Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.22160/22035184/aras-2020-41-1/127-140
K. O. Onyijen
{"title":"Witchcraft as a Cultural Phenomenon: African Philosophy in Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to our Hillbrow","authors":"K. O. Onyijen","doi":"10.22160/22035184/aras-2020-41-1/127-140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/aras-2020-41-1/127-140","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49663020","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}
Pub Date : 2020-06-01DOI: 10.22160/22035184/aras-2020-41-1/49-69
Anne L. Bartlett
{"title":"Dismantling the ‘Deep State’ in Sudan","authors":"Anne L. Bartlett","doi":"10.22160/22035184/aras-2020-41-1/49-69","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/aras-2020-41-1/49-69","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47403456","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}
Pub Date : 2019-12-01DOI: 10.22160/22035184/aras-2019-40-2/154-161
{"title":"Book Reviews - Dag Hammarskjold, the United Nations and the Decolonisation of Africa; Australia and Africa: A New Friend from the South?; and Collective Amnesia","authors":"","doi":"10.22160/22035184/aras-2019-40-2/154-161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/aras-2019-40-2/154-161","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48361969","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}
Pub Date : 2019-12-01DOI: 10.22160/22035184/aras-2019-40-2/71-89
Dn Dagbanja
Can bilateral investment treaties (BITs) play any singular or distinctive role in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to African countries? This article analyses data on FDI flows to Ghana from countries with which it is a party in BITs and those with which it is not. The main finding is that most FDIs in Ghana come from countries with which it does not have BITs, meaning in effect that investments can be attracted without BITs. It also means that BITs do not play any statistically significant role in attracting FDI from Ghana’s contracting parties to BITs when compared to FDI inflows to Ghana from other countries. This evidence refutes the role of FDI attraction conventionally attributed to BITs. Based on the data analysed, BITs are not uniquely relevant for investment attraction to Ghana and, by extension, similarly placed African countries, which thus need to rethink both the importance they attach to BITs and whether FDI could be regulated based solely on municipal investment law. Introduction According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Investment treaty making has reached a turning point. The number of new international investment agreements (IIAs) concluded in 2017 (18) was the lowest since 1983. Moreover, for the first time, the number of effective treaty terminations outpaced the number of new IIAs. In contrast, negotiations for megaregional agreements maintained momentum, especially in Africa and Asia (UNCTAD 2018, p. xiii). The decline in the making of IIAs or investment treaties and a simultaneous increase in the termination of IIAs point to a rejection of the
{"title":"Can African Countries Attract Investments without Bilateral Investment Treaties? The Ghanaian Case","authors":"Dn Dagbanja","doi":"10.22160/22035184/aras-2019-40-2/71-89","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/aras-2019-40-2/71-89","url":null,"abstract":"Can bilateral investment treaties (BITs) play any singular or distinctive role in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to African countries? This article analyses data on FDI flows to Ghana from countries with which it is a party in BITs and those with which it is not. The main finding is that most FDIs in Ghana come from countries with which it does not have BITs, meaning in effect that investments can be attracted without BITs. It also means that BITs do not play any statistically significant role in attracting FDI from Ghana’s contracting parties to BITs when compared to FDI inflows to Ghana from other countries. This evidence refutes the role of FDI attraction conventionally attributed to BITs. Based on the data analysed, BITs are not uniquely relevant for investment attraction to Ghana and, by extension, similarly placed African countries, which thus need to rethink both the importance they attach to BITs and whether FDI could be regulated based solely on municipal investment law. Introduction According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Investment treaty making has reached a turning point. The number of new international investment agreements (IIAs) concluded in 2017 (18) was the lowest since 1983. Moreover, for the first time, the number of effective treaty terminations outpaced the number of new IIAs. In contrast, negotiations for megaregional agreements maintained momentum, especially in Africa and Asia (UNCTAD 2018, p. xiii). The decline in the making of IIAs or investment treaties and a simultaneous increase in the termination of IIAs point to a rejection of the","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47818964","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}
Pub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/3-7
G. Hawker
{"title":"Change, Continuity and Challenge in African Studies","authors":"G. Hawker","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/3-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/3-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42346905","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}
Pub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/81-100
Hyacinth Udah, Parlo Singh, Dorothee Hölscher, J. Cartmel
This article considers the nature of, and factors contributing to, experiences of vulnerability. It also explores some aspects of resilience among immigrants and refugees of black African background in South East Queensland, Australia. The findings indicate that an understanding of what influences immigrants and refugees to engage in activities to mitigate vulnerability can inform the development and implementation of targeted policies, including programs and interventions for successful settlement and integration.
{"title":"Experiences of vulnerability and sources of resilience among immigrants and refugees","authors":"Hyacinth Udah, Parlo Singh, Dorothee Hölscher, J. Cartmel","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/81-100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/81-100","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers the nature of, and factors contributing to, experiences of vulnerability. It also explores some aspects of resilience among immigrants and refugees of black African background in South East Queensland, Australia. The findings indicate that an understanding of what influences immigrants and refugees to engage in activities to mitigate vulnerability can inform the development and implementation of targeted policies, including programs and interventions for successful settlement and integration.","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47579884","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}
Pub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/115-124
P. Limb
The following talk, here slightly revised and updated, was presented to the Plenary Discussion on ‘African Studies in Australasia and New Zealand: The Future?’ at AFSAAP Annual Conference, Adelaide, 2017, chaired by Alec Thornton. Other contributions were ‘Trends in African Studies in Australia/New Zealand’ by Tanya Lyons and Wanda Warlik; discussants were Tony Binns, University of Otago, and Geoffrey Hawker, Macquarie University. Further short contributions around this broad theme are welcome to editor@afsaap.org.au
{"title":"African Studies in Australasia: Comparative Trends in the U.S. and Europe","authors":"P. Limb","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/115-124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/115-124","url":null,"abstract":"The following talk, here slightly revised and updated, was presented to the Plenary Discussion on ‘African Studies in Australasia and New Zealand: The Future?’ at AFSAAP Annual Conference, Adelaide, 2017, chaired by Alec Thornton. Other contributions were ‘Trends in African Studies in Australia/New Zealand’ by Tanya Lyons and Wanda Warlik; discussants were Tony Binns, University of Otago, and Geoffrey Hawker, Macquarie University. Further short contributions around this broad theme are welcome to editor@afsaap.org.au","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43512280","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}
Pub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/12-30
Kirsty Wissing
This article explores Akwamu understandings of the Volta and other rivers in Ghana - valued for their life-giving qualities - when they become the opposite: the cause of death by drowning. By engaging with customary ideas of the environment as an active player, influenced by deities, I seek to map local Akwamu perspectives of the environment as justice onto international models that posit the environment in need of justice and guardianship through human management. Akwamu traditional authorities have described river environments as a fair and unbiased avenue through which to resolve disputes. By dwelling on drowning, I explore Akwamu and broader Akan notions of 'good' or 'natural' compared to 'bad' or 'unnatural' deaths, the latter thought to reflect human-environment and inter-human social breakdown as well as the moral worth of the drowned victim. Through customary ritual practices, traditional representatives separate the Akwamu state, or society, from an individual's bad, watery death and restore human-environment and inter-human order in social life on land. Stir the waters, however, and Akwamu understandings of rivers highlight a hierarchy in human-environment relations as well as undercurrents of power between humans. By analysing beliefs, interpretations, and ritual behaviours in response to drowning, I reconceptualise Akwamu dynamics of power in reflections on environments as justice.
{"title":"Environment as Justice: Interpreting the State(s) of Drowning and Undercurrents of Power in Ghana","authors":"Kirsty Wissing","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/12-30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/12-30","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores Akwamu understandings of the Volta and other rivers in Ghana - valued for their life-giving qualities - when they become the opposite: the cause of death by drowning. By engaging with customary ideas of the environment as an active player, influenced by deities, I seek to map local Akwamu perspectives of the environment as justice onto international models that posit the environment in need of justice and guardianship through human management. Akwamu traditional authorities have described river environments as a fair and unbiased avenue through which to resolve disputes. By dwelling on drowning, I explore Akwamu and broader Akan notions of 'good' or 'natural' compared to 'bad' or 'unnatural' deaths, the latter thought to reflect human-environment and inter-human social breakdown as well as the moral worth of the drowned victim. Through customary ritual practices, traditional representatives separate the Akwamu state, or society, from an individual's bad, watery death and restore human-environment and inter-human order in social life on land. Stir the waters, however, and Akwamu understandings of rivers highlight a hierarchy in human-environment relations as well as undercurrents of power between humans. By analysing beliefs, interpretations, and ritual behaviours in response to drowning, I reconceptualise Akwamu dynamics of power in reflections on environments as justice.","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42609911","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}
Pub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/111-114
Anthony Hevron, M. Crowley
China has a long historical connection to the African continent. In recent years, that relationship has been changed with economic transactions and transfers of wealth on an unprecedented scale. Consider for example the $4 billion invested in the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway and various hydro-power projects with a combined value of more than $220 billion (See also Shinn 2012).1 China has a vast supply of funding, and Africa has a deep need of development funds. However, possession of resources and need is not one sided. Africa has an abundance of undeveloped resources including fuels such as oil, uranium, minerals and metals such as copper, gold or lithium, and foods. China needs access to these resources to continue its economic reinvention and development. Each side can benefit, but there are concerns in such relationships, particularly for the less developed side. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Africa has been easing in recent years as an uncertain international economy leads investors to prefer reduced risk (Ernst & Young 2017). Investment, unlike trade, locks the parties together over a period of time and the thing that locks them together is debt. The majority of FDI funds move from and to developed economies with established legal systems and economic governance. Africa is a continent with many economies, a few of which attract most of the FDI that comes to Africa. Egypt, South Africa, Morocco and Nigeria take the bulk of the FDI funds. Though there are large sums of FDI going to Africa, mostly from developed and established partners such as the United States and Europe, strongest growth is in FDI funds coming from China (Ernst & Young 2017),
{"title":"Commentary: China and Africa","authors":"Anthony Hevron, M. Crowley","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/111-114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2019-40-1/111-114","url":null,"abstract":"China has a long historical connection to the African continent. In recent years, that relationship has been changed with economic transactions and transfers of wealth on an unprecedented scale. Consider for example the $4 billion invested in the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway and various hydro-power projects with a combined value of more than $220 billion (See also Shinn 2012).1 China has a vast supply of funding, and Africa has a deep need of development funds. However, possession of resources and need is not one sided. Africa has an abundance of undeveloped resources including fuels such as oil, uranium, minerals and metals such as copper, gold or lithium, and foods. China needs access to these resources to continue its economic reinvention and development. Each side can benefit, but there are concerns in such relationships, particularly for the less developed side. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Africa has been easing in recent years as an uncertain international economy leads investors to prefer reduced risk (Ernst & Young 2017). Investment, unlike trade, locks the parties together over a period of time and the thing that locks them together is debt. The majority of FDI funds move from and to developed economies with established legal systems and economic governance. Africa is a continent with many economies, a few of which attract most of the FDI that comes to Africa. Egypt, South Africa, Morocco and Nigeria take the bulk of the FDI funds. Though there are large sums of FDI going to Africa, mostly from developed and established partners such as the United States and Europe, strongest growth is in FDI funds coming from China (Ernst & Young 2017),","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43466334","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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