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
This edited Working Paper addresses three fundamental questions concerning EU External Action after the Lisbon Treaty: the institutional position and allegiance of the newly-established European... Show moreThis edited Working Paper addresses three fundamental questions concerning EU External Action after the Lisbon Treaty: the institutional position and allegiance of the newly-established European External Action Service, the future of the ‘left out’ Directorate-General for Trade and the Common Commercial Policy, and the protection of EU citizens abroad. These enquires are prompted by both an institutional innovation – the launch of the EEAS – as well as by a number of substantive changes to the legal framework of EU External Action. An ambitious agenda has been inserted into the primary law, around which the Union institutions and Member States are to rally. It is in turn the raison d’être of the EEAS to foster the ensuing need for consistency, as well as to provide impetus to the EU’s external action. Structurally, it is in itself a sui generis institution composed of officials from the Commission, the Council and the Member States. This raises a number of fundamental questions that go well beyond those concerning which person is going to be the new EU ambassador in Washington or Beijing. Above all, can these substantive and institutional innovations live up to the grand ambitions of the peculiar entity that is the EU? What old problems does it purport to solve, and what are the new problems it is likely to create? Essentially, to which extent does bundling the external objectives in the Treaties as well as pooling together the institutional resources in Brussels and the delegations actually render the EU an ‘ever-closer’ actor in the world? Show less
Dolmans, M.T.R.M.; Van der Heijden, P.; Hermans, F.; Jansen, G.C.M.; Willems, W.J.H. 2011
