Debating African Issues

This debate style textbook allows students to explore diverse, well-founded views on controversial African issues, pushing them to go beyond superficial interpretations and complicate and ground their understanding of the continent. From the positive images in the film Black Panther, to the derogatory remarks of former American President Donald Trump, the African continent often figures prominently in the collective, global imagination. This interdisciplinary collection covers 20 enduring and contemporary debates across a broad range of subjects affecting Africa, from development and health to agriculture, climate change, and urbanization. Each chapter has a pro and con view penned by a leading expert on the topic in an accessible and engaging style. These contrasting views on each issue are framed by an introduction that helps the student contextualize the debate and draw on further resources. Moreover, they enable readers to deepen their understanding of the topic, develop a more nuanced perspective, and foster classroom debates. This book is an excellent resource for Africa related courses across a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields including African studies, anthropology, development studies, economics, environmental studies, geography, history, international studies, political science and public health.

Is Ali Mazrui a visonary or a "vacuous" intellectual? Is he recationary, revolutionary or essentially a radical pragmatist? These questions were the focus of a special plenary session of the Conference of the African Assocation of Political Science that took place in Harrare, Zimbabwe, in June 2003. The forum was intended to interrogate Ali Mazrui's contributions in the last forty years or so of his career as an academic. The question themselves capture the magnitude of polarization among different sections of Mazrui's audiences generated by his often provocative propositions amd prescriptions on a wide range of issues---from the role of intellectuals in Africa's transformation to the imperative of pax-Africana, from Tanza-philia to Islamophobia, from the condition of the Black woman to the destiny of the Black race. It is some the exchanges, sometimes intense and even acrimonious, arising from Mazrui's ideas on continetal and global African affairs, from the 1960s ti the present, that constitute the subject matter. Together, they are not only a celebration of Ail Mazrui's own intellectual life as one long debate, but also an intellectual mirror of the conours of some of the hotly contested terrains in Africa's quest for self-realization.

This volume presents current controversies that surround controversial issues that in occur African societies in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. Its intent is to act as a platform for discussions in courses offered in a variety of departments dealing with contemporary African issues, including anthropology, African studies, development studies, economics, geography, history, international studies, political science, and sociology. These topics are framed with a general summary and introduction, and a postscript or challenge questions. This work features an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites and an online instructor's resource guide with testing material available.

Presents opposing views on a wide variety of issues affecting Africa as a whole including: Development -- Agriculture, food and the environment -- Social issues -- Politics, goverance and conflict resolution.

Is Ali Mazrui a visionary or a vacuous' intellectual? Is he reactionary, revolutionary or essentially a radical pragmatist? These questions were the focus of a forum intended to interrogate Ali Mazrui's contributions over the last forty years or so of his career as an academic. The questions themselves capture the magnitude of the polarisation among different sections of Mazrui's audiences generated by his often provocative propositions and prescriptions on a wide range of issues - from the condition of the black woman to the destiny of the black race.'

An examination of families and schools in South Africa, revealing how the marketisation of schooling works to uphold the privilege of whiteness.

In African countries there has been a surge of intellectual interest in foregrounding ideas and thinkers of African origin—in philosophy as in other disciplines—that have been unjustly ignored or marginalized. African scholars have demonstrated that precolonial African cultures generated ideas and arguments which were at once truly philosophical and distinctively African, and several contemporary African thinkers are now established figures in the philosophical mainstream. Yet, despite the universality of its themes, relevant contributions from African philosophy have rarely permeated global philosophical debates. Critical intellectual excavation has also tended to prioritize precolonial thought, overlooking more recent sources of home-grown philosophical thinking such as Africa’s intellectually rich liberation movements. This book demonstrates the potential for constructive interchange between currents of thought from African philosophy and other intellectual currents within philosophy. Chapters authored by leading and emerging scholars: recover philosophical thinkers and currents of ideas within Africa and about Africa, bringing them into dialogue with contemporary mainstream philosophy; foreground the relevance of African theorizing to contemporary debates in epistemology, philosophy of language, moral/political philosophy, philosophy of race, environmental ethics and the metaphysics of disability; make new interventions within on-going debates in African philosophy; consider ways in which philosophy can become epistemically inclusive, interrogating the contemporary call for ‘decolonization’ of philosophy. Showing how foregrounding Africa—its ideas, thinkers and problems—can help with the project of renewing and improving the discipline of philosophy worldwide, this book will stimulate and challenge everyone with an interest in philosophy, and is essential reading for upper-level undergraduate students, postgraduate students and scholars of African and Africana philosophy.

Is Ali Mazrui a visionary or a vacuous' intellectual? Is he reactionary, revolutionary or essentially a radical pragmatist? These questions were the focus of a forum intended to interrogate Ali Mazrui's contributions over the last forty years or so of his career as an academic. The questions themselves capture the magnitude of the polarisation among different sections of Mazrui's audiences generated by his often provocative propositions and prescriptions on a wide range of issues - from the condition of the black woman to the destiny of the black race.'