Africa articles from June 2008

Africa archives from June 2008

Editorial.(Editorial)
June 22, 2008... In his inaugural editorial in Africa in 1928, Sir Frederick Lugard observed that the new institution that was responsible for publishing the journal, the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (it did not become the...

Life/history: personal narratives of development amongst NGO workers and activists in Ghana.(nongovernment organizations)(Report)
June 22, 2008... ABSTRACT Widespread assumptions about the extractive and self-serving nature of African elites have resulted in the relative neglect of questions concerning their personal ethics and morality. Using life-history interviews undertaken with...

This is not our culture! Discourse of nostalgia and narratives of health concerns in post-socialist Tanzania.(Critical essay)
June 22, 2008... ABSTRACT Oral accounts of the past play an important role in the construction of cultural memories as they are reconstructed in dynamic social contexts. Based primarily on participant observation in a peri-urban village in Dares Salaam,...

An introduction to the writings of J. G. Mullen, an African clerk, in the Gold Coast Leader, 1916-19.(Critical essay)
June 22, 2008... ABSTRACT J. G. Mullen was a Gold Coast clerk who published his memoirs, in instalments, in the Gold Coast Leader from 1916 to 1919. In this unusual narrative, he describes his adventures in Cameroon before and during the First World War....

An extract from 'my experience in Cameroons during the war'.(Excerpt)
June 22, 2008... I. THE GOLD COAST LEADER, 14 OCTOBER 1916, p. 6 It was on the night of the 11th August 1914, when news of a great war in Europe reached us at Mbua (2) (a town in the South Cameroons, about nine weeks or more from Duala, (3) (or Kribbi) and...

From Scotch whisky to Chinese sneakers: international commodity flows and new trade networks in Oshikango, Namibia.(Report)
June 22, 2008... ABSTRACT After the end of the colonial period, international commodity flows into Africa at first continued to reproduce patterns of colonial domination. In the last ten years, however, important shifts have become visible. New commodity...

Gun culture in Kumasi.
June 22, 2008... ABSTRACT This article is about gun culture in Kumasi today. Gun use in Asante, and elsewhere in Ghana, has increased significantly in the last decade. In practice and in the public imagination this is associated with the rise of youth...

Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it?(Book review)
June 22, 2008... PAUL COLLIER, The Bottom Billion: why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it? New York: Oxford University Press (hb 16.99 [pounds sterling]-978 0 19531 145 7). 2007, 195 pp. Let us start with the positive. This is a...

Jocelyn Alexander, The Unsettled Land: state-making and the politics of land in Zimbabwe 1893-2003.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... JOCELYN ALEXANDER, The Unsettled Land: state-making and the politics of land in Zimbabwe 1893-2003. Oxford: James Currey; Harare: Weaver Press; Athens OH: Ohio University Press (pb 18.95 [pounds sterling]-9780852558928 and hb 50.00 [pounds...

Michael Amoah, Reconstructing the Nation in Africa: the politics of nationalism in Ghana.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... MICHAEL AMOAH, Reconstructing the Nation in Africa: the politics of nationalism in Ghana. London and New York: Tauris Academic Studies (hb $74.95-978 1 84511 259 2). 2007, 256 pp. This book is a PhD thesis reworked for publication. Its main...

Sara Dorman, Daniel Hammett and Paul Nugent (eds), Making Nations, Creating Strangers: states and citizenship in Africa.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... SARA DORMAN, DANIEL HAMMETT AND PAUL NUGENT (eds), Making Nations, Creating Strangers: states and citizenship in Africa. Leiden: Brill (pb 55.00 [pounds sterling]-978 9 00415 790 3). 2007, 277 pp. The question of national identity in Africa...

John Laband (ed.), Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Africa: from slavery days to Rwandan genocide.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... JOHN LABAND (ed.), Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Africa: from slavery days to Rwandan genocide. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press (hb 37.95 [pounds sterling] 978 0 313 33540 2). 2007, 301 pp. This useful collection of essays is...

Benjamin N. Lawrance, Emily Lynn Osborn and Richard L. Roberts (eds), Intermediaries, Interpreters, and Clerks: African employees in the making of colonial Africa.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... BENJAMIN N. LAWRANCE, EMILY LYNN OSBORN AND RICHARD L. ROBERTS (eds), Intermediaries, Interpreters, and Clerks: African employees in the making of colonial Africa. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press (hb 30.95 [pounds sterling]-978 0 299...

Jan-Georg Deutsch, Emancipation without Abolition in German East Africa, c. 1884-1914.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... JAN-GEORG DEUTSCH, Emancipation without Abolition in German East Africa, c. 1884-1914. Oxford: James Currey; Dar es Salaam, Mkuki na Nyota; Athens, OH: Ohio University Press (hb 55.00 [pounds sterling]-978 0 852 55986 4 and pb 17.95 [pounds...

Cheikh Anta Babou, Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853-1913.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... CHEIKH ANTA BABOU, Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853-1913. Athens OH: Ohio University Press (pb $26.95-978 0 821 41766 9; hb $55.00-978 0 821 41765 2). 2007, 320 pp. Cheikh Anta...

Jeff D. Grischow, Shaping Tradition: civil society, community and development in colonial northern Ghana, 1899-1957.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... JEFF D. GRISCHOW, Shaping Tradition: civil society, community and development in colonial northern Ghana, 1899-1957. Brill: Leiden (pb 72.00 [euro]-978 9 00415 243 4). 2006, 268 pp. The vast majority of the literature available on colonial...

Friedrich W. Schwerdtfeger, Hausa Urban Art and its Social Background: external house decorations in a northern Nigerian city.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... FRIEDRICH W. SCHWERDTFEGER, Hausa Urban Art and its Social Background: external house decorations in a northern Nigerian city. Berlin: LIT Verlag (hb 45.90 [euro] -978 3 82585 643 4). 2007, 392 pp. Friedrich Schwerdtfeger is a professor of...

Ruth Finnegan, The Oral and Beyond: doing things with words in Africa.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... RUTH FINNEGAN, The Oral and Beyond: doing things with words in Africa. Oxford: James Currey; Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press; Pietermaritzburg: University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal Press (pb 16.95 [pounds sterling]-978 1 84701 001 8). 2007, 258...

Reinhard Sander and Bernth Lindfors (eds), Ngugi wa Thiong'o Speaks: interviews with the Kenyan writer.(Book review)
June 22, 2008... REINHARD SANDER AND BERNTH LINDFORS (eds), Ngugi wa Thiong'o Speaks: interviews with the Kenyan writer. Oxford: James Currey; Nairobi: EAEP (pb, 19.95 [pounds sterling] - 0 85255 580 6). 2006, 445 pp. A substantial collection of interviews...