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Zimbabwe: The Urgency of Now
(2015)
Zimbabwe: The Urgency of Now, is a follow-up creative non-fiction book to Zimbabwe: The Blame Game. It goes further than The Blame Game and focuses on Zimbabwe in the GNU entity, the 2013 elections, post elections and post GNU Zimbabwe, and Now. They are a myriad number of problems, issues, limitations that still unbundles Zimbabwe's push towards multiparty democracy, social justice, economic sanity and growth, and The Urgency of Now focuses on the solutions to these. It also tackles the land reform in South Africa, how this could be its biggest problem going forward. It goes further and tackles the larger Africa problem toward democracy, growth, stability and unity, and why the progress towards the United States of Africa has been moribund.
Writing Mystery and Mayhem
(2015)
This eighth anthology of twelve short stories from Weaver Press reveals again the range and variety, compassion and humour, irony and tragedy with which Zimbabwean writers observe the world around them. Several writers adopt a tongue-in-cheek approach to the subject: Naishe Nyamubaya takes us behind graphic newspaper headlines with a story of goblins, Jonathan Brakarsh turns the world inside out by constantly reversing our expectations, and Lawrence Hoba draws a situation both 'collateral and incompatible'. It is a characteristic of crime fiction to defy expectation, as Farai Mudzingwa, Bongani Sibanda and Valerie Tagwira do in exploring the ramifications of sudden death. But if we are surprised by some stories, we can only be moved those which draw on the pain and vulnerablity of both the victims and those left behind. Godess Bvukutwa, Isabella Matambanadzo and Donna Kirstein help us to reflect on injustice and loss. Reading this collection of stories, with subjects ranging from tokolosh to tsunami, and from ghosts to goldfish, reminds us that the world is crazier than we think.
Witch Girl
(2015)
This is modern Lusaka, Zambia, where the line between magic and religion is blurred, the arcane and the mundane muddle and nothing is what it seems. Luse is a sharp street child combing the gang-ridden city in a desperate search for Doctor Georgia Shapiro who she hopes can offer her a way back into her once-bright past. The doctor is trying to unravel the mystery of a friend's sudden death while attending to the AIDS crisis laying waste to the country around her. Meanwhile The Blood Of Christ Church and its enigmatic leader Priestess Selena Clark gain popularity with their murky promises of salvation and violent clandestine rituals. A small silver box links them in ways they cannot foretell. It will force Luse and Georgia to question who they trust, who they are and for whom they fight. Tanvi Bush's Witch girl is a crime thriller that juggles the past and the present effortlessly, blending AIDS activism, witchcraft, religious extremism and romance to create a well-paced narrative. Luse is so feisty, charming and resourceful that you'll miss her after you finish the book.
'In Who's Afraid of Mongo Wa Swolenka? a book launch is planned which, from information given to His Royal Excellency Gbadarango Binyambutu Buthablaisi, by a traitorous intellectual seeking preferment; and by his security agents, is a campaign led by disgruntled writers and intellectuals of Nubialand for the return of their exiled colleague and international award winner, Professor Mongo Wa Swolenka. How the celebrated leader of Nubialand and master of gunocratic politics responds to the prevailing circumstances is the nerve centre of dialogue, action and morality in the play.' - John Nkemngong Nkengasong, Writer and critic, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon
This book approached water and sanitation as an African gender and human rights issue. Empirical case studies from Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe show how coexisting international, national and local regulations of water and sanitation respond to the ways in which different groups of rural and urban women gain access to water for personal, domestic and livelihood purposes. The authors, who are lawyers, sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists, explore how women cope in contexts where they lack secure rights, and participation in water governance institutions, formal and informal. The research shows how women - as producers of family food - rely on water from multiple sources that are governed by community based norms and institutions which recognise the right to water for livelihood. How these 'common pool water resources' - due to protection gaps in both international and national law - are threatened by large-scale development and commercialisation initiatives, facilitated through national permit systems, is a key concern. The studies demonstrate that existing water governance structures lack mechanisms which make them accountable to poor and vulnerable water users on the ground, most importantly women. The findings thus underscore the need to intensify measures to hold states accountable, not just in water services provision, but in assuring the basic human right to clean drinking water and sanitation; and also to protect water for livelihoods.
This book makes a rare contribution towards the preservation and promotion of ukhaliro wa bene Malawi (Malawian culture) that is fast waning. This dilution of culture was put in motion by the British colonial masters and got exacerbated with the inception of democratic governance in 1994. There is need for concerted efforts amongst various practitioners and stakeholders, led by the government itself, if the situation is to be put under control. Otherwise, sooner or later, it will simply be remote history that long time ago, there was a unique culture in Malawi. The book is a collection of twenty short stories that generally promote such themes as nkharo yiwemi (good behaviour); uheni wa chigolo na sanje (the bad side of selfishness and jealousy); kulimbikira pa vinthu (hard working spirit); and uheni wa mitala (the folly of polygamy), among others. The strength of the book lies in the fact that there is room for the reader to draw their own lessons based on their understanding of a particular story, in addition to the lesson already highlighted there-in. The book is a must read for all, young and old, especially those interested in understanding the societal values, not only about Malawi, but of Africa as a whole.
UnSettled and other stories
(2015)
There is a grand piano delivered to the wrong Sea Point address. There is Toby the dog whose casual disappearance leads to the discovery of a world as unlikely as a helpful man. There are Isabelle and Hester, both travelling on the same train, but moving in opposite directions. There are the school girls who smoke through Die Stem during a Republic Day Celebration. There is Adeela longing for OK Bazaars, Boxing Day, and groenboontjie bredie; Lilly who knows too little of her mother's past and Elizabeth who is desperate to shed hers. Who can say why Eleanor married the man she did, or why she took the long sea journey south? Who can say where Sue's been, or who the vark lilies are for? Who believes it when told, 'It's for your own good'? Whether drawn from the distance of history or located in contemporary Cape Town, these eight stories create a tender and luminous account of just how extraordinary the everyday life of women can be.
Unmasking Social Science Imperialism : Globalization Theory As A Phase Of Academic Colonialism
(2015)
Contemporary social science is a product of the capitalist world-system and Eurocentrism is constitutive of the geoculture of this system characterized by the parochiality of its universalism, assumptions about the superiority of Western civilization and imposition as the sole theory of global progress. The creation of these structures of knowledge, specifically the institutionalization of the social sciences, is a phenomenon that is inextricably linked to the very formation and maturation of Europe's capitalist world system or imperialism. There is therefore nothing that is natural, logical, or accidental about the institutionalization of the social sciences. These Europeanized structures of knowledge are imposed ways of producing knowledge of the world. This Eurocentrism of social science has justifiably come under increasingly vigorous scrutiny, especially in the period since 1945 with the formal decolonization of Africa, Asia, and much of the Caribbean. This book forcefully argues that if social science is to make any progress in the twenty-first century, it must overcome its Eurocentric heritage that has distorted social analyses and its capacity to deal with the problems of the contemporary world and embrace other non-Western funds of knowledge production.
This book is an outcome of the third conference in the successful 'Scramble for Africa' International Conference series, now renamed the 'African Unity for Renaissance' International Conference. The book provides an overview and contains profound analyses of the important issues pertaining to African Unity and African Renaissance. The book is accessible to a wide variety of readers, ranging from policy makers to researchers, from teachers to students, and for anyone concerned with the further development of the African continent and Africa's renewal. The book outlines the various issues that animate Africa's stand in the global political, socio-economic, cultural and technological arenas. The chapters gathered in the book critically examine and evaluate the burning questions and challenges with which Africa is grappling. This book is one of the vital texts for understanding how Africa will manage to navigate the tumultuous waters of globalisation as Africa has just recently emerged out of the horrors of slavery, colonialism, apartheid, neo-colonialism and genocide, and is still wrestling with unceasing conflicts, popular unrest, neo-imperialism, coloniality and mushrooming insurgency. The chapters provide a much-needed insight into the issue of whether Africa has achieved genuine and meaningful independence after 50 years of the founding of the OAU and whether the baby-steps Africa has taken towards unity are worth celebrating. The contributors highlight these and allied issues with a view to capture more public attention in order to stimulate debate and usher in a new phase in the quest for African Unity and Renaissance. The contributors are distinguished authors and established and emerging scholars in their own domains. While a majority of the contributors are from the continent, distinguished scholars from around the globe have joined their African fellows in dealing with the relevant issues regarding Africa's place in an ever changing world.
Twenty Years of Education Transformation in Gauteng 1994 to 2014: An Independent Review presents a collection of 15 important essays on different aspects of education in Gauteng since the advent of democracy in 1994. These essays talk to what a provincial education department does and how and why it does these things - whether it be about policy, resourcing or implementing projects. Each essay is written by one or more specialist in the relevant focus area. The book is written to be accessible to the general reader as well as being informative and an essential resource for the specialist reader. It sheds light on aspects of how a provincial department operates and why and with what consequences certain decisions have been made in education over the last 20 turbulent years, both nationally and provincially. There has been no attempt to fi t the book's chapters into a particular ideological or educational paradigm, and as a result the reader will find differing views on various aspects of the Gauteng Department of Education's present and past. We leave the reader to decide to what extent the GDE has fulfilled its educational mandate over the last 20 years.
South Africa is an example of a relatively successful political transition. Nevertheless, the first democratic elections in 1994 did not change the systemic and structural inequalities, the socioeconomic legacies of discrimination or the alienation of the different population groups. At the centre of this study is the transformation potential of two formerly white neighbourhoods in Johannesburg - Norwood and Orange Grove. Both neighbourhoods have experienced considerable demographic changes and the various population groups differ in terms of their expectations and their willingness to adjust to the changes provoked by the transition. At the local level, patterns of discrimination and oppression continue. Spaces, opportunities and leverage of social networks engaged in the community are influenced by the resources people are able to access. Moreover, cooperation is contested in a context of pervasive inequality because there is no incentive for privileged groups to change arrangements that benefit them. In this context of conflicting interests and unequal access to power and resources, decentralisation and the promotion of participatory structures in local communities are a problem and the reliance on local networks as agents of development is questionable.
Tori Shweet for Cameroon Pidgin English is a compendium of short stories written in Cameroon's most widely spoken lingua franca commonly called Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE). The grassfields of Cameroon serves as the nursery where these culturally enriched stories are nurtured. The collection comprises animal trickster tales, bird survival tales and human-interest stories. In conformity with the philosophy of French novelist, Stendhal, this anthology of short stories is a mirror that reflects the folklore and mores of the ethnic groups that constitute the grassland region of Cameroon. It serves as a window to the worldview, mindset and value systems of the grafi.
The Swamps
(2015)
The Swamps presents a debauched tapestry of an utterly dehumanised Cameroonian society seeking regeneration through s a judicious deployment of myth, history, parables, song, mimicry and dance. The inclusion of these features of orature in this political allegory creates particular moods and atmospheres and lends colour and movement to dramatic action. The structure and function of the play defines the individual's identity within the cosmic context which approximates the past and present. Inyang's analysis of class political behaviour in Cameroon exposes the complete erosion of civil liberties by corrupt and venal elite. He impresses the theatre audience with his dramatic eloquence and the fervour of his commitment, and emblazones his name in the front ranks of alternative theatre. This is a rare theatrical gem that demonstrates a brilliant, sustained invention, with great depth and suggestive power.
This publication addresses the extent to which social work curricula in Kenya prepares graduates to handle issues of poverty and social development, the specific knowledge and skills that they are equipped with an existing gaps therein. In addition, the challenges that confront the training and practice of social workers and what needs to be done to ensure that there is an enabling environment for social work education and practice in the country have also been addressed. The publication, which is the outcome of a study on the promotion of professional social work towards social development and poverty reduction in East Africa, analyses the role that professional social work plays in the efforts to reduce poverty, enhance social development and realise the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Kenya. Consequently, emphasis has been laid on the status of professional social work education and practice in preparing social workers to address issues of poverty and MDGs in the country. Cross cutting gender issues that impact on social work education and practice which in turn affect the efforts to address poverty in Kenya have also been analysed. Given that the time span for MDGs was to end in 2015, the authors envisage that the lessons learnt through this study, and the gains made with regard to MDGs should not end in the set time span but rather, that social work educators and practitioners, together with other stakeholders in policy formulation and implementation, still have more to of in making sure that these gains are consolidated into social work training and practice, with additional efforts being made towards sustainable poverty reduction efforts in Kenya.
Be it in the case of opening a website, sending an email, or high-frequency trading, bits and bytes of information have to cross numerous nodes at which micro-decisions are made. These decisions concern the most efficient path through the network, the processing speed, or the priority of incoming data packets.
Despite their multifaceted nature, micro-decisions are a dimension of control and surveillance in the twenty-first century that has received little critical attention. They represent the smallest unit and the technical precondition of a contemporary network politics – and of our potential opposition to it. The current debates regarding net neutrality and Edward Snowden’s revelation of NSA surveillance are only the tip of the iceberg. What is at stake is nothing less than the future of the Internet as we know it.
This book is about how work enters and affects the lives of children in Africa, taking for granted neither the traditional values surrounding children's work, nor the international standards against it. Many African societies nurture their children on the ingrained notion that children must work as part of their process of growing up. Children participate in their families and communities through the work they do in the house and in whatever else their families do. Such views are, however, antithetical to the dominant views in Europe and North America which see childhood as a time of freedom from responsibility and economic activity. These views have become so popular with the elites in other countries to the extent that they now drive international campaigns against 'child labour', and have been incorporated into what are now considered universal international standards and conventions. This book was conceived within the framework of the CODESRIA tradition of taking African perspectives seriously and not allowing social research in Africa to become subservient to values from outside. African scholars remain keenly aware of the need not to isolate themselves from developments in the wider world, which could lead to stagnation. This book, through empirical observation of the lives of African children, the work they do, its place in their lives, and what the children say about it, proposes new perspectives towards a new understanding of this complex stage of human development. Work is not simply about the right to income: work provides identity and status in society, and participation in the community. People relate to one another through work. Those who do not work are often without status and are at the periphery of society. One of the major ways in which this book differs from most of the available literature is in the understanding it brings to the problem of 'child labour'. There are economic reasons why children may need an income of their own. There is the demographic fact that the proportion of children to adults in low-income countries is nearly double that in high-income societies. This book attempts to demonstrate that work is both necessary and beneficial in terms of a child's development to become a full, responsible, and respectable member of society.
In 1973, Yashev Raval wrote The Power of Wisdom, correctly pointing out that collusion between East and West had kept not only the balance of terror but provided the glue that kept geographic spheres of influence stable. Africa was part of that arena for global rivalry. With the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991, the stifling grip the superpowers had exercised throughout the world was fundamentally altered. The transformation of the international security system, coupled with political democratization, allowed the partial reorganisation of the security establishments on the African continent to embark upon the New African Civil Military Relations (ACMR). In the last decade and half, the implosion of African states exposed to forces of democratization has escalated, manifest in Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Madagascar, Somalia, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Lesotho. At the heart of the states implosion has been weak, fragile and partisan defence and security institutions a phenomenon that requires urgent research intervention to guide the much-needed reforms. In 2014, the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted the bi-annual African Studies Conference, with the lead author accorded the responsibility of organizing a Session on ACMR. From amongst some of the exciting Abstracts presented, authors submitted these as full chapters for this book which captures International African Studies Perspectives, managed by the African Public Policy & Research Institute (APPRI). This process was further facilitated by one of the presenters and now co-editor, Maj Henrik Laugesen from the Royal Danish Defence College, who agreed to lead on the fundraising succeeding in securing support from the Royal Danish Defence College. The result is this book.
The Mind of Africa
(2015)
William Abraham studied Philosophy at the University of Ghana, and even more Philosophy at Oxford University. Thereafter, he gained permission to take part in the competitive examination and interview for a fellowship at All Souls' College. The examination was once described, with some exaggeration, as 'the hardest exam in the world!' It included a three-hour essay. Following his success in becoming the first African fellow of All Souls, his interest in African politics quickly developed into a Pan-African perspective. The Mind of Africa, written while he was still at All Souls, was a fruit of that enlarged perspective. After several years as a Fellow, he had occasion to visit Ghana in 1962. There Kwame Nkrumah, then President of Ghana, successfully persuaded him to return to Ghana to teach at the University of Ghana, Legon and he subsequently resigned from All Souls. In 1968, he went to the United States as a visiting professor. This was followed by invitations to teach at various academic institutions there, including Berkeley and Stanford. He subsequently settled in California, where he continued to teach and research philosophy in the University of California at Santa Cruz until his retirement. ...The Mind of Africa appeared at a time when a number of African countries were obtaining, or fighting for, their political freedom from their colonial rulers and becoming independent nations and expecting to build new societies in accordance with their own visions and conceptions, though not necessarily jettisoning all the features of their colonial heritage. Building new societies requires appropriate ideologies and philosophies fashioned within the crucible of their cultural and historical experiences. Thus, the relation between ideology and society is taken up at the very outset of the book... The Mind of Africa is important for Africa's future and identity.
The Last Of The Virgins
(2015)
Evelyn Ndangeh, a pretty Cameroonian teenager brought up in a strict Christian home, vows to preserve her maidenhood until she gets married to a man she truly loves. While in Our Lady of Lourdes College Mankon, she is approached by Lesley Njapa a student of Cameroon Protestant College Bali, after a student of CCAST Bambili. Evelyn turns him down only to find later that she can't stay alone without a man who must be none other than Lesley. Evelyn begins frantic moves to entice Lesley but on meeting him it seems too late though she gets close to his heart. Tragedy strikes when Lesley is involved in a motor accident. Evelyn arrives Bamenda general hospital wailing and settles beside Lesley to console and comfort him in his agony. Anxiety builds up to a crescendo and a medical team is mobilised to save Lesley's life.
The King's Wages
(2015)
Containing hints of political satire, The King's Wages is a play that seeks to unmask the wicked absurdity of getting power at all costs. It tells the story of a man called Tutu who wants to be king and murders his own brother in pursuit of his plan. Tutu finally becomes king, but soon realizes that there is more to it than he bargained for. The chief among the Akan gods, Tano, becomes angry and is bent on punishing Tutu for the fratricide he committed. The ghost of Tutu's brother comes back to haunt him and Tutu is desperate to avert this from happening again. He does not only do the unthinkable as an expedient to save his life, but also manifests his weakness by following the advice of his long-time friend Bota. As a result, he is cursed by his own daughter who commits suicide immediately afterwards. In the end, he loses everything but his life. The story may strike us as mythical, but Brempong deliberately goes beyond the limits of the natural to invest his story with more beauty and profound pathos. He uses glittering expressions and simple language, with slight touches of archaism and interspersed with Akan proverbs. The story he tells is interesting enough, but his brilliant writing style also makes it one of the outstanding works to be seen in modern African literature.