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The relationship between police and the public in formerly colonised countries of Africa has never been smooth. It is plagued with clich's of suspicion, mistrust, and brutality which are all a result of the legacy of draconian policing in colonial Africa. This colonial hangover has chiefly been an upshot of sluggish switching from the mantra of colonial policing to community progressive policing advocated in democratic societies. This book, the result of five years of ethnographic and library research on the interaction and relationships between police and members of the public in Zimbabwe, is a clarion call for a generative progressive working together between the police and the public for a peaceful and orderly society. While it traces the historical trends and nature of policing in Africa and in particular Zimbabwe, the book demonstrates how law, morality and policing enrich one another. The book offers critical insights in the interpretation of contemporary policing in Zimbabwe with a view to inform and draw lessons for both police and the public. It should be of interest not only to legal anthropologists but also political scientists, members of the public, police instructors, police officers, and students and educators in academic disciplines such as criminal justice, criminology, law, sociology, African studies, and leadership and conflict management.
Moving beyond existing approaches that largely deal with the biophysical consequences of climate change realities in Africa, this book explores an alternative perspective that traces climate change as a travelling idea. It focuses on how globally constructed discourses on climate change find their way to the local level in the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon, thereby seeking to understand how these discursive practices lead to social transformations, and to new configurations of power. In the translation process from the 'global' to the 'local' level a continuous modification and appropriation of the idea of climate change takes place that finally leads to a concrete implementation of climate change related projects and sensitization campaigns. Hence, it is argued that in this increasingly interconnected and mediated world people in Africa (and elsewhere in the world) do not solely adapt to a changing climate, but also adapt to a changing discourse about the climate. Travelling between traditional rulers and their palaces, to the world of NGOs, journalists and ordinary farmers this study brings the reader on a captivating journey, that reveals how climate change engages in a variety of ways with different lifeworlds, revitalizes local cosmologies, gives birth to a new development paradigm, and moreover how it evokes apocalyptic anxieties and trajectories of blame at the grassroots level.
Urgency of a New Dawn is the cry of most Southern Cameroonians against those who they experience to be an oppressive, Machiavellian, hostile, parasitising, captor-like, secessionist, assimilationist, discriminatory, and dehumanising la République du Cameroun, to which they were annexed through misleading UN and UK politics and Politics as a condition toward their independence from the UK in 1961. Extrapolating only on these two territories, Urgency of a New Dawn is no less the sweeping story of one too many other peoples across Africa, tormented by the heedless partitioning of the continent by colonisers and the consequential neo-patrimonial and ethnic African Politics and politics of belonging. Forced either into spaces that were never theirs, or pushed out of spaces that they struggle to claim and/or prove theirs, many African peoples today find themselves engaging in endless battles, not against colonisers but against fellow black Africans, for the survival of their essence, their culture, languages, traditions, dignity, modes of being and identification, right to equality, and freedom.
There are milliards of off beam assumptions that Africa will always remain immobile in development of whatever type. This pseudo take has mainly been propounded by Western thinkers in order to dubiously make Africans internalise and reinforce this flimsy and flimflam dependency. Africa needs to embark on paradigm shift; and tweak and turn things around. Africa has what it take to do so quickly, especially now that new economic powers such as China and India are evolving as counterweight to the West. Shall Africa use these new economic forces to its advantage based on fair and win-win cooperation? To do so, Africa must make sure that it does not slink back into business as usual vis-a-vis beggarliness, dependence, frailty, gullibility, made-up backwardness, monkey business, and pipedreams, not to mention the nasty and narcissistic behaviours of its venal and navel-gazing rulers. Verily, Africa needs, inter alia, to use its God-given gifts, namely, immense resources, young population, abundance of vast and unexploited amounts of land. Equally, Africa must, without equivocation, invest copiously and earnestly in its people, the youth in the main. Most of all, Africa needs to shy away from all colonial carryovers and encumbrances. This volume shows many ways through and by which Africa can inverse the current imbroglio-cum-no-go it faces for the better; and thereby actualise the dream of being truly independent and prosperous.
Questions surrounding democracy, governance, and development especially in the view of Africa have provoked acrimonious debates in the past few years. It remains a perennial question why some decades after political independence in Africa the continent continues experiencing bad governance, lagging behind socioeconomically, and its democracy questionable. We admit that a plethora of theories and reasons, including iniquitous and malicious ones, have been conjured in an attempt to explain and answer the questions as to why Africa seems to be lagging behind other continents in issues pertaining to good governance, democracy and socio-economic development. Yet, none of the theories and reasons proffered so far seems to have provided enduring solutions to Africas diverse complex problems and predicaments. This book dissects and critically examines the matrix of Africas multifaceted problems on governance, democracy and development in an attempt to proffer enduring solutions to the continents long-standing political and socio-economic dilemmas and setbacks.
Pearls of Awareness
(2016)
Pearls of Awareness, contains poems of lyrical pleasure and spiritual upliftment. Its themes of ego-less awareness and awakening wisdom borrows from Buddhist mythical and mysterious teachings, African traditions and Christian Biblical teachings about the interconnectedness of all life, transcending boundaries of self and other, human, tree or animal, the living, the (un)placeable, the dead. The speaker's lyrical insights are comforting, even when mysterious, and because of their tone of tranquility and faith, eventually the listener will reach full understanding. Its strengths are its assured pacing of the poems, luminous imagery and wise insights, which brings clarity without explaining, making it work both as a spiritual message and enjoyable lyric.
This book comprises 19 creative non-fiction pieces and essays centred around the topics of language, thought, art and existence seen through the prism of practising artist in contemporary Africa. The collection continues with Zimbabwe's Tendai Mwanaka's creative non-fiction ideology of presenting non-fiction in a creative, fresh, easy reading, simple language. With most of the essays driven by personal stories, the author ably renders them accessible to a wide spectrum of readers from the scholarly to the journalistic and the general. The pieces are grouped according to the topics, with the language essays starting the book, followed by thought, existential, and art essays. In tune with the adage the personal is political, Mwanaka lets the personal drive these essays as he tries to investigate and conversationally navigate his thoughts, beliefs, feelings and experience on language, existence and art. This is an invaluable contribution to the academic establishment, social theorists, linguists, literary theorists, journalists, activists and the general readership.
This book explores the symbiotic relationship between philosophy and culture. Every philosophy emerges as a reaction to, or as justification for a particular culture and it is for this reason that philosophy may differ from one culture to another. It argues that philosophy is an essential part of every culture. Philosophy is the means by which every culture provides itself with justification for its values, beliefs and worldview and also serves as a catalyst for progress. Philosophy critically questions and confronts established beliefs, customs, practices, and institutions of a society. As reflective critical thinking, philosophy is linked to a way of life; a form of enquiry intended to guide behaviour; a form of thinking that sharpens and broadens our intellectual horizon, scrutinizes our assumptions, and clarifies the beliefs and values by which we live. Philosophy helps to liberate the individual from the imprisonment of ignorance, prejudice, superstition, narrow-mindedness, and the despotism of custom. Culture constitutes the raw data, the laboratory from which philosophers do their analytic experimentation. Culture is considered as philosophy of the first order activity. The book maintains that any genuine global philosophy must include philosophical traditions from all cultures and regions of the world, as it is by seeking alternative philosophical answers to some of the thorniest problems facing humanity that we are most likely to find more lasting solutions to some global problems. In this commitment to a universal humanity, we cannot afford to depend on solutions from a single culture or from the most influential cultures.
Whether Africa is developed or not, depends on how and what one addresses. Development is relative. Nonetheless, the fact is: Africa developed Europe; and thereby became underdeveloped. Addressed academically, the notion of development creates many questions amongst which are: Development in what? Whose development? Development for whom? Who defines development? In this volume, the development dealt with is polygonal; and touches on politico-economic sequels which also affect the social aspect. No doubt. Africa is abundantly rich in terms of resource and culture. Paradoxically, however, Africa is less developed economically compared to Europe thanks to the history of unequal encounters, among other reasons. We cannot emphasise enough the fact that Africas underdevelopment is the price of the development of Europe which is based on historical realities gyrating around Europes criminal past wherein slavery and colonialism enabled Europe to spawn its future capital and investment. How can anyone quibble about Europes development resulting from perpetual plunderage of Africa with impunity committed by European treasure-hunting adventurers? This volume prescribes Africas restorative recompense as the only way forward for the duo and the world.
Migration from Malawi to South Africa : A Historical and Cultural Novel ; Real-life Experiences
(2017)
Since the discovery and exploitation of minerals like gold, diamond and copper in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Malawi has played the role of a labour supplier. Malawians were attracted by the relatively higher wages obtaining in the South African mines up to the period of the decline in mine migrancy at the end of the 1980s. Following this decline, a cross-section of Malawians continued to emigrate to South Africa to seek various jobs in the burgeoning informal sector and also for trade purposes. Migration from Malawi to South Africa sheds light on the problems that labour migrants and traders encounter as they are 'toing' and 'froing' between Malawi and South Africa in pursuit of their respective goals. It shows that migration, which initially was exclusively done for wage employment, is becoming more complex by the day. This is a result of the infusion of elements of commercial migration, smuggling and human trafficking. The book advances the argument that the numbers of migrants to South Africa increased in the post-1994 period partly as a result of mal-administration by the successive democratically-elected governments in Malawi. This development weakened Malawi's otherwise promising economy and impoverished the rural masses. The book 'sees' forlorn hope in the future of labour migrants and traders, unless the Malawi Government starts to genuinely have the welfare of the populace at heart! The book is relevant and accessible to policy-makers, university and college students interested in migration studies, general readers and migrants, themselves.
Myths of Peace and Democracy? : Towards Building Pillars of Hope, Unity and Transformation in Africa
(2016)
The myths of peace and democracy in Africa are at the heart of this volume. Democracy and peace have become buzz words across postcolonial Africa. The gospel of democracy and peace is preached by national governments and by civil society and international organisations alike. But to what extent are the ongoing sideshows and charades of quasi-oligarchies in Africa really democracy? What do ordinary Africans mean when they hunger and thirst for democracy and peace? Positive and noble as the loud sounding rhetoric about democracy and peace in Africa might seem, the reality of propaganda and dissemblance and of multi-dimensional violence are simply too overwhelming not to be disillusioning. This book interrogates the rampant violence, enduring conflicts, autocratic governance, and facades of democracy amidst claims and calls for enduring peace on the continent. This is a monumental resource book for human rights activists, conflict management practitioners, civil society activists, political scientists, statesmen and development practitioners. It poses a challenge to those African governments who claim to embrace principles of democracy and respect for human rights to rethink and reconsider their role as ambassadors of peace, hope, transformation, and good governance.
Through multiple points of resistance, The Repressed Expressed underscores how hard it is to build a community in any nation with no beneficial qualities of hope and transparency. This informative collection of essays highlights that wherever stability and order are lacking, the universal appeal is to express that which is suppressed. Also, like a map or guidebook, The Repressed Expressed indicates how people in such geographical prisons strive to transform their agitation into spiritual and political pathways, free of pain and hurt from, and anger towards a dirty and corrupted world. It thus, underpins discord and brings to the fore the authority's penchant for heaping abuse upon those caused to live in fear. In short, The Repressed Expressed is an impressive compilation of literary evidence informing scholarship on opinions and beliefs relating to repression, its expression, and the immeasurable associated cost.
Poetry is fragments of music thrown into the air. The primary job and aim of a poet is to create these musical notes, to play these musical notes, and the wind will take these fragment notes, sounds, musics into the ears of listeners. Zimbolicious Poetry Anthology, Volume 2 is one of those winds among many others. As we all are aware of, when the wind travels it has no boundaries, it collects, it deposits, it mixes things up; you never know where that leaf you see the wind carrying will eventually be deposited, is there another wind, another element that is going to move that leaf to another place... We firmly believe it is a good wind. It will be able to push our poetry making in Zimbabwe into other frontiers. Zimbolicious Poetry Anthology, Volume 2 continues from where we left off with the first Zimbolicious Poetry Anthology we created in 2016. In this Volume 2, we have 77 poems from 30 poets and translators, which include among others; experienced poets, academic poets, street poets, emergent poets, beginning poets, all telling stories associated with what all these poets refer to as home, that is, Zimbabwe. It is an ongoing debate on what is Zimbabwe, what we want our Zimbabwe to be socially, culturally, politically, thus we allowed every opinion space in this anthology, whether us editors agree with them or not. We have poets tackling issues to do with poetry, writing in general, art, place, identity, tradition, struggle, culture, gender, collective understanding, religion, individual, human rights and love, among others.
African societies have rich histories, cultural heritages, knowledge systems, philosophies, and institutions that they have shaped and reshaped through history. However, the continent has been repeatedly portrayed negatively as plagued by multitudinous troubles: famine, conflict, coup, massacres, corruption, disease, illiteracy, refugees, failed state, etc. Even worse, Africans are often viewed as incapable of addressing their problems on their own. Based on such erroneous perspectives and paternalism, exogenous solutions are prescribed, out of context, for African problems. This book sheds light on the positive aspects of African reality under the key concept of 'African potentials'. It is the product of sustained consultation over a five-year period between seasoned African and Japanese anthropologists, sociologists and scholars in other areas of African studies.
This short story collection is the outcome of the writing residency for African women writers held in Jinja, Uganda, in January 2011. Writers from across English-speaking Africa contribute stories as diverse as the continent itself, stories that explore universal concerns in acutely individual ways. Among others, an upper-class Ghanaian confronts the irony of race from a prison cell; a Zambian mourns her sister and tackles the restrictions of tradition in a surprisingly humorous way; in Tanzania, two strangers go to extremes to seek elusive health; a Ugandan housewife reflects on personal and world politics as she watches a dog fight; another Ghanaian remembers a love affair that led her into an ancestor's embrace; two Nigerians shopping in London get more than they bargained for; and in a 2011 Caine Prize nominated story by Ugandan writer Beatrice Lamwaka, children cry tears of pain and happiness during an armed conflict.
This poetry anthology offers a feast and face of poetry as it currently is in Uganda. It is all encompassing and presents a variety of writers ranging from seasoned voices to new ones of great promise. The voices are adventurous, reflective, provocative and even sassy. The poets explore with passion diverse themes from the private to the public realm reassuring the reader that poetry is about everything and is perhaps everything. The pages of this anthology pulsate with rhythmic variations that give unexpected pleasure and provoke the reader to be exceptionally alert. This is a welcome and priceless addition to Uganda Poetry Anthology 2000.
The Pan-Africanist debate is back on the historical agenda. The stresses and strains in the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar since its formation some forty years ago are not showing any sign of abating. Meanwhile, imperialism under new forms and labels continues to bedevil the continent in ever-aggressive, if subtle, ways. The political federation of East Africa, which was one of the main spin-offs of the Pan-Africanism of the nationalist period, is reappearing on the political stage, albeit in a distorted form of regional integration. It is in this context that the present study is situated. Backgrounding the major dramas of the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar this book studies the personalities involved and their politics, and includes an account of the Dodoma CCM conference that toppled President Jumbe. It is also a detailed legal analysis of the union incorporating powerful new material.
Administrative law may best be defined by describing what it encompasses: it is that branch of law which deals with the individual versus governmental or administrative power. It covers court restraint of actions or inactions of public institutions, administrative processes of central and local government, parliamentary and subordinate legislat on and the means and procedures by which the rights of individuals are protected against abuse of power by public or local authorities, public corporations, tribunals and other bodies which discharge functions of public nature entrusted to them by law for the benefit of the citizen. It is hoped that this book will act as a wake-up call to all those who have been entrusted with the duty of making decisions affecting the rights of citizens to update themselves so as to discharge their duties correctly and in spirit of good governance. Administrative Law in Tanzania: A Digest of Cases covers high profile and landmark cases in topical areas of constitutional and administrative law from colonial days to present time, names, procedures in applying for prerogative remedies, constitutional principles and human rights, separation of powers between the Executive, the Legislature and the Judicature, natural justice and the rule of law, statutory ouster of jurisdiction of courts, and the right to legal representation.
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.
This book is the first comprehensive contribution to understanding the character of important societal transitions in Tanzania during Benjamin Mkapa's presidency (1995- 2005). The analyses of the trajectory of these transitions are conducted against the background of the development model of Tanzanian's first president, Julius Nyerere (1961-1985), a model with lasting influence on the country. This approach enables an understanding of continuities and discontinuities in Tanzania over time in areas such as development strategy an ideology, agrarian-land, gender and forestry issues, economic liberalization, development assistance, corruption and political change. The period of Mkapa's presidency is particularly important because it represents the first phase of Tanzania's multi- party political system. Mkapa's government initially faced a gloomy economic situation. Although Mkapa's crusade against corruption lost direction, his presidency was characterised by relatively high growth rates and a stable macro-economy. Rural and agrarian transitions were dominated by diversification rather than productivity growth and transformation. Rural attitudes in favour of land markets emerged only slowly but formal land disputes showed more respect for women's rights. Some space emerged for widening local participation in forest management, but rural dynamics was mainly found in trading settlements feeding on economic liberalization and artisanal mining. The transitions documented and analysed of Mkapa's presidency, however, indicate only limited transformational change. Rural poverty is therefore likely to remain deep and the sustainability of economic development to be at risk in the future. Mkapa was, however, able to protect the legacy of peace and political stability of Nyerere, but there were nevertheless important challenges to the first multiparty elections and governance, and particularly in Zanzibar. The post- script (covering 2005 2010), indicates that the incumbent president, Jakaya Kikwete, has yet to prove that he can change this legacy of Mkapa. Co-published with the Nordic Africa Institute and the Sokoine University of Agriculture, the contributions to the eleven chapters of this book are evenly shared between Tanzanian, Nordic and other European researchers with a long-term commitment to Tanzanian development research. he book is dedicated to the youth of Tanzania.
The 'Washington consensus' which ushered in neo-liberal policies in Africa is over. It was buried at the G20 meeting in London in early April, 2009. The world capitalist system is in shambles. The champions of capitalism in the global North are rewriting the rules of the game to save it. The crisis creates an opening for the global South, in particular Africa, to refuse to play the capitalist-imperialist game, whatever the rules. It is time to rethink and revisit the development direction and strategies on the continent. This is the central message of this intensely argued book. Issa Shivji demonstrates the need to go back to the basics of radical political economy and ask fundamental questions: who produces the society's surplus product, who appropriates and accumulates it and how is this done. What is the character of accumulation and what is the social agency of change? The book provides an alternative theoretical framework to help African researchers and intellectuals to understand their societies better and contribute towards changing them in the interest of the working people.
This handy book is a beginner's complete course in the Swahili language, designed especially for foreigners. The book is a result of the author's many years of teaching experience. It is divided into two parts: part one covers pronunciation; Swahili greetings and manners; classification of nouns; adjectives, verbs, adverbs, etc. in twenty-eight lessons and thirty-six exercises. part two includes a study of Swahili usage in specific situations (e.g. at home, in the market, on the road, at the airport, etc.); eleven further lessons and thirteen exercises; the key to the exercises in Parts One and Two; and a Swahili-English vocabulary of words used in the book.
President Juliys Kambarge Nyerere was the first President of the United Republic of Tanzania and Founder of the Nation. He came into power through the ballot - a democratic process held in 1961, and remained in power for more than two decades. Mwalimu Nyerere was a gifted and morally upright man. He was a true son of Africa - a Pan-Africanist, a nationalist, charismatic orator, steadfast thinker, diplomat and above all a teacher. He chose to be called simply Mwalimu-Teacher. Throughout his term of office he gave hundreds of speeches; some were prepared in advance others given extemporaneously. The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation (founded by Mwalimu Nyerere himself in 1996) has assembled and put his speeches and writings into books. The Quotations in this book are only those picked from the books in Freedom Series and his University Lectures. They are presented and arranged under the following themes: Philosophy of life, Equality of Man, Colonialism, Tanzania's Revolution, Democracy, Self-reliance, Rural Development, Non-alignment, African Unity, the United Nations, Leadership and Education.
Aspects of Colonial Tanzanian History is a collection of essays that examines the lives and experiences of both colonizers and the colonized during colonial rule in what is today known as Tanzania. Dr. Mbogoni examines a range of topics hitherto unexplored by scholars of Tanzania history, namely: excessive alcohol consumption (the sundowners); adultery and violence among the colonial officials; attitudes to inter-racial sexual liaisons especially between Europeans and Africans; game-poaching; European settler vigilantism; radio broadcasting; film production and the nature of Arab slavery in Zanzibar. A particularly noteworthy case related to European vigilantism is examined: the trial of Oldus Elishira, a Maasai, for the murder of a European settler farmer in 1955. The victim, Harold M. Stuchbery, was speared to death when he attempted to 'arrest' a group of Maasai young men who were passing through his farm. The event highlighted the differences in the concepts of justice held by Maasai and the imported justice systems from the colonizers. It also raised vexing questions about the colonial judge's acquittal of Oldus Elishira, while the Maasai who should have been satisfied with that decision decided to take it upon themselves to mete out an appropriate punishment to Elshira instead of total acquittal, and to compensate Mrs. Stuchbery for the death of her husband by giving her a number of heads of cattle.
The Wicked Walk
(2012)
Nancy slaps palms with her friends and laughs a lot. She wears bell-bottom pants which swing when she walks through Uhuru Gardens. Nancy will finish secondary school this year, but she doesn't really know what will happen to her after that. Deo reads seriously, but he also spends many evenings in bars. He works in a factory laboratory, where his Form VI education elevates him above the other workers. He knows that there are some 'big men' who live off the sweat of the others at the factory; it isn't right, but what does a lone youth do about it? Deo also wants to marry Nancy. Magege, the manager of 'Mountain Goat Rubber Factory', has the means to fulfill all his personal wants-including his taste for young girls. Nancy's mother, Maria, has no private means except selling her own body and her dream of a better life for her daughter. The Wicked Walk swirls around the lives of these four, set on a backdrop of workers' struggles and the rhythm of Dar es Salaam as city dwellers, and especially youths, know it. In this searingly honest, and at times poignant, novel the author raises important questions about the position of women in society, the causes of prostitution, corrupt and inefficient managers, and the groupings of youth who struggle towards ideological clarity as they attempt to understand their society.
The most fundamental difference between developing and developed societies is technology, in a broad yet specific sense; so states the author of this important study, Liberation and Technology: Development possibilities in pursuing technological autonomy. The ways in which technology is developed, institutionalized, animated and celebrated, form the core of development (human, economic, environmental, etc.) and ultimately civilization itself. But techno-spheres are not only technical. They are also social, political, and ideological. For societies and countries that have long been kept from realizing their own prosperity and dignity, development is also liberation. The main treatise of this book is that each developing society ought to seek to achieve technological autonomy in its quest for positive transformations and prosperity for its people. Technological autonomy is about attaining a high level of self-determination in planning and managing technological affairs. Attaining endogenous capacity to guide and execute decisions on production and innovation; creating and transferring key technological products and services; steering relevant foreign and local investment as well as trade; setting own priorities of development free from external manipulation; are goals that must be central to such planning efforts. With evidence and argument, and in plain language, this book suggests a novel way of thinking about development, through envisioning and building better techno-social systems. For these reasons this book is a welcome addition to the body of ideas informing practitioners and theorists in the field of developmentpolitical leaders, economists, sociologists, engineers, technologists, scientists, scholars, planners and activists who are involved in relevant development processes and liberation struggles.
The Wish
(2014)
Mria is a good student who excels at science and math, she dreams of skyscrapers and one day training to be an engineer. However, her father has different ideas, he would rather see her become a lawyer, believing that science is not a suitable subject for girls to study. With the support of her best friend Sipe and teachers at schools, Mria tries to ?nd a way to show her father her talents and importance of following her dreams. Mwamgwirani J. Mwakimatu has crafted memorable characters with real-life dilemmas in this touching and entertaining, award-winning novel. Young readers and adults alike will enjoy this tale which shows the importance of following your dreams and believing in yourself.
A New History of Tanzania
(2017)
Tanzania, the land and the people have been subject of a great deal of historical research, but there remains no readily accessible and concise history of the country. The aim of this volume is to fill that void. A New History of Tanzania takes its name from a lecture series introduced at the University of Dar es Salaam by Professor Isaria Kimambo in 2002. Prior to that, a book titled, A History of Tanzania, had been published in 1969 by East African Publishing House in Nairobi for the Tanzania Historical Association. That book is currently out of print and this is not a reprint. In this book, Prof. Kimambo has been joined by two other colleagues; Prof. Gregory H. Maddox of Texas Southern University, Houston (USA) and Salvatory S. Nyanto, a Tanzanian, Lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Iowa (USA); together they have produced an outline history of Tanzania that covers all important aspects from antiquity to the present that is different from and richer than its predecessor. Sources from the fields of archaeology, anthropology, biology, genetics and oral tradition have been used to produce this excellent book.
A Son of Two Countries is a story of struggle for education. Born in 1946 in Rwanda under Belgian colonial rule, the author recounts his early education in Rwanda and later as a refugee in Tanzania. He was naturalized as a Tanzanian citizen in 1980 while doing his undergraduate studies at the University of Dar es Salaam. As he struggled to get education, the author was also grappling with his refugee status, with all the challenges that it entailed. The book gives insights into the contradictions of colonial and post-colonial education, as well as the author's reflections on education in Tanzania, given his long experience in the education sector in that country. Finally, we get some glimpses into the dual identity of the author as a Tanzanian citizen of Rwandan origin and how this shaped his relationship with the two countries he calls home. As he aptly puts it, 'Rwanda gave me my heart; Tanzania gave me my brain. I find it difficult to choose between my heart and my brain'.
On 20th January 1964, at the Colito Army Barracks just outside Dar es salaam, 15 officers of the Tanganyika Army that was inherited from the colonial state led a mutiny against the independent Tanganyika government. One group went to the State House with the intention of forcing President Julius Nyerere to accept their demands. What would have happened if they had succeeded in entering the State House and if President Nyerere had refused to accept their demands, as he most likely would have done? Anything could have happened and in the worst case scenario Tanzanias history and indeed the history of the whole of Africa would have been seriously affected. This book is about the courage and quick thinking of Peter Bwimbo, the then head of the Presidential Protection Unit and Nyereres Chief Body Guard who, alone, planned and executed an ingenious and successful evacuation of President Nyerere and Vice President Rashid Kawawa, whisking them away from the State House before the mutineers got there. By a clever ruse he convinced the ferry operators on duty before dawn to ferry them across the Kigamboni Creek. From there they walked several miles to a hiding place in a house that was offered by an ordinary citizen and where they stayed until the situation was normalised several days later.
Is globalization beneficial to Africa? Does it open infinite opportunities for economic growth, development and social transformation of the continent? It is the assertion of contributions to this collection that for Africa, globalisation is a counter-revolutionary movement that is stalling the drive of the continent's societies to transform themselves into developed and prosperous entities - just as slavery and colonialism. Included are contributions from eminent scholars such as Samir Amin, Horace Campbell, Thandika Mkandawire and Cyril Obi.
Most African national economies depend on the exploitation of both renewable and non-renewable natural resources for development. Conventional and unconventional exploitation of natural resources has left negative carbon footprints. This has also degraded hotspots across the African continent, impacting negatively on people and the environment. A Green Economy offers the continent the opportunity to achieve sustained economic development devoid of environmental degradation and inefficient utilisation of natural resources. This book, Promoting Green Economy, explores issues affecting the socio-economic development of the continent and focuses on Africa's need for a green economy. With chapters written by seasoned authors from academia and industry across the continent, the book examines the challenges of sustainable management of Africa's natural resources and recommends the need for the continent to transit towards green economy as this can provide opportunities for minimising environmental footprints of all economic activities. The book calls on the commitment of the public and private sectors to the development of appropriate green economy policies and regulatory frameworks to promote inclusive growth.
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.
Current Challenges with their Evolving Solutions in Surgical Practice in West Africa : A Reader
(2013)
Worldwide, there is a plethora of study materials in the form of authoritative review articles on disease entities afflicting the Western world but relatively few publications exploring similar problems confronting the developing countries, where resource limitation adds an extra dimension to the challenges facing the clinician. The contributions in this Reader address common surgical challenges and what measures have evolved to countenance these problems. This therefore addresses 'Current Surgical Practice', placing emphasis on the principles underlying the consensus opinions prevailing in surgical management. The approach is practical, avoiding the minutiae of procedures for which appropriate references detailing such information are provided. The contributions have come from a broad suave of critical management problems in the salient fi elds of surgery. Regrettably some urgent areas of public interest are not covered but it is clear that this volume represents the beginning of a process, yea, the initiation of an epoch of Recent Advances in Surgical Practice; we are confi dent that such yawning gaps in coverage would soon be made good by subsequent developments, stimulated by issuance of this publication.
The Mind of Africa
(2015)
William Abraham studied Philosophy at the University of Ghana, and even more Philosophy at Oxford University. Thereafter, he gained permission to take part in the competitive examination and interview for a fellowship at All Souls' College. The examination was once described, with some exaggeration, as 'the hardest exam in the world!' It included a three-hour essay. Following his success in becoming the first African fellow of All Souls, his interest in African politics quickly developed into a Pan-African perspective. The Mind of Africa, written while he was still at All Souls, was a fruit of that enlarged perspective. After several years as a Fellow, he had occasion to visit Ghana in 1962. There Kwame Nkrumah, then President of Ghana, successfully persuaded him to return to Ghana to teach at the University of Ghana, Legon and he subsequently resigned from All Souls. In 1968, he went to the United States as a visiting professor. This was followed by invitations to teach at various academic institutions there, including Berkeley and Stanford. He subsequently settled in California, where he continued to teach and research philosophy in the University of California at Santa Cruz until his retirement. ...The Mind of Africa appeared at a time when a number of African countries were obtaining, or fighting for, their political freedom from their colonial rulers and becoming independent nations and expecting to build new societies in accordance with their own visions and conceptions, though not necessarily jettisoning all the features of their colonial heritage. Building new societies requires appropriate ideologies and philosophies fashioned within the crucible of their cultural and historical experiences. Thus, the relation between ideology and society is taken up at the very outset of the book... The Mind of Africa is important for Africa's future and identity.
This is a brief introduction to the history of Elmina, its castle, the people, and their traditions. It outlines the town's 500-year relations with Europeans, highlighting the transformations that have developed out of these interactions. Written by one of the top historians of Ghana and a leading scholar of the African diaspora, the book is based on original archival information and orally-derived sources. It is also richly informed by the writer's own personal knowledge as a Nyampa Safohen and citizen of Elmina. Despite the tremendous changes engendered by the European contact, Elmina's historical development demonstrates an amazing degree of cultural continuity and resilience in its political institutions, social organization, economic systems and worldview.
Literature about Christianity in Africa disproportionately directs attention to the important work of Western missionaries, but to a great extent Africans were the agents of their own conversion. This is true of the key figure in this book, Kamba Simango. Encouraged from a distance by an American Congregationalist missionary, Fred R. Bunker, who shared his commitment to an African-led work, Simango, Tapera Nkomo and others struggled against difficult odds in the Mozambique Company region of Manica and Sofala in Central Mozambique. This study reveals the humanity of its characters as well as their deep devotion to their task.
Jonathan Nkhoma, in this scholarly collection of essays, enriches the reader with different interesting windows on how one can unearth the riches contained in some of the New Testament writings. The first two essays underscore the importance of placing the New Testament in a proper context and attempt to construct this context by discussing the historical background and the theological understanding of the Qumran Covenanters as derived from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jonathan Nkhoma treats many aspects touching the proper interpretation of the New Testament writings. For example, he shows how the sacramental rituals of washing and eating together in the Qumran Community add meaning to the same rituals carried over to the New Testament. The significance of table fellowship is treated in greater depth in a subsequent essay. Throughout the various essays the question of the historicity of the various texts is treated in a succinct way and the author is able to come to some helpful conclusions drawing on the previous work of many well know scholars. The later essays tackle the very difficult question of martyrdom and Jonathan Nkhoma delves into the history of two particular cases in order to shed light on this difficult subject. All essays are written in impeccable English which flows in an easy style. This collection of essays would be invaluable to anyone who would wish to make a serious study of the New Testament writings.
This pioneering and fascinating book is the first to tell the story of the remarkably enduring bonds between Malawi and Scotland from the time of David Livingstone to the flourishing cultural, economic and religious relationships of the present day. Why should there be any significant relationship between one small nation on Europe's north-western seaboard and another in the interior of Africa? How did it reach the stage where in 2012 Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs in the Scottish Government, could describe Malawi as Scotland's 'sister nation'? This book attempts an answer.
Making a Difference
(2012)
'Failure is not in my vocabulary' says Libertina Inaaviposa Amathila - medical doctor, leading member of Namibia's liberation movement SWAPO, and Cabinet Minister for 20 years. Insightful, candid and amusing, this book traces Libertina Amathila's journey from a village in western Namibia travelling alone to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1962; medical training in Poland, Sweden and London; and the health and education centres in Zambia and Angola that she helped develop and run for Namibians in exile; to a victorious return home in 1989; service in the Cabinet of independent Namibia; and a leading role in the World Health Organisation. Courageous, committed, cutting through difficulties that deterred others, Libertina Amathila has assisted and empowered Namibian communities, particularly women, in exile and at home. As Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing, Minister of Health and Social Services, and Deputy Prime Minister, she focused on those in need, such as squatters, street children, and those affected by HIV/AIDS, and undertook immediate practical measures to improve their lives. Packing her tent and supplies, she drove to remote areas and camped out until houses and clinics were built for marginalized communities, assisting in the design and construction process herself. An indomitable spirit drives this remarkable woman. This is her story.
This book on rights, entitlements and citizenship in post-apartheid South Africa shows how the playing field has not been as levelled as presumed by some and how racism and its benefits persist. Through everyday interactions and experiences of university students and professors, it explores the question of race in a context still plagued by remnants of apartheid, inequality and perceptions of inferiority and inadequacy among the majority black population. In education, black voices and concerns go largely unheard, as circles of privilege are continually regenerated and added onto a layered and deep history of cultivation of black pain. These issues are examined against the backdrop of organised student protests sweeping through the country's universities with a renewed clamour for transformation around a rallying cry of 'Black Lives Matter'. The nuanced complexity of this insightful analysis of the Rhodes Must Fall movement elicits compelling questions about the attractions and dangers of exclusionary articulations of belonging. What could a grand imperialist like the stripling Uitlander or foreigner of yesteryear, Sir Cecil John Rhodes, possibly have in common with the present-day nimble-footed makwerekwere from Africa north of the Limpopo? The answer, Nyamnjoh suggests, is to be found in how human mobility relentlessly tests the boundaries of citizenship.
One of the fundamental challenges in deconstructing, rethinking and remaking the world from a Pan African vantage point is that some captives have tended to delight in the warmth of the [imperial] predator's mouth. In other words, some captives forget that the imperial predator's mouth gets warm because empire is eating and heating up from prey on the continent. (De-)Militarisation, Transnational Land Grabs and Restitution in an Age of the New Scramble for Africa: A Pan African Socio-Legal Perspective is a book that knocks on key aspects relating to land, militarisation, a PostAfrican World Order and a chaotic Post-God World Order, which require critical scholarly and policy attention in the quest to free Africa from centuries-old imperial depredations. The book carefully navigates the imperial entrapments which are designed to focus African attention only on decolonising African minds without also engaging in the [imperially more unsettling] decolonisation of African materialities.
The Mbos are a large ethnic group in present day Cameroon and an important and powerful group until the Anglo-French partition. Following the defeat of the colonial power, Germany, in the First World War (WWI), the League of Nations in a March 1916 Mandate, partitioned the territory into two unequal halves among the victorious imperial powers of England and France, to be governed in trust as from 1922. As a result of the partition, the Mbos, who happened to find themselves right along the lines of division, were thrust under French and English administration, respectively. Roughly two thirds of the Mbos found themselves in what had then become French (East) Cameroon, while the remaining one third was thrust under British (West) Cameroon rule. Today the Mbos, as a whole, occupy parts of the Littoral and Western (Francophone) and Southwest (Anglophone) regions of Cameroon. While the Francophone Mbos have, over the decades, benefited from all aspects of economic, social, political, and agricultural development, the Anglophone Mbos have been isolated and deprived of all the outward and physical (tangible) aspects of socio-economic and political progress. The persistence of such colonial divisions makes for inequality among the Mbos, despite their common ancestry, ethnicity and cultural heritage. This book seeks to update on diverse aspects of the study conducted on the British Mbos by J.W.C. Rutherfoord and others as a first step toward a comprehensive publication on the Anglophone Mbos.
African Studies in the Academy : The Cornucopia of Theory, Praxis and Transformation in Africa?
(2017)
For a long time, African Studies as a discipline has been spearheaded by academics and institutions in the Global North. This puts African Studies on the continent at a crossroads of making choices on whether such a discipline can be legitimately accepted as an epistemological discipline seeking objectivity and truth about Africa and the African peoples or a discipline meant to perpetuate the North's hegemonic socio-economic, political and epistemic control over Africa. The compound question that immediately arises is: Who should produce what and which space should African Studies occupy in the academy both of the North and of the South? Confronted by such a question, one wonders whether the existence of African Studies Centres in the Global North academies open opportunities for critical thinking on Africa or it opens possibilities for the emergence of the same discipline in Africa as a fertile space for trans-disciplinary debate. While approaches critical for the development of African Studies are pervasive in African universities through fields such as cultural studies, social anthropology, history, sociology, indigenous knowledge studies and African philosophy, the discipline of African Studies though critical to Africa is rarely practised as such in the African academy and its future on the continent remains bleak. African Studies in the Academy.is a testimony that if honestly and objectively practised, the crossroads position of African Studies as a discipline makes it a fertile ground for generating and testing new approaches critical for researching and understanding Africa. It also challenges Africa to seriously consider assuming its legitimate position to champion African Studies from within. These issues are at the heart of the present volume.
Yves R. Simon (1903-1961), one of the greatest contemporary philosophers, gives a modern formulation for many classical philosophical concepts such as authority, the common good, and natural law. These topics have received extensive attention from scholars. Simon also discusses the nature of human virtue, moral and intellectual, but this topic has been less studied until now. The idea of virtue, and in our case virtue in political life, runs through Simon's works. Through a close study of Simon's works and the relevant secondary literature, this book explores Simon's definition of virtue in order to highlight its originality, and show how he weaves the need for it into the fabric of three facets of political life, namely, the common good, the virtue of the ruler and the ruled, and the law. These ideas are important for the ruler-ship of any country and especially of developing nations which are populated by sit-tight dictators. Philosophy can be dry and abstract, yet in this case we deal with one of its more practical manifestations.
Asomne amwue nda (Sorrow in the House) is an exposition of brutality, suffering, and sadness associated with destruction; citizens running scared, living in fear and don't know what to do. The poems illustrate how Africans find themselves lost in the midst of destruction. The collection exposes the emotions and sad feelings of soldiers and civilians; their experiences as a result of instability and suicide attacks. The poems are an expression of sorrow for a society that was once hailed for its communality but now is in ruins with conflicts and misunderstanding tearing society apart.
The Ways We Stretch Toward One Another is a collection of essays on the work of Pamela Reynolds. The essays take cues from Reynolds decades-long contributions to the field of anthropology in different ways. The authors weave Reynolds groundbreaking scholarship on the anthropology of childhoodof labour, of family, of resistance, justice, war and sufferingthrough the terms of their own work, in places and contexts that may at first appear quite distant from the villages of Zimbabwe and townships of South Africa that feature in Reynolds ethnographies. The Ways We Stretch Toward One Another is about anthropologists stretching in thought and practice toward one another, between generations, toward the people encountered in the field, through worlds entered and past, and how, in turn, these worlds lean into our own. At the core of each essay is a question about how we learn, how we pass lessons on, how we assume the mantle of anthropology for understanding the contemporary worldsomething that often requires folding intellectual friendships into the tools of our practice. The Ways We Stretch Toward One Another demonstrates how a master anthropologist has come to shape the priorities of others, in terms that are both creative and aware. Contributors: Thomas Cousins, Stefanos Geroulanos, Todd Meyers, Pamela Reynolds, Fiona Ross, and Vaibhav Saria; and a Foreword by Francis B. Nyamnjoh
As Julius Nyerere once noted, Africa has largely been the continent of peace, though this fact has not been widely publicised. In reality, Africa possesses dynamic potentials for resolving contradictions and violent ruptures that colonial authorities, post-colonial states and global actors have failed to capture and capitalise upon. Drawing on the everyday experience of rural and urban people in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and Zambia, this book brings into conversation leading Japanese scholars of Southern Africa with their African colleagues. The result is an exploration in comparative perspective of the fascinating richness of bottom-up 'African potentials' for conflict resolution in Southern Africa, a region burdened with the legacy of settler capitalism and contemporary neoliberalism. The book is a pacesetter on how to think and research Africa in fruitful collaboration and with an ear to the nuances and complexities of the dynamic and lived realities of Africans.
This is a book on the state of social anthropology as an academic discipline in contemporary Zimbabwe. The authors are frustrated and disheartened by a problematic visibility and sluggish growth of the discipline in the country. The book makes an important claim that the future and vibrancy of anthropology in Zimbabwe, lies in how well anthropologists in the country and in the diaspora are able to join efforts in articulating, debating and enhancing its relevance and vitality. The book provides critical overview and nuanced analyses of the role and continued relevance of the discipline in reading and interpreting the social unfolding of everyday life and dynamism. It is a vital text for understanding and contextualising histories and trends in the development of social anthropology in Zimbabwe and how anthropologists in the country navigate the tumultuous waters and struggles that have engrossed the discipline since colonial times. The book has the capacity to generate added insights and influence national, continental, and global debates and trends in the field.
If You Must Fall Bush
(2016)
If You Must Fall Bush brings the wide-ranging poetic voice of Nsah Mala to readers one more time as he explores themes ranging from the wanderlust syndrome of the twenty-first century to issues of corruption and the emasculation of African traditional values. Reading the collection is like delving into a treasure trough since each page brings to the limelight a new poem with a refreshing idea and manner of articulation that makes the collection even more thrilling. The collection is a critique of the ill-informed opinion of youths who feel that far-off lands are greener pastures.
Zimbabwean history is rooted in ethnic and cultural identities, inequalities, and injustices which the post-colonial government has sought to address since national independence in 1980. Marginalisation of some ethnic groups has been one of the persistent problems in contemporary Zimbabwe. Of particular significance to this book is the marginalisation of the BaTonga people of north-western Zimbabwe - a marginalisation whose roots are right back to the colonial era. Post-colonial Zimbabwe's emphasis on cultural identity and confirmation has, however, prompted the establishment of community museums such as the BaTonga Community Museum (BCM), to promote cultures of the ethnic minorities. This book critically examines the effects and socio-economic contribution of the BCM to the local communities and other sectors of the economy. It draws extensively on and problematizes prevalent debates on the biography of things to surface out the primacy of agency in heritage and sustainability.
This book weaves together a rich tapestry on football fandom in Zimbabwe. Based on empirical research focusing on the different dimensions of fan practices and experiences, the book is the result of multiple fieldwork processes with fans in Zimbabwe spanning a period of eight years including desk research, interviews, observation, focus group discussions and netnography. It demonstrates the nexus between social identities and supporting a sports team, highlighting that there are deeper underlying meanings and assumptions to one's support of a sporting team. Manase Chiweshe highlights the various nuances of supporting football clubs. This book provides an alternative way to understanding communities and how sport can be viewed as a serious lens into societal organisations. It offers important insights into how Zimbabweans are also engaged in leisure activities and that play is also part of their life worlds. Given the major focus on poverty, disease and conflict, African stories of intimate play and enjoyment tend to be sidelined. Soccer has the power to bring together or divide communities. In many an African context, just as in Zimbabwe, everyday ethnic and religious rivalries are played out through football matches. It is thus important to capture this space and use football as a way to heal historic and deep-seated conflicts.
Pride Aside and Other Poems
(2016)
Pride Aside and Other Poems rattles the brain as it blurs thematic boundaries. Even though Bill F. Ndi's poems seem to clearly draw inspiration from everyday life, almost all the poems are structured as sonnets. Through the lines of the various poems in this collection, influences of poets from different schools of poetic creativity and streams of inspiration resonate. They bring to mind the metaphysical poets, the Romantics, the Symbolists, the Confessionalists, poets of the Beat Generation, Committed poetry, etc. As such reading the collection places the reader before a multifaceted and intriguing cultural document imbued with literary influences from Chaucer to W.B Yeats and beyond. However, their insight and the richness of their humanity transform the poems essentially into meditations on the soul of our civilization. This poetic work is vibrant and thought provoking.
Annette Schemmel provides a highly illuminating case study of the major actors, discourses and paradigm that shaped the history of visual arts in Cameroon during the second part of the 20th century. Her book meticulously reconstructs the multiple ways of artistic knowledge acquisition - from the consolidation of the 'Système de Grands Frères' in the 1970s to the emergence of more discursively oriented small artists' initiatives which responded to the growing NGO market of social practice art opportunities in the 2000s. Based on archival research, participant observation and in depth interviews with art practitioners in Douala and Yaoundé, this study is a must read for everyone who wants to better understand the vibrant artistic scenes in countries like Cameroon, which until today lack a proper state-funded infrastructure in the arts.
Development Perspectives from the South : Troubling the Metrics of [Under-]development in Africa
(2016)
Not so long ago, The Economist described Africa as a hopeless continent. This damning description specifically referred to the development status of Africa. While the debate on the political and socio-economic [under-]development of Africa had been raging on prior to the Economists daring but controversial pronouncements, it intensified from thereon. Many concerned people from within the continent and elsewhere have reproved the proclamation but mainly in newspapers and the broadcast media. Not enough has been done by development scholars to critically reflect on the description and status of Africas development condition in a nuanced and systematic fashion. Yet, it is through incisive reflections and systematic engagements with Africas situations and circumstances that directions and solutions to the African development predicament could be forged. The present volume is an attempt to open up a constructive dialogue between the Global North and the Global South on the African [under-]development conundrum. The book is an eye opener to African governments, social scientists, policy makers and development scholars concerned with the urgent need to rethink, reimagine and retheorise Africas development gridlock.
This book is a biography based on a qualitative ethnographic study of adaptation to climate by Mr Zephaniah Phiri Maseko, an award-winning smallholder farmer from Zvishavane, rural Zimbabwe. Ethnographic data provides insight and lessons of Mr Phiri Maseko and other farmers' practices for rethinking existing strategies for adaptation to climate change. The concept of adaptation is probed in relationship to the closely related concepts of vulnerability, resilience and innovation. This study also explores the concept of conviviality and argues that Mr Phiri Maseko's adaptation to climate hinges on mediating barriers between local and exogenous knowledge systems. The book argues that Mr Phiri Maseko offered tangible adaptive climate strategies through his innovations that 'marry water and soil so that it won't elope and run-off but raise a family' on his plot. His agricultural practices are anchored on the Shona concept of' hurudza'(an exceptionally productive farmer). This book explores the concept and practices of 'uhurudza,'to suggest that the latter-day 'hurudza' (commercial farmer)'as embodied by Mr Phiri Maseko offers an important set of resources for the development of climate adaptation strategies in the region. This study of smallholder farmers' adoption of innovations to climate highlights the 'complex interplay' of multiple factors that act as barriers to uptake. Such interplay of multiple stressors increases the vulnerability of smallholders. The study concludes by arguing that in as much as the skewed colonial land policy impoverished the smallholder farmers, Mr Phiri Maseko nonetheless redefined himself as a latter-day 'hurudza and thus breaks free from the poverty cycle by conjuring ingenious ways of reducing vulnerability to climate. The book does not suggest that Mr Phiri Maseko's innovations offer a silver bullet solution to the insecure rural livelihoods of smallholder farmers; nevertheless, they are a source of hope in an environment of uncertainty. His steely tenacity in the face of a multi-stressor environment is to be treasured.
Barbed Forest
(2017)
Radical land reform programmes generate changes in agrarian structures and capital accumulation trajectories in the countryside. This book examines how capital accumulation is being reshaped by changing financing and marketing of agricultural commodities and presents an emerging Quadi-PMMR-model agrarian structure composed of the poor, middle, middle-to-rich peasants and some rich capitalists with a growing middle scale farmer base constituting two thirds of the rural population in Zimbabwe. This evidence based assessment, 15 years after the FTLRP, sheds light on policy outcomes and impacts on communities, revealing the changing production, marketing, capital accumulation and class formation tendencies across Zimbabwe's settlement models and agro-ecological settings. The book fuses the reliance on agrarian political economy lenses and factor component analysis to reveal the dynamics of agrarian change and to explore the dialectic between production and circulation and between the centre and periphery in exceptional fashion that expands our understanding of Zimbabwe's agrarian transition.
Diary of a Dismissed Delegate : Public Good at the Mercy of Bureaucracy and Sycophancy in Cameroon
(2016)
Diary of a Dismissed Delegate is the personal story of the trials and travails of George Ngwane as a civil servant in Cameroon. With documented evidence in support, the book delves into the destructive machinations of the bureaucracy and sycophancy at the heart of the Cameroonian public service, and its detrimental effects on meritocracy and the public good. It is a system where the personalisation of power devalues virtue, devotion and dedication to truth and the call of justice. For a country that has the ambition to recapture her lost middle income status, one that boasts of a huge critical mass of human capital, and that has all the potentials of a double digit economic development, political patronage and intolerance to creative freedom must be anathema.
Africa's Best and Worst Presidents seeks to deconstruct the current superstructure that colonialism created and maintains. It chastises and challenges Africans, academics in the main, to revisit and write a true history of Africa. Written by Africans themselves, such rewritten histories should aim to counter the counterfeit narratives which have proliferated, poisoned and diminished African sense of self and self-confidence. The history centred on African perspectives and experiences should go a long way in our quest to truly unfetter Africa from dependency, desolations and mismanagement. This book calls upon all Africans to stand up fearlessly and tirelessly to take on decadent and despotic regimes that have always held Africa at ransom as they get lessons from the best managers of state affairs on whose feats they must expand. The option to critique, cross-examine and dissect past African presidents and their excesses is aimed at giving the young and frustrated generations of Africans the intellectual resources they need to arm themselves in resolve and pursuit of Africa's emancipation.
There is no denying the havoc HIV/AIDS has wrecked around the globe. The worst impact is seen in the developing world and in impoverished communities in the developed world. However, being HIV positive is not a death sentence. Why then do many still die from it? Denial is the Killer is a fictionalisation of the reality on why and how the persisting vestiges of HIV/AIDS devastation can be stopped.
Words like 'colonialism' and 'empire' were once frowned upon in the U.S. and other Western mainstream media as worn-out left-wing rhetoric that didn't fit reality. Not anymore! Tatah Mentan observes that a growing chorus of right-wing ideologues, with close ties to the Western administrations' war-making hawks in NATO, are encouraging Washington and the rest of Europe to take pride in the expansion of their power over people and nations around the globe. Africa in the Colonial Ages of Empire is written from the perspective that the scholarly lives of academics researching on Africa are changing, constantly in flux and increasingly bound to the demands of Western colonial imperialism. This existential situation has forced the continent to morph into a tool in the hands of Colonial Empire. According to Tatah Mentan, the effects of this existential situation of Africa compel serious academic scrutiny. At the same time, inquiry into the African predicament has been changing and evolving within and against the rhythms of this 'new normal' of Colonial Empire-Old or New. The author insists that the long and bloody history of imperial conquest that began with the dawn of capitalism needs critical scholarly examination. As Marx wrote in Capital: 'The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signaled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief moment of primitive accumulation.' Africa in the Colonial Ages of Empire is therefore a MUST-READ for faculty, students as well as policy makers alike in the changing dynamics of their profession, be it theoretically, methodologically, or structurally and materially.
Decentralisation and Community Participation : Local Development and Municipal Politics in Cameroon
(2016)
This book explores how policies of decentralisation and community participation adopted in Cameroon in 1996 have played out on the ground since 2004. These reforms were carried out amid economic crisis, structural adjustment and political upheaval. At the time, popular sentiment was that change on the economic and political fronts was imperative. However, the ruling elite, some of whom had been shuttling around the state apparatus since independence, feared that succumbing to popular demands for change was tantamount to political suicide, as was the case elsewhere on the continent. These elites thwarted opposition demands for a sovereign national conference to discuss constitutional reform. The Francophone-dominated elite fiercely objected to Anglophone demands for the restoration of the Federal state that was dissolved in 1972. Instead, decentralisation was presented as an authentic forum for grassroots autonomy and municipal councils as credible arenas for community participation in local development. This study adopts an interdisciplinary approach to unearth the permutations of decentralisation and community participation in Cameroon. It explores how local actors have responded to the implementation of state policy of decentralisation. Further, it documents how local issues observed in Bali in the North West Region and Mbankomo in the Central Region of Cameroon impact and are impacted by national policies and processes.
Verses From My Roost
(2016)
'...this collection is both poetry and a reflection on poetry, on the creative process. In deceptively minimalist style characteristic of seasoned bards and a diction charged with intricate conceits, John Ngong Kum Ngong launches a scathing onslaught on the ruling barons of post-colonial nations who have privatised the nations' wealth and power.' Dr. Gilbert Ndi Shang, Bayreuth University, Germany
This book presents a study of the life history of Mtoro bin Mwinyi Bakari (c. 1869 - 1927). Mtoro bin Mwinyi Bakari grew up and studied Islamic Sciences in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. He became a Swahili lecturer and author in Germany and is known to have written Desturi za Wasuaheli, an important work in Swahili culture. The book introduces the wider historical context of his writings, and, in particular, reconstructs the racism and discrimination in both the colonial and metropolitan contexts, features which negatively influenced his career and his life as a whole. The study also offers insights into contributions of the colonized to the study of African languages and cultures during this same historical context.
The 2007 general elections in Kenya led to major unrest. The aim of this book is to examine and analyse the events that set the country on fire for several weeks. The situation has largely stabilised since April 2008, when the articles collected in this book were first individually published. Some political information has been updated post April 2008. The coalition government took shape with Mwai Kibaki remaining President while Raila Odinga became the Prime Minister. The country however remains in suspense, as do the donors who had made it possible for Kenya to restore a semblance of peace. But to what point will they be interested in investing in the country and to protect their place in it? The collection comprises a translation of a special issue of Les Cahiers d'Afrique de l'Est, n?37, the journal of the Institut Fran?ais de Recherche en Afrique (IFRA) and a collection of articles from Politique Africaine, n?109. On site researchers - Bernard Calas, Anne Cussac, Dominique Connan, Musambayi Katumanga, J?r?me Lafargue, and Patrick Mutahi; fieldwork carried out between December 2007 and February 2008 by Florence Brisset-Foucault, Ronan Porhel, Brice Rambaud; and in-depth country knowledge by Claire M?dard and Herv? Maupeu, combined to produce a mass of data within a short time. Whilst the tone of the book is not highly optimistic, the thrust is not intended to dampen the unanimous sense of hope in the country that the political and social situation will once more be more than just tolerable.
From its modest beginnings in the mid-19th century, Dar es Salaam has grown to become one of sub-Saharan Africa?s most important urban centres. A major political, economic and cultural hub, the city stood at the cutting edge of trends that transformed twentieth-century East Africa. Dar es Salaam has recently attracted the attention of a diverse, multi-disciplinary, range of scholars, making it currently one of the continent?s most studied urban centres. This collection from eleven scholars from Africa, Europe, North America and Japan, draws on some of the best of this scholarship and offers a comprehensive, and accessible, survey of the city?s development. The perspectives include history, musicology, ethnomusicology, culture including popular culture, land and urban economics. The opening chapter offers a comprehensive overview of the history of the city. Subsequent chapters examine Dar es Salaam?s twentieth century experience through the prism of social change and the administrative repercussions of rapid urbanisation; and through popular culture and shifting social relations. The book will be of interest not only to the specialist in urban studies but also to the general reader with an interest in Dar es Salaam?s environmental, social and cultural history.
Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa brings together important essays on songs and politics in the region and beyond. Through an analysis of the voices from the margins, the authors (contributors) enter into the debate on cultural productions and political change. The theme that cuts across the contributions is that songs are, in addition to their aesthetic appeal, vital tools for exploring how political and social events are shaped and understood by citizens. Urbanization, commercialization and globalization contributed to the vibrancy of East African popular music of the 1990s which was marked by hybridity, syncretism and innovativeness. It was a product of social processes inseparable from society, politics, and other critical issues of the day. The lyrics explored socials cosmology, worldviews, class and gender relations, interpretations of value systems, and other political, social and cultural practices, even as they entertained and provided momentary escape for audience members. Frustration, disenchantments, and emotional fatigue resulting from corrupt and dictatorial political systems that stifle the potential of citizens drove and still drive popular music in Eastern Africa as in most of Africa. Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa is an important addition to the study of popular culture and its role in shaping society.
Lack of transparency and accountability in the planning practice allow for misuse and abuse of the planning system to serve the interests of the more powerful and influential groups, including those entrusted with the powers of planning. The outcomes of a non-inclusive, non-transparent and insensitive planning include: insecurity of land tenure rights and subsequently investments in land; poverty; informal land subdivision and building; unplanned spatial growth and endless conflicts in land development. These are detrimental to the residents and erode their trust and confidence in the government. It takes an organized, informed, confident and courageous group of residents or community to reject the non-inclusive form of planning and cause adoption of inclusive and collaborative planning that allows them space in the planning process. The achievement of such an organized group ? a turn towards democratic planning practice ? leads to a conclusion that informed, organized, confident and courageous civil society is a pillar of democracy. This book therefore argues that ineffective planning results, among other things, from defective land policy and legislation, and planning inability to recognize and make use of opportunities for shaping the built environment.
he name Dar es Salaam comes from the Arabic phrase meaning house of peace. A popular but erroneous translation is haven of peace resulting from a mix-up of the Arabic words 'dar' (house) and 'bandar' (harbour). Named in 1867 by the Sultan of Zanzibar, the town has for a long time benefitted from a reputation of being a place of tranquility. The tropical drowsiness is a comfort to the socialist poverty and under-equipment that causes an unending anxiety to reign over the town. Today, for the Tanzanian, the town has become Bongoland, that is, a place where survival is a matter of cunning and intelligence (bongo means brain in Kiswahili). Far from being an anecdote, this slide into toponomy records the mutations that affect the links that Tanzanians maintain with their principal city and the manner in which it represents them. This book takes into account the changes by departing from the hypothesis that they reveal a process of territorialisation. What are the processesenvisaged as spatial investmentswhich, by producing exclusivity, demarcations and exclusions, fragment the urban space and its social fabric? Do the practices and discussions of the urban dwellers construct limited spaces, appropriated, identified and managed by communities (in other words, territories)? Dar es Salaam is often described as a diversified, relatively homogenous and integrating place. However, is it not more appropriate to describe it as fragmented? As territorialisation can only occur through frequenting, management and localised investment, it is therefore through certain placesfirst shelter and residential area, then the school, daladala station, the fire hydrant and the quaysthat the town is observed. This led to broach the question in the geographical sense of urban policy carried out since German colonisation to date. At the same time, the analysis of these developments allows for an evaluation of the role of the urban crisis and the responses it brings. In sum, the aim of this approach is to measure the impact of the uniqueness of the place on the current changes. On one hand, this is linked to its long-term insertion in the Swahili civilisation, and on the other, to its colonisation by Germany and later Britain and finally, to the singularity of the post-colonial path. This latter is marked by an alternation of Ujamaa with Structural Adjustment Plans applied since 1987. How does this remarkable political culture take part in the emerging city today?
This book is a compilation of oral histories about the movement of Luo and some Bantu-speaking peoples. It includes histories of many clans or ethnic groups, and how drought, warfare, disease, and competition over pastoral resources in western Kenya forced them to look for a land that they could call their own. Highly entertaining, the stories cross over from pre-colonial to post-colonial eras, with tales of fooling the colonial officers, winning battles and producing miracles. Although warriors and chiefs play a critical part in the stories so too do unlikely actors such as women, prophets, and common farmers. As one of the elders put it, 'Without history you are like wild animals' you need to know where you came from and who you are.' People with kinship connections to the ethnic groups represented here will delight in the references to places, people, kin groups and events. Residents of western Kenya will be able to trace some of their genealogies to North Mara and vice versa. Historians and anthropologists will find in this book a rich primary source for their own research. Those interested in cultural change will find this a fascinating case of Luo assimilation: events chronicled in this book are still underway and observable in communities today. Producing the text in both Swahili and English ensures that local people will have access to these histories for their own learning and on-going discussions about the past.
Despite being a large capital city in Africa in terms of size and its regional role, Nairobi is an unrecognised entity. For the majority of its inhabitants, the capital of Kenya is a transit point rather than a dwelling place. Since its origins, Nairobi has been a city of migrants, more predisposed to their rural roots than to their current city status. It is a non-conforming town, which conceals its urbanity more than it claims it, and whose identity remains evasive. Nairobi presents itself as a mosaic of residential areas which bring to mind the cityís history. The racial segregation that stratified the development of the colonial city has today disappeared, but it has given way to a form of social segregation. One must, therefore, not seek a unique identity in Nairobi, but rather, several identities - those of different communities that comprise the city and whose dynamics are seen at village and residential estate level. However, Nairobi is also a city that is contradictory. This East African capital city is often associated with slums and crime, and their increase and growth stigmatises the failure of urban policies. Therefore, it is at these cracks and fringes of the city that we should seek out the identities and dynamics that have shaped the city for a century. Nairobi is a fragmented city that can be understood in steps. The 13 contributory articles in Nairobi Today thus reveal the city. This multidisciplinary collective work invites us to gain entry into certain areas of the city, to visit its communities and to familiarise ourselves with its formal and informal institutions. This is a requirement in order to fully understand what makes Nairobi what it is today.
The importance of watercourses to human life and development cannot be overemphasised. From communication, trade, agriculture and the location of human settlements, they have played an immeasurable role. Almost 60% of Africa lies within shared rivers and lake basins. The Nile is shared by more than seven nations, the Zambezi by six, and the Congo by nine. With populations on the rise, many countries have been labeled water scarce nations, and in fifteen years it is predicted that many people on earth will be exposed to water shortage consequences such as famine and disease. Thirteen African nations already suffer water stress and soon another twelve will join the list unless something is done to thwart the problem. On March 20, 2009 in Nairobi, Hekima College collaborated with Jesuit Hakimani Centre and the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA) to host the Hekima College Water Day Academic Seminar with the theme Shared Waters, Shared Opportunities. This book is the result of critical research and presentations by internationally renowned scholars, researchers and experts, and students of the Institute of Peace Studies and International RelationsHekima College. For most of 2009 Kenya suffered severe problems caused by flooding which took many lives and destroyed homes and important infrastructures. It highlighted the issues of water management and water conflicts, not only in Kenya but in other parts of East Africa, as it was made abundantly clear that not only scarcity of water, but excess water, incorrectly managed, can be disastrous. This timely, scholarly book presents discussions of the issues which underlie the major water crises in the region. They open the debate into the water problems of Kenya and East Africa in an effort to join the global campaign to find solutions to these difficulties.
Cheche, a radical, socialist student magazine at the University of Dares Salaam, first came out in 1969. Featuring incisive analyses of key societal issues by prominent progressives, it gained national and international recognition in a short while. Because it was independent of authority, and spoke without fear or favor, it was banned after just a year of existence. The former editors and associates of Cheche revive that salutory episode of student activism in this book with fast-flowing, humor spiced stories, and astute socio-economic analyses. Issues covered include social and technical aspects of low-budget magazine production, travails of student life and activism, contents and philosophy of higher education, socialism in Tanzania, African liberation, gender politics and global affairs. They also reflect on the relevance of past student activism to the modern era. If your interests cover higher education in Africa, political and development studies, journalism, African affairs, socialism and capitalism, or if you just seek elucidation of student activism in a nation then at the center of the African struggle for liberation, this book presents the topic in a lively but unorthodox and ethically engaging manner.
War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry focuses on Eritrean written poetry from roughly the last three decades of the twentieth century. The poems appear in the anthology Who Needs a Story? Contemporary Eritrean Poetry in Tigrinya, Tigre and Arabic from which a selection is offered here in their original scripts of Ge'ez or Arabic, and in English translation. Who Needs a Story? is the first anthology of contemporary poetry from Eritrea ever published, and War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry is the first book on the subject. Therefore, the groundbreaking effort of the former warrants a discussion of its means of cultural production. All of the poets in Who Needs a Story? participated in the Eritrean struggle for independence (1961-91) as freedom fighters and/or as supporters in the Eritrean diaspora. Thus, contemporary Eritrean poetry divides itself between experiences of war and peace, although one can contain the other as well. War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry also includes an extended analysis of one of Eritrea's most famous contemporary poets Reesom Haile, as an example of the kind of extended analysis that many of the poets of Who Needs a Story? should stimulate and, last but not least, a meditation on how the author, a non-native speaker, personally becomes involved in Eritrean poetry translation.
This third volume of Tell Me, Friends collects stories and plays written by students and staff at the University of Dar es Salaam between 2006 and 2008. The stories in the collection are: 'Our Man' by Saida Yahya-Othman; 'The Window Seat' by Benjamin Branoff; 'The Concealed Project' by Zuhura Badru; 'The Total Crisis' by Simon Mlundi; and 'Testimony' by Emmanuel Lema. The plays are: 'The Monster' by Anna Chikoti; 'Love is...' by Kimberly McLeod; 'A Tanzanian Rooftop' by Benjamin Branoff; 'Judges on Trial' by Frowin Paul Nyoni; 'The Route to Success' by Yunus Ng'umbi; and 'The Mop' by Vincensia Shule. Read and share these stories and plays, and enjoy how they depict some of the social-economic and political factors that condition and shape our societies today.
Language is a tool used to express thoughts, to hide thoughts or to hide lack of thoughts. It is often a means of domination. The question is who has the power to define the world around us. This book demonstrates how language is being manipulated to form the minds of listeners or readers. Innocent words may be used to conceal a reality which people would have reacted to had the phenomena been described in a straightforward manner. The nice and innocent concept 'cost sharing', which leads our thoughts to communal sharing and solidarity, may actually imply privatization. The false belief that the best way to learn a foreign language is to have it as a language of instruction actually becomes a strategy for stupidification of African pupils. In this book 33 independent experts from 16 countries in the North and the South show how language may be used to legitimize war-making, promote Northern interests in the field of development and retain colonial speech as languages of instruction, languages of the courts and in politics. The book has been edited by two Norwegians: Birgit Brock-Utne is a professor at the University of Oslo and a consultant in education and development. From 1987 until 1992 she was a professor at the University of Dar es Salaam. Gunnar Garbo, author and journalist and former member of the Norwegian Parliament, was the Norwegian Ambassador to Tanzania from 1987 to 1992.
From Goatherd to Governor is Edwin Mtei's autobiography. It is a story of the journey a few Africans of his generation made, from humble beginnings to heights of success and power. Mr. Mtei was the first Governor of the Bank of Tanzania and the architect of Central Banking in Tanzania, Secretary General of the East African Community and Minister of Finance in Nyerere's Government. Born in 1932 in Marangu, Moshi, he was brought up in a grass-thatched conical hut by his mother, a single parent; he attended 'bush' school at Ngaruma Lutheran Parish Church, and herded goats after lessons finished; he attended Old Moshi Middle and Tabora Secondary schools and went on to Makerere University College in 1953. He graduated from there with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, History and Geography in 1957. In his own words he states: 'I have felt it worthwhile starting right at the beginning of my life. In this way, I aim to give some idea as to what it was like growing up in my birthplace, Marangu, in the tribal and colonial environment of Tanganyika in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. I touch on some of the traditions and beliefs of those days and on some colonial laws that impacted on our lives and surroundings.' But as he himself states: 'The most interesting part of my story is that relating to the events when I held senior positions in Nyerere's Government, and in the public service generally.' That includes his falling out with Mwalimu Nyerere over IMF and its policies, and his resignation from his post as Minister of Finance. For the first time he tells his side of that story. In 1992 Mr. Mtei threw himself deep into the waters of multiparty politics. He founded Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) - the Party for Democracy and Development - and worked tirelessly to see it grow and emerge as an important party in the opposition, despite his own failure to win the parliamentary seat for Arusha Urban in the 1995 election. Even at 77 Mr. Mtei does not mince his words. He says what he believes and says it with courage and conviction. This is history, spanning well over half a century, written by someone who was involved in and who observed closely the key events of his time. He is retired and works on his farm, Ogaden Estate, but still manages to ruffle feathers whenever he is asked to comment on the economy and politics of Tanzania and East Africa.
UNICEF estimates that Tanzania has over three million orphans. The Bethsaida Orphan Girls Secondary School seeks to help the ?most vulnerable of Tanzania?s children. Founded by Mrs. Anna Machary in 2005 under the auspices of the non-governmental organization, the Olof Palme Orphans Education Center, the school currently enrolls over 130 orphan girls from all over the country, providing them with free housing, meals, psychological support and a quality secondary education. This book features short stories by thirteen students and has the dual purpose of being a fundraiser for the school and giving the girls a voice. It is a unique and enthralling work of fiction, Their Voices: Their Stories ranges from magical realism to fable, from historical fiction to bildungsroman. Under the professional and passionate editorial guidance of Maryland professor Julie Wakeman-Linn, this collection sings of the fears, anxieties and dreams of young Tanzanian women, who pray their education will be the golden ticket out of lives filled with poverty and abuse.
Sons of revolutionaries, a classic Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer duo must grow up and find themselves when President-for-Life Robert Mugabe tightens his grip on white landowners and plunges Zimbabwe into anarchy. Julie Wakeman-Linn's striking debut-part buddy road trip, part familial dramedy--focuses on two racially blended families as they outwit the world of diplomats, ex-pats, safari tourists, street rats, border guards, and the mercurial landscape. The result is an electrifying video capture of Africa in 1997 overflowing with intense color, tenacious characters, and riotous details.
The late Julius Kambarage Nyerere was nicknamed 'Musa' (Moses) during the later, post-independence years for leading his people from slavery and guiding them toward a free land of prosperity - the Promised Land. The Tanzanian odyssey chronicled in this book, which first appeared ten years ago as Tanzanians to the Promised Land, has been updated with new research. The author- also an engineer and a journalist- offers an enlightened and unbiased discussion of the journey and both sides of the contributions - successes and failures - made by former presidents and their systems of administration: the late Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, Alhajj Ali H. Mwinyi, and Mr. Benjamin W. Mkapa. Tanzanians' hopes and expectations of the incumbent president, H.E. Mr. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, are also discussed. It is not intended as a political campaign of any kind, for any party or any individual. As a brief, yet comprehensive guide to the understanding of our nation's political and economic history, it puts forward suggestions concerning important areas of the country's economic development. Nyerere unfortunately didn't live to see his people arrive at the hoped-for destination, and I. J. Werrema's original inspiration to write, at forty years of independence, is sustained because after fifty years The Promised Land is Still Too Far.
Wherever there is a person's right, there is a corresponding duty imposed upon that person to respect the rights of others. This co-existence of rights and duties may be explained better by the principle of reciprocity of rights and duties. Such is the basis of Land as a Human Right: A History of Land Law and Practice in Tanzania. The esteemed author documents Tanzanian land law along its line of historical development (pre- and post-independence) whereby the thorny issues about 'rights' and 'duties' of the landed, landless and the intermediaries are elucidated. This volume is not limited to events in Tanzania, but includes jurisprudence of land law of other countries in order to tap some interpretative devices of our own by way of analogies. Various case types- reported and unreported, local and foreign- provide a tangible content to what would otherwise be pure theory. He also makes references to local newspapers as a way of tapping the public responses about land-related matters. His survey of such cases in and outside Tanzania led automatically to judgments touching on women's right to matrimonial property and inheritance; individual and collective rights to land; and the right to land of the indigenous peoples. It is the author's view that land law has remained poorly documented in Tanzania. There is plenty of literature about Land Law, yet these sources are not easily available or even accessible to every interested person. Equally, some of the available literature is so old that it may not always depict land law and/or practice as we tend to understand it today. This volume is a comprehensive text on land law in which all the necessary land law principles are highlighted with great precision. Advocate Rwegasira does this with a human rights approach, believing that it is through this approach that a person's right to land, whether individual or collective, can best be explained, especially in this era when conflict over land is unabatedly becoming central in family, communal and societal relations. The language of human rights is for all of us to speak. It follows, therefore, that practitioners both of the bar and the bench will also find it useful for quick reference, much as will do policy makers, law reformers and the general public in and outside Tanzania.
The Gathering Storm
(2012)
The slow awakening of the people of Bulembe to the true meaning of 'independence' encapsulated in the parallel stories of the Kamuyuga family, who shed their old identity and turn into the wealth-grabbing 'Alkarims', and the Lubele family, who remain exploited peasants. But do the people remain forever caught under the burdens of the past, blinded by the skin-deep 'changes' to the present? This is revealed through the eyes of Simon Lubele, son of Bulembe dedicated to real change. Hamza Sokko renders the tranquil beauty of the Anyalungu plateau on which Bulembe lies, deep-rooted customs of its peasants, the crushing twin burdens of static African tradition and oppressive colonial machinery with poignancy and quiet insight.
Tanzania is a politically stable, much aided country that has consistently grown economically during the first decade of the millennium, while also improving its human development indicators. However, poverty has remained persistent, particularly within rural areas. This collaborative work delves into the reasons why this is so and what can be done to improve the record. The book is the product of both Tanzanian and international poverty experts, based on largely qualitative research undertaken within Tanzania by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC). The authors highlight and discuss the importance of macro- and micro-level causes of the persistence of poverty. The latter, on which the book is focused, centre around a negative dynamic affecting a large number of poor households in which widespread failure to provide household food security undermines gender relationships and reduces the possibility of saving and asset accumulation which is necessary for escaping poverty. This results in very low upward mobility. Vulnerability is widespread and resilience against shocks minimal, even for those who are not absolutely poor. Through an in-depth and broad analysis of poverty in Tanzania, the book provides alternative conclusions to those often repeated in the poverty discourse in international and local arenas. The conclusions were reached with the specific aim of informing political and policy debates within Tanzania.
Social Memory, Silenced Voices, and Political Struggle : Remembering the Revolution in Zanzibar
(2018)
This volume focuses on the cultural memory and mediation of the 1964 Zanzibar revolution, analyzing its continuing reverberations in everyday life. The revolution constructed new conceptions of community and identity, race and cultural belonging, as well as instituting different ideals of nationhood, citizenship, sovereignty. As the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the revolution revealed, the official versions of events have shifted significantly over time and the legacy of the uprising is still deeply contested. In these debates, the question of Zanzibari identity remains very much at stake: Who exactly belongs in the islands and what historical processes brought them there? What are the boundaries of the nation, and who can claim to be an essential part of this imagined and embodied community? Political belonging and power are closely intertwined with these issues of identity and historyraising intense debates and divisions over precisely where Zanzibar should be situated within the national order of things in a postcolonial and interconnected world. Attending to narratives that have been overlooked, ignored, or relegated to the margins, the authors of these essays do not seek to simply define the revolution or to establish its ultimate meaning. Instead, they seek to explore the continuing echoes and traces of the revolution fifty years on, reflected in memories, media, and monuments. Inspired by interdisciplinary perspectives from anthropology, history, cultural studies, and geography, these essays foreground critical debates about the revolution, often conducted sotto voce and located well off the official stageattending to long silenced questions, submerged doubts, rumors and secrets, or things that cannot be said.
Bakari and Omari live on the island of Zanzibar and are the best of friends. It is the beginning of a long holiday and they are excited about what adventures are in store. Bakaris beloved grandmother comes to visit the family, bringing with her many gifts including a new friend for the boys! One day while exploring the boys discover hidden treasure. The boys, nicknamed The Detectives of Shangani, embark on a quest to discover the secrets of what they have found. They travel around the Spice Islands and meet strange characters, all to discover the mystery of the lost rubies! Nahida Esmail has crafted an exciting adventure tale with memorable characters. Young readers and adults alike, will enjoy this award-winning novel and the mysteries they uncover!
Ivory Stars is Tanzanias first ever all-girls football team, but what makes this team even more unique is that they are people with albinism. Disregarded by society, the team is determined to show the world that they wont be held back. As International Albinism Awareness Day approaches, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro would defy stereotypes and prove that they are extraordinarily capable. Join Tatu, the team leader, and the Ivory Stars on their quest to reach the summit of the highest peak in Africa. Find out whether their determination will meet the challenges ahead. How will they manoeuvre through the twists and turns that lie in wait for them? What would it mean for them if they failed?
South Sudan: Elites, Ethnicity, Endless Wars and the Stunted State is likely to achieve its objective of stimulating debate about the future of South Sudan as a viable polity. The hope is that readers, through the debate generated by this book, will rediscover the commonality that marked the struggle for freedom, justice, and fraternity, and abandon ethnic ideologies as a means of constructing a modern state in South Sudan. South Sudan: Elites, Ethnicity, Endless Wars and the Stunted State is a must-read for South Sudanese intellectuals who want to reshape the socioeconomic and political development trajectory.
To be or not to be is an analysis of linguistic, cultural, political, economic and social factors, which explain the intricate root causes of conflicts which have ravished Sudan. It stands in stark contrast to the dominant simplification and distortions which have come to typify presentations of the region. Central to the book is an unapologetic explanation of Arabization; which often is portrayed as individual choices of religious loyalty, but, in fact, masks an intentional power-system which viciously corrupts Afrikan identities. By highlighting the detrimental complexities of manipulation, geopolitics, identity confusion and cultural imperialism, Hashim has not only written an authoritative book about Sudan, but also presented a comprehensive case study that all of Afrika must learn from. Rarely are we presented with such a vigourous inside-view to an area of Afrika which once was held in the highest civilizational esteem, but has been reduced to an ideological field of Arab-led terror, massacres and disintegration.
School Development Through Teacher Research : Lesson and Learning Studies in Sweden and Tanzania
(2018)
School Development through Teacher Research - Lesson and Learning Studies in Sweden and Tanzania presents the results from a three-year-long joint research project conducted by educational researchers from Tanzania and Sweden. Even though the country contexts differ in social, economic as well as educational conditions, including teacher education and classroom standards, many recurrent education challenges are shared. These include the tendency to make educational reforms with little or no input from professionals. The new educational reforms in both countries put a much higher responsibility on teachers; teachers must be able to organise teaching that enables all students to develop required abilities/competencies. Thus, teachers need tools to develop knowledge that can contribute to their professional knowledge base. With an overall interest in issues of teaching and action research, this joint project aimed to use Lesson and Learning Study as models for developing and improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools. The research project was realised through four case studies in each country with a focus on students' development of specific capabilities and values Science, Vocational Skills/Home and Consumer Studies, English as second language and Mathematics in grades 6-7. Complementing the cases School Development through Teacher Research - Lesson and Learning Studies in Sweden and Tanzania offers an introductory background to Lesson and Learning Studies as models for teacher-driven research and school development. The book is written to support teachers and teacher educators' wishing to reflect about learning and the struggle of learners to discern various concepts, principles and practices. As well as those who genuinely wish to see serious learning take place, rather than simply seeing content 'covered' - including curriculum designers and developers, educational researchers, educational supervisors and leaders and student-teachers as well as students of pedagogy and didactics. We dedicate the book to teacher educators, teachers and school leaders who are seriously striving to enhance students' learning and understanding in different subject areas.
African agriculture faces major challenges with growing population pressure and the impact of climate change. Until now food production overall has broadly kept pace with demand. To maintain this impressive achievement, production from the land needs to be intensified, soil fertility must be enhanced, forests and water resources must be conserved, and land use practices must be sustainable over the long term. This book shows what needs to be done, and points to how best to achieve this. The book starts with a brief guide to what plants and animals need to grow well, how farmers currently use the land, and the research that is being conducted on new agricultural technologies. A comparison is made of productivity on small and large farms, which demonstrates that, contrary to some suggestions, small farmers, properly serviced, can be as productive or even more productive than larger farms. Subsequent chapters discuss issues of land tenure, pastoralism, training, the importance of women farmers, access to finance, markets, value chains, and contract farming as a partnership between small-scale producers, processors and traders in agricultural products. The final section of the book discusses whether a new 'green revolution' is feasible or desirable for Africa. The potential risks and benefits of dependence on purchased agrochemicals, genetically modified varieties, and multinational seed and chemical companies are examined. A series of twelve broad policy proposals for achieving a sustainable agriculture sector is presented for consideration. Fifteen case studies illustrate the issues discussed in the book. Most of the examples are from East Africa, particularly Tanzania, but the principles addressed are relevant across the African continent. Each chapter of the book includes references and suggestions for further reading, most of them freely available to anyone with internet access. A set of essay questions exploring the issues covered in each chapter is included, to provide practical help for students of agriculture and their teachers.
Pastoralism and Climate Change in East Africa provides systematic and robust empirical investigations on the impact of climate change on pastoral production systems, as well as participating in the ongoing debate over the efficacy of traditional pastoralism. This book is an initial product of the Project Building Knowledge to Support Climate Change Adaptation for Pastoralist Communities in East Africa implemented by the Centre for Climate Change Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam with support from the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa. Traditional pastoralism has proved to be a resilient and unique system of adaptations in a dynamic process of unpredictable climatic variability and continuous human interactions with the natural environment in dryland ecosystems. Pastoral adaptations and climate-induced innovative coping mechanisms have strategically been embedded in the indigenous social structures and resource management value systems. Pastoral livelihoods have, nevertheless, become increasingly vulnerable to climate change impacts as a result of prolonged marginalization and harmful external interventions. The negative effect of global climate change has been an added dimension to the already prevailing crisis in the pastoral livelihood system, which is substantially driven by non-climatic factors of internal and external pressures of change such as population growth, bad governance and shrinking rangelands lost to competing activities.
In Growing up with Tanzania. Karim Hirji, a renowned Professor of Medical Statistics and Fellow of the Tanzania Academy of Science, presents a multi-faceted, evocative portrait of his joyous but conflicted passage to adulthood during colonial and early-Uhuru Tanzania. His smooth style engages the reader with absorbing true tales, cultural currents, critical commentary and progressive possibilities. By vibrantly contrasting the hope-filled sixties with the cynical modern era, he also lays bare the paradoxes of personal life and society, past and present.
Older people in Tanzania are disadvantaged and marginalized in many ways. They lack adequate formal social protection. They also suffer from diminishing family and community support. They face a series of multi-faceted problems and care for most AIDS-orphans, yet they are a much neglected target group in national social policy and international development programs. This book provides a theoretical discussion of ageing issues and their linkage to social protection. It depicts various policy frameworks at international, Pan-African and national level. And it provides extensive empirical findings on older people's living conditions.
In the nineteen 60s and 70s, the University of Dar es salaam was recognised internationally as a great academic institution, and the site of anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist, socialist studies and activism. With the onslaught of neo-liberalism beginning with Structural Adjustment Programmes in Tanzania in the mid 80s, the university was one of its prime targets; subjected to numerous pressures designed to extinguish the flames of revolutionary scholarship and activism. The establishment in 2008 of the Mwalimu Nyerere Chair on Pan - Africanism with Professor Issa Shivji as its first Chairman, and the annual Distinguished Nyerere Lectures Series inaugurating annual intellectual festivals was, in Professor Shivji's introduction to this volume of collected lectures, 'the resurrection of radical Pan-Africanism at the University of Dar es salaam.' The impact of the festivals and the lectures went well beyond the university community, as substantial number of the participants at these lectures and debates were citizen intellectuals, not part of the university community. The calibre of the distinguished lecturers speaks for itself; there could be no better representation of progressive African intellectuals honouring the legacy of Mwalimu Nyerere, than Professors Wole Soyinka, Samir Amin, Bereket Habte Selassie, Micere Githae Mugo and Thandika Mkandawire whose lectures are published in this book.
This edited volume is about the rekindled investment in the figure of the first president Julius K. Nyerere in contemporary Tanzania. It explores how Nyerere is remembered by Tanzanians from different levels of society, in what ways and for what purposes. Looking into what Nyerere means and stands for today, it provides insight into the media, the political arena, poetry, the education sector, or street-corner talks. The main argument of this book is that Nyerere has become a widely shared political metaphor used to debate and contest conceptions of the Tanzanian nation and Tanzanian-ness. The state-citizens relationship, the moral standards for the exercise of power, and the contours of national sentiment are under scrutiny when the figure of Nyerere is mobilized today. The contributions gathered here come from a generation of budding or renowned scholars in varied disciplines - history, anthropology and political science. Drawing upon materials collected through extensive fieldwork and archival research, they all critically engage the existing literature about Tanzania and prevailing political narratives to explore how nationhood is (re)imagined in Tanzania today through assent and contest.
Abdilatif Abdalla: Poet in Politics celebrates the work of Abdilatif Abdalla, one of Kenya's most well-known poets and a committed political activist. It includes commentary essays on aspects of Abdilatif Abdalla's work and life, through inter-weaving perspectives on poetry and politics, language and history; with contributions by East African writers and scholars of Swahili literature, including Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Said Khamis, Ken Walibora, Ahmed Rajab, Mohamed Bakari, and Sheikh Abdilahi Nassir, among others. Abdalla became famous in 1973, with the publication of Sauti ya Dhiki (Voice of Agony), a collection of poems written secretly in prison during three years of solitary confinement (1969-72). He was convicted of circulating pamphlets against Jomo Kenyatta's KANU government, criticizing it as 'dictatorial' and calling for political resistance in the pamphlet, 'Kenya: Twendapi?' (Kenya: where are we heading?). His poetry epitomizes the ongoing currency of classic Swahili form and language, while his work overall, including translations and editorships, exemplifies a two-way mediation between 'traditional' and 'modern' perspectives. It makes old and new voices of Swahili poetry and African literature accessible to a wider readership in East Africa, and beyond. Abdalla has lived in exile since 1973, in Tanzania, London, and subsequently, until now, in Germany. Nevertheless, Swahili literature and Kenyan politics have remained central to his life.
Marja-Liisa Swantz has spent a lifetime conducting participatory action research in Tanzania, and In Search of Living Knowledge encapsulates her reactions. She started her career in 1952 in Tanganyika as an instructor to the first generation of women teachers at Ashira Teacher's Training College, situated on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. In the first years of Tanzania's independence from Britain, she devoted five years (1965-1970) to participant research in a coastal Zaramo village near the capital city of Dar es Salaam. The research culminated in her book, Ritual and Symbol in Transitional Tanzanian Society, and a doctorate in Anthropology of Religion, which she received from the Swedish University of Uppsala in 1970. The author further developed the Participatory Approach to research while serving as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Dar es Salaam from 1972 to 1975. After becoming a lecturer at the University of Helsinki she continued to develop Participatory Action Research with Tanzanian and Finnish doctoral candidates in a project in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, known as Jipemoyo. She continued to apply the participatory approach in research projects as Director of the Institute of Development Research at the University of Helsinki, where she taught anthropology, and as a Senior Researcher at the World Institute for Development Economics Research Institute in Helsinki in the 1980s. Since retirement, the author has continued her research, writing, and participation in development projects in Tanzania, including projects in Mtwara and Lindi from 1992 to 1998, and for 12 years while involved in a Local Government Cooperation project between Hartola in Finland and Iramba in Tanzania.