This detailed, meticulous ethnographic study on mobile phone use among Nuba students at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, distinguishes itself from other studies by taking a focused look at the... Show moreThis detailed, meticulous ethnographic study on mobile phone use among Nuba students at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, distinguishes itself from other studies by taking a focused look at the linguistic content of mobile phone interactions via text-messaging, portraying it as a site for the expression of personalized and affective language. While men and women appear to be equally aggressive consumers and producers of text-message poetry, women are formally discouraged in using the phone for relations that go beyond the publicly acceptable norms of 'keeping in touch' and making arrangements. Nonetheless, women use it for such purposes and many manage it discreetly, showing how this technology can serve to subvert discursive norms on gender and marriage. The mobile phone in Sudan enhances individual autonomy over interactions, making possible the extension and creation of social spaces. It simultaneously enlarges private space and trespasses into public space. Poetic themes and language, previously limited to elite producers those both more literate and who had control over mass media domains, radio and newspapers are exposed to anonymous recipients, who draw from, copy or forward them in continuous circulation, thereby staking a claim in the public sphere. Similarly, the mobile phone serves as a site for the exercise of several layers of identity in negotiation, and reflects or creates alternative identities and the contestation of existing discourses, communities in physical space and notions of belonging. Show less
The 1992 Boipatong massacre has been widely recognized as a key moment in the South African transition. The massacre is also frequently cited as an example of state complicity in the political... Show moreThe 1992 Boipatong massacre has been widely recognized as a key moment in the South African transition. The massacre is also frequently cited as an example of state complicity in the political violence that shook the country during a period of negotiation and reform. Yet, limited scholarly attention has been given to the details of this event. This book considers the underlying forensics of the Boipatong massacre, but more importantly it examines the ways in which the meanings of the massacre have been contested by different individuals and groups. Analysis of these contestations gives insight into the dynamics of the South African transition, shedding light on the discursive struggles that have defined it. Show less
Will people in drylands be forced to migrate due to climate change and environmental degradation? And what impact does migration have on the environment and development in the migrants' home and... Show moreWill people in drylands be forced to migrate due to climate change and environmental degradation? And what impact does migration have on the environment and development in the migrants' home and destination areas? These are some of the questions this study tries to answer. Based on local case study material among the Dagara people of Northwest Ghana and regional analyses of migration propensities and environmental scarcity, this study shows that structural differences in agro-ecological conditions - rather than degradation and disaster - are a principal cause of Dagara migration. The study further challenges alarming findings about deforestation and land degradation as a result of Dagara migration into the Brong Ahafo Region. Lastly, it shows that in the short term out-migration contributes to food and livelihood security in the home area, but in the long run it seems to thwart a transition to more sustainable land use and livelihoods and hamper rural development. Show less
One of the core principles instituted by the post-1991 government in Ethiopia that took power after a successful armed struggle was ethnic-based federalism, informed by a neo-Leninist political... Show moreOne of the core principles instituted by the post-1991 government in Ethiopia that took power after a successful armed struggle was ethnic-based federalism, informed by a neo-Leninist political model called revolutionary democracy. In this model, devised by the reigning Tigray People's Liberation Front (later EPRDF), ethnic identity was to be the basis of politics. Identities of previously non-dominant groups were constitutionally recognized and the idea of pan-Ethiopian identity de-emphasized. This article examines the general features and effects of this new political model, often dubbed an ''experiment'', with regard to ideas of federal democracy, socio-economic inclusiveness, and ethno-cultural and political rights. After 20 years of TPLF/EPRDF rule, the dominant rhetorical figure in Ethiopian politics is that of ethnicity, which has permeated daily life and overtaken democratic decision-making and shared issue-politics. The federal state, despite according nominal decentralized power to regional and local authorities, is stronger than any previous Ethiopian state and has developed structures of central control and top-down rule that preclude local initiative and autonomy. Ethnic and cultural rights were indeed accorded, and a new economic dynamics is visible. Political liberties, respect for human rights and economic equality are however neglected, and ethnic divisions are on the increase, although repressed. Ethiopia's recent political record thus shows mixed results, with positive elements but also an increasingly authoritarian governance model recalling the features of the country's traditional hierarchical and autocratic political culture. This may produce more debate on the need for ''adjusting the experiment''. Show less
Decentralization by devolution is the means to transfer the responsibilities for service provision to the grassroots levels in Tanzania. The aim of this policy is to deal with the stagnation in... Show moreDecentralization by devolution is the means to transfer the responsibilities for service provision to the grassroots levels in Tanzania. The aim of this policy is to deal with the stagnation in the development of, among other things, secondary education. Despite this policy, Tanzania still provides a strong top-down influence on education. This study is about the effects of the central influence on the recruitment of teachers in secondary education. For this research, six ward secondary schools were visited. The dissertation reveals that the centralized teacher recruitment within the initiative to decentralize secondary education has failed to achieve its claimed objective of redressing the inequalities in the deployment of teachers in the country. As a result, the schools have structured their internal operations in order that they cope with inadequacy. The dissertation recommends therefore that the actual needs of schools in terms of the types of teachers required should be given consideration when teachers are posted in schools. Show less
The Ethiopian government is an active partner in the general trend in Africa to hand out large tracts of land to foreign companies and governments for commercial farming, which is defined as... Show moreThe Ethiopian government is an active partner in the general trend in Africa to hand out large tracts of land to foreign companies and governments for commercial farming, which is defined as investment for national development. By 2009, there were 406 foreign large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) projects in the country on land inhabited or used by a variety of local peoples that have no legal title to the land, because all land in Ethiopia is State property. The economic impact of these enterprises (export crop farms, biofuel enterprises) is expected mainly on the national level. While there are precedents to these land deals in Ethiopia, doling out local lands without much consultation of local inhabitants or land users (e.g. in the large-scale resettlement schemes and State farms), today the controversy is augmented by insecurity about long-term ecological and food security effects and the generation of friction and counter-discourses that will make the schemes foci of conflict. National territory - 'the motherland' - and culturally significant locations are also leased out, threatening social systems and the cultural identities of local groups. Apart from the issue of food insecurity effects, economic dependency on foreign sources may increase. Nationalist issues thus may mingle with social, economic, and cultural heritage issues in emerging concerns on these large-scale leases. Critical discourse and protest are discouraged by the authorities. The paper discusses a number of arguments in this debate, comments on some incipient large-scale land acquisition projects, and sketches a research agenda, focusing on legal and social issues. App. (some major foreign land deals, 2007-2010), bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited] Show less
Boin, M.; Polman, K.; Sommeling, C.M.; Doorn, M.C.A. van 2011
ASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 34 (2011).... Show moreASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 34 (2011). African Studies Centre, Leiden. Show less
Akinyoade, A.; Damen, J.C.M.; Dietz, A.J.; Kilama, B.B.; Omme, G. van 2011
De bevolking van het Afrikaanse continent is de laatste vijftig jaar extreem snel gegroeid, van 289 miljoen inwoners in 1961 tot meer dan 1 miljard op dit moment. Dat is een groei van 350% in een... Show moreDe bevolking van het Afrikaanse continent is de laatste vijftig jaar extreem snel gegroeid, van 289 miljoen inwoners in 1961 tot meer dan 1 miljard op dit moment. Dat is een groei van 350% in een halve eeuw. Het aantal stedelingen is nog veel sneller gegroeid: van 65 miljoen (20%) in 1960 tot 460 miljoen (46%) nu, en spoedig, zo is de verwachting van demografen, zal meer dan 50% van alle Afrikanen in een stad wonen. De gemiddelde levensverwachting in Afrika, de alfabetisatiegraad en de deelname aan het lager onderwijs zijn ook allemaal spectaculair gestegen. En er zijn nu relatief heel veel gezonde, redelijk goed opgeleide jongeren met een sterk toegenomen 'blik naar buiten'.De veranderingen in de bevolkingsopbouw van Afrika beginnen zichtbaar te worden in de bevolkingspiramides. Voor zuidelijk Afrika is al een echte 'jongerenbult' (youth bulge) te zien, waarbij de leeftijdsgroepen van 10 tot 30 jaar groter zijn dan die van de 0-10 jarigen en van de groepen boven de 30. Voor de andere delen van Afrika en voor Afrika als geheel is het nog steeds zo dat de grafiek nog de vorm heeft van een piramide en nog niet die van een ui, maar de verwachting van demografen is dat in de komende decennia ook voor overig Afrika sprake zal zijn van een afnemend geboorteaantal en dus van een structuurverandering in de bevolking. Ook voor die delen van Afrika geldt overigens al dat er relatief erg veel 10-30-jarigen zijn, vergeleken bij alle andere delen van de huidige wereldbevolking. Het feit dat er relatief zo veel 10-30-jarigen zijn en dat zovelen van hen nu aanzienlijk beter opgeleid zijn dan hun ouders geeft een grote druk op de arbeidsmarkt, waarbij veel jongeren teleurgesteld constateren dat ze ondanks hun onderwijsniveau geen toegang lijken te krijgen tot een grotere welvaart en tot een beter leven. Show less
This book is a reflection on the mental decolonization of the postcolonialist turn in Africanist scholarship and is simultaneously a tribute to the late Professor Archibald Mafeje. A number of the... Show moreThis book is a reflection on the mental decolonization of the postcolonialist turn in Africanist scholarship and is simultaneously a tribute to the late Professor Archibald Mafeje. A number of the articles, including the Introduction by A. Olukoshi and F. Nyamnjoh, are reprinted from the Codesria Bulletin. Part 1, A staunch critique of intellectual colonialism and the pursuit of sociocultural endogeneity, also begins with a reprint of an essay on Africanity by A. Mafeje, followed by two articles commenting on the ideas expressed in it by J.O. Adesina and about Mafeje's work in the township of Langa, South Africa by J. Sharp. Part 2 is entitled Bifocality at the core of borderlinking anthropological endeavour and is composed of the reprint of a lecture delivered by R. Devisch at the University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, commented on by W.M.J. van Binsbergen and V.Y. Mudimbe, followed by a rejoinder by R. Devisch. Part 3, Cross-pollination in African academe between cosmopolitan sciences and local knowledge, contains essays on the political, epistemological and sociocultural dimensions of knowledge by T. Okere, C.A. Njoku, R. Devisch; on the question of the uniqueness of Western science by T. Okere; and ethnomathematics, geometry and education in Africa by P. Gerdes. Part 4, Toward the local domestication of the ruling modern logic: the 'Clash of Civilisations', looks at the espousal of hip-hop and its use as a vehicle to transmit criticism in Tanzania by K. Stroeken; parody in matricentric Christian healing communes of the Sacred Spirit in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo by R. Devisch; and responses to rooted cosmopolitanism in Botswana by R. Werbner. The Epiglogue by F. Nyamnjoh recounts the work of two rival diviners in South Africa in their separate attempts to solve a strange death. [ASC Leiden abstract]. Show less
Ce volume collectif rassemble les résultats de travaux menés par des chercheurs sénégalais et néerlandais selon trois axes de recherche concernant le Sénégal: la relation entre islam et politique,... Show moreCe volume collectif rassemble les résultats de travaux menés par des chercheurs sénégalais et néerlandais selon trois axes de recherche concernant le Sénégal: la relation entre islam et politique, la relation entre islam et économie, le rôle de l'islam dans le débat public sur la bonne gouvernance. Faisant suite à une introduction par Mayke Kaag intitulée 'Islam et engagements au Sénégal', les textes des contributions ont pour titre: Islam et politique au Sénégal: logique d'articulation et de co-production (Cheikh Guèye et Abdourahmane Seck) - Les usages des liens confrériques religieux dans l'économie sénégalaise (Abdou Salam Fall) - Islam et espace public au Sénégal: les acteurs religieux dans l'amélioration du débat public sur la bonne gouvernance (Mamadou Bodian et El Hadj Malick Sy Camara) - L'implication des acteurs islamiques dans la lutte contre le sida au Sénégal: étude de cas de l'ONG Jmara (Selly Ba). Show less
Neoliberalism has become the dominant development agenda in Africa, but neoliberal experiments have displayed a remarkable diversity in different countries. This book focuses on Cameroon, where... Show moreNeoliberalism has become the dominant development agenda in Africa, but neoliberal experiments have displayed a remarkable diversity in different countries. This book focuses on Cameroon, where the neoliberal project has been influenced by the nation's complex economic and political history. Currently, the country is witnessing resistance to the neoliberal experiment by the authoritarian and neopatrimonial elite, as well as various civil society groups. The book examines elite opposition to the neoliberal reforms imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions and Western donors, the role of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the effects of two key policy prescriptions of the neoliberal agenda, namely privatization and global open markets, political liberalization and the secessionist movement in Anglophone Cameroon, the link between privatization, good governance and ethnoregional conflict, the border dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria, China-Cameroon relations in the era of neoliberal globalization, political liberalization and the 1990-1996 student revolt, innovative activities of the youth in Douala to cope with the economic crisis, trade unionism and globalization, and changes in the position of workers on the Ndu Tea Estate during the economic crisis and liberalization. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
Physical mobility of people from place to place as individuals or as groups is essentially horizontal, potentially limitless, and generally motivated by the desire and ambition to take advantage... Show morePhysical mobility of people from place to place as individuals or as groups is essentially horizontal, potentially limitless, and generally motivated by the desire and ambition to take advantage of new opportunities for self or group advancement. This mobility is the basis of Grasslanders' communities in Anglophone Cameroon and beyond. In this study of Kom, the second largest kingdom in the Bamenda Grasslands, life histories and rich archival files enlighten the history of mobility in relation to the development of communication technologies. Between 1928, when the St. Anthony's Primary School, Njinikom, Kom was opened and 1998, when the road linking Kom and Bamenda was tarred, the number of people travelling out of Kom and back steadily increased. This spatial mobility was greatly facilitated and accelerated by 'modern' transportation and communication technologies like the roads and vehicles. Such persons were usually among those whose horizons had been widened by other modern agencies of change like the schools and churches which are themselves considered as technologies in this study. Kfaang, a notion of newness, has become the core to understand the flexible identity of Kom people and their appropriation of technologies in their notions of being Kom and a Kom community that transgress international borders. Show less
This chapter revisits the issue of elections and democracy in Africa, a theme that emerged as dominant in scholarly discussions in African Studies in the 1990s. The trigger for featuring Ethiopia... Show moreThis chapter revisits the issue of elections and democracy in Africa, a theme that emerged as dominant in scholarly discussions in African Studies in the 1990s. The trigger for featuring Ethiopia as a case study was the May 2010 parliamentary elections when the incumbent party, which had been in power since 1991, took 99.6% of all the seats. While the various Ethiopian elections will not be discussed in detail, the political culture or wider context in which they occur - and always produce the same overall result - will be highlighted to demonstrate the enduring mechanisms and problems of hegemonic rule and how difficult it is to create a democratic system that allows for changes in power (i.e. alternation). The relationship between one-party rule and economic development will also be discussed - the latter being a donor obsession that clouds the political agenda. The chapter closes with some reflections on the recurring donor-country dilemmas when it comes to dealing with electoral autocracies, such as Ethiopia. Show less
ASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 35 (2011).... Show moreASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 35 (2011). African Studies Centre, Leiden. Show less
De recente droogte en hongersnood in Noordoost-Afrika zijn de trieste uitkomst van fysischgeografische en politiek-maatschappelijke factoren. Zolang dat niet onderkend wordt - ook in het Westen -... Show moreDe recente droogte en hongersnood in Noordoost-Afrika zijn de trieste uitkomst van fysischgeografische en politiek-maatschappelijke factoren. Zolang dat niet onderkend wordt - ook in het Westen - verdampen alle kansen voor de bevolking op een betere toekomst. Show less
