Böcker utgivna av CODESRIA

In this endnote address delivered at the 11th General Assembly of CODESRIA, held in Maputo in 2005, Sundaram notes that over three decades of economic stagnation, contraction and increased poverty have taken a huge toll on Africa's economic, social and political fabric; and pro-active efforts are urgently required in order to build new capacities and capabilities for development. He argues that much of the ostensible conventional wisdom regarding African development and poverty is often both erroneous and harmful; and calls for greater 'policy space' for African governments to choose or design their own development strategies, as well as implement more appropriate development policies. (This dual language edition is in both English and French).

Reason is not the monopoly of any particular group or culture. It is a universal human quality. Nevertheless, it should be recognised that reason manifests itself differently from one culture to another. Do we therefore admit that these forms are distinctly plural or should we, on the contrary, recognise the possibility of a meeting and, if need be, of an ordered confrontation that would guarantee, beyond this obvious diversity, a unity of human reason?This book with contributions in both English and French is the result of a debate on this question, during a conference co-organised by UNESCO and the 'Centre Africain des Hautes Etudes de Porto-Novo' on the theme 'The Meeting of Rationalities' held in Porto-Novo in Benin in September 2002, during the 26th General Assembly of the International Board of Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPH). Several well-known researchers participated in that debate, amongst whom Richard Rorty (United States), Meinrad Hebga (Cameroon), Harris Memel-Fotê (Côte d'Ivoire), and more than seventy philosophers, historians, anthropologists, literary critics, and psychoanalysts from various countries.Paulin J. Hountondji is a Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Benin Republic, joint-laureate of Mohamed El Fasi 2004 prize. He is the Director of the African Centre of Higher Education in Porto-Novo. The American version of his book « philosophie africaine » : critique de l'ethnophilosophie (Paris, Maspero 1976) (African philosophy, Myth and Reality, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1983) was awarded the Herskovits Prize in 1984. The book is part of the 100 best African books of the 20th century selected in Accra in the year 2000. Hountondji has recently published The Struggle for Meaning: Reflections on Philosophy, Culture and Democracy in Africa (Ohio University Press, 2002) and edited several publications, including Endogenous Knowledge: Research Trails, (Dakar: CODESRIA, 1997). Paulin J. Hountondji has served as the Vice-President of the International Board of Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPH) and also of CODESRIA.

What does it mean to be an African writer or a Francophone African writer at the beginning of the twenty first century? How are history, time and the body represented in contemporary Francophone African fiction? How are authors working with, changing and subverting the French language? How is 'Africa' represented in the literary imagination? What discourses on Africa arise from literary texts? This study takes stock of Francophone African literary production at the end of the twentieth century, proposing that the literatures are characterised by a remarkable vitality and diversity. The work also introduces the new literary texts of the 1980s and 1990s, which have enriched world literature, and considers how new subjects and thematic continuities are giving rise to changing critical approaches and methodologies. (In French)

In trying to fathom the present crisis in the DRC, Mamdani's study concentrates on the Great Lakes region, particularly the region of Kivu and the Kiyarwanda-speaking population. These people were historically divided into three major groups - the Banyamulenge, the Banyamasisi, and the Banyaruchuru, popularly know as Hutu and Tutsi. The author situates the crisis within the context of local and foreign interests and division, primarly within the context of post- genocide Rwanda, and the citizenship crisis - civic and ethnic - in Kivu. He then presents a programme of action - local and international - for Rwanda and Kivu. For Rwanda, he urges global responsibility, which means coming to terms with the genocide in Rwanda; and a course of action which balances justice, democracy, and reconciliation. For Kivu he sets forth a full research agenda on the crisis of state in the DRC. Mahmood Mamdani is a distinguished professor of anthropology and has published widely on conflict, human rights, the legacy of colonialism and African Studies.

This study argues that the market fundamentalist approach to economics, promoted by most of the industrialised countries and the Bretton Woods institutions, actually increases the vulnerabilities of small and poor countries, exposing them to financial crises. It argues that claims that global growth and equity would best be served through deeper financial integration are founded on weak theoretical and empirical premises. It shows how economic liberalisation in poor countries with weak and underdeveloped markets and institutions, with no welfare support systems, brings few benefits, and simply exacerbates poverty. The co- authors fear the impacts may be permanent, as current trends indicate deep poverty will be confined within defined geographical boundaries, leading to a ever-widening gap between rich and poor.

It has often been argued that the concept of human rights is an artefact of modern Western civilisation, that human rights in the South are privileges conferred. These approaches have taken little cognisance of the place accorded to the societal rights held in such esteem as complementary to individual rights in traditional African society. In contrast, this study argues that human rights in Africa are as much about the dignity of Africans as about the commitments of others towards them. It argues for a critical defence of universal human rights within a multicultural framework. From historical perspectives, it illustrates how the slave trade, and then colonialism undermined the traditional balance of individual and societal rights.

The second in this series of studies on the state and status of ICTs in a development context in Africa examines the setting, operations and impacts of community telecentres. It describes the telecentres of a variety of local, and often rural communities, exploring the management structures and mechanisms that have been established to support them. The book profiles telecentre usage and discusses the potential and challenges of developing and maintaining community telecentres given poor information structures and limited human capacity. It further considers questions of universal and public access and progress thus far, towards achieving these goals.

In 1993 a new democratic order was initiated in Ghana. In 1997 the elected Government ran its full mandate and was re-elected, for the first time infour decades. The authors in this volume question the prevailing trendsand tendencies in the country's democratisation process. Given its historyof incomplete transitions, a thorough analysis of the extremely complexnature of the Ghanaian transition process was needed to look at previousand existing orders. The papers in this collection identify and discussthe interplay of factors impinging on the current process: the intertwinedrelationships between economic and political liberalisations, theinstitutional and non-institutional structures in the emergence ofnational mass consciousness and movements, and the connections between themilitary, party politics and chances of sustainable democratictransitions.

This collection of essays critically interrogates the internal dimensions of the identity and citizenship crises at the root of the political crises of states in West Africa, and considers the steps that have been taken thus far to address them. It shows how the progressive alienation of ordinary people from the state, coupled with factors of historical identity and post-colonial citizenship are at the heart of the political crisis and conflicts in the region; and argues that these matters must be addressed if West African states are to achieve democratic nationhood.

Ibrahim offers a comparative study of the democratic transitions in the Anglophone countries of West Africa, identifying regional trends and discreet factors. He argues that democracy is creeping up the agenda, owing to a detremined struggle for human rights and because democracy has been denied to the people for so long. He identifies a number of common issues across the region: the rise of a militarised secular state; a significant increase in public corruption; the primitive accumulation of capital; an intense battle to deepen democracy between civil society and the state; the appropriation of gender poltiics by the state through the office of the 'first ladies'; and the growing dissidence between elections and political choice. The study also addresses what may be considered an acceptable regional model in Ghana, and an unacceptable example in Liberia.

The process of democratisation is under way, it is argued. The vast network of inter-linking social processes - civil society, the media, academia, and public concern with accountability and transparency, which form the bedrock of true democracy - are strengthening. The authors attempt to document and understand the political developments in the West Africa sub-region by analysing the adaptability of the concept of democracy, the legitimacy of the modern nation and the contribution of law, literature, international relations and local government to the democratic process. Sixteen chapters cover broad thematic issues, democracy in Nigeria and democracy in other West African countries - Francophone West Africa, Sierra Leone, Ghana and The Gambia. The special focus on Nigeria is the result of original research reports submitted to the interdisciplinary study, the Governance and Democratisation Project.

This was one of the most pioneering works in the field of gender and social sciences in the African context, and remains an authoritative text. It is an extensively researched and forcefully argued study offering a critique and directions for gendering the social sciences in Africa. The sixteen chapters cover methodological and epistemological questions and substantive issues in the various social science disciplines, ranging from economics, politics, and history, to sociology and anthropology. Thirteen scholars contribute, including the three distinguished women editors. The translation, which is edited from the English and newly introduced by the renowned feminist scholar Fatou Sow, is an achievement itself, an incursion into the notorious difficulties of translating what are notably Anglo-Saxon concepts of sex and gender into the French language and distinctive academic environment; of interpreting western concepts of feminism within the African environment; as well as being an opportunity to revisit what deserves to become a classic text and reach a wider audience.

This is the most authoritative study of the Sierra Leone civil war to emanate from Africa, or indeed any publications' programme on Africa. It explores the genesis of the crisis, the contradictory roles of different internal and external actors, civil society and the media; the regional intervention force and the demise of the second republic. It analyses the numerous peace initiatives designed to end a war, which continued nonetheless to defy and outlast them; and asks why the war became so prolonged. The study articulates how internal actors trod the multiple and conflicting pathways to power. It considers how non-conventional actors were able to inaugurate and sustain an insurgency that called forth the largest concentration of UN peacekeepers the world has ever seen.

'The African state is unveiling itself as a violence-machine, not only in times of war, but also in times of peace...and is forcing children to occupy the spaces from which it has itself withdrawn.'Almost without exception, all the wars on the African continent of the last fifty years have implicated children as either victims or agents. More recently, war and urban conflicts, and the agency of children in these conflicts have fused; and violence has remained the constant phenomenon, being understood as the generic alternative to democratic processes. Moreover, child involvement in urban violence has been swept along on the curent of globalisation; the situations in Somalia, Congo Kinshasa, Congo brazaville and Johannesburg bearing resemblance to those of Bogota and Manila. This bibliography introduces the most important texts from war studies, family, child and gender studies, and the political and social sciences, which pertain to the subjects of children in situations of war and urban violence. It gives prominence to Francophone African texts, the publications of international agencies and human rights organisations, as well as the key texts from within African studies. (In French)

Zaire is a country at a crossroads - a land with abundant agriculture, mineral and human resources, and yet economically deeply paralysed and struggling to implement a successful strategy for social and economic development. These essays by Zairian academics in the fields of politics, sociology and economics describe post- independence social structures - so damagingly imitative of colonial patterns - and the inadquacy of the single Party-State regime, which has replicated western capitalism. The educational system, hardly changed from that inherited from the colonial power, is discussed; and an up-to-date economic analysis of the country today is included. A range of measures are recommended which could be adopted by a responsible ruling class; but first they, and their western ally, must seriously address the questions.