Research Africa: February 17th, 2018
Events
CALL FOR PAPERS: Duke University
Academic Networking in Sub-Saharan and North Africa: From Accreditation to Global Ethics
Duke University, April 27-28, 2018
Academic networking is a central feature of the new kind of global university system: a system that is increasingly concerned with the ideas of ensuring accountability and expanding the competitive edge of African countries’ academic institutions. In addressing this concern, accreditation of universities matters. It is the way in which a culture of continuous improvement can be created to help stakeholders collect reliable evidence to support a sustained future.
There is an ethical dimension to the concern about accreditation. The rapid population increase in Africa has led to a growing demand for traditional “brick and mortar” universities, online course platforms, and global networking opportunities. Delivering quality education at reasonable costs to such a large demographic demands a high level of ethical decision-making by African educators. The consideration of ethical questions surrounding 21st century higher education in Africa aligns well with many global signature programs that encourage ethics in decision-making and outcomes. As scholars and students interact through global networking, they are challenged by issues of quantity versus quality, value versus efficiency, transparency versus privacy, and the local versus the global. One of the most daunting challenges of an academic network is ensuring the application of rigorous ethical standards in its functioning. This workshop provides a valuable platform to unpack these issues.
CALL FOR PAPERS: Northwestern University
Islam in Global Africa Conference
Hosted by Northwestern University, Evanston (IL USA), April 23-24, 2018
Studies of “Global Africa” seldom deal with religion, let alone with Islam. Conversely, scholarship on global Islam tends to give the impression that Africa is a mere periphery of the so-called Muslim world. As a result, Islamic Africa is often perceived as the continent other Muslim countries and networks act upon, with African Muslims often seen as passive consumers of foreign influences and pressures. Scholars of Islam in Africa have successfully challenged such ahistorical assumptions. Yet, scholarship on globalization of Islamic Africa has been focused either on merely describing (if not romanticizing) African Muslims’ experiences abroad or on exploring how Muslim societies in Africa are affected by global Islamic trends. There is little attention to African Muslims’ practices and thought and how these relate to both globalized and localized religious, social, and political trends. Confirmed Keynote Speaker: His Highness Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano (Nigeria)
News and Issues
Can Cyril Ramaphosa Revive the South African Dream?
By William Finnegan
This is not the first time that South African President Jacob Zuma seems to be on the brink of removal from office. The sooner his toppling, the better. Under Zuma, South Africa has been on a decade-long descent into kleptocratic mismanagement. “State capture” is an arcane term in most places; in South Africa, it is the standard description of the government’s relationship to certain tycoons and gangsters. The depredations of the country’s rulers are relatively well-documented, thanks to a stout free press, an independent judiciary, and a spirited political opposition. And yet the rainbow nation, once the great hope of Africa, has clearly lost its way. Inequality today is worse than it was at the end of apartheid. Economic growth has failed to keep pace with population growth. Unemployment and crime are sky-high. Reversing this decline is not possible during a protracted leadership crisis.
Read the story in this link:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/can-cyril-ramaphosa-revive-the-south-african-dream?mbid=nl_Daily%20021518&CNDID=30097472&spMailingID=12942183&spUserID=MTMzMTgzMDc2NDAwS0&spJobID=1341406811&spReportId=MTM0MTQwNjgxMQS2
Kenya’s Dangerous Path Toward Authoritarianism
By Neha Wadekar, February 9, 2018
On Monday, the television reporters at Nation Media, East Africa’s largest independent media company, clustered around their computers and frantically refreshed their Twitter feeds, waiting for permission to finally go back on the air. A government-led media blackout had shut them down, along with several other stations in the prior week. This raises serious questions about the strength of democracy in Kenya.
Read the story in this link:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/kenyas-dangerous-path-toward-authoritarianism?mbid=nl_Daily%20021018%20Control&CNDID=30097472&spMailingID=12907812&spUserID=MTMzMTgzMDc2NDAwS0&spJobID=1340854494&spReportId=MTM0MDg1NDQ5NAS2
Managing Ethiopia’s political crisis
By Goitom Gebreluel & Biniam Bedasso, Febuary 2018
Ethiopia has been experiencing recurrent mass protests, riots and ethnic conflicts over the past two years, claiming the lives of thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands. These events have led observers and members of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to conclude that the very survival of the Ethiopian state is at stake.
Read the story in this link:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/managing-ethiopia-political-crisis-180205113035729.html
The New Emerging African Power: Morocco
By Alice Morrison, February 2018
For three decades after it left the African Union (AU), Morocco trained its external focus on Europe, ceding influence on pan-African affairs to Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt. But now that’s changing. Morocco, which rejoined the AU last year, is now making a bold bid to assume the mantle as the leader of the African Arab and Islamic states in 2018 at a time when there’s a regional vacuum to be filled.
Morocco’s application to join the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been agreed upon in principle, but the country is also eyeing the rest of the continent. Egypt remains in a state of paralysis following the years-long harsh summer that has followed its Arab Spring. Libya remains in a state of chaos, leaving space for a new titan to emerge. With its growing economy, stable government, proximity to Europe and moderate brand of Islam, Morocco is setting itself up to be that leader and it’s backing up its plans with hard cash.
Read the story in this link:
http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/the-new-emerging-african-power-morocco/83279
How the Continent’s Languages can unlock the Potential of Young Africans
By H. Ekkehard Wolffe, February 7, 2018
Africa is the home of 2144 languages. Most development theoreticians consider this a barrier to economic and social growth. However, sociolinguists and educationists recognize the African continent’s multilingualism as a powerful resource. The potential of African languages has been limited by the prevailing education system. The problem begins at school, from the onset of schooling up to the tertiary level.
South African university students’ have called for education reform, with the slogan “fees to fall”. While the existence of free primary through tertiary education helps national economies thrive, in terms of just and sustainable education, fees are only one side of the coin. Language is the other. As a linguist whose work has focused for decades on African language matters, Professor Wolffe remains convinced that what Africa needs are political campaigns that tackle language: #EnglishOnlyMustFall. #FrenchOnlyMustFall. #PortugueseOnlyMustFall.
Read the story in this link:
https://theconversation.com/how-the-continents-languages-can-unlock-the-potential-of-young-africans-90322
NEW BOOKS كتب جديدة
Law and Property in Algeria: Anthropological Perspectives
[القانون والملكية في الجزائر: وجهة نظر أنتربلوجي]
Author: Yazid Ben Hounet
In spite of its privileged place on the African continent, in the Muslim world and in the Middle East and North Africa region, Algeria remains poorly known. The works relating to contemporary Algerian society published outside of Algeria are rare. This book seeks to contribute to our understanding of Algerian society today through its relationships to property and to law. Beyond this, the anthropological approach taken by the author presents new theoretical and methodological perspectives by which to apprehend the anthropology of law in a Muslim context. Algeria, as a post-colonial and post-socialist state with a majority Muslim population, proves to be a particularly interesting case to study.
Publisher: Brill Publications, 2018
These Oppressions Won’t Cease
[هذه الاضطهادات لن تتوقف]
Author: Robert Ross
In the early nineteenth century, the linguistic situation of the Eastern Cape was changing among the Cape Khoesan. Their indigenous language, Cape Khoekhoe, was swiftly being replaced by Dutch or Proto-Afrikaans. The Cape Khoesan articulated their continuous critique of the oppressions of European colonialism through public petitions. Communication with British officials was mostly in English or translated into English by the administration. These translations are published in the anthology selected and compiled by Robert Ross. In this supplementary edition, the author has made a compilation of the Dutch texts on which those documents are based. It is a supplement that presents the few original Dutch speeches and letters that survived, giving readers and scholars access to “raw data”. Most importantly, the text provides a unique record of the Khoesan’s resistance, in their own voices, to European settler colonialism.
Publisher: Wits University Press, 2017
Cotton in Tanzania (Classic Reprint), 2017
[القطن في تنزانيا: دراسة]
Author: Horace G. Porter
Practically all of the cotton grown in Tanzania is produced on family farms in western Tanzania. Elevations of the cotton growing portions of western Tanzania range significantly. Cotton is the largest source of income in a number of regions of western Tanzania. This is especially true in Mwanza and Shinyanga, where it accounts for over 75 percent of all crop income. In Tabora, Mara, and Singida cotton accounts for a much smaller absolute share of the total, but it is nevertheless the most important single source of crop income. Some cotton is also grown in eastern Tanzania, where it centers in the Morogoro, Kilosa, and Ulanga districts of the Morogoro region. In both the western and eastern areas, rainfall distribution is such that the planting date for cotton is critical if high yields are to be obtained.
Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2017
Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication: A South African Perspective,
[تعدد اللغات والتواصل بين الثقافات: في منظور جنوب أفريقي]
Author: Russell H. Kaschula, Pamela Maseko and H. Ekkehard Wolff
With a focus on South Africa, the scope of this book ranges from macro-sociolinguistic questions pertaining to language policies and their implementation (or lack thereof) to microsociolinguistic observations of actual language-use in the multilingual context of verbal interaction in higher education. This text brings together various disciplines such as sociolinguistics, applied language studies, media studies, history, education, and intercultural communication. There has been a gradual move for the study of language and culture to be taught in the context of professional disciplines in which they would be used; for example, journalism and African languages, or education and African languages. The book caters to this growing market. Because of its multilingual nature, English and Afrikaans language speakers will be served by this work, as well as the Sotho and Nguni language groups which are increasingly used in the context of South African Higher Education.
Publisher: Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2017
Land Reform Revisited: Democracy, State Making and Agrarian Transformation in Post-Apartheid South Africa
[إعادة النظر في سياسة إصلاح الأراضي]
Author: Femke Brandt and Sam Moyo
Land Reform Revisited engages in contemporary debates on land reform and agrarian transformation in South Africa. The volume offers insights into post-apartheid transformation dynamics through the lens of agency and state making. The chapters written by emerging scholars are based on extensive qualitative research, and their analysis highlights the ways in which people negotiate and contest land reform realities. By focusing on the diverse meaning of land and competing interpretations of what constitutes success and failure in land reform, Brandt and Mkodzongi insist on looking beyond the productivity discourses guiding research and policy making in the field towards an informed view from below.
Publisher: Brill Publications, 2018
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