Appiah The Case For Contamination By Appiah Summary

In The Case for Contamination, written by Princeton University philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, an argument is made in favor of increased interaction and integration of cultures worldwide. Appiah has roots in both Ghana and Great Britain, and while he understands the opposition towards globalization, he emphasizes how the sharing of culture and spread of industrial benefits does not have to be seen as a threat to smaller communities with traditional backgrounds. Appiah writes, “Yes, globalization can produce homogeneity. But globalization is also a threat to homogeneity.”1 The important take-away is that society does not need to interpret globalization as inherently threatening to culture or diversity, but as a means to grow these aspects
In the early nineteenth century, imperialism and the industrial revolution influenced world settlement. Britain, France, and other European countries went on grand campaigns to gain territories and raw materials. Essentially the whole continent of Africa was partitioned and under imperial rule by 1814. Borders were not drawn with regard for ethnic groups or nomadic tribes, but instead to the approval of the empires who ‘won’ the territories. These empires did not only use the African continent for its resources; they established European populations in settler-colonies within Algeria, South Africa, Senegal, and more. These settlers brought Western culture and languages to Africa, along with a widespread sense of Western superiority in the concept of ‘ultra-colonialism’. This is seen specifically in the city of Dakar, Senegal. After being annexed from the French in the mid 19th century, the village grew into a flourishing port-city. But eventually, in 1905, native Senegalese were expelled and only the ethnically-French were allowed to live within the main city. The French (similarly to most European settlers) immigrated to a country with rich history and cultural traditions, then ignored them and instilled their own language, values, and way-of-life. This is certainly not the type of cultural integration Kwame Appiah writes about. In fact, he notates the largest argument against globalization as “fear… that the values and images of Western mass culture, live some invasive weed, are threatening to choke out the world’s native flora.”1 The history of colonization and Western settlement does little to qualm this