The Concept of HUMAN RIGHTS in Africa (Second Edition)
The Concept of Human Rights in Africa attempts to reconceptualise human rights ideology from the stand point of the working people of the continent. lt argues that the dominant human rights discourse in/and on Africa, however well-intentioned, is objectively a part of the ideologies of domination. Both the critique of the dominant discourse as well as the reconceptualisation are located firmly within the current social science and jurisprudential debates on democratic struggles in Africa. Hitherto, the human rights debate in Africa has been an exclusive preserve of lawyers and philosophers. Professor Shivji breaks new ground in this book in that he firmly anchors the debate on the social and political planes without losing sight of its legal and philosophical dimensions.
While greatly stimulating for the general reader, this work can be fruitfully used in colleges and universities in such academic disciplines as sociology, political science, development studies, law, and jurisprudence.
Issa Shivji is Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He taught law at the University of Dar es Salaam for 36 years (1970-2006). He was appointed the first Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Professor in Pan-Africanism between 2008-2013. He was the Director of the Nyerere Resource Centre at the Commission for Science and Technology (2014- 2019). He has published over a dozen books and numerous book chapters and articles. His latest book is a three-volume biography of Julius Nyerere called Development as Rebellion co-authored with other two colleagues.
ISBN 978 2 38234 100 1
CODESRIA 2023
Afrique réaffirmation de notre engagement / Africa reaffirming our commitment
Afrique réaffirmation de notre engagement / Africa reaffirming our commitment
La série Dialogue politique a été conçue dans le but de créer un consensus autour d’une approche concrète à adopter pour confronter les défis majeurs du continent africain. Afrique : Réaffirmation de notre engagement a été ainsi conçu pour examiner les fondations économiques de nos états et la question de la dignité des africains en tant qu’êtres humains. Aujourd’hui, nous agissons dans un contexte de globalisation féroce où les règles du jeu reposent sur la suprématie économique et militaire; domaines dans lesquels l’Afrique est toujours en traine. L’objectif de ce livre n’est pas de se lamenter ou de montrer du doigt ceux qui sont à la base des maux de l’Afrique, mais plutôt de réfléchir sur les moyens et de proposer des stratégies qui ont pour but de nous libérer de la pauvreté et de l’oppression, et encore plus important, d’identifier les moyens d’accélérer le développement de l’Afrique. Cette édition propose les voies et moyens qui permettront à nos gouvernements d’être réellement au service des africains. Elle suggère les voies qui mènent vers l’établissement de sociétés pacifiques, harmonieuses, justes et équitables dans une Afrique où les citoyennetés locale et panafricaine seront une réalité. Ce livre fait la plaidoirie des identités collectives et les sociétés inclusives sur la base d’une vision redéfinie de notre future à travers une nouvelle éducation et un mode de socialisation dans les écoles et autres institutions nationales.
Adebayo Olukoshi
Jean Bernard Ouédraogo
Ebrima Sall
Africa and the Disruptions of the Twenty-first Century
This collection of essays interrogates the repositioning of Africa and its diasporas in the unfolding disruptive transformations of the early twenty-first century. It is divided into five parts focusing on America’s racial dysfunctions, navigating global turbulence, Africa’s political dramas, the continent’s persistent mythologisation and disruptions in higher education. It closes with tributes to two towering African public intellectuals, Ali Mazrui and Thandika Mkandawire, who have since joined the ancestors.
$18 – $30
Africa and the Challenges of Citizenry and Inclusion: The Legacy of Mario de Andrade (Printed)
Africa and the Challenges of Citizenry and Inclusion: The Legacy of Mario de Andrade (Printed)
At the 11th General Assembly of CODESRIA, held in Maputo in December 2005, Carlos Lopes presented the Cheikh Anta Diop Lecture on “Africa and the Challenges of Citizenry and Inclusion”, through the legacy of Mario de Andrade of Angola.
He discusses the life and times of Mário Andrade; African nationalism and its revolutionary proposals; and the triumphs and vicissitudes of Negritude and Pan-Africanism. He analyses the consequences for a country’s citizenry, inclusion and respect for identities, and concludes with implications for African intellectuals. Like Mário Andrade, who abhorred the rites associated with power and despaired at exclusionary notions of citizenship, Lopes is critical of narrow nationalism that jeopardises pan-Africanism, and calls on African intellectuals to denounce these practices in the interest of universal identity rights, based on the principle that development brings with it greater opportunities and freedom of choice.
Masculinities in Contemporary Africa (Printed)
Masculinities in Contemporary Africa (Printed)
Although gender and non-gender scholars have studied men, such an academic exercise requires a critical and focused study of masculine subjects in particular social contexts, which is what this book attempts to do. This empirically rich collection of essays, the seventh of the CODESRIA Gender Series, deals with critical examinations of various shades and ramifications of Africa’s masculinities and what these portend for the peoples of Africa and for gender relations in the continent. So much has changed in terms of notions and expressions of masculinities in Africa since ancient times, but many aspects of contemporary masculinities were fashioned during and since the colonial period.
The papers in this volume were initially discussed at the 2005 month-long CODESRIA Gender Institute in Dakar. The contributors are gender scholars drawn from various disciplines in the wide fields of the humanities and the social sciences with research interests in the critical study of men and masculinities in Africa.
The CODESRIA Gender Series aims at keeping alive and nourishing the African social science knowledge base with insightful research and debates that challenge conventional wisdom, structures and ideologies that are narrowly informed by caricatures of gender realities. The series strives to showcase the best in African gender research and provide a platform for emerging new talents to flower.
Les tendances de gouvernance en Afrique de l’Ouest en 2006 : Un rapport de synthèse / Governance Trends in West Africa, 2006 : A Synthesis Report (Printed)
Les tendances de gouvernance en Afrique de l’Ouest en 2006 : Un rapport de synthèse / Governance Trends in West Africa, 2006 : A Synthesis Report (Printed)
D’un point de vue historique, la région de l’Afrique de l’Ouest se distingue comme l’une des régions les plus dynamiques du continent africain. Elle est le résultat d’un long processus souvent contradictoire et toujours contesté de formation, de dissolution et de recomposition d’un État. Ce processus ayant été accompagné, à différentes étapes, de larges mouvements des populations, la sous-région a dû résoudre un certain nombre de préoccupations tenaces et centrales liées à la gouvernance. À des degrés divers, celles-ci ont contribué à forger et à caractériser les systèmes d’État contemporains ainsi que les cultures politiques qui les sous-ten- dent. Elles vont des règles de base pour la constitution des communautés politiques aux modes d’administration des territoires politiquement constitués, en passant par les processus d’intégration des nouvelles populations et d’obtention de leur adhésion. Ces préoccupations se sont étendues aux systèmes d’équilibre des pouvoirs dans l’exercice du pouvoir politique, à l’articulation des droits et obligations des citoyens ainsi qu’à la définition et l’opérationnalisation des règles de succession politique. À bien des égards, la sous-région, depuis le début de l’histoire des formations politiques de l’Afrique de l’Ouest à nos jours, a été régulièrement confrontée à ces questions cruciales, simplement articulées sur le temps, dans des contextes locaux ou mondiaux (qualitativement) différents. Les chercheurs ont, depuis de nombreuses années, cherché à trouver les cadres interprétatifs appropriés pour comprendre la dynamique de la gouvernance en Afrique de l’Ouest – et ailleurs dans le monde en développement. Force est de constater que ces efforts sont, dans la plupart des cas, des tentatives de voir l’Afrique de l’Ouest à travers le regard des autres et non d’analyser les processus complexes qui s’y déroulent comme des résultats contradictoires du contexte et de l’histoire qui doivent être compris en tant que tels et dans ces circonstances spécifiques. Même si le rapport, objet de cette publication n’est pas de critiquer les principaux concepts et théories de la gouvernance, il faut d’ores et déjà avouer qu’il remet indirectement en question les approches qui, pour faire comprendre la gouvernance en Afrique de l’Ouest, procèdent exclusivement ou en premier lieu, en établissant des analogies avec les expériences historiques vécues par d’autres – en particulier, l’Europe et les États-Unis – ou en modélisant ces expériences pour en faire des normes internationales dont on voudrait se servir pour valider ou invalider toute autre expérience de gouvernance.
Economic Liberation and development in Africa (Printed)
Economic Liberation and development in Africa (Printed)
In this endnote address delivered at the 11th General Assembly of CODESRIA, held in Maputo in 2005, Jomo Kwame Sundaram notes that over three decades of economic stagnation, contraction and increased poverty have taken a huge toll on Africa’s economic, social and political fabric; and pro-active efforts are urgently required in order to build new capacities and capabilities for development. He argues that much of the ostensible conventional wisdom regarding African development and poverty is often both erroneous and harmful.
Even the IMF has acknowledged that international financial liberalization has exacerbated volatility. Worse still, there is strong evidence that some of the economic policy advice given to, and conditionalities imposed on governments in Africa have reflected vested interests and prejudice. In view of these, and the fact that economic growth and development do not necessarily reduce poverty and inequalities, Sundaram calls for greater ‘policy space’ for African governments to choose or design their own development strategies, as well as develop and implement more appropriate development policies.
Gender, Science and Technology: Perspectives from Africa (Printed)
Gender, Science and Technology: Perspectives from Africa (Printed)
This sixth volume of the CODESRIA Gender Series is a collection of discourses, perspectives, practices and policies on the role of the female gender in science and technology, particularly in the African context. Although widely advocated as the indisputable foundation for political and economic power in the modern world, science and technology remains marked by various layers and dimensions of gender inequality that work to the disadvantage of girls and women. Despite the fact that a lot of awareness has been created, and gender issues are now more readily acknowledged by various development initiatives in Africa, participation in science and technology still remains a hurdle as far as girls and women are concerned. A common theme that runs through the book is how feminine identities, ideologies of domesticity and gender stereotypes, and the inadequacy or lack of clear policies facilitate the invisibility of women in science and technology. This notwithstanding, women have never ceased devising clever and ingenious ways that would enable them to master nature, from the margins. The book provides a window onto the current state of female participation in science and technology in Africa, along with an analysis of the historical backgrounds, current educational and professional contexts, and prospects for the future. While it is evident that more research needs to be done, with more groups in different regions, this volume brings together a rich and inspiring collection of qualitative insights on gender, science and technology in Africa. The CODESRIA Gender Series acknowledges the need to challenge the masculinities underpinning the structures of repression that target women. The series aims to keep alive and nourish African social science research with insightful research and debates that challenge conventional wisdom, structures and ideologies that are narrowly informed by caricatures of gender realities. It strives to showcase the best in African gender research and provide a platform for emerging new talents to flower.
Governing Health Systems in Africa (Printed)
Governing Health Systems in Africa (Printed)
Drawing on various disciplinary perspectives, this book re-focuses the debate on what makes a good health system, with a view to clarifying the uses of social science research in thinking about health care issues in Africa. The explosion of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the persistence of malaria as a major killer, and the resurgence of diseases like tuberculosis which were previously under control, have brought about changes in the health system, with implications for its governance, especially in view of the diminished capacity of the public health facilities to cope with a complex range of expanded needs. Government responsibilities and objectives in the health sector have been redefined, with private sector entities (both for profit and not-for profit) playing an increasingly visible role in health care provisions. The reasons for collaborative patterns vary, but chronic under-funding of publicly financed health services is often an important factor. Processes of decentralisation and health sector reforms have had mixed effects on health care system performance; while private health insurance markets and private clinics are pointers to a growing stratification of the health market, in line with the intensified income and social differentiation that has occurred over the last two decades.These developments call for health sector reforms.
The Study of Africa, Volume 2: Global and Transnational Engagements (Printed)
The Study of Africa, Volume 2: Global and Transnational Engagements
This is the second of a two-volume work taking stock of the study of Africa in the twenty-first century: its status, research agenda and approaches, and place. It is divided into two parts, the first entitled Globalisation Studies and African Studies, and the second, African Studies in Regional Contexts. Topics addressed in part one include: trans-boundary formations and the study of Africa; global economic liberalisation and development in Africa; African diasporas, academics and the struggle for a global epistemic presence; and the problem of translation in African studies. Part two considers: African and area studies in France, the US, the UK, Australia, Germany and Sweden; anti-colonialism and Russian/soviet African studies; African studies in the Carib bean in historical perspective; the teaching of African history and the history of Africa in Brazil; African studies in India; African studies and historiography in China in the twenty-first century; and African studies and contemporary scholarship in Japan.
The Study of Africa, Volume 1: Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Encounters (Printed)
The Study of Africa, Volume 1: Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Encounters (Printed)
This is the first of a two-volume work which takes stock of the study of Africa in the twenty-first century: its status, research agenda and approaches, and place. It is divided into two parts, the first on the academic disciplines and African Studies, the second on interdisciplinary studies.
Topics addressed in part one include: anthropology, race, ethnography and sociology in relation to area studies; African historiography, and the research and teaching of history in Africa in an era of institutional crisis and ‘global history’; and the need to rethink Africanist political sciences.
Challenges of Education Financing and Planning in Africa: What Works, What Does not Work? / Enjeux du financement et de la planification de l’éducation en Afrique : ce qui marche et ce qui ne marche pas ? (Printed)
Challenges of Education Financing and Planning in Africa: What Works, What Does not Work? / Enjeux du financement et de la planification de l’éducation en Afrique : ce qui marche et ce qui ne marche pas ? (Printed)
This volume highlights the proceedings of the two policy dialogue conferences held by the Working Group on Finance and Education (WGFE) in 2004. Part I of the document discusses the endemic crisis that higher educationhas been beset with since the outset of the post colonial period in Africa. It highlights the critical state of higher education systems in Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal by scrutinizing the causes, manifestations and consequences of the crisis to posit useful recommendations and possible solutions. Part II is a comprehensive review of the challenges facing the financing and planning of all levels and types ofeducation – from kindergarten to graduate school – in selected African countries. The papers reveal the sources and mechanisms of funding education in Africa, drawing attention to the experiences of communities confronted with new funding sources. A new trend, which consists of designing decade long educational development plans, has emerged and is rapidly expanding in numerous African countries. This experience is examined and shared by the authors. This book has contributions in both French and English.