{"title":"Canada and the African Union: towards a shared agenda","authors":"Rita Abrahamsen, Barbra Chimhandamba","doi":"10.1080/00083968.2023.2252532","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2023.2252532","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTIn the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, global powers are not only scrambling for Africa’s abundant resources but also jostling for its political attention. In the midst of this new geopolitical environment of heightened tension, Canada is developing its first ever engagement framework for Africa. In light of this, we argue that the African Union (AU) should be central to Canada’s engagement strategy. Canada’s ability to engage bilaterally with fifty-four countries is inevitably limited. At the same time, the AU is increasingly speaking with a stronger, more unified voice on the international stage, seeking to position Africa as an influential global partner. Many of the AU’s founding principles and guiding norms support a rules-based multilateral order, and Canada and the organisation can find common ground in seeking not only to strengthen but also possibly improve and reform what is commonly known as the rules-based liberal international order.RÉSUMÉÀ la suite de l’invasion de l’Ukraine par la Russie, les puissances mondiales se bousculent non seulement pour exploiter les ressources abondantes de l’Afrique, mais aussi pour attirer son attention politique. Dans ce nouvel environnement géopolitique marqué par l’accroissement des tensions, le Canada élabore son tout premier cadre d’engagement en Afrique. À la lumière de cette situation, nous soutenons que l’Union africaine (UA) doit être au cœur de la stratégie d’engagement du Canada. La capacité du Canada à s’engager bilatéralement avec 54 pays est inévitablement limitée. Dans le même temps, l’UA s’exprime de plus en plus d’une voix plus forte et plus unie sur la scène internationale, cherchant à positionner l’Afrique comme un partenaire mondial influent. Beaucoup des principes fondateurs et normes directrices de l’UA soutiennent un ordre multilatéral fondé sur des règles, et le Canada et l’organisation peuvent trouver un terrain d’entente en cherchant non seulement à renforcer, mais aussi à éventuellement améliorer et réformer ce que l’on appelle communément l’ordre international libéral fondé sur des règles.KEYWORDS: CanadaAfricaAfrican Unioninternational cooperationdiplomacyMOTS-CLÉS: CanadaAfriqueUnion africainecoopération internationalediplomatie AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge the research assistance provided by Dr Farai Chipato and Ms Bucky Badejo.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 This commentary draws on the report Canada and the African Union: Towards a Shared Agenda, published by the Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS) in February 2023. In preparation of the report, we benefitted from the insights and comments of numerous individuals in the African Union, Global Affairs Canada, diplomatic representatives to the AU, and academic experts in Africa, Canada and beyond.2 The AU does, of course, sometimes fail to live up to its principles, and the same can be said for Canada.Additional informationFunding","PeriodicalId":44599,"journal":{"name":"CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134902817","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":"China in Africa, environmental governance and civil society: the case of the Kua Forest in Burkina Faso","authors":"Asma Amina Belem","doi":"10.1080/00083968.2023.2245929","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2023.2245929","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTAlong with China's rapidly expanding economic links with Africa, Chinese projects on the continent are increasingly the subject of environmental controversies. The decision by Burkinabé authorities to declassify a portion of the Kua forest – a state forest – to house a new Chinese-sponsored hospital engendered an environmental polemic. Civil society actors’ persistent opposition to the project compelled the government to adopt a more participatory approach, conduct an environmental impact assessment and, finally, find a different location for the hospital. This article examines the contribution of the domestic political context to the rise of the movement and its successes. It shows that, in environmental conflicts surrounding Chinese projects in Africa, the domestic political context within which civil society contestation takes place explains the outcome of their mobilisation, hence the nature of environmental governance in these projects. The paper also reflects on China’s lack of engagement with African civil society.RÉSUMÉParallèlement à l’expansion rapide des liens économiques de la Chine avec l’Afrique, les projets chinois sur le continent font de plus en plus l’objet de controverses environnementales. La décision des autorités du Burkina Faso de déclasser une partie de la forêt de Kua – une forêt classée – pour y installer un nouvel hôpital financé par la Chine a suscité une polémique environnementale. L’opposition persistante des acteurs de la société civile au projet a contraint le gouvernement à adopter une approche plus participative, conduire une étude d’impact environnemental et, enfin, trouver un autre emplacement pour l’hôpital. Cet article examine la contribution du contexte politique national à l'émergence du mouvement et à ses succès. Il montre que, dans les conflits environnementaux entourant les projets chinois en Afrique, le contexte politique national dans lequel se déroule la contestation de la société civile explique le résultat de la mobilisation de cette dernière, et par conséquent la nature de la gouvernance environnementale dans ces projets. L’article analyse également le manque d’engagement de la Chine avec la société civile africaine.KEYWORDS: China in Africaenvironmental protectioncivil societyactivismBurkina FasoMOTS-CLÉS: Chine en Afriqueprotection environnementalesociété civileactivismeBurkina Faso AcknowledgementsI am grateful to the three anonymous reviewers, the editor and Joagni Paré for their helpful comments on the early versions of the paper. I also thank Professor Philip Hsiaopong Liu, for continuously encouraging me to put my ideas into writing.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 This terminology is used in order to avoid giving the impression that the entire civil society of Burkina Faso participated in the movement or was unanimous on the matter. Although the movement actors comprised predominantly civil society organisations, a small number ","PeriodicalId":44599,"journal":{"name":"CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136037596","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":"A Dam for Africa: Akosombo Stories from Ghana <b>A Dam for Africa: Akosombo Stories from Ghana</b> , by Stephan F. Miescher, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2022, xx1 + 572 pp.","authors":"Allen Isaacman","doi":"10.1080/00083968.2023.2250139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2023.2250139","url":null,"abstract":"\"A Dam for Africa: Akosombo Stories from Ghana.\" Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2","PeriodicalId":44599,"journal":{"name":"CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136211005","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":"Transport Corridors in Africa <b>Transport Corridors in Africa</b> , edited by Hugh Lamarque and Paul Nugent, Woodbridge, Suffolk, James Currey, 2022, xii + 325 pp.","authors":"Kurt Beck","doi":"10.1080/00083968.2023.2250135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2023.2250135","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44599,"journal":{"name":"CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136294685","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":"Sortir de l’ombre, défier la peur : opportunités et défis des technologies numériques pour les minorités sexuelles et de genre au Cameroun","authors":"Larissa Kojoué","doi":"10.1080/00083968.2023.2213352","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2023.2213352","url":null,"abstract":"RÉSUMÉCet article analyse la portée politique des différents usages des technologies numériques que les minorités sexuelles exploitent à des fins de visibilité au Cameroun. Il s’appuie sur une enquête de terrain menée à Yaoundé et à Douala, entre 2017 et 2018, ainsi que sur une veille ethnographique numérique réalisée sur Instagram, Facebook, Twitter et TikTok. Dans un contexte hostile aux pratiques sexuelles entre personnes de même sexe, de plus en plus de voix s’élèvent sur les réseaux sociaux pour affirmer publiquement leur homosexualité et ou leur trans identité. Les coûts de cette visibilité sont pourtant considérables. Les réseaux sociaux sont-ils en mesure d’influencer les perceptions, les attitudes et les politiques vis-à-vis des minorités sexuelles et de genre au Cameroun?ABSTRACTThis article analyses the political significance of the diversity of digital practices that sexual minorities exploit for visibility in Cameroon. It is based on a field survey conducted in Yaoundé and Douala, between 2017 and 2018, as well as on a digital ethnographic survey conducted on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok between 2021 and 2022. In such a hostile context to same-sex sexual practices, more and more voices are being publicly raised on social media to affirm their homosexuality and or trans identity (queerness). However, the costs of this visibility are considerable. Are social media able to influence perceptions, attitudes and policies towards sexual and gender minorities in Cameroon?MOTS-CLÉS: Internetespace publicqueerhomosexualitécitoyennetéréseaux sociauxCamerounKEYWORDS: Internetpublic spacequeerhomosexualitycitizenshipsocial networksCameroon DéclarationAucun conflit d’intérêt potentiel n’a été rapporté par l’auteure.FinancementCe travail a été soutenu par Sidaction (Financement Jeunes chercheurs 2016).Notes1 Shakiro et Patricia sont sorties de prison après six mois suite à une forte mobilisation internationale, y compris en ligne avec l’hashtag #FreeShakiro #FreePatricia.2 https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/publications/diversite-diversity-fra.html3 Cela va de soi. Certaines de ses expressions sont devenues des expressions communes comme “Pas les lolettes mama!,” ou encore “On ne donne pas le crédit dans le piment Mamaaa!” Le piment fait référence au rapport sexuel tarifé.4 Il faut bien sûr posséder un téléphone intelligent ou un ordinateur pour y avoir accès, et cela a un coût, tout comme pour accéder à un jardin public, il faut parfois emprunter un moyen de transport.5 Dans un contexte où les questions de sexualité et de mœurs sont de plus en plus médiatisées et controversées, nous souhaitions voir dans quelle(s) mesure(s) les rencontres sexuelles en ligne informaient sur les pratiques sexuelles des usagers dans le cadre de la lutte contre le VIH/SIDA. Financée par Sidaction et initialement orientée vers les hommes ayant des rapports sexuels avec d’autres hommes (HSH), c’est la difficulté à obtenir un avis éthique et une Autorisation Ad","PeriodicalId":44599,"journal":{"name":"CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135141679","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":"Health in a Fragile State: Science, Sorcery, and Spirit in the Lower Congo <b>Health in a Fragile State: Science, Sorcery, and Spirit in the Lower Congo</b> , by John M. Janzen, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 2019, 288 pp.","authors":"Jonathan Roberts","doi":"10.1080/00083968.2023.2250145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2023.2250145","url":null,"abstract":"\"Health in a Fragile State: Science, Sorcery, and Spirit in the Lower Congo.\" Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2","PeriodicalId":44599,"journal":{"name":"CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135831343","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":"De l’ancrage d’une ville africaine : Abidjan, la mondialisation et le colonialisme tardif en Côte d'Ivoire","authors":"Abou B. Bamba","doi":"10.1080/00083968.2023.2229914","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2023.2229914","url":null,"abstract":"RÉSUMÉLe point de départ de cet article est un constat : la quasi-absence de prise en compte du temps long dans les études africanistes sur la mondialisation des villes africaines. Prenant l’Abidjan du colonialisme tardif comme cas, il est démontré que l’agglomération a été insérée dans les flux à grandes échelles depuis les années 1950. La création de son port en eaux profondes et sa mise en service facilitèrent la circulation mondiale d’un imaginaire qui faisait d’Abidjan une métropole moderne et cosmopolite. Parallèlement, le boom économique lié aux activités du port attira une population venue d’horizons divers. Certes les interactions entre les différents groupes n’étaient pas exemptes de conflits et leur occupation de l’espace était ségréguée, mais le cosmopolitisme de la ville demeurait bien réel. Qui plus est, Abidjan se révéla être une cité africaine même si elle paraissait façonnée par une économie-monde dominée par le capitalisme étranger.ABSTRACTThe starting point of this article is an observation: the virtual absence of consideration of the long term in Africanist studies on the globalization of African cities. Taking the Abidjan of late colonialism as a case in point, it has been shown that the conurbation has been part of large-scale flows since the 1950s. The creation of its deep-water port and its commissioning facilitated the worldwide circulation of an imaginary that made Abidjan a modern and cosmopolitan metropolis. At the same time, the economic boom associated with the port’s activities attracted a diverse population. Admittedly, interactions between different groups were not free of conflicts and their occupation of space was segregated, but the cosmopolitanism of the city remained very real. Moreover, Abidjan proved to be an African city even though it seemed to be shaped by a world economy dominated by foreign capitalism.MOTS-CLÉS: Abidjancosmopolitismecolonialisme tardifmondialisationcirculationKEYWORDS: Abidjancosmopolitanismlate colonialismglobalizationcirculation RemerciementsL'auteur aimerait remercier Florence Ramond Jurney pour sa relecture minutieuse du premier jet de cet article.DéclarationAucun conflit d’intérêt potentiel n’a été rapporté par l’auteur.Notes1 Si certains chercheurs s’accordent que la mondialisation actuelle a été précédée par d’autres, le nombre des vagues précédentes reste en débat. Sur ce point, voir Allegret et Le Merrer (Citation2015, 25–32); Carroué (Citation2019).2 Dakar à Washington, 2 aout 1950, William Moreland Papers, Box 4, Hoover Institution Archives (Palo Alto, California, dorénavant HIA); Perry N. Jester [Dakar] à Washington, 6 juin 1950, William Moreland Papers, Box 5, HIA.3 Dakar à Paris, 2 mai 1951, série: Afrique-Levant (AL) 1944–1952/sous-série: Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF), Carton 4, Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères (Paris/France, dorénavant, AMAE); Dakar à Paris, 30 avril 1951, AL/AOF, Carton 4, AMAE; Washington to Paris, 16 octobre 1956, Amérique/États-Un","PeriodicalId":44599,"journal":{"name":"CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135199627","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":"Colonialism and Underdevelopment in Ghana","authors":"C. Leys, R. Howard","doi":"10.2307/484615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/484615","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44599,"journal":{"name":"CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/484615","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46366043","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":"First-Century Christians in Twenty-First Century Africa: Between Law and Grace in Gabon and Madagascar","authors":"Tudor Parfitt","doi":"10.1080/00083968.2023.2165635","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2023.2165635","url":null,"abstract":"This is an instance where a comparative methodology evades greater clarity, and escorts us to confront performance in a fog. Cole frames some of the Black choreographers in the book as products of non-racialist “pioneers” (7) who trained and “launched” (130) their careers, and the reader is left to interrogate the ideological implications of historicizing South African contemporary dance as solely inaugurated by white “pioneers.”While these “pioneering” figureheads contributed significantly to formal performance training, was the pedagogical relationship not symbiotic (even if asymmetrical), as the novices brought their own expertise in indigenous African and urban performance forms that were central to fashioning a distinguishable contemporary South African performance aesthetic? Tellingly, she does not attribute the work and success of white artists to paternalistic pioneers. Even as she acknowledges the fraught nature of artistic tutelage (131), she canonizes the likes of Orlin by venerating their efforts at endowing Black performers with “new visibility” (131). The risk of this move is its framing of Black “visibility” as a philanthropic gift from benevolent white pioneers. This misses the opportunity to be curious about contemporary artistic innovations that are not tied to these pioneers’ inner circuits. In other words, what “new modes” (7) of post-apartheid performance exist in opposition to these mainstream but tightly gate-kept circles? In Cole’s emphatic theorization, what remains understated is a powerful and well-resourced retaliatory will that either crushes anticolonial will or co-opts it in seductive ways that even some of the artists discussed in the book have not had the capacity to fully resist (their “will” notwithstanding). African (diasporic) performance theory stands to gain more explanatory power by dwelling longer in the ambivalences the book implicitly identifies and the contradictions pervading the book’s arguments. In addition to re-assessing the gravitas assigned to “returning the gaze” and symbolic reparation, the field has yet to seriously examine what the mystification of these ambivalences enacts. If the artists discussed in Cole’s book assert a “refusal of audience appetites for coherence” (7), this might invite less certitude about the putative “legibility” (79) of their will and instead reveal the notion of the will as always already coeval with coercion and co-optation in this context.","PeriodicalId":44599,"journal":{"name":"CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136291721","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}