JOURNALS

ABSTRACT

Globalization is a fast-paced process that filters through territories to influence cultures around the world. This paper explores the relationship between globalization and cultural identity and the impact this makes on Nigeria’s social cohesion. Globalization, defined as a bundle of cultural components sweeping across the world, became was birthed at the inception of colonialism. Culture, it was shown, is the identity marker of a group of people living in a given territory. Consequent to the contact between globalization and cultural identity is the impact left on the nation’s social cohesion. It has been argued that globalization has impacted mostly the material and superfluous way of life of Nigerians’ culture while the nonmaterial culture which is significant on the people’s core beliefs and decision-making, remained impervious to the globalists' ideologies. Two ways of life -sports and the family unit- have been spotlighted to assess the impact of globalization and cultural identity on Nigeria’s social cohesion. It was shown that while such ideologies as LGBTQ have been normalized in the west, they remain unpopular in the Nigerian setting. As for sports, it was argued that to use sports to galvanize social cohesion, Nigerians have so much to do to systematize their indigenous sports. Finally, the article recommends that, while globalization is not entirely negative, Nigerians have a lot more to do to preserve their cultural identity.