Africa articles from June 2002

Africa archives from June 2002

Converts to human rights? Popular debate about war and justice in rural central Sierra Leone.
June 22, 2002... ABSTRACT Internationally, war in Sierra Leone (1991-2002) is regarded as an instance of violent conflict driven by economic factors (attempts to control the mining of alluvial diamonds). Fieldwork (2000-01) in rural areas recovering from...

Chieftaincy and the state in Abacha's Nigeria: kingship, political rivalry and competing histories in Abeokuta during the 1990s.
June 22, 2002... ABSTRACT This article investigates the relationship between chieftaincy and the state in modern Nigeria. It focuses on politics and the mythical history of kings in the city of Abeokuta and argues that, particularly during the 1990s, the...

A religion of the Rupee: materialist encounters in north-west Tanzania.
June 22, 2002... ABSTRACT This article examines the moral ambiguities of materialism that emerged with the coffee trade in north-west Tanganyika. The White Fathers, who played a prominent (often unintended) role in the growth of coffee markets, and the...

The resilience of jouk: confronting suffering in eastern Uganda.
June 22, 2002... ABSTRACT `It all comes down to juok' is the recurrent answer to enquiries about suffering and misfortune among the Nilotic Jop'Adhola of eastern Uganda. Understanding what it means to `believe' in juok requires a theoretical approach that...

From wisdon to witchcraft: ambivalence towards old age in rural Ghana.
June 22, 2002... ABSTRACT This article presents fragments of conversation with elderly and younger people in the rural town of Kwahu Taro. The statements of the various speakers are often contradictory. The borders between respect and hatred, admiration...

The spirit of competition: wak in Burkina Faso.
June 22, 2002... ABSTRACT This article examines the occult powers used to obtain protection or to gain an advantage in modern competitive arenas. In Burkina Faso, these powers are widely known as wak. The discussion focuses on sporting events, an area...

Democracy in Africa?
June 22, 2002... M. BRATTON and NICOLAS VAN DE VALLE, Democratic Experiments in Africa. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997. A. OLUKOSHI (ed.), The Politics of Opposition in Contemporary Africa. Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1998. J....

Ernest Aryeetey, Jane Harrigan and Machiko Nissanke (eds), Economic Reforms in Ghana: the miracle and the mirage.(Book Review)
June 22, 2002... Oxford: James Currey (Accra: Woeli Publishing; Trenton NJ: Africa World Press), 2000, 374 pp., 40.00 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 85244 163 0 hard covers, 16.95 [pounds sterling], 0 85255 164 9 paperback. Ghana has had a chequered...

Oyvind M. Eide, Revolution and Religion in Ethiopia: the growth and persecution of the Mekane Yesus Church, 1974-85.(Book Review)
June 22, 2002... Oxford: James Currey (Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press; Athens OH: Ohio University Press), 2000, 293 pp., 40.00 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 85255 840 6 hard covers, 14.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 85255 8414 paperback. The...

Major I. A. Nass, A Study in Internal Conflicts: the Liberian crisis and the West African peace initiative.(Book Review)
June 22, 2002... Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 2000. Major Nass sets out to explore the changing nature of international peacekeeping efforts. As an officer in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) during the Liberian...

Karen Biesbrouck, Stefan Elders and Gerda Rossel (eds), Central African Hunter-gatherers in a Multidisciplinary Perspective: challenging elusiveness.(Book Review)
June 22, 2002... Leiden: CNWS Research School, University of Leiden, 1999, 323 pp., Fl. 50.00 (US$25.00), ISBN 90 5789 018 6. The field of African hunter-gatherer studies has gone through several phases since the 1950s. First there was great interest in...

Jay Spaulding and Stephanie Beswick (eds), White Nile, Black Blood: war, ethnicity and leadership from Khartoum to Kampala.(Book Review)
June 22, 2002... Lawrenceville NJ: Red Sea Press, 2000, 290 pp., US$21.95, ISBN 1 56902 099 X paperback. Spaulding and Beswick's volume is a collection of essays covering a wide variety of subjects pertaining to the on-going conflict in the Sudan, which in...

Janet Bujra, Serving Class: Masculinity and the Feminisation of Domestic Service in Tanzania.(Book Review)
June 22, 2002... International African Library 24. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, for the International African Institute, 2000, 206 pp., 14.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 7486 1484 2 paperback. Using a case study from Tanga, Janet Bujra documents the...

Peter Haenger, Slaves and Slave Holders on the Gold Coast: Towards an Understanding of Social Bondage in West Africa.(Book Review)
June 22, 2002... ed. J. J. Shaffer and Paul E. Lovejoy, trans. Christina Handford. Basle: Schlettwein, 2000, 213 pp., Sfr 48.00, ISBN 3 908193 04 4. Dr Peter Haenger's unusually fine doctoral work on the Basel Mission's work in Kwawu led historians of Ghana...

Diene Doudou (ed.), From Chains to Bonds: The Slave Trade Revisited.(Book Review)
June 22, 2002... Oxford: Berghahn (New York and Paris: UNESCO Publishing), 2001, 506 pp., 18.50 [pounds sterling], ISBN 1 57181 266 0 paperback. Collected works emerging out of conferences are often uneven, but From Chains to Bonds, the materialisation of...