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Marriage and Memories of the Slave Trade Among the Ejaghams of Cameroon's Cross River Region Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2024-03-14 Maurine Ekun Nyok
Using interview data collected from communities in Cameroon's Cross River region, this study examines the experiences of “slave descendants” in their marriages/attempted marriages with “freemen.” Using theories from Mary Douglas and Erving Goffman to analyse their stories, I demonstrate that while “slave descendants” are legally permitted to marry members of “freeman” origin, in practice, some cultural
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Divine Mandates and Political Realities: Exploring Power, Religion, and Transition in the Gambia Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2024-02-15 Danielle Agyemang, Vilashini Somiah, Khoo Ying Hooi
This article analyses the role of religious symbolism and religiosity during The Gambia’s autocracy (1994–2017) and its democratic transition (2017–2023). Former autocratic ruler, Yahya Jammeh, exploited religious symbolism to legitimise his authority, leading to crackdowns, extrajudicial punishment, and political repression. Drawing on community engagements and interviews with 61 civil-society members
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Decolonial Dilemmas: The Deception of a “Global Knowledge Commonwealth” and the Tragedian Entrapment of an African Scholar Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2024-02-05 Yusuf K. Serunkuma
There are multiple initiatives and efforts to grant African scholars “global visibility” – as part of the decolonisation agenda. These efforts have included aiding and enabling African scholars to publish in journals of international renown, speaking or curating courses at Ivy League universities, and being experts on issues about Africa in international media. Other efforts include collaborations
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Amidst Clinical Dissonance: Offensive Agency as a Survival Strategy in Plural Southeastern Nigeria Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2023-03-20 Chidi Ugwu
From the colonial days, the dibia (folk practitioner) in the Igbo-speaking southeast of Nigeria, as elsewhere, has been maligned by hegemonic Christianity and biomedicine. The consequent public rel...
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Gatekeeping Through Music: A Case of the Patriotic Front in Zambia Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2023-03-15 James Musonda
What can music used by politicians during campaigns tell us about their behaviour, character and their rule? The article responds to this question by analysing political songs used by Patriotic Fro...
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From ‘Anglophone Problem’ to ‘Anglophone Conflict’ in Cameroon: Assessing Prospects for Peace Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2023-02-13 Maurice Beseng, Gordon Crawford, Nancy Annan
Since 2017, an armed conflict has been raging in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon between separatist forces and the Cameroonian military. This review analyses the historical origins and roo...
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The History of Dictatorship: Custom, Authority, and Power in Precolonial and Colonial Uganda Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2023-01-18 Yahya Sseremba
Intervening in the enduring debate on the origins of the African state, this article examines the processes of producing custom in the Ugandan societies of precolonial Bunyoro and colonial Toro to ...
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Between Coups and Election: Constitutional Engineering and Military Entrenchment in Sudan Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-11-15 Hager Ali, Salah Ben Hammou, Jonathan M. Powell
This article investigates how armies re-entrench their power after thwarting democratic transitions. After the Sudanese military staged a coup in October 2021 and altered the transitional constitut...
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Do Hegemonic-Party Regimes Reward or Punish Voters? A Tale of Distributive Politics in Tanzania Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-11-10 Francisco M.P. Mugizi, Parestico Pastory
Does resource allocation by the central government to local governments in Tanzania favour opposition or the ruling party's strongholds? The literature advances two opposing theories – electoral co...
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Systematic Review of Gender and Humanitarian Situations Across Africa Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-10-06 Chikezirim Nwoke, Logan Cochrane
For decades, as evidenced in programming and research, the humanitarian community has recognised gender equality and equity as integral to effective programming and response. Drawing upon ninety-ni...
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Catholic Missionary Work and “Political” Support: The Tokombéré Youth Centre Since 1974 Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-07-18 Baskouda S. K. Shelley
This paper studies how the Tokombéré Youth Centre, a secular place attached to the Roman Catholic Church, has led to the political formation of young people in Tokombéré, northern Cameroon. This is...
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Book Review: Undoing Coups. The African Union and Post-coup Intervention in Madagascar by Antonia Witt Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-06-28 Christof Hartmann
The recent wave of military coups from Sudan to Guinea, and from Mali to Burkina Faso might have come as a surprise to many observers given the longstanding commitment of African regional organizations to a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ against unconstitutional changes of government. Deposed incumbents did not return to their presidential office in any of these cases, and while putschists faced sanctions
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Brewing Tensions: The Colonial Gaze of the German–Namibian Publishing Industry Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-06-14 Tycho Alexander van der Hoog
The call to decolonize African Studies has a profound influence on the field, with varying degrees of success. This article addresses this topic in relation to the author’s personal experiences in ...
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“Stop Calling Me a Youth!”: Understanding and Analysing Heterogeneity Among Ugandan Youth Agripreneurs Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-06-12 Maya Turolla, Haley J. Swedlund, Marc Schut, Perez Muchunguzi
The African “youth” population is growing at a fast and steady pace, attracting attention from scholars, policymakers, and politicians. Yet, we know relatively little about this large and heterogen...
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African Renaissance, Afrotopia, Afropolitanism, and Afrofuturism: Comparing Conceptual Properties of Four African Futures Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-05-18 Lena Kroeker
Since the turn of the millennium, the African continent has been extremely active in producing African futures. These are part of the multiple non-western modernities existing simultaneously; moder...
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The Quantification of Child Labour by Ghana’s Mass Media: A Missed Opportunity? Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-04-27 Kalaria Okali, Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, James Sumberg
This article describes how the mass media in Ghana use quantitative information to communicate the prevalence of child labour. During the period 2000–2020, stories about child labour frequently app...
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Africa's Middle Classes Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-03-31 Henning Melber
Since the early 21st century, the middle classes of the Global South became a focus of attention. However, a precarious minimum income was all it took to be considered middle class. But who exactly...
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Book Review: Necropolitics by Mbembe A Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-03-18 Saswat Samay Das, Dibyendu Sahana
In his book Necropolitics, published in late 2019, Mbembe does not restrict himself to showing us new ways of critiquing democracy. Rather he offers us a new critical grammatology so we could work out a configuration that may stand as an alternative to democracy and the ethical tone and temper of the coming time. This is because, for Mbembe, contemporary forms of democracies have ended up becoming
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Book Review: Africa Since Decolonization. The History and Politics of a Diverse Continent by Welz, Martin Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-03-16 Henning Melber
This is a laudable effort to deconstruct “Africa” by replacing sweeping statements on an entire continent in its diversity by a selection of themes and cases to illustrate realities on the ground in specific contexts. As the author points out in the Epilogue, it is hardly possible to “summarize a condensed version of African history and politics since decolonization” (282). His effort therefore relies
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Book Review: Risko und HIV/Aids in Botswana. Leben in der Pandemie by Astrid Bochow Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-03-15 Marian Burchardt
Since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, scholars have debated whether it exacerbated existing social inequalities. For many African social scientists, such debates resonated with collective experiences with HIV/AIDS which have disproportionately affected the lower segments of social hierarchies.
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Change is the Only Constant in Life Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-03-14 Julia Grauvogel
With this issue (1/2022), my time as co-editor-in-chief of Africa Spectrum comes to an end after almost 4 years. I look back fondly on the fruitful cooperation with our team of dedicated associate editors, with the editorial advisory board, and – last but not least – with my co-editor-in-chief Leonardo Arriola. Leonardo's and my collaboration was always rewarding, as it was based on mutual trust, respect
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Dear German Academia: What is Your Role in African Knowledge Production? Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-03-09 Lynda Chinenye Iroulo, Juliana Tappe Ortiz
Although African critical scholars since the 19th century have challenged the culture of studying and writing about Africa, research practices on Africa are still entangled in epistemic injustices resulting from colonial structures of power. In this reflective contribution, we illustrate how such knowledge production perpetuates coloniality and outline the ways in which academic coloniality affects
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Changing the Rules: Institutions, Party Systems, and the Frequency of Constitutional Amendments in Africa Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-02-23 Christian B. Jensen, Michelle Kuenzi, Jonathan-Georges Mehanna
What factors influence constitutional stability in the emerging democracies of Sub-Saharan Africa? This is an important question that has never been addressed in a systematic cross-national study of Africa's emerging democracies. Using the Comparative Constitutions Project dataset and our own original dataset for veto players and party systems, we examine the influence of veto players and party system
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African Studies in Distress: German Scholarship on Africa and the Neglected Challenge of Decoloniality Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2022-02-16 Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Rüdiger Seesemann, Christine Vogt-William
This paper is a response to Matthias Basedau's article published in issue 55/2020 of the present journal. At a time when African Studies scholarship is rising beyond the flogging of dead horses, certain strands in the field in Germany seem to ignore much of the valuable scholarship and intellectual contributions by excellent African and non-African researchers alike. It is striking to see how Basedau
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Understanding African Agency in Peace and Security: Tanzania’s Implementation of “Non-Indifference” in Somalia Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-11-12 Stephanie Jaensch
Against the backdrop of the plurality of agents and contexts, Africa’s peace and security norms have remained contested and open to interpretation in political practice. This article argues that African agents manifest their agencies precisely through their distinct interpretation and implementation of security norms. Based on Tanzania’s rejection to join the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)
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Precarity, Permits, and Prayers: “Working Practices” of Congolese Asylum-Seeking Women in Cape Town Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-11-11 Henrietta Nyamnjoh, Suzanne Hall, Liza Rose Cirolia
This paper provides an ethnographic reading of how Congolese women, in particular aslyum seekers with temporary permits, navigate Cape Town's informal urban economy. We argue that the intersections of temporary permit status and gender, as well as the particularities of diaspora flows and settlements, compound the precarity of everyday life. We engage with how precarity shapes and is shaped by what
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African and Not Religious: The State of Research on Sub-Saharan Religious Nones and New Scholarly Horizons Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-11-10 Yonatan N. Gez, Nadia Beider, Helga Dickow
Sub-Saharan African societies are widely seen as highly religious. However, at least 30 million Sub-Saharan Africans identify themselves as “religious nones” and are supposedly not affiliated with any religious tradition. While research interest in religious nones has been growing in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, there is a dearth of literature on nones in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this
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Exploring Africa's Agency in International Politics Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-10-27 Amanda Coffie, Lembe Tiky
A protracted conventional knowledge within mainstream International Relations (IR) has been that African agents (states, organizations, and diplomats) are consumers of international norms and practices designed in the affluent countries of the Global North. Papers in this special issue present a challenge to this view; they discuss the active role and the influence of African actors in international
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Book Review: Classify, Exclude, Police: Urban Lives in South Africa and Nigeria by Laurent Fourchard Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-10-18 Leila Demarest
For over two decades, Laurent Fourchard has navigated urban spaces in both Nigeria and South Africa. With a specific focus on low-income neighborhoods, he has analyzed migrant settlement and exclusion, vigilantism, and patronage politics. This book captures his (provisional) findings on these themes. It is a translation and updated version of his 2018 book ‘Trier, exclure et policer: vies urbaines
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The Winning Party Platform: Voter Perceptions of Party Positions and Voting in Urban Africa Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-08-24 Eun Kyung Kim, Hye-Sung Kim
Previous literature suggests that some African parties employ non-valence positional issues in their party platforms and that this practice is more prevalent in some countries than in others; however, no quantitative research has analysed the electoral effects of non-valenced campaigns. How do African voters perceive parties’ policy positions? Who uses party platforms to choose candidates? Using data
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Non-Electoral Executive Turnover and Low-Capacity Democracy in Southern Africa Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-08-24 Nathan Munier
What do non-electoral turnovers tell us about the relationship between elections, executive turnover, and democratisation? Can they contribute to democratisation? To gain insight into these questions, we consider the experiences of Southern Africa. While transfers of executive authority have become commonplace in Southern Africa, they do not necessarily coincide with elections and rarely involve partisan
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Book Review: Under Construction: Technologies of Development in Urban Ethiopia Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-08-19 Kirsten Milo Nielsen
State-led infrastructural development is booming across Africa. In Under Construction: Technologies of Development in Urban Ethiopia, Daniel Mains examines the construction of primarily transportation infrastructures in two cities in Ethiopia: Jimma and Hawassa. Applying “construction” as a methodological and analytical framework, Mains offers a new approach for studying and conceptualising state/citizens
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Book Review: Implementing Inequality: The Invisible Labor of International Development Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-07-20 Aishwarya Bhuta
In her first book Implementing Inequality: The Invisible Labor of International Development (2020), Rebecca Warne Peters presents an interesting account of the international development industry. This case study is an outcome of her ethnographic investigation of the Good Governance in Angola Programme (GGAP). This was a quinquennial programme implemented in two phases in several provinces of Angola
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Ethnicity, Exclusion, and Exams: Education Policy and Politics in Burundi from the Independent Republics to the Civil War (1966–1993) Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-06-28 Emily Dunlop
Education policy can embed ethnic inequalities in a country. Education in Burundi, with its historically exclusive political institutions and education, represents an important case for understanding these interactions. In this article, I interview twelve Burundians about how they experienced and perceived ethnicity and politics in their schooling from 1966 to 1993. I argue that education contributed
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Patronage, Repression, and Co-Optation: Bobi Wine and the Political Economy of Activist Musicians in Uganda Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-06-28 Julian Friesinger
In recent decades, musicians have figured prominently on Africa’s political stage. Popular Ugandan musician Bobi Wine moved beyond protest singer and ventured into politics by entering parliament in 2017 and challenging long-term President Yoweri Museveni at the presidential polls in 2021. To push for social change, Wine created the People Power movement and built an alliance with fellow musicians
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African Agency in Practice: Acquiring Agency and Institutional Change in the West African Health Organisation Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-06-24 Emmanuel Balogun
This article investigates how practitioners in the West African Health Organization (WAHO) obtain and exercise autonomous political agency in the development of regional health policy. While many process-driven accounts of African agency focus on the freedom and ability of African governments and regional organisations to act and not be acted upon, the article finds that it is necessary look within
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Punching above Weight: How the African Union Commission Exercises Agency in Politics Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-06-24 Thomas Kwasi Tieku
Conventional narratives suggest that the African Union Commission (AUC), like most international public administrations and international organisations (IOs) housed in the less materially endowed regions of the world, exercises no meaningful agency on international issues. This article however seeks to show that the AUC is neither a glorified messenger and docile follower of orders of governments nor
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Book Review: Hunting Game: Raiding Politics in the Central African Republic Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-06-10 Gino Vlavonou
How can we better understand areas where the authority of the central state is largely absent? Although we live in an international system dominated by states, there are numerous areas where their authority is uncertain. To better understand this reality, Lombard engages in a historical and contemporary description of life and interactions in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) Northeastern region
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The Resurgence of Religious and Ethnic Identities among Eritrean Refugees: A Response to the Government’s Nationalist Ideology Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-05-02 Abdulkader Saleh Mohammad
This article explores processes of identity formation in Eritrean diaspora communities that have reverted to subnational patterns of identification grounded in the historical-political crises of their homeland. Refugees from Eritrea’s open-ended national service have ambivalent feelings towards their national identity: on the surface, they stress the cohesiveness of the Eritrean people, but in their
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Eritrea’s Chosen Trauma and the Legacy of the Martyrs: The Impact of Postmemory on Political Identity Formation of Second-Generation Diaspora Eritreans Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-05-02 Nicole Hirt
In the collective memory of Eritreans, the liberation struggle against Ethiopia symbolises the heroic fight of their fallen martyrs against oppression. After independence, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front created an autocratic regime, which is adored by many second-generation diaspora Eritreans living in democracies. I engage with bodies of literature exploring the political importance of collective
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Citizenship, Indigeneity, and the Experiences of 1.5- and Second-Generation Fulani Herders in Ghana Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-05-02 Mary B. Setrana
Issues of indigeneity and citizenship rights for second-generation pastoralist migrants across the West African States have received little to no attention in migration and pastoralist studies. This article explores this under-researched area in the field of migration studies and revisits the highly contested migration–citizenship nexus among Fulani herders in the Shai-Osu-Doku and Agogo traditional
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Remittance Houses and Transnational Citizenship: Mapping Eritrea’s Diaspora–State Relationships Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-05-02 Milena Belloni
Can diaspora houses be used as a site to explore transnational citizenship? Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Eritrea, this article shows that different kinds of remittance houses reify different categories of transnational citizens with various sets of rights and duties. Drawing on studies on state–diaspora relations and remittance houses, I illustrate the key role that housing plays in the Eritrean
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Transnational Lived Citizenship – The Case of the Eritrean Diaspora Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-05-02 Tanja R. Müller, Milena Belloni
This special focus section analyses state–diaspora relationships with a focus on the case of Eritrea, a paradigmatic example, as we show in this introduction, to elaborate on the following key questions: What determines loyalty between diaspora and the state? How can we understand the dynamics of co-optation, loyalty, and resistance that characterise many diaspora–state relationships? What is the role
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Book Review: The Postcolonial African State in Transition: Stateness and Modes of Sovereignty Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-04-21 Norman Sempijja
This well-written book cuts across several disciplines such as history, sociology, political science, anthropology, and international relations when exploring the process of state formation and the exercise of power in the Voltaic region. The Voltaic region is located in West Africa and the book spefically focusses on the Mossi, Mamprugu, Dagbon, Nanun, and decentralised societies such as the Kasena
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Book Review: The Terrorist Album: Apartheid’s Insurgents, Collaborators, and the Security Police Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-04-08 Nicholas Rush Smith
Jacob Dlamini’s books do not provide easy answers. Perhaps this is because they do not ask easy questions. Indeed, his work examines some of the most uncomfortable topics in South African politics. For example, his first book, Native Nostalgia, explores the surprisingly fond memories that some black South Africans have for elements of the apartheid era, even as they abhorred its racism. In another
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Rethinking African Futures after COVID-19 Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-03-29 Detlef Müller-Mahn, Eric Kioko
This article focuses on the impact of COVID-19 in Africa, describes its effects for ongoing research, and asks how it may impact African studies. In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the pandemic is changing the way people think about the future. The crisis gives rise to a feeling of uncertainty, while casting doubt on future orientations based on forecasts and planning. This scepticism does not concern
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Book Review: Mines, Communities, and States: The Local Politics of Natural Resource Extraction in Africa Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-03-23 Alma A. Bezares Calderón
In this book, Jessica Steinberg introduces a solid and eloquent theory on the interactions between the state, mining companies, and the local population in mining communities in the African continent. The book argues that, in the presence of fixed natural resources, these three actors will interact strategically based on their perception and information of the current context. These interactions will
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Book Review: Humanitarianism and the Quantification of Human Needs: Minimal Humanity Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-03-08 Agnes Bresselau von Bressensdorf
In the last couple of years, historians and sociologists have published a number of studies on the history of humanitarianism. Besides books that deal with the ideological roots of humanitarianism and its periodisation, we also find empirical case studies about various humanitarian actors and their work on the ground. The new book, Humanitarianism and the Quantification of Human Needs, by Joël Glasman
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Book Review: International Law and Transitional Governance Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-03-02 Julia Strasheim
From the Transitional Executive Council in the lead-up to South Africa’s 1994 general election to the ongoing transition in Sudan: Transitional governments, which are typically understood as temporary exercises of public power by an interim executive and/or legislative body, have since 1989 been among the most frequent instruments for conducting governance in the aftermath of violent conflict or political
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Presidential Term Limits and Regime Types: When Do Leaders Respect Constitutional Norms? Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-02-22 Anja Osei, Hervé Akinocho, Stephen Mwombela
Why do some leaders respect constitutional provisions like presidential term limits, while others do not? For all regimes, constitutions are important reference texts that provide some basic rules of the game. Within this framework, term limits and electoral laws are crucial because they are directly concerned with the exercise of power. Using Geddes’ regime typology, this article is proposing a regime-oriented
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Process Tracing the Term Limit Struggle in Malawi: The Role of International Democracy Promotion in Muluzi’s Bid for a Third Term Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-02-22 Daniel Nowack
Attempts to circumvent presidential term limits in African countries show a puzzling variation of success or failure. This variation is due to both international and domestic factors. However, how these interact is not yet well understood. This article analyses how international donors and organisations intervened in the attempted term limit circumvention in Malawi from 1999 to 2003. It differentiates
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Autocratisation by Term Limits Manipulation in Sub-Saharan Africa Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-02-22 Andrea Cassani
Besides the introduction of multi-party elections, the sub-Saharan wave of democratic reforms of the 1990s encompassed the introduction of limits to the number of terms that a chief executive can serve. Executive term limits (ETLs) are key for democracy to advance in a continent with a legacy of personal rule. However, the manipulation of ETLs has become a recurring mode of autocratisation, through
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Political Vigilante Groups in Ghana: Violence or Democracy? Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-02-22 Justice Richard Kwabena Owusu Kyei, Lidewyde H. Berckmoes
Literature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who engage in political mobilisation and participation and therewith also contribute to nation state building. It explores how such groups participate in Ghana’s democratic governance and asks whether violence is
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Book review: Power, Culture and Modernity in Nigeria: Beyond the Colony Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-02-22 Abimbola O. Adesoji
Oluwatoyin Oduntan’s Power, Culture and Modernity in Nigeria: Beyond the Colony probes deeply into the interplay of power and culture in Abeokuta, Nigeria. It addresses the emergence of Egba nationality and identity and the centralisation and domination of the Alake chieftaincy beginning in the nineteenth century. The book is a careful and rigorous re-interpretation of existing but hitherto neglected
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Presidential Tenure and Constitutional Provisions: Recent Evidence from Central Africa Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-02-22 Mark Dawson, Daniel J. Young
Constitutions around Africa have been repeatedly tested on the issue of presidential term limits. We explore the four most recent cases of African presidents facing the end of their constitutionally mandated limit, all of which developed in Central Africa. Burundi, Rwanda, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo all adopted constitutions limiting presidential tenure to two terms;
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The Study of Term Limits in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons on Democratisation and Autocratisation Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-02-22 Julia Grauvogel, Charlotte Heyl
Studies on term limits in Africa have proliferated over the past two decades. This introduction to the special issue on the struggle over term limits contributes to advancing the research agenda with novel empirical evidence and a rigorous conceptual framework. Moreover, we propose complementing existing work on term limits and democratisation with a more explicit focus on their repercussions for authoritarian
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Book Review: Women in Arabic Literature in Nigeria: Issues, Expressions, Analysis (Being Synopsis of the Arabic Version) Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-02-21 Adewuyi Aremu Ayodeji
The incorporation of Western feminism in African writing and activism presents a challenge for theology and literary scholars. In Women in Arabic Literature in Nigeria, Katibi staunchly agrees that women have been marginalised and largely misrepresented in literary scholarship across cultures and religions over the past centuries. He also establishes that this marginalisation stemmed from the patriarchal
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Book Review: Vertreibung und Widerstand im sudanesischen Niltal: Ein Staudammprojekt und der Versuch zu bleiben Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2021-02-02 Franz Krause
When the Merowe Dam was completed on the fourth cataract of the River Nile in Sudan in 2008, it began to flood a huge area of 476 km², which included large parts of the homeland of the Manasir people and 80 per cent of their farmland. Doubling Sudan’s electricity generation capacity, the dam also displaced 70,000 people, among them 30,000 Manasir, and significantly impaired regional livelihoods. Valerie
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Book Review: Cooking Data: Culture & Politics in an African Research World Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2020-11-19 Tanja D. Hendriks
Anthropology is a discipline often considered wary of or even antagonistic towards quantitative data. In the book Cooking Data: Culture and Politics in an African Research World, C Biruk addresses this in a nuanced way, not by merely showing how quantitative data “gets it wrong,” but rather by rendering visible the knowledge it produces and how this in turn produces our shared world: “Numbers – and
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New Voices, New Perspectives Africa Spectrum (IF 1.818) Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Leonardo Arriola, Julia Grauvogel
Africa Spectrum’s revitalisation continues. We have embarked on a process of building on the journal’s traditional strengths while seeking to increase its ability to publish original scholarship that informs important debates that pertain to the African continent. Early efforts led by Julia Grauvogel are already paying off. The journal’s impact factor has increased for the second year in a row, rising