African Realities

African Realities: Body, Culture and Social Tensions is the result of research anthropology work carried out in different African countries, mainly in Equatorial Guinea, but also in Senegal, Cabo Verde, Benin and Ethiopia. All the different chapters of this volume address a diversity of subjects related to relevant issues, such as gender, age, social class, ethnicity and coloniality, which are indispensable for understanding current African realities. Furthermore, all of these chapters investigate the importance people place on the body and, more concretely, the manner in which these people present it to others as a common denominator. After a brief theoretical introduction about the key concept of the book – the social presentation of the body – the contributors analyse the results of their own fieldwork, taking as a starting point the central role that the body plays in the relationship between the individual and society. As is clearly shown in this book, the social presentation of the body matters. From a general and structural point of view it matters because of its great significance within social logics, but it also matters because of its relevant role in situational dynamics of social interaction, and because of its close relationship with the emotional registers of individuals. If the issue related to the social presentation of the body has an undoubted interest for the academic milieu, it is also true that it has great social relevance and constitutes an undeniable political concern. The policies related to the social presentation of the body serve to mark, justify, maintain or even build hierarchical relationships of social order, at the level of class, gender, ethnicity or age. Throughout the book, and from the African studies perspective, different views are offered concerning how the body, being not only medium of expression, but at the same time a site of experience and construction of the self, appears in the centre of social tensions and is an object of strategy, control or resistance.

A contribution to the rapidly developing field of Afrocentric studies, this book is a thoughtful critique of Eurocentric traditions of social and historical analysis - principally Marxist and liberal orientations - and an argument in favour of studying African history and culture from a specifically Afrocentric point of view.

Robinson Mwaakwe Nabulyato (1916-2004) was one of the fathers of African nationalism in colonial Zambia and the longest serving Speaker of the country's National Assembly after independence (1969-1988; 1991-1998). In this posthumous book, he presents an informative autobiographical account and an incisive analysis of the politics of post-colonial Africa.

African Realities: Body, Culture and Social Tensions is the result of research anthropology work carried out in different African countries, mainly in Equatorial Guinea, but also in Senegal, Cabo Verde, Benin and Ethiopia. All the different chapters of this volume address a diversity of subjects related to relevant issues, such as gender, age, social class, ethnicity and coloniality, which are indispensable for understanding current African realities. Furthermore, all of these chapters investigate the importance people place on the body and, more concretely, the manner in which these people present it to others as a common denominator. After a brief theoretical introduction about the key concept of the book â " the social presentation of the body â " the contributors analyse the results of their own fieldwork, taking as a starting point the central role that the body plays in the relationship between the individual and society. As is clearly shown in this book, the social presentation of the body matters. From a general and structural point of view it matters because of its great significance within social logics, but it also matters because of its relevant role in situational dynamics of social interaction, and because of its close relationship with the emotional registers of individuals. If the issue related to the social presentation of the body has an undoubted interest for the academic milieu, it is also true that it has great social relevance and constitutes an undeniable political concern. The policies related to the social presentation of the body serve to mark, justify, maintain or even build hierarchical relationships of social order, at the level of class, gender, ethnicity or age. Throughout the book, and from the African studies perspective, different views are offered concerning how the body, being not only medium of expression, but at the same time a site of experience and construction of the self, appears in the centre of social tensions and is an object of strategy, control or resistance.

This book discusses the problems and challenges of environmental–ecological conditions in Africa, amidst the current craze of economic growth and ‘development’. Africa’s significant economic dynamics and growth trajectories are marked by neglect of the environment, reinforcing ecological crises. Unless environmental–ecological and population growth problems are addressed as an integral part of developmental strategies and growth models, the crises will accelerate and lead to huge costs in later years. Chapters examine multiple emerging tension points all across the continent, including the potential benefits and harm of growing urban-based ecotourism, the trajectory of labour-saving technologies and the problems facing agro-pastoralism. Although environmental management and sustainability features of African rural societies should not be idealized, functional 'traditional' economies, interests and management practices are often bypassed, seen by state elites as inefficient and inhibiting 'growth'. In many regions the seeds are now sown for lasting environmental crises that will affect local societies that have rarely been given opportunity to claim accountability from the state regimes and donors driving these changes.

This is a collection of bold and visionary scholarship that reveals an insightful exposition of re-visioning African development from African perspectives. It provides educators, policy makers, social workers, non-governmental agencies, and development agencies with an interdisciplinary conceptual base that can effectively guide them in planning and implementing programs for socio-economic development in Africa. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on continental trends on various subjects and concerns of paramount importance to globalisation and development in Africa (politics, democracy, education, gender, technology, global relationships and the role of non-governmental organisations). The authors challenge the familiar paradigms in order to show how imperfectly, if at all, assumptions about globalisation and development theories have failed in their depictions and applications to Africa. The scholars in this volume both inform and advocate for a re-visioning of perceptions on Africa and how it navigates global processes.

Engendering Human Rights brings together distinguished scholars and feminist activists in a collection of essays on human rights in Africa. Contributors explore the formulating, monitoring, reporting, and implementation of human rights in Africa and the African Diaspora. The individual chapters examine how human rights frameworks and practices differ in various political, economic, social, cultural, racial and gendered contexts througout Africa.