bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conferences on the Introduction of African Literature to University Courses
Authors: Moore Gerald
Published: November 2008

Dakar, Senegal, 26–30 March, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, 3–8 April 1963. These two conferences—both sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom—arose out of an earlier meeting on inter-university co-operation held at Fourah Bay College in December 1961. The aim of both was to persuade African universities to integrate the teaching of African literature in French and English into their regular syllabuses, and to ensure that it is studied as literature, not for its curiosity or ethnographic value.
Socialist Management in Algeria
Authors: Nellis J. R.
Published: November 2008

Algeria is important for its wealth, for its size and location, for the dynamism and austerity of its leadership, and for its pretensions to socialism and leadership of the Third World. Clearly, an imposing list. Yet the Algerian approach to development is little known and insufficiently understood, at least in the English-speaking world. In France, on the contrary, and throughout la francophonie, Algerian movements and events are closely watched and intensely debated. Much of the controversy has concentrated on the question as to whether or not Algeria deserves its self-proclaimed status as a socialist state; 1 the celebrated autogestion effort of the 1960s has been thoroughly and carefully analysed,2 and the nationalisations of foreign oil companies – as well as a few other salient economic enterprises – have received considerable attention.3 It should be noted that the extensive French literature on post-1962 Algeria has focused on events up to 1971, though a few materials on more recent developments are beginning to emerge,4 and that a small number of articles in English on major Algerian programmes, such as la révolution agraire, have recently been published.5
State and Revolution: the Work of Amilcar Cabral
Authors: Bienen Henry
Published: November 2008

Employment in the modern sector in Africa is often employment by government. Control of the state apparatus brings the ability to reward and to coerce. Private wealth is scattered in most countries, and power and status frequently stem from a place in or access to the state apparatus. Élites in Africa derive their power from control of the state, not from private property or private large-scale organisations. Yet, while public servants and civil services have been studied in Africa, there have been relatively few analyses of the state, and the relationship of state power to social classes and groups.
Changing Leadership Styles and Political Images: Sonic Preliminary Notes
Authors: Vine Victor T. Le
Published: November 2008

In this short article I suggest that the current styles of most African leaders relate to a number of significant changes in the political environment as regards (i) their rôles and the structures within which they are imbedded, (ii) their audiences/followerships and expectations, and (iii) the salience and valence of important symbols. My analysis will also involve making comparisons between political styles adopted before and after independence, as well as examining the meaning of leadership rôle-images projected during both periods.
Africa and the U.S.A. in the United Nations
Authors: Nicol Davidson
Published: November 2008

Relations between the United States of America and Africa have important historical, economic, and political dimensions which are by no means confined to the United Nations. The historical ties predate the creation of international organisations, but it was the emergence of the United Nations from the ashes of World War II that provided the greatest opportunity for close bonds by creating an institutional framework within which the common goals and interests of Americans and Africans could be pursued.
The Impact of Military Service in World War I on Africans: the Nandi of Kenya
Authors: Greenstein Lewis J.
Published: November 2008

It is widely believed that old soldiers are a problem. At least since the beginning of this century, western governments have been concerned with the issue of ‘helping’ veterans to readjust to civilian life upon their return from campaigning. It is assumed that these men would, if left to their own devices, find it difficult or impossible to ‘pick up from where they had left off’, and might, therefore, become a subversive element in the general population. Hence, one of the largest bureaucracies in the United States is the Veterans Administration which is charged with fitting ex-soldiers back into society. To a certain extent the concerns over whether they would be satisfied after their demobilisation have proved to be justified. The dislocations experienced by returned American servicemen after World War II were illustrated by popular films like ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’. More recently, the American press paid considerable attention to the rôle of the black veterans of Vietnam in the violence which destroyed much of Newark, Detroit, and Watts in the late 1960s.
Discourses on Eritrean Nationalism and Identity
Authors: Sorenson John
Published: November 2008

Since Italy's defeat in World Ward II, Ethiopia has pressed its claim to Eritrea. Following an abortive federation imposed by the United Nations in 1950, Haile Selassie annexed the former Italian colony in 1962, and for the last three decades Eritreans have fought for their independence.
South Africa's World Position
Authors: Lawrie G. G.
Published: November 2008

THIS article attempts to relate some of the ideas put forward by Professor Hans Morgenthau in his Politics Amongst Nations (New York, 1949) to the world position of South Africa, and then essays some more general reflections on the Republic's external situation today.

Such a study should normally begin with an historical introduction, but South Africa's recent history is, perhaps, well enough known for this to be dispensed with, and for my present purposes it will suffice to recall that South Africa was recognised as a sovereign state after World War I, when she was a separate signatory of the Treaty of Versailles and of the League Covenant. There were, of course, constitutional developments after that which led first to the weakening and then to the breaking of the Commonwealth tie, but this did not affect South Africa's formal relations with foreign states. Her relationship with Britain was of great but decreasing importance; but from the standpoint of other powers this importance was political rather than constitutional, for South Africa could be influenced through the British connexion much as Panama can be influenced through the U.S.A.1
Africa Newly Divided?
Authors: Segal Aaron
Published: November 2008

The map of Africa was once notorious for bearing the various colours of the European colonial powers. Today the map of post-independence Africa is newly and neatly divided between the 18 independent African states which have chosen to become associated by treaty with the European Economic Community (E.E.C.) or Common Market, and the 16 independent African states which have either rejected such an association or—as with Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, South Africa, and the Sudan—were never offered the possibility of becoming associated.
The Background of the Ethio-Somalian Boundary Dispute
Authors: Mariam Mesfin Wolde
Published: November 2008

This analysis of the problem, coming as it does from an Ethiopian, may seem biased against Somalia. Although I shall not claim objectivity, for I am a conscious Ethiopian, I must, nevertheless, state that I have not deliberately omitted or distorted facts to suit Ethiopia's case. My conviction that Ethiopia is in the right is quite apparent. I am equally convinced that it is not in the interest of either country to ignore their vital interdependence.
Program of African Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston
Authors: Young Roland
Published: November 2008

African studies at Northwestern University will enter a new phase of their history in September 1964, when Professor Gwendolen M. Carter takes up her post as director of the Program and Herskovits Professor of African Studies. The new appointment coincides with an expanding intellectual involvement of the faculty with the developing countries of the world, which have been somewhat neglected by scholarship, and the future goals of the Program are closely related to this wider academic development. First, however, a note on the background.
International Conference on Economic Sanctions Against South Africa
Authors: Hoskyns Catherine
Published: November 2008

This conference was sponsored by the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (founded in 1960 after the Sharpeville massacre) and the convenor was Ronald Segal, now editor of the Penguin African Library. What was intended initially as a small expert conference snowballed suddenly, and in the end 30 official government delegations (mainly from African, Asian, and socialist countries) and over 200 delegates attended. The conference chairman was Mongi Slim, the Foreign Minister of Tunisia, and others present included Diallo Telli, the chairman of the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid, Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien, the vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, and Tom Mboya and Mainza Chona, the Ministers ofJustice of Kenya and Northern Rhodesia.
Industrialisation and the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa
Authors: Ewing A. F.
Published: November 2008

There has been a marked change in recent years in the climate of ideas about industrialisation in developing economies and it is fortunately no longer necessary to argue in favour of industrialisation in opposition to another approach to economic development. Yet it is still necessary to continue to state the basic case, particularly since Africa is industrially the least developed of all the continents. The doctrine that industry is the key to economic development is of comparatively recent origin. Its antecedents are the writings of Professor G. Myrdal and Dr R. Prebisch and the practical achievements of the U.S.S.R. and Japan.
Some Problems of Inter-Communication
Authors: Shelton Austin J.
Published: November 2008

Numerous writers—ethnologists, linguists, educators, and lately literary critics and African creative writers themselves—have called attention to the problems of communication either from African to European or vice versa. The problems range from purely linguistic inequivalence in literal translations to the inequivalence between words and their referents in the cultures described, and further to the manifold difficulties of educators or writers wishing to develop successful communication between themselves and their audiences.
Nigerian Pamphleteers and the Congo
Authors: Post K. W. J.
Published: November 2008

Boys shook their heads a number of times while girls covered their faces with white handkerchiefs as the pathetic story of Congolese first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, was read out to a crowded audience by PYC dramatic group at the Lagos City College, Yaba, last Sunday.

This notice, describing the staging of a play by a youth club run by a Lagos newspaper, the West African Pilot, appeared in that newspaper on 31 March 1962.1 All over Africa Patrice Lumumba's meteoric rise and tragic death caught the imagination of men and women in all walks of life, and more especially that of the young. In Nigeria, however, this reaction is of particular interest. First of all, the news of Lumumba's murder in February 1961 provoked 'anti-white' rioting in a country where race relations had not been an overt issue for a decade. Demonstrations outside the United States Embassy in Lagos, the Federal capital, led to indiscriminate attacks on Europeans resulting in much damage to cars and serious injury to several individuals.2
Cuba and Africa
Authors: Clairmonte Frederick F.
Published: November 2008

Cuba's revolution is one of the genuine revolutions of our century. By the scope, depth, and irreversibility of the changes wrought, it has ushered in a new era in the history of the Americas and is as epochal an event as the American declaration of independence. Two outstanding works, the first by two British academics and two Latin Americans,1 the other by a distinguished French agronomist, Africanist, and adviser to the Cuban Government,2 have done much to illuminate the past, immediate, and future problems of the first American nation to embark on the lines of socialist development. These authors have for the first time assembled and synthesised dispassionately a prodigious amount of data concerning the economic life of this controversial nation; and they have managed to avoid the passions of the cold war. The two works are harmoniously dovetailed; the first treats its subject historically and analytically since the turn of the century, the second deals with the institutional strengths and weaknesses that have emerged since the revolution, and takes the story up to the end of 1963 and the appearance of ‘socialist monoculture’.
The African Development Bank
Authors: Mubiru Joseph
Published: November 2008

The idea of setting up an all-African Development Bank was first expressed in a resolution passed at the All-African Peoples' Conference held in Tunis in January 1960. This was followed in 1961 by a unanimous resolution of the Economic Commission for Africa, requesting the Executive Secretary ‘to undertake a thorough study of the possibilities of establishing an African development bank’. The following year, E.C.A. established a committee of nine member states (Cameroun, Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanganyika, and Tunisia), who were enjoined ‘to make all the necessary governmental and other contacts…to make complete and comprehensive studies into the financial and administrative structure of the proposed bank and into the nature and extent of its operations; to draft a charter… and to make recommendations on its location’.
Chieftainship in Transkeian Political Development
Authors: Hammond-Tooke David
Published: November 2008

In November 1963 the inhabitants of the Transkeian Territories, the largest block of Bantu reserve in the Republic of South Africa, went to the polls to elect representatives for a Legislative Assembly, upon whom the responsibility for the government of this, the first so-called ‘Bantustan’ to achieve a limited form of self-government, is to be laid. The election was the culminating point in a series of changes in the administrative structure of the area which have been characterised by an emphasis on the institution of chieftainship as the basis of local government. After approximately 60 years of rule through magistrates (later supplemented by a system of district councils) the Bantu Authorities Act of 1955 was introduced, giving greatly enhanced powers to the Chiefs, who now became the heads of the tribally-structured Bantu Authorities.
African Religious Movements—Types and Dynamics
Authors: Fernandez James W.
Published: November 2008

For those who follow African events closely it is the phenomenon of nationalism which attracts greatest attention. It was a rising sense of national identity which threw off the colonial yoke, and this ongoing creation and exaltation of culture and society at the national level can either foster or frustrate the creation of viable political units. We are therefore obliged to keep abreast of African nationalism if we are to understand the course of events and forecast the shape of things to come in this developing continent.
The Overseas Development Institute And Its Publications
Authors: Lee Michael
Published: November 2008

The achievement of independence may tend to dull the interest which African leaders have shown in the organisations that try to influence policy-making in British government. But they should need no reminding that in Britain there are comparatively few means of maintaining an informed body of public opinion about international affairs as a background against which the Government can operate. Colonial policy was frequently left to colonial experts, and the case for African nationalism was argued by a small number of groups such as the Fabian Colonial Bureau, or the Movement for Colonial Freedom.
Recontre Internationale de Poètes
Authors: Neogy Rajat
Published: November 2008

The Poets' conference held under the auspices of the Berlin Festival had the same theme as that of the entire festival this year, Africa's contribution and relation to the arts and culture of Europe. It is at once debatable whether a conference can decide what culture is: whether culture can be talked about across a table among 70 men and women from different parts of the world via tri-lingual instantaneous translations and other kinds of static that fill the air at such times. To appreciate the even subtler intervention of Africa into western culture, in these circumstances, might prove to be impossible. Fortunately conferences have a way of finding their working levels, even though these may not always coincide with the subject assigned them.
Asians in East Africa: Problems and Prospects
Authors: Ghai Dharam P. , Ghai Yash P.
Published: November 2008

The attainment of independence by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania has posed new and perplexing problems for the 360,000 Asians settled in these countries.1 They have to adapt themselves to new political régimes, which are determined to carry out far-reaching changes in the traditional roles of the different races in East Africa. In order to understand fully the complexity and magnitude of the problems faced by the Asian community in East Africa, it is essential to contrast the colonial pattern of race relations with that envisaged by the new African leaders.
United States—South Africa Leader Exchange Program, Inc.
Authors: Osgood John C.
Published: November 2008

Organised in 1958 and directed by a committee of 30 business, professional, and civic leaders in the United States and South Africa, the Leader Exchange Program increasingly is fulfilling its mission of building a ‘bridge of understanding and co-operation’ by means of private, non-governmental efforts. In both countries, lack of accurate information and often sensational news reporting have not contributed to an atmosphere of genuine understanding of each other's problems and of the progress being made toward solving these problems. No attempt is made by the Program to mould opinion. Rather, the aim is to permit ‘exchangees’ to see for themselves and to enable them to have frank, face-to-face discussions with a variety of individuals representing the widest possible range of outlooks. Not only have effective lines of communication been established between university professors, journalists, medical doctors, social workers, business executives, artists, authors, and scientists in the two countries, but these lines are continually being strengthened and expanded, due in large part to the enthusiasm of the exchangees, who do not regard their visit as a ‘one-shot’ contact with the other country.
Conference on Economic Research in Africa
Authors: West Robert L.
Published: November 2008

This conference, financed by the Rockefeller Foundation, was attended by the research directors of the following centres: Institut de recherches économiques et sociales (I.R.E.S.), Lovanium University, Congo; Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (N.I.S.E.R.), University of Ibadan; U.N. African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (I.D.E.P.), Dakar, Senegal; Economic Development Institute (E.D.I.), University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Institut de rcience économique appliquée (I.S.E.A.), Dakar; Department of Economics, University of Khartoum, Sudan; proposed Bureau of Economic Research, the University College, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; East African Institute of Social Research (E.A.I.S.R.), Makerere University College, Uganda; and the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, Lusaka, Zambia. In addition, there were the director of the Economic Development Division of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (E.C.A.), Addis Ababa; the head of the Training Division of the O.E.C.D. Development Centre, Paris; a member of the Institute of Economic Research of the National University of Chile, Santiago; and two representatives of the Rockefeller Foundation, New York.
Annual Meeting of the (American) African Studies Association
Authors: Brokensha David W.
Published: November 2008

American scholarly organisations have evolved highly institutionalised forms of ritual, the peak being the annual meeting, when scholars from all parts of the country converge on an antiquated and inconvenient hotel in one of the larger cities for a three-day conference. The ostensible purpose is the delivery of many papers, supposedly representing contemporary scholarly interests, though some are so phenomenally thin or irrelevant that one suspects that they were written in haste, merely to justify a claim for travel expenses. There are usually so many papers that they are read consecutively, and participants drift from one panel to another, often pausing for conversation or rest in the hotel lobbies. Ancillary purposes of the annual meeting are to elect new officers, meet old friends, recruit staff, search for better positions, inspect new publications, or merely to be seen.
African Power in International Resource Organisations
Authors: Bissell Richard E.
Published: November 2008

Africa's rôle in the international economic order during the last five years has been changing, if in any direction, for the worse. The impact of African statesmen in the negotiations for a new order has been marginal, despite the symbolic presence of General Obasanjo from Nigeria at the Jamaica summit of January 1979. Yet in many quarters, these trends have not been recognised for the vital sign they are: symptoms of the weakness of African states in the creation of new institutions to govern our fragmented international economic system.
Education in Tanzania: Class Formation and Reproduction
Authors: Samoff Joel
Published: November 2008

At least since the beginning of this century, access to education has been the proximate determinant of class differentiation in Tanzania, and in much of Africa. Despite several initiatives to overcome this legacy of European rule, perhaps more sharply focused in Tanzania than in many other African countries, education and class situation continue to be firmly linked.
The War in the Ogaden: Implications for Siyaad's Rôle in Somali History
Authors: Laitin David D.
Published: November 2008

At the turn of the century, Sayid Maxamad Cabdille Xasan led a 21-year battle against foreign colonialists in the Somali lands. Then British aircraft mercilessly bombarded his main fort at Talex in 1920, and he died a few months later, his military forces in utter disarray. The Sayid, as he is known, is none the less considered the father of modern Somali nationalism. Military defeat did not spoil the lustre of this hero's feats.
The Politics of Passes: Control and Change in South Africa
Authors: Frankel Philip
Published: November 2008

Theability of technological advancement to diversify the means of political control available to the state is a distinctive feature of modern life. Today, with the exception of the most underdeveloped and brutal régimes, the overt use of state force is complemented by a variety of control techniques, some so oblique as to defy detection even by the groups they are designed to regulate or repress. South Africa's stalled revolution, the subject of considerable concern to many analysts, is clearly not attributable to black acceptance of the present system, nor for that matter is it simply the result of the effectiveness with which the white minority has applied the more blatantly violent and directly coercive means of domination.1
Development of the Urban Artisanal Sector in Ghana and Cameroun
Authors: Steel William F.
Published: November 2008

This article compares the relative size and industrial distribution of artisanal manufacturing and service enterprises in Yaoundé and Accra, the capital cities of Cameroun and Ghana. The primary purpose is to provide evidence on the hypothesis that the characteristics of small-scale production are closely related to the level of development and industrialisation, and therefore likely to be similar in countries at similar levels elsewhere. The comparison is also used to highlight some operational problems of defining, measuring, and assisting ‘artisanal’ or ‘smallscale’ activities.
Agrarian Crisis and Economic Liberalisation in Tanzania: a Comment
Authors: Raikes Philip
Published: November 2008

The article by Michael F. Lofchie on ‘Agrarian Crisis and Economic Liberalisation in Tanzania’, published in this Journal, Vol. XVI, No. 3, September 1978, pp. 451–75, has already aroused considerable comment and raises a number of points of substantial general interest. It is, however, to my mind, somewhat misleading in several respects. Few, I think, would now dissent from the very general proposition that agricultural policies in the period up to 1974–5 contributed both to a generally slow rate of growth of production and to the major shortfall in output of that year, and that this in turn contributed to changes in policy since then.
The Organisation of African Unity and the Promotion of Human Rights
Authors: Welch Claude E.
Published: November 2008

The establishment and functioning of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights challenges a basic principle of positivist international law on which the Organisation of African Unity (O.A.U.) has long based its policies: the sovereign domestic control of member-states.
Ideological Competition in Nigeria: Urban Populism versus Elite Nationalism
Authors: Frank Lawrence P.
Published: November 2008

Thisarticle analyses the nature of ideology in Nigeria and relates ideological competition to conflict between federal and local (especially urban) interests. It is argued that two strong ideologies exist: nationalism and populism. These two perspectives provide competing justifications for authority, and reflect the contradictory interests held by local-urban politicians and by the functional élites that dominate federal politics.
Acculturation, Socio-Economic Status, and Attitude Change in Tunisia: Implications for Modernisation Theory
Authors: Tessler Mark A. , Hawkins Linda L.
Published: November 2008

This article uses survey data from Tunisia to examine some of the ways that individual attitudes change in a developing society. At the same time, it is addressed to some inadequacies of modernisation theory, attempting both to understand better the impact of social change on attitudes, and to delineate the nature and consequences of different kinds of modernisation experiences. Modernisation studies usually treat lifestyle variations produced by social change as uni-dimensional so far as their effect on attitudes is concerned. The present study argues that lifestyles do not always change in an integrated fashion, and in particular that acculturation and socio-economic status, two basic dimensions of individual life circumstances in developing societies, often and increasingly vary independently of one another. It then demonstrates with data from Tunisia that measures of acculturation and socio-economic status bear independent and dissimilar relationships to many attitudes known to be associated with social change, and thereafter discusses the implications of these relationships for modernisation and political development. The focus of the analysis is on general theoretical issues.
Léopold Sédar Senghor and African Socialism
Authors: Skurnik Walter A. E.
Published: November 2008

President Senghor of Senegal stands out among the statesmen of Africa not only for his literary achievements and his political acumen, but also for having made a major contribution toward the emergent doctrine of African Socialism. Senghor's reflections on that subject are based on his emotional and intellectual commitment to African values and realities, and on a thorough investigation of western and Communist thinkers. The result is an amalgam aimed at serving the future of Africa.
Seminar on European Industrial Organisation in Relation to the Developing World
Authors: Ekani-Onambele Mathieu
Published: November 2008

This seminar was sponsored by the European Centre for Overseas Development (C.E.D.I.M.O.M.), which has included since its foundation in 1957 about 40 public and private countries, established in the Common Market countries and in Africa, interested in the exploitation of mineral and power resources in the under-developed countries, particularly in French-speaking Africa. This conference, like others organised from time to time by the Centre, was attended by a large number of business executives and civil servants from Europe and Africa, as well as university representatives and economic journalists. The chairman was M Roland Prć, governor and president of C.E.D.I.M.O.M.; others included MM J. Alibert, a director of the Banque Internationale de l'Afrique de l'ouest (B.I.A.O.), P. A. Forthomme, Director- General of the Belgian Department of Foreign Trade and Co-operation, R. Sailer, Minister of Finance from the Ivory Coast, R. Triboulet, the French Minister of Co-operation, J. M. Jeanneney, a former Minister and Professor of the Faculty of Law and Economics at Paris, G. Panouillet, Director- General of the Banque centrale des états d'Afrique équatoriale et du Cameroun, and R. Rouques, Director-General of B.I.A.O. There were also several university professors: J. Devisse from Lille, Dupriez from Louvain, L. Hamon from Lyon, G. Leduc and M. Luchaire from Paris, besides the Ambassadors in Paris of Senegal, Congo (Brazzaville), Dahomey, Madagascar, and Niger.
Statistical Activities of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa
Authors: El-Tawil Bahgat
Published: November 2008

The U.N. Statistical Commission and the U.N. Statistical Office are responsible for a world programme of work which is intended not only to assist the development of national statistical programmes, but also to establish international standards for ensuring the comparability of data. The general principles arising from these activities offer one of the main sources of guidance for countries developing their statistical programmes.
Négritude—Literature and Ideology
Authors: Irele Abiola
Published: November 2008

Pan-Africanismhas been described as ‘essentially a movement of emotions and ideas’,1and this description is equally applicable to négritude, which is its cultural parallel. Indeed, no better phrase could be found to sum up its double nature, first as a psychological response to the social and cultural conditions of the ‘colonial situation’,2and secondly as a fervent quest for a new and original orientation.

In the former respect, the imaginative writings of the French-speaking Negro intellectuals offer a precious testimony to the human problems and inner conflicts of the colonial situation; in the latter respect, their propaganda writing and other activities represent an effort to transcend the immediate conditions of this situation by a process of reflection. Négritude is thus at the same time a literary and an ideological movement.
Some Swahili Political Words
Authors: Scotton Carol M. M.
Published: November 2008

A Strongly charged Swahili political vocabulary has emerged in Tanzania, which sharply distinguishes persons and nations, in both domestic and foreign affairs, as being either for or against Tanzania's policies. The implications of the selection and usage of this vocabulary are considerable in any assessment of political trends in Tanzania, since language and culture are certainly related. Not only does language reflect cultural patterns, but language also imposes its patterns on culture.1
Deutsche Afrika-Gesellschaft
Authors: Manshard Walther
Published: November 2008

The German Africa Society was founded in 1956; it had no predecessor in Germany and is not the continuation of any pre-war institution. From the beginning it has concentrated its activities in two fields; making Africa and its problems known to the German public, and endeavouring to foster relations between Africans and Germans in all spheres of life. Research and publications are directed towards African cultures as integrated entities, including economic, social, and cultural aspects.
Annual Meeting of the (American) African Studies Association
Authors: Brokensha David
Published: November 2008

In 1958, when the African Studies Association was founded, a small group of American scholars who were interested in Africa comprised the first annual general meeting. This year nearly 1,000 people attended the eighth annual meeting. Most of those attending were fellows and members of the Association, augmented by visitors from many parts of the world. These included Seretse Khama, Prime Minister of Bechuanaland, who gave the main address at the opening plenary session. Other visitors included Daryll Forde from London, S. N. Varma from the Department of African Studies at the University of Delhi, and Philippe Decraene, African correspondent for the Paris paper, Le Monde.
Development of the Grain Market and Merchants in Burkina Faso
Authors: Ṣaul Mahir
Published: November 2008

Some recent studies indicate increased interest in the origin and evolution of food markets in West Africa, a development clearly related to the current concern with the food crisis and a desire to understand the impact of past economic processes and administrative measures on today's food distribution and production. Jane I. Guyer, for example, explores the implications of colonial policy for the direction of indigenous change in the economy of central Cameroun.1Richard Roberts traces the expansion of the Bamako grain market to the demands of the colonial state and the employers of wage-work.2The present article is conceived in the same vein. Its purpose is to describe the growth of a similar market in Burkina Faso, from its remote colonial origins to the developments of the last 20 years which shaped its present form, and thus to contribute to the understanding of the food sector in West Africa.
Managerial Motivation in Kenya and Malawi: a Cross-Cultural Comparison
Authors: Blunt Peter , Jones Merrick
Published: November 2008

Managers are increasingly seen as having a critically important rôle to play in development and nation-building,1and doubts concerning the appropriateness of transferring western ideas and practices to third-world countries are assuming urgent significance. Questions are posed about the impact of social and cultural factors on the management of organisations, and about relationships, between managerial thinking and behaviour and the national stage of economic growth. For example, A. Gladstone asserts that management is a key determinant in development in Africa's new nations, and notes that there has been little research and analysis concerning the evolving state of the managerial art in Africa, both in terms of what exists and what is needed … while management training for Africans has developed considerably, is this training the most appropriate? To what extent should traditional African management be discarded… are the various modern Western approaches relevant and effective in the setting up of African enterprises?2
Zimbabwe's 1985 Elections: a Search for National Mythology
Authors: Sylvester Christine
Published: November 2008

When Zimbabweans went to the polls in June and July of 1985, they decisively returned the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) to formal power, provided regional support for the Patriotic Front–Zimbabwe African People's Union and, in the case of the white roll, endorsed Ian Smith's Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe. Questions raised in the wake of the elections tended to focus on the changes that the Z.A.N.U.(P.F.) Government could institute in the next three to five years – a one-party system, a complete abrogation of the Lancaster House privileges for whites, a vigorous turn towards Marxism.
Towards the One-Party State in Zimbabwe: a Study in African Political Thought
Authors: Shaw William H.
Published: November 2008

Zimbabwe today is the site of a surprisingly vigorous debate over the one-party state. Some students of Africa might find the issue stale and the conclusion foregone, but Zimbabweans do not look at their political future that way. The first task of this article is to present the arguments of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) in favour of one-party rule and the rebuttals this has provoked. Documenting this debate is worthwhile given various popular misconceptions about Zimbabwean political life; in addition, doing so sheds light on the character of political thinking in Africa. The arguments are also important enough and of sufficient interest to be assessed philosophically, and this is my second task. Since Z.A.N.U.(P.F.) officially embraces a Marxist ideology, I shall, in particular, scrutinise its case for one-party rule from within its own political-theoretical framework. I contend that Marxist theory does not dictate such a system of government, and that viewed from this perspective the arguments for it are flawed and the party's faith in it is problematic.
Theoretical and Practical Implications of I.M.F. Conditionality in Zambia
Authors: Makgetla Neva Seidman
Published: November 2008

Zambia has faced an economic crisis since 1975. Living standards for most of the population have deteriorated sharply, with falling real wages and a drop in G.D.P. per capita by about a quarter. At the same time, the gap between the high- and low-income groups has probably widened.

Zambia's economic difficulties originated in international factors. In the two decades of independence, and unusually high degree of external dependency, inherited from the colonial era, continued to chatacterise the economy. Imported inputs accounted for at least one-third of all costs in mining and manufacturing, as may be seen from Table I. Meanwhile, the production of copper and relate minerals contributed a steady nine-tenths of export revenues. But in 1975, the terms of trade for copper plummeted by nearly 50 per cent, and merchandise imports promptly contracted by almost one-quarter, seriously affecting production. Since then the price of copper has stagnated.
The Nature of Class Domination in Africa
Authors: Sklar Richard L.
Published: November 2008

Inthe newly developing countries, major aspects of economic organisation are subject to foreign control. The citizens and governments of such countries learn to live with the effects of pervasive economic dependence upon the industrial powers. Foreign governments and businessmen often determine the rate and scope of local capital investment, the development and use of economic resources, the composition and direction of external trade.
‘Opportunity Cost’ and Labour Migration: a Misinterpretation of Proletarianisation in Northern Ghana
Authors: Plange Nii-K
Published: November 2008

Theorthodox tradition in studies and explanations of lab our migration has been to adopt the perspective of those who move. Such a framework of analysis has then addressed itself to (i) the reasons why individuals and groups decide to migrate, and (ii) the consequences. As regards the first issue, it has generally been accepted that the phenomenon of migration is in response to economic forces that push and/or pull people out of their own communities into others – the ‘invisible hand of the market’. As for the second issue, emphasis is placed on the problematics of adjustment or assimilation into the host community, and also on the new values, as well as the other stimulants – good or bad – that the returning migrants bring home.
Tshekedi Khama, Smuts, and South West Africa
Authors: Crowder Michael
Published: November 2008

Ever since the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, Jan Smuts, one of its principal architects, had visions of transforming it into a ‘Greater South Africa’,. The South Africa Act of 1909 which established the Union provided for the eventual incorporation of other African Territories. It madespecific reference to Southern Rhodesia and the neighbouring British dependencies of Basutoland, the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and Swaziland, Known collectively as a High Commission Terretories because, pending transfer to the Union, they were admitted by the British High Commissioner to South Africa.
Production Activities, Food Supply and Nutritional Status in Malawi
Authors: Engberg Lila E. , Sabry Jean H. , Beckerson Susan A.
Published: November 2008

There is continuing concern throughout most of Africa about the supply of food, notably because of its impact on the nutritional status of so many millions.2 In 1984, John Mellor and Bruce Johnston reported on trends in production and indicated that Africa had the slowest food growth rates in comparison with other country groupings throughout the world. They also acknowledged the extent of malnutrition and the complex system of interactions which influence food production and consumption.3 Earlier reviews of the food-deficit problems called attention to environmental constraints and the variety of experimental strategies for agricultural development tried in Africa. Michael Lofchie and Stephen Commins concluded that fundamental changes in governmental policies are needed in order to facilitate peasant production and participation, and they suggested a balance between the retention of traditional agricultural systems and the introduction of modern agricultural practices.4 Carl Eicher emphasised the need for intensive investigation into production constraints in order to provide the knowledge base for better strategies and programmes, and among the research priorities identified were those related to food consumption and nutrition.5 However, although more national macro-level surveys are obviously needed, they alone will not help us to understand the relationships between household-based food production and consumption systems, nor the rôle of the family in allocating labour and food.
The Rand and the Monetary Systems of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland
Authors: Collings Francis d'A.
Published: November 2008

Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland are among very few countries which, in recent times, have for an extended period and without formal agreement used another national currency as their domestic circulating medium and legal tender. After many years of being de facto part of a larger monetary area using the South African currency, in 1972 the three smaller countries jointly initiated negotiations with Pretoria which led to the creation of an officially recognised Rand Monetary Area in December 1974. Thereafter they chose different arrangemènts which span the spectrum between continued integration with and separation from the monetary system of South Africa. The experiences of these countries, while of interest in themselves, may also be relevant to other governments with dependent currency systems which face similar options.
Informal Income Opportunities and Urban Employment in Ghana
Authors: Hart Keith
Published: November 2008

This article originated in the study of one Northern Ghanaian group, the Frafras, as migrants to the urban areas of Southern Ghana. It describes the economic activities of the low-income section of the labour force in Accra, the urban sub-proletariat into which the unskilled and illiterate majority of Frafra migrants are drawn.

Price inflation, inadequate wages, and an increasing surplus to the requirements of the urban labour market have led to a high degree of informality in the income-generating activities of the sub-proletariat. Consequently income and expenditure patterns are more complex than is normally allowed for in the economic analysis of poor countries. Government planning and the effective application of economic theory in this sphere has been impeded by the unthinking transfer of western categories to the economic and social structures of African cities. The question to be answered is this: Does the ‘reserve army of urban unemployed and underemployed’ really constitute a passive, exploited majority in cities like Accra, or do their informal economic activities possess some autonomous capacity for generating growth in the incomes of the urban (and rural) poor?
A Note on West Arican Economic Co-operation
Authors: Curry Robert L.
Published: November 2008

Recent articles by André Simmons and K. M. Barbour have analysed the various advantages of, and strategies for, regional economic integration in West Africa.1 This note focuses on the technical obstacles of full integration, and then on sub-regional economic co-operation as a more practical alternative.

How can one agree upon an accepted distribution of the benefits from regional economic integration? How could this be implemented among the West African countries ? These are the most difficult and contentious problems associated with forming and operating any customs union and free trade area among the developing countries. If an acceptable distribution of benefits does not come about, then ‘the operation of existing groupings may easily be rendered ineffective or, in extreme cases, they may collapse. The experience of the last few years demonstrates that this is not a remote possibility.’2
Underlying Determinants of Housing Location: a Case Study from Swaziland
Authors: Lea John P.
Published: November 2008

It is a comparatively recent development that places housing not only as one of the main targets in the national plan, but also as a vital means of achieving other social and economic objectives.1 Admirable though this may be, a number of difficulties can arise in practice, particularly with regard to the question of new housing where many dwellings may be on unsuitable sites and require relocation or extensive redevelopment. The point is that remedial measures are likely to have only short-term effects, unless several underlying – and often conflicting – variables are taken into account. Four such variables have assumed importance in the planning for future housing needs in the Greater Manzini Area of Swaziland, and it is the purpose of this article to illustrate how policies relating to industrial location, urban growth, and housing, interact with the tenurial system in force.
African Power Through the Looking-Glass
Authors: Lemarchand René
Published: November 2008

The language of African scholarship, like Africa itself, is a harp of many strings. It allows for countless variations, even though the central theme may recur. ‘Power’ is undoubtedly one of the most familiar of such themes: the variations played upon it are legion, ranging from the popular to the esoteric, from the classical to the lyrical.

Jean Ziegler's tune in his latest work, Le Pouvoir africain (Paris, 1971), clearly fits into the latter category. Even though the settings he has chosen for investigating African power – Burundi (indigenous) and Brazil (imported) – are likely to capture anyone's imagination, the author's manifest enthusiasm for the exotic seems to exceed the limits of the ‘sociological imagination’. Quite aside from the question of whether generalisations about African power are at all feasible on the basis of such limiting cases, Ziegler's handling of his subject matter raises a number of difficulties for the uninitiated reader – not the least of which is his tendency to lump together the form and substance of power in an ethnographic present seemingly fixed once and for all in time and space. Another difficulty stems from his peculiar terminology, at times so elusive as to confuse rather than illuminate the phenomena discussed: what, exactly, is meant by ‘la spécificité irréductible africaine”, or ‘la sociabilite africaine’ is anyone's guess. Ziegler's constant preoccupation with the surface manifestations of power – or, better still, with his own vision of these phenomena – occasionally leads him into a vein reminiscent of the worst examples of journalistic sensationalism, from which he only extricates himself by lapsing into calculated imprecision.