Economic Development and Modernization in Africa Homogenize National Cultures

Abstract

The nation-building literature of the early 1960s argued that decolonized countries need to overcome pre-colonial ethnic identities and generate national cultures. Africa is the most critical test case of this aspect of modernization theory as it has by far the largest ethnolinguistic fractionalization. We use data from the Afrobarometer to compare the cultures of 85 ethnolinguistic groups, each represented by at least 100 respondents, from 25 African countries. We compared these groups and their nations on items that address cultural modernization and emancipation: ideologies concerning inclusive-exclusive society (gender egalitarianism, homophobia, and xenophobia), submissiveness to authority, and the societal role of religion. Previous research has shown that these are some of the most important markers of cultural differences in the modern world. Hierarchical cluster analysis yielded very homogeneous national clusters and not a single ethnolinguistic cluster cutting across national borders (such as Yoruba of Benin and Yoruba of Nigeria, Ewe of Ghana, and Ewe of Togo, etc.). Only three ethnolinguistic groups (3.5%) remained unattached to their national cluster, regardless of the clustering method. The variation between nations ( F values) was often considerably greater than the variation between ethnolinguistic groups. Medial distances between the groups of each country correlated highly with GDP per person ( r = −.54), percentage men employed in agriculture ( r = .64), percentage men employed in services ( r = −.63), and phone subscriptions per person ( r = −.61). In conclusion, economic development and modernization diminish cultural differences between ethnolinguistic groups within nations, highlighting those between them.

On “Nationology”: The Gravitational Field of National Culture

“…Two viable hypotheses follow from our discussion: the strength of the nation’s cultural gravitation field is positively correlated with the strength of the national identity, and secondly, that it is inversely related to a culture’s degree of individualism. Since collectivist cultures exert stronger pressure on individuals to comply with societal norms, this may result in more homogeneous cultures, as long as a country has also achieved some level of urbanization and economic modernization (Minkov et al, 2021).…”

“…For example, Minkov and Hofstede (2012, 2014a, 2014b) demonstrate that, when supra-national regions and religious groups are analyzed, they tend to cluster within their respective nation, rather than grouping with neighboring countries’ regions or the same religious groups in other countries. Using Afrobarometer data, Minkov et al (2021) find that nearly all of Africa’s ethnolinguistic groups also form homogeneous national clusters, a remarkable result in view of the recency of the formation of African states.…”

The mismeasure of culture: When measurement invariance requirements hinder social-psychological research

“…According to this view, culture transcends individual minds and exists only at the macro level as a socially shared phenomenon. This is the foundational assumption of "comparative culturology," the interdisciplinary study of cultural dimensions as group-level constructs that help to explain national (and other) differences (Minkov et al, 2024). Major contributors to this research tradition offered theories of cultural dimensions that structure value differences across societies at the aggregate rather than individual level of analysis (e.g., House et al, 2004;Inglehart & Baker, 2000;Schwartz & Bilsky, 1987).…”

“…Building upon recent critiques (Minkov et al, 2024;, we challenge the blind use of measurement invariance procedures for establishing cross-cultural equivalence. To support our argument, we present a simulation and analyses of cross-national data using the General System Justification Scale (Kay & Jost, 2003).…”

The propagation path of Chinese traditional culture in Korea based on artificial intelligence technology

“…(1) Man-machine interaction at the personal level: deep learning through intelligence Efficient and warm man-machine interaction is a necessary path for the inheritance and innovation of excellent traditional Chinese culture in the era of artificial intelligence. One is to use artificial intelligence technology to learn excellent traditional culture in multiple channels and ways, making it readable, audible, and impressive, allowing people to gain richer and broader traditional cultural knowledge and in-depth thinking [16][17] . The second is to use artificial intelligence to deepen the recognition and experience of excellent traditional culture.…”