African Voices

Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.

This book focuses on retelling many of the important episodes in the global past (c.1500–present) from African points of view. It discusses the events and trends of global significance: the Atlantic slave system, the industrial revolution, World Wars I and II, and decolonization.

Though the history of slavery is a central topic for African, Atlantic world and world history, most of the sources presenting research in this area are European in origin. To cast light on African perspectives, and on the point of view of enslaved men and women, this group of top Africanist scholars has examined both conventional historical sources (such as European travel accounts, colonial documents, court cases, and missionary records) and less-explored sources of information (such as folklore, oral traditions, songs and proverbs, life histories collected by missionaries and colonial officials, correspondence in Arabic, and consular and admiralty interviews with runaway slaves). Each source has a short introduction highlighting its significance and orienting the reader. This first of two volumes provides students and scholars with a trove of African sources for studying African slavery and the slave trade.

This book focuses on the languages and linguistics of Africa. Covering the major themes that are dealt with in university courses, and making extensive use of linguistic symbols and diagrams, this is an essential text for undergraduate and postgraduate linguistics students in South Africa and Africa as a whole, as well as for students of African studies worldwide. Its topics include general descriptions of African languages, the nature of languages in contact and in competition, language in education, and the need for governmental intervention in linguistic issues.

It's an awful story. It's an awful story. Why do you want to bring this up now?--Chief Awusa of Atorkor For centuries, the story of the Atlantic slave trade has been filtered through the eyes and records of white Europeans. In this watershed book, historian Anne C. Bailey focuses on memories of the trade from the African perspective. African chiefs and other elders in an area of southeastern Ghana-once famously called "the Old Slave Coast"-share stories that reveal that Africans were traders as well as victims of the trade. Bailey argues that, like victims of trauma, many African societies now experience a fragmented view of their past that partially explains the blanket of silence and shame around the slave trade. Capturing scores of oral histories that were handed down through generations, Bailey finds that, although Africans were not equal partners with Europeans, even their partial involvement in the slave trade had devastating consequences on their history and identity. In this unprecedented and revelatory book, Bailey explores the delicate and fragmented nature of historical memory.

Does Africa have a future? What are the visions, hopes, ambitions and fears of young Africans for the future of the world, the continent, their nation, and their communities? How do they envision this world and their roles within it? These issues have not previously been explored collectively by Africans because of the enormous challenges and the preoccupation with the present. But Africa must not allow the enormity of the problems to blind it to its past and future. Africa must chart its own vision of a desirable future, and therefore young Africans, born just before or after independence, were challenged to reflect on the future of the continent. This book presents the response to that challenge. In this book, the voices of a new generation of Africa are heard exploring the future from personal and diverse perspectives. The authors have enumerated the ills of Africa, analyzed the problems and explored the opportunities. Remarkably, despite the daunting nature of the challenges, they were all hopeful about the future. They provided their visions of the future, suggest numerous ideas on how to build a new Africa, and implored Africans to take responsibility for the transformation of the continent. Given the current emphasis on African renaissance and union, the ideas presented here could become the basis for a truly shared vision for the continent.

The Africanisation of education is a highly topical issue. The potentials and pitfalls of Africanisation have drawn a great deal of critical debate, both in Africa and abroad. After the political changes of 1994 in South Africa, there has been renewed interest in the question of a distinctively African philosophy. This publication provides a systematic and clear exposition of an African voice in education, drawing on distinguished authors across Africa.

A newsletter on democracy and governance in Africa.