The Challenge of Cultural Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa

Victor C. Uchendu
Additional contact information
Victor C. Uchendu: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1977, vol. 432, issue 1, 70-79

Abstract: It is the cultural content of the challenge posed by the new states of tropical Africa that is the subject of this paper. Post-colonial societies are transitional; they are making deliberate efforts to redefine their cultures. Cultural en gineering, the deliberate political effort to channel behavior toward maximizing national objectives, particularly national integration, demands the notion of culture as an intervention ist agent. Since independence, African politics has focused on the search for institutions and strategies to promote na tion-building, economic development, and national and con tinental unity. African nations face the problem of how to select national, inspirational symbols that do not alienate their traditions. A related problem is the conflict between national cultural identity and growing cultural convergence. To be effective, cultural policy must be lived by the people who are the culture-builders. It cannot be achieved without cultural strain, and even among countries sharing a similar colonial experience, cultural policy may vary.

Date: 1977
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271627743200107 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:432:y:1977:i:1:p:70-79

DOI: 10.1177/000271627743200107

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().