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Abdelali Doumou
CODESRIA, 1987, 172 p
ISBN 2-86978-001-x
The ‘counter-revolution’ in Development Economics in the 1980s fundamentally altered the way the state ‘thinks’, which is evident in the state’s retrenchment and reconstitution of the state’s relationship to its citizens. The combination of deflationary macroeconomic policies and a residual approach to social policy, broadly, and social provisioning, more specifically, fundamentally altered the post-colonial trajectory of public policy in Africa. Despite the neoliberal ascendance that nurtured the more residual direction of social policy, the contention for an alternative vision of social policy remained and advanced with vigour. Specific contributions range from the deployment of social policy in framing the nation-building project, endogenous mutual support institutions, land and agrarian reform as a social policy instrument, the gender dynamics of social policy, and the mechanism enabling the spread of cash transfer schemes on the continent.
À partir de quels moments, pour quelles raisons et de quelles manières, la religion et la culture, lorsqu’elles se lient au politique, peuvent-elles être à la fois sources et lieux d’expression des fondamentalismes ? Ce sont les questions centrales qui traversent ce livre. Ce qui est considéré ici, c’est « la religion » lorsqu’elle est idéologie qui fonde la culture et devient outil d’accès au pouvoir moral, au pouvoir social et surtout au pouvoir politique. Les messages culturels et religieux et leurs interprétations sous-tendent souvent les décisions, les lois et les programmes prises par le politique. Ils ont des effets directs sur la société, en général, et sur les femmes et les rapports de genre, en particulier. Les contributions à cet ouvrage analysent les diverses formes du fondamentalisme dans quelques pays africains, leurs contextes d’émergence et la manière dont elles (re)façonnent les identités et les rapports hommes/femmes. Ces fondamentalismes constituent des sources de préoccupations persistantes dans les débats de société, aussi bien des organisations féministes et féminines que des mondes académiques et politiques. Les manipulations des cultures et des religions se font de plus en plus politiques et finissent par occasionner des discriminations sociales, voire des violences physiques, morales et symboliques assurément insoutenables.
Fatou Sow, sociologue, est titulaire d’un Doctorat de 3e cycle (Paris-Sorbonne) et d’une Habilitation à diriger des recherches en sociologie (Paris denis-Diderot). Elle est, depuis 2008, la directrice du Réseau international de solidarité Women Living Under Muslim Laws (Londres, UK).
Challenges to Identifying and Managing Intangible Cultural Heritage in Mauritius, Zanzibar and Seychelles (Printed)
Africa is richly blessed with cultural and natural heritage, key resources for nation building and development. Unfortunately, heritage is not being systematically researched or recognised, denying Africans the chance to learn about and benefit from heritage initiatives. This book offers a preliminary discussion of factors challenging the management of intangible cultural heritage in the African communities of Zanzibar, Mauritius and Seychelles. These islands are part of an overlapping cultural and economic zone influenced by a long history of slavery and colonial rule, a situation that has produced inequalities and underdevelopment. In all of them, heritage management is seriously underfinanced and under-resourced. African descendant heritage is given little attention and this continues to erode identity and sense of belonging to the nation. In Zanzibar tensions between majority and minority political parties affect heritage initiatives on the island. In Mauritius, the need to diversify the economy and tourism sector is encouraging the commercialisation of heritage and the homogenisation of Creole identity. In Seychelles, the legacy of socialist rule affects the conceptualisation and management of heritage, discouraging managers from exploring the island’s widerange of intangible heritages. The author concludes that more funding and attention needs to be given to heritage management in Africa and its diaspora. Rosabelle Boswell is a senior lecturer in the Anthropology Department at Rhodes University, South Africa and a specialist of the southwest Indian Ocean islands. Her research interests include ethnicity, heritage, gender and development. Boswell’s PhD was on poverty and identity among Creoles in Mauritius and her most recent work is onthe role of scent and fragrances in the heritage of the Swahili islands of the Indian Ocean region.
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