African countries are less likely to benefit from globalization due to the fact that they are at the lowest integration level with the rest of the world (Docquier and Hillel 690). As much as globalization can affect the growth of a region in a positive way, the case in Africa is different. For instance, African states need to maintain a strong and stable macro-economic framework as well as conducting major institutional reforms like promotion of good governance in all its angles. This paper is going to show why Africa still suffers harmful economic systems, conflict, environmental problems and population growth despite being exposed to globalization.
Liberalists view globalization as the best tool of relieving poverty and providing the have-nots with a secure position from which they can make further progress in the global economy (Kacowicz 570). In Africa, the nationalists fought for independence because of economic exploitation by their various colonial powers. Despite globalization, Africans are still suppressed economically through the European Imperialism, whereby the first world countries from the west exploit the third world countries in Africa. This means that African states are still controlled by western powers through signing of trade pacts, some of which have unfavorable conditions.
Most African economies depend on one a single export, which is agricultural produce. hence they lack diversification (De Janvry and Elisabeth 20). Over the past decades, the market value of Africa’s agricultural produce has been deteriorating amid the steady rising cost of imports to Africa. This shows that the current global market disadvantages these mono-economies, as they have to dramatically in order to pay for the same amount of imports. For instance, in 1962, it took two tons of sisal export in Tanzania to pay for the import of one tractor (Cooksey and Tim 1).