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Regulierung im Gesundheitswesen ist einerseits spezifisch, andererseits werden zunehmend Regulierungsansätze aus anderen Sektoren übernommen. Dies wirft grundsätzliche rechtswissenschaftliche Fragestellungen auf: Was sind die Besonderheiten des Gesundheitssektors? Dürfen allgemeine Regulierungsformen auf den Gesundheitssektor übertragen werden? Wie beeinflusst die europäische Gesetzgebung diese Entwicklungen? Der Band enthält Beiträge von ausgewiesenen Expertinnen und Experten des Gesundheitsrechts, die sich anhand aktueller Fragen aus den Bereichen Bedarfsplanung, Arzneimittelregulierung, Wettbewerbsrecht sowie der EU-Patientenrichtlinie mit den Möglichkeiten rechtlicher Regulierung im Gesundheitswesen befassen. Dabei wird auch die neuste Gesetzgebung, insbesondere das Versorgungsstrukturgesetz, erörtert.
Die betriebliche Ausbildung und die betriebliche Weiterbildung besitzen gleichermaßen eine Schlüsselfunktion bei der Rekrutierung und Sicherung des Fachkräftebestands. Während die Ausbildung ein breites Grundlagenwissen vermittelt, dient die betriebliche Weiterbildung v.a. der spezifischen Anpassungs- und Höherqualifizierung, so dass beide Bereiche komplementär funktionieren. Dies bedeutet allerdings nicht, dass ihre Nutzung auch parallel verläuft; beide Instrumente zeigen in den letzten 11 Jahren eine sehr unterschiedliche Entwicklung. Ein genauer Blick auf die präferierte Art der Weiterbildung liefert kein einheitliches Bild. Während die „traditionellen“ externen Kurse und Lehrgänge eine langsame und stetige Aufwärtsentwicklung verzeichnen, waren bei den flexiblen Formen: selbstgesteuertes Lernen mit Hilfe von Medien, Weiterbildung am Arbeitsplatz sowie Teilnahme an Vorträgen, Tagungen etc. nach zum Teil deutlichen Rückgängen wieder bedeutende Anstiege zu verzeichnen. Deutliche Unterschiede ergeben sich auch zwischen den Betrieben mit Fachkräftebedarf und der Gesamtheit der Betriebe dahingehend, dass sich Betriebe mit Fachkräftebedarf durch ein weit überdurchschnittliches Aus- und Weiterbildungsengagement auszeichnen. Im Gegensatz zu allen Betrieben scheinen sie die Aus- und Weiterbildungsaktivitäten strategisch zur Fachkräftesicherung einzusetzen. Beachtliche Differenzen zeigen sich auch zwischen den beiden Typen von Betrieben mit Fachkräftebedarf. Betriebe, die keine Besetzungsprobleme bei Fachkräftestellen erwarten, zeichnen sich dadurch aus, dass es ihnen wesentlich häufiger gelingt, angebotene Ausbildungsplätze zu besetzen sowie Auszubildende mit einer abgeschlossener Ausbildung im Betrieb zu halten. Offensichtlich verfügen sie über die erforderlichen internen Strukturen, Anreize sowie Attraktivität, um Auszubildende an ihren Betrieb zu binden.
Das IAB-Betriebspanel ist eine jährliche, repräsentative Betriebsbefragung des Instituts für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung der Bundesagentur für Arbeit, die seit 1993 in Zusammenarbeit mit TNS Infratest auf Bundesebene erhoben wird. Seit 2000 werden in Rheinland-Pfalz auch auf Länderebene ausreichend Betriebe befragt, so dass nun zum elften Mal eine gesonderte Auswertung für Rheinland-Pfalz vorgenommen werden kann. Verantwortlich für die Befragung ist in Rheinland-Pfalz das Ministerium für Soziales, Arbeit, Gesundheit und Demografie. Betraut mit der Auswertung der Paneldaten für das Land Rheinland-Pfalz ist die Gesellschaft für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Kultur (GEWAK) in Frankfurt am Main. Ziel des IAB-Betriebspanels ist es, Informationen und Erkenntnisse über die wirtschaftliche Situation, die Entwicklung des Arbeitsmarktes sowie das betriebliche Beschäftigungsverhalten in Rheinland-Pfalz zu gewinnen. Die daraus ableitbaren Erkenntnisse bieten regionalen wie auch lokalen Akteuren eine fundierte Basis für problemadäquates Handeln. Zu diesem Zweck werden in regelmäßigen Abständen Kurzreports herausgegeben, welche über zentrale Ergebnisse der Befragung berichten. Beim vorliegenden Report, dessen Thema die atypische Beschäftigung und die Tarifbindung ist, handelt es sich um den zweiten Report aus der Befragungswelle 2011. Im vorliegenden Panel wurden 819 Betriebe durch eine Stichprobenauswahl in Rheinland-Pfalz erfasst. Die Ergebnisse wurden auf alle etwa 101.000 rheinland-pfälzischen Betriebe hochgerechnet und sind repräsentativ im Hinblick auf die Wirtschaftszweige und Betriebsgrößenklassen. Grundgesamtheit der Bruttostichprobe ist die Betriebsdatei der Bundesagentur für Arbeit, in der alle Betriebe enthalten sind, welche mindestens einen sozialversicherungspflichtig Beschäftigten haben.
Das IAB-Betriebspanel ist eine jährliche, repräsentative Betriebsbe-fragung des Instituts für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung der Bundes- agentur für Arbeit, die seit 1993 in Zusammenarbeit mit TNS Infratest auf Bundesebene erhoben wird. Seit 2000 werden in Rheinland-Pfalz auch auf Länderebene ausreichend Betriebe befragt, so dass nun zum elften Mal eine gesonderte Auswertung für Rheinland-Pfalz vorge- nommen werden kann. Verantwortlich für die Befragung ist in Rheinland-Pfalz das Ministerium für Soziales, Arbeit, Gesundheit und Demografie. Betraut mit der Auswertung der Paneldaten für das Land Rheinland-Pfalz ist die Gesellschaft für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Kultur (GEWAK) in Frankfurt am Main. Ziel des IAB-Betriebspanels ist es, Informationen und Erkenntnisse über die wirtschaftliche Situation, die Entwicklung des Arbeitsmarktes sowie das betriebliche Beschäftigungsverhalten in Rheinland-Pfalz zu gewinnen. Die daraus ableitbaren Erkenntnisse bieten regionalen wie auch lokalen Akteuren eine fundierte Basis für problemadäquates Handeln. Zu diesem Zweck werden in regelmäßigen Ab- ständen Kurzreports herausgegeben, welche über zentrale Ergebnisse der Befragung berichten. Beim vorliegenden Report, dessen Thema der Fach- kräftebedarf und die betriebliche Fachkräftesicherung ist, handelt es sich um den ersten aus der Befragungswelle 2011. Im vorliegenden Panel wurden 819 Betriebe durch eine Stichprobenauswahl in Rheinland-Pfalz erfasst. Die Ergebnisse wurden auf alle etwa 101.000 rheinland-pfälz-ischen Betriebe hochgerechnet und sind repräsentativ im Hinblick auf die Wirtschaftszweige und Betriebsgrößenklassen. Grundge-samtheit der Bruttostichprobe ist die Betriebsdatei der Bundesagentur für Arbeit, in der alle Betriebe enthalten sind, welche mindestens einen sozialversicherungspflichtig Beschäftigten haben.
Regionale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Metropolregionen FrankfurtRheinMain und Stuttgart im Vergleich
(2012)
Aus einer Handlungsperspektive begründen die Ergebnisse der Studie, dass Rankings für regionalpolitisches Handeln nicht geeignet sind. Sie begründen auch, dass die Bestimmungsfaktoren regionaler Wettbewerbsfähigkeit teilweise in Regionen übereinstimmen, teilweise aber auch bemerkenswerte Unterschiede sowohl hinsichtlich der Bedeutung als auch der Stärke bestehen. Schließlich machen sie deutlich, dass regionalpolitisches Handeln an den Regionalspezifika der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit ansetzen sollte: Sollen die Stärken der Region FrankfurtRheinMain verbessert und/oder die Schwächen verringert werden? Sollte diese Studie zum Anstoß der Diskussion beitragen, wäre eine ihrer Zielsetzungen erfüllt.
Eine hohe Erwerbsbeteiligung von Frauen hat nicht nur eine zentrale Funktion für deren gesellschaftliche Teilhabe, sondern leistet auch einen wesentlichen Beitrag zur mittel- und langfristigen Fachkräftesicherung in den hessischen Betrieben. Die Daten des IAB Betriebspanels liefern Anhaltspunkte für eine positive Entwicklung der Frauenbeschäftigung; allerdings gibt es auch andere Befunde. Die wichtigsten Ergebnisse im Einzelnen: Die Zahl der in Hessen beschäftigten Frauen lag 2011 mit hochgerechnet 1,325 Mio. auf dem höchsten Stand der Panelbeobachtung. Der Anteil der Frauen an den Gesamtbeschäftigten beträgt seit einigen Jahren konstant etwa 47 Prozent und liegt somit etwa fünf Prozentpunkte höher als vor zehn Jahren. Besonders hoch ist der Frauenanteil in der Öffentlichen Verwaltung und insbesondere bei den Sonstigen Dienstleistungen; noch immer relativ wenige Frauen sind im Produzierenden Gewerbe beschäftigt. Der Anteil der qualifiziert beschäftigten Frauen an allen beschäftigten Frauen ist angestiegen, liegt jedoch noch immer unter dem Durchschnitt aller Beschäftigten. Der Anstieg der Beschäftigung liegt vor allem an der Ausweitung atypischer Beschäftigungsverhältnisse. Vor allem die Teilzeitbeschäftigung hat eine deutlich höhere Bedeutung als noch vor zehn Jahren; allein die Zahl der teilzeitbeschäftigten Frauen hat in Hessen in diesen Zeitraum um hochgerechnet etwa 140.000 zugenommen. Die Teilzeitquote der Frauen und deren Anteil an allen Teilzeitbeschäftigten blieben hingegen konstant. Auch die befristete Beschäftigung hat an Bedeutung gewonnen. Zwar sind auch hier Frauen etwas häufiger betroffen. Vor allem Wirtschaftszweige, in denen ein hoher Frauenanteil zu verzeichnen ist, weisen überdurchschnittlich häufig befristete Arbeitsverhältnisse auf. Die Beteiligung der Frauen an betrieblicher Aus- und Weiterbildung war 2011 sowohl im Zeitvergleich als auch in Relation zu den Gesamtbeschäftigten überdurchschnittlich hoch. Zudem konnten Frauen bei der Ausbildung in jedem der beobachteten Jahre überdurchschnittlich häufig ihre Ausbildung erfolgreich abschließen. Dies wirft im Hinblick auf die Fachkräftesicherung die Frage auf, wie es gelingen kann, die qualifizierten Frauen im Erwerbsleben zu halten und somit mittel- und langfristig die qualifikatorische Lücke zu schließen, die noch immer zu den männlichen Beschäftigten besteht.
Arbeitszeitregelungen sowie Löhne und Gehälter sind zentrale personalpolitische Instrumente, und haben dementsprechend eine hohe Bedeutung bei der Fachkräftegewinnung und -bindung. Allerdings bieten die Daten des aktuellen IAB-Betriebspanels nur bedingt Hinweise, dass diese bereits heute im Hinblick auf bestehende oder erwartete Fachkräfteengpässe genutzt werden. Einzig die etwas häufiger anzutreffende übertarifliche Entlohnung in Betrieben mit aktuellen oder erwarteten Stellenbesetzungsproblemen kann als Indikator betrachtet werden, während die Betrachtung der vergangenen Entwicklung weder bei den vereinbarten durchschnittlichen wöchentlichen Arbeitszeiten und den geleisteten Überstunden, noch bei den Löhnen und Gehältern Anhaltspunkte für eine verstärkte Nutzung dieser Instrumente zur Abfederung von Fachkräfteengpässen liefert. Auch die genauere Betrachtung nach von Fachkräfteengpässen besonders betroffenen Wirtschaftszweigen lässt wenig Rückschlüsse auf eine verstärkte Nutzung dieses Instrumentariums zu. In den Branchen, in denen bereits heute Probleme bei der Stellenbesetzung bestehen, wie beispielsweise den Sonstigen Dienstleistungen, zu denen auch die Gesundheits- und Sozialberufe zählen, werden eher niedrigere Arbeitsvolumen und niedrigere Löhne als im Durchschnitt verzeichnet. In der Regel sind die Unterschiede und die Veränderungen im Zeitverlauf zudem vergleichsweise gering, und wo dies nicht der Fall ist und deutliche Ausschläge zu verzeichnen sind, hat dies in erster Linie konjunkturelle Gründe. Die genannten Differenzen bei den Löhnen verweisen jedoch exemplarisch auf den möglichen umgekehrten Zusammenhang zwischen dem Einsatz personalpolitscher Instrumente und möglichen Fachkräfteengpässen: Statt mit höheren Löhnen auf Stellenbesetzungsprobleme zu reagieren, sind die bestehenden oder erwarteten Fachkräfteprobleme vielmehr Folge des Umstands, dass viele Betriebe, aus Wettbewerbs- oder anderen Gründen, keine höheren Löhne zahlen können. Der Mangel an betrieblichen Gestaltungsspielräumen bei den „harten“ Faktoren wie Arbeitszeiten und Löhnen wiederum kann nur kompensiert werden, wenn weiterhin und vermehrt die Flexibilisierungspotentiale genutzt werden. Der recht deutliche Anstieg der Verbreitung von Arbeitszeitkonten zeigt, dass dies zumindest teilweise bereits vollzogen wird, zumal insbesondere Betriebe mit aktuellen und erwarteten Fachkräftebedarfen hiervon Gebrauch machen.
Die betriebliche Ausbildung und die betriebliche Weiterbildung und Qualifizierung besitzen gleichermaßen eine Schlüsselfunktion bei der Rekrutierung und Sicherung des Fachkräftebestands. Während die Ausbildung ein breites Grundlagenwissen vermittelt, dient die betriebliche Weiterbildung v.a. der spezifischen Anpassungs- und Höherqualifizierung, so dass beide Bereiche komplementär funktionieren. Dies bedeutet allerdings nicht, dass ihre Nutzung auch parallel verläuft; beide Instrumente zeigen in den letzten 10 Jahren eine sehr unterschiedliche Entwicklung. Die Verbreitung und Intensität der betrieblichen Ausbildung waren im vergangenen Jahrzehnt strukturell immer recht ähnlich, unterbrochen von kleineren, unter Umständen konjunkturbedingten Ausschlägen. Eine generelle Zunahme der Ausbildungsbereitschaft ist nicht zu verzeichnen, es gibt jedoch Anzeichen für die strategische Nutzung der zeit- und kostenintensiven betrieblichen Ausbildung als Instrument der Fachkräftesicherung. Ein ganz anderes Bild bietet sich bei der betrieblichen Weiterbildung. Hier ist ein klarer Aufwärtstrend sowohl bei der Beteiligung als auch der Intensität zu beobachten; mittlerweile fördert eine Mehrheit der hessischen Betriebe Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen. Ein genauerer Blick auf die präferierte Art der Weiterbildung liefert möglicherweise auch die Erklärung für diese gegenläufige Entwicklung: Der Trend geht recht deutlich in Richtung passgenauer und flexibler Qualifizierung, und tendenziell weg von den relativ formalisierten Kursstrukturen - sowohl auf der Angebots- als auch auf der Nachfrageseite. Im Ausbildungsbereich hingegen sind aufgrund der formalen und gesetzlichen Vorgaben deutlich geringere Flexibilisierungspotenziale vorhanden, weshalb aus Sicht der Betriebe u.U. den kurzfristigeren und flexibleren Bildungsformen der Vorzug gegeben wird. Eine solche Strategie übersieht jedoch, dass Ausbildung die Möglichkeit bietet, junge Menschen mit den jeweiligen betrieblichen Spezifika vertraut zu machen und somit die Arbeitskräfte nicht nur fachlich, sondern auch sozial und persönlich in die betriebliche Arbeitswelt zu integrieren. Eine Strategie, die Weiterbildung auf Kosten der Ausbildung bevorzugt, wirft die Frage auf, ob dies zwar als kurzfristiger Beitrag zur Qualifikationssicherung funktional ist, als langfristige Strategie zur Fachkräftesicherung und -bindung jedoch versagt. Hier wären dann andere innovative Strategien nötig, die trotz kürzerer Zyklen und knapper Ressourcen mittel- und langfristig den Fachkräftebedarf decken. Diese Herausforderung ist unter den hessischen Betrieben nicht gleich verteilt. Differenzen ergeben sich v.a. analog zur Bedeutung der jeweiligen Strategie, insbesondere Betriebe, die Weiterbildung als zentrales Element der Fachkräftesicherung sehen, setzen diese auch häufiger ein. Besonders große Probleme, Ausbildungsstellen zu besetzten und Fachkräfte zu gewinnen, haben die kleineren Betriebe. Diese warten aber bereits heute mit einer höheren Aus- und Weiterbildungsquote auf als die größeren Betriebe; die Probleme sind dort demnach erkannt, ein besonderer Bedarf an Unterstützung bleibt gleichwohl bestehen.
Zwei Faktoren führten in der Vergangenheit zu einer erhöhten Nachfrage nach qualifizierten Arbeitskräften: Die strukturelle Zunahme qualifizierter Arbeit auf Kosten einfacher Tätigkeiten und die zumeist konjunkturbedingte zusätzliche Nachfrage nach Arbeitskräften. Auch wenn der Trend zur Höherqualifizierung bei den Neueinstellungen in Hessen in den letzten Jahren gestoppt scheint, nahm der Fachkräftebedarf 2011 absolut gesehen weiter zu. Noch deutlicher ist der Anstieg der Fachkraftstellen, die im letzten halben Jahr nicht besetzt wurden, wobei insbesondere kleinere Betriebe und wirtschaftsnahe Dienstleister aktuell viele unbesetzte Fachkräftestellen aufweisen. Eine hohe oder sogar weiter ansteigende Fachkräftenachfrage ist allein noch kein Problem. Erst ein gleichzeitiger Rückgang des (im IAB-Betriebspanel nicht erfassten) Arbeitskräfteangebots könnte zum vielfach befürchteten Fachkräftemangel führen. Aufgrund der demografischen Entwicklung ist mit einem solchen Rückgang mittelfristig zu rechnen, aber auch innerhalb der nächsten zwei Jahre erwartet eine nennenswerte von hessischen Betrieben bereits Schwierigkeiten bei der Besetzung von offenen Fachkraftstellen. Dies trifft erneut insbesondere auf die kleineren Betriebe zu; zudem werden im Bereich der Sonstigen Dienstleistungen von vielen Betrieben Probleme erwartet. Maßgeblich hierfür ist aus Sicht der Betriebe ein ganzes Bündel an Faktoren, wie z.B. unattraktive Arbeitsbedingungen oder fehlende Spezialkenntnisse der Arbeitskräfte, aber ein Hauptgrund lässt sich sektorübergreifend festmachen: das Fehlen an Bewerbern. Etwa drei Viertel der Betriebe, die Neueinstellungen planen, rechnen damit, dass sich bei ihnen zu wenige geeignete Personen bewerben. Diese Erwartung führt mehrheitlich zu der Reaktion, stärker in das eigene betriebliche Humankapital zu investieren, insbesondere durch Qualifizierungsmaßnahmen, aber auch durch betriebliche Ausbildung. Flankierende Strategien wie attraktivere Arbeitsbedingungen oder die Verbesserung der Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie stehen ebenfalls auf der Agenda, gemeinsam mit dem Ziel, ältere Fachkräfte länger im Betrieb zu halten. Letzteres ist auch dem Umstand geschuldet, dass aufgrund der Altersstruktur der hessischen Betriebe zukünftig in höherem Maße Fachkräfte altersbedingt ausscheiden werden. Diese Erkenntnis schlägt sich bislang jedoch noch nicht in einer Zunahme spezifischer Maßnahmen für ältere Beschäftigte nieder. Im Gegenteil: Die Zahl der Betriebe, die keine derartigen Maßnahmen fördert, ist in den letzten zehn Jahren deutlich gestiegen. Zusammenfassend lässt sich festhalten, dass bereits heute punktuell Schwierigkeiten bei der Besetzung von Fachkraftstellen zu bestehen scheinen. Dies wird aus Sicht der hessischen Betriebe tendenziell zunehmen; das betriebliche Instrumentarium an Strategien könnte sich in naher Zukunft vielfach nicht als ausreichend differenziert und zielgerichtet erweisen, insbesondere hinsichtlich der unterschiedlichen Ausgangssituationen in einzelnen Branchen. Es ist derzeit schwer einzuschätzen, inwieweit sich Betriebe mit ihren Strategien den sich verändernden Bedingungen anpassen bzw. anpassen können und wo Impulse und Unterstützungen durch Dritte notwendig sein werden.
Die Zukunftsfähigkeit ist ein Thema, dem sich alle Betriebe stellen müssen, besonders angesichts der Auswirkungen des demografischen Wandels. Folglich sollte dieses Thema noch stärker in den Fokus der strategischen Ausrichtung der Betriebe rücken. Gleichzeitig handelt es sich um einen Sachverhalt, der aufgrund seiner Komplexität nicht leicht zu erfassen ist. Dies hängt u.a. damit zusammen, dass er auch langfristige Strategien umfasst, deren Effekte zum Teil erst künftig richtig zum Tragen kommen. Folglich konnte dieses komplexe Konstrukt mit den Daten des IAB-Betriebspanels nur ansatzweise erfasst werden. Wie die Ergebnisse zeigen, sind die rheinland-pfälzischen Betrieben in vielen Bereichen, die für die Zukunftsfähigkeit von besonderer Relevanz sind und die auf Basis des IAB-Betriebspanels dargestellt werden können, recht gut aufgestellt. Dies zeigt sich z.B. in Bereichen wie der Weiterbildung, dem Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen, dem Anteil der Frauen in Tätigkeiten, die einen(Fach-) Hochschulabschluss erfordern oder dem technischen Stand der Anlagen.
Dennoch lassen sich auch Bereiche identifizieren, in denen noch ungenutzte Potenziale bestehen und deren Förderung dazu beitragen könnte, die Zukunftsfähigkeit der rheinland-pfälzischen Betriebe zu erhöhen. Da die Ergebnisse neben den generellen Entwicklungen zeigen, dass sich teilweise deutliche Unterschiede zwischen den Sektoren ergeben, erscheint es sinnvoll, Handlungsansätze zum Teil branchenspezifisch auszurichten. Vornehmlich sind die Betriebe gefordert, sich durch ein breites Spektrum an Aktivitäten, wie z.B. innovative Tätigkeiten, organisatorische Veränderung sowie Maßnahmen zur Gesundheit oder Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie bzw. Chancengleichheit sowie durch zahlreiche weitere Strategien nachhaltig auszurichten, um ihre Zukunft zu sichern. Dennoch können die Verbände sowie die Politik durch entsprechende Rahmenbedingungen und Unterstützungsmaßnahmen diesen Prozess fördern und die rheinland-pfälzischen Betriebe bei dieser Entwicklung unterstützen.
Nach dem für das Instrument zur Verfügung stehenden Gesamtvolumen sollte die Zahl der ausgestellten Qualifizierungsschecks monatlich etwa 133 (165 unter Berücksichtigung der verkürzten Laufzeit) betragen. Diese Anzahl wurde 2011 durchgängig übertroffen. Die im Zeitablauf bereits seit 2010 beobachtete deutlich positive Entwicklung hat sich auch 2011 fortgesetzt bzw. verstärkt. 2011 wurden bis zum 10.12.2011 fast 3.900 Qualifizierungsschecks ausgestellt, das sind über 1.500 mehr als 2010. Immer noch wird eine nicht unerhebliche Anzahl an Qualifizierungsschecks zwar ausge-
stellt, aber von den Teilnehmer/innen nicht fristgereicht eingelöst. Der Anteil an verfallenen Qualifizierungsschecks an allen ausgestellten Schecks liegt inzwischen bei ca. 20%.
Die Ursachen hierfür konnten bislang noch nicht eruiert werden. Die in den ersten Jahren beobachteten starken regionalen Unterschiede bei den quantitativen Teilnehmerzahlen sind zwar noch vorhanden, haben sich aber deutlich reduziert.
Wird die unterschiedliche Größe der Landkreise bzw. kreisfreien Städte berücksichtigt, dann wird das Instrument nach wie vor in den nördlichen Kreisen um die Stadt Kassel
sowie in einigen südhessischen Landkreisen besonders gut angenommen. Unterdurchschnittlich ist – gemessen an den Teilnehmerpotenzialen – die Teilnahme in vielen kreis-
freien Städten, insbesondere in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden und Offenbach. Die Öffnung des Instruments für Teilzeitbeschäftigte mit weniger als 30 Stunden/pro
Woche wurde sehr gut angenommen. Über 40% der 2011 ausgestellten Schecks gingen an Teilzeitbeschäftigte.
Bezüglich der Teilnehmerstruktur ist festzuhalten, dass sich Frauen weiterhin überdurchschnittlich häufig an dem Instrument beteiligen. Ihr Anteil lag 2011 bei ca. 60%. Der Anteil an Beschäftigten mit Migrationshintergrund, die das Instrument nutzen, ist wieder angestiegen nachdem zwischen 2008 und 2010 eine rückläufige Tendenz beobachtbar war. Die Gruppe der Älteren wird nach wie vor in ausreichendem Maße über das Instrument angesprochen. Für Beschäftigte ohne Berufsabschluss trifft dies nicht zu. Die Anteile an Beschäftigten ohne Abschluss oder nur mit einem Schulabschluss sind weiterhin gering. Zudem verfügten 2011 etwa 43% der Teilnehmer über einen anerkannten Abschluss in der ausgeübten Tätigkeit, 2008 lag der Anteil noch bei 25%. Zugangswege und Informationskanäle zum Instrument verlaufen am häufigsten über die Arbeitgeber. Die Bildungsträger, die im Vorjahr noch die wichtigste Informationsquelle waren, haben hingegen an Bedeutung eingebüßt, spielen aber nach wie vor eine bedeu-
tende Rolle. Die Bedeutung der Arbeitgeber als Informationsquelle hat zwar bei nahezu allen Beschäftigtengruppen zugenommen, die Betriebe gehen dabei aber immer noch selektiv vor: Sie informieren überdurchschnittlich häufig Männer und jüngere Beschäftigte. Große Bedeutung haben weiterhin informelle Informationswege über Freunde und Ver-
wandte. Die gilt insbesondere für Frauen und Beschäftigte mit Migrationshintergrund. Rund 46% der Teilnehmer/innen trug 2011 die Kosten für den nicht förderungsfähigen Anteil der Weiterbildungsmaßnahme selbst. Dies ist ein geringerer Wert als 2010 (54%). Die betriebliche Unterstützung hat deutlich zugenommen, bei jedem zweiten Scheck beteiligen sich die Betriebe inzwischen an der Ko-Finanzierung. Die Bereiche der Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen haben sich gegenüber den Vorjahren verändert. Deutlich zugenommen haben Maßnahmen aus den Bereichen soft skills bzw. soziale Qualifikationen. Abgenommen haben dafür Verwaltungs- und rechungswesenschulungen. Die Teilnehmer/innen bewerten das Instrument bezüglich Information, Beratungsqualität, Berücksichtigung der individuellen Situation und auch des organisatorischen Ablaufs
und Aufwands weiter ausgesprochen gut. Zwar sind hier je nach Strukturmerkmal (Geschlecht, Alter, Qualifikation) Unterschiede in der Bewertung feststellbar, jedoch gibt es
keine Beschäftigtengruppe, die zu einer negativen Bewertung kommt. Im Vergleich zum Vorjahr hat sich insbesondere die Bewertung durch ältere Teilnehmer/innen verbessert. Auch die von Teilnehmer/innen mit Migrationshintergrund ist
überdurchschnittlich gut. Die Wirkungsanalyse mittels der telefonischen Nachbefragung zeigt weiterhin sehr posi-
tive Effekte. Die Qualität der Weiterbildungsmaßnahme wird in der Regel als sehr gut oder gut beschrieben. Über 90% der Teilnehmer/innen gab an, dass sich ihre berufliche
Situation (subjektiv oder objektiv) seit der Teilnahme an dem Instrument verbessert habe. Die sehr guten Bewertungen des Instruments und die positiven Wirkungen auf die Er-
werbssituation sind sicherlich sehr erfreuliche Ergebnisse. Dennoch bleibt auch 2011 festzuhalten, dass es eine nicht unerhebliche Anzahl an Mitnahmeeffekten gibt. Viele
Teilnehmer/innen gaben an auch ohne den Scheck an einer Qualifizierungsmaßnahme teilgenommen zu haben. Diese Mitnahmeeffekte sind zwar rückläufig, aber immer noch
von Bedeutung.
In a tribute to Hon. Justice Iorhemen Hwande CFR, Chief Judge of Benue State this book includes contributions from a variety of scholars from Nigeria. 14 essays cover a wide range of topics such as: Insider Dealing by Company Directors and the Nigerian Capital Market; United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea as a Tool for the Resolution of Climate Change Disputes; Is a Practicing Christian Lawyer/Judge in Nigeria an Anachronism?; The Justiciability and Enforcement of Social Rights; and International Economic Law and Development.
All over Africa, an explosion in cultural productions of various genres is in evidence. Whether in relation to music, song and dance, drama, poetry, film, documentaries, photography, cartoons, fine arts, novels and short stories, essays, and (auto)biography; the continent is experiencing a robust outpouring of creative power that is as remarkable for its originality as its all-round diversity. Beginning from the late 1970s and early 1980s, the African continent has experienced the longest and deepest economic crises than at any other time since the period after the Second World War. Interestingly however, while practically every indicator of economic development was declining in nominal and/ or real terms for most aspects of the continent, cultural productions were on the increase. Out of adversity, the creative genius of the African produced cultural forms that at once spoke to crises and sought to transcend them. The current climate of cultural pluralism that has been produced in no small part by globalization has not been accompanied by an adequate pluralism of ideas on what culture is, and/or should be; nor informed by an equal claim to the production of the cultural - packaged or not. Globalization has seen to movement and mixture, contact and linkage, interaction and exchange where cultural flows of capital, people, commodities, images and ideologies have meant that the globe has become a space, with new asymmetries, for an increasing intertwinement of the lives of people and, consequently, of a greater blurring of normative definitions as well as a place for re-definition, imagined and real. As this book - Contemporary African Cultural Productions - has done, researching into African culture and cultural productions that derive from it allows us, among other things, to enquire into definitions, explore historical dimensions, and interrogate the political dimensions to presentation and representation. The book therefore offers us an intervention that goes beyond the normative literary and cultural studies' main foci of race, difference and identity; notions which, while important in themselves might, without the necessary historicizing and interrogating, result in a discourse that rather re-inscribes the very patterns that necessitate writing against. This book is an invaluable compendium to scholars, researchers, teachers, students and others who specialize on different aspects of African culture and cultural productions, as well as cultural centers and general readers.
The Cowrie Necklace is a graphic account of the struggle for meaning in life. The poems are a carefully woven sizzling and cracking attempt to mirror society. The poet runs a long and wide gamut of poetic themes which include the intricacies of joy and sadness, God and the devil, nature and nurture, good and evil, love, deceit and treachery. The narrative style is reminiscent of Wole Soyinka, Francesco Nditsouna and D.H. Lawrence. The Cowrie Necklace is a "must read".
In line with the federal structure of the Nigerian State, tax administration in the country is multi-tiered. The Federal Inland Revenue Service is responsible for assessing, collecting and accounting for tax and other revenues accruing to the Federal Government. The States Boards of Internal Revenue and the Local Government Revenue Committees perform similar functions at the State and Local Government levels respectively. This book attempts to chronicle the changes that have been taking place within the Federal Inland Revenue Service since 2004 and how these activities have contributed to the reforms in the Nigerian tax system. In terms of value, the book facilitates an understanding of the role played by the Service; its staff and stakeholders in repositioning the Nigerian tax system. It is an essential reference material for everyone that seeks an understanding of the processes that underscore the ongoing changes in the Nigerian tax system.
This book, with contributions in both English and French, is a product of collaborative research between the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD, France), the University of Ghana, Legon and CODESRIA. It examines various economic, social and environmental challenges of urbanization that critically affect the capital of Ghana, which has experienced high demographic growth and territorial expansion. The study analyses the Greater Accra city dwellers residential practices, and focuses on two main factors influencing land and rental markets. On the one hand, it interrogates the constraints and dynamics of urban families, their needs and gender characteristics in terms of accommodation. On the other hand, it explores the opportunities and interests in investment on the part of land owners and real estate developers. At these two levels of describing the social and spatial discriminations, the book attempts to explain the difficult choices that this fragmented city faces. It emphasizes the role of mobility in structuring the metropolitan area, and the negative impact of lack of mobility which results in some households and communities suffering more than others. Light is thrown on diagnostics and prospects in the matter of urban planning.
Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, and interrelated perspectives (law, economics, politics, geography, etc.), it confirms some knowledge but shows a differentiation of the systems of exclusion of women in the access and control of land resources, systems that appear to be related to socio-cultural realities specific to each agro-ecological zones of Senegal.
From an exploration of the cooperative movement's various international iterations to a perspicacious survey of the history of cooperatives in Tanzania, Dr. Lyimo highlights the issues facing farmers and business people and illustrates the way in which cooperative effort- enterprises that put people, and not capital, at the center of their business- can not only improve members' economic power in bargaining for better marketing conditions and prices, but also to increase employment opportunities, thereby improving the standard of living for a large number of people.
It is the aim of this book while clarifying doubts and misconceptions, to provide a thorough reappraisal of the intellectual and rich cultural heritage of Islam with regards to the principles and practice of medicine and its representation to the world in the language of today. In nine chapters a range of topics are discussed including: The Promotion of Medical Education and Health Services; Personal and Environmental Hygiene; Circumcision; Manners of Eating; Social and Mental Heath; Curative Medicine; The Provision of Adequate and Potable Water; Magic, Witchcraft, Enchantments and Charms; Euthanasia; Suicide; The Rehabilitation of the Sick and the Needy; The Source of Human Creation; Sex Differentiation and Determination; Healing through Miracles; Magic and Soothsaying; HIV Infection and AIDS; Abortion; Females in Medical Practice; and The Challenges of Modem Medicine to Muslims.
The most popularised concept in the economics of innovation literature has been the national system of innovation (NSI). It was in the late 1980s that the concept that Frederik List coined as the National Political Economy of Production took off again with different thinkers writing about the peculiarities and distinctions of the Japanese, American, British, German, East Asian Tigers and other varieties of system construction. Freeman defines National System of Innovation as the network of institutions in the public and private sectors whose activities and interactions initiate, import, modify and diff use new technologies. Richard Nelson defines it as a set of institutions whose interactions determine the innovative performance of national firms. Lundvall defines the system of innovation as the elements and relationships which interact in the production, diffusion and use of new and economically useful knowledge and are either located within or rooted inside the borders of a nation state. The normative assumption is that those nations that succeeded in building economic strength relied on the science, engineering, technology and innovation capability that made them to achieve an innovation advantage to put them ahead in the world, acquiring national or regional economic leadership as the case may be depending on what level of analyses is selected to look at particular failure, success or progress they made.. In this volume we have a glimpse of how in different African economies from Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria specific cases have been taken to explore how systems of innovation is evolving.
A Fallen Citadel and Other Poems is a powerful collection of over forty prose poems. The poems cover an array of issues ranging from the crisis that ensued after the 2007-2008 elections in Kenya to other social issues: loss of identity, poverty, hopelessness, and AIDs. These poems are powerful, vivid, full of imagery, and delightful. Some begin tragically, but end with hope; they begin with an everyday event, but end with a philosophical question about the meaning of life; and others are not only disturbing, but also thought provoking. Abala's poetic maneuvers in this collection are bound to delight and fascinate any reader.
The Sunbird
(2012)
The travails of day-to-day existence notwithstanding, Scolastica is an ordinary woman in Tobeningo who has struggled to carve a fairly successful life for herself. She is not a novice when it comes to putting out fires, thanks to a bubbling teenage daughter, a sugar-daddy chairman of the local Native Authority and the sudden re-appearance of a former sweetheart. But when her son sets out to commemorate his father's passing, on a false alarm, it is her life skills and sense of purpose that are tested to the limit. As the sole privy to the true situation, she is in a race against time to avert a calamity from befalling her son and her people. In her path, besides the vicissitudes of daily living, are the high-handedness and ineptitude of local politics, as well as the straightjacket and mysticism of both religion and tradition. How will she fare?
This book draws on years of rich empirical research on radio drama production in Cameroon to offer a strikingly new perspective in Development Theatre discourse in Africa. Chronicling the history and evolution of Development Theatre practice in Anglophone Africa and arguing for literary forms that address the basic everyday realities of ordinary people in a medium they understand, the book revisits the crucial question of utilitarian literature in a continent that continues to brandish a begging bowl even as it celebrates fifty years of independence. Radio Theatre's inherent latitude to reach the masses in a manner and matter that they identify with makes of it an invaluable albeit often neglected sub-genre in the universe of Development Theatre. Reaching an enlarged audience through radio drama productions - plays that address the rustic, ascetic and practical realities of the people - is liberating. Through radio plays and their capacity to provide for an enormous degree of authenticity, ordinary people are able to enhance their self-esteem. Like main stream Development Theatre, Radio Drama sets out to address the concerns of all in an all-embracing approach that explores interactive learning characterized by continuous questioning of and adaptation to reality. It disparages the omniscience of the superstructure meant to be perceived as indispensable and all-knowing. As a medium of development communication with unique aesthetic qualities found in and not limited to sound and silence, Radio Drama creates events and condenses reality into dramatic constellations with a high sense of authenticity that invites its audience to participate in the creation process with a strong sense of direction in a story, a plot and a moral. This people-oriented culture re-animation process is the fertile ground for grassroots empowerment. It is the point of departure for feasible development initiatives that this book explores.
Roselyne M. Jua has taught English and American Literature and Creative Writing at the Universities of Yaounde (1986-1993) and Buea (1993-2012). At the University of Buea, she served as Dean of Faculty of Arts from 2010 to 2012. She is Director of Academic Affairs at the University Bamenda, North West Region, since August 2012. Dr Jua has published articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited the plays of Victor E. Musinga among which+are The Barn+and+The Tragedy of Mr. No-Balance. She is co-author with Bate Besong of+To the Budding Creative Writer: A Handbook.
First Harvests are expressions of impressions on a variety of local and universal phenomena and states of being. It is the first ever poetry collection by a few sons and daughters of Nkongho-Mbo, a subgroup of the Mbo ethnic group of Cameroon, on which very little has been published. The poems however transcend the geographical, cultural and emotional landscapes that have inspired them.
This short story collection is the outcome of the writing residency for African women writers held in Jinja, Uganda, in January 2011. Writers from across English-speaking Africa contribute stories as diverse as the continent itself, stories that explore universal concerns in acutely individual ways. Among others, an upper-class Ghanaian confronts the irony of race from a prison cell; a Zambian mourns her sister and tackles the restrictions of tradition in a surprisingly humorous way; in Tanzania, two strangers go to extremes to seek elusive health; a Ugandan housewife reflects on personal and world politics as she watches a dog fight; another Ghanaian remembers a love affair that led her into an ancestor's embrace; two Nigerians shopping in London get more than they bargained for; and in a 2011 Caine Prize nominated story by Ugandan writer Beatrice Lamwaka, children cry tears of pain and happiness during an armed conflict.
This handy book is a beginner's complete course in the Swahili language, designed especially for foreigners. The book is a result of the author's many years of teaching experience. It is divided into two parts: part one covers pronunciation; Swahili greetings and manners; classification of nouns; adjectives, verbs, adverbs, etc. in twenty-eight lessons and thirty-six exercises. part two includes a study of Swahili usage in specific situations (e.g. at home, in the market, on the road, at the airport, etc.); eleven further lessons and thirteen exercises; the key to the exercises in Parts One and Two; and a Swahili-English vocabulary of words used in the book.
Aspects of Colonial Tanzanian History is a collection of essays that examines the lives and experiences of both colonizers and the colonized during colonial rule in what is today known as Tanzania. Dr. Mbogoni examines a range of topics hitherto unexplored by scholars of Tanzania history, namely: excessive alcohol consumption (the sundowners); adultery and violence among the colonial officials; attitudes to inter-racial sexual liaisons especially between Europeans and Africans; game-poaching; European settler vigilantism; radio broadcasting; film production and the nature of Arab slavery in Zanzibar. A particularly noteworthy case related to European vigilantism is examined: the trial of Oldus Elishira, a Maasai, for the murder of a European settler farmer in 1955. The victim, Harold M. Stuchbery, was speared to death when he attempted to 'arrest' a group of Maasai young men who were passing through his farm. The event highlighted the differences in the concepts of justice held by Maasai and the imported justice systems from the colonizers. It also raised vexing questions about the colonial judge's acquittal of Oldus Elishira, while the Maasai who should have been satisfied with that decision decided to take it upon themselves to mete out an appropriate punishment to Elshira instead of total acquittal, and to compensate Mrs. Stuchbery for the death of her husband by giving her a number of heads of cattle.
The Wicked Walk
(2012)
Nancy slaps palms with her friends and laughs a lot. She wears bell-bottom pants which swing when she walks through Uhuru Gardens. Nancy will finish secondary school this year, but she doesn't really know what will happen to her after that. Deo reads seriously, but he also spends many evenings in bars. He works in a factory laboratory, where his Form VI education elevates him above the other workers. He knows that there are some 'big men' who live off the sweat of the others at the factory; it isn't right, but what does a lone youth do about it? Deo also wants to marry Nancy. Magege, the manager of 'Mountain Goat Rubber Factory', has the means to fulfill all his personal wants-including his taste for young girls. Nancy's mother, Maria, has no private means except selling her own body and her dream of a better life for her daughter. The Wicked Walk swirls around the lives of these four, set on a backdrop of workers' struggles and the rhythm of Dar es Salaam as city dwellers, and especially youths, know it. In this searingly honest, and at times poignant, novel the author raises important questions about the position of women in society, the causes of prostitution, corrupt and inefficient managers, and the groupings of youth who struggle towards ideological clarity as they attempt to understand their society.
Is globalization beneficial to Africa? Does it open infinite opportunities for economic growth, development and social transformation of the continent? It is the assertion of contributions to this collection that for Africa, globalisation is a counter-revolutionary movement that is stalling the drive of the continent's societies to transform themselves into developed and prosperous entities - just as slavery and colonialism. Included are contributions from eminent scholars such as Samir Amin, Horace Campbell, Thandika Mkandawire and Cyril Obi.
Making a Difference
(2012)
'Failure is not in my vocabulary' says Libertina Inaaviposa Amathila - medical doctor, leading member of Namibia's liberation movement SWAPO, and Cabinet Minister for 20 years. Insightful, candid and amusing, this book traces Libertina Amathila's journey from a village in western Namibia travelling alone to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1962; medical training in Poland, Sweden and London; and the health and education centres in Zambia and Angola that she helped develop and run for Namibians in exile; to a victorious return home in 1989; service in the Cabinet of independent Namibia; and a leading role in the World Health Organisation. Courageous, committed, cutting through difficulties that deterred others, Libertina Amathila has assisted and empowered Namibian communities, particularly women, in exile and at home. As Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing, Minister of Health and Social Services, and Deputy Prime Minister, she focused on those in need, such as squatters, street children, and those affected by HIV/AIDS, and undertook immediate practical measures to improve their lives. Packing her tent and supplies, she drove to remote areas and camped out until houses and clinics were built for marginalized communities, assisting in the design and construction process herself. An indomitable spirit drives this remarkable woman. This is her story.
Sons of revolutionaries, a classic Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer duo must grow up and find themselves when President-for-Life Robert Mugabe tightens his grip on white landowners and plunges Zimbabwe into anarchy. Julie Wakeman-Linn's striking debut-part buddy road trip, part familial dramedy--focuses on two racially blended families as they outwit the world of diplomats, ex-pats, safari tourists, street rats, border guards, and the mercurial landscape. The result is an electrifying video capture of Africa in 1997 overflowing with intense color, tenacious characters, and riotous details.
The late Julius Kambarage Nyerere was nicknamed 'Musa' (Moses) during the later, post-independence years for leading his people from slavery and guiding them toward a free land of prosperity - the Promised Land. The Tanzanian odyssey chronicled in this book, which first appeared ten years ago as Tanzanians to the Promised Land, has been updated with new research. The author- also an engineer and a journalist- offers an enlightened and unbiased discussion of the journey and both sides of the contributions - successes and failures - made by former presidents and their systems of administration: the late Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, Alhajj Ali H. Mwinyi, and Mr. Benjamin W. Mkapa. Tanzanians' hopes and expectations of the incumbent president, H.E. Mr. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, are also discussed. It is not intended as a political campaign of any kind, for any party or any individual. As a brief, yet comprehensive guide to the understanding of our nation's political and economic history, it puts forward suggestions concerning important areas of the country's economic development. Nyerere unfortunately didn't live to see his people arrive at the hoped-for destination, and I. J. Werrema's original inspiration to write, at forty years of independence, is sustained because after fifty years The Promised Land is Still Too Far.
Wherever there is a person's right, there is a corresponding duty imposed upon that person to respect the rights of others. This co-existence of rights and duties may be explained better by the principle of reciprocity of rights and duties. Such is the basis of Land as a Human Right: A History of Land Law and Practice in Tanzania. The esteemed author documents Tanzanian land law along its line of historical development (pre- and post-independence) whereby the thorny issues about 'rights' and 'duties' of the landed, landless and the intermediaries are elucidated. This volume is not limited to events in Tanzania, but includes jurisprudence of land law of other countries in order to tap some interpretative devices of our own by way of analogies. Various case types- reported and unreported, local and foreign- provide a tangible content to what would otherwise be pure theory. He also makes references to local newspapers as a way of tapping the public responses about land-related matters. His survey of such cases in and outside Tanzania led automatically to judgments touching on women's right to matrimonial property and inheritance; individual and collective rights to land; and the right to land of the indigenous peoples. It is the author's view that land law has remained poorly documented in Tanzania. There is plenty of literature about Land Law, yet these sources are not easily available or even accessible to every interested person. Equally, some of the available literature is so old that it may not always depict land law and/or practice as we tend to understand it today. This volume is a comprehensive text on land law in which all the necessary land law principles are highlighted with great precision. Advocate Rwegasira does this with a human rights approach, believing that it is through this approach that a person's right to land, whether individual or collective, can best be explained, especially in this era when conflict over land is unabatedly becoming central in family, communal and societal relations. The language of human rights is for all of us to speak. It follows, therefore, that practitioners both of the bar and the bench will also find it useful for quick reference, much as will do policy makers, law reformers and the general public in and outside Tanzania.
The Gathering Storm
(2012)
The slow awakening of the people of Bulembe to the true meaning of 'independence' encapsulated in the parallel stories of the Kamuyuga family, who shed their old identity and turn into the wealth-grabbing 'Alkarims', and the Lubele family, who remain exploited peasants. But do the people remain forever caught under the burdens of the past, blinded by the skin-deep 'changes' to the present? This is revealed through the eyes of Simon Lubele, son of Bulembe dedicated to real change. Hamza Sokko renders the tranquil beauty of the Anyalungu plateau on which Bulembe lies, deep-rooted customs of its peasants, the crushing twin burdens of static African tradition and oppressive colonial machinery with poignancy and quiet insight.
Faced with a deepening crisis in their universities, African students have demonstrated a growing activism and militancy. They have been engaged in numerous, often violent, strikes for improvements in their deteriorating living and study conditions and the introduction of a democratic culture in the universities and society as a whole, including the right to express their views, organise in student unions and participate in university management. This book focuses on a recent violent strike action in Cameroons state universities, with special attention to the University of Buea the only English-speaking university in the country between 1993 and 2011. Such a detailed study on student strikes is still rare in African studies, and maybe even more important, this book pays special attention to certain elements that have been of great significance to the strike but are often overlooked in narratives of other student actions in Africa, namely the use of cell phones, differences in gender roles of student activists, the religious dimensions of the strike, the central role of some public spaces like bars and cafés for the planning and execution of student strikes, and the power of the photocopier. The book goes far beyond simply documenting the various protest actions of students against the state and university authorities. It also provides ample room for comments from journalists and other civil-society members and groups on various aspects of the strike.
This is a comprehensive study and erudite description of the struggle of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems in an Age of Globalization, using in particular eighty-four children's traditional games in south-eastern Zimbabwe. The book is an informative and interesting anthropological account of rare African children's games at the risk of disappearing under globalization. The virtue of the book does not only lie in its modest philosophical questioning of those knowledge forms that consider themselves as superior to others, but in its laudable, healthy appreciation of the creative art forms of traditional literature that features in genres such as endangered children's traditional games. The book is a clarion call to Africans and the world beyond to come to the rescue of relegated and marginalized African creativity in the interest of future generations.
One of the greatest challenges faced by African women writers is finding the time and the space to write. In November 2011 the third FEMRITE African Women Writers Residency alleviated this challenge for 15 women writers from 11 different countries across the continent. The writers from Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tunisia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroon, and Botswana gathered in Kampala, Uganda for two weeks. This anthology is the product of the writing developed before and during the residency. The short stories included are told from different perspectives, with varied voices, some experienced, others less so, but all told with freshness and honesty.
From the bleak days of severe marginalisation; days when words such as women s empowerment or affirmative action were taboo in Kenya, Time for harvest: Women and Constitution Making in Kenya captivatingly traces women s struggles to change their status, their lives and their entire destiny. It is a brilliant exposition of the sheer ingenuity, perseverance and tenacity to contribute to the attainment of an all inclusive Constitution that banishes, inter alia, gender discrimination in all spheres of life, including social, economic, cultural, and political spheres. In this way, it opens up massive space for Kenyan women to exhale . Wanjiku deftly tells the story of many great women actors in the struggle and the nature of their contribution while sparing us the pain that was suffered by individual women and their families as they identified with what at times seemed like mission impossible. They must be the women who, in her words, have names, hearts that ache, eyes that weep, feet that hurt . The books is suitable for the general reader as well as scholars in cultural and feminist studies. Student of politics, law, history, sociology, anthropology and literature who want to know the path travelled by Kenyans - women specifically - in constitution making will find it useful.
Historical Reflections on Kenya : Intellectual Adventurism, Politics and International Relations
(2012)
This book thematically tackles issues that relate to the perpetual struggle between the forces of control and the forces of mental and intellectual liberation in Africa and Kenya in particular. The book addresses the colonial legacy of poverty creation, as well as the socio-political conditioning of Africans to dislike each other and to be irresponsible and disunited in the face of external threats. Poverty, hatred of other Africans, and excessive dependency on European powers can be traced to the policies adopted by colonial officials. Related to these issues, is post-colonial Kenya's attempts to addresses the political developments, the involvement of different types of media in those developments, Kenya's foreign policy, and the problem of political party transition. Ultimately, there are topical issues that continue to affect Kenya which include the question of coalition politics, the lessons of the 2002 elections, the media and corruption, parliament and foreign policy, and Africa's relations with the United States of America.
Never Say Never
(2012)
Anthony Mugo's Never Say Never is a compelling story of a teenager's quest for education under the most difficult conditions. Daniel Muthini Njoki, the son of a poor, single mother, is arrested and taken to a remand home in Murang'a, then to Getathuru Reception Centre. He is subsequently transferred to other approved schools: Kericho, Othaya, and finally Kabete, where he sits and passes the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. The doors to a university are now open. Although he is an innocent inmate, and although textual evidence points in the direction of the mother, the question of who engineered his arrest is part of what makes this work so unputdownable. The sum total is a superlatively well-written novel about the difficulties, the challenges, and the hopes of getting an education in Kenya.
The Devil's Hill
(2012)
Dani is gifted in all ways, yet he lives under the shadow of his hero, an old friend and a school dropout. The day he discovers a heap of money and a gun under a trap door in his friend's house, he realised his friend was no longer a mere bully but a member of a dangerous gang wanted for various crimes ranging from smuggling diamonds, carjacking to murder. This becomes the beginning of a nightmare that nearly costs Dani his life as well as that of another of his friends, Zack.
This book makes an important contribution to existing knowledge on the processes of reading and comprehension by identifying the various approaches and corresponding theories. The book is organized in various chapters that cumulatively lead to our entry into the three key areas. Chapter One provides important background to reading as a skill, explaining the hidden dynamics that avoid the process and outcome of reading. Chapter Two deals with comprehension and vocabulary, both very important aspects of the reading process, while Chapter Three focuses on the relationship between reading, remembering and perception. Chapters four and five deal with various ways of assessing comprehension and the role of the reader respectively.
Our Father is an accessible but theologically astute book, employing sound biblical scholarship, systematic theological reflection, and socio-cultural assessments which aid understanding of the profound implications for our time in history and of the sixty-seven words that comprise the Lord's Prayer.
What makes African Christianity Christian?', 'what is the mission of the African church?', 'What is the theology of the African church?' and, 'What is the future of the Church in Africa or more precisely of African Christianity?' Professor Galgalo gives a critical analysis of Christianity in Africa from historical, theological and sociological perspectives.
Biblical Studies, Theology, Religion and Philosophy : An Introduction for African Universities
(2012)
This book introduces the study of Biblical studies, theology, religion and philosophy from an African perspective. The book comprises twenty six chapters divided into four sections. The first section deals with Biblical studies, the second with theology, the third with religion and the fourth with philosophy. The contributions are from 20 eminent scholars from African and Caribbean universities.
How can African theology survive the self-repetition of mere cultural apologia or contextualization-stereotypes, and mature into a critical theoretical discipline responding to the challenges of the postmodern world-order? Dr. Humphrey M. Wawe contributes here a sound theological reflection using the hitherto unused methodological paradigm of mapping the inroads in the 'transaction' between the Bible and African culture.
The study offers research into the efficacy of HIV and AIDS communication strategies for adolescents, especially with regards to selected secondary schools in Kenya. The study is a useful point of reference to both Kenyan researchers into HIV and AIDS as well as international scholars exploring Africanist perspectives of the socio-cultural dimensions of the pandemic.
The golden thread that cuts across the various chapters of the book is the emphasis that good constitutions anchor certain tenets that have garnered recognition as hallmarks of democratic dispensation. These hallmarks include the concept of separation of powers; the doctrine of the rule of law; constitutionalism and human rights. These attributes have largely been secured by the 2010 Constitution. Thus, this book is expected to contribute to this new promise by making knowledge on the Constitution accessible through breaking down and contextualising its provisions. It is certain to be useful to law and government students, lawyers, researchers and other persons who seek to understand the new constitutional order.
This is a complex volume that combines a good deal of survey data on Bakassi and its populations with more ethnographically based insights into the conditions of the Bakassi communities. The book is the outcome of research carried out by Fongot Kini between 2004 and 2009. The work is intended to serve as first hand exhaustive information on the live situation in the contested Bakassi Cameroon-Nigeria border region. The term Bakassi engenders multiple meanings loaded with many conflicting emotional, spiritual and material interests. Native inhabitants are systematically disinherited of their ancestral cultural heritage and socio-economic resources. They are bastardised, humiliated and scammed by unscrupulous opportunists who deliberately misidentify them with intentions of dispossessing them of their ancestral lands and natural resources. Overall the author is in sympathy with the Bakassi who he argues have been marginalised and neglected by the Cameroon state. In particular, the value of the indigenous communities in terms of local economies as well as securing this vital border area has not been recognised and various external groups have been either allowed or encouraged to settle there to both the detriment of local populations and to the security of the region.
Since the mid-1980s, there has been much federalism talk in Cameroon where federation (said to have been created in Foumban in 1961) had supposedly been 'overwhelmingly' rejected in 1972 by Cameroonians. 'Confusioncracy' is the one good term that could conveniently explain it. Written with the trilogy of criticism, provocation, and construction in mind, this book aims at reconstructing a new and vigorous society in Cameroon that ensures respect for fundamental human rights and certain basic shared values. Much as the book centres on the Anglophone Problem; it is principally about human rights and their excessive violations - the direct result of the absence of separation of powers and constitutionalism. It largely condemns Cameroon's government for incessantly singing democracy and rule of law at the same time as it is massively torturing and wantonly killing citizens that dare to question the confusion. While sharing the position that a state like Cameroon must be seen to ensure that its laws and other practices accord with its international commitments, the book nonetheless strives to apportion the blame for Cameroon's human rights catastrophe accordingly; showing how the English-speaking minority itself, generally speaking, contributes to a large extent in propping up the dictatorship that is oppressing not only that minority but Cameroonians at large. The book challenges Cameroon to assume a leadership role in uniting Africans through meaningful federalization rather than further splitting them into incapable mini-states on the challenging world stage.
In the instinct to survive those who are able to dominate the competition go about their activities as if others (humans and non-humans) did not matter or did not have interests. Selfishness becomes more prevalent as a people move from elementary economic systems to modern economic systems. The major reason why economic systems collapse is human selfishness. Despite all the achievements in science and technology, there are still poor people in the world and environmental cataclysms have become daily occurrences. This is because the would-be agents of development, such as Multinational Corporations and states, are largely motivated by selfishness. Unfortunately, poor economies pursue development using borrowed models formulated for selfish reasons. Needless to say, the solution to current economic and environmental challenges does not lie in abstract economic jargons or more advanced technological machinery but in taming the evil of human selfishness. This book makes a strong case for a vaccine against the virus of selfishness, namely, education for altruistic egoism.
This is a dense, erudite collection of finely crafted poems that powerfully reflect on vices such as war, bad governance, deforestation, dissipation, greed, oppression and cruelty. The poems also tackle other important phenomena of life such as love, anxiety, weather, time, politics, morality, economics, justice, culture and the environment. The virtue of these finely tuned poems does not only lie in their philosophical questioning, but their artistic merit and audacious reflection of issues pertinent in human life of all ages. While some of the poems provoke amusement and others tears, the corpus of the collection educates through entertainment. The poetry penetrates into the greater depths of the public's psyche to appraise, query, empty and expose their concerns in such a manner that should hopefully make those who cause or ignite human tribulations to rethink their actions and those haunted by the same to stay vigilant.
Clairvoyant who has lived in France for the past 24 years, expresses himself at times with a virulent violence that only an exile living in a perpetual nostalgia of his/her native land can understand. His words directed at the rulers of his native country is not always flattering, a euphemism not to say discourteous or accusatory. Poet with moral probity, he however slips into obsequiousness when expressing his anger that can easily be styled great immorality.
Peri-urban Land Transactions : Everyday Practices and Relations in Peri-urban Blantyre, Malawi
(2012)
This book explores the changing land relations in the peri-urban villages of Blantyre in Malawi. It questions and debates how and why the peri-urban villages have become the locus of the selling and buying of customary land, the practices and also the relations involved. The book provides rich ethnographic insights on the commodification of land relations, custom, practices, disputes and social relations between land sellers, land buyers, traditional leaders, and intermediaries. The transactions draw strength from the growing peri-urbanization and monetization of social relations, both of which push towards land decisions at family and individual levels. Bigger groups like the village, clan or extended family have minimal, if not symbolic role only. Village headmen benefit materially by taking gifts (signing fee) rationalized by custom on reciprocity, while estate agents claim commission. Numerous constraints are negotiated about the ownership, rights to sale, multiple selling and the use and sharing of land money. Peri-urban land transactions offer scope for examining a wider range of social and economic relations, and the subtle ways in which the state infiltrates the everyday lives of actors. Overtime, the practices reproduce but also transform land relations in significant but less appreciated ways.
This book presents innovative material on ethnography; more specifically, it exposes events where African individuals deal with the supernatural - such as: reaction to the death of a child whose surgical operation was considered an answer to prayers to God, how African students have dealt with evil spirits in their lives, how African people have experimented the phenomenon of 'miracle' with their specific religious background that merges imported religions (Christian and Islam) and their traditional cultural religious beliefs. The material is also of interest to readers concerned with the need for dialogue between religions for the purpose of finding solutions to conflicts arising in the modern world. The book is truly thought-provoking. See for example what happens when a Muslim faces Jesus Christ as recounted in chapter 5. Mevoutsa's testimony in chapter 6 is a perfect example that exposes the way Africans attached to their traditional cultures believe that God may use tradition healers to manifest his presence among his creatures.
International development has its origins in the histories of nineteenth and early twentieth-century European colonisation. What happens when a leading colonial power decides to transform a model tropical colony, relying on head-loading of goods as the predominant form of transport, into a modern market economy on the back of the greatest British industrial ingenuity of the time - railways? In this meticulously researched book, Komla Tsey brings to light the historical origins of a wide range of issues confronting present-day international development researchers and policy-makers, such as technology transfer, wealth creation versus equity of access, and ways to evaluate the benefits of development work, especially across cultures. In the context of the early twenty-first-century international investment interests in resource-rich Africa, Tsey argues, forensic historical research is required to determine the precise nature and scale of the financial and humanitarian injustices committed by British colonialists during the construction of major public works projects. More than providing opportunities to take possible legal actions for reparations, this research should also serve as a reminder to present-day African policy-makers and their international and local business partners that the injustices and blatant abuses of power of the past should never be repeated.
This book is the fascinating study of Christian enclaves in the Southern Cameroons of the colonial era. The Christian enclaves came into being with absolute spontaneity as a modus vivendi. Oblivious of the danger in store both colonial governments and traditional authorities provided the conditions in which these Christian villages took root and flourished. However what had taken root in the territory as a self-protection mechanism, soon unleashed its lethal, enticing tentacles luring both the wives of royals and commoners into their bosom. This disruptive influence of Christian villages threatened the survival of ethnic groups, arousing the rancour of traditional authorities and civil administrators. In many ways the Christian enclaves inhibited the potential of colonial governments to administer the territory. These states within a state propagated by the missionary in the most insidious and perfidious of all manners sowed within their own bosom the seed of self-destruction. The whole issue of runaway wives of royals and commoners alike who took refuge in the Christian villages troubled both the colonial and traditional authorities. By offering a safe haven to these runaway wives and welcoming women who were outside the traditional male authority in a tribal setup, the missionaries began sowing within the Christian communities the seeds of their own self destruction. Records of wives of Fons and commoners escaping into these enclaves, eloping with a man and returning pregnant remained the regular subject of several colonial intelligence reports. Highhanded methods by missionaries in these villages brought both the missionaries and their work into disrepute. In less than a quarter of a century these enclaves had lost the war of attrition waged by colonial and traditional authorities. Worn out by endless strife and dissension within and without and forced by contingency, what had been conceived to be ideal Christian communities with snowballing effects, saw its premature demise.
This book offers an intriguing account of the complex and often contradictory relations between music and society in Freetown's past and present. Blending anthropological thought with ethnographic and historical research, it explores the conjunctures of music practices and social affiliations and the diverse patterns of social dis/connections that music helps to shape, to (re)create, and to defy in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown. The first half of the book traces back the changing social relationships and the concurrent changes in the city's music life from the first days of the colony in the late 18th century up to the turbulent and thriving music scenes in the first decade of the 21st century. Grounded in this comprehensive historiography of Freetown's socio-musical palimpsest, the second half of the book puts forth a detailed ethnography of social dynamics in the realms of music, calibrating contemporary Freetown's social polyphony with its musical counterpart.
Bourgeon Divin: Témoignages
(2012)
Ce livre dévoile un matériel ethnographique innovant, notamment, des événements dans lesquels des individus font face au super naturel, tel la réaction à la mort d'un enfant dont l'opération chirurgicale était considérée comme la réponse aux prières à Dieu, la manière dont des étudiants Africains ont fait face à de mauvais esprits dans leurs vies, comment des Africains ont expérimenté le phénomène de miracle avec une toile de fond qui marie les religions importées (Christianisme et Islam) avec leurs croyances traditionnelles. Le matériel est aussi d'un intérèt certain pour les lecteurs engagés dans la recherche du dialogue entre les religions en vue de trouver des solutions aux conflits du monde moderne. C'est un livre qui va bousculer nos croyances. Lire par exemple ce qui se passe lorsqu'un musulman fait face au Christ dans le récit du chapitre 5. Le témoignage de Mevoutsa au chapitre 6 est une illustration parfaite de ce que les Africains attachés à leurs cultures traditionnelles croient que Dieu peut utiliser les guérisseurs traditionnels pour manifester sa présence parmi les hommes.
This book explores the relationship between plantation labour and gender in Africa. Such a study is the more opportune because most of the existing works on plantation labour in Africa seem to have either under-studied or even ignored the changing conceptions of gender on the continent in recent times. One of the book's major concerns is to demonstrate that the introduction of plantation labour during colonial rule in Africa has had significant consequences for gender roles and relations within and beyond the capitalist labour process. The book focuses on two tea estates in Anglophone Cameroon. A study of these estates is particularly interesting in that one of them employs mainly female pluckers while the other employs mainly male pluckers. This allows for an examination of any variations in male and female workers' modes of resistance to the control and exploitation they meet in the labour process. Such a comparative analysis is helpful in assessing the widespread managerial assumption on tea estates that female pluckers tend to be more productive and docile than male pluckers.
This book examines some facets of gender relations in Cameroon - symmetry in male-female relationships, women's access to land in traditional society, socialization into gender roles through language textbooks in schools, the association life of women, widowhood and inheritance, social capital and entrepreneurship, husband-wife relations in early German colonial encounters - as socially and historically constructed realities from a multidisciplinary perspective, bringing together some social sciences and humanities. The studies point to the fact that these relations are as much rooted in traditions and customs fashioned in several benchmark epochs in African history - arming women with formidable social and cultural capitals or making of them victims of social structures over which they have little control - as they are constantly evolving in contemporary times and transforming women into agents in their own affairs as well as those of the new societies in the making.
This is a comparative ethnographic study of witchcraft and associated violence between the kingdoms of Kom and Venda in Cameroon and South Africa respectively. The book shows why despite its prevalence in both societies, witchcraft does not lead to open violence in Kom, while such large-scale violence is commonplace in Venda. It reveals that this difference can be explained by factors such as the variations in local ideas on witches, differences in the role of traditional authorities, and various state interventions on witchcraft matters. The book demonstrates, through a rich collection of detailed cases, that contrary to anthropological theory that views witchcraft as a mechanism for the expression and resolution of social tensions and conflicts, witchcraft may at times become a disturbance of amicable social relations. Witchcraft accusations may occur in a context where strained social relations have not preceded them. The knowledge and experience that people have about witchcraft is sufficient to trigger an accusation and a violent reaction. Different forms of witchcraft account for variations in witchcraft attributions and accusations. This comparison provides a valuable contribution to ongoing witchcraft policy discourse amid widespread citizen anxiety over witchcraft, and the increasing call on the post-colonial state to intervene and protect its citizens against occult aggression.
Globalization is a term that describes the contradictory economic, political, and cultural processes of world capitalist integration. Although capitalism has been of a global character since the 1400s, the current phase of globalization is manifest by emergent transnational institutions, changing relations between multinational corporations and assaulted paradise of sovereign nation-states and the development of a global monoculture of consumption among feuding class divides. This book examines the relationship between globalization and nation states, the dynamics, contradictions, and crisis of global capitalism, and the developing and maturing class struggles and the prospects for social change and transformation of global capitalism. It examines these class struggles within the context of the globalization of capital and draws out the political implications of this process for the future course of capitalist development on a world scale. In this book Tatah Mentan drives home the point that contemporary neoliberal globalization is in fact an advanced stage of capitalist hegemonism and that the contradictions of 21st century globalization are thus a projection of the contradictions of capitalism on a global scale, with all its inherent exploitative characteristics and militarized class conflicts that will lead to the revolutionary transformation of vulture capitalist society. He argues that dominant global processes are not an immutable feature of capitalism, but are contested by social class actors across these three dimensions.
Son of a Red Devil
(2012)
This is the story of Lukemba Gelindo. He was adopted by a former football player, August Hellemans - also called Gustaf - of the national Belgian team - The Red Devils. Gelindo and his brother were adopted after they were abandoned in a nursery home where they had been mistreated. He grew up in a Flemish village where people had never seen a black person. In general, Flemings are still surprised when they hear blacks speaking their language fluently. This can lead to perplexing and frustrating encounters with ignorance and arrogance, such as during a job interview where Gelindo had to justify himself over and over again as to where he learned to speak the Flemish language. This is also the story of the differences in mentality between the Flemings and Walloons viewed from a black perspective through the eyes of someone who is intimately familiar with both cultures. Gelindo's parents were Flemings but he always went to French speaking schools. It is as well, a story about racism, especially racism that stems from Flemings - which is quite implacable, to say the least. Evidence of this statement is not far-fetched; black people are completely absent in the Flemish media, except perhaps as footballers or musicians, meant to entertain but not to claim rights, entitlements or any serious measure of social visibility. More personally, this story is about Gelindo's experience undergoing psychiatric treatment and also about the sexual tensions between his mother and him. Among other things, it is also Gelindo's aim to speak out against the manner in which young black children get objectified by the rich and famous as the latest 'must have' things, designer accessories up for adoption and adaptation. Like in the rest of the world, this trend is also seen in Flemish magazines in which parents pose in photos with their little black trophy children. The account is direct, honest, uncompromising, laced with cynicism, and in many ways therapeutic.
Women's access to land resources has been the subject of several studies and publications. However, few have explored this issue from the perspective of gender, and citizenship rights of rural women. In addition, researchers and development practitioners have lamented the acute shortage of reliable data and statistics, disaggregated by several perspectives (gender, ethnicity, agro-ecological location, among others) allowing detailed analyses of women's access to land in Senegal. This book has attempted to meet these interrelated demands. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, and interrelated perspectives (law, economics, politics, geography, etc.), it confirms some knowledge but shows a differentiation of the systems of exclusion of women in the access and control of land resources, systems that appear to be related to socio-cultural realities specific to each agro-ecological zones of Senegal. While providing opportunities to identify the links between access to land and strengthening the citizenship of Senegalese women, this book presents the challenge of adopting an inclusive and collaborative demarche in the struggle for women's access to agricultural land in particular.
This book is largely the personal account by Patrick Mbunwe Samba, of how life in his home village of Binshua has been permeated throughout by belief in witchcraft. The book not only provides a historical account informed by his reminiscences of his childhood, it shows as well that even today, belief in witchcraft is very widespread. Witchcraft exerts a profound influence on society in Binshua and in Cameroon in general. The book also provides accounts of the experiences of others, some of them very recent, and gives examples of what injustices and suffering can be caused by the notion that any misfortune must have been caused by witchcraft. For the overwhelming majority of people in village communities such as Binshua, Samba argues, anything not immediately understandable is witchcraft - which is synonymous with mystery. Many educated Africans, too, revert to such traditional attitudes in stressful situations. It may be thought surprising that in spite of the impact of Christianity, Western culture and the improved level of education, the majority of people still believe in witchcraft, and that this phenomenon not only persists but is actually increasing. The book perplexes and challenges by avoiding to provide simple answers to the question whether which witchcraft is real or imagined.
It is in Mauritius that the first newspaper of the African continent was published. Annonces, Affiches et Avis Divers was created in 1773 by the French administration for the islands of Mauritius and Reunion. Since its independence from Britain in 1968, Mauritius has known a very rich media history with an impressive number of publications and a relatively good level of press freedom. However, many challenges remain. Confrontational episodes in the relationship of the local media with the political sphere, the rise of sensationalist journalism, increased concentration of ownership in the industry as well as market uncertainties have taken their toll on a profession which often prides itself in the defence of freedom of speech and democracy. The media conference jointly organised by UNESCO and the University of Mauritius in 2010 offered a singular opportunity - the first time ever in Mauritius - for media practitioners, regulators, lawyers, politicians, academics and civil society to discuss the state of the media as part of the country's democratic systems. Media roles and functions, the legal and regulatory framework, self-regulation, market issues and new trends such as citizen journalism were thoroughly examined. This book brings together papers and conclusions from that conference. Whilst much ground has been covered especially since the emergence of private radio stations, much still needs to be done to move towards a true media democracy. The book points to media governance, access to information, training of and professionalism among media practitioners as areas of unfinished business. This is an invaluable contribution to on-going debates about press regulation, liberalisation of electronic media, new forms of journalism, continuous training and professionalization in Mauritius.
The bicultural polity of Cameroon has become problematic over the years. In addition to the increasing marginalization experienced by its English speaking component in many domains (politics, administration, economy, culture), it is facing mounting inequality and disarray despite the nation-building aspirations at reunification in 1961. This book examines the very basis of the union crisis by tracing the causes to the asymmetrical nature of negotiations between the contracting partners the founding fathers of the union and the politics of guile and force that has characterized the regimes in Yaound. From a federal model that takes the equality of the contracting parties as a given, the polity has developed into an ethno-regional patchwork designed by its architects to be essentially unequal in nature. Consequently, the segmented Anglophone community can exist only in contradiction within itself. They have been worked into the regimeís statecraft of consciously maintaining or re-activating ethnic boundaries inherited from colonialism. An analysis of the cultural and linguistic dimension of the union shows contrasting drives between the assimilation/attempts to dominate by the French-speaking component and resistance by Anglophones. The analyses further show the projected harmonization and rollback by the State, the creative blends and the crystallization around continuing or reproduced colonial experiences, a fierce competition between elites with a drive to impose the culture of the demographically dominant and a refusal to accept the idea of a linguistic minority. The contentious experience, Yenshu Vubo argues, can still be remedied by reforms in a politics of possibilities.These reforms must be ready to re-examine the constitutional basis of the union by revisiting the often dismissed question of the form of the state defined as one and indivisible (a new federal architecture as requested by several political voices). Institutions should be restructured to attend to diversity issues and essential linguistic differences while consolidating any strategic gains of the union such as the creative blends and the acceptance of specifi cities of each community, statutory equality of citizenship and the essential clauses of the fi rst federation.
This book brings together six seminal essays by Professor Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, essays first published mostly in the 1960s in ABBIA (Cameroon Cultural Review) and in the pages of leading newspapers in Cameroon. Preoccupied with the cultural dignity, humanity and freedom of Africa and Africans, Fonlon never contented himself with stating the problem. In a very Socratic and scientifically systematic approach, he proposed solutions as well. Patiently pedagogical, philosophical and steeped in the classics he convinced his readers through the force of argument. In 'The Task of Today;' Fonlon invites Cameroonians and Africans to face the challenge of nation-building and development in a world where imperialism is far from dead and buried. 'Random Leaves from My Diary' shares his aspirations and challenging experiences as a young seminarian learning to be relevant to God and the Catholic Church. In 'Will We Make or Mar' Fonlon is worried, and indeed frustrated, by the temptations of material pursuits and the love of money threatening to derail modern elites charged with the postcolonial destiny of African nations. As a member of the Cameroon National Union, in 'Under the Sign of the Rising Sun, ' Fonlon preaches patriotism and compromise. In 'Idea of Literature, ' Fonlon expresses his passion for art as the pursuit of beauty and the sublime, stressing, as he was wont to do, that no race or culture has a monopoly of this aspiration. 'A Case for Early Bilingualism' invites Cameroonians to take advantage of their English and French linguistic colonial heritage, by embracing bilingualism in early childhood and playing a major role in an interconnected world where interpretation and translation is eternally needed.
Death of Hardship
(2012)
Death of Hardship kaleidoscopically unveils human intrigues, predicaments and woes. It brings into sharp focus the most dreaded products of cruel oppression, exploitation, and destruction - the worst forms of human degradation and sufferings. However, it also sheds beams of hope, celebrating optimism in the struggle and eventually opening the curtain to the stage of victory of the oppressed and impoverished under the shameless sky.
So the Path Does Not Die
(2012)
Protagonist Finas search for happiness and belonging begins on the night of her aborted circumcision and continues through her teenage years in Freetown, Sierra Leones capital; her twenties in the Washington Metropolitan Area; and ends with her return to Sierra Leone to work as an advocate for war-traumatized children. The novel explores the problems she encounters in each setting against the backdrop of the tensions, ambiguities, and fragmentation of the stranger/immigrant condition and the characters struggles to clarify their ideas about home and abroad. Finas circumcision gets significant, though not sensational, play in the different attitudes toward the practice between her and her fiancé Cammy, a Trinidadian urologist. The differences complicate their relationship at a time when skeletons from their pasts threaten their impending marriage. The stories of Finas friend, African-American Aman and her fiancé, Nigerian Bayo; of Edna (Finas foster sister) and her husband Kizzy; and of Mawaf, a war-traumatized teen, unfold in subplots that merge with the main plot and overarching theme of belonging as characters straddle home and abroad places.
This book brings and blends together a dozen scholarly articles published by the author since the 1970s. It sketches two different yet related stories: first, that of one of the most ancient and prestigious African civilizations, the antiquity and sophistication of which are becoming more and more prominent as field research unfolds their many facets. Second, the story of the researcher himself, who has had to alter and shift his approach to that civilization as he got to meet Grassfielders, colleagues, friends and scholars who changed his views about the Grassfields kingdoms and their people. This book bears witness to those many encounters. Historical and anthropological research is not only a question of relevant theories and methodologies. It is also a human endeavour made of networks and friendships.
The subject of revolutionary overthrow of constitutional orders in Africa is at the intersection of three disciplines: jurisprudence and legal philosophy, constitutional law and power politics, and civil-military relations, that is, military security policy which is one aspect of national security policy. The subject is of interest in at least four ways. It problematizes the inescapable question of governance in the African continent. It challenges the democratization agenda in Africa - how does one democratize not only political governance but also the instruments of violence in the state? It also challenges African constitutional lawyers and policy makers to seek a constitutional model that addresses the enduring menace of the power of the gun in African affairs and the changing role of the military in African politics. Finally, it underscores concerns about sovereignty and national security. This book contributes to a fuller understanding of the coup syndrome in African. To this end, it vigorously interrogates the place of coups in the governance of Africa, and explores the relevance of Kelsen's theory of revolutionary legality in the context of coup d'états in Africa. It is a major contribution by a leading thinker in the field.
The Trials of an Half Orphan
(2012)
Death strikes and claims the mother of Martin Smith when he is still in primary five, leaving him and his siblings at the mercy of a volcanic tempered and cruel father. No longer prepared to accept any beatings from his father, he runs away from home and takes up residence in a deserted house in a neighbouring village with little to live on. His fate appears sealed. Just when all hope seems lost, appears Mr Finley Banks - a Peace Corp Volunteer and teacher. Martin Smith is pleased to be treated like a son once more, only for Mr Finley Banks to come to the end of his stay in the country five years later. How will things turn out with him gone? Set in Cameroon and Italy, this is a story of opportunities and opportunism. It is the story of the trials, thrills and tribulations of a young African half orphan boy determined to make it in life.
Since the end of World War II, global capitalism, spearheaded by US financial interests and backed by the most lethal military force that has ever been assembled, has consolidated its power over the world economy. In the past decades, especially, transnational corporations have tightened their control over national governments and international institutions. The imposition of free trade policies and the increasing privatization of social services have facilitated the accumulation of fabulous wealth for the owners of capital at the expense of working people and the environment worldwide. Contemporary capitalism now dominates every major sector of the world economy. The social and environmental costs of contemporary capitalism are prohibitive. The global megatrends of rising inequality and absolute poverty, political instability, and global climate change-all compounded and accelerated by this predatory mode of production-are adversely affecting the lives and threatening the future of every inhabitant of nations and the entire world. In view of these megatrends and the current global economic crisis, the conclusion that contemporary capitalism does not serve the interests of the vast majority of the people on the planet and is both economically and environmentally unsustainable, is self-evident. History offers harsh lessons. The political violence of the 20th century, which resulted in an estimated 200 million deaths and untold economic and environmental destruction, cautions us to work for socialism in the 21st century with every means at our disposal except violence. Facing the awful power and willingness of capitalism to coerce and corrupt, we must find ways to make soft power prevail. Clearly, a revolution is in order-it is time to place the socialist alternative on the national and world agenda.
When a correlation emerges between a prophecy and a police investigation, and a kidnapper maintains his presence at a crime scene, a woman dreads the passage of time. She cannot understand why a man set an innocent teenager on fire and kidnapped her son. The kidnapped boy's father knows when two warring hangmen stand on the same scaffold, one must bow to the other or die. Into the fray comes a game ranger, an ex-decathlete expert at tracking man-eating crocodiles. However, a Senator twice his age counting her fertility days desperately wants him in bed. She isn't aware her sweetheart is in the belly of a world no criminologist can understand. As mayhem takes centre-stage in a community suffering the brunt of a veiled matrix of calamities, is the ranger further bait, a weapon or a sacrificial ram between crouching outlaws?
The book investigates what have become of Cameroonian transnational family and friendship ties in the age of the mobile phone and the internet that make people readily available and reachable. Most theoretical literature states that these tools of sociality cement transnational social relationships through instantaneous interaction. To capture the different experiences and impressions on the significance of these media in easing communication for migrants and non-migrants, Tazanu draws on ethnographic accounts based on his fieldwork in Freiburg (Germany) and Buea (Cameroon). He argues that it is mainly the migrants who maintain or are expected to maintain ties with non-migrants back in Cameroon through calls and material support. The main finding of the study is that cell phones and the internet have facilitated discontents, grudges, insults, fights, avoidance, arguments and estrangement of relationships much more than they have contributed to binding friends or families through direct mediation. Underlying these aspects of distanciation are the high expectations and sometimes contradictory motives for instant virtual interaction. Non-migrants' accounts suggest that direct availability and reachability should lead to uninterrupted transnational interaction and also that the cultural practices of remittances from migrants are easily requested and coordinated. Such motives are generally contrary to migrants' wishes, willingness or ability to support friends and families in Cameroon. These unexpected outcomes arising from rapid speed of interaction questions the advantages that are often associated with instant sociality across space and time. The finding is a call for the cultural background and life-world experiences of media users to be taken into consideration when theorising the significance of information technology in the debate on media globalisation.
My Brother, My Sister
(2012)
The fiery passion and epigrammatic terseness with which Loretta Burns re-enacts her experiences and observations as an African American woman in contemporary America reveal her as a poet of life who transcends the labels African American, feminist, and/or womanist. Her poetry captures moments and scenes of living that echo her impressions and intuitions of a world trapped between appearance and reality, illusion and disillusion, expectation and realization, the material and the spiritual. Through her deceptive simplicity of diction, she explores the nooks and crannies of her psyche as well as her society's. It is a poetry written from the depths of the heart that calls attention to the mystery and sacredness of the everyday. It therefore comes as no surprise that Loretta Burns and Bill F. Ndi, the Cameroonian-born poet with a fierce drive for global peace and the oneness of humanity, should collaborate on a collection of poems. With vibrancy and a sense of urgency, their lines evoke humanity's perpetual struggle for freedom and its search for meaning.
The Cameroon Condition
(2012)
The Cameroon Condition brings together three seminal essays by George Ngwane, one of the most renowned, committed and daring Anglophone Cameroon writers. 'The Mungo Bridge, ' is a stinging indictment of the tenuous relations between La Republique du Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons - a marriage gone sour right from the honeymoon. It raises hard questions on the failed union, and is uncompromisingly courageous in the solutions it proposes. This popular essay was first published at a time when it was risky to be open and critical, especially on what has come to be known as The Anglophone Problem. 'The Anglophone File' discusses the narrow and barren politics of belonging that have exacerbated divisions and controversies among Anglophone elites, turning them into political fodder for the Francophone dominated state. The essay suggests ways out of the divisions and intrigue that have kept Anglophones permanently at daggers drawn against each other, and facilitated their exploitation, humiliation and marginalization. The third essay, 'Fragments of Unity, ' concerns the South West Region, whose leaders Ngwane criticizes of political opportunism and of a chronic lack of vision and fortitude with regard to the socio-economic development of the region. It calls for a leadership free of the docility, mediocrity and praise-singerliness. These are powerful essays that have attracted praise and criticism alike. They are essays to leave few indifferent. Their continued relevance to current debates makes of them a most read.
From its very inception, detective fiction has enjoyed a great popularity among the young and the old, the learned and the not so learned. By some unfortunate stroke of irony, its respect has not kept pace with its enormous popularity. For over half a century now, it has remained the bane of creative writing. In strict intellectual circles, it is very rare to find people talk defensively and interestingly about the genre. Yet Asong has chosen to do just that. He has stoutly defended the weak by putting up a good case for its continued existence. He has also shown how irresistible key elements of the genre are to even the best respected novelists. Finally he has demonstrated for the first time, how the genre has been domesticated by African writers of very great repute such as Ngugi, Sembene and Lessing. That he has been able to prove that these writers have used techniques of detective fiction is a significant broadening of the horizons for appreciating creative writing in Africa.
This book explores the customary, social, economic political and rights issues surrounding access, ownership and control over land from a gender perspective. It combines theory and practice from researchers, lawyers and judges, each with track records of working on women and rights concerns. The nexus between the reluctance to recognize and materialize women?s right to land, and the increasing feminization of poverty is undeniable. The problem assumes special acuity in an essentially agrarian context like Cameroon, where the problem is not so much the law as its manner of application. That this book delves into investigating the principal sources and reasons for this prevalent injustice is particularly welcome. As some of the analyses reveal, denying women their right to land acquisition or inheritance is sometimes contrary to established judicial precedents and even in total dissonance with the country?s constitution. Traditional and cultural shibboleths associated with land acquisition and ownership that tend to stymie women?s development and fulfilment, must be quickly shirked, for such retrograde excuses can no longer find comfort in the law, morality nor in ?modern? traditional thinking. The trend, albeit timid, of appointing women to Land Consultative Boards and even as traditional authorities, can only be salutary. These are some positive practical steps that can translate the notion of equal rights into ?equal power? over land for both sexes; otherwise ?equality? in this context will remain an unattractive slogan.
When an ex-commando, a man seeking celebrity status, prepares to rob the Louvre Museum of the Mona Lisa, his 'wife' discovers that she is his mistress. In the eye of a cyclone, her son and she base their lives on hope. With a business proposal is another murderer prophesied as 'a demon in human form'. At the Vatican, he once aspired to be the first black pope. He is angry with God and his eyes are set on a billion-dollar heist. The ex-priest baits his archenemy and makes his way to a scaffold. Of the happiness he found after cursing God, he is tired. Scars disfigure his manhood. The two men are fugitives lethally dangerous to the other. While the ex-priest desires to honour the same gods and spirits that wrecked his priesthood, the ex-commando must rise above his limitations or he risks total ruin.
Labour Law in Namibia
(2012)
Labour Law in Namibia is the first comprehensive and scholarly text to analyse labour law in the country, the Labour Act of 2007, and how it affects the common law principles of employment relations. Concise and extensively researched, it examines the Labour Act in detail in 16 chapters that include the employment relationship; duties of employers and employees; unfair dismissal and other disciplinary actions; the settlement of industrial disputes; and collective bargaining. Over 500 relevant cases are cited, including court rulings in other countries, and comparative references to the labour laws of other Commonwealth countries, notably South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and the United Kingdom, making it a reference and comparative source book for common law countries in the SADC region and beyond. Written by an authority in the field of labour law, this is a unique reference guide for key players in labour relations, including teachers and students of law, legal researchers and practitioners, human resource and industrial relations practitioners, employers and employer's organisations, employees and trade unions, public servants and public policy advisors, and the academic community internationally. In clear and uncomplicated English, the book is accessible to professional and lay people. A comprehensive list of contents, tables of cases and statues, bibliography and index, assist the reader.
Understanding Policy Domains, their Salient Forces, and Organisational Challenges examines the complexity of policy making processes within the context of human action arising from culture, life necessities, and politics. It provides an understanding of human, environmental and institutional behaviour, and identifies the policy factors that underline the success or failure of governments and institutions. This book provides policy-makers, practitioners and other researchers in the field with a clear understanding of the process of policy-making and who is responsible for what. It sets the tone for academics and policy practitioners to confront the problems and challenges that countries face as they seek to improve governance and service delivery. The author provokes debate on the cause and effect of past, present and future human actions, bringing into play the issues of honesty, transparency and political will. He promotes policy as a way towards achieving social harmony in the human struggle for survival. User-friendly for both students and lecturers, as well as for researchers, government and NGO policy 'gurus', Understanding Policy Domains, their Salient Forces, and Organisational Challenges is also valuable for political parties whose members are often unaware of this important aspect of government responsibility.
Cell phones and the Internet have been the recipients of in-depth research on their increased and rapid integration into everyday life and the innovative appropriations associated with them in many societies. The cell phone has attracted particular attention in its perceived abilities to both enhance and destruct social relationships. Our increased access to social media and to the cell phone has taken social networking to an unprecedented level. These communication technologies are revered by many as great, all-purpose, all-positive communication devices in spite of their flaws. They are overwhelmingly bestowed with agency and superiority. Too often, they are idolized with little regard to how they affect and are affected by their users on a personal level. The mutual shaping between technology and society is not adequately acknowledged. Technologies, in spite of the seemingly endless possibilities offered by their many functions, can quite literally be sterile and useless objects outside of conscious and tangible human effort. Cell phones and the Internet, though undoubtedly capable of providing myriad beneficial opportunities for their users, need at long last to be put in their place. This book is a contribution in that regard. Kindled by her own intimate history with her cell phone and a growing curiosity about ICTs in general, this book is a culmination of Crystal Powell's thoughts, reactions to and interpretations of some of the literature on these technologies. The book draws on and critically reviews contributions by some leading authors on the social shaping of ICTs and social media to offer a more nuanced and complex understanding of technology in relation to those who use and are used by it.
Stars of the Long Night
(2012)
Set in the Niger Delta this novel tells the tale of a women's struggle for equality in a traditional patriachal society. Set against the once-in-a-generation festival at which the one chosen by the gods performs the dance of 'the mother mask', Ojaide weaves a tale of suspense while displaying the traditions and religious beliefs that define the Niger Delta.
Discussing existing controversies and illustrating landmark cases drawn from several jurisdictions, Medical Law and Ethics in Nigeria is one of the most comprehensive books on the subject to date. Some of the topics covered are: Reproductive medicine; Surrogate Motherhood; Abortion; Neonatal treatment decisions; Euthanasia of Mercy Killing; Medical malpractice; and Informed Consent.
The celebrated Nigerian writer Tanure Ojaide relates here his experience of living in the United States where he has been based teaching and writing since 1996. Drawing the Map of Heaven picks up where his earlier memoir, Great Boys. An African Childhood which charted his upbringing in Nigeria by his Grandmother, left off. Less a purely personal tale and more a story of the many other African immigrants in the United States Ojaide in the text uses 'we' to speak collectively for a traditionally communal society now residing in an individualistic setting. As much a reflection of an African background as an American experience Drawing the Map of Heaven is a unique portrait of the African in the United States
This collection of essays originates from discussions at various fora about the need for Nigerian media scholars to analyse the country's media industry and practice. Some of the areas covered are: Socio-historical context of the development of Nigerian media; A critical analysis of state press relations in Nigeria, 1999-2005; Journalism ethics in Nigeria; and Newspapers' cartoons portrayal of human rights abuses in periods of economic deregulation in Nigeria.
The role played by Botswana in various southern African liberation struggles has previously been neglected in historical studies. The country?s politics of support and mobilisation early on in Namibia?s struggle for independence from South Africa proved crucial for the formative period of both nation states. Botswana?s difficult and contradictory position as neighbour of the South African apartheid state and colonial power in Namibia are carefully dealt with, as are the challenges faced by the fragile Namibian refugee networks and liberation movements, SWANU and SWAPO, operating in Botswana for decades. ?The Inevitable Pipeline into Exile? deals with a crucial phase of nationalism and transnational politics during the period of southern African decolonisation at the height of South Africa?s diplomatic and military aggression throughout the region.