Globalisation has become the most important movement of our times. With the spread of information technology, it has become possible, for the first time in history, to regard the whole world as one big marketplace. For some, this will present unprecedented opportunities for growth and prosperity. For others, globalisation could mean economic enslavement. Where does Africa fit into all this? For some answers, we asked Editor Anver Versi and Associate Editors Tom Nevin and Milan Vesely to give their opinions.

San Jose airport, gateway to California’s Silicon Valley, is a vivid example of the globalisation effect. On any given day, Indian software engineers, Israeli hardware manufacturers, Russian wireless designers and American venture capitalists jostle elbow to elbow on their way to far flung destinations in every corner of the globe. In a stampede reminiscent of the 1800’s gold rush, they set out to conquer the new frontiers of the ever accelerating, hi-tech, new world economy.

But what of Africa? Where are the continent’s business representatives, the visionaries seizing opportunities offered by rapidly evolving genetic techniques to cure Africa’s diseases, the wireless designers developing hardware to bind the continent’s desperate people closer and the entrepreneurs generating cash surpluses to uplift the standard of living of even the smallest handicraft manufacturer in the furthest of far-flung African villages?

Globalisation - driven by high technology - is just another form of colonialisation, African critics charge, particularly since African economies are so dependent on the price of raw commodities. Citing the example of B to B (Business to Business) Internet companies that facilitate the exchange of commodities on a willing buyer-willing seller basis, they bemoan the fact that Africa’s bargaining power has evaporated due to the instant availability of alternative supplies from South America, Asia and even the developing nations of the ex-Soviet empire.

‘Coffee is one example,’ a Kenya Coffee Board official charges.‘Importers now drive the price down by simply throwing open a buyer’s requirement to multiple suppliers, even those that artificially lower prices for stock reduction purposes.’

Under-performing African commodity boards are the hardest hit, suffering the greatest under globalisation. Without this instant market, buyers used to negotiate yearly purchases of new crops. Now they simply demand an artificially low price.

‘If you don’t accept our price,’ they say, ‘we will buy elsewhere. Yemeni Mocha, Hawaiian Kona or Brazilian standard, coffee is coffee!’

‘Pyrethrum, tea, wheat and timber prices are now in the hands of new western colonisers,’ developing world representatives agree, ‘and we are being ordered to accept prices offered, rather than having the leeway of negotiating on a quality and shortage-of-supply basis.’

Battle of the titans

European and American companies dominate the new technology era, and hence the globalisation of the world economy. In wild abandon they purchase bricks and mortar assets in any country where they can gain an advantage. Which of the two blocs - Europe or the US - will win out in the long run is still unclear. Foreign buyers snap up American companies in the computer, banking and telephony sectors and vice versa.

Finland’s Nokia, Germany’s Deutsche Bank, Spain’s Telefonica, and British Telecom are all heavy purchasers of US corporations and American giants Cisco, Microsoft, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems return the compliment.

The problem, critics charge, is that globalisation is spawning a new breed of commercial behemoths and Africa is in danger of being dominated by such giants who gain a strangle-hold monopoly.’

Not so, e-commerce proponents reply. Globalisation offers an ideal opportunity for Africa to enter the world economic arena, if only African entrepreneurs would sieze the opportunities offered. And many of Africa’s baby boomer businessmen are taking up the challenge.

One has only to visit Tanzania where cyber cafes are springing up on every corner to realise that the African appetite for international business is insatiable. Seizing the opportunities offered by globalisation and new technology, budding businessmen by-pass their government’s ponderous institutions to develop contacts that result in tangible, commercial deals. In many up-country regional centres such as Arusha, Mwanza or Dodoma, handicraft stores run by indigenous entrepreneurs are throwing their hat into the globalised economy by seeking buyers on the Internet from as far as Japan, Russia, Germany and the United States.

Modern economic enslavement?

The notion that globalisation is just modern economic enslavement of Africa doesn’t stand scrutiny. In the field of communications, multinational giants Ericson, Motorola, Norton and Vodaphone empower African entrepreneurs not previously supplied by state run entities.

Tour companies, park lodges and agricultural seed suppliers in Tanzania now take reservations, confirm sales orders and accept credit card deposits over the Internet, by-passing the bottle-neck of inefficient government central banks.

And it’s not all one-way traffic either. Tourists now receive information directly from the lodge or tour operator of their choice - usually a branch of a diverse European or American leisure company - before making up their mind as to which facilities they want stay at.

Seed buyers in Amsterdam or London now order confirmed container loads directly from the Tanzanian grower.

For the African entrepreneur, America’s embracing of globalisation opens a world of unlimited opportunity. Banished is the mind-set that ‘American-made is best’. Driven by US hi-tech advances, the world has become an American businessman’s oyster and direct communication offers access to information that has generated a hunger for African products, particularly among the large African-American community.

‘If only African governments would lift their protectionist policies so that two-way trade could flourish,’ Dallas based American businessman Haji Diallo laments, ‘we could quadruple our imports of Vitengi products - offsetting costs by supplying re-conditioned, but perfectly adequate computers - thus generating even more business for both parties.’

Globalisation is a fact of life. In the United States it has resulted in the development of a free trade zone stretching from the Panama Canal to the northernmost regions of Canada. American manufacturing plants known as ‘Maquiladoro’s’ or ‘cross-border manufacturing plants’ now employ tens of millions of Spanish speaking workers. Refrigerators, TV sets, clothing and vehicles are now manufactured ‘south of the border’, raising the living standards of both the Hispanic worker and American consumer alike.

This reality could be translated to Africa if governments shed their protectionist mindset. How much more profitable it could be for Kenya coffee estates to grow, roast and package Kenya triple A coffee on behalf of Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee shop chain, than simply supply raw beans.

For Starbucks to ship to the United States, roast the beans and then re-ship back to London is both expensive and time consuming - all because African governments refuse to embrace the concept of globalisation and free- market policies.

Globalisation offers Africa a clearing house for its agricultural produce, an opportunity for a better life for its people. US corporations would love nothing more than to set up shop in Nairobi, Harare and Khartoum to B to B market tea, tobacco and cotton. Excedus Communications, BeaSytems and Cisco Worldwide of San Jose, California have the capital, expertise and desire to set up hi-tech manufacturing facilities in these cities - but only if Africa sheds the old drag of tribal warfare, get rich quick corruption and restrictive regulations.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan summed it up best while promoting September’s 150 leader summit on globalisation in New York. ‘Globalisation is really defining our era,’ he stated. ‘Countries and individuals must forge alliances with multinational corporations to improve labour and environmental standards as well as to bridge the cyberspace gap between the industrial and developing worlds.’

Africa must not be left behind in the new millennium. It must shed its suspicion of US multinationals and thoughts of neocolonialism and embrace the benefits of a globalised economy that offers ‘fast-track’ benefits. Only then can Africa’s full potential be unleashed.

Only then will the African entrepreneur be as common a sight as the hordes of Indians, Israelis and Russians that throng San Jose’s airport departure hall.

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