Can Africa Claim the 21st Century?


Book Description

Africa in the 21st Century offers a comprehensive review of development prospects in each of the major development sectors.




Yes, Africa Can


Book Description

Takes an in-depth look at twenty-six economic and social development successes in Sub-Saharan African countries, and addresses how these countries have overcome major developmental challenges.




The Green Belt Movement


Book Description

Wangari Maathai, founder of The Green Belt Movement, tells its story including the philosophy behind it, its challenges, and objectives.




African Civilization in the 21st Century


Book Description

This book took the task of conceptualizing the change of African Civilization in the 21st century. It examines African Civilization and its encounters in view of the last 500 years of European and American slavery, exploitation and diplomatic paralysis. In post-colonial Africa (1960-2014), foreign powers have more influence on Africa. However, Africa cannot claim to have the diplomatic prestige to influence European, American or Asian powers. The overwhelming challenges that Africa has been experiencing did attract global reaction ranging from military intervention, diplomatic push or pull (rarely in between), and frequent humanitarian involvements. It is still inconclusive if global attention on Africa has had impact as much as it has been a stomping ground for advisors, donors, politicians, international agencies and a phalanx of well-meaning NGOs. However, their impact can be exemplified by the fact that in Sub-Saharan Africa, every second individual still does not have access to fresh water and electricity in the 21st century. In this book, the focus is put on Sub-Saharan Africa, where every other habitant has no access to fresh water and electricity. In this book, the following modernization strategies are recognized and discussed in Africa today: Westernizatio, Africanization, Chinezation, and Globalization. The evaluation of these policies is done with the civilization approach which is characterized by a big-picture view of the integration of society, culture (including religion), and infrastructure over a long period of time on a large territory. Furthermore, in the 21st century, global civilization are forming and penetrating contemporary civilizations such as: Western, Eastern, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, and African enforcing the development of large scale global businesses and capital. In such a context, should African Civilization follow the questionable policy of Westernization and Globalization? Or should it not follow these challenges and avoid the temptations of fast development and look rather towards the Africanization approach, which could make it last longer than the so called more modern, mentioned civilizations. These kinds of considerations are debated in this book.




Our Continent, Our Future


Book Description

Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.




Contemporary Issues in Africa's Development


Book Description

This volume reports on the state of crisis in Africa in the early twenty-first century. Africa, on the eve of the ‘independence revolution’, was the continent of hope and high expectations. By the third decade of independence, optimism had been replaced by dismality. African states had been beset by ethno-political squabbles, military rule, civil wars, Islamic and insurgent movements, extreme poverty and disease. With the ascent of redemocratization in the 1990s and of ‘new’ pan-Africanism derived from the formation of the African Union, Africa appeared set to claim its vaunted destiny. This book asks, with hindsight to the first decade of the twenty-first century: how real was the renaissance in African life? If the dismal African condition is a phase in the historical development of Africa, this volume does not see any golden age in the past to which Africa aspires to return. There is clearly a continuation and persistence of crisis, with an absence of good governance, personalisation of state power, widespread disease, and policy failure in education, economy and infrastructural development. Although endowed with abundant human and natural resources, Africa remains the least developed and most indebted continent. Whither then the African Renaissance? The methodologies that underpin the contributions in this book are as diverse as the specialisations of the contributors. The collection questions ideologically protected assumptions and presumptions, presenting Africa as it is, because it is only by knowing where Africa truly stands that a proper direction can be charted for it.




China and Africa


Book Description

The People's Republic of China once limited its involvement in African affairs to building an occasional railroad or port, supporting African liberation movements, and loudly proclaiming socialist solidarity with the downtrodden of the continent. Now Chinese diplomats and Chinese companies, both state-owned and private, along with an influx of Chinese workers, have spread throughout Africa. This shift is one of the most important geopolitical phenomena of our time. China and Africa: A Century of Engagement presents a comprehensive view of the relationship between this powerful Asian nation and the countries of Africa. This book, the first of its kind to be published since the 1970s, examines all facets of China's relationship with each of the fifty-four African nations. It reviews the history of China's relations with the continent, looking back past the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It looks at a broad range of areas that define this relationship—politics, trade, investment, foreign aid, military, security, and culture—providing a significant historical backdrop for each. David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman's study combines careful observation, meticulous data analysis, and detailed understanding gained through diplomatic experience and extensive travel in China and Africa. China and Africa demonstrates that while China's connection to Africa is different from that of Western nations, it is no less complex. Africans and Chinese are still developing their perceptions of each other, and these changing views have both positive and negative dimensions.




The Anthropology of Africa: Challenges for the 21st Century


Book Description

In 1999 (August 30 - September 2) the Pan African Anthropological Association (PAAA) marked the 10th anniversary of its creation by holding its 9th Annual Conference in Yaounde, Cameroon - the city and country of its birth. The conference, themed "The Anthropology of Africa: Challenges for the 21st Century", was attended by some seventy participants, mostly African. Among the international participants was Dr Sydel Silverman, President of the Wenner Gren Foundation at the time - a long term partner of the PAAA; she was present at the inaugural conference in 1988. The conference proceedings were initially published in 2000 with very limited circulation. Given the continued relevance of the papers presented, and in view of the call by the President of the PAAA for African anthropologists to reunite anthropological theory and practice in the teaching programmes of African universities, the PAAA is pleased to republish the proceedings of its landmark 9th Annual Conference. The book consists of forty three divided into eight parts, namely: i) teaching anthropology in the decades ahead; ii) Health Challenges: HIV/AIDS Anthropological Perspectives; iii) NGOS: Use and Misuse of Anthropology; iv) Anthropological Focus on Environment; v) Some Applied Issues in Anthropology; vi) The African Family in Crisis; vii) Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflicts; and viii) Population issues and anthropology: Fertility Crisis. Paul Nkwi concludes his introduction to the volume with these words: "The Anthropology of Africa will remain for a long time, fundamentally applied if it is to meet the challenges of the 21st Century."




Hip Hop Africa


Book Description

Hip Hop Africa explores a new generation of Africans who are not only consumers of global musical currents, but also active and creative participants. Eric Charry and an international group of contributors look carefully at youth culture and the explosion of hip hop in Africa, the embrace of other contemporary genres, including reggae, ragga, and gospel music, and the continued vitality of drumming. Covering Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa, this volume offers unique perspectives on the presence and development of hip hop and other music in Africa and their place in global music culture.




Africa


Book Description

Since the publication of the first edition of this book in 1977, Africa has established itself as the most popular introductory text for African studies courses in North America. This third edition has been completely revised and brought up to date since the 1986 edition, reflecting changes in African society and politics, and in the scholarship available on this vast and complex continent. Contents I. Introduction 1. Africa: Problems and Perspectives. Phyllis M. Martin and Patrick O'Meara 2. The Contemporary Map of Africa. Michael L. McNulty II. The African Past 3. Prehistoric Africa. Kathy D. Schick 4. Aspects of Early African History. John Lamphear and Toyin Falola 5. Islam and African Societies. John H. Hanson 6. Africa and Europe before 1900. Curtis A. Keim 7. The Colonial Era. Sheldon Gellar 8. Decolonization, Independence, and the Failure of Politics. Edmond J. Keller III. Society and Culture 9. Social Organization in Africa. John C. McCall 10. Economic Life in African Villages and Towns. Mahir Saul 11. African Systems of Thought. Ivan Karp 12. African Art. Patrick McNaughton and Diane Pelrine 13. African Music Performed. Ruth M. Stone 14. Popular Culture in Urban Africa. Dele Jegede 15. African Literature. Eileen Julien 16. Social Change in Contemporary Africa. Claire Robertson 17. Law and Society in Contemporary Africa. Takyiwaa Manuh IV. Economics and Politics 18. African Politics since Independence. N. Brian Winchester 19. Economic Change in Contemporary Africa. Sara Berry 20. The African Development Crisis. Richard Stryker and Stephen N. Ndegwa 21. South Africa. C. R. D. Halisi and Patrick O'Meara Africana Resources for Undergraduates: A Bibliographic Essay. Nancy J. Schmidt