Contemporary Social Issues In Africa

This volume comprises of incisive and perceptive essays that analyse social issues in contemporary post-colonial and post-apartheid Africa using cases in three African cities - Durban in South Africa, Gaborone in Botswana, and Kampala in Uganda. It is an outcome of collaboration by colleagues from Universities of Kwazulu-Natal, Makerere, Botswana and Dar es Salaam to establish a structured, collaborative scholarly partnership programme. The partnership is called Rethinking Africa Programme, which is consistent with the 21st century ideals of Africa's renewal. Its key objective is to re-think Africa through academic and research initiatives sensitive to our own experiences as Africans, as well as through a critical revisiting of western-based social sciences in order to build new analytical models and concepts that capture processes and dynamics that derive from African experiences. It thus has as its related aim, to counter the proliferation of texts by western scholars on African social issues which dominate lecture rooms and libraries as teaching and learning resources in African universities. It is hoped that this volume will encourage future partnerships on research and teaching of contemporary African social issues amongst African scholars within the continent. Further, it should serve as a teaching and training resource for academic programmes with strong focus on social issues in Africa today.

Contemporary Issues in Sociology and Social Work: An Africanist Perspective is a publication of the Department of Social Work, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. In this book, the writers have advanced constructive and enduring global narratives, with particular emphasis on Africa, about the core issues and concerns in both Sociology and Social Work that are devoid of mischief and corruption. This book is timely as more and more departments of Social Work are being mounted across Africa, particularly, in Nigeria. The book is written with the aim of making researchers, academics and other stakeholders, including students, in the field of human behavioural sciences who are interested in the subject matters of Sociology and Social Work to become familiar with salient issues relating to the subjects of discourse. It is further intended to familiarise the readers of the text with important and cogent contemporary topical issues as related to the society at large. The book is particularly targeted at researchers, academics and students who are members of the Faculty of the Social Sciences or ancillary faculties that are interested in understanding human behaviours and lend helping hand to different clients that come across their paths in the process of carrying out their duties. The structure of the book is centred on the principle of human behaviour and humanitarian assistance in the context of different environmental situations in which the reader finds him/herself. The serialisation of the 39 chapters shows three sections with contributions in core Sociology, core Social Work and the inter-twin of both subjects. In core Sociology, the following topics are discussed: the Foundation of Sociology, Contemporary Sociological Theories from an Africanist perspective, Sociology of Social Problems, Contemporary Issues in Gender Studies, The Sociology of Formal Organisations, the Foundation of Development Sociology, the Scope and Trends in Urban Sociology, Basic Discourse in Rural Sociology, Crime, Deviance and Social Control, Cybercrime and Criminality, Issues in Medical Sociology, Discourses in Social Epidemiology, Social Epidemiology of Mental Illness, Basic Issues in Comparative Health Care Systems, Issues in Social Gerontology, the Nexus between Politics and Sociology, Social Differentiation, Social Inequality and Social Stratification, an African perspective to Industrial Sociology and an Afrocentric Sociological Thought. In core Social Work, the discussed issues are the Foundation of Social Work, The Fundamentals of School Social Work, the Concepts, Typology and Classifications of Social Security Systems, the Theory and Application of Forensic Psychology, Industrial Social Work, The Dynamics of Human Social Functioning, Social Workers and the Military, Social Workers and Mental Health, Community Organisation and Rural Development, Social Workers and Community Development, Social Workers and Child Protective Services, Social Workers in the Hospital Settings, an examination of the concept of Human Sexuality and its implications on Social Work and the roles of Social Workers in Global Terrorism. It is not untrue, therefore, that this book is a comprehensive textbook of Sociology and Social Work for African students. However, it needs to be mentioned and emphasised that the text does not and could not have covered all the areas in the two disciplines, but has tried to accommodate and touch on the major areas that are germane to academic excellence with the hope of stimulating, sustaining and making the acquired knowledge from the book a relevant aspect in human behavioural sciences. The text will be useful to students and staff of social sciences, particularly Sociology and Social Work, across Africa. The writing is pragmatic and reader-friendly and the editorial work is fantastic.

This volume reports on the state of crisis in Africa in the early twenty-first century. Africa, on the eve of the ‘independence revolution’, was the continent of hope and high expectations. By the third decade of independence, optimism had been replaced by dismality. African states had been beset by ethno-political squabbles, military rule, civil wars, Islamic and insurgent movements, extreme poverty and disease. With the ascent of redemocratization in the 1990s and of ‘new’ pan-Africanism derived from the formation of the African Union, Africa appeared set to claim its vaunted destiny. This book asks, with hindsight to the first decade of the twenty-first century: how real was the renaissance in African life? If the dismal African condition is a phase in the historical development of Africa, this volume does not see any golden age in the past to which Africa aspires to return. There is clearly a continuation and persistence of crisis, with an absence of good governance, personalisation of state power, widespread disease, and policy failure in education, economy and infrastructural development. Although endowed with abundant human and natural resources, Africa remains the least developed and most indebted continent. Whither then the African Renaissance? The methodologies that underpin the contributions in this book are as diverse as the specialisations of the contributors. The collection questions ideologically protected assumptions and presumptions, presenting Africa as it is, because it is only by knowing where Africa truly stands that a proper direction can be charted for it.

As a comprehensive resource for readers interested in contemporary security issues in Africa, this compelling book details the impact of complex challenges in Africa and explains why addressing them grows increasingly important. Presenting both general overviews and specific case studies, this book introduces contemporary security issues in Africa, home to more than thirty of the fifty most fragile nations in the world. It covers the past three decades of conflict on the continent, focusing on such topics as weak and failing states, ethnic conflict and civil wars, natural resources and environmental security, political violence and terrorism, piracy and maritime security, food security and poverty, international responses, and future prospects. The core of the book comprises detailed analysis of the nexus between culture, politics, and security in Africa, while the volume as a whole examines key regional and transnational security issues affecting Africa and their implications at the state, regional, and international levels. The book explores the dynamic role that African nations play in influencing international security and investigates and articulates factors heightening the importance of Africa's role in international affairs.

Contemporary Issues in Sociology and Social Work: An Africanist Perspective is a publication of the Department of Social Work, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. In this book, the writers have advanced constructive and enduring global narratives, with particular emphasis on Africa, about the core issues and concerns in both Sociology and Social Work that are devoid of mischief and corruption. This book is timely as more and more departments of Social Work are being mounted across Africa, particularly, in Nigeria. The book is written with the aim of making researchers, academics and other stakeholders, including students, in the field of human behavioural sciences who are interested in the subject matters of Sociology and Social Work to become familiar with salient issues relating to the subjects of discourse. It is further intended to familiarise the readers of the text with important and cogent contemporary topical issues as related to the society at large. The book is particularly targeted at researchers, academics and students who are members of the Faculty of the Social Sciences or ancillary faculties that are interested in understanding human behaviours and lend helping hand to different clients that come across their paths in the process of carrying out their duties. The structure of the book is centred on the principle of human behaviour and humanitarian assistance in the context of different environmental situations in which the reader finds him/herself. The serialisation of the 39 chapters shows three sections with contributions in core Sociology, core Social Work and the inter-twin of both subjects. In core Sociology, the following topics are discussed: the Foundation of Sociology, Contemporary Sociological Theories from an Africanist perspective, Sociology of Social Problems, Contemporary Issues in Gender Studies, The Sociology of Formal Organisations, the Foundation of Development Sociology, the Scope and Trends in Urban Sociology, Basic Discourse in Rural Sociology, Crime, Deviance and Social Control, Cybercrime and Criminality, Issues in Medical Sociology, Discourses in Social Epidemiology, Social Epidemiology of Mental Illness, Basic Issues in Comparative Health Care Systems, Issues in Social Gerontology, the Nexus between Politics and Sociology, Social Differentiation, Social Inequality and Social Stratification, an African perspective to Industrial Sociology and an Afrocentric Sociological Thought.

Seventy percent of the global burden of mental disorders is located in low and middle income countries (LMIC),including sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, in Africa,only 0.62% of the national health budget is allocated to mental health compared to a global median of 2.8% and 5% in Europe. The government is the source of funding in 62%of patients with severe mental disorder in the World Health Organisation (WHO), Africa Region, the lowest of all the WHO regions, and lower compared to a global median of 79%. This is compounded by poor resources, with mental health outpatient facilities in WHO Africa Region being less that 10% of the global median. To address these problems, the WHO launched its Mental Health Action Gap Programme (mhGAP) in 2008, to scale-up mental health services in low and middle income countries (LMIC). The book is directed to all policy makers in sub-Saharan Africa to aid decision making about the urgent need for sustainable and relevant mental health care strategies, and the important areas that need priority. The book should be helpful to local and international researchers in formulating research questions relevant to the African continent and it will be of interest to medical practitioners and students in the region as adjunct to standard text books.