capital investments made by expatriates in their native environment? Can they, by
adopting the values of the new environment, accelerate the "modernisation" of traditional
African communities, or are such expectations utopian?
The statistics for Africa show that the Internet user rate ranges from 37% in Kenya to 2% in
Ethiopia. 1 During the last elections in Tanzania, over 60% of eligible voters were under 35 years of
age. Almost all Sub-Saharan African communities are young. Social networks enable the young to be
increasingly visible and transnational in their reach.
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1
Can networking through social media more closely link the social groups that desire changes
in the society and strive for better economic prospects? Can such development be
transnational? If it is true that young Africans increasingly search for political and integration
topics on the Internet, could this – and how fast – lead to the formation of networks that will
start reshaping the African societies? Might this be an early sign of social Pan-Africanism?
Source: International Telecommunication Union, 2014 data