Femi Osofisan. 2016. The Muse of Anomy: Essays on Literature and the Humanities in Nigeria. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. 297 pp. Nigerian literature has been haunted by the specter of identity politics in the last two decades. This crisis, materialized in the present desire of some writers to break free from Western gatekeepers and write for local audiences, is arguably best evident in the inability of scholars in the field to clearly delineate the imbrications of literary voices and temperaments across generations. For instance, some writers in Nigeria's so-called third-generation could easily fit into a contemporary epoch that boasts of writers such as Teju Cole, Chimamanda Adichie, and Lola Shoneyin producing authentic works that recall the poetics and styles of even much earlier generations dating back to Chinua Achebe. The reterritorialization of the literary imagination from (the University of) Ibadan to Freedom Park is a symptom to be probed, for it shows how a politics of space is mapped by the struggle between a romanticized cosmopolitanism of Ibadan and the emergent Afropolitan vibes from modern Lagos for a new literary identity for the country. Femi Osofisan's latest offering, The Muse of Anomy, is therefore a timely volume that facilitates that investigation as it eloquently frames the shift and continuities in Nigerian literary and cultural discourses through an intervention organized around storytelling and humor. Aside the brilliant juxtaposition of writers and generations as disparate as Amos Tutuola and Elnathan John, the book offers a rich melange of ideas that unsettles "an experience of life and history" defined by "unceasing anarchy" (p. 5). Beginning with an insightful, even if belabored, introduction, the text projects the critical musings of a Nigerian writer whose oeuvre, burdened with a neo-Marxist urgency, has been an essential articulation for the recentering of indigenous epistemologies, subaltern agency, and radical politics in Nigeria. In thirteen finely cathected chapters reproduced from several lectures and seminars, Osofisan charts the varied locations and relocations of Nigerian literature and performance traditions from the 1950s, with Ibadan positioned as the initial artistic hub from which a hermeneutic of cultural resistance and humanism was birthed in Nigerian literature. The author's reprobation of contemporary intellectual practice in Nigeria recalls the Gramscian notion of "organic intellectuals," describing scholars committed to winning the consent of the working-class to counter-hegemonic ideas and values. Precisely because of what Osofisan identifies as a parlous absence of such an intellectual body, committed to both a genuine intellectual culture and a radical commitment to knowledge and enquiry on behalf of non-dominant groups, he implicates Nigerian intellectuals in what he calls a tragic betrayal of the people. …
{"title":"Femi Osofisan. 2016. the Muse of Anomy: Essays on Literature and the Humanities in Nigeria","authors":"James Yékú","doi":"10.5860/choice.196318","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.196318","url":null,"abstract":"Femi Osofisan. 2016. The Muse of Anomy: Essays on Literature and the Humanities in Nigeria. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. 297 pp. Nigerian literature has been haunted by the specter of identity politics in the last two decades. This crisis, materialized in the present desire of some writers to break free from Western gatekeepers and write for local audiences, is arguably best evident in the inability of scholars in the field to clearly delineate the imbrications of literary voices and temperaments across generations. For instance, some writers in Nigeria's so-called third-generation could easily fit into a contemporary epoch that boasts of writers such as Teju Cole, Chimamanda Adichie, and Lola Shoneyin producing authentic works that recall the poetics and styles of even much earlier generations dating back to Chinua Achebe. The reterritorialization of the literary imagination from (the University of) Ibadan to Freedom Park is a symptom to be probed, for it shows how a politics of space is mapped by the struggle between a romanticized cosmopolitanism of Ibadan and the emergent Afropolitan vibes from modern Lagos for a new literary identity for the country. Femi Osofisan's latest offering, The Muse of Anomy, is therefore a timely volume that facilitates that investigation as it eloquently frames the shift and continuities in Nigerian literary and cultural discourses through an intervention organized around storytelling and humor. Aside the brilliant juxtaposition of writers and generations as disparate as Amos Tutuola and Elnathan John, the book offers a rich melange of ideas that unsettles \"an experience of life and history\" defined by \"unceasing anarchy\" (p. 5). Beginning with an insightful, even if belabored, introduction, the text projects the critical musings of a Nigerian writer whose oeuvre, burdened with a neo-Marxist urgency, has been an essential articulation for the recentering of indigenous epistemologies, subaltern agency, and radical politics in Nigeria. In thirteen finely cathected chapters reproduced from several lectures and seminars, Osofisan charts the varied locations and relocations of Nigerian literature and performance traditions from the 1950s, with Ibadan positioned as the initial artistic hub from which a hermeneutic of cultural resistance and humanism was birthed in Nigerian literature. The author's reprobation of contemporary intellectual practice in Nigeria recalls the Gramscian notion of \"organic intellectuals,\" describing scholars committed to winning the consent of the working-class to counter-hegemonic ideas and values. Precisely because of what Osofisan identifies as a parlous absence of such an intellectual body, committed to both a genuine intellectual culture and a radical commitment to knowledge and enquiry on behalf of non-dominant groups, he implicates Nigerian intellectuals in what he calls a tragic betrayal of the people. …","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"9 1","pages":"140"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87691126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kate Skinner. 2015. The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland: Literacy, Politics and Nationalism, 1914-2014. New York: Cambridge University Press. 298 pp. As Kate Skinner explains in The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland, few people have examined the ongoing consequences of the unification of British Togoland with Ghana. Although Skinner benefits from the work on Togolese integration that has developed since Dennis Austin's 1960s publications on the Ghana-Togo dispute, she disagrees with David Brown and Paul Nugent that the conflict surrounding Togoland's status died down in the 1970s (p. 169). This came as a revelation to Skinner following Ghana's National Reconciliation Commission in 2003-04 and Kosi Kedem's 2010 petition for Constitutional Review to redress the history of Togoland's integration. She argues that the way in which British Togoland was integrated into Ghana in 1957 had a long-term impact on the lives and careers of the men and women who campaigned against it. From interviews with former activists or their children, Skinner learned that the failure to achieve ablode, the Ewe term for "freedom," remained a source of resentment. During their campaign for freedom, British Togolese activists fought to maintain their status as a Trust Territory in order to address the United Nations directly to negotiate for joint independence with French Togoland. Skinner reveals that the struggle to reunite with the French territory had less to do with a shared ethno-linguistic Ewe identity, as the majority of Togoland did not identify with this language and ancestry. Instead, she considers how Togolese people imagined citizenship through their past, particularly experiences of infrastructural development and violence under German rule. Claiming this shared history with French Togoland, the British Togolese wanted to avoid becoming a small region in the larger independent Ghana. These first chapters also center on the pursuit of mass literacy in British Togoland during the 1930s and 1940s, decades after German colonization. Higher education was difficult to pursue in Togoland, as there were few schools outside of the major towns. Only the brightest students could find a place in a teaching college and continue their education. Skinner argues that teachers became political leaders in British Togoland because of their ability to translate and negotiate the demands of the British government and the Togolese people. Skinner shows in Chapter 4 how attention to the different layers of local, territorial, and international issues together led to a "political cosmopolitanism" among British Togolese teachers (p. …
{"title":"Kate Skinner. 2015. the Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland: Literacy, Politics and Nationalism, 1914-2014","authors":"Alison Okuda","doi":"10.5860/choice.194003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.194003","url":null,"abstract":"Kate Skinner. 2015. The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland: Literacy, Politics and Nationalism, 1914-2014. New York: Cambridge University Press. 298 pp. As Kate Skinner explains in The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland, few people have examined the ongoing consequences of the unification of British Togoland with Ghana. Although Skinner benefits from the work on Togolese integration that has developed since Dennis Austin's 1960s publications on the Ghana-Togo dispute, she disagrees with David Brown and Paul Nugent that the conflict surrounding Togoland's status died down in the 1970s (p. 169). This came as a revelation to Skinner following Ghana's National Reconciliation Commission in 2003-04 and Kosi Kedem's 2010 petition for Constitutional Review to redress the history of Togoland's integration. She argues that the way in which British Togoland was integrated into Ghana in 1957 had a long-term impact on the lives and careers of the men and women who campaigned against it. From interviews with former activists or their children, Skinner learned that the failure to achieve ablode, the Ewe term for \"freedom,\" remained a source of resentment. During their campaign for freedom, British Togolese activists fought to maintain their status as a Trust Territory in order to address the United Nations directly to negotiate for joint independence with French Togoland. Skinner reveals that the struggle to reunite with the French territory had less to do with a shared ethno-linguistic Ewe identity, as the majority of Togoland did not identify with this language and ancestry. Instead, she considers how Togolese people imagined citizenship through their past, particularly experiences of infrastructural development and violence under German rule. Claiming this shared history with French Togoland, the British Togolese wanted to avoid becoming a small region in the larger independent Ghana. These first chapters also center on the pursuit of mass literacy in British Togoland during the 1930s and 1940s, decades after German colonization. Higher education was difficult to pursue in Togoland, as there were few schools outside of the major towns. Only the brightest students could find a place in a teaching college and continue their education. Skinner argues that teachers became political leaders in British Togoland because of their ability to translate and negotiate the demands of the British government and the Togolese people. Skinner shows in Chapter 4 how attention to the different layers of local, territorial, and international issues together led to a \"political cosmopolitanism\" among British Togolese teachers (p. …","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"39 1","pages":"149"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79287366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Steven Friedman. 2015. Race, Class, and Power: Harold Wolpe and the Radical Critique of Apartheid. Scottsville, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. 368 pp. Steven Friedman's Race, Class, and Power: Harold Wolpe and the Radical Critique of Apartheid is an exquisitely well-written account of the intellectual debates that engulfed South Africa from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Friedman is a South African public intellectual, former journalist, trade unionist, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg. His book consists of twelve chapters, which can be divided into three broad thematic sections. The first is a biographical account of Harold Wolpe (1926-1996). Wolpe, a Jewish South African Marxist-inspired intellectual, was a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP). He famously escaped from a Johannesburg prison in 1963, sought refuge in Swaziland, and then fled to Britain, where he eventually taught at Essex University from 1975 until he returned to South Africa in 1990. The second part is a theoretical discussion of Wolpe's works and the debates it stimulated. The final portion situates Wolpe's writings within its political zeitgeist, and his attempts to construct a post-apartheid society. Friedman argues that Wolpe's texts, centered on reconciling class and labor, are important avenues to understand South African history. However, he cautions the reader against dismissing Wolpe's works as products and relics of infantile Marxism. Consequently, Friedman insists we rigorously apply the dialectical method between Marxist and non-Marxist thought to fathom and "transcend" the South African intellectual, political, and social realities (p. 277). In doing this, Friedman uses three methodological approaches. The first is grounded in interviews with Wolpe's colleagues--friends and foes--and students. The second is a deep engagement with Wolpe's texts and other scholars' works about Wolpe. Finally, Friedman uses Wolpe's numerous published materials to trace the evolution of Wolpe's intellectual positions, and its juxtaposition to his political activities and academic growth. In 1969, at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies (ICS) in London, Shula Marks, a well-respected South African Marxist historian, and Wolpe, established a seminar called "Societies of Southern Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." This seminar, according to Friedman, became a well-known "battleground" between Liberals and Marxists for interrogating each other's ideas and methods (p. 48). …
{"title":"Steven Friedman. 2015. Race, Class, and Power: Harold Wolpe and the Radical Critique of Apartheid","authors":"Nana Osei-Opare","doi":"10.5860/choice.191486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.191486","url":null,"abstract":"Steven Friedman. 2015. Race, Class, and Power: Harold Wolpe and the Radical Critique of Apartheid. Scottsville, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. 368 pp. Steven Friedman's Race, Class, and Power: Harold Wolpe and the Radical Critique of Apartheid is an exquisitely well-written account of the intellectual debates that engulfed South Africa from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Friedman is a South African public intellectual, former journalist, trade unionist, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg. His book consists of twelve chapters, which can be divided into three broad thematic sections. The first is a biographical account of Harold Wolpe (1926-1996). Wolpe, a Jewish South African Marxist-inspired intellectual, was a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP). He famously escaped from a Johannesburg prison in 1963, sought refuge in Swaziland, and then fled to Britain, where he eventually taught at Essex University from 1975 until he returned to South Africa in 1990. The second part is a theoretical discussion of Wolpe's works and the debates it stimulated. The final portion situates Wolpe's writings within its political zeitgeist, and his attempts to construct a post-apartheid society. Friedman argues that Wolpe's texts, centered on reconciling class and labor, are important avenues to understand South African history. However, he cautions the reader against dismissing Wolpe's works as products and relics of infantile Marxism. Consequently, Friedman insists we rigorously apply the dialectical method between Marxist and non-Marxist thought to fathom and \"transcend\" the South African intellectual, political, and social realities (p. 277). In doing this, Friedman uses three methodological approaches. The first is grounded in interviews with Wolpe's colleagues--friends and foes--and students. The second is a deep engagement with Wolpe's texts and other scholars' works about Wolpe. Finally, Friedman uses Wolpe's numerous published materials to trace the evolution of Wolpe's intellectual positions, and its juxtaposition to his political activities and academic growth. In 1969, at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies (ICS) in London, Shula Marks, a well-respected South African Marxist historian, and Wolpe, established a seminar called \"Societies of Southern Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.\" This seminar, according to Friedman, became a well-known \"battleground\" between Liberals and Marxists for interrogating each other's ideas and methods (p. 48). …","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"4 1","pages":"193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81436189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carol Anderson. 2015. Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960. New York: Cambridge University Press. 372 pp. Anderson's book makes an essential contribution to Black Studies and its relation with the African diaspora and Third World countries. She analyzes the most crucial African-American rights organization, the NAACP, perhaps in its most difficult time, that of the Cold War and civil rights era through revealing its anti-colonial politics, internal struggles, its place and role in the African-American movements, its approach regarding the USSR and communism, and its stance on international affairs. In her analysis of the NAACP's anti-colonial struggle, Anderson implies that the organization was controversial but also had an important and powerful role in the African-American community's internal struggle for civil rights, equality and in its desire of challenging colonialism. As the title "Bourgeois Radicals" indicates, Anderson aims to show that the NAACP in its anti-colonial approach was unique regarding not only similar American organizations but also several international organizations, and institutions. As a "bourgeois" organization its agenda on US politics was constituted through preservation of the civil rights politics framework, and it put distance between itself and communism and communist groups. Meanwhile as a "radical" group, it challenged Washington's Cold War politics, "Jim Crow structure," and colonial administrations through the UN, the media, various alliances, and supporters within the US administration. She chooses to use the term "NAACP's anti-colonialism." However, Anderson cannot be certain in elaborating the organization's success in its struggle against colonialism and its articulation of anti-colonialism. She acclaims that international relations and colonialism were "unfamiliar" (p. 57) for the organization and that it did not want to take the lead in the struggle for colonial liberation. Rather, the NAACP aimed to be cooperative (p. 60) but to Anderson its mission was "helping destroy colonialism"(p. 268). Moreover she argues that its anti-colonial campaign was coherent. She also wants to indicate that it had some difficult accomplishments (p. 202) like challenging colonial administrations, having allies "closely working with the NAACP on UN issue" (p. 191). However Anderson accepts that the NAACP lost its role, effects, and had a "stalemate" (p. 56) on colonial liberation struggles. Its confusion was mainly based on hesitancy of a potential link with the USSR and radicals, Cold War politics, and turbulent domestic politics like the Eisenhower era (p. 290). The book also indicates that Anderson's analysis of the NAACP's anticolonial struggle includes comparison among African-American movements, left wing, and progressive groups. She makes a distinction between the NAACP and these groups especially in terms of their approach to communism and relations with the Soviets. Ander
{"title":"Carol Anderson. 2015. Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960","authors":"Ceren Gurseler Ozbilgic, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş","doi":"10.1093/jahist/jav629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jav629","url":null,"abstract":"Carol Anderson. 2015. Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960. New York: Cambridge University Press. 372 pp. Anderson's book makes an essential contribution to Black Studies and its relation with the African diaspora and Third World countries. She analyzes the most crucial African-American rights organization, the NAACP, perhaps in its most difficult time, that of the Cold War and civil rights era through revealing its anti-colonial politics, internal struggles, its place and role in the African-American movements, its approach regarding the USSR and communism, and its stance on international affairs. In her analysis of the NAACP's anti-colonial struggle, Anderson implies that the organization was controversial but also had an important and powerful role in the African-American community's internal struggle for civil rights, equality and in its desire of challenging colonialism. As the title \"Bourgeois Radicals\" indicates, Anderson aims to show that the NAACP in its anti-colonial approach was unique regarding not only similar American organizations but also several international organizations, and institutions. As a \"bourgeois\" organization its agenda on US politics was constituted through preservation of the civil rights politics framework, and it put distance between itself and communism and communist groups. Meanwhile as a \"radical\" group, it challenged Washington's Cold War politics, \"Jim Crow structure,\" and colonial administrations through the UN, the media, various alliances, and supporters within the US administration. She chooses to use the term \"NAACP's anti-colonialism.\" However, Anderson cannot be certain in elaborating the organization's success in its struggle against colonialism and its articulation of anti-colonialism. She acclaims that international relations and colonialism were \"unfamiliar\" (p. 57) for the organization and that it did not want to take the lead in the struggle for colonial liberation. Rather, the NAACP aimed to be cooperative (p. 60) but to Anderson its mission was \"helping destroy colonialism\"(p. 268). Moreover she argues that its anti-colonial campaign was coherent. She also wants to indicate that it had some difficult accomplishments (p. 202) like challenging colonial administrations, having allies \"closely working with the NAACP on UN issue\" (p. 191). However Anderson accepts that the NAACP lost its role, effects, and had a \"stalemate\" (p. 56) on colonial liberation struggles. Its confusion was mainly based on hesitancy of a potential link with the USSR and radicals, Cold War politics, and turbulent domestic politics like the Eisenhower era (p. 290). The book also indicates that Anderson's analysis of the NAACP's anticolonial struggle includes comparison among African-American movements, left wing, and progressive groups. She makes a distinction between the NAACP and these groups especially in terms of their approach to communism and relations with the Soviets. Ander","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"10 1","pages":"177"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79082350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kurt Mills. 2015. International Responses to Mass Atrocities in Africa: Responsibility to Protect, Prosecute, and Palliate. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 302 pp. The question that the book strives to answer is a complex one: "How have, can, and should mass atrocities be addressed?" (p. 1). Hence, the book is simultaneously historical-empirical, analysing four interrelated cases of mass atrocities in Africa, exploratory, or analytical, seeking to determine the horizon of possible and feasible international responses, and normative, seeking to establish not only that the international community should do something but also what responses are desirable and when. As such, it is an important contribution to both the study of conflict in Africa and of global response strategies, such as responsibility to protect (R2P). The cases analysed in the volume are Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Darfur. There are apt reasons for selecting these particular cases. First of all, there are underlying causes for the conflicts in the areas under analysis: not only are they geographically linked but the factors creating instability in one place have directly or indirectly influenced atrocities elsewhere. Secondly, they are similar in terms of international responses or, to be more precise, the lack of an effective international solution. This international reaction manifested itself, and was deficient in different ways in all particular cases: the lack of willingness to acknowledge the gravity of the situation and thus act decisively in Rwanda, inability to adapt to the complexity of the situation in DRC, potential complications of pressing for international criminal justice in an ongoing conflict (Uganda), and the general unwillingness of the international community to confront national authorities (Darfur). They also show that some response strategies, like peace and justice, are not always commensurable (although the author also sets out in a quest for conditions when the two are not mutually exclusive, thus moving beyond the already well-trodden peace vs justice debate). And also the analysis reveals how the current multifaceted nature of response to mass atrocities can be counter-productive: a complex network of actors, which is part both of the solution and of the problem. Revealing this complicated network of interests, values, and actors is a significant achievement of the book. The author also aims to expand the concept of R2P by elaborating on the "P" part of it: in this book, it stands for not only "protect" but also "prosecute" and "palliate" (hence the book's subtitle), rewriting the standard formula from R2P to R2P3. …
{"title":"Kurt Mills. 2015. International Responses to Mass Atrocities in Africa: Responsibility to Protect, Prosecute, and Palliate","authors":"Ignas Kalpokas","doi":"10.5860/choice.194988","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.194988","url":null,"abstract":"Kurt Mills. 2015. International Responses to Mass Atrocities in Africa: Responsibility to Protect, Prosecute, and Palliate. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 302 pp. The question that the book strives to answer is a complex one: \"How have, can, and should mass atrocities be addressed?\" (p. 1). Hence, the book is simultaneously historical-empirical, analysing four interrelated cases of mass atrocities in Africa, exploratory, or analytical, seeking to determine the horizon of possible and feasible international responses, and normative, seeking to establish not only that the international community should do something but also what responses are desirable and when. As such, it is an important contribution to both the study of conflict in Africa and of global response strategies, such as responsibility to protect (R2P). The cases analysed in the volume are Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Darfur. There are apt reasons for selecting these particular cases. First of all, there are underlying causes for the conflicts in the areas under analysis: not only are they geographically linked but the factors creating instability in one place have directly or indirectly influenced atrocities elsewhere. Secondly, they are similar in terms of international responses or, to be more precise, the lack of an effective international solution. This international reaction manifested itself, and was deficient in different ways in all particular cases: the lack of willingness to acknowledge the gravity of the situation and thus act decisively in Rwanda, inability to adapt to the complexity of the situation in DRC, potential complications of pressing for international criminal justice in an ongoing conflict (Uganda), and the general unwillingness of the international community to confront national authorities (Darfur). They also show that some response strategies, like peace and justice, are not always commensurable (although the author also sets out in a quest for conditions when the two are not mutually exclusive, thus moving beyond the already well-trodden peace vs justice debate). And also the analysis reveals how the current multifaceted nature of response to mass atrocities can be counter-productive: a complex network of actors, which is part both of the solution and of the problem. Revealing this complicated network of interests, values, and actors is a significant achievement of the book. The author also aims to expand the concept of R2P by elaborating on the \"P\" part of it: in this book, it stands for not only \"protect\" but also \"prosecute\" and \"palliate\" (hence the book's subtitle), rewriting the standard formula from R2P to R2P3. …","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"25 1","pages":"207"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74054374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robert S. DuPlessis. 2016. The Material Atlantic: Clothing, Commerce, and Colonization in the Atlantic World, 1650-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 351 pp. Between the mid-seventeenth and the late eighteenth centuries European expansion and commerce were at their zenith. They gave shape to the early Atlantic world, a world of complex internal and external networks, which made it dynamic, diverse, enduring and ultimately global. These networks were involved in extensive cultural and population transfers and ruptures and set up new economies and societies. Following the construction of the Atlantic world, commercial trends, fabric consumption, and sartorial cultures appeared. Clothing was at the core of these diverse economic and socio-cultural phenomena. The Material Atlantic is primarily about these commercial patterns, their acquisition and uses. It looks into how men and women belonging to various ethnic, social, occupational, and class categories designed the apparel from all sorts of materials in a variety of geo-climatic, political, and socio-cultural environments, which offered opportunities for innovation and imposed stringent constraints at the same time. This engaging and profoundly documented account alters and extends the existing scholarship on globalization in the early modern period, the Atlantic world, and consumption. It depicts the fabrics and attire accessible to consumers, traces the methods and occasions of their acquisition, analyzes the meanings of their usages, and explicates the implications of these crucial developments on global textile industries before the advent of the factory system. These developments included large-scale enslavement, the proliferation of new and sourced goods, the alteration of consumer behavior and attitudes, and the assertion of social identities. Fabrics and garments became indeed the dominant interculturally exchanged consumer goods. Their economic significance was obvious, while their meaning was less so. Dress includes personal expression and social status and prestige. For that, it provokes a whole range of pictorial representations. The material Atlantic covered a vast geographical area stretching from the independent indigenous states of Cape Coast Castle on the West African Coast, Angola and neighboring kingdoms in West Central Africa, to Spanish Buenos Aires, Dutch Cape Town, the Southern district of French Caribbean Saint Domingue, British colonial Port Royal, and the continental North American French colonies of New Orleans, rural Louisiana, and Montreal. In this Atlantic, European rafficking, Catholic conversion, and colonization intermingled and thrived. …
{"title":"Robert S. DuPlessis. 2016. the Material Atlantic: Clothing, Commerce, and Colonization in the Atlantic World, 1650-1800","authors":"Adel Manai","doi":"10.5860/choice.195618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.195618","url":null,"abstract":"Robert S. DuPlessis. 2016. The Material Atlantic: Clothing, Commerce, and Colonization in the Atlantic World, 1650-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 351 pp. Between the mid-seventeenth and the late eighteenth centuries European expansion and commerce were at their zenith. They gave shape to the early Atlantic world, a world of complex internal and external networks, which made it dynamic, diverse, enduring and ultimately global. These networks were involved in extensive cultural and population transfers and ruptures and set up new economies and societies. Following the construction of the Atlantic world, commercial trends, fabric consumption, and sartorial cultures appeared. Clothing was at the core of these diverse economic and socio-cultural phenomena. The Material Atlantic is primarily about these commercial patterns, their acquisition and uses. It looks into how men and women belonging to various ethnic, social, occupational, and class categories designed the apparel from all sorts of materials in a variety of geo-climatic, political, and socio-cultural environments, which offered opportunities for innovation and imposed stringent constraints at the same time. This engaging and profoundly documented account alters and extends the existing scholarship on globalization in the early modern period, the Atlantic world, and consumption. It depicts the fabrics and attire accessible to consumers, traces the methods and occasions of their acquisition, analyzes the meanings of their usages, and explicates the implications of these crucial developments on global textile industries before the advent of the factory system. These developments included large-scale enslavement, the proliferation of new and sourced goods, the alteration of consumer behavior and attitudes, and the assertion of social identities. Fabrics and garments became indeed the dominant interculturally exchanged consumer goods. Their economic significance was obvious, while their meaning was less so. Dress includes personal expression and social status and prestige. For that, it provokes a whole range of pictorial representations. The material Atlantic covered a vast geographical area stretching from the independent indigenous states of Cape Coast Castle on the West African Coast, Angola and neighboring kingdoms in West Central Africa, to Spanish Buenos Aires, Dutch Cape Town, the Southern district of French Caribbean Saint Domingue, British colonial Port Royal, and the continental North American French colonies of New Orleans, rural Louisiana, and Montreal. In this Atlantic, European rafficking, Catholic conversion, and colonization intermingled and thrived. …","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"20 1","pages":"188"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89345924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"G. Bruce Strang, Editor. 2013. Collision of Empires: Italy's Invasion of Ethiopia and Its International Impact","authors":"K. Engelmann","doi":"10.1093/ahr/119.2.663b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/119.2.663b","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"108 1","pages":"123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87585121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ndongo S. Sylla. 2014. The Fair Trade Scandal: Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. 179 pp. In The Fair Trade Scandal, Ndongo S. Sylla persuasively argues that Fair Trade perpetuates the free trade system to which it claims to present an alternative, thereby helping the rich marketing Fair Trade rather than the poor. Chapter 1 discusses the inequalities in the global trade system in order to lay a foundation for the later exploration of Fair Trade. Though it is short, Sylla provides an effective overview of inequalities in both the results and processes of trade. International trade has resulted in primary resources specialization in developing countries, in turn leading to slow growth, low returns, high volatility, poor transmission of final prices to the producers, and high environmental costs. The biased processes involve developed countries promoting a liberalization they eschewed during their own development; they then hypocritically enforce this through tariff escalation (to dis-incentivize the processing of primary products) and through subsidies, tariff barriers, and non-tariff barriers to protect domestic industries. For those unfamiliar with trade, the chapter is a concise and sobering primer on a number of important topics like value chains, unequal exchange, tariffs, and subsidies. Chapter 2 contains a brief history of Fair Trade going back to solidarity trade in the post-World War II era. It also provides an introduction to major contemporary actors in Fair Trade. Unfortunately, the chapter suffers from its brevity, with the numerous acronyms and actors introduced in a short time becoming confusing by the end; it would have benefitted from an organizational chart or table. Chapter 3 discusses controversies surrounding Fair Trade. Sylla first establishes a historical context by discussing British abolitionism and varying interpretations of Adam Smith's views on free trade. Then, he presents three differing camps with unique critiques of Fair Trade, specifically proponents of neoliberalism, alterglobalism, and degrowth. The book takes a particularly harsh tone towards neoliberalism. For example, while noting that neoliberals rightly demand more thoroughness and transparency of Fair Trade proponents, Sylla goes on to write, "whatever the facts around Fair Trade, neoliberal critics have no intention of departing from free trade dogma. They delivered a verdict even before trying Fair Trade" (p. 72). Ultimately, Sylla notes all three camps approach "the issue of Fair Trade essentially from the point of view of rich countries," prompting the extensive discussion of the ineffectiveness of Fair Trade for poverty alleviation in Chapter 4 (p. …
ndonggo S. Sylla, 2014。公平贸易丑闻:推销贫困以使富人受益。在《公平贸易丑闻》一书中，Ndongo S. Sylla令人信服地认为，公平贸易延续了自由贸易体系，它声称提供了另一种选择，从而帮助富人而不是穷人推销公平贸易。第一章论述了全球贸易体系中的不平等现象，为后续探讨公平贸易奠定基础。虽然篇幅很短，但塞拉对贸易结果和过程中的不平等进行了有效的概述。国际贸易导致发展中国家的初级资源专业化，从而导致增长缓慢、回报低、波动大、最终价格难以传递给生产者以及环境成本高。有偏见的过程涉及发达国家推动他们在自身发展中回避的自由化;然后，他们虚伪地通过关税升级(抑制初级产品的加工)和补贴、关税壁垒和非关税壁垒来保护国内产业来实施这一政策。对于那些不熟悉贸易的人来说，这一章是关于价值链、不平等交换、关税和补贴等一些重要主题的简明而发人深省的入门。第二章简要介绍了公平贸易的历史，可以追溯到二战后的团结贸易。它也提供了一个主要的当代演员在公平贸易的介绍。不幸的是，这一章篇幅太短，在短时间内介绍的许多首字母缩略词和演员在最后变得令人困惑;它将受益于组织结构图或表格。第三章讨论了围绕公平贸易的争议。Sylla首先通过讨论英国的废奴主义和对亚当·斯密自由贸易观点的不同解释，建立了一个历史背景。然后，他提出了三个不同的阵营，对公平贸易提出了独特的批评，特别是新自由主义、另类全球主义和去增长的支持者。这本书对新自由主义采取了特别严厉的语气。例如，当注意到新自由主义者正确地要求公平贸易支持者更加彻底和透明时，Sylla继续写道，“无论围绕公平贸易的事实如何，新自由主义批评者都无意偏离自由贸易教条。”他们甚至在公平贸易审判之前就作出了判决”(第72页)。最后，Sylla指出，所有三个阵营都“基本上是从富裕国家的角度来看待公平贸易问题”，这促使第4章(. ...页)对公平贸易在扶贫方面的无效进行了广泛的讨论
{"title":"Ndongo S. Sylla. 2014. the Fair Trade Scandal: Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich","authors":"Brad Crofford","doi":"10.5860/choice.52-0968","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.52-0968","url":null,"abstract":"Ndongo S. Sylla. 2014. The Fair Trade Scandal: Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. 179 pp. In The Fair Trade Scandal, Ndongo S. Sylla persuasively argues that Fair Trade perpetuates the free trade system to which it claims to present an alternative, thereby helping the rich marketing Fair Trade rather than the poor. Chapter 1 discusses the inequalities in the global trade system in order to lay a foundation for the later exploration of Fair Trade. Though it is short, Sylla provides an effective overview of inequalities in both the results and processes of trade. International trade has resulted in primary resources specialization in developing countries, in turn leading to slow growth, low returns, high volatility, poor transmission of final prices to the producers, and high environmental costs. The biased processes involve developed countries promoting a liberalization they eschewed during their own development; they then hypocritically enforce this through tariff escalation (to dis-incentivize the processing of primary products) and through subsidies, tariff barriers, and non-tariff barriers to protect domestic industries. For those unfamiliar with trade, the chapter is a concise and sobering primer on a number of important topics like value chains, unequal exchange, tariffs, and subsidies. Chapter 2 contains a brief history of Fair Trade going back to solidarity trade in the post-World War II era. It also provides an introduction to major contemporary actors in Fair Trade. Unfortunately, the chapter suffers from its brevity, with the numerous acronyms and actors introduced in a short time becoming confusing by the end; it would have benefitted from an organizational chart or table. Chapter 3 discusses controversies surrounding Fair Trade. Sylla first establishes a historical context by discussing British abolitionism and varying interpretations of Adam Smith's views on free trade. Then, he presents three differing camps with unique critiques of Fair Trade, specifically proponents of neoliberalism, alterglobalism, and degrowth. The book takes a particularly harsh tone towards neoliberalism. For example, while noting that neoliberals rightly demand more thoroughness and transparency of Fair Trade proponents, Sylla goes on to write, \"whatever the facts around Fair Trade, neoliberal critics have no intention of departing from free trade dogma. They delivered a verdict even before trying Fair Trade\" (p. 72). Ultimately, Sylla notes all three camps approach \"the issue of Fair Trade essentially from the point of view of rich countries,\" prompting the extensive discussion of the ineffectiveness of Fair Trade for poverty alleviation in Chapter 4 (p. …","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"107 1","pages":"124"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77851550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Theatres of Struggle and the End of Apartheid","authors":"K. G. Fenio","doi":"10.5860/choice.42-5422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.42-5422","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74230059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
An analysis of the imagery on postage stamps suggests that regimes in Burkina Faso and Sudan have pursued very different strategies in representing the nation. Sudan's stamps focus on the political center and dominant elite (current regime, Khartoum politicians, and Arab and Islamic identity) while Burkina Faso's stamps focus on society (artists, multiple ethnic groups, and development). Sudan's stamps build an image of the nation as being about the northern-dominated regime in Khartoum (whether military or parliamentary); Burkina Faso's stamps project an image of the nation as multi-ethnic and development-oriented.
{"title":"Official Representations of the Nation: Comparing the Postage Stamps of Sudan and Burkina Faso","authors":"Michael Kevane","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.1115505","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.1115505","url":null,"abstract":"An analysis of the imagery on postage stamps suggests that regimes in Burkina Faso and Sudan have pursued very different strategies in representing the nation. Sudan's stamps focus on the political center and dominant elite (current regime, Khartoum politicians, and Arab and Islamic identity) while Burkina Faso's stamps focus on society (artists, multiple ethnic groups, and development). Sudan's stamps build an image of the nation as being about the northern-dominated regime in Khartoum (whether military or parliamentary); Burkina Faso's stamps project an image of the nation as multi-ethnic and development-oriented.","PeriodicalId":35848,"journal":{"name":"African Studies Quarterly","volume":"8 1","pages":"71-94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87555383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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