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- Eriksson Baaz, Maria, 1971, et al.
(författare)
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Same and other : negotiating African identity in cultural production
- 2001
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The idea of African Otherness has occupied a central role in discourses on cultural production in Africa, whether film, literature, music or the arts. These claims, articulated both by 'Western' and 'African' critics and consumers, means that particular criteria and standards are adopted in relation to cultural production in Africa. The claim to African Otherness is gaining new strength in the wake of globalisation, but it is also increasingly challenged by a number of contemporary artists. This book deals with the question of relevance and meaning of the signifier in various fields of contemporary cultural production in Africa: literature, film, sculpture, music, popular drama.
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| 2. |
- Schlyter, Ann, 1943
(författare)
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Multi-habitation : urban housing and everyday life in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe
- 2003
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a study of everyday life and the quality of living in a poor neighbourhood of Chitungwiza, an independent Zimbabwean town about thirty kilometres south of Harare city centre. In the official view, this is a home-ownership neighbourhood. However, there are usually many families living in multi-habitation on each property, and lodgers outnumber owners. Within a restricted area people have to negotiate over, and adapt their use of space. Their ability to do so differs, depending on whether they are owners, tenants or lodgers, women or men, children, adults or elderly, and whether they are gainfully employed or not. The outcome of these negotiations and adaptations decisively affects their feeling of being at home in the house and the neighbourhood. The histories told by the people who are given voice in this report point to housing as highly significant in their coping with poverty, and to multi-habitation as affecting their agency as urban citizens.
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| 3. |
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Att studera Afrika : vägar till källorna
- 2004. - Ny omarb.
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Att studera Afrika är en guide till Afrikastudier inom främst det samhällsvetenskapliga området. Både tryckta och Internet-baserade källor behandlas i denna nya, grundligt uppdaterade upplaga. Boken ger praktisk vägledning till handböcker, databaser, kartor, statistik och en rad andra hjälpmedel för litteratur- och fakta-sökning. Dessutom finns fylliga introduktioner till litteraturen inom några för Afrikastudier centrala ämnesområden: politik, ekonomi, historia, antropologi, geografi och utbildningsfrågor. I första hand riktar sig boken till studerande och forskare, men även lärare, journalister och bibliotekarier med flera har nytta av den. Bidragen är skrivna av bibliotekarier och forskare med lång erfarenhet av det moderna Afrika: Kristina Rylander (red.), Tore Linné Eriksen, Ingemar Gustafsson, Katarina Hjortsäter, Birgitte Jansen, Peter Kinlund, Christer Krokfors, António Lourenço, Åsa Lund Moberg och Knut G. Nustad.
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| 5. |
- Negash, Tekeste
(författare)
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Education in Ethiopia : from crisis to the brink of collapse
- 2006
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main focus of the study is the deepening crisis of the Ethiopian education system. This study reconstructs the growth of the crisis of the sector during the last four decades. It then discusses the implications of the crisis in terms of communication breakdown; absence of analytical capacity at system level; the fragmentation of society; loss of political legitimacy and perpetuation of authoritarian power. Although the education sector has greatly expanded its mpact on poverty alleviation has so far been insignificant. The poverty landscape has changed to the worse during the last fifty years. This is largely due to the fact that the Ethiopian education system is based on false premises. At the centre of the crisis is the use of English as medium of instruction. The proficiency in English is so low that its continued use as a medium of instruction can only lead to the collapse of the education system. The study argues that it is only through language (readily understood and practised) that collective life and the world can be interpreted in an integrated manner. The replacement of English by Ethiopian languages all the way from the primary to tertiary levels is one of the factors that could strengthen the survival potential of the Ethiopian political community. The study is relevant for policy makers and students of development studies on the role of education in social change in Africa south of the Sahara.
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| 6. |
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A democracy of chameleons : politics and culture in the New Malawi
- 2002
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- After thirty years of autocratic rule under ”Life President” Kamuzu Banda, Malawians experienced a transition to multiparty democracy in 1994. A new constitution and several democratic institutions promised a new dawn in a country ravaged by poverty and injustice.This book presents original research on the economic, social, political and cultural consequences of the new era. The book engages with a culture of politics in order to expand the purview of critical analysis from the elite to the populace in its full diversity. A new generation of scholars, most of them from Malawi, cover virtually every issue causing debate in the New Malawi: poverty and hunger, the plight of civil servants, the role of the judiciary, political intolerance and hate speech, popular music as a form of protest, clergy activism, voluntary associations and ethnic revival, responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and controversies over women’s rights. Both chameleon-like leaders and the donors of Malawi’s foreign aid come under critical scrutiny for supporting superficial democratization.The book ends with a rare public statement on the New Malawi by Jack Mapanje, Malawi’s internationally acclaimed writer. Dismayed at the continuation of an ”oral culture of dictatorship”, Mapanje urges Malawians to confront their past in order to have a future that is free from fear and intolerance.Anyone interested in politics and culture in sub-Saharan Africa will find this book an important source of insight and detailed analysis for a comparative understanding of Africa’s democratization.
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| 8. |
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Afro-regions : the dynamics of cross-border micro-regionalism in Africa
- 2008
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This collection focuses on the making and unmaking of cross-border micro-regions in Africa. Its main emphasis is that micro-regions are not givens, but are constructed and reconstructed through social practice, political economy and, in discourse, by a variety of states, corporations and non-state actors. The region-builders are the focus -- that is, those actors that build and make micro-regions and their associated region-building strategies. Key research questions are: for whom, for what purpose and with what consequences are micro-regions being made and unmade? There is also special emphasis on how people on the ground and local communities create their own region-building strategies and how they respond to the region-building strategies of others. The case studies -- by leading scholars of African studies and the result of extensive fieldwork -- include a wide selection of micro-regions all over Africa, such as the Maputo Development Corridor, the Zambezi Valley region, the Zambia-Malawi-Mozambique Growth Triangle, Walvis Bay, the Sierra Leone-Liberia border zone, cross-border micro-regions on the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes region, North Africa, and so forth.
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| 9. |
- Agbu, Osita
(författare)
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Ethnic militias and the threat to democracy in post-transition Nigeria
- 2004
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Rapport (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- The democratic opening presented by Nigeria’s successful transition to civil rule (June 1998 to May 1999) unleashed a host of hitherto repressed or dormant political forces. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate between genuine demands by these forces on the state and outright criminality and mayhem. Post-transition Nigeria is experiencing the proliferation of ethnic militia movements purportedly representing, and seeking to protect, their ethnic interests in a country, which appears incapable of providing the basic welfare needs of its citizens. It is against the background of collective disenchantment with the Nigerian state, and the resurgence of ethnic identity politics that this research interrogates the growing challenge posed by ethnic militias to the Nigerian democracy project. The central thesis is that the over-centralization of power in Nigeria’s federal practice and the failure of post-transitional politics in genuinely addressing the “National Question, has resulted in the emergence of ethnic militias as a specific response to state incapacity. The short- and long-term threats posed by this development to Nigeria’s fragile democracy are real, and justify the call for a National Conference that will comprehensively address the demands of the ethnic nationalities.
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| 10. |
- Chitando, Ezra
(författare)
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Singing culture : a study of gospel music in Zimbabwe
- 2002
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study examines the historical development, social, political and economic significance of gospel music in Zimbabwe. It approaches music with Christian theological ideas and popular appeal as a cultural phenomenon with manifold implications. Applying a history of religions approach to the study of a widespread religious phenomenon, the study seeks to link religious studies with popular culture. It argues that gospel music represents a valuable entry point into a discussion of contemporary African cultural production. Gospel music successfully blends the musical traditions of Zimbabwe, influences from other African countries, and musical styles from other parts of the world.Through the application of multiple methodological lenses, the study sets out to describe, analyse and interpret gospel music in Zimbabwe during the 1990s. It outlines the historical development of popular music in Zimbabwe, alongside locating the emergence of gospel music in the politically and economically challenging 1990s. The report captures the impact of Christianity on music performances, highlights the various groups of cultural workers who have derived opportunities from gospel music and undertakes an analysis of the context in which gospel music was able to thrive. Through an examination of dominant themes in Zimbabwean gospel music and its creative appropriation of various musical styles, the study illustrates the complexity underlying contemporary African artistic products.This study also seeks to bring to the fore the long-standing issue of the relationship between Christianity and African culture. Although many African theologians, nationalists, missiologists, Non-Governmental Organisation activists and other practitioners have proffered valuable insights, in most instances their efforts have been vitiated by a preoccupation with a frozen view of African culture. Many writers have tended to view African culture as a relic from some glorious past. Although this may please avid cultural nationalists, it obfuscates the inherently adaptive nature of African, and indeed of any other, culture. Consequently, in this study the focus is on gospel music as an integral part of contemporary African culture. By examining gospel music texts, performances by artists and audiences at gospel concerts and television presentations, the study contributes to the discourses on religion and public spaces. The report also brings to the fore the neglected theme of music and the construction of religious and other identities.
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