The global ‘order’, socioeconomic status and the economics of African identity.

Chronic elitism within Africa has created a two-tier milieu in which those

Africans who are in a position to take advantage of the global economic system

often do so at the expense of other Africans. The effects of social class and

indicators of individual economic mobility on African identity were thus

examined. 213 Kenyans participated in this questionnaire-based study for

structural equation analysis. The main finding was that socioeconomic status

(SES) positively predicts individual economic mobility, which then negatively

influences African identity concepts, and that the significance of economic

concepts for African identity depends on social class. For example, in the high

SES group, materialism and cynicism about Africa’s future economic global

prospects were found to have a negative effect on commitment to the national

economy and African identity. The general implication is that anti-group

economic behaviour in Africa (e.g. corruption, worker exploitation) is

attributable to individual mobility, as well as to intra-national and global

economic structures.