Africa articles from September 2005

Africa archives from September 2005

'La crise': lexicon and ethos of the second economy in Lubumbashi.
September 22, 2005... ABSTRACT The second, or informal, economy developed later in Lubumbashi (DRC) than it had in Kinshasa. The Katanga metropolis, long protected from the process of informalization thanks to its large industrial complexes, suffered seriously...

Immunizing strategies: hip-hop and critique in Tanzania.
September 22, 2005... ABSTRACT Tanzania has in the last decade seen a vibrant form of hip-hop emerge that is gaining wide public exposure thanks to its political tenor. First, this article illustrates how rap lyrics reflect Tanzanian political history and in...

The Nile perch in Lake Victoria: local responses and adaptations.
September 22, 2005... ABSTRACT Introduced into Lake Victoria in the 1950s, the Nile perch has gained fame for prompting rapid regional economic growth and for driving scores of endemic fish species into extinction. This study uses oral and archival data to...

The need for speed: contrasting timeframes in the social life of Kenyan miraa.
September 22, 2005... ABSTRACT This article contrasts two very different timeframes in the 'social life' of the plant stimulant miraa--known elsewhere as khat--in Kenya and beyond. One timeframe is connected with the old miraa trees growing in the Nyambene...

Forbidden fruit in the compound: a case study of migration, spousal separation and group-wife adultery in Northwest Ghana.
September 22, 2005... ABSTRACT This paper explores the anthropological implications of the notion of adultery by showing how it can improve our understanding of a local debate about descent, migration and local responses to it, among communities belonging to...

'There is no stranger to marriage here!': Muslim women and divorce in rural Zanzibar.
September 22, 2005... ABSTRACT In Zanzibar, many cases in rural Islamic courts involve disputes about whether or not a divorce has taken place outside of court. Zanzibari men have the right to divorce their wives unilaterally through repudiation; and, because...

Reclaiming Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business.(Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation)(Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business: Rethinking Land, State and Nation in the Context of Crisis)(Book review)
September 22, 2005... AMANDA HAMMAR, BRIAN RAFTOPOULOS and STIG JENSEN (eds), Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business: rethinking land, state and nation in the context of crisis. Harare: Weaver Press (pb 20.95 [pounds sterling]--1 77922 011 1). 2003, 316 pp. HORACE...

Ernest Emenyonu (ed.), Emerging Perspectives on Chinua Achebe Vol. I--Omenka the master artist: critical perspectives on Achebe's fiction.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... ERNEST EMENYONU (ed.), Emerging Perspectives on Chinua Achebe Vol. I--Omenka the toaster artist: critical perspectives on Achebe's fiction. Trenton: Africa World Press (pb 23.99 [pounds sterling]--0 86543 876 5). 2004, 475 pp. The work is...

M. Keith Booker (ed.), The Chinua Achebe Encyclopaedia.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... M. KEITH BOOKER (ed.), The Chinua Achebe Encyclopaedia. Westport: Greenwood Press (hb US$78.95, 42.99 [pounds sterling]--0 325 07063 6). 2003, 318 pp. With 634 main entries, signed by twenty-three collaborators, this work is a tribute to...

Barry Hallen, A Short History of African Philosophy.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... BARRY HALLEN, A Short History of African Philosophy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press (pb 12.95 [pounds sterling]--0 253 21531 5). 2002, 133 pp. Hallen finally gets round to it at the beginning of chapter eight: 'An issue that atone...

John M. Chernoff, Hustling is Not Stealing: stories of an African bar girl.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... JOHN M. CHERNOFF, Hustling is Not Stealing: stories of an African bar girl. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (hb $65--0 226 10350 1; pb $22.50--0 226 10352 8). 2003, 496 pp. Well-known for his ethnography of drumming in Northern Ghana,...

Toyin Falola and Christian Jennings (eds), Sources and Methods in African History: spoken, written, unearthed.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... TOYIN FALOLA and CHRISTIAN JENNINGS (eds), Sources and Methods in African History: spoken, written, unearthed. Rochester NY: Rochester University Press (hb 50[pounds sterling]--1 58046 133 4). 2003, xxi +409 pp. The contributions in this...

Kairn A. Klieman, 'The Pygmies Were our Compass': Bantu and Batwa in the history of West Central Africa, early times to c. 1900 CE.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... KAIRN A. KLIEMAN, 'The Pygmies Were out Compass': Bantu and Batwa in the history of West Central Africa, early times to c. 1900 CE. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann (pb $26.95--0 325 07105 5; hb $64--0325 07105 5). 2003, xxxiv +253 pp. Kairn...

Florence Bernault (ed.), Enfermement, prison et chatiments en Afrique: du 19e siecle a nos jours.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... FLORENCE BERNAULT (ed.), Enfermement, prison et chatiments en Afrique: du 19e siecle a nos jours. Paris: Karthala (pb 20.50 [pounds sterling]--2 86537 946 9). 1999, 512 pp. In recent years, there has been a huge growth in the historiography...

Sean Stilwell, Paradoxes of Power: the Kano 'Mamluks' and male royal slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate, 1804-1903.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... SEAN STILWELL, Paradoxes of Power: the Kano 'Mamluks' and male royal slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate, 1804-1903. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann (hb $79.95--0 325 07041 5; pb $29.95--0 325 07040 7). 2004, 296 pp. Sean Stilwell's pathbreaking...

Trevor R. Getz, Slavery and Reform in West Africa: toward emancipation in nineteenth-century Senegal and the Gold Coast.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... TREVOR R. GETZ, Slavery and Reform in West Africa: toward emancipation in nineteenth-century Senegal and the Gold Coast. Athens: Ohio University Press (pb 26.95 [pounds sterling]--0 2814 1520 4). 2004, 257 pp. With Gold Coast and Senegal...

Christopher Gray, Colonial Rule and Crisis in Equatorial Africa: southern Gabon c. 1850-1940.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... CHRISTOPHER GRAY, Colonial Rule and Crisis in Equatorial Africa: southern Gabon c. 1850-1940. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press (hb $70.00--1 580 46048 8). 2002, 304 pp. Christopher Gray's posthumously published manuscript on...

Ruth Watson, 'Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan': chieftaincy and civic culture in a Yoruba City.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... RUTH WATSON, 'Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan': chieftaincy and civic culture in a Yoruba City. Oxford and Athens: James Currey and Ohio University Press (pb $22.95--0 8214 1451 8). 2003, xii +180 pp. This book captures the...

Frederick Cooper, Africa Since 1940: the past of the present.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... FREDERICK COOPER, Africa Since 1940: the past of the present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (pb US$19.00, 14.95 [pounds sterling]--0 521 77600 7). 2002, 216 pp. Frederick Cooper has succeeded admirably in providing a short,...

Michael Jackson, In Sierra Leone.(The Life and Times of Madam Ella Koblo Kulama)(Book review)
September 22, 2005... MICHAEL JACKSON, In Sierra Leone. Durham: Duke University Press (pb 15.50 [pounds sterling]--0 8223 3313). 2004, 226 pp. TALABI AISIE LUCAN, The Life and Times of Madam Ella Koblo Kulama. Freetown: SLAWI (available from African Books...

W. Hueva, Media and Resistance Politics: the alternative press in Namibia, 1960-1990.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... W. HUEVA, Media and Resistance Politics: the alternative press in Namibia, 1960-1990. Basel: P. Schlettwein Publishing, Basel Namibia Studies Series 6 (pb 25.00 [pounds sterling]--3 908193 10 9). 2001. Schlettwein's Basel Namibia Studies...

Henning Melber (ed.), Re-examining Liberation in Namibia: political culture since independence.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... HENNING MELBER (ed.), Re-examining Liberation in Namibia: political culture since independence. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (pb 15.95 [pounds sterling]--91 7106 516 4). 2003, 149 pp. Melber's edited collection aims at critically...

Robert Vicat Turrell, White Mercy: a study of the death penalty in South Africa.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... ROBERT VICAT TURRELL, White Mercy: a study of the death penalty in South Africa. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers (hb 53.99 [pounds sterling]--0 325 07126 8). 2004, xii +281 pp. In the later apartheid decades South Africa was...

Belinda Bozzoli, Theatres of Struggle and the End of Apartheid.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... BELINDA BOZZOLI, Theatres of Struggle and the End of Apartheid. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for International Africa Institute (pb 16.95 [pounds sterling]--0 7486 1941 0). 2004, viii and 326 pp. This is a magnificent book. It...

T. M. Maliyamkono and F. E. Kanyongolo (eds), When Political Parties Clash.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... T. M. MALIYAMKONO and F. E. KANYONGOLO (eds), When Political Parties Clash. Dar es Salaam: Tema Publishers Company Ltd (pb 24.95 [pounds sterling]--9987 25 035 1). 2003, x +319 pp. Comprising ten chapters, this edited volume examines the...

Tatah Mentan, Dilemmas of Weak States: Africa and transnational terrorism in the twenty-first century.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... TATAH MENTAN, Dilemmas of Weak States: Africa and transnational terrorism in the twenty-first century. Aldershot: Ashgate (hb 47.50 [pounds sterling]--0 7546 4200 3). 2004, 396 pp. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001,...

Oystein H. Rolandsen, Guerrilla Government: political changes in the southern Sudan during the 1990s.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... OYSTEIN H. ROLANDSEN, Guerrilla Government: political changes in the southern Sudan during the 1990s. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (pb SEK200--91 7106 537 7). 2005, 201 pp. The publication of this book was very timely since it...

Paul Nugent, Africa Since Independence. Basingstoke and New York.(Book review)
September 22, 2005... PAUL NUGENT, Africa Since Independence. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan (hb 52.50-0 [pounds sterling]- 0 333 68272; pb 17.99 [pounds sterling]--0 333 68273). 2004, 620 pp. It took a lot of courage to write this very big,...