Globalisation, NEPAD and the Governance Question in Africa

by ‘Kunle Amuwo Introduction and Problematique The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is yet another initiative by Africa’s Heads of State and Governments intended to reverse, for good, the beggarly and highly embarrassing image of the continent through a ‘sustained engagement’ with the developed world. Among its many objectives, NEPAD seeks to halt the growing and deepening […]

King or Knave? Felix Adende Rapontchombo and Political Survival in the Gabon Estuary

by Jeremy Rich Introduction In the late nineteenth century, the town of Libreville on the Gabon Estuary went through numerous changes as it moved from a marginal French naval base to become the capital of the rapidly expanding colony of French Congo. European officials, through a combination of force and gifts, had managed to obtain […]

The Languages of Childhood: The Discursive Construction of Childhood and Colonial Policy in French West Africa

by Lisa McNee Introduction In spite of the deceptive familiarity of the terrain, childhood, that stage of life that we are all supposed to experience, resists easy definition. Our fascination with childhood experiences has created an international boom in autobiographies and children’s literature, as well as in self-help manuals and in discourses, programs and policies concerning […]

Women’s Movements, Customary Law, and Land Rights in Africa: The Case of Uganda

by Aili Mari Tripp Abstract Much of the literature on women and land tenure in Africa has viewed the introduction of land titling, registration, and the privatization of land under colonialism and after independence as a setback for women, leaving women in a state of even greater insecurity with poorer prospects for accessing land, and […]

Press and Politics in Zimbabwe

by Stanford D. Musaka Abstract This paper provides a historical background to the development of the press in Zimbabwe and identifies the political, social and economic interventions that have shaped the editorial policies and directions of the press. The development of the press in Zimbabwe press, the paper suggests, can be categorized into three eras: colonial/nationalist (pre-1980); transitional […]

Crisis in the State and the Family: Violence Against Women in Zimbabwe

by Mary Johnson Osirim Abstract Since the early 1990’s, Zimbabwe has been enmeshed in a major economic crisis that has seriously eroded the status of women in that country. For the past three years, the economic crisis has been joined by a political crisis which marks the first major challenge to the Mugabe regime since […]

On the Subject of Kings and Queens: “Traditional” African Leadership and the Diasporal Imagination

by Al-Yasha Ilhaam Williams Abstract “Then you will die indeed, Chila Kintasi! Your own mouth pronounced judgment. Die and deliver the land from the abominations of drunkenness and gluttony. (She used a bunch of soft feather [sic] attached on a bamboo stick on the Fon [King]. The Fon begins to reel until he collapses.) Die! […]

Dim Delobsom: French Colonialism and Local Response in Upper Volta

by Michael Kevane Abstract Dim Delobsom was one of the first indigenous colonial bureaucrats in the French administration of Upper Volta . Born in 1897, he rapidly rose through the ranks of colonial administration, becoming a high-level functionary. He also served as the resident anthropologist of the dominant Mossi tribe of Upper Volta , and published […]

Colonial Policies and Women’s Participation in Public Life: The Case of British Southern Cameroons

by Melinda Adams Abstract Much of the literature on colonial policies towards women has highlighted the ways that these policies spread Western notions of domesticity and narrowed the space available for African women to participate in public life. Drawing from the case of British Southern Cameroons, this paper argues that colonial policies and encounters were […]

Contesting Liberal Legality: Informal Legal Cultures in Post-Apartheid South Africa’s Privatizing Seafood Fishery

by Ken Salo Abstract Constructivist interpretations of law as an open and contested social field whose form is contingent upon the outcome of interacting formal and informal socio-legal practices continue to illuminate how legal fields are formed and transformed. This essay uses these insights to shed light on how the legalities of informal fishers shaped […]

African Studies Quarterly

Tag: Colonialism