During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s the Western cultures had began to modernize with technology, communication and the military. The growth had given the Western culture political power and economic success in other cultures. As the Western culture reaped accomplishments, other cultures feared the change and the progression. Struggling with the influence of the western cultures the non-western cultures had their own ways and their own values; they were not ready to take on neither change nor modifications, creating a decentering of their own culture, as they began losing their own identities. Due to the globalization of the nineteenth to the twentieth century non western cultures were faced with the influences of the western cultures, causing a decentering of their own culture. During the twentieth century such things as fashion, music, traditions, media, communication, and technology began to change and modernize to the times. Technology and communication has had an overwhelming growth since the nineteenth century. Some cultures such as music and literature has been passed down from generation to generation.
There are many cultures that suffered decentering, such as Africa. The impact that the European culture had on Africa was devastating, as families and villages began to fall as men were sold or traded as slaves
The African culture had many of their own traditions and their region flourished prior to the Europeans. The African nation lived quietly in large villages made up primarily of families, with each village having one leader. Art, music, and dance were a big part of the African culture. Part of their traditions was to dance at “stages of human development, the passing of the seasons or stages of the agricultural year” (Sayre, 2010, p. 253). In the earlier century Africa was once a prosperous nation. Ghana controlled all of the trading of gold, salt, ivory, iron, and slavery. By the twelfth century there were over a million slaves. Ghana used the military to maintain peace throughout the land. Some Africans converted to the Islam religion simply to avoid slavery. The people of the nation did not have to worry about food as there was plenty for everyone.
The Europeans were very powerful, both economically and politically. The industrial revolution of trading had a major impact in Africa and slave trading became their most profitable article of trade. The African people were also affected by the diseases that the Europeans brought with them, as they were unable to fight off the disease, leaving millions of Africans to die. Loss of centeredness meant non-Western cultures suddenly found that they were defined as outposts of new colonial empires developed by Europeans, resulting in the weakening of traditional cultural practices, political leadership, and social systems.