Journal of Contemporary African Studies最新文献

{"title":"Wrecking: the moral economies of cargo salvage on the Northern Corridor","authors":"Amiel Bize","doi":"10.1080/02589001.2023.2236823","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2023.2236823","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTAlong East Africa’s most trafficked commodity corridor, road accidents sometimes make cargo available for salvaging. This paper draws on genealogies of shipwreck salvage – ‘wrecking’ – to explore how roadside salvagers distinguish their activities from theft and make them legitimate. In contrast with classic theories of property which ask how unowned things become property, I ask the opposite: how do owned things become unowned – available to claim? Central to the legitimacy of salvage, I argue, is the idea of contingency: it was an unexpected event that made goods available for taking. But contingency is approached in contradictory ways by different salvagers: crash cargo can be interpreted as an accidental ‘find,’ to be freely taken, or conversely as a ‘risky opportunity’ from which savvy entrepreneurs can profit.KEYWORDS: Salvageaccidentriskmoral economyproperty Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 “First Lady Attacks Saitoti Over Tanker Tragedy.” NTV Report. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3XKoHG1krw2 See for instance the K24 news report, “Survivors of Sachangwan Tragedy.” Accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YHW2QOP5f43 Thompson points out that even historians who were sympathetic to the rioters tended to understand them as driven by material need into a kind of outburst, rather than as people engaging in socially patterned, legitimate action (Citation1971, 78).4 Ethnicized conflict led to an increased segregation of groups in the Rift Valley, and local Kalenjin-identifying groups desired a trading centre of ‘their own.’ A local politician persuaded the county council to purchase and subdivide land for this purpose.5 Others described the lengths they would go to avoid being blamed for a loss – for instance, arranging severe beatings that could persuade investigators they had not colluded in a theft. In this way, companies’ ‘risk management’ techniques sometimes led to hazardous, and even cruel, outcomes.6 According to the Transported Asset Protection Association, which releases regular global reports on cargo loss, €1,282,465 worth of cargo was lost to ‘theft’ in Kenya in 2020. See http://ace-cargadores.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Boletin_1075/TAPA-EMEA-Incident-Information-Service-IIS-Cargo-Theft-Annual-Report.pdf7 Arguing that the goods were ‘flotsam,’ floating wreckage that still belonged to the ship, rather than ‘jetsam,’ intentionally jettisoned goods that are subject to finders’ claims, British companies argued that wrecks were not gifts or accidents but things that still belonged to them.8 This suggests that what Dua presents as a tension between land and sea might also be fruitfully considered in terms of the tension between movable and immovable property.9 That is, the dead person’s family might need that money to pay off their debts. This insightful observation aligns with contemporary debates around the nature of money and debt, where the transferability of deb","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135095537","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":"Migrant Chiefs in Stranger Communities in Ghana: The Challenge of their Inclusion into the Houses of Chiefs","authors":"Alhassan Sulemana Anamzoya, Baba-Zakaria Alhassan, Samuel Ntewusu","doi":"10.4314/contjas.v10i1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/contjas.v10i1.5","url":null,"abstract":"Urbanization spearheaded migratory movements into African towns and cities, while democratization provided migrants the social and political space to establish traditional authority in the form of migrant chieftaincy. This paper focuses on this type of chieftaincy; variously called migrant chiefs, Zongo Chiefs, or stranger chiefs in settler communities, and the quest for these chiefs’ inclusion into the Houses of Chiefs structure, statutory bodies which are being constitutionally guaranteed. Historical evidence points to the fact that both the colonial and postcolonial state have shown some level of tolerance to migrant chiefs in Ghana. While political leaders, such as the executive arm, have given recognition to these chiefs at various levels, including granting them a complete Ministry, these chiefs still find it difficult to be included as members of the Houses of Chiefs. Using historical and anthropological material, the paper provides the foundation of migrant chieftaincy in Ghana, while utilizing empirical data to analyse how migrants reinvent chieftaincy in the urban centres, and their attempts to incorporate such an institution into the Houses of Chiefs. The paper argues that, having the support of the political leaders of the state is not enough to guarantee migrant chiefs’ inclusion into the Houses of Chiefs, and that judicial and legislative policies are equally needed to facilitate the process of inclusion.","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135304190","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":"Ghana’s democracy and the digital public sphere: some pertinent issues","authors":"Maame Adwoa Gyekye-Jandoh, Abdul Hakim Ahmed","doi":"10.4314/contjas.v10i1.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/contjas.v10i1.6","url":null,"abstract":"Ghana’s media has been one of the biggest bulwarks of its nascent democracy since the transition to democratic rule in 1992. What has become known as the Fourth Estate of the Realm is now gradually being digitally networked as a result of the emergence of new media technologies. Using existing data mostly from media think-tanks such as Penplusbytes, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), media and other online sources, this paper appraises the role of digital media in the process of consolidating Ghana’s democracy under the Fourth Republican Constitution within the lens of Habermas’ concept of the public sphere. The study focuses on the 2016 and 2020 general elections of Ghana and analyses the influence of digital media in strengthening democratic values such as political participation, activism and public opinion formation. We conclude that the Habermasian model of the structural transformation of the public sphere (1962) is partly applicable to the Ghanaian media landscape. Although challenges such as the elite stranglehold on the traditional media landscape have been widespread since the beginning of the political transition in 1992, the emergence of the new media has brought new and complex dimensions to the debate. Specifically, while new media platforms have made immense contributions towards enhancing a general liberal environment, they suffer from several drawbacks such as unequal participation and lack of uniformity in public deliberations, with elites and other powerful social and economic actors generally holding sway. The phenomenon of fake news, online disinformation, the issue of digital divide, creeping state repression and COVID-19 restrictions during the 2020 election period have all combined to hamstring the Ghanaian new media which is currently at the center of a seemingly endless process of structural transformation.","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135304191","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 serializing particle ń with discourse functions in Kusaal","authors":"Hasiyatu Abubakari","doi":"10.4314/contjas.v10i1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/contjas.v10i1.1","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents novel empirical data revealing a previously unidentified particle n in Serial Verb Constructions in Kusaal. The issue that requires attention is to find out the status of the said particle in SVCs in the language. The central question is whether the observed particle is an overt marker of coordination or subordination which is likely suppressed in other instances of SVCs in the language. The particle n has several functions in Kusaal and other Mabia languages with more being discovered as research on these languages keeps developing. It functions as a subject focus marker in Kusaal, Gurenɛ, and Dagbani and a serializing connector in Moore. It will be observed that the particle n is not obligatory in SVCs in Kusaal and its presence encodes an emphatic/ focus interpretation on the verb it precedes. This study is qualitative with data gathered from both primary and secondary sources.","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135304188","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":"Changes in customary land administration and “plausible” development outcomes: A comparative study of Chamuka and Shimukunami chiefdoms","authors":"Dinah Mwanza, Felix Kanungwe Kalaba, Ephraim Kabunda Munshifwa","doi":"10.4314/contjas.v10i1.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/contjas.v10i1.4","url":null,"abstract":"Literature is now cognizant of the fact that customary land governance structures are changing in most of sub-Saharan Africa. The relevance of land governance is largely dependent on the local institution, even without direct State intervention. In other words, customary areas are no longer sites for unrestrained, selfish and uncivilized competitions resulting in high tenure insecurity. However, a number of issues still remain debatable over these changes: for instance, what is their exact form and what are the “plausible” development outcomes related to these changes? This paper assets that, answers to these questions are often location specific in literature, hence the rationale for this study within the Zambian context. This study compares two customary areas, with different customary rights and administration, i.e. Shimukunami were residents are issued with traditional certificates and Chamuka where they are not. Data was collected through household questionnaires, key informants and focus group discussions. The paper tested a number of parameters which included number of conflict (e.g. on ownership, boundaries, encroachments), agricultural production (labour, crops, etc.) and generally livelihood strategies. We conclude that change in customary land governance has been a reaction to pressures and influences such as rapid population, high demand for customary land and introduction of monetary transactions. Further, institutions are not static but have evolved to meet changing societal demands. Therefore, approaches recommended for effective traditional land governance must be mainstreamed in local structure so as to provide a sustainable solution to tenure security and rural development. However, the appropriate approaches should be chosen taking into account the need of the local communities, traditional institutions and dynamics of land governance of a particular area.","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135304192","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":"Sugarcane Plantations and the Alienation of Land from Smallholder Farmers through Out-grower Schemes in Busoga Sub-Region in Eastern Uganda","authors":"Robert Ojambo","doi":"10.4314/contjas.v10i1.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/contjas.v10i1.3","url":null,"abstract":"Despite wide research on land grabbing in Africa, much of the existing literature restricts the practice mainly to a situation where land is leased or sold to outside investors for the production of food and biofuel for export to the western world. This paper extends the debate further by examining how local sugarcane companies and individuals in Busoga Region in Eastern Uganda force smallholder farmers to surrender their land willingly through the out-grower schemes based on contract farming or private sugarcane production. Using a qualitative methodology that relied mainly on interviews of key informants and documentary reviews, the paper analyses the nature of the contemporary land alienations through contract farming between plantation agriculturalists and smallholder farmers, and how it has affected the livelihood of the peasants in the Busoga region especially when it comes to the production of sugarcane for sale at the expense of food for local consumption. The findings show that in the areas where sugarcane production through the out-grower schemes is the dominant economic activity, land alienation for sugarcane growing is rampant as the sugar companies and the agro-business farmers lure local peasants who mainly own land on customary tenure to grow sugarcane at the expense of producing food crops. The paper concludes that this is a new form of land grabbing in Uganda.","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"196 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135304189","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":"Nkrumah’s legacy, feminism and the next generation","authors":"Amina Mama","doi":"10.4314/contjas.v10i1.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/contjas.v10i1.7","url":null,"abstract":"This lecture challenges the narratives of postcolonial failure to argue that, Africans have accumulated valuable experiences that can lift us out of transgenerational obscurity and provide transformative lessons for the future. Among these are the legacies of Kwame Nkrumah and his vision of the interlinked nature of economic and cultural processes, and his affirmation of women’s role in African liberation. The lecture reviews Nkrumah’s intellectual legacy to argue that, aspects of this have been taken up in African feminist movements that give an afterlife to a praxis of African liberation. Characterized by transdisciplinary and activist approaches that link theory with practice, African feminism is strongest where it pursues the simultaneous transformation of political, cultural, and economic life. It is an approach exemplified in the digitally-curated, livestreamed Third Kwame Nkrumah Festival, and archived online.","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135260551","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":"The African Continental Free Trade Area and informal cross border trade: implications on socio-economic development in Africa","authors":"I. Moyo","doi":"10.1080/02589001.2023.2226848","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2023.2226848","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59298043","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":"Introduction to Special Issue: Celebrating Ari Sitas","authors":"Amrita Pande, Edward Webster","doi":"10.1080/02589001.2023.2209480","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2023.2209480","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Journal of Contemporary African Studies (Vol. 41, No. 3, 2023)","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138515678","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":"Red Road to Freedom. A History of the South African Communist Party, 1921–2021","authors":"Christopher G. Thomas","doi":"10.1080/02589001.2023.2229083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2023.2229083","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51744,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary African Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49423260","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}