Africa Today articles from June 2007

Africa Today archives from June 2007

Cliggett, Lisa. 2005. Grains from Grass: Aging, Gender, and Famine in Rural Africa.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Cliggett, Lisa. 2005. GRAINS FROM GRASS: AGING, GENDER, AND FAMINE IN RURAL AFRICA. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 193 pp. $19.95 (paper). Lisa Cliggett's new book on the patterns of social change among Gwembe Tonga communities in...

De Lame, Danielle. 2005. A Hill Among a Thousand: Transformation and Ruptures in Rural Rwanda.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... De Lame, Danielle. 2005. A HILL AMONG A THOUSAND: TRANSFORMATION AND RUPTURES IN RURAL RWANDA. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 560 pp. $65.00 (cloth). This volume on Murundi, a community of western Rwanda on the cusp of the...

David J. Francis, ed. 2005. Civil Militia: Africa's Intractable Security Menace?(Book review)
June 22, 2007... David J. Francis, ed. 2005. CIVIL MILITIA: AFRICA'S INTRACTABLE SECURITY MENACE? Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate. 300 pp. $99.95 (cloth). Civil Militia draws in the reader because its dozen contributing authors are nearly all well-placed African...

Hentz, James J. 2005. South Africa and the Logic of Regional Cooperation.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Hentz, James J. 2005. SOUTH AFRICA AND THE LOGIC OF REGIONAL COOPERATION. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. 276 pp. $65.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper). This volume does not concern itself with adding to the literature on the nature...

Kanogo, Tabitha. 2005. African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900-50.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Kanogo, Tabitha. 2005. AFRICAN WOMANHOOD IN COLONIAL KENYA, 1900-50. Oxford: James Currey; Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. 268 pp. $24.95 (paper). In African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900-50, Tabitha Kanogo utilizes archival...

Nest, Michael. 2006. The Democratic Republic of Congo: Economic Dimensions of War and Peace.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Nest, Michael. 2006. THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS OF WAR AND PEACE. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. 162 pp. $15.95 (paper). As I write this review, the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo await the...

Saul, John S. 2005. The Next Liberation Struggle: Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy in Southern Africa.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Saul, John S. 2005. THE NEXT LIBERATION STRUGGLE: CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM, AND DEMOCRACY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. Toronto: Between The Lines; New York: Monthly Review Press; London: The Merlin Press; Scottsville: University of Kwazulu-Natal Press. 345...

Zegaye, Abebe, Richard Harris, and Pat Lauderdale. 2005. Globalization and Post-Apartheid South Africa.(Book review)
June 22, 2007... Zegaye, Abebe, Richard Harris, and Pat Lauderdale. 2005. GLOBALIZATION AND POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA. Toronto: de Sitter. 183 pp. $39.95 (cloth). Given the conditions surrounding the birth of the new South Africa, and the high hopes that...

Books received.
June 22, 2007... Barber, Karin, ed. 2006. Africa's Hidden Histories: Everyday Literacy and Making the Self. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. Bond, Patrick. 2006. Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation. New York: Zed Books. Comaroff,...

Introducing alternative rites of passage.
June 22, 2007... Genital cutting has been a key ritual event of initiation in Kuria society since anyone can remember. While changes surely occurred to the ritual as it was passed between generations, social and health concerns have quickly and radically...

Genital cutting: the past and present of a polythetic category.
June 22, 2007... In 1975, Rodney Needham suggested that some phenomena encountered by anthropologists, like certain kinds of descent systems, might be best understood as polythetic classes--categories whose members bear overlapping family resemblances to each...

Contingency, context, and change: negotiating female genital cutting in the Gambia and Senegal.
June 22, 2007... Though the literature aimed at deepening our understanding of the practice of female genital cutting (FGC) is vast and growing, the issue of behavior change remains poorly understood. In this paper, we argue that, both within and beyond the...

Producing FGM in U.S. courts: political asylum in the post-Kasinga Era.(female genital mutilation)
June 22, 2007... This article tracks the production and legacy of the strategically essentialized identities that made Fauziya Kasinga's case winnable. Examinations of subsequent cases of U.S. asylum-seekers who claimed to flee female genital...

"I have changed my mind now": U.S. students' responses to female genital cutting in Africa.
June 22, 2007... Few topics seem to rile students as much as female genital cutting (FGC), even in a classroom characterized by moderate discussion. Two discussion threads usually emerge: one is outright condemnation of the practice, including labeling it...

Anthropological perspectives on female genital cutting: embodying tradition, violence, and social resilience.
June 22, 2007... Introduction Anthropology grew out of a commitment to study and discuss humanity, in variation and sameness, across time and space. Given its disciplinary penchant for holism and historical context, anthropologists have produced millions...