On the above score, globalization in the context of this research subscribes to the
postcolonial view of C.A. Bayly, as captured by Murphy that it must be read “as a
process that may be traced to certain developments in trade, colonialism and the nation
state.” (2006:139). Following this line of thought, the relationship of the postcolonial
world to globalization becomes easy to grasp. What is more, it becomes easy to illustrate
how and why within the discourse of postcolonial theory globalization has come to be
identified as one of its major concerns (Simon Gikandi 2007: np). It is on account of this
position that I have tried to show especially in Chapters Four and Five how the link
between globalization and exile can be limned via the historical triage of “trade,
colonialism and the nation state”. In other words, the idea that within the context of
globalization, there is a commodification of all things in as much as they circulate
(Alphonso Lingis 2005:140), crystallizes when the process of commodification and
circulation is subjected to thorough engagement through the centralization of the
framework of the elements of the triage. Needless to say, by engaging with the three
elements, it begins to make sense how oppression, despite the promise to the contrary,
has come to punctuate, more often than not, the narrative of human migration, a
phenomenon that today is synonymous in most cases with globalization.
Another way of looking at the question of oppression in this case is to consider it from
the angle of the discontents that come up against globalization. The commodification of
resources and their simultaneous circulation as experienced in the postcolonial world has
also catalysed the migration of peoples. The condition is a materialist challenge which,
when given a closer look, makes evident the contradictions of globalization. For, there is
an implication of a collapse of boundaries; this, as hinted earlier, is to allow for a free
flow of ideas and commodities across different borders of the world. Usually linked in
recent times to the fall of the Berlin Wall (Naomi Klein 2005:196), it is however sad that
there are all manner of restrictions to the flow of certain resources. Curiously, the free
movement of people is itself another issue that has become particularly problematic.
Problematic because the accelerated movement of people that comes with globalization is
being, however, realized without the envisaged index of equilibrium. The situation is