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Power relations in recent times have much to do with cultural superiority through soft power rather than the usual hard politics characterised by military superiority.
Gone are the days when power was the capacity to do things and to affect the behaviour of others or to coerce for those to make things happen.
In today’s world, countries are able to influence and alter other people’s attitudes by attraction rather than coercion through military means.
For instance India is fast becoming a superpower, not just through trade and politics, but through “soft” power, with its ability to share its culture with the world through food, music, technology. Bollywood is doing the trick.
The same can be said for emerging powerful states in Africa such as South Africa and Nigeria. It is through their mediated culture via Joziwood and Nollywood respectively that is able to spread their power and lifestyle throughout the continent.
In Zimbabwe some people go as far as acknowledging such power through their behaviour and lifestyles. For example some people use South African-related names for their businesses, talk of the Mzansi 4 Sure Fashions, or rather Umtshina Wami Taxis. These names are traceable back to the neighbouring Southern African country.
These two examples show how developing countries like ours bow down to indirect and soft power of other countries in a more passive and soft manner.
An Indian scholar, Shashi Tharoor argues:
“In the long run it’s not the size of the army that would matter as much as a country’s ability to influence the world’s hearts and minds through entertainment.”
He said in the 21st Century, countries will be increasingly judged by soft power.
An illustration of China’s soft power is the Confucius Institutes, which have been in the news lately, with some foreign politicians and academics criticising both the intentions driving the initiative as well as the execution.
Confucius Institutes are non-profit centres designed to teach Chinese language and culture to students around the world. They are most often housed in universities, though there are plans to include younger students as well and to aggressively increase the number of the institutes around the world. Confucius Institutes are also a display of China’s soft power on a global scale, and have been attracting attention as a result.
Debate abounds over whether Confucius Institutes are different from other culture and language centres sponsored by other countries, and if the institutes will succeed where many of China’s soft power objectives appear to have failed.
As it stands, China is already spending billions of dollars to increase its soft power. Its aid programmes to Africa and Latin America are not limited by the institutional or human rights concerns that constrain Western aid. The Chinese style emphasises high-profile gestures, such as building stadiums.
Meanwhile, the elaborately staged 2008 Beijing Olympics enhanced China’s reputation abroad, and also the 2010 Shanghai Expo attracted more than 70 million visitors.
On 7 November, Zimbabweans on the social networks were abuzz, celebrating the re-election of Barack Obama for the second term as the president of United States of America. To me, this emphasised the extent to which some people succumb to soft power rather than what used to be before the globalisation era. American influence had arguably declined after September 11 2001 terrorist attack on New York and Washington DC.
Tharoor argues that in the 21st Century, there will be increasing global disapproval of countries that continue to use hard power.
It should be made clear that soft power does not belong to government initiatives only, but it is created partly by governments and partly despite it, such as official initiatives such as Fulbright Scholarships (US), Alliance Francaise (French), the British Council (UK) and recent efforts by China to set up Confucius Institutes across the globe.
As a country we also need to capacitate our culture industries to a point where they win influence abroad through persuasion and subtle influence instead of by intimidation or military force.
The progress we are making in the production of mediated culture shows that there are still plenty of things that we are yet to catch up on.
For example popular culture, including music, movies, and TV shows, has been one of America’s most lucrative exports pretty much since the invention of the radio and television.
Almost everywhere you go in the world, people are listening to American music, talking about American movie stars, and buying bootlegged copies of American DVDs. That’s not to say they have the market cornered, it’s just that there’s something about Hollywood that appeals to the masses.
Zimbabwe needs to develop is own version of Hollywood, which is proving to be the main vehicle selling soft power to other countries.
Online Reporter