To review any of the books below, please contact:
Morten Hagen, Book
Review Editor
Democracy &
Development: Journal of West African Affairs
c/o CDD, 3B Leroy
House, 436 Essex Road, London N1 3QP, UK
Tel: +44 20 7359 7775,
Mobile: +44 7905 139 415
email: mhagen@cdd.org.uk, web: www.cdd.org.uk
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Adeshina, R.A. 2003. The Reversed Victory: Story of Nigerian Military
Intervention in Sierra Leone. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books.
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Aka, E. 2000. Regional Disparities in Nigeria's Development: Lessons
and Challenges for the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: University Press of
America.
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Alagoa, E.J. &
A.A. Derefaka. 2002. The Land and People of Rivers
State: Eastern Niger Delta. Port Harcourt: Onyoma Research Publication
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Balewa, B.A.T. 2002.
Common Law and Sharia in Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publ.
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Bastian, S. & R. Luckham (eds.) 2003. Can Democracy be designed?
The Politics of Institutional Choice in Conflict-torn Societies. London:
Zed Books.
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Berg-Schlosser, D. & N. Kersting
(eds.) 2003. Poverty and
Democracy: Self-help and Political Participation in Third World Cities.
London: Zed Books.
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Bingen, R.J., D. Robinson &
J.M. Staatz (eds.) 2000. Democracy and
Development in Mali. Chicago, MI: Michigan State University Press.
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Boas,
M. & McNeill, D. 2003. Multilateral Institutions: A Critical
Introduction. London: Pluto Press.
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Cawthra,
G. & R. Luckham (eds.) 2003. Governing Insecurity: Democratic
Control of military and Security Establishments in Transitional
Democracies. London: Zed Books.
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Chafer,
T. 2002. The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful
Decolonization? Oxford; New York: Berg Publishers.
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Cowen, M. & L. Laakso (eds.) 2002. Multi-party Elections in
Africa. Oxford: James Currey; New York: Palgrave.
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Darkoh, M. & A. Rwomire (eds.) 2003. Human Impact on Environment
and Sustainable Development in Africa. Burlington, VT; Aldershot:
Ashgate.
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Dibie, R. 2003. Public Management and Sustainable Development in
Nigeria: Military-Bureaucracy Relationship. Burlington, VT; Aldershot:
Ashgate.
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Gray, C.S. (ed.) 2003. Inside Independent Nigeria: Diaries of Wolfgang
Stolper, 1960-1962. Aldershot: Ashgate.
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Graybill, L.S. 2002. Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Miracle
or Model? Boulder, CO; London: Lynne Rienner.
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Guest, E. 2003. Children of AIDS: Africa’s orphan crisis. London;
Stirling, VA: Pluto Press.
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Kaplan, A. 2002. Development Practitioners and Social Process: Artists
of the Invisible. London; Sterling, VA: Pluto Press.
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Lind, J. & K. Sturman 2002. Scarcity and Surfeit: The Ecology of
Africa’s Conflicts. Pretoria: The Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
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Mathebe, L. 2003. Bound
by Tradition: The World of Thabo Mbeki. Pretoria: Unisa Press.
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Nugent, P. 2002. Smugglers, Secessionists & Loyal Citizens on the
Ghana-Togo Frontier The Lie of the Borderlands Since 1914. Oxford: James
Currey; Athens, OH: Ohio University Press; Accra: Sub-Saharan
Publishers.
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Ojo, B.A. (ed.) 2001. Problems and Prospects of Sustaining Democracy
in Nigeria: Voices of a Generation. Nova Science Publishers, Huntington,
NY.
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Offiong, D.A. 2001. Globalisation: Post-Neodependency and Poverty in
Africa. Enugu: Fourth Dimension.
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Oshun, O. 2002. The Open Grave: NADECO and the Struggle for Democracy.
London: Josel Publishers.
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Oyen, E. et al. (eds.) 2002. Best Practices in Poverty Reduction: An
Analytical Framework. International Studies in Poverty Research. Zed
Books, London.
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Parfitt, T. 2002. The End of Development?: Modernity, Post-Modernity
and Development. London: Pluto Press.
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Pausewang, S., K. Tronvoll, L. Aalen 2002. Ethiopia Since the Derg: A
Decade of Democratic Pretension and Performance. London: Zed Books.
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Rotimi, K. 2001. The Police in a Federal State: The Nigerian
Experience. Ibadan: College Press.
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Salih, M.A.M. (ed.) 2003. African Political Parties: Evolution,
Institutionalisation and Governance. London: Pluto Press.
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Saul, M. & P. Royer 2002. West African Challenge to Empire:
Culture and History in the Volta-Bani Anticolonial War. Oxford: James
Currey; Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
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Skard, T. 2003. Continent of Mothers, Continent of Hope: Understanding
and Promoting Development in Africa Today. London: Zed Books.
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Umoren, R. 2001. Economic Reforms and Nigeria’s Political Crisis.
Ibadan: Spectrum Books.
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de Waal, A. (ed.) 2002. Demilitarizing the Mind: African Agendas for
Peace and Security. Lawrenceville, NJ; Asmara: Africa World Press.
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de Waal, A. & Y. Ajawin (ed.) 2002. When Peace Comes: Civil
Society and Development in Sudan. Lawrenceville, NJ; Asmara: Africa
World Press.
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Wanyeki, L.M. (ed.) 2003. Women and Land in Africa: Culture, Religion
and Realizing Women’s Rights. London: Zed Books.
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Webster, N. & Engberg-Pedersen, L. (eds.) 2002. In the Name of the
Poor: Contesting Political Space for Poverty Reduction. London: Zed
Books.
Aka, E. 2000.
Regional Disparities in
Nigeria's Development: Lessons and Challenges for the 21st Century.
University Press of America, Lanham, MD.
One of the
major concerns in international development today is the effectiveness
of programs for promoting widespread socio-economic growth in a country.
In Regional Disparities in Nigeria's Development, Ebenezer Aka
investigates whether planning programs have encouraged or hindered
substantial socio-economic development throughout Nigeria. He provides
an overview of the various development programs that have been
implemented, discussing their objectives, strategies and performances as
well as their implications for the 21st century. He reveals that over
time there has actually been a divergence rather than a convergence of
regional disparities and inequalities, which he meticulously analyses
from socio-cultural, economic, political and administrative
perspectives. An indispensable resource for Nigerian policy makers, this
book will also interest social scientists who study international
development.
Alagoa,
E.J. & A.A. Derefaka 2002. The Land and People of Rivers State:
Eastern Niger Delta. Port Harcourt: Onyoma Research Publications.
Fifty-one scholars have collaborated to produce a book of reference on the
environment, people and cultures, history, policies, economics, social
services and gender in this part of the Niger Delta. It goes beyond the
popular view of the Niger delta as the principal location of Nigeria’s
petroleum wealth to provide a deep grounding in each of these fields.
This is a book suitable for a general readership as well as serve
specialists in many disciplines as a tool to open windows into deeper
studies of this unique environment and the complex problems it has posed
for the people who have lived in it from ancient times to the present.
Bastian,
S. & R. Luckham (eds.) 2003. Can Democracy be designed? The
Politics of Institutional Choice in Conflict-torn Societies. London:
Zed Books.
Constitution
drafting has always been undertaken with explicit political purposes in
mind. But the process has never been more ambitious, or more difficult,
than today as politicians and experts seek to negotiate institutions
that will foster stability and order on a democratic basis in countries
torn by violent conflict. The extended research investigation out of
which this book has grown has ranged across three continents and has
examined such apparently intractable cases as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sri
Lanka and Fiji, as well as apparent success stories like South Africa,
Ghana, and Uganda.
Three
groups of questions are explored. How and by whom were democratic
institutions (re)introduced? How are they functioning in practice? And
how have they measured up to the pressures placed on them by ongoing
violence, poverty, globalisation and democratisation itself?
The
authors, while regarding democracy as a general entitlement, refuse to
subscribe to a triumphalist view which sees democracy as a universal
panacea. Instead they seek to understand how new democratic institutions
work in practice and whether and how they actually facilitate the
management of conflict in societies whose coherence is at best fragile.
Berg-Schlosser,
D. & N. Kersting (eds.) 2003. Poverty and Democracy: Self-help
and Political Participation in Third World Cities. London: Zed
Books.
Problems
of poverty and democratisation and their possible interactions are among
the most pressing concerns of our times. Can the ever-widening gap
between rich and poor both within countries and worldwide be reduced?
How can those most seriously affected – the poor themselves – become
active in this process? Has the recent wave of democratisation improved
their chances of doing so? What can be done by donor agencies and
non-governmental organisations of the North and the South to provide
meaningful assistance in these processes? These and related questions
are addressed in this book. Its focus is on those parts of the
population where these problems have become most crystallised in a
spatial sense, i.e. the inhabitants of ‘marginalized’ settlements in
large cities – the ever-sprawling favelas, poblaciones, bidonvilles,
quartiers précaires, slums, and squatter areas.
Field
research was carried out in four countries – Brazil, Chile, Ivory
Coast and Kenya – based on a systematic comparative design involving
two cities and four marginalised settlements in each country. The
methods included surveys, interviews and observation in close
cooperation with local social and political groupings. In this way, a
unique comparative 'view from below' of recent developments and their
consequences for the urban poor emerges.
The
research focussed on the national and local contexts and the concrete
forms of social structure, interest organisation, political culture and
political participation. The results make clear some of the common
elements and causes, but also the great diversity of political cultures
within which the ‘active poor’ seek to improve their lives. Here lie
also some of the concrete possibilities of effective support by external
agencies.
Bingen,
R.J., Robinson, D. & J.M. Staatz (eds.) 2000. Democracy and Development in
Mali. Michigan State University Press, Chicago.
Mali, a
country rich with history and culture, but one of the poorest in the
world, emerged in the 1990s as one of Africa's most vibrant democracies.
Strengthened by bold political and economic reforms at home, Mali has
emerged as a leader in African peacekeeping efforts. How has such a
transition taken place? How have these changes built on Mali's rich
heritage? These are the questions that the contributors to this volume
have addressed.
This volume
represents a coherent and connected set of essays from one American
university with a widely known and highly respected role in African
development. While the essays identify and review Mali's unique
historical and contemporary path to democracy and development, they also
contribute to the advancement of theoretical knowledge about African
development.
Boas,
M. & McNeill, D. 2003. Multilateral Institutions: A Critical
Introduction. London: Pluto Press.
In recent
years, a great deal of public attention has been focussed on
multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and WTO. This book
offers students, practitioners and activists a critical guide to these
and other major institutions – the Regional Development Banks and UNDP
– that make up the multilateral development system. It analyses how
they operate with respect to financing and lending, the various roles
that they play, and related changes in their policy concerns – such as
structural adjustment, sustainable development, and governance. The
emphasis is on politics within and also between multilateral
institutions, analysing the relations – both competitive and
collaborative – between, for example, the World Bank and UNDP.
NGOs are also
shown to be important actors, and the role they have played in recent
years is critically assessed. The book concludes with some emerging
trends: the 'privatisation' of the system, regionalisation, and ‘the
politics of protest’.
Boas and
McNeill do not simply take the policies of multilateral institutions at
face value, but ask how and why these policies came into existence. They
seek to promote critical, but informed, engagement both with the member
states of multilateral institutions and the institutions themselves.
Cawthra,
G. & R. Luckham (eds.) 2003. Governing Insecurity: Democratic
Control of military and Security Establishments in Transitional
Democracies. London: Zed Books.
Democratic institutions in the post-Cold War
era have come to be regarded as the only legitimate forms of governance.
Elections have seemingly replaced coups as the main mechanism for
changing rulers, and there remain very few overtly military governments.
But the longstanding legacies of military rule over the past half
century continue to cast a shadow over many newly instituted democratic
regimes. And the fact that more and more societies have experienced
order and government disintegrating under the pressures of violent
conflict and internal war pose even more intractable obstacles to the
institutionalization of democracy and human security. The authors of
this volume explore the challenges of establishing democratic (and not
just civilian) accountability and control of the military and other
security establishments (including non-state armed formations) in
countries, which have either been the victims of authoritarian military
rule or wracked by violent internal conflict.
The book examines both successful democratic
transitions and failed ones. A wide range of cases is covered, including
Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, the Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra
Leone, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The problems of ensuring democratic
control and reforming the security sector in conditions of regional
conflict and insecurity, notably in the Balkans, Latin America and West
Africa, are also examined. This volume fills a significant gap in the
literature on governance and development, which has hitherto largely
neglected military and security questions.
Chapters include: 2. Security Transformation
in Post-Apartheid South Africa - Gavin Cawthra, 3. Nigeria: Options For
Civil-Military Relations in a Democratizing Polity - J. Kayode Fayemi,
4. Ghana: Pulling Back from the Brink - Eboe Hutchful, 7.
Democratization and its Enemies: The Algerian Transition to
Authoritarianism - Frederic Volpi, 10. Sierra Leone: The Legacies of
Authoritarianism and Political Violence - Comfort Ero, 11. A Failing
State: The Democratic Republic of Congo - Roger Kibasomba.
Chafer, T. 2002.
The End of Empire in
French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization? Oxford;
New York: Berg Publishers.
In an effort to restore her world-power
status after the humiliation of defeat and occupation, France was eager
to maintain her overseas empire at the end of the Second World War. Yet
just fifteen years later she had decolonised, and by 1960 only a few
small island territories remained under French control.
The
process of decolonisation in Indochina and Algeria has been widely
studied, but much less has been written about decolonisation in France's
largest colony, French West Africa. Here, the French approach was
regarded as exemplary – that is, a smooth transition successfully
managed by well intentioned French politicians and enlightened African
leaders. Overturning this received wisdom, Chafer argues that the rapid
unfurling of events after the Second World War was a complex, piecemeal
and unpredictable process, resulting in a 'successful decolonisation'
that was achieved largely by accident. At independence, the winners
assured the reins of political power, while the losers were often
repressed, imprisoned or silenced.
This
important book challenges the traditional dichotomy between 'imperial'
and 'colonial' history and will be of interest to students of imperial
and French history, politics and international relations, development
and post-colonial studies.
Cowen, M. & L. Laakso
(eds.) 2002. Multi-party Elections in Africa. Oxford: James
Currey; New York: Palgrave.
This volume contains electoral
studies of multiparty politics in 14 African countries during the 1990s.
Most are about national elections in Anglophone Africa. There are also
less well-known examples from Sudan, Ethiopia and Guinea Bissau. The
collection also features studies of the local elections in Namibia and
of a significant by-election in Malawi. The multiparty period had been
put, wherever possible, within the historical context of earlier
elections in Africa. Questions addressed include: how did incumbent
governing regimes learn to live with multiparty politics? Why have some
elections been so closely fought and others have suffered from apathy?
Why has there been relatively open political expression and activity
when the elections have increased the political and economic
manipulation by incumbent governments? Why have the elections of the
1990s been so marked by local and ethnic variations? To what extent did
this “wave of democracy” result from pressure from donor countries?
Darkoh, M. & A. Rwomire (eds.) 2003.
Human
Impact on Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa. Burlington,
VT; Aldershot: Ashgate.
Based on a
blend of knowledge and perspectives from a variety of disciplines this
volume examines the human-environment interaction in Africa, with a
focus on the economic, social and political processes that generate
environmental change and problems in this region.
Currently
there are controversies over, and challenges to such concepts and issues
as environment-human relationships, ecological resilience,
desertification, sustainable development, globalisation and North-South
dialogue. This book draws upon past and present research findings to
discuss these issues. It features:
·
an examination of the characteristics,
processes and patterns of environmental crises
·
an analysis of the principal issues and
challenges facing policy makers and implementers
·
the promotion of awareness of
theoretical, empirical and comparative research
This volume
not only seeks to answer some of the old questions, but also open up new
ones for further discussion.
Dibie, R. 2003. Public Management and
Sustainable Development in Nigeria: Military-Bureaucracy Relationship.
Burlington, VT; Aldershot: Ashgate.
How was public
policy and economic development in Nigeria affected under the period of
military control between 1966 and 1999? What is the nature and scale of
change that Nigeria will have to undergo in order to achieve its current
development goals?
Initially
providing a history of Nigeria along with a framework for understanding
the nature, scope and magnitude of the military and public management
problems within the country, this timely and rewarding book addresses
both of these questions. It analyses the institutions that make and
implement public policy in the Nigerian political arena, and examines
the route that Nigeria could take in order to enhance its public
management capacities. Although the specific focus is on Nigeria, the
mode of analysis used is transferable to a wide variety of developing
nations. The book will foster an understanding among scholars,
development planners, military officers and policy makers of the tasks
and challenges facing Nigeria and many sub-Saharan African nations in
the twenty-first century.
Gray,
C.S. (ed.) 2003. Inside
Independent Nigeria: Diaries of Wolfgang Stolper, 1960-1962.
Aldershot: Ashgate.
Wolfgang
Stolper was one of the first Western economists to serve as an adviser
in the government of an independent African country. In 1960 he was
brought in by the Nigerian government to help shape Nigeria's first
post-independence development plan. His remarkably candid diaries
chronicle his struggles and frustrations with officials, interference,
waste and corruption at the heart of a government and unfolds the
extraordinary story of his warmth and friendship with a country and its
people.
Brutally
frank, compelling and disarmingly thoughtful, Inside Independent Nigeria
brings to light one of the most exceptional documents on
post-independence Nigeria, and delivers a fascinating picture of a
pivotal era in the development of Western economic planning in Africa.
No student or researcher of African political history, economics or
development studies will want to be without this utterly riveting book.
Graybill,
L.S. 2002. Truth and
Reconciliation in South Africa: Miracle or Model? Boulder, CO;
London: Lynne Rienner.
Was South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) a “miracle” that depended on the unique leadership
of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu? Or does it provide a working model
for other traumatized nations? Addressing these questions, Lyn Graybill
explores the political origins, theological underpinnings, and major
achievements of the world's most ambitious truth commission – an
institution that offered indemnity to perpetrators of gross human rights
abuses, and a process that urged victims to forgive.
Graybill distills in one concise and very
readable volume a vast amount of information on the TRC, including
discussions of a number of groups – the media, religious communities,
and the medical and business sectors – that came under the scrutiny of
the commission. She also addresses the theory and practice of
forgiveness and the relative advantages of amnesty vs. prosecution. She
concludes with an indictment of the ANC government's failure to enact
the commission’s recommendations for substantial reparations to
victims and with an overview of NGO efforts to continue the
reconciliation process.
Guest, E. 2003.
Children of AIDS: Africa’s orphan crisis.
London; Stirling, VA: Pluto Press.
This is the
new, fully updated, first paperback edition of Emma Guest's acclaimed
book from 2001 that explores how the AIDS crisis has devastated the
world's poorest continent. Guest shows how families, charities and
governments are responding to the next wave of the crisis – millions
of orphans. Using extensive interviews, Guest lets people tell their own
stories in their own words. The result is a moving and disturbing
account of the experiences of orphans, street children, grandparents,
aunts, foster parents, charity and social workers and foreign donors
across South Africa, Zambia and Uganda.
Harrison, G. 2002.
Issues
in the Contemporary Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa: The Dynamics of
Struggle and Resistance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Graham
Harrison investigates contemporary African politics by privileging the
dynamics of political struggle and resistance. Through the analysis of
peasant politics, debt and structural adjustment, democratisation and
identity politics, the author shows the importance of resistance and
agency. Detailed studies of Mozambique, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso
demonstrate how political organization and resistance have been closely
ingrained in particular post-colonial trajectories. An original and
refreshing approach to the study of African politics, this will be a
useful textbook for upper level undergraduates and postgraduate
students.
Hirsch,
J.L. 2000. Sierra
Leone: Diamonds and the Struggle for Democracy. International Peace
Academy Occasional Paper Series. Lynne Rienner, Boulder, CO.
Drawing on his first-hand experience as
US ambassador in Freetown in 1995-1998, John Hirsch analyses the
historical, social and economic contexts of the ongoing conflict in
Sierra Leone, as well as the impacts of regional and international
powers. Without sustained international intervention, he cautions, it is
unlikely that Sierra Leone - a microcosm of much of Africa's post-Cold
War experience-can achieve stability and a renewal of democratic
institutions.
James, W., D.L. Donham, E. Kurimoto &
A. Triulzi 2002. Remapping Ethiopia: Socialism and After. Oxford:
James Currey; Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
This
new volume examines similar themes to those in "The Southern
Marches of Imperial Ethiopia", taking the story forward through the
major changes effected by the socialist regime from the revolution of
1974 to its overthrow in 1991, and then into the current period which
has been marked by moves towards local democracy and political
devolution.
Topics
include the Changing fortunes of new and historic towns and cities, the
impact of the Mengistu regime’s policies of villagization and
resettlement, local aspects of the struggle against Mengistu and its
aftermath, and the fate of the border regions. Special attention is
given to developments since 1991: to new local institutions and forms of
autonomy, the links between the international diasporas of Ethiopia and
the fortunes of their home areas. The collection draws on the work of
established scholars as well as a new generation of Ethiopian and
international researchers in the disciplines of anthropology, political
science, history and geography.
Kalu, K. 2000.
Economic Development
and Nigerian Foreign Policy. Studies in African Economic and Social
Development, Vol. 14. Lewiston, NY; Ceredigion, Wales: Edwin Mellen
Press.
This study examines the constraints of
the international system’s structure on the domestic and international
behaviour of less-developed states in general and Nigeria in particular.
Contributes to the debates on the relationships between domestic and
external sources of foreign policy. Focusing on economic diplomacy, it
explicates the nature of political economy on foreign policy processes.
Kaplan, A.
2002. Development Practitioners and Social Process: Artists of the
Invisible. London; Sterling, VA: Pluto Press.
This book
explores the practice of organisation development and group change in a
way that will appeal to anyone involved in working towards social
transformation. Drawing on extensive experience gained through many
years of process consultancy within the development sector - mainly in
Africa and Europe - as well as on the work of Goethe and Jung, Allan
Kaplan presents a radically new approach to the understanding of
organisations and communities and to the practice of social development.
Challenging
the tendency to reduce development to a technical operation that
attempts to control, Kaplan's approach embraces the full complexity of
the process of social transformation. He describes the terrain of social
change whilst simultaneously providing exercises through which
practitioners can enrich their abilities to respond to the mix of chaos
and order which characterise social development. Exploring this delicate
balance, Kaplan inspires a sense of responsibility and possibility for
the discipline, and reveals how development groups can intervene in
social situations in a manner that is both humane and effective.
Lind, J. & K. Sturman 2002.
Scarcity and Surfeit: The Ecology
of Africa’s Conflicts. Pretoria: The Institute for Security
Studies (ISS).
A collection of studies which examine
the environmental costs of conflict over resources and the impact on the
people who depend on them. Looks at land in Rwanda, Coffee in Burundi,
the mineral coltan in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, oil and
water in Sudan, water in Ethiopia and land in Somalia. Provides
historical, social and political background to each conflict, an
assessment of key factors, and in the case of Sudan and Somalia, several
case studies to illustrate the arguments.
Nugent, P. 2002.
Smugglers, Secessionists & Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo
Frontier The Lie of the Borderlands Since 1914. Oxford: James Currey;
Athens, OH: Ohio University Press; Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers.
This
is the first integrated history of the Ghana-Togo borderlands. The
current border is usually regarded as a classically arbitrary European
construct, resisted by Ewe irredentism. Paul Nugent challenges this
conventional wisdom, contending that whatever the origins of partition,
border peoples quickly became knowing and active participants in the
shaping of this international boundary.
This book straddles the conventional divide between social and
political history. It offers a reconstruction of a long-range history of
smuggling and a reappraisal of Ewe identity. It should be of interest to
African historians, political scientists, anthropologists, comparative
borderlands scholars and others concerned with issues of criminality,
identity and the state.
Ojo,
B.A. (ed.) 2001. Problems and Prospects of Sustaining Democracy in
Nigeria: Voices of a Generation. Nova Science Publishers,
Huntington, NY.
The
past few years have been very traumatic ones for many Nigerians. With
the exception of those in power or close to the seat of power, the
changes of 1998 were a welcome relief given the tyranny and repression
that the country had suffered under General Abacha. With many people in
prison and more in exile, the death of Abacha was received with a sigh
of relief. Many observers have seen the resilience that has come to
signify the strength and potential of this once 'giant of Africa', as
well as the destruction and the socio-political and economic decay of
the past decades. The Nigerian people have endured the exploitation of
their rights due to the lack of democratic leadership, and with this in
mind, they have been called to attention to fight for their country.
Offiong, D.A. 2001. Globalisation: Post-Neodependency and Poverty in
Africa. Enugu: Fourth Dimension.
Globalisation effects every sphere of a nation’s
life, not least it’s economy, and the capitalist world economy,
principally the multinationals, fuels neo-colonialism. Throughout the
1980s, incomes, living standards asd investments in Africa plummeted,
while poverty declined in South and East Asia. With world attention now
focussed on global issues, not least damaging effects in Africa, this
timely book argues that SAPs in Africa, enforced by the international
financial institutions, have produced a tighter dependency than even
colonialism achieved. The opening up of Eastern Europe, and more
profitable business in Asia has further marginalised Africa. Unless an
equitable international economic order is introduced, poverty and hunger
are liable to breed further violence and instability.
This study examines paradigms relevant to wealth and
poverty among nations. The modernisation paradigm is the cornerstone of
the US and Western alliance foreign policy towards Africa; its
ethnocentric claims, and the work of Walt Rostow are studied. Africa’s
contribution to its own people is also scrutinised, and the need
demonstrated for lifting the millstone of debt burden.
Oshun, O. 2002.
The Open Grave: NADECO and the Struggle for
Democracy. London: Josel Publishers.
This book is the story of
NADECO, the individuals and associations behind it, its operations and
its myth. For almost five years, NADECO became the invisible hand behind
every political development in Nigeria. Olawale Oshun, as the second
Secretary of NADECO in Nigeria and NADECO-Abroad whilst on exile, tells
the story of NADECO in a way it has never been told. As he did in his
first book, Clapping With One Hand, Oshun explores with disdain the
narrow-mindedness of Nigeria’s moneyed class, the international
intrigues that helped sustain the military dictatorship, and with due
appreciation the courage and commitment of the unsung Nigerians who at
the risk of their lives gave NADECO its aura, an aura that some
political office-holders now undeservedly reap from and lay exclusive
claim to.
Parfitt,
T. 2002. The End of Development?: Modernity, Post-Modernity and
Development. Pluto Press, London.
Over
the past 15 years, ideas in the field of development studies have been
highly contested. During this time, most countries from the South have
come under the iron heel of the IMF and World Bank, who have imposed
structural adjustment programmes wherever they have provided loan
capital to governments. However, these programmes have had little
success, and development studies has suffered accordingly. Many
development theorists turned to postmodernist theory to try to move on
from this impasse, which in the 1990s lead to a new line of critical
thought that heralded "the end of development". They argued
that development studies should be replaced by new strategies of
emancipation, or "new social movements" theory, originating in
groups such as the Zapatistas of Mexico. This work summarizes the
contested ideas of development studies and new social movements theory
while rejecting calls for the end of development. It uses postmodern
theory to demonstrate that forms of development can be complementary to
emancipatory social movement.
Pausewang, S.,
K. Tronvoll, L. Aalen 2002. Ethiopia Since the Derg: A Decade of
Democratic Pretension and Performance. London: Zed Books.
The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power after winning an impressive
military victory over the much hated army dictatorship of Mengistu’s
DERG just a decade ago. This volume is the outcome of an intensive
monitoring, based on empirical research over the intervening years in
various parts of Ethiopia, of the growing gap between the new regime’s
much vaunted democratic intentions and the very different outcome.
Focusing in particular on the elections held
in 2000 and 2001 but also providing a more wide-ranging presentation of
issues and context, the contributors focus on various aspects, including
gender dimensions, urban and rural contrasts, class and caste conflict,
and environmental factors.
The book contains much original empirical
information and provides a balanced overall assessment of the new
regime, after a decade in power, so far as its political pretensions are
concerned. While making clear the specific ways in which the EPRDF is a
great advance on the previous DERG administration, the authors are
critical of how far the new regime has fallen short in practice of the
democratic hopes which it originally raised. They explain why it seems
unable to accept any indication of a faltering in its rural support or
afford to lose political control even in a small number of localities.
They conclude that only when the regime recognises its shortcomings will
it reach out to other political movements within the country and in
exile, and so create the political groundwork for a fresh and this time
substantive democratisation of the country's political system.
This up-to-date study in one of Africa's
largest and most interesting countries is a significant contribution to
the growing literature on the politics of democratic transition in the
post-Cold War world.
Rotimi, K. 2001.
The
Police in a Federal State: The Nigerian Experience. Ibadan: College
Press.
From quite early in
colonial times and until the collapse of the First Republic, Nigeria had
a dual policing system. There was the armed Nigeria Police Force
controlled by the Federal Government. There were also the unarmed Native
Authority/Local Government Police Forces controlled by the Native
Authorities and Local Governments in the Northern and Western Regions.
These latter forces were abolished on the advent of military rule in
1966.
Substantial scholarly
attention has been devoted to the Nigeria Police Force, whereas very
little is known about the Native Authority/Local Government Police
Forces. And what little is known about them is clouded by the infamy
that they attracted before the collapse of the First Republic, as tools
of political oppression by the governing elite in the two regions that
owned them. That prejudice has coloured much of the debate, since the
inception of the Fourth Republic, about whether or not states should own
police forces parallel to the Nigeria Police Force.
This book, which is the
first comprehensive study of the origins, development, organisation,
role and demise of the Native Authority/Local Government Police Forces
clarifies many of the grey areas about their history and essence. It is
intended as a major contribution to the current debate about who should
own and control the police in a federal state like Nigeria.
Salih,
M.A.M. (ed.) 2003. African
Political Parties: Evolution, Institutionalisation and Governance.
London: Pluto Press.
The
authors of this collection interrogate the political health of African
political parties and evaluate the theory and practice of party
functions, ideology and structure. Through fresh analysis using a
variety of case studies, they question the democratic credentials of
African political parties and propose new methods for achieving
inclusive, broad-based representation. Themes include the evolution and
institutionalisation of African political parties; the unique
historical, political and social circumstances that shaped their
structures and functions. In the governance trajectory, the authors
question the relationship between African political parties and
government; political parties and representation; political parties and
electoral systems; and political parties and parliament. Case studies
include Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa,
Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and many others.
Sandbrook, R. 2000.
Closing
the Circle: Democratization and Development in Africa. Zed Books,
London.
It is a truism that many African
countries face a three-pronged tribulation – political tyranny; failed
capitalist development; and violent domestic conflict. What is less
clear, Richard Sandbrook argues in this thoughtful reflection on African
democracy and development, is what relationship may exist between
effective democratic institutions and the solution of the last two
problems. Drawing on a lifetime's study of African politics, he draws
particularly on the experience with democratisation of a carefully
selected sample of countries: Ghana, Mali and Niger in West Africa;
Zambia, Tanzania and Madagascar in East Africa; and Sudan.
Skard, T. 2003.
Continent
of Mothers, Continent of Hope: Understanding and Promoting Development
in Africa Today. London: Zed Books.
What
is Africa really like today? For all the ordinary townsmen, villagers,
and particularly mothers, breadwinners and children who live there?
Cutting through the Western media's stereotype picture of a continent
wracked only by civil conflict and AIDS, Torild Skard has written an
engrossing introduction to a continent in change. Based on her extensive
travels through the length and breadth of the region when she served as
UNICEF's Director in West and Central Africa in the 1990s, this
experienced writer combines eyewitness accounts, lively description and
deeply informed insight to portray the human reality of Africa today.
With honesty, cultural sensitivity and a commitment especially to women,
she frankly describes the social, health and other problems experienced
by its people, but also the sources of hope for the future represented
by courageous individuals, innovative community-level projects and
sensible programmes being implemented in the region by the international
agency whose work she coordinated.
This
highly readable account ranges over the social, economic and political
realities of modern-day Africa, as well as introducing the reader to its
history and complex cultures.
Schwab, P. 2001.
Africa: A Continent Self-Destructs. New York, NY; Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Can Africa survive? Many of the nations of
sub-Saharan African have all but ceased to exist as organized states:
tyranny, diseases such as AIDS, civil war, ethnic conflict and border
invasions threaten the complete disintegration of a region. Peter Schwab
offers a clear, authoritative portrait of a continent on the brink.
Globalisation and an accompanying level of economic health have passed
over Africa. Added to these factors is a patronising attitude from the
West that change in Africa must take place within Western parameters, a
UN that lacks any real power, and a US foreign policy in Africa that is
unclear. Looking to South Africa as an example of successful Western
support of an African nation, Schwab suggests that the US should use its
leverage to help democrats into positions of power and then work with
them under a framework dictated by the leaders themselves. It is only
with a distinctly African approach to African problems that the survival
of the continent can be assured.
Umoren, R. 2001. Economic Reforms and
Nigeria’s Political Crisis. Ibadan: Spectrum Books.
Economic Reforms and Nigeria’s Political
Crisis in an insightful analysis of the effects of exogenous economic
development strategies on the political crises of Nigeria and other
third world countries. Using Nigeria as a model, the author challenges
the often widely held view that Nigeria’s economic crisis is a
function of a self- imposed paralytic political framework. Rather, she
submits that the nearly two decades of Nigeria’s political turmoil
arise from the unfavourable externally fashioned economic reforms. She
anchors her thesis on a detailed review of official data and documents
from the World Bank, IMF, Central Bank of Nigeria and Nigeria’s
Federal office of Statistics, covering the SAP period, 1986-1991.
The Nigeria SAP experience is then weighed
against successful turn-around strategies of specific developed and
developing countries.
The book aims for a very wide readership in
Nigeria in particular and Africa at large where SAP has been most widely
implemented under day-to-day supervision of the World Bank and the IMF.
It will also be of great relevance to policy makers at various level
government, economists and people in related professions, the academia,
and the general populace.
de
Waal, A.
(ed.) 2002. Demilitarizing the Mind: African Agendas for Peace and
Security. Lawrenceville, NJ; Asmara: Africa World Press.
This book highlights a central but
neglected component of Africa’s complicated and intractable wars: the
militarisation of governance. Political cultures of militarism stand in
the way of enduring peace, democracy and the development of civil
society. Militarism comes in both right-wing and left-wing guises -- the
latter practiced by former liberation fronts in power across much of
Africa, which have all betrayed the ideals that enthused their earlier
struggles.
Seven comparative essays, drawn form
the experience of conflict and peacemaking, focus on different aspects
of militarism in contemporary Africa, and ways of overcoming it.
The essays, edited by Alex de Waal, are
unsigned and based on contributions by African political leaders and
policymakers. They represent some of the most innovative thinking on
African security dilemmas.
This book is based on a project by
Justice Africa and InterAfrica Group, the regional centre for dialogue
on issues of peace in the Horn of Africa.
de
Waal, A.
& Y. Ajawin (ed.) 2002. When Peace Comes: Civil Society and
Development in Sudan. Lawrenceville, NJ; Asmara: Africa World
Press.
Sudan’s civil war is 18 years old-but
it must come to an end
sometime. What challenges will face the Sudanese state and civil society
as they try to reconstruct a ravaged and divided country? How will a
post-war Sudan respond to the challenges of globalisation while it tries
to rehabilitate its economy, resettle its refugees, and rebuild its
institutions?
This book is the second in a series
published by Justice Africa and the Committee of the Civil Project,
representing the outcome of extensive research and consultation by a
wide range of Sudanese scholars and activists.
Wanyeki,
L.M.
(ed.) 2003. Women and Land in Africa: Culture, Religion and Realizing
Women’s Rights. London: Zed Books.
This volume reports on ongoing original
research into the changing situations which rural African women are
experiencing in relation to land rights. Undertaken with an explicitly
political intention, its authors came together in order to link research
and analysis with advocacy and action – the purpose being to
contribute towards equalising gender relations in Africa and promoting
the ability of African women to achieve a greater measure of economic
independence as well as other human rights.
A number of countries were selected: from West
and East Africa and the Horn; Islamic and non-Islamic. After examining
women's land rights in theory and practice in Nigeria, Cameroon,
Senegal, Ethiopia and Uganda, the contributors highlight key land rights
issues and make recommendations for each country. And in a particularly
interesting innovation, the volume examines the case of Ethiopia where
an explicit attempt has been made not only to make the research findings
available beyond the academic community, but to deploy this information
in a rolling programme of advocacy around women's land rights.
Watson, R. 2003.
‘Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan’: Chieftaincy &
Civic Culture in a Yoruba City. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press;
Oxford: James Currey; Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books (Nigeria).
This
book is a study of chieftaincy and political culture in Ibadan, the most
populous city in Britain's largest West African colony, Nigeria.
Examining the period between 1829 and 1939, it shows how and why the
processes through which Ibadan was made into a civic community shifted
from the battlefield to a discursive field. Concentrating on the
early-to-mid colonial period, the book's focus on political discourse
encompasses Ibadan's pre-colonial past, because forms of social action
and political argument were always legitimated in terms of past
precedents.
This book offers a contribution to the social and cultural history
of British colonial administration in Africa, as well as to the field of
urban history. It should be of interest to anthropologists and social
scientists for its innovative approach to the study of political
culture.
Webster,
N. & L. Engberg-Pedersen
(eds.) 2002. In the Name of the Poor: Contesting
Political Space for Poverty Reduction.
Zed Books, London.
Current
development discourse on poverty reduction mainly emphasises the
respective roles of the state and the market. This book argues, via a
series of original fieldwork investigations, for the importance of
exploring and understanding the poor's own actions. These actions may
seek to change their poverty directly. Or the poor may seek to effect
change with respect to the formulation and implementation of public
policy. The notion of political space is critical to understanding the
possibility and potential for such actions for poverty reduction.
The
authors develop a concept of political space comprising institutional
channels for accessing policy formulation, the content of political
discourse, the degree to which it emphasises poverty as an issue, and
the skill and strategies of the poor themselves. They demonstrate that
the relationships between the actions of the poor and the organisations
and institutions of the political arena are neither simple nor
predictable. Instead the studies in this volume detail the complex
realities of political agency of the poor, the strategic use of
discourse, the limits of institutional reform, the contested nature of
poverty reduction, and the significance of political space for
challenging conditions of marginalisation.