{"title":"Africa Focussed Mining Conferences: An Overview and Analysis","authors":"M. O’Callaghan","doi":"10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-2/151-197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-2/151-197","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the African continent having extensive mineral wealth much desired by industrialized nations it is also a region rife with poverty and under-development and there is little evidence that it has benefited from these resources. Beginning in the early the 2000s the price of major minerals, especially copper and gold, rose to new heights (with the exception of the 2008/2009 Global Financial Crisis slump). These price rises created greatly increased global interest in the continent's extensive mineral wealth and enabled many new mining activities in Africa to be initiated. While some corporate mining conferences had been held in earlier years their numbers increased concurrently with the greatly increased level of exploration and mining activities. They included national, regional and international events and also some with mineral specific foci. During the same period civil society-based movements concerned about the negative social impact of mining, and being part of a bigger global movement, also became increasingly active.","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44643424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Virginia Mapedzahama, T. Rudge, S. West, Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo
{"title":"Making and maintaining racialised ignorance in Australian nursing workplaces: The case of black African migrant nurses","authors":"Virginia Mapedzahama, T. Rudge, S. West, Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo","doi":"10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-2/48-73","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-2/48-73","url":null,"abstract":"In this article we apply a sociological framework of ignorance to explore the experiences of black African migrant nurses working in the Australian healthcare system. We contend that explorations of how ignorance is constructed, maintained and utilised within workplaces are critical for a nuanced understanding of black African skilled migrants' subjective experiences of institutional racism. This article draws on interview data investigating black African migrant nurses workplace experiences. We examine the intersection between the 'native ignorance' (Proctor, 2008) of the migrant (ignorance as deficit or lack of knowledge) and 'active' or 'systemic' ignorance' (ignorance as intentionally or unintentionally constructed within the workplace) and from this analysis make two significant claims. First, that black African migrant nurses' ignorance about their work/place is created, maintained and reproduced through practices such as: failing to provide important and accurate information about the workplace; the non-recognition, undermining and/or devaluing of black migrant nurses' knowledge, skills and experience; organisational secrecy; and racial stereotyping. Second, that the maintenance of systemic ignorance serves to construct a migrant who is both unknowing and suspect, and therefore incompetent and in need of surveillance. These constructions lead to the underutilisation of black migrant nurses' skills and reproduce institutional racism while also negating the potential economic benefits of migration and undermining the rationales for recruiting black African migrant nurses into Australia's nursing workforce. We live in an age of ignorance, and it is important to understand how this came to be and why... [so as] to explore how ignorance is produced and maintained in diverse settings, through mechanisms such as deliberate or inadvertent neglect, secrecy and suppression, document destruction, unquestioned tradition and myriad forms of inherent (or unavoidable) culturopolitical selectivity.","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47194509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘It still matters’: The role of skin colour in the everyday life and realities of black African migrants and refugees in Australia","authors":"Hyacinth Udah, Parlo Singh","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-2/19-47","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-2/19-47","url":null,"abstract":"This article looks at the everyday life and realities of some of Australia's most recent immigrant communities, by shedding light on the experiences of black Africans in Queensland. Particularly, this article examines the experiences of black African migrants and refugees living in South East Queensland, to better understand how race, skin colour and immigration status interact to shape their everyday lives and social location in Australia. Data were collected from 30 participants using qualitative research methods. The theoretical approach employed synthesises concepts from identity, blackness, race and racism, whiteness and critical race theory. The subjective experiences of the participants interviewed indicate that skin colour still matters in determining life chances for black Africans in Australia. While the empirical focus is specific to Australia, this article contributes to the research literature in valuable ways, both from a theoretical perspective and in terms of a comparative contextualisation of racism.","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44982241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Togoland’s lingering legacy: the case of the demarcation of the Volta Region in Ghana and the revival of competing nationalisms","authors":"Ashley Bulgarelli","doi":"10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-2/222-238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-2/222-238","url":null,"abstract":"Since independence in 1957, the Volta Region of Ghana has endured ethnic-riddled internal torment and has been used as a pawn in national and international political struggles. The looming decision by the Ghanaian government to demarcate the Volta Region, to create the new Oti Region, has revived nationalistic sentiments that stem from the 1880's German protectorate of Togoland which encompassed the region. Drawing upon theories of nationalism, this article reflects upon the turbulent history of the area and situates the three competing nationalisms of Ewe, Voltarian and Western Togoland, amidst the current political and social debate. This article suggests that these nationalisms are precariously balanced as the proposed Oti Region threatens to redefine the future of each and give rise to a dominant Voltarian identity.","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47529930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Africa and the Rhetoric of Good Governance","authors":"H. Ware","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-2/198-221","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-2/198-221","url":null,"abstract":"Judging by their public statements everyone in Africa is in favour of good governance: governments, public servants, business people, civil society, donors and other international organizations. There are two problems with this positive view. Firstly, there are as many different definitions of good governance as there are organisations, with the multiple verbal differences reflecting real variations in how organizations and individuals wish to see their worlds shaped. Secondly, for all of these players there are vast gaps between the rhetoric and the reality, depending on the political context, struggles over access to power and opportunities for illicit material gains. In the public shadow play, African Union (AU) and donor treaties and charters and national plans, programmes and laws rule the world. In the lived reality, daily faced by the masses, it is every one for them self and the leaders with the most followers beholden to them and the biggest Swiss bank accounts win. The cases of governance in Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda are examined to explore the gap between rhetoric and reality, keeping in mind the real consequences for the forgotten villagers and slum dwellers of Africa who have never heard of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance adopted by the AU in 2007.","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49260527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Africa’s Past Invented to Serve Development’s Uncertain Future","authors":"S. Macwilliam","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-1/13-38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-1/13-38","url":null,"abstract":"This essay examines the proposition that development, which has stalled since Independence in many African countries, can be restarted by the restoration of colonial governance. This form of rule, in place from the end of the 19th until the middle of the last century, was supposedly responsible for major improvements in a range of living conditions for colonial populations. The end of colonial governance, it is alleged, led to corruption and impoverishment for many people. Here it is argued that, as offensive as many may find the claim that colonial rule was beneficial for subject peoples, the purpose of the proposition should receive attention. The call for the return of colonial governance is placed within a wider, more influential series of proposals for how to bring development at a moment of uncertainty through a range of governance reforms. These proposals struggle with the politics of capitalist development, particularly the fraught relationship between development and democracy. The virtue of the call for the return of colonial governance is that it at least makes clear the increasingly prevalent assertion that democracy should be a lower priority than development.","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47052081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Celebrating 40 Years of the Australasian Review of African Studies: A Bibliography of Articles","authors":"Tanya Lyons","doi":"10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-1/144-169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-1/144-169","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46691232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“There is really discrimination everywhere”: Experiences and consequences of Everyday Racism among the new black African diaspora in Australia","authors":"Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo, Virginia Mapedzahama","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-1/81-109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-1/81-109","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we use Philomena Essed’s (1988) concept of ‘Everyday Racism’ as a theoretical framework to introduce critical perspectives for understanding experiences of contemporary racism among the new African diaspora in Australia. The concept deals with the everyday manifestations and (re)production of systemic inequality based on race and/or assumptions around race, whether intended or unintended. Our findings expose the covert, subtle and contestable forms that racism takes in Australian society and the consequences it has for black Africans. By discussing participants’ views and opinions about working and living as skilled black African migrants in Australia, this article explores how racism continues to be perpetuated in Australia, where most citizens profess a commitment to the democratic principles of justice, equality, tolerance and ‘a fair go’. We conclude that, for our black African respondents who experience racism regularly in their daily lives, the consequences are real and painful, manifesting in recurring themes such as the burden of proof; the weight of history and historicity; the ‘constriction of experience’; and a superfluous self-surveillance and selfinterrogation.","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41245402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decolonising African Studies – The Politics of Publishing","authors":"Tanya Lyons","doi":"10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-1/3-12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-1/3-12","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46376074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Africa ‘Pretty Underdone’: 2017 Submissions to the DFAT White Paper and Senate Inquiry","authors":"H. Ware, D. Lucas","doi":"10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-1/130-143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/aras-2018-39-1/130-143","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42732,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Review of African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68166435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}