Framing Africa

The first decade of the 21st century has seen a proliferation of North American and European films that focus on African politics and society. While once the continent was the setting for narratives of heroic ascendancy over self (The African Queen, 1951; The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 1952), military odds (Zulu, 1964; Khartoum, 1966) and nature (Mogambo, 1953; Hatari!,1962; Born Free, 1966; The Last Safari, 1967), this new wave of films portrays a continent blighted by transnational corruption (The Constant Gardener, 2005), genocide (Hotel Rwanda, 2004; Shooting Dogs, 2006), ‘failed states’ (Black Hawk Down, 2001), illicit transnational commerce (Blood Diamond, 2006) and the unfulfilled promises of decolonization (The Last King of Scotland, 2006). Conversely, where once Apartheid South Africa was a brutal foil for the romance of East Africa (Cry Freedom, 1987; A Dry White Season, 1989), South Africa now serves as a redeemed contrast to the rest of the continent (Red Dust, 2004; Invictus, 2009). Writing from the perspective of long-term engagement with the contexts in which the films are set, anthropologists and historians reflect on these films and assess the contemporary place Africa holds in the North American and European cinematic imagination.

Post-apartheid South African elections have borne an unmistakable racial imprint: Africans vote for one set of parties, whites support a different set of parties, and, with few exceptions, there is no crossover voting between groups. These voting tendencies have solidified the dominance of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) over South African politics and turned South African elections into 'racial censuses'. This book explores the political sources of these outcomes. It argues that although the beginnings of these patterns lie in South Africa's past, in the effects apartheid had on voters' beliefs about race and destiny and the reputations parties forged during this period, the endurance of the census reflects the ruling party's ability to use the powers of office to prevent the opposition from evolving away from its apartheid-era party label. By keeping key opposition parties 'white', the ANC has rendered them powerless, solidifying its hold on power in spite of an increasingly restive and dissatisfied electorate.

This book analyses the India, Brazil, South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA), focusing on the communalities and differences in the way foreign policy is conceptualized in its member states. Utilizing 83 interviews with foreign policy makers and experts, as well as the analysis of 119 foreign-policy speeches, the author traces key shifts in official foreign policy discourse. In order to evaluate the degree of support for key IBSA Dialogue Forum concepts within national discourse, the author also examines the interplay between official and broader societal discourses on foreign policy. This analysis combines political science factors (foreign policy role conceptions) with linguistic factors, thus enabling a qualitative and quantitative comparison of different framings of foreign policy. Extensive empirical material collected during six months of field research in India, Brazil and South Africa allows the author to present a differentiated account of their alleged like-mindedness.

Looking at the experiences of other federal societies across the globe this volume interrogates the problem of national integration within the context of ethno-religious and cultural pluralism, and presents exciting prospects for the resolution of the National Question. Compelling and indispensable, this work is the most comprehensive and authoritative treatment of the subject in recent years.

Framing Borders addresses a fundamental disjuncture between scholastic portrayals of settler colonialism and what actually takes place in Akwesasne Territory, the largest Indigenous cross-border community in Canada. Whereas most existing portrayals of Indigenous nationalism emphasize border crossing as a site of conflict between officers and Indigenous nationalists, in this book Ian Kalman observes a much more diverse range of interactions, from conflict to banality to joking and camaraderie. Framing Borders explores how border crossing represents a conversation where different actors "frame" themselves, the law, and the space that they occupy in diverse ways. Written in accessible, lively prose, Kalman addresses what goes on when border officers and Akwesasne residents meet, and what these exchanges tell us about the relationship between Indigenous actors and public servants in Canada. This book provides an ethnographic examination of the experiences of the border by Mohawk community members, the history of local border enforcement, and the paradoxes, self-contradictions, and confusions that underlie the border and its enforcement.

In Framing a Radical African Atlantic Holger Weiss presents a critical outline and analysis of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUCNW) and the attempts by the Communist International (Comintern) to establish an anticolonial political platform in the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa during the interwar period. It is the first presentation about the organization and its activities, investigating the background and objectives, the establishment and expansion of a radical African (black) Atlantic network between 1930 and 1933, the crisis in 1933 when the organization was relocated from Hamburg to Paris, the attempt to reactivate the network in 1934 and 1935 and its final dissolution and liquidation in 1937-38.

Where do the concepts come from, at what time and why? How has the content of the concepts changed over time, and why? What can the use of the concepts in research add to the understanding of societal change and development?