Today's World in Focus


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South Africa in Focus


Book Description

In 1994, South Africas image in the world changed instantaneously from the polecat to that of being a model. The intensity of the societal conflict in the run-up to 1994, and the nature of the post-1994 societal reconstruction focused the attention of the whole world on South Africa. The societal changes have been of a social, economic, political and educational nature; the foundation of which had been laid by a Constitution and a Bill of Human Rights widely hailed as one of the most progressive in the world. After almost two decades, the time is ripe for an assessment. This book offers nine essays written by scholars who are recognised authorities in their fields of expertise, critically surveying some aspects of that societal reconstruction project.







Focus


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First Published in 2008. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




Africa and Globalization


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This edited volume examines the challenges of globalization in light of the need to revisit and reconceptualize the notion of Pan-Africanism. The first part of the book examines globalization and Africa’s socioeconomic and political development in this century by using the Diopian Pluridisciplinary Methodology. This approach is imperative because the challenges faced by Africa vis-à-vis globalization and socioeconomic development are so multiplexed that no single disciplinary approach can adequately analyze them and yield substantive policy recommendations. The chapters in the second part analyze the imperatives for Africa’s global knowledge production, development, and economic transformation in the face of the pressures of globalization. Part two demonstrates an urgent need for Africa’s significant participation in the global knowledge economy in order to meet the continent’s modern transformation and development aspirations. The final part examines lessons from old and new Pan-Africanism and how they can be utilized to deal with the challenges emanating from the forces of modern globalization. With its multidisciplinary approach to a wide range of pressing, modern issues for the African content, this book is essential reading for scholars across the social sciences interested in where Africa is now and where it should go in this increasingly globalized world.




Contested Terrains And Constructed Categories


Book Description

Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories brings together intellectuals from a variety of fields, backgrounds, generations, and continents to deepen and reinvigo-rate the theoretical and intellectual integrity of African studies. Building on recent debate within African studies that has revolved around the role of Africanists in the United States as “gatekeepers” of knowledge about Africa and Africans, this volume of interdisciplinary essays focuses on the contested character of the production of knowledge itself. In every chapter, case studies and ethnographic materials, drawn from such regions as South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, the Malagasy Republic, Angola, Ghana, and Senegal, demonstrate the application of theory to concrete situations.




Focus on African Americans


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Focus on South Africa


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This volume brings together a range of studies on various aspects of English and its use in Southern Africa. Experts in their field have written chapters on topics including the history and development of English in South Africa, the characteristics of particular pan-ethnic varieties of English which have evolved in South Africa (including black, Indian and colored varieties) as well as the unique features of the English of South Africa’s southern neighbours: Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. Other contributions focus on English in relation to issues such as standardisation, lexicography, education, language planning, language attitudes and interaction patterns. The book will be of primary interest to students of linguistics and language, but should also be relevant to educationists, sociologists and historians.




Focus: Music of South Africa


Book Description

Focus: Music of South Africa provides an in-depth look at the full spectrum of South African music, a musical culture that epitomizes the enormous ethnic, religious, linguistic, class, and gender diversity of the nation itself. Drawing on extensive field and archival research, as well as her own personal experiences, noted ethnomusicologist and South African native Carol A. Muller looks at how South Africans have used music to express a sense of place in South Africa, on the African continent, and around the world. Part One, Creating Connections, provides introductory materials for the study of South African Music. Part Two, Musical Migrations, moves to a more focused overview of significant musical styles in twentieth-century South Africa -- particularly those known through world circuits. Part Three, Focusing In, takes the reader into the heart of two musical cultures with case studies on South African jazz and the music of the Zulu-language followers of Isaiah Shembe. The accompanying CD offers vivid examples of traditional, popular, and classical South African musical styles.