Africa Today articles from March 2001

Africa Today archives from March 2001

Errata.
March 22, 2001... It is with great sincerity that the Managing Editor wishes to correct a grave error committed in the preceding issue. This special double issue, on Sexuality and Generational Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa, was guest-edited by Kearsley A....

Introduction to the special issue on Africa and the environment.
March 22, 2001... Natural environments significantly affect human behavior. Nowhere is the importance of the natural environment more apparent than in Africa. Certain soils allow particular farming practices and proscribe others. Minerals augment or limit...

Carrying capacity's new guise: folk models for public debate and longitudinal study of environmental change: by reframing the carrying capacity concept as a folk model, we can continue to use the phrase to highlight ecological relationships and advance arguments for environmental conservation, but at the same time acknowledge the complexity of the human-environment links which formal applications of carrying capacity ignore.
March 22, 2001... Current public debates about the environment often assume a clear relationship between resource availability and population growth: more people mean fewer resources. Over the past three decades, scholars in the social and natural sciences have...

The break-up of the Ksar: changing settlement patterns and environmental management in Southern Morocco.
March 22, 2001... In spite of the French colonial intrusion, up to the 1950s, resource management in Saharan villages constituted what some have called the syndrome of collectivity. The syndrome of collectivity was the product of three interrelated factors: the...

Sustainability of commercial forestry in a changing socioeconomic and legal environment: a case study of South Africa: the changing socioeconomic and legal environment in South Africa has demanded a redefinition of commercial forestry, forcing several institutional and policy-related changes in the industry.
March 22, 2001... Commercial forestry is an important industry in South Africa, generating considerable employment and foreign exchange. The industry has grown rapidly after World War II with active government support. However, since the beginning of the...

Reconstructing the African commons: after a century of demise, the traditional capacity in Africa to hold rural lands in common is seeing a wave of unexpected recognition in revised national land laws in eastern and southern Africa, a development which could signal a dramatic turning point in the future of common properties.
March 22, 2001... Eastern and Southern Africa is seeing a wave of land law reform. While the motives may be more political than developmental, the extent of real change ultimately possibly limited, and realization of new law in practice another prospect...

A practitioner's view of conservation and development in Africa: integrated management and the Djoudj National Park in Senegal:.
March 22, 2001... A practitioner's view of conservation and development in Africa: integrated management and the Djoudj National Park in Senegal: of course, the history of the park's creation generated conflicts between the park's administration and local...

"My grandfather's gun was called field of children": ecological history as indictment of state development policy: I will considere this bersion of village history as an articulation of ecological history which pointedly critiques the state's management of local hunting and wildlife in relation to the development of health, education, and agricultural services.
March 22, 2001... This ethnographic article tells a village's ecological history on the border of the South Luangwa National Park in eastern Zambia. It examines history-telling as a form of critique of state management of local hunting and wildlife in relation...

Back to the future: some unintended consequences of Zambia's community-based wildlife program (ADMADE): whereas many agriculturally based rural communities may accept the economic values attached to wildlife, other sources of security such as maintaining and consolidating significant social relations through culturally mediated resource distributions are also important.
March 22, 2001... Community-based wildlife programs were implemented widely in southern Africa during the past two decades to attempt to overcome the problems associated with the earlier strict protection policies and to integrate wildlife conservation with...

Regional Disparities in Nigeria's Development: Lessons and Challenges for the Twenty-First Century. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Aka, Ebenezer O., Jr. 2000. REGIONAL DISPARITIES IN NIGERIA'S DEVELOPMENT: LESSONS AND CHALLENGES FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. 205 pp. After several decades of African independence, economic...

The Poor Are Not Us: Pastoralism and Poverty in East Africa. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Anderson, David M., and Vigdis Broch-Due, eds. 1999. THE POOR ARE NOT US: PASTORALISM AND POVERTY IN EAST AFRICA. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. 269 pp. In recent decades, pastoralists in Eastern Africa have been under extraordinary...

Madumo: A Man Bewitched. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Ashforth, Adam. 2000. MADUMO: A MAN BEWITCHED. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 255 pp. Adam Ashforth has presented a fascinating study of the role of witchcraft in postapartheid South Africa. His work is an interesting combination of...

Africa in Chaos. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Ayittey, George. 1998. AFRICA IN CHAOS. New York: St. Martin's Press. 399 pp. Many theorists throughout the world have struggled to explain the cause of the unprecedented crises in sub-Saharan Africa. George Ayittey's Africa in Chaos is...

Death Squads in Global Perspective: Murder With Deniability. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Campbell, Bruce B., and Arthur D. Brenner, eds. 2000. DEATH SQUADS IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: MURDER WITH DENIABILITY. New York: St. Martin's Press. 364 pp. The subject of this book, death squads, is important to scholars seeking to understand...

Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Crocker, Chester, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, eds. 1999. HERDING CATS: MULTIPARTY MEDIATION IN A COMPLEX WORLD. Washington: USIP. 735 pp. Herding Cats reads like a well-written novel imbedded in a scholarly wrapper. The book...

Gender Violence in Africa: African Women's Responses. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Green, December. 1999. GENDER VIOLENCE IN AFRICA: AFRICAN WOMEN'S RESPONSES. New York: St. Martin's Press. 298 pp. Violence against women is currently a major and global issue. In Africa, as in the rest of the world, it has long been...

Eaters of the Dry Season: Circular Labor Migration in the West African Sahel. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Rain, David. 1999. EATERS OF THE DRY SEASON: CIRCULAR LABOR MIGRATION IN THE WEST AFRICAN SAHEL. Boulder: Westview Press. 266 pp. This informative study is based on Rain's field research as a geographer in Niger during 1995 and 1996. Two...

Election '99 South Africa. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Reynolds, Andrew, ed. 1999. ELECTION '99 SOUTH AFRICA. New York: St. Martin's Press. 218 pp. The modestly bound and rapidly produced volume Election '99 South Africa, edited by Andrew Reynolds, deserves more than a quick look. The thirteen...

Islamin South Africa: Mosques, Imams, and Sermons. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Tayob, Abdulkader. 1999. ISLAM IN SOUTH AFRICA: MOSQUES, IMAMS, AND SERMONS. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. 175 pp. Abdulkader Tayob has produced an insightful book on the manner in which a group can use tradition to...

Modern Kenya: Social Issues and Perspectives. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Watson, Mary Ann, ed. 2000. MODERN KENYA: SOCIAL ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. 380 pp. This volume of essays on Kenya is the result of research undertaken during a five-week Summer 1998...

Speaking with Vampires: Rumor and History in Colonial Africa. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... White, Luise. 2000. SPEAKING WITH VAMPIRES: RUMOR AND HISTORY IN COLONIAL AFRICA. Berkeley: University of California Press. 352 pp. In this book, vampire stories circulating in East and Central Africa are analyzed as a source for colonial...

Migrants, Citizens, and the State in Southern Africa. (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Whitman, Jim, ed. 2000. MIGRANTS, CITIZENS AND THE STATE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. New York: St. Martins Press. 286 pp. The topic of this volume is migration in southern Africa, looked at from the perspectives of human rights, development, state...

Books Received 48(1). (Book Reviews).
March 22, 2001... Abrahamsen, Rita. 2000. Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and Good Governance in Africa. New York: Zed Books. Action Against Hunger. 2001. The Geopolitics of Hunger, 2000-2001: Hunger and Power. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Reinner....