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JUSTICE DURING TRANSITIONS – Policies that Reflect African Realities

JUSTICE DURING TRANSITIONS – Policies that Reflect African Realities

Transitional justice interventions, particularly in Africa, have failed. In this context, there is a growing interest in tradition-based community-led practices for resolving justice. Yet little is known or understood about these practices on their own terms, and what role they play in transitional justice on the continent. This volume challenges some of the underlying assumptions of current responses to mass violence on the continent, including the way these are embedded in state-centricism and an international justice system that lacks relevance in relation to the day-to-day realities of rural African communities. Through the case studies of Zimbabwe, Burundi and Mozambique the volume explores some of the limitations and possibilities with regard to justice during transitions.

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Beyond Disciplines: African Perspectives on Theory and Method

Beyond Disciplines: African Perspectives on Theory and Method

Beyond Disciplines: African Perspectives on Theory and Method

To what extent can we go beyond disciplinary boundaries to produce knowledge on Africa that has emancipatory and transformational power? Beyond Disciplines: African Perspectives on Theory and Method, attempts to address this question. Among the critical issues covered by contributors to the book include the limitations of Eurocentric approaches on illuminating and explaining African social contexts; the value of critical African scholarship to our understanding of the continent’s political economy of development; the descriptive, explanatory, and predictive potency of interpretivist emancipatory approaches vis-à-vis positivist developmental ones; the significance of gender power analysis for understanding women’s experiences of violent extremism; application of social science research across research communities on the critical issue of environmentalism; as well as theorising the confluence of internal displacement, weaponisation and agency of women and violent extremism. The book, authored by scholars from multiple disciplinary backgrounds based at institutions across three continents, underscores the imperative value of transformational epistemologies for Africa and demonstrates that the generation of such epistemologies is contingent upon collaborative knowledge-production projects across epistemic communities.

Shadrack Wanjala Nasong’o, PhD, is a Professor of International Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. His research interest lies in democratisation, identity politics, social conflict, governance and development. Nasong’o has been honoured with the Rhodes College’s Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, and the Ali Mazrui Award for Research and Scholarly Excellence from the University of Texas at Austin.

Eka Ikpe, PhD, is a Reader and Director, African Leadership Centre at King’s College London. Her themes of interest include developmentalism, industrial development and structural transformation, peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction and the economic costs of conflict and creative economies.

Études africaines de géographie par le bas / African Studies in Geography from Below (Printed)

Études africaines de géographie par le bas / African Studies in Geography from Below (Printed)

 

Il est largement admis, aujourd’hui, que les conceptions de l’espace et du temps sont « socialement construites » au sens où chaque société les élabore en fonction de ses modes de production, de son organisation interne et de ses valeurs. Ces conceptions deviennent toutefois si familières. Elles acquièrent une telle force d’évidence qu’elles prennent l’importance de faits objectifs. C’est pourquoi elles orientent ou canalisent les processus de reproduction sociale. C’est aussi pourquoi elles sont si fortement contestées lors des moments de grande transformation : quand changent les modes de production économique, les conceptions de l’espace et du temps doivent elles-mêmes changer pour permettre de nouvelles pratiques matérielles de reproduction sociale. La Géographie par le Bas désigne, en première approche, une critique de la pensée territoriale dominante. L’hypothèse centrale de ce livre est que les manières dont nous sommes éduqués à voir le territoire, à le concevoir et, partant, à l’organiser, déterminent nos capacités à résoudre les problèmes qui s’y posent.

 

Public Humanities – Thinking Freedom in the African University

“This is a major intellectual intervention since the neo-liberalisation of our universities which has had devastating effect on intellectual freedom, critical thought and creativity. It is my hope that the essays in this book will rekindle the debate on the University as a public space and reignite the struggle to reclaim education as the commons and not a commodity for sale.”

Issa Shivji, Professor Emeritus, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

“The essays composing this book are an excellent illustration of how, through an exercise of interdisciplinarity, it is possible to combine theory and practice in the analysis of the context of knowledge production on the continent, addressing themes that are fundamental to African academics. The questions raised become more important in the context of an uncertain future generated by the threats
from COVID-19, which force us to rethink our institutions and their role, but also to permanently find alternatives to produce scientific knowledge from within.”

Professor Teresa Cruz e Silva, Centro de Estudos Africanos,

Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique

African Land Questions, Agrarian Transition and the State, Contradictions of Neo-liberal Land Reforms (Printed)

African Land Questions, Agrarian Transition and the State, Contradictions of Neo-liberal Land Reforms (Printed)

 

This empirically grounded study provides a critical reflection on the land question in Africa, research on which tends to be tangential, conceptually loose and generally inadequate. It argues that the most pressing research concern must be to understand the precise nature of the African land question, its land reforms and their effects on development. To unravel the roots of land conflicts in Africa requires thorough understanding of the complex social and political contradictions which have ensued from colonial and post-colonial land policies, as well as from Africa’s ‘development’ and capital accumulation trajectories, especially with regard to the land rights of the continent’s poor. The study thus questions the capacity of emerging neo-liberal economic and political regimes in Africa to deliver land reforms which address growing inequality and poverty. It equally questions the understanding of the nature of popular demands for land reforms by African states, and their ability to address these demands under the current global political and economic structures dictated by neo-liberalism and its narrow regime of ownership. The study invites scholars and policy makers to creatively draw on the specific historical trajectories and contemporary expression of the land and agrarian questions in Africa, to enrich both theory and practice on land in Africa.

 

Reforming the African Public Sector, Retrospect and Prospects (Printed)

Reforming the African Public Sector, Retrospect and Prospects (Printed)

 

Reforming the African Public Sector: Retrospect and Prospects is an in-depth and wide-ranging review of the available literature on African public sector reforms. It illustrates several differing country experiences to buttress the main observations and conclusions. It adopts a structural/institutional approach which underpins most of the reform efforts on the continent. To contextualize reform of the public sector and understand its processes, dynamics and intricacies, the book examines the state and state capacity building in Africa, especially when there can be no state without an efficient public sector. In addition, the book addresses a number of theories such as the new institutional economics, public choice and new public management, which have in one way or another influenced most of the initiatives implemented under public sector reform in Africa. There is also a survey of the three phases of public sector reform which have emerged and the balance sheet of reform strategies, namely, decentralization, privatization, deregulation, agencification, co-production and public-private partnerships. It concludes by identifying possible alternative approaches such as developing a vigorous public sector ethos and sustained capacity building to promote and enhance the renewal and reconstruction of the African public sector within the context of the New Partnerships for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), good governance and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

 

 

African Anthropologies: History, Critique and Practice (Printed)

African Anthropologies: History, Critique and Practice (Printed)

 

 This overview of the history, application and teaching of anthropology in post-colonial Africa shows how the continent’s anthropologists are redefining the historical legacy of European and American disciplinary hegemony, and developing distinctively African contributions to anthropological theory and practice. The contributors illustrate the diverse national traditions of anthropological practice that have developed in sub-Saharan Africa since decolonisation and exemplify the diversity of professional work carried out by the discipline’s practitioners. Their commitment to a common disciplinary identity demonstrates the place that exists for a critical anthropology that is reflective about both its potentials and limitations.

 

African Literature as Political Philosophy (Printed)

African Literature as Political Philosophy (Printed)

 

The politics of development in Africa have always been central concerns of the continent’s literature. Yet ideas about the best way to achieve this development, and even what development itself should look like, have been hotly contested.

African Literature as Political Philosophy looks in particular at Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah and Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, but situates these within the broader context of developments in African literature over the past half-century, discussing writers from Ayi Kwei Armah to Wole Soyinka. M.S.C. Okolo provides a thorough analysis of the authors’ differing approaches and how these emerge from the literature. She shows the roots of Achebe’s reformism and Ngugi’s insistence on revolution and how these positions take shape in their work. Okolo argues that these authors have been profoundly affected by the political situation of Africa, but have also helped to create a new African political philosophy.

African linguistics and the Development of African Communities / la linguistique africaine et le développement des communautés africaines (Printed)

African linguistics and the Development of African Communities / la linguistique africaine et le développement des communautés africaines

 

This diverse and comprehensive collection of essays embraces the main discourses in the field of African languages and linguistics. Overall, it argues for the absolute necessity of developing African languages as a condition of socio-economic development. The work further advocates the involvement of all sectors of society in language development efforts, language identification, and the imperative of validating African languages as equal to the colonial languages.

This edited collection of papers in both English and French offers a continent-wide approach to matters linguistic, focusing in particular on countries such as: Chad, Nigeria, Gabon and Cameron. It highlights the historic role African languages must play in the realisation of NEPAD to jumpstart social and economic development on the continent. The authors provide in-depth analysis of subjects such as: the development of African languages and their role in African renaissance; the difficulties and controversies around African mother tongue education; and endangered minority languages threatened with extinction.

 

African futures and Childhood Studies in Africa” / ”Futurs africains et les études sur l’enfance en Afrique

African futures and Childhood Studies in Africa” / ”Futurs africains et les études sur l’enfance en Afrique  

 

L’idée centrale de ce livre est que les enfants africains sont des créateurs d’avenir. L’ouvrage explore les liens entre l’évolution de l’enfance et les versions de l’avenir de l’Afrique afin de comprendre comment les enfants sont des incarnations vivantes de l’histoire et des agents prospectifs du changement social. S’appuyant sur des recherches menées dans diverses écologies culturelles, les auteurs des dix chapitres discutent des résultats liés à l’apprentissage, à la formation, au travail, aux droits, aux écoles, à la paix, à l’éducation, aux aspirations, aux conflits et à l’intégration des réfugiés – et de la manière dont les enfants les appréhendent dans leur vie quotidienne. Ils décrivent des études menées au Bénin, au Burkina Faso, en Côte d’Ivoire, en Éthiopie, au Kenya, en Afrique du Sud et au Zimbabwe. L’ouvrage va au-delà des notions hégémoniques sur les enfants africains, en leur donnant la capacité d’aspirer, en élargissant leur imagination créative de manière à approfondir notre connaissance des enfances passées et présentes. Tout en retraçant les problèmes de l’enfance dans les exigences de la société, les enfants ne sont conceptualisés ni comme des victimes ni comme des héros. Au contraire, ils sont des participants sociaux dont les expériences, les valeurs, les désirs, les pratiques et les espoirs créent un terrain analytique fertile à partir duquel nous pouvons théoriser l’avenir et la temporalité de manière plus complète.

Tatek Abebe est professeur d’études sur l’enfance et le développement à l’Université norvégienne des sciences et de la technologie (NTNU), à Trondheim, en Norvège. Il a fondé et a été le coordinateur du réseau nordique de recherche sur les enfants et les jeunes africains (2011-2016). En 2017, il a été directeur de l’Institut de l’enfance et de la jeunesse du CODESRIA. Il fait partie du comité de rédaction de plusieurs revues, notamment Childhood, Children’s Geographies et l’Ethiopian Journal of Environment and Development.

African Gender Scholarship : Concepts, Methodologies and Paradigms (Printed)

Volume I brings together essays by some of the leading names on gender studies in Africa, as a major contribution to these concerns. Situating themselves variously in relation to claims and counter claims on the universalisms and particularisms in African feminism and gender studies, the authors de-bate the relative (de)-merits of Eurocentrism, African epistemologies and cultures, colonial legacies, postcolonial realities, and other current dilemmas and challenges in understanding and articulating African feminism and gender research. Practiced and budding scholars should find this a fascinating read.

African Universities in the Twenty-First Century, Volume I: Liberalisation and Internationalisation (Printed)

As the twenty first century unfolds, African universities are undergoing change and confronting challenges which are unprecedented. The effects of globalisation, and political and economic pressures of liberalisation and privatisation, both internal and external, are reconfiguring all aspects of university life: teaching, research, and their public service functions; such that the need to redefine the roles of the African universities, and to defend their importance have become paramount. At the same time, the universities must themselves balance demands of autonomy and accountability, expansion and excellence, diversification and differentiation, and internationalisation and indigenisation. In a climate in which scholarship and production are increasingly dependent on ICTs, and are becoming globalised, the universities must address the challenges of knowledge production and dissemination. The need to indigenise global scholarship, to their own requirements, meanwhile is ever- pressing.

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