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Books > History > African history
The South African Truth Commission assesses different versions of the South African past, the complex negotiations leading to the establishment of the Commission and the complex politics of amnesty, justice, and nation building.
This collection brings together a range of case studies by both established and early career scholars to consider the nexus between business and development in post-colonial Africa. A number of contributors examine the involvement of European companies (most notably those of former colonial powers) in development in various African states at the end of empire and in the early post-colonial era. They explore how businesses were not just challenged by the new international landscape but benefited from the opportunities it offered, particularly those provided by development aid. Other contributors focus on the development agencies of the departing colonial powers to consider how far these served to promote the interests of European companies. Together these case studies constitute an important contribution to our understanding of both business and development in post-colonial Africa, redressing an imbalance in existing histories of both business and development which focus predominantly on the colonial period. This volume breaks new ground as one of the very first to bring the study of foreign companies and development aid into the same frame of analysis
As the 21st century began, Algeria, Morocco, and North Sudan launched some much-publicised "reconciliation" policies, or, in the case of North Sudan, "pacification" policies. Algeria, following its Clemency policy (1995) and Civil Concord Law (1999), held a referendum in 2005 and subsequently implemented the measures of its Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation. This charter is Algeria's latest policy aimed at settling the accounts of a murderous decade (1990s) between the state and armed Islamic groups. In Morocco, an arbitration committee was set up in 1999, followed by the Equity and Reconciliation Commission in 2004, to turn the page on the "Years of Lead"-a period during the rule of King Hassan II during which state crimes such as torture, imprisonment, and murder were committed. Finally, in Sudan (North Sudan since 2011), peace negotiations were held in 1989 and a peace process has been ongoing since 2005, with an aim to resolve violent conflicts and war crimes that are shaking Darfur and North Kordofan. At the centre of all these reconciliation and pacification mechanisms lies a practice that has been scarcely studied: (monetary) compensation for the crimes committed. Shedding light on this under-studied topic from the North African field, this volume investigates: What meanings can compensation have when it is aimed at repairing crimes? Is it necessary, sufficient, or admissible? How can it be implemented and accepted by the victims themselves and by society? These questions about compensation lead the reader through discussions on the nature of crime, punishment, reparation, reconciliation, and the way these concepts were and are now understood in these three North African countries.
The French Army's war in Algeria has always aroused passions. This
book does not whitewash the atrocities committed by both sides;
rather it shifts the focus to the conflict itself, a perspective
assisted by the French republic's belated official admission in
1999 that what happened in Algeria was indeed a war. Each
contributor made use of the increasingly liberalised French
archives of the war since the early 1990s. The book re-evaluates
counter-terrorism in the cities; the methods used in the "battle
for hearts and minds" in the villages of the interior; the hitherto
neglected roles of French air and naval power in supporting the
army's counter-insurgency offensives against the Armee de
Liberation Nationale; and the battles that France decisively lost
for both world opinion and for support from her major Western
allies.
The book examines the war of images between France and Algeria. Discussing the role of the United States during the war, it covers topics such the presence of American reporters in Algeria, John F. Kennedy's support for Algerian independence while a senator, the broadcasting of documentaries on the Algerian war on public television, and reporting in the press. Even half a century after Algerian independence, there remains a need for both film and literature on the war from both sides of the Mediterranean. This might seem surprising, particularly to media professionals, given the quantity of output on the subject, but both French and Algerian portrayals of the war remain flawed and shackled to their respective ideologies. The generation of FLN leaders recognized early on the importance of images, and established a clandestine film structure that would bring the Algerian cause to the world stage. The book offers an insightful and timely contribution not just to the field of North African studies but also to other disciplines, such as film and media studies, anthropology, history, journalism, and political science. Providing a rich source of research topics and viable ideas for film and documentary projects, it is a must-read for students, scholars and media professionals alike.
When the National Government assumed power in 1948, one of the earliest moves was to introduce segregated education. Its threats to restrict the admission of black students into the four ‘open universities’ galvanised the staff and students of those institutions to oppose any attempt to interfere with their autonomy and freedom to decide who should be admitted. In subsequent years, as the regime adopted increasingly oppressive measures to prop up the apartheid state, opposition on the campuses, and in the country, increased and burgeoned into a Mass Democratic Movement intent on making the country ungovernable. Protest escalated through successive states of emergency and clashes with police on campus became regular events. Residences were raided, student leaders were harassed by security police and many students and some staff were detained for lengthy periods without recourse to the courts. First published in 1996, Wits: A University in the Apartheid Era by Mervyn Shear tells the story of how the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) adapted to the political and social developments in South Africa under apartheid. This new edition is published in the University’s centenary year with a preface by Firoz Cachalia, one of Wits’ student leaders in the 1980s. It serves as an invaluable historical resource on questions about the relationship between the University and the state, and on understanding the University’s place and identity in a constitutional democracy.
The French Army's war in Algeria has always aroused passions. This book does not whitewash the atrocities committed by both sides; rather it focuses on the conflict itself, a perspective assisted by the French republic's official admission in 1999 that what happened in Algeria was indeed a war.
As the epicenter of Christianity has shifted towards Africa in recent decades, Pentecostalism has emerged as a particularly vibrant presence on the continent. This collection of essays offers a groundbreaking study of the complex links between politics and African Pentecostalism. Situated at the intersection between the political, the postcolonial, and global neoliberal capitalism, contributors examine the roots of the Pentecostal movement's extraordinary growth; how Pentecostalism intervenes in key social and political issues, such as citizenship, party politics, development challenges, and identity; and conversely, how politics in Africa modulate the Pentecostal movement. Pentecostalism and Politics in Africa offers a wide-ranging picture of a central dimension of postcolonial African life, opening up new directions for future research.
Providing an in-depth comparative study of democracy formation, Gellar traces Senegal's movement from a pre-colonial aristocratic order towards a modern democratic political order. Inspired by Tocqueville's methodology, he identifies social equality, ethnic and religious tolerance, popular participation in local affairs, and freedom of association and the press as vital components of any democratic system. He shows how centralized state structures and monopoly of political power stifled local initiative and perpetuated neo-patrimonial modes of governance.
In a sweeping narrative that traverses 600 years, one that eloquently weaves precise historical detail with poignant personal reportage, Pulitzer Prize finalist Howard W. French retells the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in America and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe's dehumanising engagement with the "darkest" continent. Born in Blackness dramatically retrieves the lives of major African historical figures whose stories have been repeatedly etiolated and erased over centuries, from unimaginably rich medieval African emperors who traded with Asia; to Kongo sovereigns who heroically battled seventeenth-century European powers; to ex-slaves who liberated Haitians from bondage. In doing so, French tells the story of gold, tobacco, sugar and cotton-and the greatest "commodity" of all, the millions of people brought in chains from Africa to the New World, whose reclaimed histories fundamentally help explain our present world.
"Egyptian Mummies" is regarded by egyptologists as the classic account of mummification in ancient Egypt. Originally published in 1924, its re-issue in complete form will be welcomed by all those who have sought rare second hand copies in vain. This book provides the most comprehensive account available of the technical processes and materials employed by the ancient Egyptian embalmers together with a historical analysis of their modification throughout the dynastic period. The authors draw on fully illustrated archaeological and pathological evidence together with Egyptian and Greek textual references to provide a thorough survey of the mummification process and attendant funeral ceremonies, and to offer clues to an understanding of the custom's significance and the reasons for its adoption.
Conceptions of medicine and medical practice among the Kedjom peoples in Cameroon embrace more than western biomedical understandings of medicine. For these peoples, medicine implies substances, knowledge, practices and institutions bound up with protection and intervention against misfortune and the active promotion of well-being. Nor are medical concerns primarily about the individual. Medicine in the precolonial era was a matter for groups. In short, medicine was preeminently public. Perhaps the major transformation since the colonial period and extending into the postcolonial, has been the increasing commercialization of "traditional" medicine as African healers shift their practices away from group concerns to a focus more concerned with treating the individual. Written in a lucid style, full of vibrant anecdotes, Maynard's book will appeal not only to medical anthropologists and development workers, but also to anyone interested in nonwestern medicine and practices.
Edward Said described a public intellectual as someone who uses accessible language to address a designated public on matters of social and political significance. The essays in Public Intellectuals in South Africa apply this interpretive prism and activist principle to a South African context and tell the stories of well-known figures as well as some that have been mostly forgotten. They include Magema Fuze, John Dube, Aggrey Klaaste, Mewa Ramgobin and Koos Roets, alongside marginalised figures such as Elijah Makiwane, Mandisi Sindo, William Pretorius and Dr Thomas Duncan Greenlees. The essays capture the thoughts and opinions of these historical figures, who the contributors argue are public intellectuals who spoke out against the corruption of power, promoted a progressive politics that challenged the colonial project and its legacies, and encouraged a sustained dissent of the political status quo. Offering fascinating accounts of the life and work of these writers, critics and activists across a range of historical contexts and disciplines, from journalism and arts criticism to history and politics, it enriches the historical record of South African public intellectual life. This volume makes a significant contribution to ongoing debates about the value of research in the arts and humanities, and what constitutes public intellectualism in South Africa.
During the 1980s, religion was widely assumed to have lost its
dominant position in Western culture and to be losing ground
throughout the world. This has not been the case. Today we see an
upsurge in religion worldwide, which has affected people's
spiritual, cultural, economic and political lives.
Long regarded as the preserve of French scholars and Francophone audiences due to its significance to France's colonial empire, North Africa is increasingly recognized for its own singular importance as a crossover region. Situated where Islamic, Mediterranean, African, and European histories intersect, the Maghrib has long acted as a cultural conduit, mediator and broker. From the medieval era, when the oasis of Sijilmasa in the Moroccan wilderness funnelled caravan loads of gold into international networks, through the 16th century when two superpowers, the Ottomans and the Spanish Hapsburgs, battled for mastery of the Mediterranean along the North African frontier, and well into the 20th century which witnessed one of Africa's cruellest wars unfold in "French Algeria," the Maghrib has retained its uniqueness as a place where worlds meet.
The author, interviews some South Africans of different hues, about the idea of race, what it has meant to them and how they envision a future South Africa, steeped as the country and its people are in a highly charged and often unacknowledged world of racial sensitivity. Amongst the interviewees are Naledi Pandor, Minister of Education; Wilmot James, executive director of the African Genome Education Institute; Rhoda Kadalie, journalist and human rights activist; Melanie Verwoerd, former South African ambassador to Ireland; Phatekile Holomisa, president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa); and Carel Boshoff, the founder of Orania, an Afrikaner homeland established in 1991 in the Northern Cape.
Most studies of famine and the African food crisis stress how the socio-economic context influences the occurrence of food shortages. By contrast, this book argues that food insecurity itself influences the social and economic organization of the society. Through this approach, the author provides a new interpretation of the causes and consequences of Tanzania's present economic crisis. The book examines the effects of changing food availability on the functioning of the state, the market and clientage networks, over the past seven decades. The conclusion is that clientage is no less important than the state and market as an organizational force in Tanzanian society, and, under heightened food insecurity, the state and market lose ground to clientage.
First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
This book is the product of many years’ research by Lodge, whose Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (1983) established him as a leading commentator on South African politics, past and present. 2021 will mark the centenary of the foundation of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and today’s South African Communist Party (SACP, founded in 1953 after the proscription of the CPSA) will be extremely fortunate to have the milestone marked by a scholarly work of this calibre. Since 1994, many memoirs have been written by communists, and private archives have been donated to university and other collections. Significant official archives have been opened to scrutiny, particularly those of South Africa and the former Soviet Union. It is as if a notoriously secretive body has suddenly become confiding and confessional! While every chapter draws upon original material of this sort, such evidence is supported, amplified, illuminated and challenged by the scholarship of others: the breadth of secondary sources used by the author reflects what may well be an unrivalled familiarity with the scholarly literature on political organisations and resistance in twentieth century South Africa. Lodge provides a richly detailed history of the Party’s vicissitudes and victories; individuals – their ideas, attitudes and activities – are sensitively located within their context; the text provides a fascinating sociology of the South African left over time. Lodge is adept at making explicit what the key questions and issues are for different periods; and he answers these with analyses and conclusions that are judicious, clearly stated, and meticulously argued. Without doubt, this book will become a central text for students of communism in South Africa, of the Party’s links with Russia and the socialist bloc, and of the Communist Party’s changing relations with African nationalism – before, during and after three decades of exile. |
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