Bøger udgivet af CODESRIA

In Francophone West Africa, the times between 1988 and 1996 can be compared - in terms of their significance for politics and democracy, and the magnitude of social forces mobilised - with the years of anti-colonial struggle between 1945 and 1960. Three decades of state-party monopolies of national, economic and social development gave way to popular movements and widespread re-participation in the running of public affairs. Coalitions of social movements were formed, federalised; and then dispersed. Their dispersal however did not render the democratic stakes any less urgent. This book identifies that the present difficulty is to move beyond notions of democracy conceived to suit any circumstances of discourse, to a more concrete definition, and a mobilising democratic process. It further argues that what is at stake for democracy stretches well beyond the parameters styled by governments; and encompasses for example conditions of reproduction of West African societies. The author presents a two-pronged analysis: first of the democratic discourse eg definitions, concepts, frameworks of analysis, academic and popular discourse; and second of democratic spaces, vehicles and institutions. The book urges throughout that the narrative of West African political history of the last decade be instated within the context of the long period of emancipation struggles. (In French)

This volume considers the introduction, adoption and and utilisation of ICTs at community level in Africa; and explores the question of community participation in ICTs in various geographical, technological, socio-economic, cultural and institutional contexts. It assesses in some detail how communities in sub-Saharan Africa have responded to changes following the introduction of these technologies, discussing the opportunities and challenges they present for political and community development.

The second in this series of studies on the state and status of ICTs in a development context in Africa examines the setting, operations and impacts of community telecentres. It describes the telecentres of a variety of local, and often rural communities, exploring the management structures and mechanisms that have been established to support them. The book profiles telecentre usage and discusses the potential and challenges of developing and maintaining community telecentres given poor information structures and limited human capacity. It further considers questions of universal and public access and progress thus far, towards achieving these goals.

Gender based violence is alarmingly widespread across cultures. Research is in its initial stages in Africa, with few statistics and resources. There is, too, little relevant legislation. This selection ofpapers from the 1997 CODESRIA Gender Institute gathering which included participants from eight African countries. The six contributors highlight how universal attitudes of male dominance and patriarchy can literally engender aculture of violence in which women and children are the victims. Case studies from East and West Africa are included.

This is the first title in a new series Interventions, a strategic initiative by CODESRIA, aimed at promoting the research output of the younger generation of academics and scholars in Africa, and encouraging the exchange of ideas and experiences between young researchers about African issues. The series intends to create an opportunity for a younger generation of Africans, which is of key demographic importance, to become more engaged in public and/or academic debates about the future of their continent.

Driven by different actors evolving between both a structured framework and a relative autonomy, music in Senegal is based on different logics and dimensions. The musical industry is impacted by entrenched socio-cultural and socio-economic mutations defined by a problematic co-habitation between "informal music" and the process of "formalization" itself. As a result, the only alternative left to the growing musical industry is to structure itself within a formal framework, leading instantly to issues of copyright and royalty settlements, their implementation. Concurrently, the state's policies toward culture along with the linkages between the musical sphere and politics, which are based on various modalities, are also put under review. This study attempts to pose a certain number of questions and ultimately presents itself as an invitation to reflection and action.Saliou Ndour holds a Ph.D in Sociology and teaches at the University Gaston Berger in Saint Louis, Senegal. He is a specialist in cultural industries in Africa and has written several articles which he presented in Africa, Europe and Canada. Ndour wears different hats in the musical industry, among which are as Manager of a group called Black Masters of Kaolack, Adviser to several bands, former President of the AMS section of Saint Louis, Representative of Escalier F in Senegal (a Canadian organisation) and President of Afrique Chante Afrique (ACApella).

This monograph highlights the necessity for taking preventive measures in the form of peace-building as a sustainable and long-term solution to conflicts in West Africa, with a special focus on the Mano River Union countries. Apart from the Mano River Union countries, efforts at resolving other conflicts in say, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, C?te d'Ivoire and Nigeria, have suffered from a lack of attention on the post-conflict imperatives of building peace in order to ensure that sustainable peace is achieved. Given the often intractable and inter-related nature of conflicts in this region, it argues for the need to revisit the existing mechanisms of conflict resolution in the sub-region with a view to canvassing a stronger case for stakeholders towards adopting the peace-building strategy as a more practical and sustainable way of avoiding wars in the sub-region. Peace-building in consonance with its infrastructure is a more sustainable approach to ensuring regional peace and stability and, therefore, ensuring development for the peoples of West Africa. Dr Osita Agbu is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos. His areas of specialization include Peace and Conflict studies, Governance and Democratization and Technology and Development. He was until recently, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies, Chiba, Japan.

The papers in the collection are divided into two main areas: nation building and regional integration: problems and prospects; and the 'weird wind of democratisation and governance'. Some examples of topics covered are: the effects of the foreign debt burden on saving ratios in the CEMAC Zone; the Nepad initiative as a basis for fostering economic recovery in the CEMAC Zone; foreign states' elites and the DRC conflicts 1997- 2002; traumas, memories and 'modern' politics in Central Africa; and human rights abuses in the Central Africa sub-region: the case of children.

The contributors explore different dimensions of the challenges confronting the countries of the sub-region, lending particular emphasis to historiography and the nationalist legacy. They stress the centrality of the role of the intellectual community, language policy and the management of diversity and multilingualism in the strengthening and restoration of popular democratic participation and state and policy processes. At the heart of the debate are the quest for an all-round project of regionalisation and renewal and the ideals of autonomous development and social justice. Contents: the rise, the fall and the insurrection of nationalism in Africa; intellectuals and Africa's renewal; language and regional integration: foreign or African languages for the Africa Union?; language and the east African parliament; ethnicity: an opportunity or a bane in Africa's development?; ethno-centralism and movement politics in Uganda; and intellectuals and soldiers: the socialist experiment in Africa.

Volume three in the series on ICTs for development in Africa documents the processes used and institutions created to bring computers and connectivity into schools. These initiatives are designed as a means to improve the use and integration of ICTs into learning and teaching, and ultimately to empower African communities to apply new information and communication technologies to their own social and economic development. The study explores a range of project, administrative and cultural settings and a wide variety of technical solutions.

The wave of democratization on the African continent and the political changes afoot since the 1980s have led to greater participation of women in the public domain, and women have developed strategies to attain certain financial autonomy in the private sphere. However in both the public and privates spheres, gender relations are still characterized by discrimination. These essays in both French and English present strategies to encourage the participation of women in the public domain; and demonstrate the increasing importance of gender questions amongst young African researchers.

At the 11th General Assembly of CODESRIA, which was held in Maputo in December 2005, Adame Ba Konaré presented the Leopold Sedar Senghor Lecture, casting her historian eye on democracy and its values. Konaré calls for the enshrinement of democracy in Africa, where citizens are free to participate responsibly in decision-making on matters of common interest, and in ways that simply do not mimic externally induced notions or reflect unquestioningly the will of Heads of State.

In this endnote address delivered at the 11th General Assembly of CODESRIA, held in Maputo in 2005, Sundaram notes that over three decades of economic stagnation, contraction and increased poverty have taken a huge toll on Africa's economic, social and political fabric; and pro-active efforts are urgently required in order to build new capacities and capabilities for development. He argues that much of the ostensible conventional wisdom regarding African development and poverty is often both erroneous and harmful; and calls for greater 'policy space' for African governments to choose or design their own development strategies, as well as implement more appropriate development policies. (This dual language edition is in both English and French).

Reason is not the monopoly of any particular group or culture. It is a universal human quality. Nevertheless, it should be recognised that reason manifests itself differently from one culture to another. Do we therefore admit that these forms are distinctly plural or should we, on the contrary, recognise the possibility of a meeting and, if need be, of an ordered confrontation that would guarantee, beyond this obvious diversity, a unity of human reason?This book with contributions in both English and French is the result of a debate on this question, during a conference co-organised by UNESCO and the 'Centre Africain des Hautes Etudes de Porto-Novo' on the theme 'The Meeting of Rationalities' held in Porto-Novo in Benin in September 2002, during the 26th General Assembly of the International Board of Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPH). Several well-known researchers participated in that debate, amongst whom Richard Rorty (United States), Meinrad Hebga (Cameroon), Harris Memel-Fotê (Côte d'Ivoire), and more than seventy philosophers, historians, anthropologists, literary critics, and psychoanalysts from various countries.Paulin J. Hountondji is a Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Benin Republic, joint-laureate of Mohamed El Fasi 2004 prize. He is the Director of the African Centre of Higher Education in Porto-Novo. The American version of his book « philosophie africaine » : critique de l'ethnophilosophie (Paris, Maspero 1976) (African philosophy, Myth and Reality, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1983) was awarded the Herskovits Prize in 1984. The book is part of the 100 best African books of the 20th century selected in Accra in the year 2000. Hountondji has recently published The Struggle for Meaning: Reflections on Philosophy, Culture and Democracy in Africa (Ohio University Press, 2002) and edited several publications, including Endogenous Knowledge: Research Trails, (Dakar: CODESRIA, 1997). Paulin J. Hountondji has served as the Vice-President of the International Board of Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPH) and also of CODESRIA.

What does it mean to be an African writer or a Francophone African writer at the beginning of the twenty first century? How are history, time and the body represented in contemporary Francophone African fiction? How are authors working with, changing and subverting the French language? How is 'Africa' represented in the literary imagination? What discourses on Africa arise from literary texts? This study takes stock of Francophone African literary production at the end of the twentieth century, proposing that the literatures are characterised by a remarkable vitality and diversity. The work also introduces the new literary texts of the 1980s and 1990s, which have enriched world literature, and considers how new subjects and thematic continuities are giving rise to changing critical approaches and methodologies. (In French)

In trying to fathom the present crisis in the DRC, Mamdani's study concentrates on the Great Lakes region, particularly the region of Kivu and the Kiyarwanda-speaking population. These people were historically divided into three major groups - the Banyamulenge, the Banyamasisi, and the Banyaruchuru, popularly know as Hutu and Tutsi. The author situates the crisis within the context of local and foreign interests and division, primarly within the context of post- genocide Rwanda, and the citizenship crisis - civic and ethnic - in Kivu. He then presents a programme of action - local and international - for Rwanda and Kivu. For Rwanda, he urges global responsibility, which means coming to terms with the genocide in Rwanda; and a course of action which balances justice, democracy, and reconciliation. For Kivu he sets forth a full research agenda on the crisis of state in the DRC. Mahmood Mamdani is a distinguished professor of anthropology and has published widely on conflict, human rights, the legacy of colonialism and African Studies.

This study argues that the market fundamentalist approach to economics, promoted by most of the industrialised countries and the Bretton Woods institutions, actually increases the vulnerabilities of small and poor countries, exposing them to financial crises. It argues that claims that global growth and equity would best be served through deeper financial integration are founded on weak theoretical and empirical premises. It shows how economic liberalisation in poor countries with weak and underdeveloped markets and institutions, with no welfare support systems, brings few benefits, and simply exacerbates poverty. The co- authors fear the impacts may be permanent, as current trends indicate deep poverty will be confined within defined geographical boundaries, leading to a ever-widening gap between rich and poor.

It has often been argued that the concept of human rights is an artefact of modern Western civilisation, that human rights in the South are privileges conferred. These approaches have taken little cognisance of the place accorded to the societal rights held in such esteem as complementary to individual rights in traditional African society. In contrast, this study argues that human rights in Africa are as much about the dignity of Africans as about the commitments of others towards them. It argues for a critical defence of universal human rights within a multicultural framework. From historical perspectives, it illustrates how the slave trade, and then colonialism undermined the traditional balance of individual and societal rights.

The second in this series of studies on the state and status of ICTs in a development context in Africa examines the setting, operations and impacts of community telecentres. It describes the telecentres of a variety of local, and often rural communities, exploring the management structures and mechanisms that have been established to support them. The book profiles telecentre usage and discusses the potential and challenges of developing and maintaining community telecentres given poor information structures and limited human capacity. It further considers questions of universal and public access and progress thus far, towards achieving these goals.