Africa Studies Bulletin No71 Winter 0910
Africa Studies Bulletin No71 Winter 0910
Africa Studies Bulletin No71 Winter 0910
African
Studies
Bulletin
Number 71
Winter 2009/2010
Editor
Jane Plastow
Contents 3
Introduction 5
Notes on Contributors 6
Departmental News
School of Earth and Environment 23
School of English/Workshop Theatre 30
School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies 32
School of Geography 32
School of History 35
School of Languages and Cultures (French) 36
School of Music 36
Nuffield Health Sciences 37
School of Politics and International Studies 40
School of Theology and Religious Studies 44
Books Received 91
4
Introduction
By the Director of LUCAS, Jane Plastow
This Bulletin is covering 2009 but only appearing in early 2010 simply due to
pressures of work on the editorial team! We will try to do better next time and
get back to our normal yearly schedule.
The main foci of LUCAS in the last year have been firstly our biannual joint
conference with the School of Politics and International Studies,
Democratization in Africa: Retrospective and Future Prospects which took
place on the 4th and 5th of December 2009. We have also continued to develop
our schools project for its fifth year of taking African postgraduate students in to
Leeds schools to develop awareness of Africa and to challenge negative
stereotypes about the continent. The project is now beginning to produce
research papers exploring the reasons for this negativity, and is intending to seek
funding to look at what seems to be the negative effects of major charitable
campaigns such as Red Nose Day on young people’s perceptions of Africa.
We are happy to present articles from a former Leeds research fellow, Solomon
Tsehaye, on Eritrean oral culture; from Elinettie Chabwera on madness in the
writing of Bessie Head, and from Hannah Cross on migration from West Africa.
5
Notes on Contributors
Solomon Tsehaye runs the Bureau of Cultural Affairs for the Eritrean
government. He was for many years a fighter for that nation’s liberation, and is a
published novelist, journalist and poet. He also wrote the words for the Eritrean
national anthem. In recent years Solomon Tsehaye has been undertaking large
scale research into oral poetry forms amongst the Tigrinya people of Eritrea.
6
LUCAS News,
Reports & People
7
LUCAS - POLIS Conference
Democratization in Africa: Retrospective and Future Prospects
4-5 December 2009
by Gordon Crawford
The conference reflected on the experiences of the last two decades since the
'third wave' of democratization rolled across sub-Saharan Africa in the early
1990s, as well as weighing up the future prospects for and constraints on
democratization in the sub-continent. The conference was organised in a series
of parallel sessions around a variety of themes, inclusive of ‘electoral
authoritarianism’, ‘power-sharing’, ethnicity and ‘political mobilisation’, ‘crises
of democratization’, ‘decentralisation and local democracy’, ‘democracy
promotion and the role of external actors’. Over 70 papers in 25 panels were
presented over the two days. Countries such as Kenya, Zimbabwe and South
Africa received considerable attention, as well as less-well covered cases such as
Somaliland and Madagascar. The journal Review of African Political Economy
also participated in the conference and held a series of stimulating panels on
‘imperialism and democracy’ and on ‘local politics and democracy’. Names of
presenters and abstracts of papers are available on the conference website. A
highlight of the conference was the keynote lecture by Professor Patrick Bond
from the School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South
Africa. Prof. Bond’s lecture was entitled African democratic currents during
extreme economic crisis: a view from South Africa and was a public event
attended by over 200 people in the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre.
Selected papers from the conference will be published in early 2011 in a Special
Issue of the journal Democratization, guest edited by Gordon Crawford and
Gabrielle Lynch. Other contributions will be published in future issues of the
Review of African Political Economy.
9
LUCAS Schools Project 2008/09
by Richard Borowski
Jane Plastow and I attended the conference Critical Thinking for Development
Education – Moving from Evaluation to Research at the NUI, Galway in
October 2009 and presented a paper entitled: ‘Africans Don't Use Mobile
Phones: A critical discussion of issues arising from the Leeds University Centre
for African Studies (LUCAS) “African Voices” project’. The following is an
edited version of the paper (with further details and the full paper available at
http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/lucas/schools-africa-project/research.php):
In September each year LUCAS recruits MA and PhD students from Africa to
be part of the Schools Project. The students come from a wide range of African
countries but mainly from English speaking regions of the continent. They are
recruited from across the University and study a broad range of courses such as
Development Studies, Education, TESOL, Economics and Finance,
Communication Studies, Sociology, Public Health and even Chemical
Engineering.
The African students recruited to the project have a very different experience of
schools - ‘chalk and talk’ lessons and classrooms with little technology. To
prepare them to deliver lessons in UK schools they are provided with a course of
training about the UK school system, active learning methodology, teaching
strategies and classroom management and lesson planning. In becoming a
LUCAS Schools Project Teacher the students have an opportunity to develop
their teaching and communication skills and leave having made a positive
impact on the local community.
The delivery of the Year 5 Africa Days and Year 6 Africa Programmes is
structured around a pre-view, new-view and re-view model to enable to pupils to
reflect upon and acknowledge their own learning. The pre-view is delivered by
the class teacher and is designed to evaluate pupil perceptions of Africa and
provide them with an opportunity to explore where their ideas about Africa
come from. The new-view is delivered by the African post-graduate students
and consists of a mixture of ‘generic’ activities about Africa such as true/false
quizzes, diamond rankings and role plays; country profiles and workshops on
contemporary themes developed by the students; and cultural activities such as
stories, music and dancing and games. The re-view is delivered by the class
teacher and provides the pupils with an opportunity to explore how their ideas
about Africa have changed.
The impact of the work on pupil perceptions of Africa and African peoples is
evaluated through mind maps, positivistic pupil questionnaires and empirical
semi-structured focus group interviews. The mind maps and pupil questionnaires
are incorporated into the pre-view and repeated in the re-view to identify
changes in perception. Where possible the mind maps and positivistic
questionnaires are followed up by empirical semi-structured focus group
interviews with pupils. These interviews not only seek to find out to what extent
the pupils enjoyed their African Voices Programmes but to explore how and
why their perceptions of Africa changed.
1. Most primary pupils have a very negative perception of Africa and its
peoples. They see Africa as a hot, dry and dangerous place with an abundance of
wildlife and African peoples as poor and hungry, living in straw huts and
lacking clean water and modern technology.
11
One of the main questions this project has caused us to debate is why children
have such negative ideas about Africa. The evidence seems to be that there are
two main sources of negative image making: the media and charity campaigns.
Our experience from the Schools Project showed that is was possible to modify
children’s attitudes to Africa in a very short time. There are two key findings
that emerge from the re-view results following the delivery of Africa Days and
Africa Programmes.
1. The negative perception that most primary pupils have of Africa and its
peoples can be changed by the interventions of African post-graduate students.
Pupils use more positive words to describe Africa and choose more positive
images to represent what Africa looks like. Their perceptions of African peoples
and life in Africa also become more positive.
2. The more positive perceptions of Africa and its peoples do not translate into
greater support for development. The high level of support observed in the pre-
view did not increase and in some cases, such as supporting charities and
volunteering, the support declined slightly. We think this happens because as
children’s knowledge deepens they become unsure as to what might be an
appropriate response to a complex reality.
Role Models
By being present in the classroom the African post-graduate students presented a
different perspective of Africa – highly educated, relatively wealthy and
articulate.
Personal Bond
All the pupils interviewed enjoyed their African Voices Programmes, they
commented on how much they had learnt during the three days and about the
bond that had been established between themselves and their African post-
graduate student.
Active Learning
The pupils liked various aspects about their African Voices Programmes –
indoor and outdoor games, Scramble for Africa, the role play trading game,
12
African stories, meeting the students and learning about different countries and
cultures.
The danger of persisting with this perspective of Africa and its peoples is that at
best Africans will never be perceived as equal partners in global development
and at worst – and entirely unwittingly – schools may actually be reinforcing
attitudes of superiority that can lead to racism. What is interesting is that while
anecdotally many Africans living in the UK are aware of and appalled by the
images of Africa promoted in schools there seems to be little or no recognition
by teachers or in published research of what we would argue is major obstacle to
the promotion of real global citizenship agenda.
13
schools – despite their best efforts – are currently having a limited impact on
children's negative ideas about Africa, no matter how much they promote
charitable giving, or even if they have links with an African school. The only
difference we found in attitudes prior to our interventions was between children
attending schools in middle class as opposed to more deprived areas. The level
of social deprivation has a significant effect on how young people perceive
Africa and its peoples. The schools where views of Africa were most negative
were all in relatively deprived areas. Educationally this evidence supports
primary school work which builds self esteem to improve social cohesion – you
can’t feel good about others if you don’t feel good about yourself. Middle class
children seem to be slightly better informed and slightly less negative about
Africa. It appears, therefore, that generally the main source of influence on
young people's thinking in relation to Africa comes not from the school
environment but from parental influence.
We did find that the presence of BME pupils in the classroom has a positive
effect on how young people perceive Africa and its peoples. This has limited
impact though because without external reinforcement the information and
imagery disseminated by national media and NGO campaigns has a greater
effect.
Conclusion
Our research shows unequivocally that the presence of an African post-graduate
student in the classroom can overcome the negative effect of social deprivation
and reinforce positive perceptions of BME pupils. The evidence demonstrates
that no matter where a class of pupils start from they end up at roughly the same
level of perception. In all cases, and among both teachers and pupils, our work
has resulted in more positive – and more complicated – perceptions of Africa
This result has to date been achieved through only short – 1 to 3 day –
interventions. In order to sustain changes in attitudes, and to really begin to
come to grips with the complex issues underlying why levels of development
and perceptions of the West and of Africa are so different, we would need more
time and to be able to offer more support to schools.
14
The LUCAS book distribution scheme
This scheme is a collaboration between LUCAS, The Morel Trust, James Currey
Press (Boydell and Brewer), Bayreuth African Studies publications, Hans Zell,
and the journal Moving Worlds. The scheme is open to all African universities
and sends free theatre and literature books out to participating universities.
LUCAS is the coordinator, promoter and distribution centre for the scheme
which currently works with around 40 African university partners. The Morel
Trust kindly offers financial support and the publishers all provide books either
free or at very reduced rates.
Particular thanks for assistance are due to Manfred Loimeier, Christine Matzke,
Philani Moyo, and Lola Shoneyin who have assisted us with taking multiple
packages of books to different universities and theatre organizations, but there
are also not a few others who have assisted. One who has been tireless in her
assistance in this has been Ranka Primorac and we were delighted also to
receive a copy of Ranka’s report on her visit – with books – to Lusaka. This is
an edited extract from an article that originally appeared in the newsletter of the
Postcolonial Studies Association at the University of Southampton.
Any reader wishing to join the scheme and have books sent to an African
university should contact Karen Cereso, email: [email protected] or
via the postal address at the front of this bulletin. Tel.: +44 (0)113 343 5069
15
Books for UNZA
Ranka Primorac, University of Southampton
Between 1960s (the decade of Zambia’s independence) and 1980s, this used to
be a lush ‘garden’ campus, the modernist concrete of the buildings counter-
balanced by flowering trees, manicured lawns and ornamental lakes. The
nationalist ‘father’ of the Zambian nation, Kenneth Kaunda, set great store by
culture and education, and UNZA was a flagship institution in the newly-
independent nation. Four and a half decades on, it is not longer financially
possible to continue watering the grounds, and when I arrive the campus lawns
are yellowing and dry. But Kaunda (known here as ‘KK’) is still an important
presence in Zambia’s public life, and UNZA still symbolises the hopes and
aspirations of generations of young Zambians – even when they are tinged with
ambivalence. Zambian author Malama Katulwende chose a photograph of
campus buildings for the cover of his 2005 novel Bitterness; the 1999 collection
of short fiction by Sekelani Banda, entitled Half a Turn, opens with a family
feast in honour of a village son who has gained university entrance. Two weeks
into my stay, I witness a graduation ceremony here: it is conducted in the open
and punctuated by drums and jubilant ululation. The graduates -doffing mortar-
boards in emerald green robes -are just as gleeful and exuberant as their
counterparts anywhere else in the world.
Once inside the library, however, I soon realise that hopes and dreams are not
matched by resources: the library stock is badly in need of updating, and staff
members tell me that postgraduate projects are all too often constrained by the
unavailability of research resources. Recent work in the field of Postcolonialism
16
is particularly under-represented, and people talk longingly of having access to
journal article databases. This is why the Leeds gift of theatre-related books is
greeted with much excitement and gratitude. Inside the parcel I have been
carrying are a dozen and a half recent volumes related to African theatre
studies, and everyone – from the Head Librarian and his staff, to university
administrators and ‘ordinary’ undergraduates who want to know what is in the
box I am taking into the library building – is delighted and grateful. (When I tell
my undergraduate acquaintances that, as geography students, they are unlikely
to benefit from the books, they answer earnestly: ‘If one of us benefits, all of us
benefit!’) During visits to the library over the coming days, I see the volumes
being stamped and processed for library borrowing and use, and I acquire a new
resolve: I want to take a leaf out of Leeds’ book and enlist the help of
colleagues from the Postcolonial Studies Association and the broader academic
community, for a book donation scheme called ‘Books for UNZA’. Details will
be announced closer to the time of my next visit to Lusaka in 2010: watch this
space.
This article is adapted from a larger piece, originally published in the October
newsletter of the Postcolonial Studies Association.
(www.postcolonialstudiesassociation.co.uk).
17
LUCAS Annual Lecture
This will take place on 4th May 2010 in the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre at
5:15pm. It will be given by Paul Richards, Professor of Anthropology and head
of the Technology and Agrarian Development Group chair group at Wageningen
University in the Netherlands. His particular interests are in agro-technologies in
extreme circumstances, food security and humanitarianism, and social
reintegration of refugees and ex-combatants. He is researching in the areas of
anthropology of armed conflict, food security and human rights in post-war
reconstruction, ex-combatants and agrarian transformation, and HIV-AIDS and
rural youth in Africa. The title will be Afromodernism: An Assessment. In
anticipation of his lecture Professor Richards states:
18
LUCAS seminars and display events held in Academic Year 2008/2009
The year’s programme of LUCAS seminars and events came from different
disciplines and was organized by Jane Plastow and Ray Bush.
4 Feb Boom and Bust in the Zambian Copper Mining Alastair Fraser
2009 Sector: donors, multinational companies, Chinese University of Oxford
investment and the populist response
25 Feb The Kenyan Political Crisis: The Prospects for Dr. Tim Murithi
2009 Transitional Justice and Constitutional Reform University of Bradford
and
20 May Seminar: ‘Better Left Undone’: The Ugandan Army Professor Ron Atkinson
2009 Incursion into the Congo, Dec ‘08 - Mar 09 University of South
Carolina
19
The LUCAS Elective: Contemporary Africas: History, Society and Culture
In 2008-9 the Contemporary Africas level one elective module recruited a full
complement of 80 level one students from disciplines across the University.
Lectures on topics ranging from literature to debt and focusing on nations from
South Africa, to Kenya, Egypt and Ghana attracted wide interest both from
students who lived or travelled in Africa to newcomers with no previous
knowledge of the continent. In response to student requests we are looking at
developing a complementary 2nd semester module, possibly focusing on
anthropology.
Dr Amanuel Mehreteab
Another scholar activist, Amanuel was a fighter in the Eritrean liberation
struggle for 15 years, then after Independence made a great contribution to
building a sustainable peace as Director of the Mitias agency that spear-headed
the demobilisation of fighters from 1991. He then pursued graduate studies in
Leeds, writing a thesis evaluating that demobilisation experience and the
reintegration of refugees. Following further work on a second demobilisation at
home he has used his knowledge and experience as a UNDP expert advising on
demobilisation in Uganda, Nepal and now in Sudan.
Dr Sara Pantuliano
After NGO work and the writing of a thesis on gender and livelihoods in Eastern
Sudan, she returned to work for UNDP in Sudan in the early 2000s. After
lecturing in the Institute for Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam,
she is now based at the Overseas Development Institute in London, in the
Humanitarian Policy Group. She continues to research and consult on
humanitarian issues to do with the three major conflicts in Sudan, North-South,
20
Darfur and the Eastern Front. She has recently edited a volume exploring a new
linkage between conflict and the perennial problem of land:
Dr Fay Chung did her MA in Literature in the late 1960s and after being an
activist in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle became a civil servant and then
Minister in education. She gave the annual LUCAS Africa Lecture in 2008.
Since then she has been involved in a brave new initiative to dampen
antagonism and to chart a new direction for politicised youth in Zimbabwe.
21
Departmental
Reports
22
School of Earth and Environment
Since last year’s review the connections between the School of Earth and
Environment and Africa have gone from strength to strength. This was
demonstrated particularly by the new intake of post-graduate researchers from
Africa or working on PhD topics related to Africa and the ongoing research and
policy connections of staff working on African environmental issues.
The School has many connections with Africa from what’s going on in the
atmosphere and what happens as the Earth’s crust splits apart to analysis of
people’s vulnerability and adaptation to environmental change as well as social
and economic and aspects of sustainability. It continues to build strategic
partnerships with key institutions across the continent and is keen to extend this
work further.
This review of our Africa facing activity has been collated by Dr Anne
Tallontire with contributions from Dr Susannah Sallu, Dr Andy Challinor, Dr
Andy Dougill, Dr Jacqueline Houghton, James Van Alstine, Dr Lindsay Stringer
and Dr. Elisabeth Simelton.
Many of the projects profiled in last year’s Bulletin are on-going. Some recent
highlights include:
Dr. Emma Tompkins is currently on secondment for 60% of her time to the
UK Department for International Development. Her position as 'senior research
fellow' will run until March 2011. During her secondment Emma will provide
strategic support to DFID's climate and environment group on adaptation and
development. She is focussing on three main research areas: 1) the impact of
DFIDs policy frame on climate change winners and losers; 2) the generalisable
lessons from adaptation in Africa; 3) the implications of slow onset hazards for
DFIDs development strategy.
23
Dr Anne Tallontire held three stakeholder workshops in Nairobi in September
2008 as part of the DFID-ESRC funded project Governance Implications of
Private Standards Initiatives in Agri-Food Chains. These aimed at eliciting from
representatives of the private sector, public sector bodies and government
ministries, trade unionists and non-governmental organisation understanding,
experience and concerns regarding the operation of private standards being
implemented in the floriculture and horticulture sectors. Dr Anne Tallontire and
research partner Dr Maggie Opondo from the University of Nairobi have also
conducted several key informant interviews with actors at the national policy
level and also focus group discussions with workers and smallholders. They are
currently planning a feedback workshop for January 2010.
(i) With University of Cape Coast and COMFORD, Ghana 2007-2010, a project
entitled: “Transforming Ghana's land policy for sustainable development” has
developed expertise for joint teaching, research and development programmes
between the Sustainability Research Institute and the Department of Geography
and Tourism of the University of Cape Coast, together with the Communication
for Research and Development (COMFORD) a non-governmental organisation.
This project builds on ongoing PhD research in Northern Ghana (conducted by
John Atabila who also acts as the project manager for this study) and from
research experiences more widely across Sub-Saharan Africa. Work in this area
is also being extended by Dr Lindsay Stringer looking at the impacts of non-
agricultural livelihood options (e.g. in the mining sector) on rural land
management across Northern Ghana.
As part of this project, Dr. Claire Quinn, Dr. Lindsay Stringer, Dr. Elisabeth
Simelton and Jen Dyer from the Sustainability Research Institute led a
workshop on Climate Change Adaptation Research Approaches in Malawi.
24
Participants included staff from Bunda College Malawi, University of
Botswana, AfriCare International and NGO's from across Malawi.
Dr Evan Fraser together with the above group is also conducting research on
food system vulnerability across Malawi as part of the 'Adaptation to climate
change and human development' programme of the new ESRC Centre for
Climate Change, Economics and Policy http://www.cccep.ac.uk/
Dr Lindsay Stringer has recently been working with the Secretariat of the
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries
Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa
(UNCCD). Lindsay was part of an international scientific working group tasked
with the production of three White Papers that were presented in the Science and
Technology Session of the 9th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UNCCD,
held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September 2009. She also prepared a
background paper that was discussed during the high-level ministerial round
table of the COP.
James Van Alstine facilitated a workshop in South Africa in April 2009 as part
of his three-year Alcoa Foundation funded project Rights, Risk and
Responsibility: Building Community Capacities for Engagement with the
Extractive Industries. The five-day international workshop was co-sponsored by
the London School of Economics, Business-Community Synergies and the
IFC/World Bank, and co-hosted by AngloGold Ashanti and Lonmin Platinum.
Civil society representatives from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Nigeria,
Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia attended the workshop and developed
an action plan to implement within their home countries. The training exposed
civil society organisations to a set of ideas and principles through which they
can adapt to their home country contexts and work towards more community-
oriented solutions that are designed and implemented in collaboration with oil,
25
gas and mining companies. The research team will conduct follow up field work
in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia in 2010. (For more information
see: www.lse.ac.uk/communitycapacities)
Dr Atalay Ayele of the University of Addis Ababa and a member of the Afar
Rift Consortium has spent this year on sabbatical here at Leeds. The resulting
paper in Geophysical Research Letters on the September 2005 mega-dike
emplacement in the Afar Depression, Ethiopia has attracted a lot of publicity
and Dr Ayele will now be presenting his work at the American Geophysical
Union annual meeting this December. The Afar Rift Consortium is a group of
scientists from the UK, Ethiopia, USA, France and New Zealand who are
studying the Afar Depression in Ethiopia where the Earth’s movement of the
tectonic plates is splitting open the crust; a process that will eventually lead to
the formation of a new ocean.
The Consortium has also been chosen to exhibit its work at next summer’s
Royal Society Summer Exhibition.
Susannah Sallu, Andy Challinor and Andy Dougill of the School of Earth and
Environment sit on the board of Africa College and are keen to promote greater
dialogue between social and natural scientists working on issues related to
African agriculture. Several of the recent members of Africa College across the
university come from the social sciences and Africa College is keen to map
research activities of relevance to the aims across the university.
http://www.africacollege.leeds.ac.uk/index.php
26
Publications
Ayele, A., D. Keir, C. Ebinger, T.J. Wright, G.W. Stuart, W.R. Buck, E.
Jacques, G. Ogubazghi & J. Sholan, (2009). September 2005 mega-
dike emplacement in the Manda-Harraro nascent oceanic rift (Afar
depression). Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 36, L20306,
doi:10.1029/2009GL039605, 2009
Barisin, I.,, S. Leprince, B. Parsons & T.J. Wright. (2009). Surface
displacements in the September 2005 Afar rifting event from satellite
image matching: Asymmetric uplift and faulting. Geophysical
Research Letters, Volume 36, Issue 7, CiteID L07301
Bauer S and Stringer LC. 2009. Science and the global governance of
desertification Journal of Environment and Development 18 (3) 248-
267
Hamling, I., A. Ayele, L. Bennati, E. Calais, C.J. Ebinger, D. Keir, E. Lewi,
T.J. Wright & G.Yirgu. (2009). Geodetic observations of the ongoing
Dabbahu rifting episode: new dyke intrusions in 2006 and 2007.
Geophysical Journal International, 10.1111/j.1365-
246X.2009.04163.x
Keir, D., I.D. Bastow, K.A. Whaler, E. Daly, D.G. Cornwall & S. Hautot,
(2009). Lower crustal earthquakes near the Ethiopian rift induced by
magmatic processes. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 10,
Q0AB02, doi:10.1029/2009GC002382
Keir, D., I.J. Hamling, A. Ayele, E. Calais, C.J. Ebinger, T.J. Wright, E.
Jacques, K. Mohamed, J.O.S. Hammond, M. Belachew, E. Baker,
J.V. Rowland, E. Lewi, L. Bennati. (2009) Evidence for focused
magmatic accretion at segment centers from lateral dike injections
captured beneath the Red Sea rift in Afar. Geology 2009;37;59-62.
doi:10.1130/G25147A.1
Mkwambisi, D.D., Fraser, E.D.G. and Dougill, A.J. (2009). Urban agriculture
and poverty reduction: evaluating how food production in cities
contributes to food security, employment and income in Malawi.
Journal of International Development, 21, 1-23.
Reed, M.S., Dougill, A.J. and Baker, T. (2008). Participatory Indicator
Development: What can ecologists and local communities learn from
each other? Ecological Applications, 18(5), 1253-1269.
Sallu, S.M., Thomas, D.S.G. & Twyman, C. (2009) The multi-dimensional
nature of biodiversity and social dynamics – implications for rural
livelihoods in Botswana. Journal of African Ecology 47 (Suppl. 1)
110-118.
27
Stringer LC 2009 Land degradation policy in Swaziland: testing the
orthodoxies. Land Use Policy 26 (2) 157-168
Stringer LC 2009 Reviewing the links between desertification and food
insecurity: from parallel challenges to synergistic solutions. Food
Security 1 (2) 113-126
Stringer, L.C., Dyer, J.C., Reed, M.S., Dougill, A.J., Twyman, C. and
Mkwambisi, D.D. (2009). Adaptations to climate change, drought and
desertification: local insights to enhance policy in southern Africa.
Environmental Science and Policy, 12, 748-765.
doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2009.04.002
Stringer, LC (2008) Can the UN Convention to Combat Desertification guide
sustainable use of the world's soils? , Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment, 6(3), pp138-144. doi:10.1890/070060
Stringer, LC (2008) Reviewing the international year of deserts and
Desertification 2006: What contribution towards combating global
desertification and implementing the United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification?, J ARID ENVIRON, 72(11), pp2065-2074.
doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2008.06.010
Stringer, LC; Twyman, C; Gibbs, LM (2008) Learning from the South:
common challenges and solutions for small-scale farming, GEOGR J,
174, pp235-250.
Tallontire, A M; Opondo, M; Nelson, V; Martin, A (Accepted) Beyond The
Vertical? Using Value Chains And Governance As A Framework To
Analyse Private Standards Initiatives In Agri-Food Chains.,
Agriculture and Human Values. doi:10.1007/s10460-009-9237-2.
Van Alstine, J. (2009) “Governance from below: contesting corporate
environmentalism in Durban, South Africa”, Business, Strategy and
the Environment, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 108-121.
Van Alstine, J. (2009), “Linking the global to the local: the
institutionalisation of industry’s contribution to social development in
Durban, South Africa”, in UNRISD (ed), Business, Social Policy and
Corporate Political Influence in Developing Countries, Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan
28
Earth and Environment PhD students enrolled
Post-colonial Literature
Together with Prof Asha Varadharajan (Queens University Canada), Sam
Durrant co-presented a paper entitled Entangled Times and Dispersed Humans:
Writing the African Postcolony at the University of Bergamo, Italy 13-15
October 2009. Inspired by the work of Achille Mbembe, this paper was an
exploration of the temporality of African modernity in novels by Mia Couto,
Uzodinma Iweala and Athol Fugard and has now been developed into an
undergraduate option.
Workshop Theatre
The Workshop Theatre is delighted to welcome our Newton International
Fellow, Dr Chukwuma Okoye, who has joined us for two years (as of October
2009) from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria to undertake research into The
Postcoloniality of African Theatre and Performance. Chukwuma writes:
The term ‘postcolonial’ is fraught with conceptual difficulties, such that despite
its unprecedented popularity in contemporary literary, social, political and
cultural debates, many scholars discredit it for, among other habits, losing sight
of its referent and becoming meretriciously discursive; lacking in social, political
and historical specificity because of its unwieldy homogenising attitude;
foregrounding a 'writing-back-to-Empire' paradigm and thereby being insensitive
to contemporary social realities in the 'postcolonies'. The emergent field of
‘Postcolonial’ African theatre is already bundled with these difficulties, plus an
inapposite interest in scripted ‘old dramas and theatres.’ My research objective is
to investigate what I consider the truly ‘postcolonial’ in African theatre; that is,
performances not just of 'unwritten', and marginalised dramas but more so of a
wide range of popular non-dramatic, non-scripted and 'un-writeable' theatrical
performances that are powered by, narrate and critique the anxious conditions
under which a majority of the population exist; and to examine also the audiences
whose anxieties witness and inform these performances. Examples of these forms
30
include dances, music, mime, stand-up acts and several syncretist outings. The
research proposes to examine not just the literary, sensory and embodied
dimensions of these performances but, more importantly, their physical, social
and political conditions and processes of production and reception.
Over the past year Jane Plastow was a keynote speaker at the African Theatre
Association 2009 conference where she gave a paper on ‘Theatre for
Development: a Business Opportunity; a Tool of Oppression, or a Road to
Empowerment?’; she also got a British Academy grant to travel to the Creativity
and Dissidence Conference held in November 2008 at Spelman College in
Atlanta, USA, where she gave a paper; ‘Three African women playwrights and
the dream of equality: Ama Ata Aidoo, Micere Mugo and Nawal El Saadawi’.
She gave a public seminar at University College London in December 2008 on
‘Translating performance: Ngugi’s I Will Marry When I Want’; and in June 2009
she spoke at a National Theatre platform event on the work of Wole Soyinka in
conjunction with the NT’s production of his play Death and the King’s
Horseman. She has recently been awarded a grant by the Nuffield Foundation to
allow her to travel to Uganda in February 2010 to undertake an inter-
generational theatre project with Ugandan women.
Publications
Jane Plastow, ‘Practising for the revolution? The influence of Augusto Boal in
Brazil and Africa’, Journal of Transatlantic Studies, Vol 7, No 3, Sept 2009, pp
294-303
Jane Plastow, ‘Using Performance as a Practice as Research Tool in Africa’, in
Mapping Landscapes for performance as research: Scholarly Acts and Creative
Cartographies, eds Shannon Rose Riley and Lynette Hunter, Palgrave, 2009, pp
35-41
Jane Plastow, book review of Theatre and Slavery: Ghosts at the Crossroads,
ed Michael Walling, in The Drama Review, Vol 53, No 3, 2009, pp176-177
Jane Plastow, book review of Finding Feet Conference, by Terence Zeeman, in
African Theatre: Companies, 2008, pp 161-163
31
School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies
This year the School of Fine Art history of Art and Cultural Studies continued
with its teaching in the field of African Art history. Two courses were offered;
Africa, context sign and representation – which deals primarily with the
traditions of classical African Art history, and Africa and the Atlantic world –
which uses material drawn from African contemporary art to illustrate the forms
of modernity and modernism that are being engaged with in Africa today.
Dr Will Rea presented a paper titled ‘Ekiti Allsorts’ at the African Studies
Association conference in Chicago.
School of Geography
The School of Geography at Leeds is one of the largest and most innovative
geography teaching departments in the UK. Several members of the School of
Geography staff have been engaged in research activities related to Africa.
Adrian Bailey, Lionel Cliffe and Farai Magunha recently completed a one-year
pilot study on Exploring remittance strategies among Zimbabweans in
Yorkshire. Adrian Bailey is Professor of Migration Studies in the School of
Geography and convenor of the World University Network's Transnational
Society Network. He came to the University of Leeds in 1999 from Dartmouth
College, USA. Trained as a population geographer, Prof. Bailey is committed to
increasing the international visibility of human geography scholarship through
such professional development activities as the Advanced Placement Human
Geography initiative in the United States, and the WUN Transnational Society
Network. His current research expertise falls in two areas - understanding the
winners and losers in transnational society, and understanding the changing
realities of migration and work for families. After years of research work
focusing on Latin America, Prof. Bailey’s current research is now focused on
Southern Africa, among other African interests.
32
(with Sarah Bracking) ‘Plans for a Zimbabwe Aid Package: Blueprint for
Recovery or Shock Therapy Prescription for Liberalisation?’ Review of African
Political Economy, No. 119, March 2009: 103-113.
(with Roy Love and Kjetil Tronvoll), ‘Conflict and Peace in the Horn of Africa’,
and Editors of Issue 119, Review of African Political Economy, No. 120, June
2009.
33
in depth community surveys, long interviews, and expert interviews showed the
intensification of livelihood remitting since 2001. The study discusses how this
has implications for skill utilisation and processes of deskilling, and the complex
negotiations that emerge as household and community members re-negotiate
roles and social relations. It raises the possibility that the inequalities of such
transnationalism may extend Zimbabwe’s economic paralysis and make the
tasks of repair and growth more difficult. The study is important in that it
identifies a section of the migrant population and the role it plays in British
Society. Zimbabweans are employed in the health sector as either nurses or
carers. This raises potential questions about implications for their return on the
country’s health sector.
Louise Waite. Louise began her academic career in Development Studies where
she studied Gender Analysis of Development. Early interests were around the
conceptualisation of vulnerability with a focus on female-headed households in
Iraqi-Kurdistan. Louise's research interests then moved to India and a broader
consideration of work and well-being amongst vulnerable communities
(especially manual labourers), and she began to explore the social theory of
'embodiment' and the usefulness of this concept for deepening our understanding
of the physicality of manual labour. Louise's research currently spans
development geography and gender studies with a focus on subjective
understandings and experiences of migration and transnationalism and how they
relate to experiences of citizenship and belonging in multicultural contexts.
Current research interests are on migration and transnationalism among the
African Diaspora, the welfare of older international migrants, the concepts of
'precarity' and 'embodiment', the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees,
meanings of belonging through citizenship ceremonies.
Louise has three current projects that have a focus on Africa, or African related
subjects. The first project researches on African migrants to Britain and France
and is a British Academy Research Development Award. Louise is a co-
investigator on this project, with Joe Cook (Leeds Social Science Institute,
Leeds) as Principle investigator. This project compares the lived experiences of
African migrants resident in Britain and France. The research focuses on how
different colonial histories and policies of migration shape the experiences and
lives of African migrants. It examines the impact of migration and place upon
the transmission of family practices, culture and tradition across generations,
alongside the evolution of intergenerational relationships post-migration.
The second project is a Leeds City Council funded research on 'New Migrant
Communities in Leeds'. Co-researchers are Joe Cook (Leeds Social Science
Institute) and Prof Peter Dwyer (Nottingham Trent University). This qualitative
research focuses on the needs, experiences and expectations of A10 new migrant
34
populations resident in Leeds, and their relationship with wider established host
communities. The third project is a DFID-funded COMDIS (Communicable
Diseases) project, entitled ‘Increasing the effectiveness of Straight Talk
Foundation Uganda programmes through qualitative research, especially in
relation to vulnerable young women.’ The project is collaboration between the
University of Leeds and the Nuffield Institute of Health and Development.
Simon Willcock ‘Valuing the Arc: The carbon balance of the eastern Arc
Mountains of Tanzania.’
School of History
This has been a busy year for African history at Leeds. Africanist modules have
continued to recruit well, with sixty students taking the level 2 survey course for
example, while at postgraduate level students can now choose from two MA
optional modules, on Apartheid and African nationalism. The Race and
Resistance MA programme, which has a strong Africanist component, has
recruited twelve students this year, while Shane Doyle currently has four PhD
students. Will Jackson is in the final year of his PhD on Kenya's Other Whites,
while Nick Grant, Vincent Hiribarren and Aidan Stonehouse are working on
gender and panAfricanism in South Africa, the history of the border in Borno,
and Buganda's sub-ethnicities respectively.
35
In terms of research, Shane Doyle has published three articles in the past year:
'"'The child of death": personal names and parental attitudes towards mortality in
Bunyoro, western Uganda, 1900-2005', Journal of African History, 49, 2, 2008,
pp.361-82; 'Immigrants and indigenes: the Lost Counties Dispute and the
evolution of ethnic identity in colonial Buganda ', Journal of Eastern African
Studies, 3, 2 (2009), pp.284-302; and 'STDs and welfare in East Africa', History
in Focus, 14, 2008. Chris Prior has published ‘Empire before Labour: The
“Scramble for Africa” and the media, 1880-1899’, in D. Stewart and B. Frank
(eds.), Socialism and Imperialism, (Newcastle, 2009), and has been on a British
Academy-funded research trip to Ghana, working on the records of the colonial
administration.
School of Music
African musical arts are now taught in years one and three on the BA Popular
and World Music, BA Music, BMus, JH Music, and Graduate Diploma courses.
There are lectures on African music and practicals on African drumming in year
one (reaching around 70 students). There is a semester long course in year 3
which regularly attracts 30-40 students This year the focus of the course is the
36
music of Central African peoples and Mande music. But students are keen to
focus on a wide range of topics in their essays and presentations (from South
African hip hop to musical theatre and development). This year, Kevin Dawe is
contributing to the Contemporary Africas elective course co-ordinated by
LUCAS. Vicky Burrett, a PhD student in compostion, continues to teach African
drumming (Senegalese) for us. It is hoped that Kevin Dawe will be able to both
expand but also refine the teaching of African musical arts within the School of
Music, especially with new initiatives being taken in course design and
programme review. Moreover, the exploration of a broad range of social and
cultural issues is now ongoing through the teaching and learning of African
musical arts within the School (from developments in local music industries to
Aids/Hiv and development issues).
September marked a new academic year with once again a record number of
students (64 on our Masters programmes, 50 on our intercalated BSc and 14 on
our new MSc in International Health). Africa is well represented with over half
our Masters students coming from countries such as: Sudan, Nigeria, Libya,
Tanzania, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya and Malawi.
Throughout the year the Nuffield Centre organises social events for the students
and their families to promote interaction and sharing of experiences. In October
our yearly ‘Cultural Evening’ celebrating cultural diversity was held for the MA
and BSc students and their families. All participants were asked to bring a dish
and share food and experiences.
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) has been on the wish list for the Nuffield
Centre for many years. TEL has the potential to improve access to knowledge
for individuals considerably both those based in Leeds and hopefully those in
based in Africa as well in the near future. The potential for capacity
development are endless. Since the beginning 2008 the Nuffield Centre and
Leeds Institute of Health Sciences have employed Jennifer Parr to lead on the
development of TEL. In 2009 she and a team of colleagues have been
developing a new and improved research methods module which they will be
using to develop blended learning in the existing module in Leeds this year,
37
develop a new streamlined blended learning module next year and hopefully a
fully online module the year after.
On-going projects:
The aim of the Mental Health and Poverty Project is to develop, implement and
evaluate mental health policy in poor countries, in order to provide new
knowledge regarding comprehensive multi-sectoral approaches to breaking the
negative cycle of poverty and mental ill health. The research is being conducted
in four countries that represent a variety of scenarios in mental health policy
development and implementation: Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.
We are now in the final year of the project. We have completed a situation
analysis of the mental health policies and systems in the four countries. As part
of this, the study countries used qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews,
focus groups and document analysis) to understand the processes for getting
mental health on the agenda, developing and implementing mental health
policies and laws. Over the last year the Leeds team have been conducting
comparative work on the mental health policy processes in the countries and
preparing articles for publication. There have been considerable steps forward
throughout the research process – the mental health bill in Ghana is now in the
final stages of approval and the mental health policies in Uganda and South
Africa (which have been in draft form since 2000 and 1997 respectively) are
being revised and undergoing consultation.
The second phase of the project is to develop and evaluate interventions. The
Leeds team are providing support on an intervention to improve mental health
information systems in Ghana and South Africa. This includes improving the
amount and quality of information on mental health collected at different levels
38
of the health system, improving processes, analysis, dissemination and use of the
information for policy and management decisions. The improved MHIS has
been rolled out in both study countries. We are meeting in Zambia in November
to plan the final stages of evaluation. The Leeds team are also leading on
capacity development to ensure that study teams have the resources, support and
training needed to carry out the research.
At the end of 2008 a twinning agreement was signed between the Nuffield
Centre and the Federal Ministry of Health to deliver a short training course for
Human Resource managers. This course would be part of a capacity building
exercise for federal and state level Human Resources for Health policy and
management.
39
To achieve this goal the NCIDH supported the assessment of training needs and
facilitated the development of draft curriculum for the two programmes. In
addition, other support to CEDHA included capacity development in its strategic
planning, through a staff workshop culminating in an organisational strategic
plan. Two of CEDHA’s staff received post-graduate training in the UK in the
areas that the programmes will focus. A major challenge still remains in
developing CEDHA staff at the level of PhD to meet the TCU’s requirements
for accreditation. Other support included the development of learning resources
and teaching materials. While this ambitious work continues it is clear that the
development of institutional capacity is proving to be a slow and time
consuming process.
Mesfin, M. M., Newell, J. N., Walley, J. D., Gessessew, A., Tassew, T., Frew
Lemma, Madeley, R. J Quality of tuberculosis care and its association with
patient adherence to treatment in eight Ethiopian districts. Health Policy and
Planning 2009 1-10 doi: 10.1093/heapol/cpz030
Kell, M.E., Walley J.D., Palliative care for HIV in the era of antiretroviral
therapy availability: perspectives of nurses in Lesotho (2009). BMC Palliative
Care 2009 8:11.
Mesfin, M. M., Newell, J. N., Walley, J. D., Gessessew, A., Madeley, R. J. 2009
“Delayed consultation among pulmonary tuberculosis patients: a cross sectional
study of 10 DOTS districts of Ethiopia.” BMC Public Health, 2009 Feb 9; 9:53.
2009 ‘The land and the people’ in Rabab El-Mahdi & Philip Marfleet eds.,
Egypt: The Moment of Change (Zed Books, London) pp51-67
2009 ‘‘‘Soon there will be no-one left to take the corpse to the morgue”:
Accumulation and Abjection in Ghana’s mining communities’, Resources
Policy 34, pp57-63
40
Paper Presented:
‘Marginality or Abjection? The political economy of poverty production in
Egypt’ Workshop on Marginalities in the Middle East organized by Ford
Foundation, Cairo, 27 September, 2009
Book Launch, Panelist, Egypt: The Moment of Change, Land and Society,
SOAS, 8 October, 2009
Over the course of 2009 Dr Gabrielle Lynch presented papers on ‘Kenya’s new
indigenes’ at the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism annual
conference at LSE; ‘Autochthony, Indigeneity and the Politics of Identity’ with
Prof. David Anderson (University of Oxford) at a workshop on Democratization
and Ethnic Communities at the University of Toronto; and on ‘Kenya post-
2007’ at the Peace and Reconciliation Conference at the University of
California, LA, and John Ferguson Seminar Series at the University of Bradford.
In addition, Dr Lynch gave a briefing paper on ‘The Rift Valley Problem’ to the
East Africa Section of the Africa Directorate, Foreign and Commonwealth
Office. In July 2009, she was awarded a small British Academy grant to conduct
research on ‘After the chaos – peace and reconciliation in Kenya post-2007:
rhetoric and reality’. On the basis of this research Dr Lynch wrote a briefing
paper on ‘Durable Solution, Help or Hindrance? The Failings and Unintended
Implications of Relief and Recovery Efforts for Kenya’s Post-election IDPs’ for
the Review of African Political Economy, which be published in December
2009.
41
Statistics, Social and Economic Research) at the University of Ghana at Legon.
This has involved him in fieldwork trips to Ghana during 2009. For more
details, including two background papers, see:
http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/research/projects/human-rights-power.php
With Dr Lynch, Prof. Crawford organised a major international conference on
‘Democratization in Africa: Retrospective and Future Prospects’, 4-5 December
2009, hosted by LUCAS and POLIS. See report above and
http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/research/events/democratization-africa/ .
Nketti Mason has began work on her provisional PhD that is looking at the
extent to which there has been a resource curse in Sierra Leone. She is
supervised by Prof Ray Bush and Dr Zulkuf Aydin.
Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has had the lowest
HDI and HPI indexes since 2007. It has a population of just over 6 million and
the first diamond was found in Sierra Leone in the 1930’s. A major
characterisation of Sierra Leone’s history is that it has been plagued by
corruption, mismanagement and neglect which eventually led to state collapse
and civil war. The problems in the diamond industry have been partly blamed
for that. According to the Diamond Industry Annual Review (2006), out of the
approximately, $141 million being exported out of Sierra Leone each year, the
government imposes only a 3% export tax, this translates into about $4.1 million
revenue for the government. The $141 million figure is rumoured to be only a
fraction of total diamond production in Sierra Leone. The Peace Diamond
Alliance (PDA) estimates the value of current diamond production at $400
million a year.
So what happens to the other $260 million? It is smuggled out of Sierra Leone
thus putting the Sierra Leonean government at least $ 7.8 million out of pocket
every year. The industry is also monopolised by a relatively small group of
people who dictate the price of rough diamonds. This cartel seems to reap most
of the economic rewards from the production chain.
The thesis will explore the extent to which the diamond industry contributes to
the economic development of the people of Sierra Leone and it will do so by
looking at the relationship between government mineral policy and the impact of
mining on local communities.
Philani Moyo completed his thesis and graduated as PhD. His thesis is entitled
‘Urban Food Insecurity: Coping Strategies in Bulawayo, Zimbabe’. It examines
urban food insecurity and attendant coping strategies employed by the urban
poor in Makokoba and Mzilikazi in Bulawayo in the face of Zimbabwe’s 2001-
42
2007 national food insecurity and unprecedented economic recession. The thesis
argues that even though Zimbabwe’s rural areas remain the locus of poverty and
food insecurity compared to urban areas, there is evidence that since 2000 urban
households, especially those in high density areas, proportionally became poorer
and food insecure due to the deteriorating macro-economic environment
characterised by hyperinflation, negative GDP growth and shrinking formal job
opportunities. An increase in urban poverty made urban food insecurity
primarily a problem of access by the urban poor. Hyperinflation pushed up food
prices, eroded the purchasing power of poor households thereby curtailing their
ability to access food.
Given this erosion of their exchange entitlement and consequent food insecurity,
the thesis identifies that the urban poor’s overarching strategy was to construct
and maintain a portfolio of coping strategies which concurrently alleviated
household food gaps. These portfolios demonstrate concurrent reliance not only
on consumption austerity measures, trade-based, production, own-labour and
inheritance/transfer entitlements within and beyond the urban hinterland but also
increasing straddling of the rural-urban divide as the poor sought means to
access food. These strategies were not adopted as categories in a specific
priority order. Multiple coping strategies were adopted in parallel, in a
continuum rather than as discrete categories. These diversified coping strategy
portfolios varied across households and were directly influenced not only by
intra-household specific variables such as gender of the head of household, their
type of employment, level of education, age, wealth status and household size
but also by external vulnerability factors that include formal and informal
processes at the community, market and political levels.
The thesis further examines whether state responses to the national food
emergency that include direct government intervention in domestic food markets
and its channelling of food into public social safety nets complemented the
urban poor’s coping strategies. It finds that not only did state intervention in the
food market largely exacerbate urban food shortages but its social safety net
system was beleaguered by underfunding, programmatic, technical, means
testing and organisational inefficiencies that undermined its contribution to the
urban poor’s coping strategies. It also identifies how politics was used to control
food distributed through the social safety net system; with widespread
appropriation along partisan ZANU-PF political party lines and the exclusion of
non-ZANU-PF members. It further identifies how the urban poor employed
social agency to resist and challenge state policies and laws which infringed on
their coping strategies and livelihood resources. This resistance provides an
insight into the micro-level dynamics of covert informal political resistance by
the urban poor against some of the policies of the ZANU-PF regime that
43
include, inter alia, urban land use laws, informal economy laws and staple food
movement, distribution and marketing laws.
During this year the department has been fortunate to have as a colleague, Dr
Joanna Sadgrove. Jo did a PhD at SOAS on issues of AIDS and ‘born again’
Christians at Makerere University in Uganda. She has since been working as
part of the interdisciplinary, AHRC-funded project (a collaboration between the
School of Geography and TRS): Sexuality and Global Faith Networks, which
has specifically been exploring discourses on homosexuality in the UK, USA
and Africa. Kevin has also been involved in this project. Jo did six months field
work in Pietermaritzburg and Uganda during the year. Kevin also visited South
Africa and Namibia in the summer and attended a theological conference at
Stellenbosch which commemorated the 150th anniversary of the establishment of
a theological seminary there. Since the end of apartheid, Stellenbosch has been
active in promoting theological education and study, to serve churches
throughout the African continent.
The joint MA programme between the Centre for Development Studies and TRS
continues to attract students from Africa: at the moment from Sudan, Ghana and
Nigeria.
44
Articles
45
Migration, Mobility and Borders:
the EU and West African Migrant Communities
by Hannah Cross
This thesis examines the dynamics of West African labour migration to Europe
from the perspectives of sending communities in Senegal, the ‘holding zone’ in
Mauritania, and the target destination in Spain. From diverse settings, labour
migrants, so-called because they leave home in order to seek work, congregate
in transit and in sites of recruitment that favour sub-Saharan workers. The
migration is unorganised in the sense that travel, settlement, employment and
return plans are mostly unknown at the outset. Its complexity is seen in the
geographical range of sending households and eventual destinations, combined
with unpredictable interims and outcomes. Differential forms of economic
inclusion and exclusion emerge as a significant dynamic in the causes and
consequences of migration and in the experiences of migrants. This is argued by
examining migrants’ family histories of mobility, life chances and access to
resources in the context of regional migration history.
The thesis considers who decides to migrate, how the decision is reached, for
what reasons, and with what aims. Why are particular routes and destinations
selected, and what shapes the passage to Europe? Correspondingly, it
investigates the construction of state migration policies in Senegal, Mauritania
and Spain. In Spain, management of undocumented migrants fluctuates between
legalisation and expulsion. This reveals the tensions inherent in requiring
labourers who are cheaper than national workers as a result of illegality and
insecurity. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund implicitly promote the
reproduction of migrant labour. They encourage northern countries to maintain
low production costs, which have been achieved by receiving a regular supply of
unfree human resources. Repression is, however, the more visible form of
migration governance. European and US policy-makers and security agencies
lead a governance network in favour of restricting the ‘threat’ of migration.
Europe’s external borders are patrolled by FRONTEX1-coordinated security
forces, which attempt to intercept and identify ‘illegal’ migrants. The ‘people in
the middle’ informing this thesis, who slip through the nets of labour and asylum
policy, are banned from leaving Africa’s shores. Such attempts to cross the
Atlantic from Mauritania can result in detention or expulsion. The overlapping
security dynamics of the EU migration regime and the US-led Trans-Saharan
46
Counter-Terrorism Initiative produce a framework of war in Mauritania. This
contrasts with gentler attempts at restriction of migration in Senegal. Deterrents
here include stimulation of employment, anti-migration education, and co-
development in the agricultural sector. These European-led initiatives oblige
Senegal to prevent exit towards the north and although they display uneven
relations, these efforts also address Senegal’s critical need to retain its youth.
47
Table 1
Country Location Context Focus of fieldwork
49
and with what consequences. The Lebu communities in Thiaroye-sur-Mer and
Rufisque have pioneered the ‘pirogue phenomenon’ in which small fishing boats
navigate les clandestins to the Canary Islands. The failure of some of these
journeys and a focus on the Senegalese coastline from European and US patrols,
however, have led underemployed youth towards Mauritania to seek work or to
embark on a shorter, less interrupted Atlantic voyage. In other cases, young
people may be repatriated or decide to stay, and a single household may be
affected by both legal and illegal emigration. The fieldwork in Barcelona
included interviews among recent arrivals who had passed through Mauritania,
Libya, Algeria and Morocco from West Africa. It expanded to the
predominantly African municipality of Salt to interview longer-established
migrants and included life histories. In a similar light to the Lebu communities,
some migrants’ stories include passage in Nouakchott and Nouadhibou. Life
histories offer insight into the success of some strategies over others, and their
impact on overall life chances.
1
Frontières Extérieures: European Agency for the Management of Operational
Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union
2
See D. Ratha. Policy Brief: Leveraging Remittances for Development. Washington,
DC: Migration Policy Institute, 2007; G. Daffé. ‘Les transferts d’argent des migrants
sénégalais: Entre espoir et risques de dépendance’ in M. C. Diop (dir.). Le Sénégal des
migrations: Mobilités, identités et societés. Dakar-Paris-Nairobi: CREPOS-Karthala-
ONU Habitat, 2008
50
3
Ellis, S. and J. MacGaffey. ‘Research on Sub-Saharan Africa’s Unrecorded
International Trade: Some Methodological and Conceptual Problems’, African Studies
Review, 1996, 39 (2): 19-41
4
S. Ellis and J. MacGaffey 1996, pp25-27
5
Bailey et al., cited in J. Baxter and J. Eyles. ‘Prescription for research practice?
Grounded theory in qualitative evaluation’, Area, 1999, 31 (2): 179-181, p. 180
51
The following two poems by Lola Shoneyin will be in her new collection ‘For
the Love of Flight’ to be published by Cassava Republic Press, Abuja, Nigeria
(forthcoming 2010). (c) Lola Shoneyin.
Fancy
The bar front is crimson
so I know there will be blood.
We sit and tables turn,
corners edge towards us.
52
Distance
And do you think that love itself,
Living in such an ugly house,
Can prosper long? - Edna St Vincent Millay
The ring of red on the coaster dries
I taste your robust Shiraz
so your blood can break my bread.
My lips leave a mark on your glass.
53
Aspects of Traditional Wisdom: Agents of Conflict Resolution
by Solomon Tsehaye
This presentation deals with art and culture as tools for conflict resolution. Any
meaningful developments cannot take place in the presence of conflict. Be it at
family, community, inter-ethnic, international or any other level, conflicts which
remain unsolved are obstacles to social progress. This paper attempts to bring
aspects of traditional wisdom regarding conflict resolution to public attention.
Though not wished for, conflicts are natural social occurrences impossible to
avoid completely. Often they are inevitable results of social interaction but they
should be resolved in a way that advances human development. Since time
immemorial people have always been engaged in trying to settle conflicts with
the aim of bringing peace and ensuring social stability. Those that were resolved
in wise and fair ways were settled for good while those mishandled became
causes of long standing problems destroying what was achieved and hence
stunting social progress.
It happened that a young man from Arreza was to be married to a maiden from
Addi Quala. On the wedding day the groom and his entourage of no less than
twenty men arrived in Addi Quala after long travel by horse, mule and on foot.
The groom’s company performed the traditional rituals at the yard in front of the
bride’s house amid the cheerful reception and ululations of Addi Quala’s women
54
and entered the pavilion prepared for the wedding party at the bride’s house.
Food and drinks were served after the essential marriage rituals had been
enacted. Compliments on the quality of the feast poured from the men of Arreza.
The celebration was continuing in a very happy mood when one among the
Arreza men came to the middle of the pavilion with his spear and shield and
boasted about the superiority of Arreza in the very presence of Degiat
Tesfamariam, the ruler of the town of Addi Quala and its surrounding district.
The chief felt insulted by the boastful man of Arreza and ordered his immediate
arrest by his armed guards. Several men of Arreza objected to the chief’s order
and stood in the way of the guards to prevent his arrest. Angered by their
audacity the chief ordered that the men be arrested too. Almost half of the men
of Arreza were put under arrest and taken away. The wedding bliss turned to
sadness and confrontation. Tension was building up between the two sides and
the fear that it might spark into a physical fight was growing. If a fight started
then the Arreza people would be annihilated. Wisdom had, therefore, to
intervene on their behalf.
Keen to know what he was going to say in his awlo, Degiat Tesfamariam
permitted Bahregas Tombosa to make his massé. The oral poet had this to say in
the presence of the entire celebrating crowd:
Jewel
Son of Kahsu, what a jewel you are
Son of Geredingle, what a jewel you are
Son of Fissehaye, what a jewel you are
Addi Quala is caught in fire
Lucky are those
Enjoying it like camp fire.
Protector of our lands near and far
You are a weighty man of full measure
While all others are only a quarter,
You are tough when you dislike
But merciful otherwise,
Please take heed of the awlo I am saying
And spare Arreza from crying.
55
The chief’s heart was softened by the kind words the poet said about him. The
“fullness” and grandeur bestowed on him by the poet in comparison to those
chiefs whom the poet considered were only a quarter of him made Degiat
Tesfamariam feel that it would be degrading to vie with a handful of men from
Arreza who were by no means a match for him. As the massé appealed to his
conscience he calmed down. His anger and eagerness to take punitive action was
replaced by rationality and mercifulness. He therefore declared the release of
those arrested, and the men apologised for their misconduct. The resolving of
the conflict bought the occasion back to its festive mood. At the closing of the
ceremony, the Arreza left, safely escorting their bride and groom.
Upon their arrival in Arreza a man from the group hurried to tell Ra’esi
Kidanemariam, Arreza’s chief, that the oral poet, Bahregas Tombosa, in his
massé counted him as only one fourth of Addi Quala’s chief. Ra’esi
Kidanemariam who had been one of the great admirers of the poet felt
humiliated and ordered that he be summoned to him urgently. The poet came
only to be met by the chief’s rage. But as the chief started to reprimand
Bahregas Tombosa for his alleged undervaluing of him, some gentlemen who
had been in the groom’s entourage intervened in favour of the poet. They told
the chief that he must have been misinformed. Having recounted what had
befallen them in Addi Quala, they advised the chief that Bahregas Tombosa, as
the wise and tactful saviour of the men of Arreza, should be rewarded and not
censured. They said if it were not for his wisdom which appeased the anger of
the chief of Addis Quala, the entire Arreza group would have been in serious
trouble possibly to the point of taking Arreza to war with Addi Quala. Knowing
what had really happened from the account of the gentlemen, Ra’esi
Kidanemariam regretted reproaching the great poet. Calling him by his pet
name, Tombish, he congratulated and hailed him as a rescuing hero of his fellow
men.
Ever since, this renowned oral poet has been remembered, among his many
other excellent poetic performances, for this wonderful conflict resolving massé
which was the creative tool in avoiding a bloody confrontation between the
peoples of Arreza and Addi Quala.
56
not want to lose either of them. But she could not stop them fighting. So she
cried for help and people gathered. They forcefully separated her fighting lovers
who were vowing to kill each other.
Some sagacious people from the crowd inquired what the problem was. Having
learned of the love affair the woman had had with the two men the sages wanted
to settle the fatal dispute between the two men by trying to convince either of
them to leave the woman to the other because it is socially unacceptable to be
the lover of a woman who has another man. But neither of the two was
convinced. One of them said that he could not live without her body-smell and
the other affirmed that it was impossible for him to survive without kissing her.
It was difficult for the inquiring men to understand why both were mysteriously
glued to the same woman while there were so many beautiful and lovable
women around them. Yet, as wise men, they had to resolve the conflict in order
not to risk the lives of the lovers. They proposed that the lovers divide the
woman between them, with one only indulging in the upper half of her body and
the other only in the lower half, and that this should be decided by casting lots.
Both lovers and the woman endorsed this proposal. The lovers drew lots and
each of them knew his respective part.
As time passed the woman gave birth. But the lover stationed at her upper part
refused to allow her to suckle the baby because her breasts fell under his
domain. The baby would starve and die. The father was urgently called to solve
the crisis and save his baby by negotiating with his rival, but to no avail. The
adamant refusal of the man of the upper half compelled them to rush to the ruler
of the land hoping for a fair judgment.
When the ruler asked them what their case was, the father accused the other man
of not letting the baby feed on its mother’s breast. The ruler was stunned at
hearing this and inquired how on earth a man could have prohibitive powers on
the natural right of a baby to feed on its mother’s breast. The man from the
upper domain told him the background story of the affair and the agreement
reached under the arbitration of certain wise men. Before taking any decision the
ruler preferred to consult with the arbitrators and demanded that they be bought
to him instantly.
They appeared in front of the ruler and were asked to elaborate on how they
arbitrated the dispute. After listening to their explanation the ruler noted that
dividing the woman between the two lovers was wrong. He tried to justify his
position by the problem created after the birth of the baby. The wise men
defended their arbitration as the best settlement they could think of for that
particular dispute. Furthermore, they said that had it not been for that unique
57
type of arbitration the two lovers would have killed each other. They also argued
that not only were they alive, but also able to have a child.
Considering their argument, the ruler was inclined to believe that the wise men’s
arbitration provided a practical resolution to the conflict, and hoped that they
would also be able to think of a solution to the pressing problem of feeding the
baby. He, therefore, assigned them to arbitrate the new dispute, too. The men
briefly took counsel together and came back with a solution. They proposed that
the two lovers exchange parts. The father of the baby ascends up so that his
child shall have the right of breast feeding, while the other man descends down
to the lower half so that he shall have the right to have a child in his turn. They
also concluded proposing that the shifting from the upper to the lower and vice-
versa should continue in such a rotational way each time a new baby was born.
The lovers adopted this arbitration proposal as favourable to both of them and
the ruler was happy to see the problem solved.
Having told this story with the purpose of drawing lessons of conflict resolution,
I would like to make a disclaimer. A Woman with Two Lovers certainly is part of
our oral traditions. But it can by no means be true or real. It is a product of the
imagination and intellectual exercise of our ancestors to create stories which
teach important lessons and entertain. The dividing of the woman between the
two lovers should not imply that she has been considered a sex object. Nor
should this be interpreted as gender discrimination. The interconnected
biological roles of a woman as a child giver and a breast feeder were
aesthetically essential to constitute the central conflict of the story. Thanks to
her multiplicity, the nature of a woman could provide a sharp conflict which
challenged and stimulated human wisdom to resolve it.
In conclusion I would like to emphasise the great need for sustainable cultural
research and the dissemination of its products. The traditional cultures of Africa
and humanity in general as manifested in various expressions such as proverbs,
stories, fables, legends, oral poetry, oral history, customary laws, witticisms etc.
are incredible sources of wisdom to consult and learn from in our development
endeavours. Broad knowledge of arts and culture enables us to understand each
other better paving the way for dialogue and cooperation. Provided they are
given the platform they deserve, arts and culture are liberators always giving
humankind to a better future.
1
This is a proverb of the Tigrinya language spoken in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. The script
in which Tigrinya is written is called Geez. It is one of Africa’s ancient alphabets.
2
A high level title of the feudal era
3
A title just below the King and the Degiat
4
Though formerly a very high level title, later diminished in importance and became very
common
58
Madness and Spirituality in Bessie Head’s A Question of Power
by Elinettie Kwanjana Chabwera
60
It allows not only for escape from the confined position imposed by controlling
patriarchal structures, but also from the penal code of the community.
Similarly, possession allows the women of the Zar cult in Northern Sudan space
in their society. Although the society perceives a woman’s possession by a Zar
jinn as an illness, through it the women are able to ameliorate their status of
subordination. For instance, Boddy (1989) demonstrates that whatever a woman
demands whilst in a state of possession--gold jewellery, expensive perfume or
fine clothing--is readily supplied by her husband or brothers because it is
believed that that is the only way she can regain her well-being (189). In
addition, as well as, and due to its link with fertility, Zar possession is enabling
because as Boddy points out, “it enables a couple to modify an overly polarized,
increasingly schismogenetic marriage…and forestall its disintegration in the
face of negative gossip” (190). Possession by a Zar jinn “provides an idiom
through which spouses can communicate about and even resolve issues it might
otherwise be inappropriate for them to discuss” (190).
61
It is in the sense of madness as agency that A Question of Power has been read
by feminist scholars and critics such as Carol Davison (1990) and Sara Chetin
(1991). By becoming “mad” Elizabeth is able to find a voice for resisting the
oppressive conditions of the society. She becomes a disruptive woman who
refuses to be situated within the mythologies of race and gender. Madness
enables Elizabeth to subvert her social condition of silence, which her identity as
a woman and as non-white in South Africa and non-black in Botswana, imposes
on her. Yet Head also demonstrates that madness is not necessarily an individual
or personal condition only. Her work illustrates that madness can also be a
socio-political condition. This, for instance, is how she explains the ferocious
and brutal, yet senseless nature of apartheid’s laws against non-whites. Her
conviction is demonstrated in her frequent references to the apartheid regime of
South Africa as “mad”.
62
she was also finally taken away and sent to an orphanage. In the orphanage
Elizabeth learnt the circumstances of her birth and the fate of her mother.
The knowledge that she had been born in contravention of the South African
Immorality Amendment Act of 1957, that her mother had been deemed insane
and committed to a mental asylum where she gave birth to Elizabeth before
committing suicide, plays a crucial role in the creation of the person Elizabeth
becomes as an adult. Society, through the principal’s actions, believes that
because she had been born of an insane woman who also committed the
“insane” crime of killing herself, Elizabeth would naturally, also end up insane.
The principal of her school cruelly tells Elizabeth when she is barely thirteen
that:
We have a full docket on you. You must be careful. Your mother was insane. If
you’re not careful you’ll get insane just like your mother. Your mother was a
white woman. They had to lock her up, as she was having a child by the stable
boy, who was a native. (16)
Though the information distresses the child, the principal goes on to “live on the
alert for Elizabeth’s insanity” (16). While other children get away with more
serious breaches of school regulations, Elizabeth is punished for trivial offences.
Recognizing Elizabeth’s “difference”, the other pupils take advantage. They
constantly deliberately provoke her because they are aware that if she reacts she
will get in trouble.
It was filled almost to the brim with excreta. It was alive, and its contents
rumbled. Huge angry flies buzzed over its surface with a loud humming. He
caught hold of her roughly behind the neck and pushed her face near the stench.
It was so high, so powerful, that her neck nearly snapped off her head at the
encounter. She whimpered in fright. She heard him say, fiercely: “She made it.
I’m cleaning in it up. Come I’ll show you what you made”. (53)
The cruelty of this revolting experience does not kill Elizabeth; rather, the fall
into the deep darkness that follows this harrowing experience provides an
opportunity for Elizabeth to look inside herself. Therein she discovers a still and
sane self and that the evil that was threatening to take over her life had a parallel
of goodness. Thus holding on to this reassurance of goodness, Elizabeth
reclaims physical reality and therefore life. To the amazement of the nurse
attending her, Elizabeth abruptly jumps out of her sick bed, declares herself
better and discharges herself from the hospital.
She had seen two large, familiar black hands move towards her head. They had
opened her skull. He’d bent his mouth towards the cavity and talked right into the
exposed area. His harsh, grating voice unintelligible. It just said:
“Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaa.” It had shot through her body with the pain of knife
wounds. She’d pulled and pulled, struggling to free herself of the hands holding
her head. She’d awoken gasping for breath. (177)
The violence of this experience is met with a physical struggle for freedom.
Even though Elizabeth’s horrendous experience is at the level of the
unconscious, Head conveys its significance by linking it with consciousness.
64
The reality of Elizabeth’s struggle is conveyed through the fact that she wakes
up from her haunted sleep gasping for breath.
Although so many times Elizabeth is near death in her pain and suffering, she is
shown to possess an inner capacity to survive her horrific experiences. In
addition, the participation in the gardening project and her friendship with
Kenosi and Tom help her pull out of her excruciating ordeals and regain sanity.
Added to this is her role as Shorty’s mother. The responsibility of motherhood
which is commonly portrayed as vital to black womanhood by many black
women writers also helps Elizabeth recover her psychological and physical
balance. Head reinforces the idea of women’s strength and determination
through the portrayal of Elizabeth who, after her horrific experiences, returns to
reclaim herself both as a woman and as an African. The symbolic placement of
her hand on the Batswana soil at the end of the story is acceptance of who she is.
It is a rejection of the marginalizing and oppressive impositions of the power
games of apartheid and patriarchy, and acknowledgement of her identity as an
African woman.
65
societies and the high God in the heavens who jealously guards his power.
Elizabeth realizes the role such a god plays in human suffering because
“personalities in possession of powers or energies of the soul” imitate him (A
Question of Power 190). By portraying Elizabeth as making such crucial
observations in a state of neurosis, Head also challenges the social construction
of madness and extends an invitation for a re-examination of the condition
society labels “mad”. She acknowledges and participates in the theory of
possession and dreams as expressions of different levels of reality and as
alternative sources of knowledge.
A Question of Power also links spiritual bodies with dream activity. The
spiritual beings in A Question of Power predominantly manifest themselves in
the darkness of night or sleep. While the presentation of the phantom’s
manifestation as being specifically in dreams connects Head with the western
theory of Sigmund Freud who proposes that the experiences and fears of our
waking life are replayed in dreams, I am in agreement with Maggie Phillips
(1994) who argues that Head goes beyond Freud by exposing another dimension
to dreams (90). Through her linking dreams with the spiritual, Head
demonstrates a belief prevalent amongst many Africans in Africa and in the
Diaspora, which holds dream, as it does spiritual possession, as the site of a
different level of reality. Phillips’ exposition of the significance of dreams for
Africans is most illuminating and in my opinion, clearly locates Head within this
African philosophy:
66
In his study of phenomenology, the psychologist Carl Jung suggests the
existence, in the psyche, of “subtle bodies” which are neither facts nor ideas but
which belong to the “soil of the soul” or the “third place between things and
mind” (Romanyshyn 27). Jung’s hypothesis is that these bodies exist in the
psyche not as productions by the person but that they produce themselves and
have their own being. Jung illustrates his views through the description of
Philemon, an “imaginal being” who resides in Jung’s psyche and with whom
Jung says he interacts as if he were another person. Jung points out that although
there is a “differentiation” between himself and Philemon, there is no
“separation” (Romanyshyn 28).
There are interesting parallels between Jung’s theory and the figures Head draws
which make Jung useful for understanding the complex spiritual bodies in
Head’s narratives. Like Jung’s Philemon, Head’s Sello, Dan and Medusa are
different from Elizabeth. They have their own reality and being at the same time
as their origins, Elizabeth’s dreams, locate them in Elizabeth’s psyche. Although
the presence of the figures affects Elizabeth physically, they nonetheless exist
“on the border of the real and the ideal” (Romanyshyn 32). One aspect of
Head’s uniqueness is, I believe, her ability to offer optical representation of
theories such as Jung’s that the imaginal bodies reproduce themselves through
having the figures come into being by walking into and out of other figures.
Sello walks into the figure of the “Father” (A Question of Power 30); a beautiful
woman walks out of the monstrous woman and walks into Elizabeth (A Question
of Power 33); Sello of the brown suit is projected from Sello the Monk (A
Question of Power 37). Their connection with reality, which represents the
intermingling of reality with the spiritual, is suggested through the figures
walking into real people such as the fictional Elizabeth represents in A Question
of Power.
67
different level of reality and of being, and by implication, a source of knowledge
which exists in an in-between space of “matter and thoughts”. I suggest that in
the African worldview, this is the location of the activity of spiritual possession,
of witchcraft, and of dreams. Head’s narratives illustrate that although
commonly disregarded or undermined, the activity of this in-between space
affects and is a part of the people’s lives.
Head deals with the crossover between reality and the imaginal in A Question of
Power once again through the relationship between Elizabeth, Tom and Sello
the monk. Not long after he makes himself a permanent presence in Elizabeth’s
hut, Sello the monk crosses the confines of his spiritual boundaries into the real
so that not only Elizabeth, but also Tom hear him (24). The instance of
Elizabeth’s dream of Sello attacking a little boy in the bush, which corresponds
with a radio announcement the following day of the real death of a boy in the
bush (141), also portrays the link. On yet another night Elizabeth dreams of
brown suited Sello transforming his facial features to an owl’s, when she wakes
up the following morning Elizabeth discovers a dead owl on her door step (48).
Complex as these instances are, they nonetheless demonstrate an intermingling
of the real with the spiritual, which in traditional African worldview, is a part of
the people’s everyday reality (Mbiti 74).
68
References
Boddy, Janice. Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men and the Zar Cult in
Northern Sudan. Wisconsin: U of Wisconsin P, 1989.
Brodber, Erna. Myal: A Novel. London and Port of Spain: New Beacon, 1988.
Chesler, Phyllis. Women and Madness. London, San Diego and New York:
Harvest/HBJ, 1989.
Davison, Carol. “A Method in Madness.” The Tragic Life: Bessie Head and
Literature in Southern Africa. Ed. Cecil Abrahams. Trenton N.J.: Africa
World Press, 1990, 19 – 29.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Trans. Lam Markmann. 1967.
London: Pluto, 1986.
69
Myers, J.K. and B.H. Roberts. Family and Class Dynamics in Mental Illness.
New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1964.
Rigney, Barbara Hill. Madness and Sexual Politics in the Feminist Novel:
Studies
in Bronte, Woolf, Lessing and Atwood. Madison Wis. and London:
University of Wisconsin, 1978.
Romanyshyn, Robert D. “Alchemy And The Subtle Body of Metaphor: Soul and
Cosmos.” Pathways into the Jungian World: Phenomenology and
Analytical Psychology. Ed. Roger Brooke. London and New York:
Routledge, 2000, 27-47.
70
Book
Reviews
71
A Short History of African Philosophy (Second Edition). Barry Hallen.
Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2009. 194 pp. ISBN
978-0-253-22123-0 (pb.). $19.95.
This second edition has been enlarged by approximately sixty pages and the new
material is well integrated into the text in such a way as to complement and
enhance the previous discussions. No new chapters have been added, but the
existing chapters have been expanded at several places to incorporate
developments that have occurred since the book’s first edition in 2002. One
indication of the book’s increased scope is the growth of its bibliography, from
sixteen pages in the first edition to thirty-six in the new one.
Hallen’s writing is consistently clear and accessible to a general reader, and his
knowledge of the subject is wide-ranging, making this an excellent introduction
to the vibrant and complex mélange that falls within the category of African
philosophy. In fact, the book’s purview extends beyond African philosophy
itself, to encompass what has come to be called ‘Africana philosophy’, a term
which includes African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and other diasporic domains
as well as work carried out within the continent of Africa itself. The construal of
‘philosophy’ is also broad here, as Hallen discusses sociologists such as Paget
Henry and social anthropologists such as Ifi Amadiume alongside scholars
whose pursuits are more intrinsically philosophical.
Despite its breadth, the book retains a high degree of coherence, owing in large
part to Hallen’s knack of bringing out the robust interactions between the variety
of philosophers and activists under discussion. For example, having shown in
Chapter 2 how African mentality has often been stereotyped by non-Africans as
emphatically mythopoetic as opposed to rational and logical, Hallen then goes
on, in Chapter 3, to describe how certain African philosophers – such as Kwasi
Wiredu and Kwame Gyekye – have responded critically to this characterization
by arguing for a conception of universal rationality. These same two Ghanaian
philosophers subsequently reappear in Chapter 8’s discussion of how
communitarian views of social engagement have tended to override more
individualistic views within the context of African socio-political thought. The
overall effect for the reader is a sense of being eased into a lively and
conceptually rich philosophical environment without ever feeling dropped
straight in at the deep end.
72
concisely summarizes Hountondji’s critique of ‘ethnophilosophy’, this being the
sort of study that attributes a philosophical worldview to some cultural group on
the basis of selections from its oral story-telling tradition. Among the dangers of
such studies, as Hountondji points out, is that of suggesting that African
philosophy is limited to a timeless, implicit and collective enterprise as opposed
to involving the explicit search for truth and meaning on the part of named
individuals. While neither Hountondji nor Oruka advocates the ignoring of
traditional beliefs and customs, they each contend that these must be subjected
to rigorous scrutiny if they are to inform genuinely philosophical activity. For
Oruka, this shift is described as one from ‘culture philosophy’ to ‘sage
philosophy’, the latter deriving its name from the role that Oruka sees for
‘sages’, these being thinkers who, though embedded within traditional cultures,
are able to reflect critically upon those cultures. Hallen outlines the African
viewpoints fairly and informatively, even if at times he is prone to contrast them
with a rather narrowly conceived model of ‘Western analytic philosophy’, which
he equates with linguistic analysis.
The aptness of the book’s title is questionable. As noted above, the book is not
exclusively concerned with African philosophy in the strict sense, and neither is
it much concerned with the history of its subject. Following a short first chapter
which picks out a few highlights from four-and-a-half millennia of philosophical
thought in Africa, we then jump decisively into the post-nineteenth century
milieu. The bulk of the book deals with scholars born in the twentieth century,
many of whom are still academically active. Chapters 3–9 are thematic,
configured around different methodologies such as ‘Phenomenology and
Hermeneutics’ (Chapter 6), or political orientations such as ‘Socialism and
Marxism’ (Chapter 7), rather than historical periods. And most of the chapters
are structured around synopses of significant works by the scholars under
consideration, with only glancing references to broader historical factors. None
of this is to the book’s detriment, yet it does suggest that a more appropriate title
would have been ‘An introduction to contemporary African (or Africana)
philosophy’.
Mikel Burley
University of Leeds
73
From our Side: Emerging Perspectives on Development and Ethics. Steve
de Gruchy, Nico Koopman, Sytse Strijbos (Editors): Rozenberg Publishers,
Amsterdam and UNISA Publishers, South Africa, 2008. Pp ix +288. ISBN 978
90 5170 974 2 (hardback). £29.99. Obtainable from Christian Aid -
[email protected].
‘Our side’ is South Africa. The editors of this collection of essays aim to
contribute to ‘the ethics of development in our globalised world’ and include
contributions from the Netherlands, but the book is very definitely written from
the perspectives of the South: ‘from our side of the river’ was a working title in
the early stages of the project. A number of boundaries are explored: North-
South; heaven-earth; then-now; structure-identity; theory-practice. The plan of
the book is designed to overcome this last division. Most of the articles are
written by South African academics, often theologians with a commitment to the
religious communities to which they belong and the wider mission of the
Church. But each article is written in dialogue with another person, usually a
developmental practitioner of one kind or another; often a thinker from a secular
discipline. This is meant to earth the discussion in the praxis of development,
but also to show the interpenetration of theory and practice: ‘A strong thread
running throughout this book is the acknowledgement of the practical
significance of good theories, and the theory-ladenness of all good practices’
(p.282).
Above all this collection is a reflection on the urgent social and developmental
issues which preoccupy post-apartheid South Africa, focusing on questions of
human dignity and women’s empowerment; poverty and riches in a neo-liberal
capitalist economic framework; minority rights, refugees and xenophobia;
constructions of sexuality, power and HIV-AIDS. It is argued that the
discounting of religious identities, and the institutional capacity which religion
provides, tends to work against that human flourishing towards which
development is directed. Religious institutions and identities were of great
importance in the political struggle against apartheid. They need now to refocus
on the developmental struggle, not least in relation to HIV-AIDS, sometimes
called, in South Africa, the ‘new apartheid’. There are some moving accounts in
a chapter entitled ‘challenging stigma in the context of HIV-AIDS’ of the ethical
dilemmas relating to disclosure of HIV status (to boyfriends, family, providers
etc), weighing up the complex issues of individual rights and responsibilities,
and the weight of communal ties. Another article articulates the need for
practical, realistic and non-moralistic strategies to AIDS programmes, while
speaking in a surprisingly positive tone about the ‘No Apologies’ campaign of
Focus on the Family (an American organisation whom secular
developmentalists, rightly in my view, view with grave suspicion) to give
advise on the moral issues involved, in a campaign which relies for its cogency
74
on an appeal to traditional attitudes in all religious communities generally, not
only fundamentalist Christian ones. Perhaps a chapter on BEE (Black
Economic Empowerment) would have been useful, exploring its rather patchy
achievements, its practical obstacles and the ethical dilemmas which this has
also raised.
The writers are insiders (in that they are mostly South African and Christian) but
they are alive to the limitations of the churches, the critical of the self-
interestedness and frequent narrowness of Christian responses to South Africa’s
post apartheid developments. There is a moving self-critique, by an academic
theologian confronted with the new immigration, mainly of Africans from
further north, in places like Hillsbrow, Johannesburg. There is also a fascinating
chapter on the place of the Griqua community (and other indigenous peoples and
those of ‘mixed’ identity) in the new South Africa. This volume reveals the
sophistication of theological thinking on developmental issues in South Africa.
It is implicit in the whole discourse that the churches not only should but
actually do have important contributions to make to the debates about the new
South Africa. Certainly the depth of argument justifies this claim. But in my
view it is a limitation of this excellent collection that it did not engage in more
dialogue with other religious traditions. It articulates African cultural
perspectives and integrates them into Christian theological thinking in
impressive ways. But the book would have been enhanced by Muslim, Jewish
and Hindu perspectives, as well as a dialogue with those secularists who would
prefer that South Africa was not so saturated with religion. It would also have
been useful to have had a more systematic assessment of the challenges of new
Christian religious movements to the progressive gains of the 1996 Constitution.
Overall From Our Side is an important book both because it gives so many
interesting perspectives on development in the new South Africa, and because it
is a refreshing example of how developmental issues can be addressed in such
creative and interesting ways from southern perspectives.
Kevin Ward
University of Leeds
75
Murder at Morija: Faith, Mystery and Tragedy on an African Mission.
Tim Couzens. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press (originally, Random
House, Johannesburg). 2005. pp 474. ISBN 9 780813 925295 0 (paperback).
$25.
On Wednesday 22 December 1920 the Jacottet family sat down for a midday
meal in the dining room of the mission house at Morija. Soup was served. Soon
they were all in the garden wretching, vomiting the arsenic which they had
absorbed with the soup. Five diners recovered. Unfortunately, the pater
familias, Reverend Monsieur Edouard Jacottet, had had a second helping. He
did not survive the night. Three people were eventually accused of the murder
but, after a preliminary hearing, the case was dropped and they were never
brought to trial. The murder was a big scandal at the time in Basutoland (modern
Lesotho) and among the white society of South African, but it remained
unsolved. Tim Couzens revisits the case 80 years later, attempting to solve the
mystery. The case has all the elements of a classic Agatha Christie – a big
house, a limited number of suspects, a dramatic death. There is even a plan of
the house on p. xix, á la Cluedo, showing kitchen, dining room, study, master
bedroom and cabinet de toilet. There is no billiard room, but there is a room
described ‘the theological school’ – the classroom where M Jacottet taught the
Basotho who were training for ordination. Couzens plays Hercule Poiret. The
suspects are paraded to our view, somebody is accused and a solution offered.
The brilliance of Couzens account is that he uses the structure of the English
detective genre to unfold a brilliant historical analysis of the relationship
between religion, politics and society among the Basotho, the importance of the
Paris Evangelical Missionary Society for the creation of Sotho identity and
nationhood, as well as questions of the relationship between Christianity and
Sotho culture, mutual understandings and misunderstandings. Basically there are
three possible areas which might explain the events of 22 December 1920: was
it a dispute within the Jacettet family? There were plenty of domestic dramas
involving different family members which might have made M. Jacottet a target.
But there were also tensions within the Paris Evangelical Mission, rivalries and
jealousies. Perhaps some fellow missionaries felt sufficiently jealous or
aggrieved to take extreme measures. Then, there was the complex, often
abrasive relation between the PEM and the native authorities, the continuing
attempts of missionaries to impose certain cultural values on their Basotho
converts, not to mention the religious tensions between Protestant and Catholic
which had existed from the time of King Moshoeshoe. Could certain elements
among the Basotho elite, either traditional or Christian, wish to dispose of
Jacottet?
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Couzens explores all these diverse strands with a skilled critical eye, utilising a
wealth of historical archive material. Couzens utilises the detective genre to
structure his narrative, but this does not detract from the judicious use of the
historical sources. Those who are captivated by the page turning character of the
mystery, told with brilliance and panache, may be a bit frustrated by the
leisurely unfolding of the complex historical and social and religious
background in Southern Africa. But this only accentuates the suspense. I can
imagine some people finding the detailed examination of the theological
tensions within Swiss Protestantism between rationalists and adherents of the
Reveille (the Swiss revivalist movement) rather tedious. But it does throw
important light on Jacottet’s own attitudes to Lesotho culture and I found these
sections particularly illuminating.
I would thoroughly recommend this book. It has all the ingredients of a superbly
told crime novel, with the suspense and the false leads and the exhilaration of
solving the clues, but it is also provides great insights into the history of mission
and of Lesotho culture, politics and society.
Kevin Ward
University of Leeds
The interwar period was key in shaping anti-colonial nationalism in Africa. The
global upheavals and conflicts that characterised the era helped contribute to the
increasing importance of Africa and its resources to the political and economic
fortunes of the imperial powers. A particularly striking feature of the anti-
colonial activism of the era was its transnational character. In recent years
transnational studies have traced the interconnections that have been forged
between nation-states; through the movement of people, ideas and institutions
across national boundaries. This approach has had a particular significance for
historical accounts of how groups and individuals challenged the structures of
colonial oppression. For many black anti-colonial activists throughout history
national borders were only marginally relevant. Their peripheral position in
colonial society caused them to repeatedly look beyond the borders of the
nation-state in order to form anti-colonial alliances throughout the diaspora.
Recognising this need to engage with the transnational in order to understand
African anti-colonial protest, Jonathan Derrick has compiled a comprehensive
work that helps trace the formation and activities of these global colonial
networks. Africa’s ‘Agitators’ is a truly transnational work that provides an
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overview of the diasporic activism of a variety of individuals who challenged
colonial power in diverse ways in the interwar period.
The book relies primarily on British based archives and secondary literature.
Despite the lack of African-based research, Derrick manages to skilfully fuse a
vast amount of historical data into an impressive overview of anti-colonial
agitation between the wars. In fact the text’s reliance on ‘Western’ source
material means it is able to demonstrate the crucial contribution diasporan
blacks within the metropole made to anti-colonial struggles. As a result,
Derrick’s research successfully highlights the cross-cultural exchange that
occurred between Africans and diasporan blacks in the West and raises
important questions concerning the nature of this sometimes problematic
relationship. The sources also document white support for anti-colonialism,
allowing Derrick to examine the dynamics of interracial anti-colonial
cooperation in the period. However, perhaps the most valuable aspect of the
research is the fact that the source material is collected from both the
Anglophone and Francophone world. All too often they have been written about
in isolation from one another, which can sometimes give the impression that
anti-colonial activists were largely unaware of the concerns and activities of
their counterparts who spoke other European languages. By resisting this
tendency and instead focusing on the interconnections that existed between anti-
colonial protest in both regions Derrick’s research goes someway to rectifying
this.
The book addresses many of the key debates that shaped anti-colonial agitation
in Africa and the West between the wars. This era is viewed by Derrick as a
formative period for anti-colonialism that significantly contributed to, and
shaped the character of African anti-colonial nationalism post-1945. The
‘agitators’ of the title are viewed as early anti-colonial nationalists. Despite
being small in number, Derrick sees them as representing the broader feelings of
African unrest that characterised the period. His account expertly explores the
organisational activities of many groups throughout Africa and the diaspora in a
way that successfully demonstrates the widespread nature of colonial resistance
at this ‘high point’ of imperialism. Central to the book is the relationship
between Africa and the wider black diaspora. Derrick shows how travel to the
West was often a radicalising factor for Africans. He frequently notes the
importance of western education in this and documents how living in Europe or
America helped transform the outlook of many Africans, and in many cases
fuelled black nationalist sentiment. As part of this focus on the influence of the
wider diaspora, the role of close-knit anti-colonial groups based in the
metropole, such as the Ligue de Défense de la Race Nègre (LDRN) and George
Padmore’s International African Service Bureau (IASB) are addressed alongside
Garveyism and its impact on the developing militant race consciousness in
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Africa. By stressing the international factors that influenced black colonial
thought in Africa, Derrick effectively demonstrates the permeability of national
borders. It is clear that African activists were not just shaped by their immediate
local or national surroundings, but, when seeking potential allies and support for
their struggles, often look abroad in order to push for racial equality and even
black self-determination.
Nicholas Grant
University of Leeds
79
Kenya: The Struggle for Democracy. Godwin R. Murunga and Shadrack W.
Nasong'o. Zed Books, London & New York, 2007. pp.327. ISBN 978 1 184277
857 9 (pb). £18.99, $36.95
This book is part of the Africa in the New Millennium Series, an initiative by the
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
(CODESRIA). It provides an in-depth look at the various stages in the struggle
for democracy in Kenya, with essays focusing on a range of topics pertinent to
the historical process from pre-colonial times to the present era. Subjects are
divided into three categories: Part I, the introduction, looks at the prospects for
democracy in Kenya; Part II discusses civil society and the politics of
opposition, and Part III focuses on major constituencies in the democratisation
process. In the introduction, Shadrack Wanjala Nasong’o and Godwin R.
Murunga give an explanation for what they determine as “democracy” in the
introduction, and they discuss three stages of democratic transition in Kenya: the
opening, breakthrough and consolidation stages. The editors define democracy
by the institutional guarantees it carries with it: free participation, freedom of
expression and movement, universal adult suffrage, et al. Using these guidelines,
the book contains essays by scholars from Kenya who attempt to gauge the level
of democratic freedoms there.
Nasong’o and Adams G.R. Oloo begin by discussing opposition and social
movements in Kenya’s political history, providing an informative explanation of
the political parties and their ever-consistent transformations – shrinking and
enlarging membership due to fund capacity and, at times, corruption. Nasong’o
illustrates the eventual movement from a de facto to de jure one-party KANU
state in Kenya, while Adams G.R. Oloo responds by highlighting the attempts to
break through the KANU stranglehold by a multitude of opposition parties, and
their internal and external struggles to achieve unity. Oloo explains internal
struggles as party control by donors, party-switching and ethnic affiliation
roadblocks; external roadblocks included imprisonment and torture for many
opposition politicians.
80
Taliban, Baghdad Boys and Jeshi la Mzee [Elder’s Army]) operating within
Kenya.
In Part II of the book, scholars focus on how the participation of youth, women
and intellectuals has contributed to the struggle for democracy in Kenya. Mshaï
S. Mwangola describes the difficulty and disillusionment of young people who
wish to get involved in politics, explaining the African cultural tradition of
barring political participation except to the oldest and (ideally) wisest.
Mwangola also describes the three generations of Kenyan political history, the
Lancaster House Generation, the Lost Generation and the Uhuru Generation,
and the struggle to gain power between each generation.
Nasong’o and Theodora O. Ayot describe in their essay how women actually
lost rights with independence, and the continued efforts to regain them in the
oppressive years that followed. Nasong’o and Ayot maintain that the Kenyan
constitution did not guarantee any rights for women and that discrimination
based on gender is commonplace. Women running for political posts are
harassed, threatened and beaten to intimidate them and discourage political
participation. Even amid these conditions, women still find the courage to speak
out and agitate for their representation.
This book is part of the Africa in the New Millennium Series, an initiative by the
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
(CODESRIA). It provides an in-depth look at the various stages in the struggle
for democracy in Kenya, with essays focusing on a range of topics pertinent to
the historical process from pre-colonial times to the present era. Subjects are
81
divided into three categories: Part I, the introduction, looks at the prospects for
democracy in Kenya; Part II discusses civil society and the politics of
opposition, and Part III focuses on major constituencies in the democratisation
process. In the introduction, Shadrack Wanjala Nasong’o and Godwin R.
Murunga give an explanation for what they determine as “democracy” in the
introduction, and they discuss three stages of democratic transition in Kenya: the
opening, breakthrough and consolidation stages. The editors define democracy
by the institutional guarantees it carries with it: free participation, freedom of
expression and movement, universal adult suffrage, et al. Using these guidelines,
the book contains essays by scholars from Kenya who attempt to gauge the level
of democratic freedoms there.
Nasong’o and Adams G.R. Oloo begin by discussing opposition and social
movements in Kenya’s political history, providing an informative explanation of
the political parties and their ever-consistent transformations – shrinking and
enlarging membership due to fund capacity and, at times, corruption. Nasong’o
illustrates the eventual movement from a de facto to de jure one-party KANU
state in Kenya, while Adams G.R. Oloo responds by highlighting the attempts to
break through the KANU stranglehold by a multitude of opposition parties, and
their internal and external struggles to achieve unity. Oloo explains internal
struggles as party control by donors, party-switching and ethnic affiliation
roadblocks; external roadblocks included imprisonment and torture for many
opposition politicians.
In Part II of the book, scholars focus on how the participation of youth, women
and intellectuals has contributed to the struggle for democracy in Kenya. Mshaï
S. Mwangola describes the difficulty and disillusionment of young people who
wish to get involved in politics, explaining the African cultural tradition of
barring political participation except to the oldest and (ideally) wisest.
Mwangola also describes the three generations of Kenyan political history, the
82
Lancaster House Generation, the Lost Generation and the Uhuru Generation,
and the struggle to gain power between each generation.
Nasong’o and Theodora O. Ayot describe in their essay how women actually
lost rights with independence, and the continued efforts to regain them in the
oppressive years that followed. Nasong’o and Ayot maintain that the Kenyan
constitution did not guarantee any rights for women and that discrimination
based on gender is commonplace. Women running for political posts are
harassed, threatened and beaten to intimidate them and discourage political
participation. Even amid these conditions, women still find the courage to speak
out and agitate for their representation.
Shannon Oxley
University of Leeds
Rex Sean O’Fahey is the world authority on Darfur’s complicated past. His
unparalleled knowledge of the region and his tenacious intelligence
consequently set the bar for expectations of The Darfur Sultanate rather high.
As one would expect from a man frequently faced with a struggle not only
against a lack of sources, but also against those who would seek to destroy
evidence to serve present-day aims, dogged perseverance and academic
diligence have long marked his work. Unfortunately, The Darfur Sultanate is a
83
deeply unsatisfying book that lacks the breadth of analysis that both the
definitive-sounding title and O’Fahey’s pursuit of a particularly adventurous
brand of academic study would have one would expect.
The work is divided into three main sections. The first part takes a
predominantly political and economic look at the Keira state’s interactions with
the wider world until the middle of the nineteenth century, centring on the
processes that led to its attaining regional pre-eminence by around 1800. The
last section returns to this style of narrative, picking up the story in 1873-4 with
the sultanate’s conquest by al-Zubayr Pasha, a capable and ruthless slave and
ivory trader who built up a powerbase in Bahr el Ghazal in the 1850s and 1860s.
This section also touches briefly upon the Mahdiyya and the restoration of the
Sultanate under Ali Dinar until Dinar’s death at the hands of the British in 1916.
The middle portion of the work, which tackles the Sultanate’s systems of
governance, court culture, and social organisation is by far the largest, and is
clearly where O’Fahey’s own research interests lie. As a result of its length – it
comprises nearly two thirds of the work – this part makes the other two sections
feel a little like bookends. And it is this part wherein the major issue with the
work lies, for this is a retread of Fahey’s earlier monograph, 1980’s State and
Society in Dar Fur. The odd word has been deleted here, the occasional line has
been re-written there, but virtually everything about this, from the prose and the
paragraph structure, to the tables and charts, is identical. Similarly, chunks of
text from his work with Jay Spaulding, Kingdoms of the Sudan (1974) have been
inserted into the first section.
Nevertheless, what is written here is excellent. Even though it is thirty years old,
it is still notable for its imaginative use of sources and its adeptness at conveying
a sense of complex social and political shifts. The work is particularly strong
when it comes to discussing the ‘look’ and operations of the Sultanate state;
O’Fahey’s extended analysis of the presence of both Fur and Islamic influences
within the Sultanate’s culture presents a nuanced and convincing analysis of
institutional hybridity.
O’Fahey rejects the idea that the work should extend beyond 1916 for two
reasons: firstly, that there is a lack of material on the Condominium and post-
Condomimium eras and, secondly, that the date marks the point at which Darfur
ceased to be an independent state. The first reason is an inaccurate one; Martin
Daly’s recent work Darfur’s Sorrow demonstrates that, with a bit of patience,
there is plenty of material that can reveal much about the Condominium Era, for
instance. The second reason is a curious one, given that extending the timeline
would have been the best means by which O’Fahey could have tested one of his
central hypotheses, that under the Sultanate Darfur developed a vital and distinct
84
core identity that accounts in part for Khartoum’s lack of legitimacy in the
region and, hence, for the present troubles.
So, where does this leave us? O’Fahey’s work lies at a point somewhere
between textbook and academic monograph, usually closer to the latter than the
former. What implications does this have for its suitability for different
audiences? Undergraduates get an easily digestible narrative accompanied by
useful geographical and ethnographic details and a good glossary. Plus, let us
not forget, they get an eventful tale, with treachery and warfare on an epic scale
rubbing shoulders with details of elite public life (such as the kundanga feast
where, in a demonstration of loyalty to their sultan, princes and princesses of the
Keira clan would eat the putrefied remains of a wether, comforted only by the
knowledge that it was seasoned with butter and pepper, and that they would
avert their own demise by forcing the stuff down). Academics, on the other
hand, get a book that, if they have already studied Darfur, they will have for the
most part read before.
Christopher Prior
University of Leeds
Becoming Somaliland. Mark Bradbury. James Currey, Oxford, 2008. pp. xiv
+ 271. ISBN 978-1-84701-310. £12.95 (pb).
Understanding Somalia and Somaliland, Culture, History, Society. Ioan M.
Lewis. Hurst. London: 2008: xii +139. ISBN 978 1 85065 898 6 . £16.99 (pb).
Both of these books cover aspects of the history and culture of the Somali
people and deal with the fate of the independent state of Somalia forged from
the coming together of the two colonies of British and Italian Somaliland in
1961 until its disintegration in 1991. But unlike most other books on the territory
they both place special emphasis on the emergence of Somaliland as a de facto
state after 1991.
This is a small handbook from an anthropologist who has been steeped in the
society for half a century. It provides useful background for outsiders into the
85
people, their culture and history, including an explanation of the structure and
workings of clans in a society where they are so fundamental to understanding.
But he also brings out the different means of livelihoods of livestock pastoralists
and cultivators – equally vital to the dynamics. He provides an overview of the
process of collapse in Somalia proper, but has a special place for bringing out
the very different recent history of Somaliland, and also of Puntland.
Bradbury likewise provides a similar background on the Somalia people and the
fate of the state of Somalia since 1991, but these two chapters are a short
introduction to a much more detailed account in eight remaining chapters of
events in Somaliland, and the social, economic as well as political transitions
that have taken place. The processes he explores that form his agenda, include:
In offering this detailed account, Bradbury does not romanticise what has gone
on or imply it is automatically sustainable. He acknowledges the long-drawn-out
and often fraught steps in reconciliation, and occasional retreats into violence,
and the shortcomings in the democratisation. He also points to threats from the
vexed counter claims of Puntland and of a spill over of the latest rounds of
violence in Southern Somalia. But this under-reported story is one of undoubted
achievement, one that deserves to be more generally proclaimed as it does
indeed “challenge the image of war, disaster and social regression that has been
associated with this part of Africa since the early 1980s” (p. 1)
Lionel Cliffe
University of Leeds
86
Elephant Reflections. Karl Ammann & Dale Peterson. University of California
Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles & London, 2009. Pp. xv + 272. ISBN 978-0-520-
25377-3 (hb). £23.95.
The value of the photographs is largely artistic, but they are followed by text
about science. Predictably, there is a lot about the work of the behavioural
scientists who discovered the structure of elephant society and are widely known
for their semi-popular books; Iain Douglas-Hamilton and Cynthia Moss. There
is an account of the remarkable discoveries of Katy Payne and others who have
shown how elephants communicate over distances of several kilometres, by
low-frequency sounds (below the range of human hearing) that are transmitted
through the ground as seismic waves. These are, perhaps, the scientific topics
87
that will interest many readers most. They are followed by passages on the
anatomy and evolution of elephants, that suffer seriously from lack of
illustration. It is far easier to appreciate the difference between the molars of
African and Asiatic elephants from a picture, than from a mere description. How
many readers can be expected to visualise the early elephants known as
gomphotheres, without the help of an illustration? And a photograph would have
helped readers to realise how small the dwarf elephant fossils from Malta are. I
appreciate that the authors wanted to avoid any possible confusion between the
art photographs that are the principal component of this book, and additional
pictures that might have been used to illuminate the text, but surely some way
could have been found of making the distinction clear.
The text continues with such topics as the mechanics of elephant trunks, and the
dissection of mammoths deep-frozen in Arctic ice. There is a discussion of the
intelligence of elephants and of their apparent grief for dead companions.
Finally, there is a shocking account of the ruthless behaviour of poachers who
kill elephants for their ivory, of the damage they have done to African elephant
populations, and of the heroic efforts of Richard Leakey and Kenyan game
wardens to bring the poaching to an end.
Despite the substantial scientific content, this is essentially a picture book. Two
hundred pages of photographs of elephants is more than most readers will want
to digest in a session. This is a book to leave on the coffee table and browse
occasionally.
R McNeill Alexander
University of Leeds.
This book provides the first in-depth look at the efforts of the current Ethiopian
Government (the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, EPRDF)
to bring to justice the perpetrators of the mass atrocities carried out between
1976-1978 when tens of thousands of Ethiopian government critics were
detained, tortured, and killed during what became known as the Red Terror
Campaigns of the Derg Military Regime (1974-1991) and its brutal leader, Col.
Mengistu Haile Mariam. With contributions by specialists on Ethiopia from a
range of disciplinary backgrounds – law, human rights, history, politics, and
88
social anthropology – this collection covers not only the history and the juridical
aspects of the trials, but also their broader political and social impacts.
Shifting the focus from the juridical to the political, Tronvoll shows how the
EPRDF’s chosen model of justice is that of a ‘victors’ justice; he also describes
the ways in which the EDPRF used the trials to give legitimacy to the new
Ethnic federation; and, he looks at the declining public interest in the trials since
the mid-1990s due to their prolonged nature, but also as a result of Ethiopia’s
current human rights record. Elsa Van Huyssteen contrasts Ethiopia’s choice of
criminal prosecution – with its emphasis on retributive justice – with that of
South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission – with its emphasis on
restorative justice – and debates the implications of these very different
mechanisms for democritization. Girmachew Alemu Aneme then explores the
types of institutional mechanisms that need to be in place in order to guarantee
the non-repetition of the mass atrocities of the Red Terror.
In the final chapter, the editors focus on the trial and sentencing on 12 December
2006 of Mengistu Haile Mariam (in absentia) and other top officials. They
discuss the angry public response to the life sentence handed down to Mengistu
– others of lower rank had been given the death penalty – and the on-going
appeals process. They conclude with some general observations for transitional
justice theory based on the lessons of the Ethiopian Experience.
89
This collection is an enlightening read. It provides the first comprehensive and
detailed account of Ethiopia’s Red Terror trials and will be of interest to
Scholars, academics, activists and policy makers concerned with human rights
issues, transitional justice, conflict and post-conflict reconstruction.
June Rock
Independent Consultant
War and the Politics of Identity in Ethiopia: The Making of Enemies and
Allies in the Horn of Africa. Kjetil Tronvoll. African Issues. James Currey,
Woodbridge, Suffolk and Rochester NY, 2009. Pp. 256. ISBN:
9781847016126. (hb). £40.00
This book focuses on the effects of war on the formation and conceptualisation
of identities – the making and remaking of enemies and allies - in Ethiopia.
Building on the Abyssinian tradition of alliance making, it provides an in-depth
look at the formative impacts of the recent (1998-2000) Ethiopia-Eritrea border
war on pre-war discourses and policies of identity at the regional and federal
levels. It shows - contrary to conventional assumptions that inter-state war
strengthens a collective notion of national (or ethno-national) identity in multi-
ethnic societies like Ethiopia - political pragmatism, and not ethnic affinity, to
be the determining factor in the making and remaking of enemies and allies, as
exemplified through an analysis of the recent border war:
“The more or less unanimous backing for the EPRDF’s war effort by the
people and political opposition (except for the OLF) should be explained
by historical conceptions of state and power in Ethiopia, and not because
of primordial identities (neither ethnicity nor nationalism)… the political
elite in the country used the war both as an occasion to try to regain lost
territories – both Badme and Eritrea – and to position themselves in the
internal power play within Ethiopia..” (p.203)
90
His analysis of the impact of the border war provides detailed accounts of
changes in identity discourses at the regional and federal levels: the redefinition,
in Tigray, of Ethiopia-Eritrea relations from friends to enemies and the
reappearance among the Tigray population of the ‘Greater Ethiopia’ sentiment -
a sentiment antithetical to the Tigray liberation struggle and to the EPRDF’s
new ethnic federation; but he also shows that, contrary to the myth of a single
collective enemy during war, the TPLF was also perceived as the ‘enemy’ by
some Tigrayans – notably, those for whom the priority was the maintenance and
welfare of their families and the loss of male labour as a result of recruitment.
He likewise discusses and brings out the different and competing discourses and
politics on identity at the federal level, including the identification of the
‘enemies within’: Eritreans of Ethiopian origin and the Oromo. In the Postscript
to the book, he focuses on the internal dissent within the TPLF and between the
TPLF and the EPRDF coalition in the aftermath of the war and the resulting
creation of new categories of enemies ‘enemies from within’.
War and the Politics of Identity in Ethiopia: The Making of Enemies and Allies
in the Horn of Africa is an informative and essential read for anyone wishing to
understand the dynamics of both war and its aftermath (the peace) in Ethiopia.
June Rock
Independent consultant
Books Received
(Reviews may be published on our website over the next few months)
Religion and Poverty. Ed. Peter J.Paris. Duke University Press, 2009, pp. 359.
ISBN 9780822343783 (pb). np. (Under review by Kevin Ward)
Fighting for Britain: African Soldiers in the Second World War. David
Killingray with Martin Plaut. James Currey , 2010, pp. 289. ISBN
9781847010155 (hb) £45 (Under review by Nana Poku)
A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It.
Stephen Kinzer. John Wiley and Sons, 2008, pp. 289. ISBN 9780470120156
(hb) £17.99
92