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Daniel Head
LBST 2102
Global Connections
May 10, 2016

Globalization Essay

In both Dont Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight and This Child Will Be Great, there were many
incidences of foreign intervention in the novels. In Zambia and Zimbabwe's case, the foreign
intervention goes back to the formation of the countries themselves. Zambia and Zimbabwe were
both once part of Rhodesia, and Britain came to be the colonial ruler of both of the countries land
in 1889. At this point in time, during colonialism, it is very easy to see that economic, cultural,
and political globalization was occurring through colonial rule and trade. The colonies were
exposed to the colonial rulers cultures, and vice versa. Most colonies were forced to pay tribute
economically to the owners of the colonies and this stimulated trade and therefore economic
globalization, and political globalization occurred due to the administration policies of the
colonial rulers.
These forms of globalization can be seen across Africa, especially politically with many
countries having policies and governments similar to the countries which they were colonized by.
The lasting effects of this globalization can be seen today in these countries. As Steger says in his
Globalization text, intensification of global interconnections would not have been possible
without the 19th century explosion of science and technology. (Steger 2013, 33). This is
extremely true and this rapid advancement of science and technology in turn increased

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globalization more so. The invention of the printing press allowed ideas to be spread rapidly and
much easier than having to transcribe every novel, and therefore led to cultural globalization.
This all ties back into Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Liberia because this rapid advancement in
technology allowed countries such as Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, China, and Germany to
fare the seas and colonize much more efficiently.
This colonization was primarily to benefit the country that would rule the colony, with
little regard for the needs of the colony and its inhabitants needs. This led to geographic
boundaries being drawn that put some opposing ethnic groups together, because of the resources
in that region. In the case of Zambia and Zimbabwe, they were once known as Northern and
Southern Rhodesia respectively. During colonial rule, whites had the power over the natives. In
Alexandra Fullers novel, Dont Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight, the racism that this bred in some
can be seen in her mothers actions and words. She at one point says If we could have kept one
country white-ruled it would be an oasis, a refuge. I mean, look what a cock-up. Everywhere you
look its a bloody cock-up. (Fuller 2001, 19-20).This quote shows the bias in her mother, the
superiority she feels that whites have, and the inferiority of a non-white-ruled country to her.
This concept caused the move of the family from Zambia, to Britain, to Zimbabwe (which was
then called Rhodesia).
After moving to Rhodesia, Alexandra Fullers parents joined the police reserves, which
was primarily white. Alexandra Fuller writes about this, and at one point sees that one of her
mothers buttons says BSAP. Alexandra asks what its for, and her mother replies British South
African Police to which Alexandra says But were Rhodesian. (Fuller 2001, 62). In this scene
political globalization can be seen in the sense that Britain is clearly participating in the internal
affairs of the region. The economic globalization of this situation, however, comes from the

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products being shipped in due to this war. According to Ian Smith, author of The Great Betrayal
and former prime minister of Rhodesia, the army was well equipped with weapons from various
countries, including the United States. The staple mark of the United States Army, especially
during the Vietnam War, was the Colt M16. The weapon was used by the army, and other
weapons such as the Heckler and Koch G3 battle rifles came from countries in Europe including
Germany, Britain, and Belgium. (Smith 1997). This shows a huge amount of economic
globalization because of the fact that weapons manufactured in countries that had even imposed
sanctions on Rhodesia were still being sold to it and arming its armies. Weapons trade is a huge
part of economic globalization and can be seen throughout the world ever since trade began.
Weapons eventually ended up in the hands of both sides, and while perhaps unintentionally,
countries such as the United States benefited from the sale of these weapons. Overall there was a
large amount of economic and cultural globalization in Zimbabwe during this time period even
with the turmoil going on, as can be seen in Fullers text with the introduction of foreign songs
and products.
Liberia, as mentioned in Ellen Johnson Sirleafs text, also had many forms of economic
and cultural globalization occurring. One very clear example of this is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
herself, and her economic prowess. She traveled to the United States to get her degree in
accounting and then brought the skills she learned here back to Liberia after working at banks,
and then serving to the best of her capacity as an economic minister and later president of
Liberia. On page 108 of This Child Will Be Great, Sirleaf says that the only reason Liberia never
hit rock bottom was because The United States held the country up. This quote shows a huge
amount of economic globalization because of the fact that foreign countries such as the United
States poured so much money into the country. While the administration, at the time, did not

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spend the money wisely, it still greatly influenced the country. The money went to personal the
gratification of Doe, as well as the army which was used to keep control of the country after his
coup. This economic influence of the United States eventually turned political as well because of
the United States threats to cut funding if the administration did not behave better and stop
damaging Liberias reputation globally, and therefore also tarnishing the United States
reputation as they supported the administration at first. In addition to the United States money
being sent to Liberia, funds from other countries and banks also came in. This money had many
affects on the country, positive and negative, but a very lasting and negative effect of this money
sent in was the debt.
By the time that a decent administration was in power, it was very hard for the country to
get loans because of the misuse of previous loans from prior administrations. We had a $4.7
billion international debt owed to the World Bank, the IMF, and other donors, lent in large
measure to some of my predecessors who had been known to be irresponsible, unaccountable,
unrepresentative, and corrupt. (Sirleaf 2009, 277). The recognition of the problem is important,
as well as the next part where she says that they have simply lost credibility at that point in time.
This is a major problem and consequence of the previous loans, which were fairly ineffective at
actually helping the country due to the administration.
The funds were meant to modernize the country economically by increasing
infrastructure, safety, food and health security, and other quality of life needs of the country but
were not spent properly. However, in Liberia, there was a fair amount of foreign countries
profiting greatly from its natural resources. In Zambia, just as Liberia had been colonized for a
resource, foreign interests lied greatly in the copper. The copper in Zambia is abundant and a
resource used to create small products such as copper bracelets for tourists to purchase. This was

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mentioned in Sirleafs text, and shows that even if the country is going through turmoil, foreign
countries will still try to profit from the natural resources if possible, and will then seek to protect
their investments through political and military pressure on the country. This was demonstrated
by the United States when they decided to cut funding to the administration.
Economic globalization played a large role in both novels. In Sirleafs novel, it is shown
very clearly through her role in the government and the banks roles on the economy in Liberia.
In Fullers, its shown through her familys struggle with money and the governments monetary
aid and economic plans. While not always being well managed, land re-distribution has been
used in England and Russia with some effect. This was primarily done after revolutions and had
success in other cases, and shows how the government had similar ideas to shift the economic
balance from the previously rich (in terms of land ownership) to the less well off. In Fullers
book it is seen that it is done poorly due to corruption and eventually the government hires
families, such has hers, that had owned farms before in order to help manage the newly
distributed farms.
Cultural globalization came through a different manner, through activism against
administrations such as Doe and Taylors, international interest, and post Sirleafs induction as
president. The poor administrations attracted international interest from major countries such as
the United States who had invested in the country and backed the administrations and this
affected the local culture because of the attempts to democratize the country. The civil wars
themselves, which were in part funded by foreign money, also greatly affected culture because of
the huge amount of soldiers that were created in fighting the wars. The cultural globalization
truly occurred primarily post war with the introduction of professionals who knew how to run the

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country, the new and much less corrupt democratic government, and through the better run
administration itself imposing policies that were learned from the examples of western countries.
Both Alexandra and Ellen had to struggle with the consequences of the governments of
their countries and both had to struggle to survive in different ways. Alexandra experienced
economic and cultural globalization through wars, her parents, and traveling to different
countries and being exposed to so many different cultures. Ellen experienced it in much the same
way, but was in many ways more able to change the government that had done poorly to remedy
the local situation. Sirleaf managed to be elected in a fair election and was the first decent
president of Liberia in a long time, as demonstrated in her novel, and she did much to turn
around the economy and the country itself.
The economies changed in both novels due to the governments actions, but the culture
changed due to these actions as well. In Fullers novel, it is seen that her family has racist ideas.
However, the new government re-distributed land and attempted to end racism as it was
previously. These changes allowed younger people such as Alexandra not to have such dramatic
notions of superiority because of the innate racism in the government, and dramatically began to
change the culture of the country. The Bush War also did this because of its outcome, and the
effects of economic globalization and distribution of weapons to the country effected the war
itself. In Sirleafs novel, the culture was greatly affected by the administrations of Doe and
Taylor because of the terror that came with their presidencies. Funds from the World Bank and
IMF aided these administrations, and the effects of these administrations on the culture of the
country were clearly not good as was detailed in Sirleafs novel.
There were many differences in both of the authors lives but it is clear that economic and
cultural globalization played a part in both womens lives and was affected by western countries

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such as the United States due to loans, products, forms of entertainment, and pressure on the
governments. Both women were directly affected by these because of the wars, government
administrations, and policies of the governments which came due to pressure from other
countries and previous policies of countries. Therefore, the foreign intervention present in both
novels and its effects can be seen clearly in these situations.

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Bibliography

Fuller, Alexandra. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood. New York:
Random House, 2001.
Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen. This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First
Woman President. New York: Harper, 2009.
Smith, Ian Douglas. The Great Betrayal: The Memoirs of Ian Douglas Smith. London: Blake
Pub., 1997.
Steger, Manfred B. Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2013.