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The future of mining in South Africa is hotly contested. Wide-ranging views from multiple quarters rarely seem to intersect, placing emphasis on different questions without engaging in holistic debate. This book aims to catalyse change by gathering together fragmented views into unifying conversations. It highlights the importance of debating the future of mining in South Africa and for reaching consensus in other countries across the mineral-dependent globe. It covers issues such as the potential of platinum to spur industrialisation, land and dispossession on the platinum belt, the roles of the state and capital in mineral development, mining in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the experiences of women in and affected by mining since the late 19th century and mine worker organising: history and lessons and how post-mine rehabilitation can be tackled. It was inspired not only by an appreciation of South Africas extensive mineral endowments, but also by a realisation that, while the South African mining industry performs relatively well on many technical indicators, its management of broader social issues leaves much to be desired. It needs to be deliberated whether the mining industry can play as critical a role going forward as it did in the evolution of the countrys economy.
'Do the erstwhile colonial settlers - who, unlike in most other parts of the postcolonial world, have decided in large numbers to make the country their permanent home - deserve equal recognition as members of the emergent nation?' South Africa has been reeling under the recent blows of an apparent resurgence of crude public manifestations of racism and a hardening of attitudes on both sides of the racial divide. To probe this topic as it relates to white South Africans, Afrikaans and Afrikaners, MISTRA, in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), convened a round-table discussion. The discourse was rigorous. This volume comprises the varied and thought-provoking presentations from that event, including a keynote address by former president Kgalema Motlanthe, inputs from Melissa Steyn, Andries Nel, Mary Burton, Christi van der Westhuizen, Lynette Steenveld, Bobby Godsell, Dirk Hermann (of Solidarity), Ernst Roets (of Afriforum), Xhanti Payi, Mathatha Tsedu, Pieter Duvenage, Hein Willemse and Nico Koopman, and closing remarks by Achille Mbembe and Mathews Phosa. It deals with a range of issues around 'whiteness' in general and delves into the place of Afrikaners and the Afrikaans language in democratic South Africa, demonstrating that there is no homogeneity of views on these topics among white South Africans overall and Afrikaners in particular. In fact, in these pages, one finds a multifaceted effort to scrub energetically at the boundaries that apartheid imposed on all South Africans in different ways.
A dazzling collection from across the African continent and diaspora - here SHORT STORY DAY AFRICA has assembled the best nineteen stories from their 2013 competition. Food is at the centre of stories from authors emerging and established, blending the secular, the supernatural, the old and the new in a spectacular celebration of short fiction. Civil wars, evictions, vacations, feasts and romances - the stories we bring to our tables that bring us together and tear us apart.
The history of people with disabilities has been dominated by their isolation and exclusion. The long fight towards inclusion - and inclusive education in particular - started not many years ago. Most were powerless to control their own destiny. Their participation in society has been the object of other's actions. In many countries their disability policies have a substantial element of protection and charity but not the right to equalisation of opportunities. This book highlights the process of change that is underway internationally. The equalisation of opportunities requires new processes through which the various systems of society such as health services and education are delivered. It means the right for people with disabilities to remain in their communities and to receive the schooling and social supports they need within the ordinary structures available in local communities. Strong advocacy is needed for this to happen. In particular parents need to be empowered, communities mobilised and professionals trained in new ways of working: hence this book. Drawing on experiences in Africa, the book describes the issues to be considered when it comes to implementing inclusive strategies: the processes to be followed and the roles of different sectors, such as people with disabilities, parents, policy makers, educationalists, health and community development professionals and crucially, society at large.
In 1973, Yashev Raval wrote The Power of Wisdom, correctly pointing out that collusion between East and West had kept not only the balance of terror but provided the glue that kept geographic spheres of influence stable. Africa was part of that arena for global rivalry. With the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991, the stifling grip the superpowers had exercised throughout the world was fundamentally altered. The transformation of the international security system, coupled with political democratization, allowed the partial reorganisation of the security establishments on the African continent to embark upon the New African Civil Military Relations (ACMR). In the last decade and half, the implosion of African states exposed to forces of democratization has escalated, manifest in Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Madagascar, Somalia, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Lesotho. At the heart of the states implosion has been weak, fragile and partisan defence and security institutions a phenomenon that requires urgent research intervention to guide the much-needed reforms. In 2014, the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted the bi-annual African Studies Conference, with the lead author accorded the responsibility of organizing a Session on ACMR. From amongst some of the exciting Abstracts presented, authors submitted these as full chapters for this book which captures International African Studies Perspectives, managed by the African Public Policy & Research Institute (APPRI). This process was further facilitated by one of the presenters and now co-editor, Maj Henrik Laugesen from the Royal Danish Defence College, who agreed to lead on the fundraising succeeding in securing support from the Royal Danish Defence College. The result is this book.
In August 2008, Heads of State of the Southern African Development Community adopted the ground-breaking SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. This followed a concerted campaign by NGOs under the umbrella of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance. The SADC Gender Protocol is the only sub-regional instrument that brings together existing global and continental commitments to gender equality and enhances these through time bound targets. Aligned to Millennium Development Goal Three, the original 28 targets of the Protocol targets expire in 2015. Now that 2015 is here, we need to step back, assess and reposition. In June 2014, SADC Gender Ministers agreed to review the targets of the Gender Protocol in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In May this year, ministers added that they want the Protocol to be accompanied by a Monitoring, Evaluation and Results Framework. The 2015 Barometer shows that implementation is now the biggest missing gap in the quest for gender equality. Now is the time to strengthen resolve, reconsider, reposition, and re-strategise for 2030. SADC GENDER PROTOCOL BAROMETER - 2015 2015 is here! In August 2008, Heads of State of the Southern African Development Community adopted the ground-breaking SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. This followed a concerted campaign by NGOs under the umbrella of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance. The SADC Gender Protocol is the only sub-regional instrument that brings together existing global and continental commitments to gender equality and enhances these through time bound targets. Aligned to Millennium Development Goal Three, the original 28 targets of the Protocol targets expire in 2015. Now that 2015 is here, we need to step back, assess and reposition. In June 2014, SADC Gender Ministers agreed to review the targets of the Gender Protocol in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In May this year, ministers added that they want the Protocol to be accompanied by a Monitoring, Evaluation and Results Framework. The 2015 Barometer shows that implementation is now the biggest missing gap in the quest for gender equality. Now is the time to strengthen resolve, reconsider, reposition, and re-strategise for 2030.
Shapes, Shades and Faces
(2018)
One World, Many Knowledges : Regional experiences and cross-regional links in higher education
(2016)
Various forms of academic co-operation criss-cross the modern university system in a bewildering number of ways, from the open exchange of ideas and knowledge, to the sharing of research results, and frank discussions about research challenges. Embedded in these scholarly networks is the question of whether a ?global template? for the management of both higher education and national research organisations is necessary, and if so, must institutions slavishly follow the high-flown language of the global ?knowledge society? or risk falling behind in the ubiquitous university ranking system? Or are there alternatives that can achieve a better, ?more ethically inclined, world? Basing their observations on their own experiences, an interesting mix of seasoned scholars and new voices from southern Africa and the Nordic region offer critical perspectives on issues of inter- and cross-regional academic co-operation. Several of the chapters also touch on the evolution of the higher education sector in the two regions. An absorbing and intelligent study, this book will be invaluable for anyone interested in the strategies scholars are using to adapt to the interconnectedness of the modern world. It offers fresh insights into how academics are attempting to protect the spaces in which they can freely and openly debate the challenges they face, while aiming to transform higher education, and foster scholarly collaboration. The Southern African-Nordic Centre (SANORD) is a partnership of higher education institutions from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SANORD?s primary aim is to promote multilateral research co-operation on matters of importance to the development of both regions. Our activities are based on the values of democracy, equity, and mutually beneficial academic engagement.
The Luck Charm
(2018)
Tomasi Manda, an intelligent boy whose rational mind rejects belief in witchcraft, does something that causes his mother and elder brother to fear that he might be bewitched. They decide to put 'protective medicine' into his blood. But their problem is how to get Tomasi to accept the medicine, having once before failed to convince him to have such protection. However, when Tomasi passes his primary school examinations and is selected for a boarding secondary school away from home, the two approach him with the medicine disguised as a charm, something that would bring him good luck from the strangers among whom he will now be living. Tomasi initially rejects the o?er, but when, to his surprise, he sees that this causes his mother great pain, he lets her insert into his blood 'the totally useless powder.' Then certain things begin to happen to Tomasi which, unable to explain them otherwise, he can't help thinking are being caused by the potion his mother has put in his blood. Eventually he becomes convinced that he now has a potent luck charm in his body, and reaches the frightening conclusion that from now on his life will be run by this charm. What is he to do?
This volume critically interrogates, from different angles and dimensions, the resilience of conflict and violence into 21st century Africa. The demise of European colonial administration in Africa in the 1960s wielded fervent hope for enduring peace for the people of Africa. Regrettably, conflict alongside violence in all its dimensions physical, religious, political, psychological and structural remain unabated and occupy central stage in contemporary Africa. The resilience of conflict and violence on the continental scene invokes unsettling memories of the past while negatively influencing the present and future of crafting inclusive citizenship and statehood. The book provides fresh insightful ethnographic and intellectual material for rethinking violence and conflict, and for fostering long-lasting peace and political justice on the continent and beyond. With its penetrating focus on conflict and associated trajectories of violence in Africa, the book is an inestimable asset for conflict management practitioners, political scientists, historians, civil society activists and leaders in economics and politics as well as all those interested in the affairs of Africa.
The emergent so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution is regarded by some as a panacea for bringing about development to Africans. This book dismisses this flawed reasoning. Surfacing how investors are actually looting and plundering Africa; how the industrial internet of things, the gig economies, digital economies and cryptocurrencies breach African political and economic sovereignty, the book pioneers what can be called anticipatory economics which anticipate the future of economies. It is argued that the future of Africans does not necessarily require degrowth, postgrowth, postdevelopment, postcapitalism or sharing/solidarity economies: it requires attention to age-old questions about African ownership and control of their resources. Investors have to invest in ensuring that Africans own and control their resources. Further, it is pointed out that the historical imperial structural creation of forced labour is increasingly morphing into what we call the structural creation of forced leisure which is no less lethal for Africans. Because both the structural creation of forced labour and the structural creation of forced leisure are undergirded by transnational neo-imperial plunder, theft, robbery, looting and dispossession of Africans, this book goes beyond the simplistic arguments that Euro-America developed due to the industrial revolutions.
Hester se Brood
(2009)
Hester se Brood, in Afrikaans, is set in a small town in the Little Karoo, where Hester van der Walt bakes bread in a woodfired oven for the local market in MacGregor. The book is inhabited by the spirit of the poets C. Louis Leipoldt and Martin Versfeld, as Hester van der Walt has the same deep rooted, intuitive connection between food and soul, especially food that is prepared with traditional ingredients and methods. Along with generous portions of soul food comes a down to earth delicious recipes that show you how to bake classic European breads, like ciabatta, focaccia, kitke and baguettes as well as good old-fashioned sourdough breads. Van der Walt's fine sense of humour, and her valuing of the magic interplay between fire and wood, grain and salt, water and yeast and time - the basics elements necessary for baking real bread, makes this book as irresistible as the savour of freshly baked bread, as it comes out of the oven.
The book examines the nexus between youth conflict and the occult drawing its insights from the oil-rich Niger Delta of Nigeria. It sees the occult represented by the Egbesu deity in this conflict as a form of religious belief imbued in this case with the powers of good. Thus, the religious occult is regenerated and re-energised as an idiom of justice and fairness within the Nigerian state by militant youth fighting the forces of the Nigerian state. Ingeniously, the young men simply dug into the cultural repertoire of the people for a hitherto popular expression of justice and perceived source of potency which they felt would not only provide spiritual protection but also pander to the popular imagination of justice. Even against the background prevalent Christianity, the Egbesu does not generate tension in beliefs but responds to the critical exigency of the immediate socio-political milieu of the people.
This report on the broadcast media in Nigeria finds that liberalisation efforts in the broadcasting sector have only been partially achieved. More than a decade after military rule, the nation still has not managed to enact media legislation that is in line with continental standards, particularly the Declaration on Freedom of Expression in Africa. The report, part of an 11-country survey of broadcast media in Africa, strongly recommends the transformation of the two state broadcasters into a genuine public broadcaster as an independent legal entity with editorial independence and strong safeguards against any interference from the federal government, state governments and other interests. The report was written by Mr. Akin Akingbulu Executive Director, Institute for Media and Society, IMS, Nigeria.
Patrick Kalilombe has been distinguished for more than twenty-five years as a pioneering theologian and ecclesiologist. Circumstances have determined that much of his best work has been produced and published outside Malawi and through such diversity of outlets that it is very difficult for students and others to have access to his work as a whole. Hence we are convinced that his collection of his essays will have a very wide appeal, both in Malawi and beyond. The chapters are quite varied in their origins and subjects but the reader will not take long to notice recurrent themes: the author's missionary vocation, the critical role of the 'grassroots' in theological construction, the integrity of Chewa traditional beliefs, the combination of Catholic commitment with radical openness to all religious and cultural traditions. Throughout the book is a series of photographs which lead progressively through the events of Bishop Kalilombe's 25th Jubilee celebration at Mua in 1997.
Not Without Flowers
(2007)
A new novel from a scion of the new generation of writers in Africa. She tells the story of women in Africa: here it is misery, pain, agony , dilemmas, frustrations. She floats the reader on a world of inverted reality, which yet becomes the norm. With creative imagination, confronting the social realities, she seeks out the world of peace and tranquillity. But not without verisimilitude. The extremes of moral turpitude beget horrid outcomes, leaving suspense rather than resolution. Amma Darko is one of the most significant contemporary Ghanaian literary writers. She is the author of three previous novels: Faceless (Sub-Saharan, 2003), The Housemaid (Heinemann, 1999) and Beyond the Horizon (Heinemann, 1995).
Urbanization in Africa also means rapid technological change. At the turn of the 21st century, mobile telephony appeared in urban Africa. Ten years later, it covered large parts of rural Africa and thanks to the smartphone became the main access to the internet. This development is part of technological transformations in digitalization that are supposed to bridge the urban and the rural and will make their borders blurred. They do so through the creation of economic opportunities, the flow of information and by influencing peoples definition of self, belonging and citizenship. These changes are met with huge optimism and the message of Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) for Africa has been one of glory and revolution. Practice, however, reveals other sides. Increasingly, academic publications show that we are facing a new form of digital divide in which Africa is (again) at the margins. These technological transformations influence the relation between urban and rural Africa, and between Africa and the World, and hence the field of African Studies both in its objects as well as in its forms of knowledge production and in the formulation of the problems we should study. In this lecture, Mirjam de Bruijn reflects on two decades of research experience in West and Central Africa and discusses how, for her, the field has changed. The author was forced to decolonize her thinking even further, and to enter into co-creation in knowledge production. How can these lessons be translated into a form of critical knowledge production and how does the study of technological change inform the redefinition of African Studies for the 21st century?
Like in many parts of the world, water resources in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have been pivotal for human survival, economic growth, social development, and practicing certain religion and cultural ethos. However, in spite of the intrinsic values of water, its use and management in sub-Saharan Africa has not been without limitations. The demand for water resources is increasing mainly due to rapid population growth, industrialization and urbanization and dealing with water-related issues has been complex and challenging for sustainable growth. Whilst there are various efforts by national governments, non-government organizations and communities to effectively and efficiently utilize and manage water resources, there are few comprehensive studies in sub- Saharan Africa that show the impact of the efforts on poverty reduction. Although certain reports indicate that many SSA countries lack clear vision on how water use can be harnessed with pro-poor growth and how poor communities can be capacitated to use water for poverty reduction, there are little exhaustive studies that clearly show familiar and innovative water use and management interventions followed by communities, national governments and other stakeholders, and demonstrate the challenges and successes of the same. Cognizant of the knowledge gap, in 2012 OSSREA launched a research project on ordinary and innovative water use and management patterns and practices in SSA, with a view to generate new knowledge on unexploited opportunities that could enhance the contribution of water resources to poverty reduction. This anthology documents various issues including water use and management in agriculture especially in irrigation projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe; water harvesting in Kenya and Uganda; the role of local water use institutions in Ethiopia; and water source maintenance and protection in Uganda.
Becoming Zimbabwe is the first comprehensive history of Zimbabwe, spanning the years from 850 to 2008. In 1997, the then Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Morgan Tsvangirai, expressed the need for a 'more open and critical process of writing history in Zimbabwe. ...The history of a nation-in-the-making should not be reduced to a selective heroic tradition, but should be a tolerant and continuing process of questioning and re-examination.' Becoming Zimbabwe tracks the idea of national belonging and citizenship and explores the nature of state rule, the changing contours of the political economy, and the regional and international dimensions of the country's history. In their Introduction, Brian Raftopoulos and Alois Mlambo enlarge on these themes, and Gerald Mazarire's opening chapter sets the pre-colonial background. Sabelo Ndlovu tracks the history up to WW11, and Alois Mlambo reviews developments in the settler economy and the emergence of nationalism leading to UDI in 1965. The politics and economics of the UDI period, and the subsequent war of liberation, are covered by Joesph Mtisi, Munyaradzi Nyakudya and Teresa Barnes. After independence in 1980, Zimbabwe enjoyed a period of buoyancy and hope. James Muzondidya's chapter details the transition 'from buoyancy to crisis', and Brian Raftopoulos concludes the book with an analysis of the decade-long crisis and the global political agreement which followed.
This innovative book is an open invitation to a rich and copious meal of imagination, senses and desires. It argues that cannibalism is practised by all and sundry. In love or in hate, fear or fascination, purposefulness or indifference, individuals, cultures and societies are actively cannibalising and being cannibalised. The underlying message of: Own up to your own cannibalism! is convincingly argued and richly substantiated. The book brilliantly and controversially puts cannibalism at the heart of the self-assured biomedicine, globalising consumerism and voyeuristic social media. It unveils a vast number of prejudices, blind spots and shameful othering. It calls on the reader to consider a morality and an ethics that are carefully negotiated with required sensibility and sensitivity to the fact that no one and no people have the monopoly of cannibalisation and of creative improvisation in the game of cannibalism. The productive, transformative and (re)inventive understanding of cannibalism argued in the book should bring to the fore one of the most vital aspects of what it means to be human in a dynamic world of myriad interconnections and enchantments. To nourish and cherish such a productive form of cannibalism requires not only a compassionate generosity to let in and accommodate the stranger knocking at the door, but also, and more importantly, a deliberate effort to reach in, identify, contemplate, understand, embrace and become intimate with the stranger within us, individuals and societies alike.
We Have Crossed Many Rivers: New Poetry from Africa is a fascinating anthology of some of the finest contemporary poetic voices from twenty-nine African countries. Inspired by the examples of first generation African poets like Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Dennis Brutus, and Mazisi Kunene, the poets in this anthology display rootedness in, and preoccupation with, the discourses of identity and political freedom. At the same time, they engage the more contemporary themes of human and economic rights, governance, the natural environment, love, family and generational relations representative of the African continent. Poems from Tanure Ojaide, Yewande Omotoso, Reesom Haile and Frank Chipasula are inlcluded and in all there are contributions from 68 poets.
The Powers of the Knife
(2016)
What if you discovered that you come from an ancient family of Shadow Chasers, with a duty to protect others from an evil Army of Shadows? Nom is an outsider at school. When she and Zithembe become friends, life still seems ? well ? a little ordinary. But when an army of monsters threatens their world, it's all up to the two of them - and the start of a journey into the dreamworld on a quest that will change their lives. Powers of the Knife is the first book in the Shadow Chasers trilogy. It's an African fantasy adventure ? one part family saga, one part hero's quest.
Reading the animal text in the landscape of the damned looks at the diverse texts of our everyday world relating to nonhuman animals and examines the meanings we imbibe from them. It describes ways in which we can explore such artefacts, especially from the perspective of groups and individuals with little or no power. This work understands the oppression of nonhuman animals as being part of a spectrum incorporating sexism, racism, xenophobia, economic exploitation and other forms of oppression. The enquiry includes, physical landscapes, the law, women's rights, history, slavery, language use, economic coercion, farming, animal experimentation and much more. Reading the animal text in the landscape of the damned is an academic work but is accessible, theoretically based but robustly practical and it encourages the reader to take this enquiry further for both themselves and for others.
Some of the most provocative questions confronting philosophers in Africa are grounded in the historical memory of conquest and the peripheralisation the continent. Mungwini offers a critical reconstruction of indigenous Shona philosophy as an aspect of the African intellectual heritage held hostage by colonial modernity. In this comprehensive work, he lays bare the thoughts of the Shona, who are credited with the founding of the ancient Great Zimbabwe civilisation. Retracing the epistemic thread in the fabric of Shona culture and philosophy, he explores the assumptions that inform their thinking. The exchange of such knowledge is fundamental to the future of humanity.
The post-2000 period in Zimbabwe saw the launch of a fast track land reform programme, resulting in a flurry of accounts from white Zimbabweans about how they saw the land, the land invasions, and their own sense of belonging and identity. In White Narratives, Irikidzayi Manase engages with this fervent output of texts seeking definition of experiences, conflicts and ambiguities arising from the land invasions. He takes us through his study of texts selected from the memoirs, fictional and non-fictional accounts of white farmers and other displaced white narrators on the post-2000 Zimbabwe land invasions, scrutinising divisions between white and black in terms of both current and historical ideology, society and spatial relationships. He examines how the revisionist politics of the Zimbabwean government influenced the politics of identities and race categories during the period 2000-2008, and posits some solutions to the contestations for land and belonging.
Nation, Power and Dissidence in Third Generation Nigerian Poetry in English is a theoretical and analytical survey of the poetry that emerged in Nigeria in the 1980s. Hurt into poetry, the poets collectively raise aesthetics of resistance that dramatises the nationalist imagination bridging the gap between poetry and politics in Nigeria. The emerging generation of poetic voices raises an outcry against the repressive military regimes of the 1980s and 1990s. Ingrained in the tradition of protest literature in Africa, the third-generation poetry is presented here as part of the cultural struggles that unseat military despotism and envisage a democratic society.
Some philosophers on the African continent and beyond are convinced that consensus, as a polity, represents the best chance for Africa to fully democratise. In Consensus as Democracy in Africa, Bernard Matolino challenges the basic assumptions built into consensus as a social and political theory. Central to his challenge to the claimed viability of consensus as a democratic system are three major questions: Is consensus genuinely superior to its majoritarian counterpart? Is consensus itself truly a democratic system? Is consensus sufficiently different from the one-party system? In taking up these issues and others closely associated with them, Matolino shows that consensus as a system of democracy encounters several challenges that make its viability highly doubtful. Matolino then attempts a combination of an understanding of an authentic mode of democracy with African reality to work out what a more desirable polity would be for the continent.
Language and the construction of multiple identities in the Nigerian novel examines the multifaceted relation between people and the various identities they construct for themselves and for others through the context-specific ways they use language. Specifically, this book pays attention to how forms of identities ethnic, cultural, national and gender are constructed through the use of language in select novels of Adichie, Atta and Betiang. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, this book draws analytical insights from critical discourse analysis, literary discourse analysis and socio-ethno-linguistic analysis. This approach enables the author to engage with the novels, to illuminate the link between the ways Nigerians use language and the identities they construct. Being a context-driven analysis, this book critically scrutinises literary language beyond stylistic borders by interrogating the micro and macro levels of language use, a core analytical paradigm frequently used by discourse analysts who engage in critical discourse analysis.
Unshared Identity employs the practice of posthumous paternity in Ilupeju-Ekiti, a Yoruba-speaking community in Nigeria, to explore endogenous African ways of being and meaning-making that are believed to have declined when the Yoruba and other groups constituting present-day Nigeria were preyed upon by European colonialism and Westernisation. However, the authors fieldwork for this book uncovered evidence of the resilience of Africas endogenous epistemologies. Drawing on a range of disciplines, from anthropology to literature, the author lays bare the hypocrisy underlying the ways in which dominant Western ideals of being and belonging are globalised or proliferated, while those that are unorthodox or non-Western (Yoruba and African in this case) are pathologised, subordinated and perceived as repugnant. At a time when the issues of decolonisation and African epistemologies are topical across the African continent, this book is a timely contribution to the potential revival of those values and practices that make Africans African.
This book is a scriptural sculpture of how the physical dimensions of the earth - built and natural - and antecedents of history structure knowledges and the physical containers - human and non-human - that embody those knowledges. The book deals with universalisms grounded on African experiences and perspectives. A key theme is how (in)security relates to knowledge creation by drawing a parallel between the proliferation of violent conflict in Africa and the marginal position that the continent occupies in the modern formation of knowledge. Also explored is the concept of creativity in relation to art and politics, as experienced by the black African elite. Bottlenecks to African creativity and the role of space and history in the production and reproduction of knowledge and ways of knowing are critically reviewed. The author makes a case for the existence of irreducible forms of knowledge existing in distinct laboratories and traces how particular biological and environment features interact with human cognition to form what passes for knowledge. He interrogates the variety of environment cognition in the light of an increasing homogenization of human cognition globally with a particular accent on climate change. This is a bold and legitimate voice on an important conversation.
This book deals with love, marriage/family, and witchcraft issues but its central question remains that of whether love without understanding is love. Tackling love from much broader and interdisciplinary angles than just the love-making that most love stories usually focus on, it advances the duo of love and understanding as the foundation of any successful marriage/family. Although Momany is blessed with often easily finding this rare duo, the tensions of belonging in Cameroon have been constant and persistent challenges. The book uniquely raises and brings new and ground-breaking perspectives on its subject-matters, obviously leaving many social scientists with much to do further research on.
Feathers in Reverse
(2014)
Feathers in Reverse is the ideal gift for a loved one who is scared of poetry. It engages and immerses readers with the luring subtlety of a serpent. Themes treated include good and evil, heaven and earth, man and woman, birth and death, urbanism and rural life, wealth and poverty. As much as the poet highlights salient issues and conflicts in everyday life, he suggests answers to burning problems as well. A common thread runs through the over 300 poems feathered and featured in this collection. The notion of the 'feather' is cross-cultural. It reminds us of the feather used as a pen in ancient Europe and the 'red feather' that is stuck on the caps of African notables as a mark of distinction. Feathers in Reverse is a magic pudding to be sampled, shared and indulged.
This landmark volume brings together a very rich harvest of forty critical essays on Cameroon literature by Cameroon literary scholars. The book is the result of the Second Conference on Cameroon Literature which took place at the University of Buea in 1994. The Buea conference was motivated by a determination to look at Cameroon literature straight into its face and criticize it using literary criteria of the strictest kind. Gone were the times when the criticism was complacent because it was believed that a nascent literature could easily be stifled by application of rather strict cannons of literary criticism. Both writers and critics had a lot to say. Subjects dealt with ranged from general topics on literature, survival and national identity, through specialized articles on prose, poetry, drama, translation, language, folklore, children's literature, Journalism and politics. It is the hope of the volume editors that the publication of these papers will instigate the kind of actions that were recommended and that the prolific nature of Cameroon literature will equally give rise to a prolific and robust criticism.
This book addresses Cameroon's culture, education and language policies since independence, scholarship on and vigorous debate about them, their bearings on different visions of national development, and their place in the political struggle between autocracy and democracy since 1990. A synoptic view of half a century's key experiences, issues and fault lines emerges.
Many contemporary African writers remain trapped in the quest for a worldview, philosophy, supposing a single 'African' demesne to explain the entire continent, referring to a mythical past. Paulin Hountondji shows how these strange conceptual constructions have played a positive role in the resistance led by intellectuals of colonial rule: they responded to the negation of the oppression that it comprised of, but it was an ambiguous answer, especially because it was built on the principles derived from the works of European ethnologists, particularly the Père Tempels. Independence opened a new historical period; these philosophical elaborations changed direction: once an expression of anti-colonial resistance, they are nowadays an ideology that justifies and reinforces the dominance of the contemporary state; the intellectuals who create them are today only the 'griots' of the regimes in place. Analysing without complacency the work of Nkrumah, of the Cameroonian Towa, and of the Rwandan Kagamé, amongst others, Hountondji exposes and denounces this antagonism. To him, the critical project proposed in this book seems a necessary step on the way to 'the liberation of theoretical creativity,' the peoples of Africa and their full participation in the universal intellectual debate!
Nemeso - a four eyed man-lived in southeastern Zimbabwe in the mid-17th century. Stories about him are widely known by the Duma in southeastern Zimbabwe as he left a legacy, a delicious dish - of edible stinkbugs locally named harurwa. These insects, believed to be a gift to Nemeso by the ancestors, thrive in a grove (jiri) where no one has been allowed to meddle since the time of Nemeso, the medium through whom the stinkbugs were gifted to the living by the living-dead. The insects are a source of livelihood for the Duma people and for people beyond, and serve as a drive for forest conservation in the area. The wealthy stories of Nemeso's life have been passed on through oral tradition. This book, generated from an ethnographic reconstitution in southeastern Zimbabwe, documents the stories in a lively and fascinating thirst quenching manner.
Education in Tanzania in the Era of Globalisation Challenges and Opportunities is a product of papers presented at a National Education Conference held in Dodoma, Tanzania in November 2016 and organised by the Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational Development, East Africa (AKU-IED-EA). At present, Tanzania's development direction is guided by Vision 2025, which aims to achieve a high quality livelihood for its people be attainment of Vision 2025 will depend largely on rapid socio-economic development based on several social and economic pillars including, most importantly, education. Clearly, for Tanzania, the scope and quality of education remains the single most important prerequisite to the attainment of Vision 2025 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The individual chapters in this publication, and their collective thrust, discuss the challenges in the education system in good faith and in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration guided by the belief that it is not the responsibility of the Government alone to see how these can be addressed. AKU IED EA has identd this as the responsibility of all well-meaning corporate bodies and citizens, and initiated thst conference of its type as its contribution to thore conference, as well as the publication, has to be seen as a model of good practice for universities in terms of sharing knowledge, experience, and practice with other stakeholders who are not in the academy, and more so, with politicians as well as government policy planners. The various authors of Education in Tanzania in the Era of Globalisation Challenges and Opportunities discuss issues within the context of the Tanzanian political economy against thects of globalization and seek to initiate a new kind of debate that is long overdue; a debate aimed at charting out appropriate strategies whose objective is to improve the quality of education in Tanzania so that it becomes a useful vehicle in enhancing processes of social change, transformation and development.
This book is the celebration of one man's vendetta against a cancerous regime that thrives on the rape of democracy and human rights abuses. Lapiro de Mbanga, born Lambo Sandjo Pierre Roger on April 7, 1957 was a conduit for social change. He fought for change in his homeland and died fighting for change in Cameroon. Lapiro believed in the innate goodness of man but also had the conviction that absolute power corrupts absolutely. He was noted for contending that 'power creates monsters.' His entire musical career was devoted to fighting the cause of the downtrodden in Cameroon. He composed satirical songs on the socio-economic dysphonia in his beleaguered country. In his songs, he articulated the daily travails of the man in the street and the government-orchestrated injustices he witnessed. As a songwriter, Lapiro de Mbanga distinguished himself from his peers through bravado, valiance and the courage to say overtly what many a Cameroonian musician would only mumble in the privacy of their homes. Lapiro's anti-establishment music led to his arrest and imprisonment in September 2009 for three years. Released from prison on April 8, 2011 he was later given political asylum by the USA. On September 2, 2012 Lapiro relocated with some members of his family to Buffalo in New York where he died on March 16, 2014 after an illness. His revolutionary music and fighting spirit live on.
This book brings to light work done in the area of gender with a penchant to language within the Cameroonian context. It looks at different domains of gender study where language is a significant variable. It is the very first edited collection that examines language and gender side by side. Contributors draw richly on their current theoretical leanings and on the current gendered discourses within the Cameroonian context to interrogate the interconnections between gender and language through social relationships and interactions. This is a pluri-disciplinary study informed by perspectives from anthropology, sociology and applied linguistics. The book hinges on gender, discourse and social change in historical perspective. Gender and language studies contribute to knowledge of new problems in view of a better understanding of relations between women and men, and its amelioration in the social space. Gender and language studies necessarily incorporate gender and discourse studies. Discourse serves as a unifying factor to these diverse disciplines which bring external support to pure linguistic studies, not only to deepen the understanding of gender but more so to describe how it works in discourse. Here, discourse is seen as being at the centre of gender ideology.
From my friendships and loves are born the lines herein. My greatest desire is that we must learn to love to the best of our abilities and not better than the Best of our abilities. Requesting the latter would be demanding the impossible. For me, every heart is filled with goodness and love that only a positive posturing and channeling of their energies can warrant the transcendence of these terrestrial realities to flirt with their divine counterparts.
Colonial Heritage, Memory and Sustainability in Africa : Challenges, Opportunities and Prospects
(2015)
This book serves as a drive and medium for constructive analysis, critical thinking, and informed change in the broad area of cultural heritage studies. In Africa, how to overturn the gory effects and reverse the wholesale obnoxious and unpardonable losses suffered from the excruciating experience of colonialism in a manner that empowers the present and future generations, remains a burning question. Colonial and liberation war heritage have received insignificant attention. The relevance, nature, and politics at play when it comes to the role of memory and colonial heritage in view of nation-building and sustainability on the continent is yet to receive careful practical and theoretical attention and scrutiny from both heritage scholars and governments. Yet, colonial heritage has vast potentials that if harnessed could reverse the gargantuan losses of colonialism and promote sustainable development in Africa. The book critically reflects on the opportunities, constraints, and challenges of colonial heritage across Africa. It draws empirical evidence from its focus on Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique, to advance the thesis that cultural heritage in Africa, and in particular colonial heritage, faces challenges of epic proportions that require urgent attention.
Denis Norman was born into an ordinary farming family in Oxfordshire, England in 1931, and 22 years later he travelled to Africa to become an assistant on a tobacco farm in Southern Rhodesia. Within a few years, he had bought his own farm, and had begun to rise through the ranks of the countrys agricultural administration. He was President of the Commercial Farmers Union when Robert Mugabe came to power in 1980 and, with no previous political affiliations, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture in the inaugural Zimbabwean government. His story throws a unique and fascinating light on the political and economic development of Zimbabwe. His assessment of its politicians; whether colleagues or adversaries; is candid and acute. In particular he offers an unusually nuanced and rarely glimpsed portrait of Mugabe, who, having asked him to leave government after the 1985 elections, later invited him back to be Minister of Transport, then Minister of Energy, and finally Minister of Agriculture again before Norman resigned in 1997.. Written with a fine balance of the personal, the professional and the political, this memoir offers an observant insiders view of the early promise, and subsequent decline, of a newly independent country finding its way in the world. Denis Norman faced many difficult situations as a government minister, but his penchant for focusing on the positive earned him the nickname, Nothing Wrong Norman. His engaging story reflects his encouraging attitude and he remains hopeful for the future..
Post-1994, South Africa's traditional leaders have fought for recognition, and positioned themselves as major players in the South African political landscape. Yet their role in a democracy is contested, with leaders often accused of abusing power, disregarding human rights, expropriating resources and promoting tribalism. Some argue that democracy and traditional leadership are irredeemably opposed and cannot co-exist. Meanwhile, shifts in the political economy of the former bantustans - the introduction of platinum mining in particular - have attracted new interests and conflicts to these areas, with chiefs often designated as custodians of community interests. This edited volume explores how chieftancy is practised, experienced and contested in contemporary South Africa. It includes case studies of how those living under the authority of chiefs, in a modern democracy, negotiate or resist this authority in their respective areas. Chapters in this book are organised around three major sites of contest: leadership, land and law.
News footage of disease in Africa is a familiar sight. Yet these outbreaks are often presented out of context, with no reference to the conditions that have triggered them. MISTRAs new book, Epidemics and the Health of African Nations, aims to redress that. Researchers and practitioners from within the continent explore why Africa is so vulnerable to disease, and show how this vulnerability is closely linked to political and economic factors. They demonstrate how these same factors determine the way epidemics are treated. Authors extract lessons from case studies in different parts of Africa; challenge conventional frameworks about disease to argue for a syndemics approach that takes into account the interrelationship between disease and political and socio-economic contexts; explore challenges of Africas future. They argue that a well-functioning health system is at the core of a countrys capacity to counter an epidemic. This volume brings African experts together to probe possible solutions to the continents heavy burden of disease. The insights offered will be helpful in devising policy for the control of disease and the combatting of epidemics in Africa.
Issues of War
(2018)
Whereas Victorian optimists imagined that armed conflict would gradually disappear as the world continued to head for universal peace and prosperity, the 20th century wiped out any such illusions. These reflections mark the centenary of WW1, whose true horrors gradually unfolded despite official attempts at censorship. 'The pity of war' is first examined through the eyes of artists and poets, before turning to an overview of how thinking about the conduct and morality of war developed down the centuries. Are there still lessons to be learnt? - read on in the final chapter.
Jesus - The Man for others
(2018)
Jesus - the Man for others' is a contemporary expression of the Gospel message, with many references about how it was appropriated over the centuries, and as illustrated in art. The author, a Catholic priest who holds a doctorate from the University of Wales, taught for some years in African seminaries and has published several books including Malawi Mailings and Issues of War.
When a thousand leading members of the Nyasaland African Congress were detained under the emergency regulations imposed by the Federation government in 1959, the Presbyterian chaplains who ministered to them at Kanchedza Camp in Limbe were the late Rev Jonathan Sangaya and Rev Andrew C. Ross. They soon discovered that around 700 of the thousand men were members of the Church of Central African Presbyterian. This raised a question in the mind of the recently arrived Scottish missionary: how may we account historically for the fact that so many national leaders were Presbyterians? The quest to answer that question led him to produce the thorough examination of the foundation and early history of the Blantyre Mission of the Church of Scotland which is found in this book. Written in the mid-1960s, it remains today an indispensable work of reference for understanding the history of both church and nation in Malawi.
In Christian history spiritual awakenings are a recurring and important phenomenon. The Blantyre Spiritual Awakening was characterized by an overt evangelistic fervour among bands of people that belonged to an ever growing Born Again Movement in the city, from 1974 into the 1980s. This history covers The Blantyre Awakening which revived Evangelical Christianity in Malawi and prepared the way for the emerging Charismatic Movement.
Stephen Kauta Msiska was ordained to the ministry in 1945 and served the Livingstonia Synod in a number of lakeshore parishes before being appointed ?rst a tutor and later Principal of the united CCAP Theological College at Nkhoma where he taught from 1962 to 1974. His ?rm stand for what he understood to be the principles of the Christian Gospel led to a clash with the one-party regime and he was forced to ?ee to his home village and to live there in relative obscurity. This book makes accessible some of the fruits not only of his years of active pastoral ministry and theological teaching but also of his time of lonely suffering and sorrow. Distinctive in the writing of this pioneering theologian is a profound, though not uncritical, sympathy with the traditional religion of his people combined with a passionate concern for authentic Christian discipleship. Careful readers of this original and thoughtful book will ?nd the 'golden buttons' which Stephen Kauta is determined should not be lost.
Ever since the modern state of Malawi came into existence more than a hundred years ago, religion has played its role in the history of the country, and has interacted with politics and society in many ways, such as with the early Blantyre Mission, the Chilembwe Rising, and the struggle against the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyassaland. This book presents two preachers, Elliot Kamwana and Wilfred Gudu, who, in their different ways and at different times, challenged British colonial power which ruled over Malawi at that time.