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Studies have shown that the negative effects of credit market inefficiencies are most felt by smaller firms. Therefore, in countries such as Uganda, where micro enterprises are at the bottom of the economic pyramid, moral hazard and adverse selection severely affect their ability to access formal credit hence limiting their growth potential. Microfinance has been heralded for its use of innovative lending methods to improve access to credit. The last decade has witnessed an unprecedented increase in the outreach of micro lending institutions and the development of financial products suited to the needs of the economically active poor, who often, are unable to obtain credit from mainstream financial institutions. This book analyzes the law and economics theories on access to credit and enterprise finance and based on case studies in Uganda, presents empirical findings of the promise and limits of contractual innovations in micro credit.
The essays collected in this volume are, by the depth of their analysis and the breath of their vision, indeed 'No Trifling Matter'. They are a chronicle of the events in contemporary Cameroonian society, especially as concerns the conduct of public affairs therein. Over and above its relevance for our own time, this chronicle will, in the decades that lie ahead, serve as a rich source of information, opinion and comment which future generations, anxious to understand the making of an era whose impact, positive or negative, is destined to survive long after the longest-living of its principal actors and actresses shall have disappeared from the face of the Earth, will find a great benefit. Rotcod Gobata has, through these essays, lit and placed on a pedestal, a candle whose flame shall never die and whose glow shall serve as a beacon to guide and to inspire generations yet unborn.
Each of the essays in this book is marked by a certain simplicity and clarity, a seriousness tinged with humour, masking a profundity that are unmistakably characteristic of Godfrey B. Tangwa alias Rodcod Gobata, one of the leading critical minds amongst Cameroonians. The essays are centred on the theme of democracy and meritocracy which the author believes to be the pre-conditions for genuine development in Africa. The immediate focus of these essays is Cameroon, a country remarkable for experimenting with French/English bilingualism and for having a political dictatorship which claims, wrongly or rightly, to have transformed itself into a democracy; but they are equally relevant to other countries in Africa and beyond. Each of the essays stands alone but they are all telling various aspects of the same story from various angles at various times using different modes of expression. Anyone who seeks a glimpse of understanding of the trouble with Africa and particularly with Cameroon, 10 years into the 21st century, would read this book with great profit.
For millennia, Africans have lived on the African continent, in close contact with the diversities of nature: floral, faunal and human; and in so doing they have developed cultures, values, attitudes and perspectives to the problems, ethical and otherwise, that have arisen from the existential pressures of their situation. The problem, however, is that such values and perspectives do not necessarily form coherent ethical theories. Theory-making is a second order activity requiring a certain amount of leisure and comfort which the existential conditions of life on the African continent have not easily permitted in the retrospect-able past. The elements of African bioethics are to be found in its cultural values, traditions, customs and practices. These are research-able, highlight-able and usable by those who would. The bioethical problems of our current global existential situation are such that all possible solutions, no matter their provenance, ought to be tried. Western culture has far too loud a voice combined with deaf ears in contemporary ethical discourse. But it should never be forgotten that other cultures have their own word to say and that alternative values, ways of thinking and practices exist, and attempt should always be made to bring these out and to highlight them, if they could possibly contribute to the satisfactory solution of a global problem. This book brings together various papers on bioethical issues and problems, written at different times, some previously published, each of which attempts to bring out some African elements, perspective or concern. The African narrative style predominates through these essays but their framing conforms, more or less, to the Western paradigm for presenting academic issues.
The Moogo, the region of the Moose - known as 'Mossi' in ancient literature-occupies the entire central zone of Burkina Faso. It is divided into several kingdoms, the principal one comprising today's capital of Ouagadougou. Along with the singing griots, the evening storytellers pass on the ancestral word during the evening gatherings where they provide the group with models to follow. The folktale is the most appropriate form for teaching young children to express themselves, to structure their thoughts, and to reason. The tales portraying familiar animals will be reserved for the group of youngest children. The legendary gluttony and foolishness of Mba-Katre, the hyena, in contrast with the cunning and finesse of Mba-Soamba, the hare, will interest above all children from 10 - 12 years of age. The stories describing the origin of things, the reason for various social taboos, the legitimacy of social functions and structures, as well character flaws that need correcting, are reserved as a priority for adolescents.
The Coming African hour is not a slogan, nor wishful thinking. It is a conclusion that derives from an insightful analysis of the current situation pertaining on the continent. Several African scholars, coming from different regions and academic backgrounds are elaborating ideas and arguments in order to explain the constraints and to illustrate the opportunities. The result of that scientific gathering is a book that synthesizes and renews the reflections on development. What is at stake is not to be pessimistic or optimistic about Africa. The epistemological challenge is to understand what is going on. By focusing on converging and diverging African realities, on the issues of state, civil society, gender and development strategies, the authors of the book show under which conditions the African hour is coming. At that level, the commitment for political science meets the commitment for Africa. The main success of this book is to overcome the preconceived ideas and self-fulfilling prophecies about Africa. Here, the analysis avoids the trap of indulgence; then hope is based on truth. Consequently, the coming African hour is not inescapable: it is, as analyzed, a possibility that its achievement depends on institutional, human, political, social and economic factors.
Sababu man dògòn
(2010)
The reason is not small
(2010)
"Don’t forget the sugar!" my husband called after our son who was already running down the road, hopping across puddles and skirting garbage mounds. He leaned back in his chair and sighed. The plastic covered wires were stretching to the point that they would break soon. We would get it restrung again. (...)
Beschäftigungsprognose 2011/2012 für die Region Rhein-Main : IWAK-Betriebsbefragung im Herbst 2010
(2010)
Nach der aktuellen Beschäftigungsprognose für die Region Rhein-Main ist bis Ende 2011 mit steigenden Beschäftigtenzahlen zu rechnen. Dies gilt sowohl für die Gesamtbeschäftigung als auch, wenn auch in geringerem Maße für die sozialversicherungspflichtige Beschäftigung. Dieser Beschäftigungsanstieg wird sich, mehr oder weniger stark, in fast allen Branchen in der Region vollziehen, Ausnahme stellen lediglich die Öffentliche Verwaltung sowie die Finanz- und Versicherungsdienstleistungen dar. Das stärkste prozentuale Beschäftigungswachstum erwarten Betriebe aus den Bereichen Verkehr und Lagerei sowie Information und Kommunikation. Der Beschäftigungsanstieg wird überwiegend von kleineren und mittleren Betrieben getragen, hierbei ist hervorzuheben, dass gerade Kleinstbetriebe mit weniger als 10 Beschäftigten einen
überdurchschnittlich starken Anstieg der sozialversicherungspflichtigen Beschäftigung erwarten: Etwa ein Drittel aller zusätzlichen sozialversicherungspflichtigen Stellen in der Region werden von den Kleinstbetrieben geschaffen.
Auch über das Jahr 2011 hinaus bleiben die Betriebe in der Region RheinMain optimistisch. Bis Ende 2012 erwarten sie einen Beschäfti-gungsanstieg um etwa 1,6 Prozent. Hier gilt ebenfalls, dass unter-schiedlichste Branchen diesen Beschäftigungsanstieg erwarten: Die Dienstleistungsbranchen tragen hierzu ebenso bei wie der Handel oder das Baugewerbe. Ausgenommen sind wiederum die Betriebe aus dem Finanz- und Versicherungssektor und der Öffentlichen Verwaltung, die weiter hin stagnieren werden, sowie das Gastgewerbe, das mittelfristig mit leicht rückläufigen Beschäftigtenzahlen rechnet. Nach Betriebsgröße differenziert bleiben auch bis Ende 2012 die kleinen und mittleren Betriebe der Beschäftigungsmotor der Region. Aber auch Großbetriebe rechnen eher mit einem leichten Anstieg, was für diese Betriebsgruppe in der IWAK-Betriebsbefragung in der Vergangenheit eher untypisch war. Die Entwicklung der Auszubildendenzahlen wird sich bis Ende 2011 ebenfalls positiv gestalten. Die Einschätzungen sind sektoral aber sehr heterogen. So gehen die meisten Dienstleistungsbranchen von einem (teilweise deutlichen) Rückgang der Anzahl an Auszubildenden aus, während das Verarbeitende Gewerbe, der Bereich Verkehr und Lagerei und auch der Bildungs- und Gesundheitsbereich einen Anstieg erwarten. Die sektorale Prognose der Anzahl der Auszubildenden geht jedenfalls nicht immer konform mit der sektoralen Beschäftigungsprognose. Was die Gründe für diese Heterogenität sein könnten (Probleme bei der Stellenbesetzung etc.) wird Thema des nächsten IWAK-Reports sein.
The Thin Line
(2010)
Arja Salafranca is an accomplished writer, having twice won the Sanlam Literary Award in South Africa. The stories in her new book engage and reel in the reader on that 'thin line' from the start. The carefully drawn characters are haunting: Corinna trapped in her huge teenage body, Cleo in love with a married man after all these years, and poor skinny Mark, as he sees his love teeter away from him.'Ten Minutes to Hate' tells of an armed robbery in a packed theatre, and its effect, emotionally and psychologically, on two of the people involved. 'Collage' is the story of a possessive love so fierce, that only death can resolve it. Searingly honest, sometimes painfully so.
Nazi döneminden kalma orjinal belgelerin detaylı incelenmesinin yanısıra, soykırımdan kurtulmus Yahudi ögrencilerin okul gerçeklikleri üzerine yazdıkları mektuplar, elinizde tuttugunuz kitabın odak noktasını olusturuyor. "asırtıcı oldugu kadar çok da üzücü ifadeler içeren bu mektuplarda, yalnızca Nazi örgütlenmeleri olan SS ve SA’nın adamlarının ya da Yahudi ögrencileri sınıflarının önünde asagılayan kötü niyetli ögretmenlerin degil, aynı zamanda Nazi propagandaları ile kıskırtılmıs sınıf arkadaslarının da Yahudi ögrencilerin yasamını cehenneme çevirmis oldugu açıga çıkıyor
The Cold War period witnessed competition from political, economic, ideological, diplomatic, military and social dimensions between the United States of America (USA), and the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In the superpower rivalries, India and Africa were adversely affected in many ways. The situation did not change for the better in the post-Cold War period, which has witnessed the domination of the world by the US and its allies, the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialised countries. This domination has been characterised by the process of Americanization of the worlds, otherwise termed globalisation, in virtually all spheres of life. USA, India, Africa During and After the Cold War demonstrates that both the United States and The Soviet Union used African States, India and other Third World countries for their own geopolitical considerations; that the foreign policy and foreign relations of the US were meant to subject Africa and India to the dictates of US imperialism. The book assesses the impact of the Cold War and the post-Cold War order on Africa, India and the entire world and argues that the Non Aligned Movement is still relevant to the Third World countries despite the demise of the Cold War. The book analyses issues from the African point of view as opposed to hitherto Western view points but provides a balanced appreciation of the complex forces that shape foreign policies and foreign relations globally. It is a valuable contribution to modern diplomatic history and targets university students, researchers, foreign affairs ministries, and practising diplomats.
The Beauty I Have Seen. A Trilogy comprises three phases in a poetic journey, ranging from the poet (here called a minstrel) as a public figure, a traveller and observer of humanity, to one grounded in the landscape and fate of his native land. In the various sections of 'The Beauty I have Seen', 'Doors of the Forest' and 'Flow and other Poems', Tanure Ojaide expresses multifarious experiences, private and public, that capture the poet's sensitive life in sensuous images. In these poems that flow like a narrative, form and content fuse into a mature poetic voice at once passionate and restrained, relaxed and poignant.
This study explores the service-citizenship nexus in Nigeria, using the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme as an empirical backdrop. It attempts to understand the relationship between civic service and citizenship on the one hand, and it examines the question as to whether youth service promotes a sense of citizenship and patriotism on the other. In the relevant studies on service and sociology, the assumption that service is antecedent to, and impacts positively on citizenship, is taken for granted. However, conclusions from this study call for an urgent rethinking of this wisdom. Using data from open-ended interviews, questionnaires and focus group discussions, the study traces the ways in which political dynamics in Nigeria have affected the implementation of the NYSC programme. The study articulates allegiance to national ideals as an essential foundation for creating and nurturing citizenship. Although it upholds the potential of national service as a tool for national integration, this research cautions against unalloyed faith in its presumed agency, arguing that the limitations imposed by the prevailing socio-political ecology should not be ignored.
Gemäß den Angaben des IAB‐Betriebspanels bleib die Arbeitsmarktlage in Hessen trotz der Wirtschafts‐ und Finanzkrise zwischen Juni 2008 und Juni 2009 recht stabil. Flexible Arbeitszeiten und insbesondere die Kurzarbeit trugen maßgeblich dazu bei, die Krise abzumildern. Trotzdem gab es einen Rückgang an sozialversicherungspflichtig Beschäftigten, was erwarten ließ, dass es einen Effekt auf die atypischen Beschäftigungsformen gab. Das Flexibilisierungsinstrument der Kurzarbeit kam auch in Hessen vermehrt zum Einsatz. Fünf Prozent der hessischen Betriebe setzten Kurzarbeit ein; sie betraf insgesamt rund sechs Prozent aller Beschäftigten. Im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe, dem am stärksten von der Krise betroffenen Sektor, betrug der Anteil der Kurzarbeiter sogar rund 25 Prozent. Insgesamt stieg die Kurzarbeit im Krisenjahr deutlich an, bezogen auf alle Beschäftigten hatte sie jedoch eine vergleichsweise geringe Bedeutung. Die geringfügige Beschäftigung stellt eine Beschäftigungsform dar, auf die Betriebe ebenfalls in den vergangenen Jahren verstärkt zurückgriffen. Der Anteil der geringfügig Beschäftigten an allen Beschäftigten in Hessen lag im Krisenjahr 2009 bei 13 Prozent. In den Kleinstbetrieben war 2009 sogar fast jede fünfte Arbeitskraft geringfügig beschäftigt. Als Gründe für die geringfügige Beschäftigung gaben die Betriebe am häufigsten den geringen Umfang der Tätigkeit und die höhere Flexibilität an, die diese Art der Beschäftigung ermöglicht. Die Senkung der Lohnkosten war dagegen nach Angaben der Betriebe seltener von Bedeutung. Die Zahl der Midi‐Jobs erhöhte sich angesichts der Krise ebenfalls. Zwar gab es 2009 in rund 23 Prozent der hessischen Betriebe Midi‐Jobber, ihr Anteil an den Gesamtbeschäftigten betrug jedoch nur 2,7 Prozent. Obwohl zu erwarten gewesen wäre, dass sich Teilzeitjobs auf Kosten von Vollzeitarbeitsplätzen aufgrund der Unterauslastung der Kapazitäten erhöhten, verringerte sich die Zahl der Betriebe, die Teilzeitbeschäftigte hatten, deutlich. Der Anteil der Teilzeitbeschäftigten an den Gesamtbeschäftigten sank ebenfalls leicht, die Teilzeitquote lag 2009 bei 25 Prozent. Die geringen Auswirkungen der Krise sind darauf zurückzuführen, dass Teilzeitkräfte schwerpunktmäßig in der Dienstleistungsbranche zu finden sind, die von der Krise weniger stark betroffen war. Während der Krise verringerte sich die Anzahl der befristet Beschäftigten gegenüber dem Vorjahreswert um rund acht Prozent.
Bezogen auf die Gesamtbeschäftigten spielt der Anteil der befristet Beschäftigten mit 5,8 Prozent jedoch keine große Rolle. Allerdings erhöhte sich der Anteil der befristeten Arbeitsverhältnisse an allen Neueinstellungen, die im ersten Halbjahr 2009 abgeschlossen wurden, im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um fünf Prozentpunkte; 45 Prozent aller neu abgeschlossenen Arbeitsverträge waren 2009 befristet. Die häufigste Vertragsdauer der befristeten Verträge lag zwischen sechs Monaten und einem Jahr. Die Gründe, die für die Befristung genannt wurden, sind vielfältig, u.a. die Feststellung der Eignung der Beschäftigten, Unsicherheiten bezüglich der weiteren wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung sowie zeitlich begrenzter Ersatzbedarf wurden genannt. Die Auswertung zeigt somit, dass sich die Wirtschafts‐ und Finanzkrise sehr unterschiedlich auf die verschiedenen atypischen Beschäftigungsformen ausgewirkt hat. Während die Kurzarbeit und die befristeten Neueinstellungen in Hessen deutlich anstiegen, gab es bei den Midi‐Jobs, der Teilzeitbeschäftigung und der geringfügigen Beschäftigung keine wesentlichen Veränderungen angesichts der Krise. Von der Finanz‐ und Wirtschaftskrise negativ betroffen waren auch Leiharbeitskräftesowie freie Mitarbeiter, deren Bedeutung insgesamt jedoch gering ist.
Ein Ausgangspunkt dieses Reports war die Frage, inwieweit die hessischen Betriebe dem erhöhten Weiterbildungsbedarf durch verstärkte Fort‐ und Weiterbildung auch in wirtschaftlich schwierigeren Phasen tatsächlich Rechnung tragen. Grundsätzlich kann festgestellt werden, dass dies in Hessen 2009 der Fall war. Sowohl der Anteil der Betriebe, die Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen durchführten oder förderten als auch die Zahl der Beschäftigten, die hiervon profitierten, ist gegenüber den Vorjahren erneut angestiegen. Ein krisenbedingter Rückgang der generellen Weiterbildungsaktivitäten ist nicht zu beobachten.
Hessen liegt damit in punkto Weiterbildungsbeteiligung und Weiterbildungsintensität über dem westdeutschen Durchschnitt. Ein Grund hierfür könnte die Branchenstruktur Hessens mit einem hohen Dienstleistungsanteil und einem geringeren Anteil an Betrieben des Produzierenden Gewerbes sein, denn letztere haben eher niedrige Weiterbildungsquoten, während in den Dienstleistungsbetrieben überdurchschnittlich viele Beschäftigte qualifiziert werden. Dies dürfte auch den etwas höheren Anteil an geförderten Frauen erklären, die in den Dienstleistungsbereichen überproportional beschäftigt sind.
Eine Betrachtung der geförderten Beschäftigten nach ihrem Qualifikationsniveau ergab zudem, dass Geringqualifizierte deutlich seltener an Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen beteiligt werden als qualifizierte Beschäftigte, auch wenn diese Diskrepanz geringer geworden ist. Es wurde weiterhin deutlich, dass ein erhöhter Anteil an fördernden Betrieben eines Wirtschaftszweigs oder einer Betriebsgrößenklasse nicht zwangsläufig mit einem erhöhten Anteil an geförderten Beschäftigten einhergeht. So weisen Beschäftigte von Kleinbetrieben die höchste Wahrscheinlichkeit auf, durch ihren Betrieb für Fort‐ und Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen gefördert zu werden, obwohl kleinere Betriebe einen eher geringen Anteil an fördernden Betrieben aufweisen. Hinsichtlich des Orts der Weiterbildung ergab sich aus der Befragung, dass ein Großteil der Fort‐ und Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen außerhalb des Betriebs stattfindet, wobei aber auch interne Kurse und die Weiterbildung am Arbeitsplatz einen recht hohen Stellenwert einnehmen. Die Zahl der durchschnittlich durch einen Betrieb geförderten Maßnahmen steigt mit der Betriebsgröße. Neben diesen relativ konstanten Faktoren gibt es jedoch auch Indikatoren, die auf konjunkturelle Effekte hindeuten. Zu beobachten ist, dass Weiterbildungsformen, die weniger zeit‐ und kostenintensiv sind (interne Schulungen, Weiterbildung am Arbeitsplatz) an Bedeutung gewinnen, während aufwändigere Weiterbildungsformen (externe Schulungen, Teilnahme an Konferenzen etc.) etwas seltener genutzt wurden. Allerdings sind die Verschiebungen zu gering, um bereits jetzt einen generellen Trend zu konstatieren. Auch ist die Bereitschaft der Betriebe, die Kosten der Weiterbildung zu tragen, in den letzten zwei Jahren zurück gegangen, selbst wenn noch immer eine Mehrheit der Betriebe den entstehenden Aufwand allein bewältigt. Eine Kostenübernahme wird von den Mitarbeitern am häufigsten in Kleinstbetrieben und im Baugewerbe verlangt, was durch die geringere Flexibilität und den bestehenden Kostendruck erklärt werden könnte. Insgesamt, so zeigen die Ergebnisse, hat die betriebliche Fort‐ und Weiterbildung in Hessen eine relativ große und zunehmende Bedeutung, und konjunkturelle Einflüsse sind eher marginal.
Als Leitfrage wurde eingangs formuliert, ob bzw. wie stark in Zeiten der Wirtschaftskrise Veränderungen bei den hessischen Betrieben fest zu stellen sind. Als Ergebnis der Untersuchung lässt sich festhalten, dass die im Jahr 2009 zu beobachtenden Veränderungen spürbar, aber eher moderat sind. Die unmittelbaren und seitens der Betriebe wahrge- nommenen Auswirkungen der Finanzmarkt‐ und Wirtschaftskrise sind in den meisten Fällen gering und weniger dramatisch, als dies Konjunkturindikatoren nahe legen. Hierfür lassen sich mehrere Anhaltspunkte finden. Die betriebliche Einschätzung der Ertragslage des Geschäftsjahres 2008 liegt zwar leicht unter den Vorjahreswerten, aber noch immer deutlich besser als in Jahren 2000 bis 2005. Auch blieb der Anteil der investierenden Betriebe in der langfristigen Betrachtung konstant.
Hauptzwecke der Investitionen waren erneut die Betriebsausstattung sowie die Informations‐und Kommunikationstechnik. Allerdings gibt es durchaus auch einige Befunde, die als Krisensymptome klassifiziert werden können. So hat fast jeder vierte Betrieb die Investitionsplanung verändert, unter diesen hat jedoch immerhin jeder Dritte antizyklisch gehandelt und das Investitionsvolumen erhöht. Bei jenen Betrieben, die Investitionsvorhaben verringerten oder verschoben, war in den meisten Fällen nicht die Beschaffung von Fremdkapital hierfür ausschlaggebend. Die Erwartungen waren für 2009 eher negativ: erstmals seit vier Jahren rechnen mehr Betriebe mit einem sinkenden als mit einem steigenden Geschäftsvolumen im nächsten Jahr, besonders häufig im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe und in umsatzstarken Betrieben. Die hessischen Betriebe sehen sich darüber hinaus häufig einem hohen Wettbewerbsdruck ausgesetzt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass dieser Druck in der aktuellen Krise zugenommen hat, hiermit aber keine strukturellen Verschiebungen verbunden sind, weiterhin wird der Druck in Handel und Produzierendem Gewerbe sowie in Großbetrieben höher empfunden. Für hochgerechnet knapp 22.000 hessische Betriebe ist der Konkurrenzdruck derart hoch, dass er nach Einschätzung der Betriebe den Fortbestand gefährdet, hier vor allem im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe und bei sehr kleinen Betrieben. Diese Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine dramatische Verschlechterung der betrieblichen Einschätzungen bislang nicht vorliegt, eine generelle Entwarnung für die hessische Wirtschaft jedoch nicht gegeben werden kann
Legt man die Zahlen des IAB-Betriebspanels zugrunde, ergibt sich ein recht klares Bild: Die Auswirkungen der Finanzmarkt- und Wirtschaftskrise fallen auf dem Ausbildungsmarkt Hessens deutlicher weniger negativ aus, als dies zu befürchten war. Zwar ist analog zum deutschlandweiten Trend die Zahl der sozialversicherungspflichtig Beschäftigten auch in Hessen leicht zurückgegangen, die Zahl der Auszubildenden stieg dagegen in einigen Sektoren nochmals an. Die Ausbildungsquote ist demnach etwas höher als im Vorjahr, liegt in Hessen aber noch immer unter dem den westdeutschen Durchschnitt. Umgekehrt haben Betriebe auch in der Krise noch Probleme, offene Ausbildungsplätze zu besetzen.
Die vorhandenen Besetzungsprobleme sind etwas geringer als im Vorjahr und betreffen besonders Kleinst- und Baubetriebe. Einige der untersuchten Indikatoren lassen allerdings auch krisenbedingte Effekte erkennen: So ist die Zahl der ausbildenden Betriebe in Hessen um hochgerechnet etwa 3.000 zurück gegangen, obwohl die Zahl der ausbildungsberechtigten Betriebe so hoch lag wie nie zuvor. Das hieraus resultierende ungenutzte Au sbildungspotenzial ist erneut bei den Kleinstbetrieben besonders hoch. Auch die Übernahmequoten, also der Anteil der erfolgreichen Ausbildungsabsolventen, die im Betrieb bleiben konnten, haben gegenüber dem letzten Jahr abgenommen, wobei erneut bei den Kleinstbetrieben der größte Rückgang zu verzeichnen ist. Inwieweit bei diesen Ergebnissen konjunkturelle Effekte durchschlagen, lässt sich nicht abschließend klären. Eine Betrachtung des Zusammenhangs zwischen wirtschaftlicher Lage und der Ausbildungsbeteiligung liefert jedoch Hinweise, dass insbesondere die zurückliegende ökonomische Situation der Betriebe Einfluss auf deren Ausbildungs- verhalten hat. Betriebe, deren Ertragslage im letzten Jahr schlecht war, bilden deutlic he seltener aus als der Durchschnitt der hessischen Betriebe. Der aktuelle Wettbewerbsdruck und die erwartete Geschäfts entwicklung spielen dagegen kaum eine Rolle. Falls dieser Zusammenhang eine Bestätigung erfährt, kann für den hessischen Ausbildungsmarkt noch keine Entwarnung gegeben werden: die schlechte konjunkturelle Lage 2009 wird auch im kommenden Ausbildungsjahr zu spüren sein.
This is a timely book on the contemporary African priesthood. Just as in other parts of the globe, the African priesthood currently faces a serious crisis of identity. The unfolding crisis puts stress on the clerics and augments the tension with lay people. The model of the Church-as-Family of God opted for by the Church in Africa is a new milestone that puts pressure on Catholic priests to define their role in the new context. The identity and image of priests need to be specified as lay ministries render the Church active from the grassroots. Reflection about the ministry of the clergy in Africa is urgent, and indeed it is an important aspect of enculturation. Nyenyembe demonstrates an admirable capacity to situate his rich theological reflections in an African context.
We Get Nothing from Fishing : Fishing for Boat Opportunities Amongst Senegalese Fisher Migrants
(2010)
The world is regularly confronted on television and in other mass media with dramatic images of African boat migrants. Seemingly desperate, these Africans, most of them males, are willing to risk a perilous journey at sea, hoping for a better life in Europe. And, even worse, hundreds more are believed to die each year, swallowed up anonymously by the choppy waters off Africa's coast. This book focuses on fishermen who have played a pivotal role in boat migration from Senegal to Spain's Canary Islands, advancing various reasons for the fishermen's prominent role. Besides their long history of migration, their proven experience with navigating, their family's push and investment, their perceptions and ideologies about Europe, there is also their growing marginalization as a result of the deepening crisis in the Senegalese fishing sector and the inadequate policies of the Senegalese government that prevents them from having good prospects of improving their standards of living. The book provides deep insights into the meaning of boat migration, and on the effects of success or failure on the migrants and their families. It goes beyond the usual economic explanations to convincingly situate boat migration within the long-standing West African culture of migration, and highlight the significance of socio-cultural and political factors. Among the fascinating findings are the perception of migration as status enhancing and a rite de passage in the Senegalese fishing communities, and the profound roles of the extended family, social networks and, above all, religion, especially the widespread influence of the marabout. The importance of information and communication technologies in sustaining transnational networks is equally highlighted.
Intimate strangers
(2010)
Intimate Strangers tells the story of the everyday tensions of maids and madams in ways that bring together different worlds and explore various dimensions of servitude and mobility. Immaculate travels to a foreign land only to find her fiancé refusing to marry her. Operating from the margins of society, through her own ingenuity and an encounter with researcher Dr Winter-Bottom Nanny, she is able to earn some money. Will she remain at the margins or graduate into DUST - Diamond University of Science and Technology? Immaculate learns how maids struggle to make ends meet and madams wrestle to keep them in their employ. Resolved to make her disappointments blessings, she perseveres until she can take no more.
Issues in African Literature
(2010)
The multitudinous nature of African literature has always been an issue but really not a problem, although its oral base has been used by expatriate critics to accuse African literature of thin plots, superficial characterisation, and narrative structures. African literature also, it is observed, is a mixed grill: it is oral; it is written in vernacular or tribal tongues; written in foreign tongues English, French, Portuguese and within the foreign language in which it is written, pidgin and creole further bend the already bent language giving African literature a further taint of linguistic impurity. African literature further suffers from the nature of its 'newness' and this created problems for the critic. Because it is new, and because its critics are in simultaneous existence with its writers, we confront the problem of 'instant analysis'. Issues in African Literature continues the debate and tries to clarify contemporary burning issues in African literature, by focussing on particular areas where the debate has been most concerned or around which it has hovered and been persistent.
Black Caps and Red Feathers
(2010)
In Black Caps and Red Feathers the reader is taken into Creature's subconscious on the garbage heap where he is tenant, and where he recounts his multitudinous and gruesome experiences in Traourou's underground prisons. Ancestral Earth, set within a traditional African background, indicts Akeumbin, the king and custodian of the earth of Allehtendurih, who is caught in the dilemma of stopping a plague caused by the reckless exploitation of the earth and showing affection for his fiftieth bride. In compliance with the Princes of Earth, the women who are the principal victims, bring pressure to bear on the King who condescends to the urgency of appeasing the Ancestral Earth. The common denominator in both plays is communal grudge against irresponsible leadership and its fallouts of indiscriminate victimization that allow for the anticipation of a new or renewed consciousness.
The call of blood
(2010)
Efenze, the President of the Board of Directors of government companies and a member of the Central Committee of the Ruling Party, eliminates his erstwhile business contractor, Sancheu, with the complicity of the latter's wife. His aim is to inherit Sancheu's widow and wealth and to forge his way into the Political Bureau of the Party. The Call of Blood is a dramatization of evil in its multifaceted dimensions including treachery, infidelity, greed, hypocrisy, double-crossing and vaulting ambition in a postcolonial society where those who wield political and financial power thrive or perish by their involvement in obscure schemes. The play is enriched by a great sense of dramatic economy and poetic style evident in the preponderant use of local imagery.
Patrick Tataw Obenson, alias Ako-Aya, the rabid critic, social crusader and witty journalist, all rolled up in one, was indeed a popular and widely admired pioneer in daring journalism and social commentary in Cameroon. Little wonder that when he died, he left behind countless painful hearts and many questions on the lips of his admirers. As a man of the people, the fallen hero of Cameroon's Fleet Street shared his experiences, be they good or bad, with his readers. He was a virile critic even of the sordid things in which he himself secretly indulged. Obenson's mind was open, and through his popular newspaper column - Ako-Aya - he exposed society and social action in all their dimensions. He had an axe to grind with all perpetrators of social vices, especially those of them that infringed on the rights of the common man. He gave them a good fight, using his newspaper as his only weapon - a weapon which could not be neutralized even by the most affluent nor the most coercive leadership. And he did so with nerve and valour and venom. Only Tataw Obenson could spit out really scathing pieces of satire, aimed directly at the highest governing authorities of his society. Only Obenson could make allusions even to his own apparently ugly self. Only he could be liberal and honest enough to confess how he boarded a taxi and later bolted without paying the driver. Only Obenson was able to foresee his imminent demise from the face of the earth and literarily wrote his own epitaph
Strange Passion
(2010)
In Strange Passions John Ngong Kum Ngong's vocation and prime obsession remain constant - the soul of the nation. Passion, the central symbol in this collection is the patriotic sentiment in its various manifestations. As a self-conscious artist, Ngong summons his audacious technical dexterity to sublimate the sauciness characteristic of his style and direct it towards ideological ends. The significance of his contribution is as much in the urgency, originality and authenticity of his message as in the full range and complexity of his style, and the depth and density of his thoughts.
Snatched from the Grave
(2010)
The events of May 2008 in which 62 people were killed simply for being 'foreign' and thousands were turned overnight into refugees shook the South African nation. This book is the first to attempt a comprehensive and rigorous explanation for those horrific events. It argues that xenophobia should be understood as a political discourse and practice. As such its historical development as well as the conditions of its existence must be elucidated in terms of the practices and prescriptions which structure the field of politics. In South Africa, the history of xenophobia is intimately connected to the manner in which citizenship has been conceived and fought over during the past fifty years at least. Migrant labour was de-nationalised by the apartheid state, while African nationalism saw the same migrant labour as the foundation of that oppressive system. Only those who could show a family connection with the colonial and apartheid formation of South Africa could claim citizenship at liberation. Others were excluded and seen as unjustified claimants to national resources. Xenophobia's conditions of existence, the book argues, are to be found in the politics of post-apartheid nationalism where state prescriptions founded on indigeneity have been allowed to dominate uncontested in conditions of an overwhelmingly passive conception of citizenship. The de-politicisation of an urban population, which had been able to assert its agency during the 1980s through a discourse of human rights in particular, contributed to this passivity. Such state liberal politics have remained largely unchallenged. As in other cases of post-colonial transition in Africa, the hegemony of xenophobic discourse, the book contends, is to be sought in the specific character of the state consensus.
This collection is produced by a trio which in reverse order recalls the trio Senghor, Csaire, Damas; one African and two Caribbeans who were flag bearer of a protest for the recognition of fundamental rights of which Blacks were deprived of. In the same vein, the Clervoyant, Ndi and Vakunta trio: a Caribbean and two Africans in a globalised world dissect and trace, through their poetry the horrible affliction of postcolonial pain Blacks suffer from in spite of the fight put up by their predecessors for the obtainment of fundamental human rights. For this trio, the black pen will continue to bleed until the pain is buried. That will be the only way for all from English speaking Cameroon to Haiti to lead a life worthy of its name.
Soleil et ombre
(2010)
In this collection, Bill F. NDI resorts to more sagacious versification (rhyme constraints, alliterations and at times the alexandrine) in which appear marked influences of many a French poet. Some of his more audacious poems bring to mind Calligrams and typography of Appolinaire and Paul Éluard respectively.
Bill NDI's Bleeding Red: Cameroon in Black and White is another masterpiece from a poet with a deeply political vision. This collection of poems with Cameroon as the particular focal point is a paragon of socio-political and cultural alertness in verse that will get every reader on their toes. Bill NDI's world is fraught with topsy-turvydom. It is a world darkened by experience and a keen sense of the wrongs plaguing his beloved country. He points out, without preaching, where it all went wrong, how it can, or what it will take to, be redeemed. The acerbity of Bill NDI s criticism runs from the very first poem of the collection 'Anthem for Essingang' through The Promise to the very last one 'Papa Ngando Yi Mimba for Camelun'. What a clime characterised by a 'clan of mbokos, clan of bandits' It is just natural that as they perpetrate 'death and sadness' in his beloved fatherland, nothing but 'disgrace', 'great shame', and 'repudiation' awaits them for evermore.
Toil and Delivery
(2010)
Bill NDI's Toil and Delivery can be as playful and loaded as the clues in a cryptic crossword puzzle, which is to say that they are marked by a strange, energetic hybridity. They occupy a dynamic space between nursery rhyme and visionary Romantic verse, between the colloquial and the archaic, between postmodernity and anachronism. They are local and global, political and personal, Western and non-Western. With experiences traversing both Africa and the West, Bill F. NDI is one of those poets who gives meaning to the word globalisation. He embraces poetry as a material act in a troubled world, with poetry's power conveyed with typical irony.
Mountain forests provide important ecological services, and essential products. This book focuses on the importance of mountain forests in Cameroon for the local people who depend most directly on them, and have often developed a wealth of indigenous knowledge on plants and sophisticated institutions for managing limited plant and animal resources. Such knowledge and institutions have often been threatened, or even destroyed, by centralization and globalization; yet there is increasing recognition that community-based institutions are the best adapted to ensuring that mountain forests continue to supply their diverse goods and services to both mountain and other people over the long-term. The book provides a useful combination of case studies on ethnobotanic analysis and cultural values of plants, community-based ecological planning for protected area management and eco-cultural tourism development. It provides an unusually useful combination of overviews and synthesis of theory and experience with in-depth case studies of montane forest-adjacent communities and protected areas. Throughout the book there are good summary tables, case study maps, and diagrams that are relevant to the themes in question. Finally, the book addresses the possible mutual benefits of indigenous knowledge and modern science, indigenous peoples and the development of eco-cultural tourism in protected areas, indigenous peoples and ecological planning in protected areas. It therefore emphasizes cooperation based on partnerships amongst indigenous people, governments and the global conservation community, in the interest of effective conservation. This is a valuable book for land managers, environmental scientists, environmental biologists, natural resource managers and students reading subjects such as geography, biology, forestry, botany and environmental science.
This text broadly and comprehensively covers the area of law of succession in Kenya. It exposes the substantive succession legal regime applying in Kenya as well as the Kenyan probate practice. It is tailored specifically for the legal practitioner, the Magistrate and Judge and the law student William Musyoka holds L.L.B and LL.M degrees from the University of Nairobi. He is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a law lecturer. He has taught the law of succession at the Kenya School of Law and is currently teaching the subject at the School of Law, University of Nairobi.
Assessing the impact of twenty-five years of action to promote the discontinuation of female circumcision (FGM) in Francophone West Africa, should consider a key issue: the contribution of the digital revolution, and how young people - girls and boys - have been associated. As victims, subjects, objects, actors, citizens, leaders and family and community stakeholders, FGM is for them a matter of concern. Youth, ICTs and FGM reveal gender issues that must be transversally integrated in public, private, citizen and personal development policies. This is the main message of this book, which presents the results of an innovative action research conducted by ENDA Tiers Monde, with the participation of girls and boys in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. The study is in the French language.
Writing Therapy
(2010)
Writing therapy is a varied collection of poems of a brisk, forward taste. The poet uses her poems as a form of expression of the harmonies and tensions that reassure and perturb the mind, heart and Spirit. This is a canvas of emotional expression from the frustration of the African youth to the declaration of the feminist, the desolation of the lovelorn and finally the weathered contentment of the Christian believer!
The New World Order Ideology expressed in the form of neoliberal globalization has been used by numerous politicians, scholars and media men through the ages. It refers to a worldwide conspiracy to effect complete and total control over the planet through money farming. This book examines the case of Africa put directly on the chopping board as client states by this ideology - when less hampered by idealistic slogans as human rights, raising living standards and democratization - to better the achievement of the agenda of the money farmers whose goal is to establish government by loan operations. The money farmers' strategy, as in credit card companies, is to lend as much as the subject target can borrow and still pay fees, charges and interest payments. This means to encourage them to borrow, loan after loan, consolidate all other loans and keep lending - up until the crop of foreign exchange seems in jeopardy. The ideal from the Lending Agency viewpoint is to get an African country maxed out on loans to the point that it actually operates all of its government and the nation on LOANS. Once that goal is achieved, you basically have a never ending crop of FOREIGN EXCHANGE from helpless and hopeless African governments and people. Here is Tatah Mentan at his trenchant best!
The Oracle of Tears
(2010)
Mbuh Tennu Mbuh is a lecturer in the English Department, University of Yaound I. A pioneer member of the Anglophone Cameroon Writers Association (ACWA) and a Fulbright and Commonwealth Scholar, Tennu holds a PhD from the University of Nottingham. He is author of a novel, In the Shadow of My Country.
Memory is the Weapon
(2010)
Donato Francesco Mattera has been celebrated as a journalist, editor, writer and poet. He is also acknowledged as one of the foremost activists in the struggle for a democratic South Africa, and helped to found both the Union of Black Journalists, the African Writer's Association and the Congress of South African Writers. Born in 1935 in Western Native Township (now Westbury) across the road from Sophiatown, Mattera can lay claim to an intriguingly diverse lineage: his paternal grandfather was Italian, and he has Tswana, Khoi-Khoi and Xhosa blood in his veins. Yet diversity was hardly being celebrated at that time. In one of apartheid's most infamous actions, the vibrant multicultural Sophiatown was destroyed in 1955 and replaced with the white suburb of Triomf, and the wrenching displacement, can be felt in Mattera's writing. The story of his life in Sophiatown as told in this essay is intricate. Covering Mattera's teenage years from 1948 to 1962 when Sophiatown was bulldozed out of existence, it weaves together both his personal experience and political development. In telling the story of his life as a 'coloured' teenager, Mattera takes on the ambitious goal of making us recapture the crucial events of the 1950s in Sophiatown, one of the most important decades in the history of black political struggles in South Africa.
Les murmures de l'harmattan
(2010)
The author of Harmattan Whispers reproduces life in such a harmonic order enveloped with dreams carefully filtered and balanced. As a keen observer of his society, he describes with passionate fervour movements that give existence its density. Emmanuel Matateyou in this poetic cocktail of his takes the reader through an African society where Harmattan, this North East trade wind, destroys as it sweeps along the ugly, the vicissitudes and the shredded pieces of life to leave place to a new kind of drunken quest. In the flux of his words and imagery, he gives life to dreams, fantasies and the Utopian visions of this lover of life, all of which are brought to the limelight through poetically revealing correspondences all rooted in passion and hope.
Few African countries provide for an explicit right to a nationality. Laws and practices governing citizenship effectively leave hundreds of thousands of people in Africa without a country. These stateless Africans can neither vote nor stand for office; they cannot enrol their children in school, travel freely, or own property; they cannot work for the government; they are exposed to human rights abuses. Statelessness exacerbates and underlies tensions in many regions of the continent. Citizenship Law in Africa, a comparative study by two programs of the Open Society Foundations, describes the often arbitrary, discriminatory, and contradictory citizenship laws that exist from state to state and recommends ways that African countries can bring their citizenship laws in line with international rights norms. The report covers topics such as citizenship by descent, citizenship by naturalisation, gender discrimination in citizenship law, dual citizenship, and the right to identity documents and passports. It is essential reading for policymakers, attorneys, and activists. This second edition includes updates on developments in Kenya, Libya, Namibia, South Africa, Sudan and Zimbabwe, as well as minor corrections to the tables and other additions throughout.
Bulozi under the Luyana Kings : Political Evolution and State Formation in Pre-Colonial Zambia
(2010)
Bulozi under the Luyana Kings is a study of the Lozi Kingdom in Western Zambia in the pre-colonial period. The study traces the origins of the Luyana and the Lozi people; the founding of the Luyana Central Kingship and the invasion by the Makololo in the mid-nineteenth century; and ends with the study of the Lozi response to European intrusion at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Bulozi under the Luyana Kings was first published in 1973 by Longman, London. After wide consultations at home and abroad, the book is now republished in its original form.
This is an introductory textbook on the Zimbabwean legal system. It sets the stage for a comprehensive description of that legal system by opening with some theoretical issues on the nature of law in general, particularly a definition of law, the role and purpose of law in society, the relationship between law and justice and how morality impacts on law. After outlining this theoretical framework, it turns to the Zimbabwean legal system and covers the following key areas: sources of Zimbabwean law, the scope of Roman-Dutch law in Zimbabwe, the law-making process and the role of Parliament, the structure of the courts in Zimbabwe, the procedures in the civil and criminal courts, the legal aid system and the nature of the legal profession. It covers the process of appointment of judges and its effect on the independence of the judiciary. It has a long closing chapter on the interpretation of statutes covering all the rules, maxims and presumptions.
Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, 1924-1986, rose from humble origins to become one of Cameroon's most famous sons. He was a scholar, a poet, a politician, a philosopher, a man of action and a man of courage. He was never too busy to see someone who was troubled, never too tired to take up the case of the oppressed or the downtrodden. He was a man who could communicate, with style, in half a dozen world languages but who could also use Pidgin English if it meant putting his listeners at ease. He was a man who moved in opulent circles but who collected for himself not money but the hearts of those who got to know him. It is easy to use superlatives of someone like Bernard Fonlon, easy to make him sound like a sage or a saint; it is less easy to describe the humour and the courtesy and the gentleness that irradiated all that he said and did. This book describes briefly the life and times of a man whose story incorporates the history of a young nation and whose autobiography, The Pathfinder, has all the excitement of an adventure novel. We could use a lot of words and still not get to the heart of the matter because ordinary words are for ordinary men and Bernard Fonlon was unique. To those who knew him, no introduction is necessary; to those who did not know him, no short introduction is enough. Bernard Fonlon did not leave a worldly legacy to his family and friends and country. He left much more. He left ideas that can never be buried and ideals that will challenge new generations.
Uganda's broadcast media landscape has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years. While the public broadcaster remains the dominant national player - in terms of reach - in both radio and television, commercial broadcasters have introduced a substantial level of diversity in the industry. Public broadcasting faces serious competition from the numerous private and independent broadcasters, especially in and around the capital Kampala and major urban centres. In fact, the private/commercial sector clearly dominates the industry in most respects, notably productivity and profitability. The public broadcaster, which enjoys wider geographical coverage, faces the challenge of trying to fulfil a broad mandate with little funding. This makes it difficult for UBC to compete with the more nimble operators in the commercial/private sector. Overall, there appears to be a healthy degree of pluralism and diversity in terms of ownership.
This book publishes Martin Legassick's influential doctoral thesis on the preindustrial South African frontier zone of Transorangia. The impressive formation of the Griqua states in the first half of the nineteenth century outside the borders of the Cape Colony and their relations with Sotho-Tswana polities, frontiersmen, missionaries and the British administration of the Cape take centre stage in the analysis. The Griqua, of mixed settler and indigenous descent, secured hegemony in a frontier of complex partnerships and power struggles. The author's subsequent critique of the 'frontier tradition' in South African historiography drew on the insights he had gained in writing this dissertation. It served to initiate the debate about the importance of the precolonial frontier situation in South Africa for the establishment of ideas of race, the development of racial prejudice and, implicitly, the creation of segregationist and apartheid systems. Today, the constructed histories of 'Griqua' and other categories of indigeneity have re emerged in South Africa as influential tools of political mobilisation and claims on resources.
The Earth Mother
(2010)
The fight against evil remains at the core of this play, pitting Kamsi and her supporters against a few daring councillors. Skilfully scripted by a renowned actor and playwright, this drama exposes the alliances and explosive tensions in Nyong village overwhelmed by unseen but supposedly harmful forces. Spiced with witty proverbs and humour, The Earth Mother will not fail to thrill its readers.
Pieces of Silver
(2010)
Rosi-Daniela Kouoh, a female Divisional Officer newly appointed to Njopongo, steps into office at a time when preparations for elections in the Riders Union sows panic in the hearts of the town's barons and a tragic road accident ignites feelings of vengeance and survival. In order to determine the root-cause of the rising tension and build a platform for lasting calm and justice, she gets two men out of police custody; Sadi, a loser and bitter father of an unborn child, and Esingi, a daring, retired streetboy and chauffeur to the powerful Lord Mayor and business tycoon. This is the thrilling tale of a woman determined to purge her town of injustice, corruption and greed. It is also the story of the niece of the Lord Mayor torn between family loyalty and her love for a poor bus driver.
This book discusses the social and political consequences of the economic and financial crisis that befell African economies since the 1980s, using as case study the plantation economy of the Anglophone region of Cameroon. The focus is thus on recent efforts to liberalize and privatize an agro-industrial enterprise where overseas capital and its domestic partners have converged, the consequent modes of production and labour, and the alternatives proposed and resistance generated. The study details how the unprecedented crisis caused great commotion in the region, and presented a serious challenge to existing theories on plantation production and capital accumulation. The crisis resulted in the introduction of a number of neoliberal economic reforms, including the withdrawal of state intervention and the restructuring, liquidation and privatisation of the major agro-industrial enterprises. These reforms in turn had severe consequences for several civil-society groups and their organisations that had a direct stake in the regional plantation economy, notably the regional elite, chiefs, plantation workers and contract farmers. On the basis of extensive research in the Anglophone Cameroon region, Konings shows that these civil-society groups have never resigned themselves to their fate but have been actively involved in a variety of formal and informal modes of resistance.
Konglanjo : (Spears of Love without Ill-fortune) and Letters to Ethiopia with Some Random Poems
(2010)
This collection of poems evolves as a network and satellite of an expressive pursuit of justice with a difference. For, though this poetry simultaneously shapes global and grassroots smiles and tears, its corpus is no matter for laughter or weeping. In familiar but not identical voices, the poet tackles social evils as parasites while cross-examining cultural assumptions in the same vein. Triple form -title poem, Letters to Ethiopia and Some Random poems, explores nightmares of colonial mission civilisatrice by dint of two decades of inspirational events from 1965 as invitations into a more serene world emerging from post-discoveries.
Written in a clear, concise and engaging style this book presents the entire criminal process in a simple, yet authoritative and informative way. The core principles that underpin the criminal procedure, their rationale and assumptions are well articulated and critiqued. In addition the book presents by way of illustration a comprehensive range of the latest local judicial decisions.
Undisciplined Heart
(2010)
When Jane Katjavivi becomes involved in London in support of change in Southern Africa, she meets and marries a Namibian activist in exile. Moving with him to Namibia at the time of Independence in 1990, she faces a new life in a starkly beautiful country. She starts to publish Namibian writing and opens a bookshop. In Windhoek she develops friendships with a group of strong, independent women, who have also come from other countries, and are engaged in different ways to overcome the divisions of the past. Over coffee, drinks and food, they support each other through times of happiness and sadness, through juggling careers and family, and through illness and death. When her husband is made Ambassador to the Benelux countries and the European Union, and later Berlin, Jane has to build a new identity as the wife of an ambassador, and come to terms with her own ill-health without her friends around her to support her. Set against the backdrop of the historical, political and social development of newly independent Namibia, Undisciplined Heart tells the story of Jane's love for her family, friends and her adopted country, in a gentle and honest way that reflects the joys and tragedies of life
When Sembe discovers that Amu, her husband of fifteen years, is having an affair with another woman, she moves out of the matrimonial home, but is persuaded to return by relatives and friends. However, a few months later, when Amu comes home to reveal that his mistress is pregnant with his child, everything crumbles. The social networks, customs and love that had restrained her from leaving him initially are overcome by the deep feelings of betrayal. The spouses, unable to resolve the matter amicably, immerse in a needless and senseless altercation that culminates in a physical fight. Sembe moves out of the matrimonial home and the marriage collapses. The spouses are left to struggle for the custody of their three daughters and, the ownership of matrimonial property in the plush Kenya suburb of Kileleshwa, through a corrupt Kenyan judicial system. Kileleshwa is a tale of love, betrayal and corruption, set on a background of ethnic incongruity, political uncertainty and very difficult economic times.
Leading the Night
(2010)
Deprived of being heard, people still have a voice. They make it heard in ways that disturb the status quo. This book is an engagement with such voices. Can Deni, Wairi, Yaadi, matatu people, militia people and taxi drivers in Kenya also ask 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' as Nelson Mandela did. Why do two men wearing bling bling turn into two snakes dancing in Rika's imagination? The web of corruption is intricate. No-one can lead this night alone. It takes many constellations, each one twinkling in its own radius. Many rays of light dispel darkness. The peoples' good leadership alone can check politicians' terrible ways. Philo Ikonya is the author of two poetry anthologies, This Bread of Peace and Out if Prison.
This book seeks to help African Christian leaders to follow the notions of biblical leadership as servanthood and to train men and women with biblical and academic knowledge, which will be critical, practical, pastoral and applicable in the Kenyan context and participate in the discovery, transmission and preservation of knowledge and stimulate the intellectual life and cultural development of Kenya.
Dem vorliegenden Buch liegt die erkenntnisleitende Annahme zugrunde, dass der ebenso komplexe wie hybride Gegenstandsbereich „E-Learning“ keiner akademischen Fachkultur exklusiv zurechenbar ist oder ihr gar „allein gehört“. Aus diesem Umstand wird gewöhnlich die Notwendigkeit eines stärker inter- und multidisziplinär ausgerichteten Forschens und Arbeitens an den Hochschulen abgeleitet. Doch trotz schlüssiger Begründung der Notwendigkeit, den Blick über den Tellerrand der eigenen Disziplin zu richten und die Kooperation mit Vertretern anderer Fachkulturen zu verstärken, scheinen beim Thema E-Learning die Grenzen zwischen den Disziplinen besonders undurchlässig zu sein. So kommt es, dass die vielfach beschworenen Synergieeffekte im Prozess des wissenschaftlichen Forschens eher die Ausnahme als die Regel darstellen. In der Tat sollte man sich vor diesbezüglichen Illusionen hüten. Denn der Weg zu einer konstruktiven interdisziplinären Forschungs- und Gesprächskultur dürfte noch sehr weit sein, und es ist keineswegs absehbar, ob die damit verbundenen Erwartungen und Hoffnungen sich tatsächlich jemals erfüllen werden...
Lava Lamp Poems
(2010)
Contém trinta biografias resumidas de exploradores alemães, na sua maioria, do século XIX, que fizeram pesquisas etnográficas em Angola. As biografias são complementadas por textos extraidos das suas obras, que incluem alguns dos seus relatos etnográficos mais importantes. Dá-se especial atenção à imagem dos viajantes alemães sobre os africanos, bem como às condições e ao contexto em que posteriormente foram redigidos os textos publicados sobre esses encontros. Para além dos aspectos biográficos, interessam-nos sobretudo as condições e a história das origens das nossas fontes, as circunstâncias e o contexto geral da produção do nosso conhecimento. A bibliografia específica sobre cada um dos exploradores fornece, pela primeira vez, uma visão bibliográfica abrangente. As reproduções de algumas esculturas de colecções etnográficas trazidas por esses exploradores, que hoje admiramos como obras primas da arte africana, constituem um contraste visual ilucidativo em relação aos juízos geralmente depreciativos dos coleccionadores acerca desta „tralha feiticista“.
Jean Hartley, born in Kenya, is acknowledged as being the first to legitimise fixing for wildlife film crews. Over the last 25 years, she has worked on over a thousand films, the vast majority being about wildlife and nature. She features five of the great film makers who all started their careers in Kenya in the1950s, legends whom she is proud to call personal friends. Watching all of their films, and many more, she became fascinated by the history of film making in Kenya and determined to find out when it all started. In this insightful book, she traces the roots of wildlife film back a hundred years, drawing on accounts of the original film makers and the professional hunters who guided those early safaris. She tracks the changes from those grainy, speeded up, silent films through to the technologically perfect High Definition and 3D films that are being made today.
This is an original and innovative study of mobile phones in Africa from a theological perspective. The First and the Second Special Assemblies for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, held in Rome in 1994 and 2009 respectively, made an urgent appeal to the Church in Africa to employ various media forms of social communications for evangelization and the promotion of justice and peace. Evidently, electronic media are now increasingly used for evangelization across Africa. The proliferation of the mobile phone in Africa is a most welcome development to this end. On the basis of a thorough review of the growing literature on the mobile phone and the cultures it inspires, Goliama highlights the ambivalent nature of mobile cultures for the Roman Catholic Church's evangelization mission in Africa. He argues not only for the continued merits of face-to-face communication for the Church's pastoral approach in the African context. He points to how this could be enriched by a creative appropriation of the mobile phone as a tool for theological engagement, in its capacity to shape cultures in ways amenable to the construction of a Cell phone Ecclesiology. Such emergent mobile cultural values include the tendency of mobile users to transcend social divides, to promote social interconnectedness, and to privilege the question 'where are you?'. This informed and well articulated exploration of Cell phone Ecclesiology is thus envisaged to aid the Church in Africa to wrestle more effectively with challenges that diminish human life and promote instead qualities that are life-affirming to all categories of people in the Church and society.
Windhoek in the early 1960s: the 34-year-old politician Clemens Kapuuo knocks at the door of the senior advocate Israel Goldblatt to solicit advice regarding the myriad of difficulties encountered by Africans daily under the apartheid regime. An unusual relationship and friendship develops, one that transcends the racial divide in this South African-governed Territory and will last for nearly 10 years. Meeting in Goldblatt's chambers, at his home and in the Old Location, other participants in the consultations included the veteran politician Chief Hosea Kutako and a group of younger nationalists, among them Rev. Bartholomews Karuaera and Levy Nganjone. Through Kapuuo, Goldblatt also met Kaptein Samuel Witbooi and counselled the long-term prisoner from Caprivi, Brendan Simbwaye. Israel Goldblatt's notes on these meetings were discovered after his death and form the core of this book. They are complemented by additional biographical information about his interlocutors, and annotations that place his notes in their historical and political context. Illustrated with many photographs, this publication pays tribute to Israel Goldblatt and the Namibian nationalists who attempted to build bridges where apartheid entrenched racism and suspicion.
The history of the subalterns, also known as the history of the voiceless, took currency in the early 1980s in South East Asia and has been dominated by scholars from that region. Despite its popularity, the history of the voiceless has not gained the attention it deserves in Cameroon historiography. In other parts of Africa and beyond this type of history has already taken root and animated scholarly production and debate. Cameroon history has been replete with studies that focus mostly on political history and the actions and intentions of top politicians of the day, with scant regard for the historical importance of the everyday life of ordinary Cameroonians as makers and breakers. This book takes a bold step in the direction of subaltern studies in Cameroon, and makes a clarion call for the institutionalization of voicing the voiceless. Nkwi - innovative and stimulating in his blend of history and ethnography of the everyday - offers fresh insights into the contextual understandings of subaltern Cameroon between 1958 and 2009. This is a welcome contribution to closing gaps in social history, from a leader amongst a budding new generation of historians of Cameroon and Africa.
Mit Durchführung der Schröderschen Arbeitsmarktreformen ist der schon einmal in den 1980er Jahren diskutierte Vorschlag eines bedingungslosen Grundeinkommens und die mit ihm verbundene Diagnose einer »Krise der Arbeitsgesellschaft« in die reformpolitische Debatte zurückkehrt. Sie bilden eine sich zunehmend artikulierende »Antithese« zu dem in Deutschland von der rot-grünen Bundesregierung eingeführten Modell der »aktivierenden Arbeitsmarktpolitik«, das unter anderem eine Kultur des Misstrauens gegenüber Arbeitslosen institutionalisiert hat. Vor diesem Hintergrund versammelt das vorliegende Buch sozialwissenschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge. Im Anschluss an eine Rekapitulation und Neuformulierung dieser Diagnose, die in Deutschland erstmals von Hannah Arendt prononciert formuliert wurde und nun wie eine »Wiederkehr des Verdrängten« eine Renaissance erfährt, folgen darauf bezogene zeitdiagnostische Fallrekonstruktionen sowie Beiträge zu Fragen der Realisierung des Grundeinkommensvorschlags. Enthält Beiträge von Olaf Behrend, Eva Daniels, Thomas Franke, Manuel Franzmann, Achim Greser, Heribert Lenz, Matthias Jung, Ingmar Kumpmann, Jörn Lamla, Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer, Matthias Müller, Ulrich Oevermann, Michael Opielka, Andé Presse, Gerhard Schildt, Ariadne Sondermann, Johannes Suciu, Yannick Vanderborght, Philippe Van Parijs, Georg Vobruba, Götz W. Werner.
The are three groups of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Africa, which are very different regarding their size, elevation, geological age and number of mosses and liverworts. Mauritius is situated 900 km E of Madagascar on 21°S and consists of volcanic rocks which originated about 8 million years ago. The island is relatively small, about 60 km from W to E and 80 km from N to S, and also relatively low with only a few mountains reaching 800 m altitude. Due to massive habitat destruction and deforestation, the natural forest is almost totally destroyed. Already Renauld (1897) stated "l'extension des cultures a forcément diminué la richesse de la vegetation spontanée". The lower altitudes are almost totally converted to sugar cane plantations. The largest semi-natural part of the island is the Black River National Park in the SW of the island, a high plateau with partial swampy forests, which is eroded by deep gorges. The SE flanks face the wind clouds and receive precipitation of up to 4000 mm or more. The NW parts are distinctly drier, particularly the higher mountains in the NW part of the Island (Le Pouce and Pieter Botha). The vegetation in the higher parts consists of a secondary growth of Sideroxylon bush which is partially forested with Pinus and Eucalyptus. A bryophyte flora of Mauritius was published by Tixier & Guého (1997), which is unfortunately no more available. The moss flora was treated by Frahm et al. (2009) and Een (2009). It consists of 238 species, as compared with 158 species of liverworts included in the checklist of the East African Island by Grolle (1995), updated by Wigginton (2009). (For comparison: Madagascar has 372, Réunion 260, Rodriguez 27, the Seychelles 108, the Comores 143 liverwort species). Réunion is situated 170 km E of Mauritius at the same latitude (between 20° and 21°S). It is with 2511 km2 only slightly larger as Mauritius but with 3069 m much higher. It is with 2 mya also much younger than Mauritius. Due to the steepness, natural habitats in the interior of the island are in a good state of conservation with the only exception of the coastal and lowland regions, which are densely populated. A checklist of the mosses and liverworts of Réunion was published by Ah-Peng & Bardat (2005), additional notes on the mosses by Frahm (2010). Mauritius and Réunion are comprised as the Mascarenes Islands. Further north are the Seychelles, which reach 4° S and thus almost the equator. They consists of 115 Islands, which are dispersed within 400.00 m2 in the Indian Ocean north of Réunion and Mauritius. They are usually divided into the Inner and Outer Islands. The Outer Islands comprise of the Amirantes; Alphonses; Farquhar Islands and Aldabra Islands. Only six species of mosses are known from some of the Aldabra Islands. The Inner Islands consists of 42 granitic islands and two coral islands (Bird Island, Denis Island). The granitic islands are part of the former Gondwana continent and have never been submerged during their geological history. After the split of the Gondwana continent, the Seychelles remained attached to India until 65 mya. Amongst the granitic islands, Mahé, Praslin, Silhoutte and La Digue are the largest and the most visited ones by bryologists, the others are much smaller.
The mediterranean vegetation is determined by a seasonal climate with hot and dry summers and cold and rainy winters. These contrasting seasons determine much the bryopohyte flora
by the way that part of the species are winter annual and show up only during the rainy seasons but diasappear over the summer. Therefore the best season for observing and collecting
bryophytes are the months January to March or April. As a consequence, a high percentage of mosses and liverworts are winter ephemerals, finishing its live cycle within two months such as many acrocarpous mosses, or „oversummer“ the dry period in dry state almost not visible such as many thalloid liverworts. This counts for the true mediterranean vegetation, which is found in the coastal areas around the Mediterranean Sea up to some hundred meters altitude, which is focussed in this books. The mountain areas as well as the temperate forests show a more temperate flora. Therefore the bryoflora of the higher regions is similar to that of Central Europe is is not concerned. Aim of this book is not to give an academic seminar on the ecology, altitudinal zonation, regional biodiversity or structural adaptation of mediterranean bryophytes nor to give
bibliographies for regional or complete (there is only one for liverworts) checklists or books for identifications but an illustrated guide to the mosses and liverworts of the Mediterranean with some comments on the species.
This book addresses the key issues of reinstating the veritable nature of African values and most specifically those of the Bamilikes that had been discarded since Western Christianity came into contact with black Africa considered animist. This task is warranted by the malaise experienced in churches by some African Christians. This is further made necessary and even pressing by the sense failure that the first wave of evangelisation, which has proven incapable of incorporating the Words of God in the African religious belief systems. This analysis takes into account the exigencies of the present context. The media as well as educated men talk ceaselessly of globalisation and the global village. The question we should be asking is to know if globalisation can be attained without due consideration of African values. This work aims at showing the scientific, sociological and cultural bases of African values so far castigated by colonial discourse. One of the ways to make this known is to expose it, analyse it and show its importance at various levels.
This is a very engaging book based on compelling stories of human triumph over adversity coming out of Africa, Asia and America. Gideon's personal journey and his account of his mother and uncle in this book exemplify what it means to be truly resilient. The book is moving, well thought out and masterfully structured, a most riveting Read. Gideon For-mukwai draws on local wisdoms from his native Cameroon to tell a universal story. It is a book written in evidence of a mind in tune with the heart. Its stories, strategies, and metaphors provide incredible wisdom relevant to any society and explicitly remind readers that our circumstances may be different, but the strategies to overcome are the same. If a widow can make a legendary success story in Africa, then almost anybody can. What makes this book special is the fact that it is based on the stories of modest human beings.
This book was first published as a two-part essay in 1965 and 1967 in ABBIA - Cameroon Cultural Review - under the title 'Idea of Culture'. Its main argument is that indigenous Africans cultures must be the foundation on which the modern African cultural structure should be raised; the soil into which the new seed should be sown; the stem into which the new scion should be grafted; the sap that should enliven the entire organism. This culture, the object of imperialist mockery and rejected, needs rehabilitation. However, such rehabilitation of African culture cannot be a mere archaeological enterprise. It will not answer to dig up the past and live it as it was. Not only is African culture not without its imperfections, times change and African culture must adapt itself, at every turn, to the changing times. In restoring African culture, it is imperative to steer clear of two extremes: on the one hand, the imperialist arrogance which declared everything African as only fit for the scrap-heap and the dust-bin, and, on the other hand, the overly enthusiastic and rather naive tendency to laud every aspect of African culture as if it were the quintessence of human achievement.
A Dictionary of Popular Bali Names is an exceptional minefield of Chamba names, meticulously assembled and expatiated for the curious user. As a pioneer in the field of dictionary-writing in the Cameroon grassfields, Fokwang's third edition counts for more than a regular dictionary. It skilfully combines a short history of the Chamba people in Cameroon as well as ethnographic issues on the naming ritual. John Fokwang's work stands in a class of its own and will serve as reference material for people of Chamba descent and those who favour the use of African names in general. This edition is an exceptionally worthy contribution to the ethnography of the Cameroon grassfields and of course, the growing literature and interest on African names and languages.
Siita: mamusepelo
(2010)
A Practical Guide to Understanding Ciyawo has been developed over fourteen years and systematically explains for the novice the important aspects of Ciyawo grammar for effective communication. A practical grammar guide, the instruction is accessible, giving the basics of pronunciation, to building verb tenses, to ways of combining the different elements of the language in order to form sentences.
The following pages, initially prepared for limited circulation in 1961, contain brief extracts and summaries of those parts of Eugen ZintgraffÍs book Nord-Kamerun (1895), of most interest concerning the colonial Bamenda and Wum Division. ZintgraffÍs book, the first by a European about the Grassfields, has not been translated and is hard to get second-hand. In using these notes the following points should be borne in mind: ZintgraffÍs knowdie;ledge of Bali (Mungaka) and Hausa was very slight, and his discussions of character, motives and political institutions are consequently superficial and open to criticisms. He had no means of checking what he was told, or thought he was told. He had no previous knowledge of any similar culture and no training in ethnographical method. He was, however, a good observer, and his descriptions of tools, dress, weapons and the like, can be regarded as fairly reliable. Finally, it must be remembered that Zintgraff wrote the book to justify his own actions and to support that small but influential section of public opinion in Germany which favoured rapid imperial expansion. A full account of the actions and motives of ZintgraffÍs opponents in the Kamerun Governdie;ment and in the Colonial Bureau of the German Foreign Office has not been written: we only have one side of the story. But there are some suggestive points made in RudinÍs Germans in the Cameroons and others referred to in these notes. What is perhaps most striking about ZintgraffÍs account is the fact that the people of the Western Grassfields were not so isolated from one another or their neighbours as might be thought. A network of trade-friendships covered the country and big men exchanged gifts over long distances. These links must be set beside the insedie;curity due to raids and slave-catching, and are well worth investigation.
This book is a descriptive and documentary analysis of the Mankon I-language and E-language mirrored through aspects of history, geography, flora and fauna. These aspects manifest in the taxonomic nomenclatures attributed to referents in society. Because these referents were hitherto transmitted orally from generation to generation, the author has painstakingly analysed and documented aspects of Mankon culture for posterity. The work focuses in particular on Mankon proverbs for insights into the structure and function of the language. As a vehicle of communication, language plays a primordial role in encoding and decoding 'metalinguistic' data. Through thorough scientific linguistic universals and principals, Chi Che has proposed orthography for Mankon pedagogy that is simple, tenable and practicable. This book is the answer to the international clarion call for societies to analyse and document their endangered indigenous cultures. Schools, linguists, sociolinguists, anthropologists, historians and others will find this book especially useful.
Morgan Tsvangirais appointment as Zimbabwes Prime Minister in 2009 followed many years leadership of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trades Unions and the Movement for Democratic Change. How has that experience equipped him for high national office? Does he have the personal, intellectual and political qualities required to be President? In July 2004, as he was awaiting the verdict in his treason trial, Tsvangirai spent several days in conversation with Stephen Chan. Chan was concerned to find out if Tsvangirai was more than merely a charismatic leader of the opposition; if he had his own intellectual agenda [and] political philosophy. His questions were even-handed and astute. Discussion by discussion, Morgan Tsvangirai had become more open, more human less cautious and, paradoxically, more obviously and naturally presidential. Five years later, having reviewed the events since their discussions took place, Chan writes: I have not made a saint of him, not even an Atlas. I hope I have not criticized him too much or too unfairly. Probably no one could have done for Zimbabwe what he has. Citizen of Zimbabwe is a rare and intimate portrait of political leadership in Africa.
We henceforth would open our eyes, as obscene dancers of moving kidneys, as songs burning with sexual aches, alarm bells in the stomach of emptiness, today constitute our revolution. For Ada Bessomo, Obili, a residential area in Yaounde, capital of Cameroon, is the epitome of bitterness itself. How does one, in such a context, reconcile self esteem, a recollection of better days and love for a country that flexes its muscles against your breath, almost as if to test your patience, to suffocate its very future?
Die Rede von der Unrettbarkeit des Ich, die sich bekanntlich bis in die Postmoderne zieht, wird im ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert explizit und spätestens um die Jahrhundertwende topisch. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, so soll das vorliegende Buch zeigen, beteiligt sich an dieser Debatte mit einem außergewöhnlichen Beitrag: Er rekonstruiert in seinen literarischen Texten die sowohl psychologischen (nicht nur psychoanalytischen) als auch theologischen Wurzeln der genannten Gedankenfigur und macht sie auf diesem Wege zur Grundlage seines poetischen Schreibens und dessen immanenter Reflexion.
Rock of God (Kilán ke Nyùy)
(2010)
Rock of God centres on a significant war that Nso fought with Bamoun in the 1880s, and which war resulted in a devastating defeat for the Bamouns. During this war, a major Nso combat rule was broken: the Sultan (king) of Bamoun was decapitated. Both local story tellers and historians have indicated that the Sultan was only supposed to be captured alive. The play explores some very compelling reasons for this violation. It mocks any attempt at categorization because the events involved are as historically relevant as they are anthropologically profound; as literarily dense as they are linguistically compelling. It surely stands on its own because it clearly combines concepts of docu-drama, morality play, classical theatre, historical drama, and much more. But beyond all else, it is great artistry that demonstrates the genius of experimentation.
Wholeness Living
(2010)
Wholeness Living is about recognizing the power that exists within us, in others and in the Higher Power. When these powers are in harmony we experience growth in the sense of physical health, high self-esteem, high social interest, and high optimism. Therefore, wholeness living is the openness to the truth about the relationship with the physical self, the psychological self, others and the Higher Power. Based on years of clinical practice, academic research and personal investigation, Dr Bonaventura Balige's approach to leading a full, rich and happy life focuses on four main areas - the physical, the psychological, the social and the spiritual - any one or more of which can be at the root of our difficulties. In this book are lessons and heartfelt advice to help us address the issues interfering with our enjoyment of life. While it is true that life is often difficult, we have the tools to deal with any situation. Dr Balige shows us that every person has the power to create the wholeness that can see us through the storms of life. Every person can find happiness by following the steps explaining what wholeness living entails.
Réussite scolaire, Faillite Sociale : Généalogie mentale de la crise de l'Afrique Noire Francophone
(2010)
Two volumes of school textbooks have notably led to self repulsion and attraction by the other peculiar to the black African elite. These are the collection put together by the missionary brothers Macaire and Grill: Mamadou et Bineta authored by Andre Davesne alone or in collaboration with J. Gouin. To have an understanding of the kind of scholar produced by the foreign school in the colonies a century after, it is worthwhile retracing the itinerary, followed through readings by generation of pupils, to know the sources that fed their imagination. Out of tune with the universe of their birth, unable to efficiently concretize school teaching, but having certainly perceived that education and education alone is the new pedigree of distinction, school pupils have had to simulate the appropriation of fetishist models of knowledge without necessarily assimilating the spirit of the new civilization and much less taking the challenge to preserve self integrity redeemed through a complaisant dependence that spares from taking any action by fear of doing wrong or being called to order by the overbearing world. If not, how can one explain, in spite of the material and symbolic crises, that the elite since independence have not initiated a discursive strategy for another effective school system? Now, with aspiration or repugnance to discontinuity, the intentions are to rid Africa of the unhealthy residual French complexes in order to engage on the path of double acknowledgement and difference. This seems the most likely to restore trust amongst the peoples and to assure the endorsement of men worthy of being called such.
This collection represents, in substance and style, folk tradition in the North-West Region of Cameroon. Contained herein is a sampling of various human emotions, parental concerns, and societal conflicts: emotional insecurity, deceit, obstinacy, power and control, trickery, malevolence, greed, jealousy, and more. The stylistic representation is reflected in the double writing, as shown by the dialogues, the songs, and the use of choruses. These tales are ageless, placeless, and, therefore, anonymous; yet they are also the collective wisdom of a people who are supposed once to have walked the planet and communed with other animals and non-animals on the same terms. That is how humans, animals, vegetation, water, and hills/mountains are equally animate and have linguistic expression for their thoughts and sentiments. Folktales served primarily as entertainment, and also as a convenient way of teaching history and culture, and they invariably promoted good listening and speaking skills in the vernacular language as children learned to model the rhetorical patterns of their adult folklorists - with children taking turns night after night till they had gone full circle and then started recounting the same tales over. While the morale of some of the tales is obvious, that of other tales is not; and that, again, is typical both of the traditional mind set and of the educational backdrop of storytelling.
This book critically discusses missionary Christianity and colonization in Africa as twin enterprises with a common ambition. While the colonialist set out to invest capital and reap profit, the missionary desire was to tend and turn African souls from damnation. It was this desire that drove the missionaries into the interior, propelled by the belief that no land was too remote to escape their attention and vigilance. It equally kept missionary zeal buoyant. The clarification of the concept of salvation within the Roman Catholic Church during the Vatican II Council set in motion the current lethargy that has in some places crippled the mission itself. In retrospect, one can begin to wonder why Africans became Christians. What reasons motivated the early adherents to cling to this foreign religion? Were there some internal deficiencies in African traditional religions, which the Africans hoped to remedy by joining the new religion? Or was it just part of the wholesale flirting with whatever was foreign and perceived to be modern? What baits were used by the missionaries to entice Africans? Christianity posed a danger to many of the time-honoured answers to African problems. These were the values Africans converting to Christianity were expected to abandon. Why have Christians continually returned to their abandoned roots in time of crisis? This moving, well argued, richly documented and empirically substantiated study concludes by cautioning against the stubborn drive at radical conversion to Christianity with scant regard to the imperatives of enculturation.
Conflict in Northern Ghana appears to be increasing in amplitude and frequency and its effects are getting more devastating. It is the view of this book that the Government of Ghana and civil society organisations involved in aspects of conflict management have approached peace issues in the region with an inadequate understanding of the local issues that divide and unite the people, or using sufficient resources to preempt conflict. In 2003 The Mole V summit was held in Damongo to discuss strategic directions for comprehensive development and poverty reduction in Northern Ghana as a mechanism for supporting conflict management. It is the aim of this publication to contribute to the proposed plan by suggesting past and current conflict management resources and mechanisms which could be employed. The suggestions are informed by surveys, which are oulined in the book, of particular conflicts in the three northern Regions of Ghana between 2006 and 2008 - their histories, causes and effects and their resolution.
Child of earth
(2010)
Child of Earth is the story of Achu, a young African boy who loses his mother when he is still a baby. He is raised by his father in a household teeming with wives and children. Then the father dies and the task of raising Achu devolves on his aunt, his father's sister, who is married to one of the richest and most powerful men in the country. But the aunt is jealous because Achu is doing better in school than her own children . . .
The personality of the highly charismatic foremost African Nationalist, Kwame Nkrumah as featured once in a while in Ghanaian fiction. For example, the celebrated Ghanaian novelist, Ayi Kwei Armah draws attention to the corrupt nature of the Nkrumah regime in his famous novel, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. But this is by far the very first time that Kwame Nkrumah and his era have been made the main subject of a full-length novel.
Chopchair
(2010)
The extremely irritable and quick-tempered chieftain, Akendong II has 14 children, all girls, and is saddened by the fact that he has no chopchair, a male heir to his throne. Then news comes to him that his favourite wife has given birth to a pair of twins, boys. He is even more angered by the fact that he has two heirs, a source of trouble for his kingdom. To avoid his wrath, his councillors change the story, sending away one of the boys to grow in hiding. Learning of the truth about his birth 15 years afterwards, the prince in hiding returns, kidnaps the palace prince and demands his full share of the kingdom. His will is done, but at a very great cost to the chief's peace of mind and relationship with his people. This is by far the shortest of Asong's novels and the least complicated by comparison. But the conflicts, the hallmarks of his art are still there, so also is his breathtaking suspense.
Stranger in his Homeland
(2010)
Stranger in His Homeland completes the long-awaited trilogy of Linus Asong's fictitious village of Nkokonoko Small Monje, separately treated in The Crown of Thorns and its sequel A Legend of the Dead. However, it leads us back not to events after A Legend of the Dead, but to the crisis that created the passionately exciting The Crown of Thorns. Honest, enthusiastic, arrogant and self-righteous, Antony Nkoaleck, the first graduate of his tribe means well. But his society, entrenched in corruption, sees things differently and therefore judges him according to its own norms. Just one or two errors on Antony's part are enough to cost him his job with the government, the coveted throne of Nkokonoko Small Monje, and finally his life. It is a sad story, strongly reminiscent of Myshkin's fate in Dostoevysky's novel The Idiot, a story in which the Russian novelist vividly shows the inability of any man to bear the burden of moral perfection in an imperfect world.
Doctor Frederick Ngenito
(2010)
Dr. Frederick Ngenito shocks his entire ethnic community by finally marrying a girl whose rejection of him had cost him an enviable job. But this is nothing compared to the ire of the ancestors when he hides the facts surrounding his irate father's suicide and he is buried without the traditional cleansing, and which reduces him to a wreck. Harrowing but thoroughly enjoyable, this spellbinder of a novel is a brash standoff between filia and eros, science and fetish fears. Bloodcurdling premonitions and raspy raw effects make of this novel of many parts a story of dogged intolerance and catastrophe of half measures and falsification as quick solutions. Here is an unputdownable teeming with vivid true blood characters you cannot forget: Fred, brilliant, handsome, nai͏̈vely supercilious, the dream of every beautiful young girl; Beatrice, his wife, beautiful, proud, sensitive but unforgiving; Chief Mutare, Fred's father, the very incarnation of brute force, raw, untouched either by surface culture or inner human feelings. Upon the fatalistic relationship between these three characters, Asong builds this grim tale of great passions, of a love that is doomed. In this book stamped with an incomparable aura of authenticity, we see why Asong's novels are sometimes mistaken for case histories.
The Crabs of Bangui
(2010)
Every man lives for himself, using his freedoms to attain his personal aims, and feels with his whole being that he can at any moment perform or not perform this or that action. The higher a man stands in the social scale, the more connections he has with others and the more power he has over them, the more conspicuous is the predestination and inevitability of every act he commits. Upon this philosophy, a former banker, Hansel Bolingo, suddenly finds [or makes] himself the regional representative of a Chinese firm that deals in crabs in Bangui. This catapults him into a position of instant wealth. His mouth-watering affluence draws immediate attention while his hypnotic powers cause hundreds of [not-so-honest]citizens to clamour for shares from which he builds up a huge fortune. But he soon discovers that he cannot deceive everybody all the time.
Laughing Store is just what we need in times of troubles and uncertainties such as these. A book of humour from an acclaimed master of laughter, it lifts our hearts and raises our spirits. Jokes that touch about every domain of existence - from sex to religion, from births to deaths, from politics to the beer parlour, from the courtroom to the hospital. And most important of all, conceived in the supremely original Cameroonian flavour of jokes.
A Basket of Flaming Ashes
(2010)
Ashuntantang is an extraordinary weaver of words who showcases vivid pictures that compete with 3D simulation. Her greatest asset is her use of the beautiful traditional Cameroonian anchor that evokes folk tales with its moonlight romance and glory. You feel, laugh, weep, shiver, wonder, and hail the triumphant spirit of the persona as it navigates African postcolonial and global experiences with the melancholy of an exile who is purposeful, strategic, and a lot of fun.