CONCEPT OF THIRD WORLD AND IDENTITY: A HERMENEUTIC APPROACH

The term ‘Third World’ represents one of the bases on which nations of the world are classified based on geographical, economic, and political considerations. Alfred Sauvy, in his 1952 article published in the French L’Observerteur, used it to present a classification of the nations of the world during the Cold War era into US-NATO block or the First World, Soviet–Communist block or the Second World and other nations, non–aligned to either of the two blocks called the Third World. This aside, Sauvy also uses the term to describe the living conditions of medieval France's third estate or commoners and the antagonism in relations between them and members of both the first and second estates before and during the French Revolution. Although the original reference is stratification based on social status, which pitched the commoners of France against the nobles and the clergy, it equally presents an idea of denigration, accounting for the fact that poor countries of the world are classified as third-world nations or dependent nations. Consequently, the recent use of ‘Third World’ often describes abject socio-economic and political conditions associated with the so-called least developed nations of the earth. Description of such deplorable social and economic situations as a matter of necessity demands conscientious motion towards the first/second world conditions as the sole paradigm and measure of development or progress. In other words, the third world, exploited, ignored and despised like the third estate, wants to and should be something. Questions deducible from this with regard to social identity, social consciousness, imitationism or its nonexistence thereof are not farfetched. These questions are pertinent in any discussion of the concept ‘Third World’ and would guide our interpretation of the concept, especially as it applies to Africa. The idea is that, although Africa and the other parts of the world are regarded as Third World nations that desire and work to assert their self-identity, this could only be properly stated by identifying acquired traits within their peculiar cultural ideals.

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