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African Discourse in Islam, Oral Traditions, and Performance (African Studies)
by Abdul-Rasheed Na'AllahThrough an engaged analysis of writers such as Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Niyi Osundare, and Tanure Ojaide and of African traditional oral poets like Omoekee Amao Ilorin and Mamman Shata Katsina, Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah develops an African indigenous discourse paradigm for interpreting and understanding literary and cultural materials. Na'Allah argues for the need for cultural diversity in critical theorizing in the twenty-first century. He highlights the critical issues facing scholars and students involved in criticism and translation of marginalized texts. By returning the African knowledge system back to its roots and placing it side by side with Western paradigms, Na'Allah has produced a text that will be required reading for scholars and students of African culture and literature. It is an important contribution to scholarship in the domain of mobility of African oral tradition, and on African literary, cultural and performance discourse.
African Documentary Cinema: Beyond Representation (Routledge Advances in Film Studies)
by Alexie TcheuyapAfrican Documentary Cinema investigates the inception and trajectory of contemporary documentary filmmaking in sub-Saharan African countries and their diasporas. The book challenges critical paradigms that have long prevailed in African film criticism, shedding light on the diverse discourses and evolving aesthetic trends present within documentary films.Situating his analysis within the context of the significant transformation of the African film industry, the author focuses on the development, diversity, and shifting dynamics that have impacted contemporary documentary cinema. Examining the historical, political, sociological, economic, and cultural factors that have facilitated the rise of documentary films—especially those created by female documentarians—the book assesses the emergence of documentary filmmakers spanning different generations. Their training, practices, and innovative perspectives on social, political, and environmental issues ultimately give rise to new frameworks for understanding the bio-documentary genre, issues of gender discrimination, LGBTQIA+ identities, environmental trauma, genocide, and memory on the African continent.This ground-breaking study offers new insight into a rapidly expanding topic and will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of film studies, documentary film, media industry studies, African studies, French, postcolonial studies, politics, and cultural studies.
African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa
by Michael A. GomezA groundbreaking history that puts early and medieval West Africa in a global contextPick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book, the first on this period of the region’s history in a generation, tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, including Arabic manuscripts, oral histories, and recent archaeological findings, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history more generally. Scholars have long held that such distinctions arose during the colonial period, but Gomez shows they developed much earlier.Focusing on the Savannah and Sahel region, Gomez traces the exchange of ideas and influences with North Africa and the Central Islamic Lands by way of merchants, scholars, and pilgrims. Islam’s growth in West Africa, in tandem with intensifying commerce that included slaves, resulted in a series of political experiments unique to the region, culminating in the rise of empire. A major preoccupation was the question of who could be legally enslaved, which together with other factors led to the construction of new ideas about ethnicity, race, gender, and caste—long before colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.Telling a radically new story about early Africa in global history, African Dominion is set to be the standard work on the subject for many years to come.
African Dream Machines: Style, Identity and Meaning of African Headrests
by Anitra NettletonAfrican Dream Machines takes African headrests out of the category of functional objects and into the more rarefied category of ‘art’ objects. Styles in African headrests are usually defined in terms of western art and archaeological discourses, but this book interrogates these definitions of style and demonstrates the shortcomings of defining a single formal style model as exclusive to a single ethnic group. Among the artefacts made by southern African peoples, headrests were the best known. Anitra Nettleton’s study of the uses and forms of headrests opened up a number of art-historical methodologies in the attempt to gain an understanding of form, style and content in African art objects. Her drawings of each and every headrest encountered become a major part of the project.
African Ecology and Human Evolution
by F. Clark Howell Francois BourliereThe record of man's early evolution, though still fragmentary, is more complete on the African continent than anywhere else in the world. The ecological context of this evolution, however, has been studied intensively only in recent years. This pioneering volume draws together eminent specialists from many fields--physical anthropologists, zoologists, geologists, paleontologists, and prehistorians--who summarize here the results of their diverse research on Pleistocene environments and the cultural and biological evolution of man in Africa.This volume was sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Inc., which met at Burg Wartenstein, Austria. The editors have field experience in Africa, especially eastern and equatorial Africa. This experience is coupled with their awareness of the need to integrate results of numerous field studies bearing on the biological-behavioral evolution of higher primates with other field studies on the paleoecology and the mammalian ecology of sub-Saharan Africa.The book includes contributions on Pleistocene stratigraphy and climatic changes throughout the African continent; on the origin and evolution of the earliest man-like creatures in Africa; on the dating, distribution, and adaptation of Pleistocene hunter-gatherer peoples; and on the ecology, biology, and social behavior of African primate and human populations. The chapters reflect vividly the state of current knowledge at the time and indicate paths for future research. Over 100 maps and figures, detailed bibliographies, and a comprehensive index contribute to the importance of the volume for basic reference use.
African Ecology and Human Evolution
by F. Clark Howell François BourlièreThis pioneering volume summarizes the results of diverse research on Pleistocene environments and the cultural and biological evolution of man in Africa. The book includes chapters on Pleistocene stratigraphy and climatic changes throughout the African continent; on the ecology, biology and sociology of African primate and human populations. Contributors include: C. Arambourg, P. Biberson, W. W. Bishop, Geoffrey Bond, F. Bourlière, Karl W. Butzer, Desmond Clark, H. B. S. Cooke, Irven DeVore, John T. Emlen, A. T. Grove, J. de Heinzelin, J. Hiernaux, Clark Howell, L. S. B. Leakey, I. Liben, T. Monod, R. F. Moreau, R. A. pullan, J. T. Robinson, George B. Schaller, S. L. Washburn. Originally published in 1964.
African Ecology: Benchmarks and Historical Perspectives (Springer Geography)
by Clive Alfred SpinageIn view of the rapidly changing ecology of Africa ,this work provides benchmarks for some of the major, and more neglected, aspects, with an accent on historical data to enable habitats to be seen in relation to their previous state, forming a background reference work to understanding how the ecology of Africa has been shaped by its past. Reviewing historical data wherever possible it adopts an holistic view treating man as well as animals, with accent on diseases both human and animal which have been a potent force in shaping Africa's ecology, a role neglected in ecological studies.
African Ecomedia: Network Forms, Planetary Politics
by Cajetan IhekaIn African Ecomedia, Cajetan Iheka examines the ecological footprint of media in Africa alongside the representation of environmental issues in visual culture. Iheka shows how, through visual media such as film, photography, and sculpture, African artists deliver a unique perspective on the socioecological costs of media production, from mineral and oil extraction to the politics of animal conservation. Among other works, he examines Pieter Hugo's photography of electronic waste recycling in Ghana and Idrissou Mora-Kpai's documentary on the deleterious consequences of uranium mining in Niger. These works highlight not only the exploitation of African workers and the vast scope of environmental degradation but also the resourcefulness and creativity of African media makers. They point to the unsustainability of current practices while acknowledging our planet's finite natural resources. In foregrounding Africa's centrality to the production and disposal of media technology, Iheka shows the important place visual media has in raising awareness of and documenting ecological disaster even as it remains complicit in it.
African Economic Development (Routledge Textbooks in Development Economics)
by Yiagadeesen Samy Steven Langdon Archibald R.M. RitterSub-Saharan Africa is at a turning point. The barriers to economic growth seen in the 1980-2000 era are disappearing and new optimism is spreading. However, difficult goals of eliminating poverty, achieving equity and overcoming environmental threats continue. This much-needed and insightful textbook has been written to help us understand this combination of emerging improvements and significant challenges. Opening with an analysis of the main theories relating to development in Sub-Saharan Africa, the book explores all the key issues, including: Human development; Rapid urbanization; Structural and gender dimensions; Sustainable development and environmental issues; and Africa’s role in the world economy. The authors use economic tools and concepts throughout, in a way that makes them accessible to students without an economics background. Readers are also aided by a wide range of case studies, on-the-ground examples and statistical information, which provide a detailed analysis of each topic. This text is also accompanied by a companion website, featuring additional sources for students and instructors. African Economic Development is a clear and comprehensive textbook suitable for courses on African economic development, development economics, African studies and development studies.
African Economic Institutions (Global Institutions)
by Kwame AkonorThis book analyzes how, and under what conditions, African International Economic Organizations (IEO) have evolved, and what individual and collective contributions, if any, these African IEOs have had on Africa’s socio-economic development. Providing a comprehensive and accessible overview, the book covers the continent’s main IEOs, The United Nations Economic Commission on Africa, The African Development Bank; and The New Partnership for Africa’s Development as well as the five major Regional Economic Communities, including Economic Community of West African States, and Southern African Development Community. Assessing the degree to which African IEO’s have been able to chart their own course in coming up with their development agendas and priorities rather than following the lead of Global Institutions, this book: Provides a descriptive and analytical overview of the historical and contemporary development blueprints produced for Africa Clearly examines the contribution made by African economic institutions towards development Considers whether African economic institutions are building blocks or stumbling blocks in Africa’s development Offers a detailed evaluation and critique of African IEOs Enabling the reader to reach a deeper understanding of the challenges and potentials of development on the African continent, African Economic Institutions will be of interest to all students and scholars of African politics and development studies.
African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999
by Nicolas Van De WalleThis 2001 book explains why African countries have remained mired in a disastrous economic crisis since the late 1970s. It shows that dynamics internal to African state structures largely explain this failure to overcome economic difficulties rather than external pressures on these same structures as is often argued. Far from being prevented from undertaking reforms by societal interest and pressure groups, clientelism within the state elite, ideological factors and low state capacity have resulted in some limited reform, but much prevarication and manipulation of the reform process, by governments which do not really believe that reform will be effective, which often oppose reforms because they would undercut the patronage and rent-seeking practices which undergird political authority, and which lack the administrative and technical capacity to implement much reform. Over time, state decay has increased.
African Edible Insects As Alternative Source of Food, Oil, Protein and Bioactive Components
by Abdalbasit Adam MariodThe harvesting, processing and consumption of edible insects is one of the main keys to the sustainability of food chains on the African continent. Insects are the largest and most successful group of animals on the planet and it is estimated that they comprise 80% of all animals. This makes edible insects extremely important to the future survival of large populations across Africa and the world. Insects offer a complete animal protein that includes all 9 essential amino acids and are very competitive with other protein sources. They are also a good source of beneficial unsaturated fats, and many insects have a perfect Omega 3:6 balance. African Edible Insects As Alternative Source of Food, Oil, Protein and Bioactive Components comprehensively outlines the importance of edible insects as food and animal feed and the processing of insects in Africa. The text also highlights indigenous knowledge of edible insects and shows the composition and nutritional value of these insects, plus presents reviews of current research and developments in this rapidly expanding field. All of the main types of edible insects are covered, including their nutritional value, chemical makeup, and harvesting and processing details. The various preparation technologies are covered for each insect, as are their individual sensory qualities and safety aspects. A key aspect of this work is its focus on the role of insects in edible oils and gelatins. Individual chapters focus on entomophagy in Africa and the various key aspects of the continent's growing edible insect consumption market. As it becomes increasingly clear that the consumption of insects will play a major role in the sustainability of food chains in Africa, this work can be used as a comprehensive and up-to-date singular source for researchers looking for a complete overview on this crucial topic.
African Elephant vs. Woolly Mammoth
by Charles C. HoferIt’s a battle between two massive animals with treacherous tusks! The African elephant is today’s largest land animal. But thousands of years ago, the woolly mammoth used its gigantic tusks to defend against attackers. Learn what makes these similar fearsome creatures so powerful. Then decide which one would triumph in a battle.
African Elephants (Endangered And Threatened Animals)
by Brenda HaugenElephants are seen as a symbol of African wildlife. Many people admire their size, intelligence, and strength. But these great land beasts are in trouble. Their homes are disappearing and food is becoming hard to find. Learn more about these amazing animals, and what you can do to make a difference in their future.
African Elephants at Risk
by Kathryn ClayAfrican elephants have behaviors and features that keep them safe from predators, from the herds they live in to their large size. But these elephants are endangered. Because of humans, their habitat is shrinking, and climate change is hurting their food supply and their health. Human hunters are also putting these creatures at risk. Readers will learn why African elephants are at risk, what it means to be endangered, and how people can help. Each title includes activities and trivia questions to help readers connect with the content.
African Empires (Black History #5)
by Dan Lyndon-CohenThe history of the African continent covers thousands of years, thousands of kilometres and millions of peoples speaking hundreds of languages. There are countless stories, dances, poems and songs. They tell the history of the great ancient civilisations, such as the Egyptians; the powerful kingdoms in West Africa of Mali and Songhai; the trading cities of Timbuktu and Gao; and enormous structures, such as the pyramids and Great Zimbabwe. This book looks at the great civilisations of the African continent and the people within these complex societies.The Black History series brings together a wide range of events and experiences from the past to promote knowledge and understanding of black culture today.
African Enchantment
by Andrea BarryPatricia Wells had vowed to forgo romance and dedicate herself to her career as a dance therapist. But then--on vacation amid the lush beauty of Africa--she encountered Armand de Vincent, a wealthy Frenchman. He was wild--as exciting and dangerous as Africa itself, and from the start, she was determined to resist the mad pounding of her heart that his mere presence caused. But she found herself captive to his intense blue gaze. How could she allow herself to fall for such a playboy?
African Energy Worlds in Film and Media (New Directions in National Cinemas)
by Carmela GarritanoCan you imagine a post-petroleum world? African Energy Worlds in Film and Media joins energy humanists committed to undoing our deep dependence on fossil fuels and advancing equitable energy transitions by advancing this vision with a spotlight on African perspectives.African cinema is a rich and varied medium for investigating the entanglements and social embeddedness of energy with global modernity and for imagining a world that leaves fossil fuels behind for unrealized green energy futures. African Energy Worlds in Film and Media shows us how African cinema makes sensible the energetic aspects of life in the ecological mesh that is planet Earth and grounds us in the everyday of the postcolonial, bringing attention to the enduring legacies of racism and colonialism that unevenly distribute energy-related violence and risk and amplifying Africans' demands for access to the energy networks that undergird modernity. With a focus on feature, documentary, and arthouse films, including canonical films by Ousmane Sembène and Djbril Diop Mambety and new work by emergent directors Nelson Makengo and Djo Tunda Wa Munga, author Carmela Garritano examines how these stories depict an array of energy sources from mineral extraction to wind and the by-products of these energy processes, like plastic and electronic waste.Situated at the intersection of film studies, African studies, and energy humanities, African Energy Worlds in Film and Media analyzes the political, social, and economic dimensions of global energy forms and systems as represented in African cinema.
African Entrepreneurship: Challenges And Opportunities For Doing Business (Palgrave Studies Of Entrepreneurship In Africa)
by Vanessa Ratten Leo-Paul Dana Ben Q. HonyenugaExplores the cultural and historical influences to highlight how business in Africa represents a unique challenge.<P><P> Discusses the regulatory framework that helps and hinders business in Africa.<P> Examines the different types of entrepreneurship emerging in Africa including the changing conditions for female and ethnic entrepreneurs.<P>This book outlines the unique challenges and opportunities of doing business in Africa, analysing how varying degrees of development across its countries affects entrepreneurship. Taking into account historical and cultural contexts, the authors approach the topic by evaluating the different possibilities of business opportunity in Africa. Insightful contributions explore an extensive range of African countries, discussing both formal and informal entrepreneurship, as well as the different factors that influence the growing economy of Africa. African Entrepreneurship will be of interest to anyone researching the potential of doing business in Africa, as well as entrepreneurs and policy-makers looking to expand their knowledge on how businesses are managed in this region.
African Environmental Crisis: A History of Science for Development (Routledge Studies in African Development)
by Gufu ObaThis book explores how and why the idea of the African environmental crisis developed and persisted through colonial and post-colonial periods, and why it has been so influential in development discourse. From the beginnings of imperial administration, the idea of the desiccation of African environments grew in popularity, but this crisis discourse was dominated by the imposition of imperial scientific knowledge, neglecting indigenous knowledge and experience. African Environmental Crisis provides a synthesis of more than one-and-a-half century’s research on peasant agriculture and pastoral rangeland development in terms of soil erosion control, animal husbandry, grazing schemes, large-scale agricultural schemes, social and administrative science research, and vector-disease and pest controls. Drawing on comparative socio-ecological perspectives of African peoples across the East African colonies and post-independent states, this book refutes the hypothesis that African peoples were responsible for environmental degradation. Instead, Gufu Oba argues that flawed imperial assumptions and short-term research projects generated an inaccurate view of the environment in Africa. This book’s discussion of the history of science for development provides researchers across environmental studies, agronomy, African history and development studies with a lens through which to understand the underlying assumptions behind development projects in Africa.
African Environmental Ethics: A Critical Reader (The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics #29)
by Munamato ChemhuruThis book focuses on under-explored and often neglected issues in contemporary African environmental philosophy and ethics. Critical issues such as the moral status of nature, African conceptions of animal moral status and rights, African conceptions of environmental justice, African relational Environmentalism, ubuntu, African theocentric and teleological environmentalism are addressed in this book. It is unique in so far as it goes beyond the generalized focus on African metaphysics and African ethics by exploring how these views might be understood differently in order to conceptualize African environmental ethics. Against the background where environmental problems such as pollution, climate change, extinction of flora and fauna, and global warming are plain to see, it becomes useful to examine how African conceptions of environmental ethics could be understood in order to confront some of these problems facing the whole world. This book will be of value to undergraduate students, graduate students and academics working in the area of African Philosophy, African Environmental Ethics and Global Ethics in general.
African Environments and Resources (Routledge Library Editions: Development)
by L. A. Lewis L. BerryFirst published in 1988, this work provides a comprehensive picture of the range of physical environments in Africa, focusing upon those characteristics and issues central to the management of environmental resources. Beginning with an overview of the geographical and environmental history of Africa, the authors also provide to the evolution of the management of resources and then details a broadly defined ecosystem approach, in which major environmental resource issues are identified and addressed in the tropical rainforest, the Savannah dry-forest, the arid and semi-arid areas, the highlands, and the extra-tropical zones of Northern and Southern Africa. The book is designed to contribute to a better understanding of African environmental and resource-management problems and this reissue should be welcomed by students of Africa and of environmental resource management problems in general.
African Epistemologies for Criticality, Decoloniality and Interculturality (New Perspectives on Teaching Interculturality)
by Hamza R'BoulThis book addresses the underrepresentation and, more importantly, the misrepresentation of African epistemologies and traditions of thought in making sense of, theorizing, and doing interculturality.Africa remains (probably) the most oppressed and silenced sphere throughout centuries of colonialism and contemporary coloniality. Therefore, such an anthology provides a platform for those insights that have substantial epistemic capacity to alter our taken‑for‑granted notions of what interculturality is and what it is about. While a number of works have charted the contributions of African epistemologies in advancing our understanding of our intercultural realities, this book argues that the processes of decoloniality through and within interculturality have never been about (under) (mis)representation per se, but about how the politics of representation can provide inaccurate, tokenistic, and false inclusion. This book aims to substantiate the notion that decoloniality and interculturality are mutually inclusive, to demonstrate the affordances of African epistemologies in advancing intercultural knowledge, and to support the need to make visible philosophical and power‑literate approaches to interculturality.This book will be essential reading for scholars and students interested in African philosophy, African epistemology, and, more broadly, interculturality and intercultural communication.
African Epistemologies in Higher Education Research (Routledge Research on Decoloniality and New Postcolonialisms)
by Kolawole Samuel AdeyemoBringing a needed perspective on African Epistemologies on the critical topics of higher education in relation to knowledge systems, this book highlights how knowledge creation processes influence higher education systems, society, and African development. This book uses an interdisciplinary approach to frame the connections between academic knowledge systems. Specifically, it seeks to answer questions on the trends in knowledge mobility, histories, and sociological dimensions in knowledge production in post-colonial Africa. The discussion explores how existing knowledge systems can better align with past and present narratives throughout African history and philosophies. The primary thought behind this book is to deconstruct the idea of a free market, the issue of corruption, racism and the neoliberalist approach to knowledge creation and transmission. Thus, it seeks to answer questions on the history and sociological dimensions of knowledge production in higher education. The book argues that African epistemologies can be better understood by investigating present sociologies and histories shaping African higher education research. Researchers and university students in the field of sociology of education, economics of education, higher education and policy will find this book very useful.
African Epistemology: Essays on Being and Knowledge (Routledge Studies in African Philosophy)
by Isaac E. Ukpokolo Peter Aloysius IkhaneThis book investigates how knowledge is conceived and explored within the African context. Epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, has historically been dominated by the Western approach to the discourse of knowledge. This book however shines a much-needed spotlight on knowledge systems originating within the African continent. Bringing together key voices from across the field of African philosophy, this book explores the nature of knowledge across the continent and how they are rooted in Africans’ ontological sense of being and self. At a time when moves to decolonize curricula are gaining momentum, this book shows how understanding the specific ways of knowing that form part of the every day life of the African, will play an important part in rebalancing studies of philosophy globally. Employing critical, conceptual and rigorous analyses of the nature and essence of knowledge as understood by indigenous African societies, the book ultimately asks what could pass as an African theory of knowledge. This important guide to the connections between knowledge and being, in African philosophical thought, will be an important resource for researchers and students of philosophy and African studies.