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The poems in this collection are a mirror reflecting the goings-on in the nooks and crannies of the Republic of Cameroon. Crafted in the lingo of the man in the street, these poems speak for the voiceless in Cameroon, for all those who live on the fringe of a rich Cameroonian society. The themes broached are numerous, namely the culture of impunity, the vicious cycle of corruption, abuse of power, influence peddling, rape of the constitution, electoral gerrymandering, and the ineptitude of national bourgeoisie to name but a few. In sum, Speak camfranglais pour un renouveau ongolais is a clarion call for a new deal in Cameroon.
Boundaries and History in Africa : Issues in Conventional Boundaries and Ideological Frontiers
(2013)
This book compromises 26 well-researched essays in honour of Professor Verkijika G. Fanso, who retired in 2011 after over 36 years of distinguished service at universities in Cameroon. Contributors include colleagues, former students and close collaborators in Cameroon and beyond. Contributions cover a wide range of issues related to the contested histories, politics and practices of boundaries and frontiers in Africa. These are themes on which Fanso has researched, published and taught extensively, and earned international recognition as a leading scholar. The book explores, inter alia, indigenous and endogenous practices of boundary making in Africa; as well as colonial and contemporary traditions, practices and conflicts on and around frontiers. In particular focus, are disputed colonial boundaries between Cameroon and its neighbours. Issues of intra- and inter-disciplinary frontiers, politics and cultures are also addressed. The volume is crowned by a farewell valedictory lecture by Fanso. Like Fanso and his rich repertoire of publications, this bumper harvest of essays is without doubt, truly immortalising.
In Nzarayapera's village, famine and hunger strike as rain could not fall. The sky remains blue with scorching heat that leaves no creature desiring to move on with life. Chief Nzarayapera and his councillors believe this scourge is a curse from the ancestors. They think of holding a ceremony to mollify the ancestors and petition rain. The ceremony is held, but nothing happens except that hunger and famine strike even harder. This sets a fertile ground for conflict between traditionalists, Christians and scientists who lay blame on one another and take turns to intercede for the people. What comes out of this conflict only requires you to read Rain Petitioning for yourself. Equally there to awaken your curiosity is Step Child, the second play in this collection.
In the last two decades, erosion in the quality and effectiveness of education systems especially in sub-Saharan Africa has been compounded by factors - such as exogenous pressures precipitated by unsystematic provision of foreign aid - fostering corrupt practices, inadequate teacher training and limited deployment of professional educators to under-served communities. Yet, quality education is needed to attain high levels of critical thinking, analytic interpretation, academic creativity, innovativeness, effectiveness, personal and inter-personal skills in problem solving. This book, which focuses on Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, critically reflects on primary, secondary and tertiary education in Southern Africa with a view to explore the opportunities, constraints and challenges that practitioners, learners and other educational stakeholders face in their daily lives. The book draws on the findings from the aforementioned countries, to advance the thesis that education in sub-Saharan Africa faces problems of epic proportions that require urgent attention. Hence, the primary objective of this book is to serve as a drive and medium for informed change, critical thinking, constructive analysis, synthesis and evaluation of different situations, settings and problems situated in the interface of theory and practice in the education fraternity.
Forty Acres and a Mule
(2013)
These traveler's impressions across cultural and psychological spaces portray the two sides of this coin called life, oftentimes belligerent toward each other. In casting light on that dream of total freedom and the daunting contradictions inherent in its being and attainment, they represent a dialectic in our seemingly unending journey toward the shadow of the good life as we ceaselessly jettison virtue against vice. At a level, they confront a certain tyranny of thought, in more ways than one, challenging us to go beyond the comfort of our ideas and our upbringing and to dare to look at the world in ways hitherto only dreamed of. Another way this challenge is portrayed is in regard to language and the cannons of poetry. Because literary writing in this so-called global society may rightfully be considered as war by other means, the reader will quickly observe the, literally, take-no-prisoner approach embedded in many of the pieces the generalized despondency on the ground and the unprecedented cacophony of voices in the 'global village' calling for nothing less. The general conclusion of these poems would be the deferment promise of living even as they constitute a heightened harkening for us to live beyond existence.
This book draws on the case of the Shona and other Bantu people of Africa to argue that names are not mere identity tags. Names are an important cultural symbol of the people who give and bear them. The book challenges linguists and other social scientists to pay particular attention to the significance of names in the study of language use in society. Equally, it demonstrates the importance of names as part of the distinctive repertoire of Shona cultural heritage. Each Shona sentential name is a statement about that reality of being Shona. Carried in each name are sentiments that reflect on prevalent social, economic and political relations. The book focuses in particular on social names, religious names and war names inspired by such events as Zimbabwe's war of liberation.
Cameroon Anthology of Poetry
(2013)
In this carefully thought-through anthology, Bole Butake brings Cameroonian poets of different generations, gender, regions, backgrounds and interests into conversation not only among themselves but more especially with poets from other parts of Africa and the world. This is a testament on the universality of poetry. It is an invitation for those in tune with poetry to reaffirm its magic and to spread the warmth of its embrace in celebration of a common and boundless humanity.
This book draws on the perspectives of non-migrants and urban youth in Bamenda, in the Northwest region of Cameroon, as well as on the views of Cameroonian migrants in Switzerland, to explore the meaning and role of New Media in the negotiation of sociality in transnational migration. New Media facilitated connectedness serve as a privileged lens through which Cameroonians, home and away, scrutinise and mediate sociality. In this rich ethnography, Bettina Frei describes how the internet and mobile phones are adopted by migrants and their non-migrant counterparts in order to maintain transnational relationships, and how the specific medialities of these communication technologies in turn impact on transnational sociality. Contrary to popular presumptions that New Media are experienced as mainly connecting and enabling, this study reveals that in a transnational context in particular, New Media serve to mediate tensions in transnational social ties. The expectations of being connected go hand in hand with an awareness of social and geographical distance and separation.
This collection dissects post-independence Cameroon as a representative postcolonial junction. The history that assists in the writing of the poems is a necessary background to understand the dislocated vision of an erstwhile independent territory. After a patriotic pastime of sweeping every bit of rubbish under the carpet of national unity for over fifty years, the collection summons us to introspect on the consequences of feeding and living on a national lie. It is only after such reflection that, hopefully, remedial gestures can offer 'new dreams on the dawn of new sleep'.
Imaginary Crimes
(2013)
Habiba
(2013)
It is believed that even silence will whisper when pushed to the wall. Saleh's love and respect for his mother, Hamsatu, is not only detrimental to his own life but also injurious to his family life. Hamsatu makes all the decisions in his life. She becomes despotic and decides who her son should marry and the type of children his wife should bear. Habiba is just thirteen when her grandmother, Hamsatu brings in a suitor, Zubairu, a contemporary of her late husband. Although Saleh wishes to send all his children to school, a rainstorm renders him hopeless as his mother takes ill and eventually dies. After his mother's death, Saleh's bankruptcy compels him to take a loan from the elderly Zubairu on condition that failing to repay the loan means handing his daughter, Habiba, in marriage to Zubairu. Habiba is helpless, as it turns out that she is not just paying for the wrongs of her father but has to carry the responsibility of his abandoned wife and children by remaining married to Zubairu who is willing to assist them as long as she plays his game. Radiant Mohammed brings to the fore the socio-cultural plight and challenges that bedevil impoverished northern Nigerian families and compel parents to scuttle their children's educational ambitions at very tender ages in favour of marriage. Consistently, Mohammed nails the dilemma of the young Habiba between loving and hating the adults in her life that have caused her pain, and the desire to avenge her lost youth and ambitions.
Maybe Tomorrow
(2013)
When Clerics Kill
(2013)
The play depicts a troubled and violent society stoked by a vicious and violent culture of intolerance and extremism. It is about restiveness, puritanism and the politics of religiosity. The play gives a glimpse of the views and frustrations of young people, the supercilious and hateful perceptions of some clerics and the brigandage of law enforcers in such a given situation. The play points to the role courageous individuals could play in speaking out for peace and standing up to violence and in defiance of fear and for preservation of freedom.
Marsh Boy and other Poems
(2013)
Marsh Boy and other Poems is a welcome contribution to the tradition of poetry devoted to the revolutionary struggles of the people of the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The poems celebrate the radical spirit of the oppressed and exploited people in their relentless quest for equity, equality, and justice. They are songs of anguish, revenge, defiance, love and patriotism.
Sea of My Mind
(2013)
Having produced five volumes of poetry, with a vision conscious of nationhood, Raji has become a stable dependable and enduring voice in recent Nigerian poetry. A poet with a consummate political theme, Raji sees versification as an engagement in the socio-political discourse of his land, aimed at forging a just nation.
Development has been on Africa's agenda for a long time but progress has been both varied and limited, partly due to the diverse levels of the discussions on the challenges and the interventions for tackling them. Africa's greatest challenge is the uneven development within and between its countries, and the pressing issues of extreme poverty in southern Africa, and the continent as a whole. Poverty causes its victims to suffer social exclusion and political repression. In addition, societies that experience poverty are also mostly under continuous threat of ecological disasters and diseases. All poor people are therefore plagued by loss of freedom and dignity, and are often unable to participate effectively in the political, economic, legal and social processes of their countries. This book focuses on the social and cultural dimensions of development dynamics and, in particular, the role of values in shaping development. Values are at the core of the hopes and aspirations of individuals, communities and societies. The book therefore explains the values that motivate and inform African communities and societies, with a view to facilitating a dialogue about sustainable development in Africa among academics, intellectuals, policy and, and the communities. It also investigates the social and cultural dynamics of development in Africa, as a better alternative to earlier studies that blame African culture for poverty and exclude the people of Africa in their definition of developments in the continent. The significance of this book lies in its provision of a theoretical argument, from empirical perspective, on the role of values in the development of Africa; an argument that is capable of facilitating a dialogue about African development, which obviously proves more useful than either the imposition of a technical process or the announcement of a normative framework.
The Fast Track Land Reform Programme implemented during the 2000s in Zimbabwe represents the only instance of radical redistributive land reforms since the end of the Cold War. It reversed the racially-skewed agrarian structure and discriminatory land tenures inherited from colonial rule. The land reform also radicalised the state towards a nationalist, introverted accumulation strategy, against a broad array of unilateral Western sanctions. Indeed, Zimbabwe's land reform, in its social and political dynamics, must be compared to the leading land reforms of the twentieth century, which include those of Mexico, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Cuba and Mozambique. The fact that the Zimbabwe case has not been recognised as vanguard nationalism has much to do with the 'intellectual structural adjustment' which has accompanied neoliberalism and a hostile media campaign. This has entailed dubious theories of 'neopatrimonialism', which reduce African politics and the state to endemic 'corruption', 'patronage', and 'tribalism' while overstating the virtues of neoliberal good governance. Under this racist repertoire, it has been impossible to see class politics, mass mobilisation and resistance, let alone believe that something progressive can occur in Africa. This book comes to a conclusion that the Zimbabwe land reform represents a new form of resistance with distinct and innovative characteristics when compared to other cases of radicalisation, reform and resistance. The process of reform and resistance has entailed the deliberate creation of a tri-modal agrarian structure to accommodate and balance the interests of various domestic classes, the progressive restructuring of labour relations and agrarian markets, the continuing pressures for radical reforms (through the indigenisation of mining and other sectors), and the rise of extensive, albeit relatively weak, producer cooperative structures. The book also highlights some of the resonances between the Zimbabwean land struggles and those on the continent, as well as in the South in general, arguing that there are some convergences and divergences worthy of intellectual attention. The book thus calls for greater endogenous empirical research which overcomes the pre-occupation with failed interpretations of the nature of the state and agency in Africa.
Within the context of the absence of effective state sovereignty and the presence of numerous armed struggles for power, Nande traders have managed to build and protect self-sustaining, prosperous, transnational economic enterprises in eastern Congo. This book discusses the commercial enterprises of the Nande trust networks and the subsequent transnational community they have produced, thereby challenging the assumption that a 'weak state' or a 'failed state' or even a 'collapsed state' can be presumed to signal a 'failed' society. It demonstrates the fact that several sovereignties and property right systems can coexist side by side, reinforcing each other - an idea which seems inconceivable for those with a normative view of governmental institutions and state sovereignty. Rethinking the question of African state formation, the study contributes to the formulation of a more rigorously transnational and local paradigms in the study of post-colonial African state formations. It constitutes an original contribution to critical theory of societal responses to processes of state implosion, and the anthropology of new social formations that emerge when states disintegrate, especially in war-torn Africa. The book also discusses issues related to the dynamics of conflict, new state formation, transnational trade network, ethnicity, and global political and economic governance. In the midst of abundant anti-ethnic literature on African studies, this study posits that there may be a renewed usefulness and necessity in theorizing the salience and continuing production of 'ethnic' differences in a manner that challenges the notion of ethnicity as merely a devious and divisive invention of colonialism that must simply be overcome.
Education is an important tool for the development of human potential. Organizations and individuals interested in development consider knowledge, skills and attitudes, obtained through formal, non-formal and incidental learning, as invaluable assets. Therefore, it is necessary to reflect on fundamental elements that shape the process through which education is attained: How do people learn, and what are the conditions that facilitate effective learning? Answers to these questions demonstrate that no education can be politically neutral, because there is no value-free education. The traditional or indigenous education systems in Nigeria, which covered (and still cover) physical training, development of character, respect for elders and peers, development of intellectual skills, specific vocational trainings, developing a sense of belonging and participation in community affairs, and understanding, appreciating and promoting the cultural heritage of the community were, and are, not value-free. In other words, the goals and purpose of education, the content, the entire process and the procedures chosen for evaluation in education are all value-laden. This book attempts to show that the teaching-learning process in higher education, and religion, taught and learned through non-formal and informal education (or the hidden curriculum), and other socialization processes within and outside the formal school system, all interface to determine the persons that women become. This education enhances or limits women's capabilities, whether in the civic-political sphere or in their attempts to resist violence. Hence, education and religion have ways of empowering or disempowering women.
Ari Sitas is a distinguished sociologist, novelist, dramatist, a founder member of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company, and a cultural activist celebrated for his work in popular and worker theatre. As a poet he has written eight books, and collaborated with many visual artists and musicians. His poems are passionate, politically undaunted and wide-ranging, expressed with the exploratory instinct of a jazz improviser.
The current HIV and AIDS regime has opened up unknown vistas in intellectual pursuits and knowledge creation. One such newly opened up area of research is studying HIV and AIDS in relation to gender issues. However, owing to the devastating nature of the epidemic, most studies tend to focus on women merely as an 'at risk' population leaving aside the wider sociological dimensions that pertain to women's sexuality in general, issues of AIDS related stigma and discrimination and how it impacts on women's careers as economic contributors to society. The uniqueness of the present study lies in the fact that it embodies the author's triangulated research into the tripartite dimensions of HIV and AIDS, women's sexuality, and gender-sociology, all against the backdrop of analysing actual experiences of career women in Kenyan universities.
This book presents a detailed and practical explanation of the law of Civil Procedure in Kenya. It discusses the principles of Civil procedure Law in a practical setting. The intricate points of law have been illustrated by examples, and in the introduction the subject has been dealt with by topics rather than in the strict order of sections in the Act and Rules. This has been done to avoid cross-referencing to enable users to adequately grasp the doctrinal aspects of the subject.
Trading Places is about urban land markets in African cities. It explores how local practice, land governance and markets interact to shape the ways that people at society's margins access land to build their livelihoods. The authors argue that the problem is not with markets per se, but in the unequal ways in which market access is structured. They make the case for more equal access to urban land markets, not only for ethical reasons, but because it makes economic sense for growing cities and towns. If we are to have any chance of understanding and intervening in predominantly poor and very unequal African cities, we need to see land and markets differently. New migrants to the city and communities living in slums are as much a part of the real estate market as anyone else; they're just not registered or officially recognised. This book highlights the land practices of those living on the city's margins, and explores the nature and character of their participation in the urban land market. It details how the urban poor access, hold and trade land in the city, and how local practices shape the city, and reconfigures how we understand land markets in rapidly urbanising contexts. Rather than developing new policies which aim to supply land and housing formally but with little effect on the scale of the need, it advocates an alternative approach which recognises the local practices that already exist in land access and management. In this way, the agency of the poor is strengthened, and households and communities are better able to integrate into urban economies.
In Sounding the Cape, Denis-Constant Martin recomposes and examines through the theoretical prism of creolisation the history of music in Cape Town, deploying analytical tools borrowed from the most recent studies of identity configurations. He demonstrates that musical creation in the Mother City, and in South Africa, has always been nurtured by contacts, exchanges and innovations whatever the efforts made by racist powers to separate and divide people according to their origin.
The Turtle Dove Told Me
(2013)
THE TURTLE DOVE TOLD ME is the long awaited, debut collection of poetry from emerging South African poet and artist Thandi Sliepen. The first of a trilogy spanning the years 1990 - 2010, this collection traces her return to Africa at the age of 18 in search of her roots. The journey starts in Tanzania, then overland to Cape Town, her home city, which she had last seen in 1976. Her search takes her to a stretch of coast in the Ciskei and then to Clarens in the Eastern Free State where she finally finds what she has been searching for. Art, love and the healing embrace of land.
Beyond the Delivery Room
(2013)
A debut collection of poems from popular performance poet, Khadija Heeger. The collection is the first in a trilogy of poems that Heeger has worked on over many years. This collection is a combination of story-telling, resistance, re-naming, remembering. The language of the book is personal to the poet and reflects the wider community and society she is part of. She mixes languages, English and Afrikaans, and the language of the Cape called Kaaps.
Running and Other Stories
(2013)
Turning her back on what is considered conventional, Makhosazana Xaba engages with her subject-matter on a revolutionary level in Running and Other Stories. She takes tradition - be that literary tradition, cultural tradition, gender tradition - and re-imagines it in a way that is liberating and innovative. Bracketed by Xaba's revisitings of Can Themba's influential short story, The Suit, the ten stories in this collection, while strongly independent, are in conversation with one another, resulting in a collection that can be devoured all at once or savoured slowly, story by story. By re-envisioning the ordinary and accepted, Xaba is creating a space in which women's voices are given a rebirth.
Pleasure in Relating
(2013)
Pleasure-in-Relating is Susan Groves's first work, a culmination of many years' reflection. It spans her life in South Africa and time spent in England while weaving together her deep appreciation of the Buddhist and Christian traditions. Her training and experience in Core Process Psychotherapy is evident in her sensitivity to herself and those whose stories she shares. Her love for the part of Africa where she lives serves as an undertone which is present throughout her collection.
Shooting Snakes
(2013)
An old man is woken up by the wailing of a prophetess. Sitting on the veranda and staring into the dry veld he is beset with images of snakes hiding in the cellar beneath him. His peace is further disturbed by visits from his angry daughter, Susanna. Memories of his childhood on a remote mission station in Venda come flooding in. Johannes remembers his father's internment at Koffiefontein during World War II, leaving him and his sister free to make friendships, explore the mythical forests that surround their house and to connect with the spirit world of the Bavenda . On his return, the missionary tries to impose order on the mission station with tragic consequences.
Fractured Lives
(2013)
Fractured Lives is a memoir of one woman?s experiences as a documentary filmmaker covering the wars in southern Africa during the 1980s and 1990s. Part autobiography, part history, part social commentary and part war story, it offers a female perspective on a traditionally male subject. Growing up in South Africa in a politically active family, Toni went to Britain as an exile in 1965 in the wake of the famous Rivonia Trial, and in the years to follow, became a filmmaker. Despite constant difficulties fighting for funding and commissions from television broadcasters, and the prejudices of working in a male-dominated industry, Toni made several remarkable films in Mozambique and Angola. These bear witness to the silent victims of war, particularly the women and children. Fractured Lives paints the changing landscape of southern Africa: Namibian independence and the end of the war in Mozambique bring hope ? but also despondency. Yet there is also the possibility of redemption, of building new lives for the victims of war. In its final chapters, Fractured Lives traces the power of survival and the opportunities for new beginnings. Fractured Lives concludes with Toni?s return to South Africa after nearly three decades in exile. However, the joy following the demise of apartheid is tempered by the poignancy of returning to a place that for so long had existed in her dreams alone and the realization that home will forever lie somewhere else.
Team Trinity
(2013)
Life at boarding school is not all diets, dresses and dances, as Trinity Luhabe discovers when her parents move overseas for a term. She has hardly settled into Sisulu House when she finds herself caught up in the most unexpected love triangle of her life. Zach is the school sports hero, while James is different to anyone she?s ever met. One of them wants to control her ? the other holds the key to an old secret that has been buried for a very long time. Will Trinity figure out who to trust before it?s too late?
Writing Lives
(2013)
Writing Lives, a collection of short stories, featuring Lawrence Hoba, Tendai Huchu, Tendai Machingaidze, Nevanji Madanhire, Daniel Mandishona, Christopher Mlalazi, Blessing Musariri, Chiedza Musengezi, Sekai Nzenza, Fungisayi Sasa and Emmanuel Sigauke. Writing Lives is the seventh of Weaver's anthologies of short stories following Writing Still, Writing Now, Laughing Now, Women Writing Zimbabwe, Mazambuko and Writing Free. As with the other anthologies, this vibrant collection reflects the lives and experiences of Zimbabweans as filtered through the lens of each author's perceptions. Writing Lives gives us stories that will make us laugh and bring tears to our eyes as it provides a focus on the past, the present and even the future.
The defeat of ZANU-PF in the 2008 parliamentary election marked the end of one-party rule in Zimbabwe. The Global Political Agreement signed later that resulted in a Government of National Unity, and the former ruling party was, for the first time, faced with the reality of sharing power. The Hard Road to Reform presents a penetrating analysis of developments since the GNU was established, reviewing recent political history from a range of perspectives - political, economic, social and historical, and featuring the best work of Zimbabwe's young scholars. As Brian Raftopolos writes in his introduction: 'the book is an attempt to analyse and assess both the hopes and frustrations of the last four years and to confront the harsh challenges that lie ahead.'
This book demonstrates the place of women's movements during a defining period of contemporary Zimbabwe. The government of Robert Mugabe may have been as firmly in power in 2000 as it was in 1995, but the intervening years saw severe economic crisis, mass strikes and protests, the start of land occupations, intervention in the war in the DRC, and the rise of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Shereen Essof shows how Zimbabwean women crafted responses to these and other events, and aimed for a feminist agenda that would prioritise the interests of the rural and urban poor. Rejecting both the strictures of patriarchy and the orthodoxies of established feminism, she demands that Zimbabwe's women be heard in their own voices and in their own contexts. In doing so she writes a book that combines scholarly integrity with a wild, joyous cry for liberation.
Spread across a number of countries around the world, and concentrated in four Middle Eastern countries, Kurds have yearned for their own country for almost a century, but were forgotten when the region was carved up by the Sykes-Picot Agreement early in the twentieth century. Since then, the creation of a Kurdish state was high on the agenda of all Kurds. This was especially true when we consider the lot of Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. This book examines the political situation of Kurds in these four countries, looks at how this has changed-particularly in the past decade-and considers what the future might hold for the Kurdish people and for the notion of a state of Kurdistan. It asks the question of whether a Kurdish state is achievable, or, even, desirable. The book is written for policy makers and academics interested in the Middle East region and in Kurdish politics in particular. It is written in an accessible way that makes it easy reading for anyone curious about the region and its people.
Big Ups! NO Two
(2013)
FunDza brings you a second collection of its most popular short stories given Big Ups by FunDza fans. What does it feel like being bullied because you are different? Can a nerd get his dream girl? Should one marry for love or money? What would you do if you found a zombie in your back yard? To find out, read these exciting stories written specially for young South Africans by a range of Southern African authors.
This powerful collection from an international mix of respected academics, newer voices and political activists explores the place of Israel as a Jewish state in todays modern world a world in which identities, citizenship and human rights are de?ned in increasingly cosmopolitan and inclusive ways. Offering compelling and comprehensive arguments as to why Israel falls into the category of an ethnocentric state, the contributions to this volume explore four central themes. They reveal the reality behind Israels founding myths. They document the experiences of some of those who have fallen victim to this ethnic state. Then, they draw comparisons with other ethnic states, notably South Africa, and finally, they point towards the radical hope of achieving a single nation, united, peaceful and just. Unpacking both Jewish and Palestinian nationalism, the nation-state, and ethnic nationalism, this fascinating collection offers new insights into one of the worlds most intractable conflicts. It will appeal not only to scholars and teachers, but to anyone interested in the history, politics, anthropology and legal standing of Palestine-Israel. Contributors: Ali Abunimah, Neville Alexander, Max du Plessis, Steven Friedman, Daryl Glaser, Ran Greenstein, Heidi Grunebaum, Adam Habib, Naeem Jeenah, Ronnie Kasrils, Smadar Lavie, Fouad Moughrabi, Nadim N Rouhana, Shlomo Sand, Avi Shlaim, Azzam Tamimi, Salim Vally, Oren Yiftachel, Andre Zaaiman
At the turn of the millennium, after decades of struggle, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was in a shambles. In 2005, a reconciliation conference held in Cairo seemed to offer some hope for the revitalisation of the organisation, but Hamas's victory in the 2006 Palestinian Authority elections caught the PLO off-guard. Conflicts and tensions exploded as the PLO tried to claw back the power it had lost. Amid calls for the organisation to renew itself or make way for a new group, the al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations convened a conference in Beirut to discuss the PLO. Representatives of the PLO's main factions joined leaders from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, as well as activists and academics, to discuss what they could learn from the past, and try to forge some consensus on how to take the Palestinian struggle forward. This volume documents the papers and debates presented at the conference. Originally published in Arabic, the book provides a fascinating window on Palestinians' unique understandings of the history of their struggle, and of the PLO. It offers an insider's view on issues such as national unity, the intricate nature of relations between Palestinians in the diaspora and those in the Occupied Territory, the fragmented nature of the Arab condition, as well as the impact of the meddling by Arab nations and western powers in Palestinian affairs. For anyone interested in Palestine, and in national liberation struggles more broadly, this powerful collection provides an essential anthology of key perspectives on the Palestinian struggle up to 2006. The book offers readers a rare opportunity to eavesdrop on the conversations of those intimately involved in searching for solutions to one of the world's most intractable conflicts.
The strength of Mandela the Spear and other Poems lies in Okai's burning desire to celebrate the black experience and culture, through the iconic figures who symbolize those struggles and triumphs. Thus, not surprisingly, one encounters names like Mandela, Nadine Gordimer, Amilcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, to name a few. Okai has long established himself as one of the towering figures in the field of modern African poetry in English. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of a vigorous reinvention of the poetic genre that revolutionized the poet/audience relationship, changed the mode of expression from scriptography to narratology, and the role of the audience from that of passive reception to active participation.
The popularity of the first two editions of this book necessitated a third revised and updated version to record the many challenges in Africa since the first edition appeared in 1998. Africa is a vast and fascinating continent whose population has exceeded the one billion mark. Africa A-Z attempts to provide, in a concise manner, the facts for an elementary understanding of the continent and its complex problems. The book falls into two main sections; the five chapters on the first main section focus on the continent as a whole, dealing with its physical and human diversity, its eventful history and Africans' struggle for economic survival. The second main section contains profiles of 58 independent countries, ranging from Algeria to Zimbabwe. Presentation of the profiles is uniform, in that the same themes are covered in each profile. The data panels with the profiles contain data not provided in the text. The maps, appearing throughout the text were produced by AISA's cartography department.
This book looks at the first ten years of the African Union. This is the second in a series of books that will be produced each year from annual conferences held on the multi-faceted issue of African liberation. The key themes of the book explore ways of improving the effectiveness of the African Union, fostering unity amongst African countries through entrenchment of pan-Africanism, and building ownership of the African Union by the African people and their communities. In addition, the thoughts of key figures of pan-Africanism and black emancipation, such as Sylvester Williams and Frantz Fanon, are re-positioned to even greater contemporary relevance. Through its promotion of Ethiopianism, pan-Africanism and the African renaissance, we trust that this book will add new interest and a fresh perspective to how Africans move forward together into a post-colonial era where policies and actions are determined by the united agency of liberated Africans the world over.
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.
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.
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.
A richly illustrated guide to the dolmen culture of Prehistoric Sicily.
Scattered around the world in woods and on mountains dolmens have posed a mystery for hundreds of years. The interpretations of these mysteries has been extremely imaginative over the centuries.
But in Sicily it has only been in recent years that the presence of numerous megaliths habe been revealed.
This manual provides a comprehensive guide to the dolmens of Sicily and the artefacts as well as historical and cultural associations of these prehistoric sites.