Globalization and its effects on Rwandan Culture

Abstract

With the help of advancement in technologies such as internet and other media channels; rich and dominant countries continue to spread economic, political and social-cultural dominance through what is commonly known as globalization. The current study investigated effects of globalization on Rwandan culture. The study was conducted at the community of the School of Finance and Banking as the target population and 320 members were used as the accessible population. Then, by using snowball sampling technique, the researchers managed to get the 32 participants who were then used in the study as the sample size. The study took a qualitative approach and its choice was based on the fact that it allowed the flow of detailed information from participants who willingly accepted to share with the researcher their own views, experiences and opinions about possible effects of globalization on Rwandan culture. Thus, qualitative in-depth-interviews with open ended questions or themes either in groups and/or individually were used in conjunction with observational, contextual and desk-based techniques were used. The findings obtained after a careful and critical pure qualitative analysis of data revealed that globalization has both positive and negative effects on Rwandan culture. Moreover, the findings obtained indicate that the most affected group is the young generation and who are at risk of being too dominated by western cultures to forget all their cultural roots. In this regard, the researcher further recommends that through formal and informal education, Rwandan generations should continuously be taught the importance of safeguarding their own culture.