Africa Today articles from June 2000

Africa Today archives from June 2000

Introduction to Special Issue: Sexuality and Generational Identities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
June 22, 2000... But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and...

Learning the Facts of Life: Past and Present Experiences in a Rural Tanzanian Community.
June 22, 2000... This article explores the meaning and place of "traditional" forms of sex education within the cultural and historical context of the Shinyanga Region of west central Tanzania. Although structured puberty initiation rituals may have been an...

On the Sexuality of "Town Women" in Kampala.
June 22, 2000... "Town women" emerged in Uganda as a product of colonial urbanization and capitalist development in Kampala. The negative stereotyping of "town women" in Kampala, by scholars, colonial officials, medical officers and Ugandans alike, proceeds...

Women's Childbearing Decisions in Guinea: Life Course Perspectives and Historical Change.
June 22, 2000... This paper examines Guinean women's perspectives on childbearing, family size, and contraception from different stages of the life course, or kare (in Mandinka). The kare begin with deng muso (a child), and continue through sunkuru ni, sunkuru,...

Talking about Sex: Contemporary Construction of Sexuality in Rural Kenya.
June 22, 2000... Discussion of sexuality in Kuria District in rural Kenya is constrained by relationships of respect between parents and children. Grandparents and peers were, and continue to be, the main sources of knowledge and information on the subject. As...

"These Girls Today Na War-O": Premarital Sexuality and Modern Identity in Southeastern Nigeria.
June 22, 2000... Over the past few decades, several related changes have contributed to increasing the prevalence of premarital sexual relations in Nigeria. Demographic transformations such as rising age at marriage and increasing levels of urban migration are...

Toward a Historical Perspective on Sexuality in Uganda: The Reproductive Lifeline Technique for Grandmothers and their Daughters.
June 22, 2000... Current health research on HIV-AIDS in Uganda is predominantly ahistorical and acultural. This is an inadequate analysis of a profoundly social epidemic, especially as the burden of disease shifts from adults to adolescents. As well, many...

"The Politics of the Womb": Kenyan Debates over the Affiliation Act.
June 22, 2000... This article examines reproductive struggles and debates in late colonial and early postcolonial Kenya by reconstructing the history of the short-lived Affiliation Act, a law that granted all single women the right to sue the fathers of their...

THE CRIMINALIZATION OF THE STATE IN AFRICA.
June 22, 2000... Bayart, Jean-Francois, Stephen Ellis, and Beatrice Hibou. 1999. THE CRIMINALIZATION OF THE STATE IN AFRICA. Oxford: James Currey. 126 pp. It is fortunate that in the same year, the excellent "African Issues" series of London's International...

AFRICA WORKS: DISORDER AS POLITICAL INSTRUMENT.
June 22, 2000... Chabal, Patrick and Jean-Pascal Daloz. 1999. AFRICA WORKS: DISORDER AS POLITICAL INSTRUMENT. Oxford: James Currey. 170 pp. It is fortunate that in the same year, the excellent "African Issues" series of London's International African...

SOUTH AFRICA'S FUTURE: FROM CRISIS TO PROSPERITY.
June 22, 2000... Ginsberg, Anthony. 1998. SOUTH AFRICA'S FUTURE: FROM CRISIS TO PROSPERITY. London: Macmillan. 260 pp. Why major convulsions occur in history (the American Civil War, the end of the Cold War, or the more or less peaceful shift of South...

FAULT LINES: JOURNEYS INTO THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA.
June 22, 2000... Goodman, David. 1999. FAULT LINES: JOURNEYS INTO THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA. Berkeley: University of California Press. 400 pp. Why major convulsions occur in history (the American Civil War, the end of the Cold War, or the more or less peaceful...

SOUTH AFRICA IN TRANSITION: THE MISUNDERSTOOD MIRACLE.
June 22, 2000... Guelke, Adrian. 1999. SOUTH AFRICA IN TRANSITION: THE MISUNDERSTOOD MIRACLE. London: I. B. Taurus. 211 pp. Why major convulsions occur in history (the American Civil War, the end of the Cold War, or the more or less peaceful shift of South...

A CONCISE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
June 22, 2000... Ross, Robert. 1999. A CONCISE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 219 pp. Why major convulsions occur in history (the American Civil War, the end of the Cold War, or the more or less peaceful shift of South...

SOUTH AFRICA: A NARRATIVE HISTORY.
June 22, 2000... Welsh, Frank. 1999. SOUTH AFRICA: A NARRATIVE HISTORY. New York: Kodansha International. 606 pp. Why major convulsions occur in history (the American Civil War, the end of the Cold War, or the more or less peaceful shift of South Africa...

BLACK POLITICAL THOUGHT IN THE MAKING OF SOUTH AFRICAN DEMOCRACY.
June 22, 2000... Halisi, C.R.D. 1999. BLACK POLITICAL THOUGHT IN THE MAKING OF SOUTH AFRICAN DEMOCRACY. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 198 pp. Halisi examines the impact of racial nationalism on South Africa's political thought and citizenship. His...

DEMOCRATIC TEACHER EDUCATION REFORM IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF NAMIBIA.
June 22, 2000... Zeichner, Kenneth, and Lars Dahlstrom. 1999. DEMOCRATIC TEACHER EDUCATION REFORM IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF NAMIBIA. Boulder: Westview. 269 pp. Namibia is not alone among developing nations that have made education the centerpiece for...

TRICKSTERS AND TRANCERS: BUSHMAN RELIGION AND SOCIETY.
June 22, 2000... Guenther, Mathias. 1999. TRICKSTERS AND TRANCERS: BUSHMAN RELIGION AND SOCIETY. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 288pp. This is an important book that turns a critical lens upon how anthropology has long envisioned both the Bushmen of...

YOUR MADNESS, NOT MINE: STORIES OF CAMEROON.
June 22, 2000... Nfah-Abbenyi, Juliana Makuchi. 1999. YOUR MADNESS, NOT MINE: STORIES OF CAMEROON. Monographs in International Studies, Africa Series, No. 70. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. Makuchi, the writer's pen name, is a Beba woman from the...

AFRICA AND AFRICANS IN THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1400-1800.
June 22, 2000... Thornton, John. 1998. AFRICA AND AFRICANS IN THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1400-1800.2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 340 pp. Africanist and Americanist scholars and their students will be indebted to historian John...

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 1998: HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT.
June 22, 2000... African Development Bank. 1998. AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 1998: HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT. New York: Oxford University Press. 228 pp. The African Development Report 1998: Human Capital Development provides a broad overview of the economic...

CRISIS, ADJUSTMENT AND GROWTH IN UGANDA: A STUDY OF ADAPTATION IN AN AFRICAN ECONOMY.
June 22, 2000... Bigsten, Arne, and Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa. 1999. CRISIS, ADJUSTMENT AND GROWTH IN UGANDA: A STUDY OF ADAPTATION IN AN AFRICAN ECONOMY. New York: St. Martin's Press. 147 pp. Bigsten and Kayizzi-Mugerwa analyze the economy and describe the...

BOOKS RECEIVED.
June 22, 2000... Adam, Kanya. 2000. The Colour of Business: Managing Diversity in South Africa. Basel, Switzerland: P. Schlettwein. Aka, Ebenezer, O. 2000. Regional Disparities in Nigeria's Development: Lessons and Challenges for the Twenty-first Century....