Africa articles from March 22 2009

Africa archives from March 22 2009

Godwin R. Murunga and Shadrack W. Nasong'O (eds), Kenya: the struggle for democracy.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... GODWIN R. MURUNGA and SHADRACK W. NASONG'O (eds), Kenya: the struggle for democracy. London: Zed Books (pb 19.99 [pounds sterling]--978 1 84277 857 9). 2007, 344 pp. KWAME BOAFO-ARTHUR (ed.), Ghana: one decade of the liberal state. London:...

John Parker and Richard Rathbone, African History: a very short introduction.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... JOHN PARKER and RICHARD RATHBONE, African History: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press (pb 6.99 [pounds sterling]--978 0 19280 248 4). 2007, 144 pp. This is an elegant and carefully crafted work, which will be an...

John Glover, Sufism and Jihad in Modern Senegal: the Murid order.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... JOHN GLOVER, Sufism and Jihad in Modern Senegal: the Murid order. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press (hb 40 [pounds sterling]--978 1 58046 268 6). 2007, 236 pp. John Glover has produced a fascinating study of the innovative...

Vivian Bickford-Smith and Richard Mendelson (eds), Black and White in Colour: African history on screen.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... VIVIAN BICKFORD-SMITH and RICHARD MENDELSON (eds), Black and White in Colour: African history on screen. Oxford: James Currey (14.95 [pounds sterling]--978 1 84701 522 8). 2007, 384 pp. This intelligent and informative collection of essays...

Roman Loimeier and Rodiger Seesemann (eds), The Global Worlds of the Swahili: interfaces of Islam, identity and space in nineteenth- and twentieth-century East Africa.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... ROMAN LOIMEIER and RODIGER SEESEMANN (eds), The Global Worlds of the Swahili: interfaces of Islam, identity and space in nineteenth- and twentieth-century East Africa. Berlin: Lit Verlag (hb 34.90 [euro]--3 8258 9769 9). 2006, 424 pp. A...

Stephanie Newell, West African Literatures: ways of reading.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... STEPHANIE NEWELL, West African Literatures: ways of reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press (pb 18.00 [pounds sterling]--978 0 19927 397 3; hb 43.00 [pounds sterling]--978 0 19929 887 7). 2006, 259 pp. Newell's book offers several distinct...

Kenda Mutongi, Worries of the Heart: widows, family, and community in Kenya.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... KENDA MUTONGI, Worries of the Heart: widows, family, and community in Kenya. Chicago IL and London: University of Chicago Press (pb $20.00--978 0 22655 420 4; hb $50.00--978 0 22655 419 8). 2007, 256 pp. Kenda Mutongi's social history of...

David Mcdermott Hughes, From Enslavement to Environmentalism: politics on a Southern African frontier.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... DAVID MCDERMOTT HUGHES, From Enslavement to Environmentalism: politics on a Southern African frontier. Seattle WA and London: University of Washington Press (pb 13.99 [pounds sterling]--978 0 29598 840 5; hb 31.00 [pounds sterling]--978 0 29598...

David Bellin Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa's black city music and theatre.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... DAVID BELLIN COPLAN, In Township Tonight! South Africa's black city music and theatre (second edition). Chicago IL and London: University of Chicago Press (pb $26.00--978 0 22611 567 2; hb $67.50--978 0 22611 566 5). 2008, 472pp. In 1985...

Patricia Tang, Masters of the Sabar: Wolof percussionists of Senegal.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... PATRICIA TANG, Masters of the Sabar: Wolof percussionists of Senegal. Philadelphia PA: Temple University Press (pb $27.95--978 1 59213 420 5; hb $79.50--978 1 59213 419 9). 2007, 209 pp. Tang's first book is based on the research she...

Pain with punishment and the negotiation of childhood: an ethnographic analysis of children's rights processes in Maasailand.(Report)
March 22, 2009... ABSTRACT Children's rights activists contend that corporal punishment in schools is a form of child abuse which hinders children's learning. Yet most parents and teachers in Maasailand, Kenya consider corporal punishment, if properly...

Mimesis and mimicry in dynamics of state and identity formation in northern Somalia.(Report)
March 22, 2009... ABSTRACT In this article, mimesis and mimicry are used as analytical concepts to explore dynamics of state and identity formation in Somaliland and Puntland since the early 1990s. Mimesis captures endeavours to imitate well-established...

Burial sites, informal rights and lost kingdoms: contesting land claims in Mpumalanga, South Africa.(Report)
March 22, 2009... ABSTRACT In the new South Africa, the promise of land restitution raised millennial-style expectations amongst dispossessed and dispersed former landholders. Partly prompted by emerging policy discourses, iconic tropes of localized...

Fast food in Ibadan: an emerging consumption pattern.(Report)
March 22, 2009... ABSTRACT In its modernization garb, development has come to mean the inculcation of foreign values resulting in the fundamental transformation of modernizing nations. Ironically, little attention is being drawn to the consequences of...

The re(public) of salsa: Afro-Cuban music in fin-de-siecle Dakar.(Report)
March 22, 2009... ABSTRACT This article explores why, despite its diminished popularity, Afro-Cuban music remains among the most performed musics in Senegalese music clubs. Since the Second World War, many Senegalese have associated Afro-Cuban music with...

The blacksmiths of Tamale: the dynamics of space and time in a Ghanaian industry.(Report)
March 22, 2009... ABSTRACT In the last twenty years the number of smiths and the range of their activity have greatly increased in Tamale, the principal city of northern Ghana. The evolution of the national economy and the particular situation of Tamale in...