Resistance to Modernization in Africa

Resistance to Modernization in Africa PDF Author: Giordano Sivini
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135149323X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Giordano Sivini has been an international aid consultant for over twenty-five years. Here he channels a 1960s and 1970s idealistic political commitment into fieldwork and the sphere of development from the 1980s to the present. Sivini writes with both passion and cynicism about his experiences with the numerous African aid projects he has been involved with over the years.While the fathers of independence of British and French decolonization wanted to change the colonial conditions of exploitation, Sivini finds that their good intentions have been shipwrecked. Ironically, the longer Sivini served as an aid consultant, the more he found himself dismayed at the various projects that were under way or slated to begin. He perceived some of the projects as grotesque, and, almost all ineffective. The money was wasted on such ventures not because of a particular government's interest in the social effects they would have on the local populace, but because of the direct and indirect benefits the government would receive.Sivini sees international development aid as its own market: development is a commodity that takes the form of large and small projects, and is traded for loans and gifts to generate political and economic advantages for the institutional participants in the exchange. Ultimately, governmental and aid projects often stimulate resistance from the local populace as agencies upset their usual system of production by regimenting peasants to produce for the market, then appropriate the cattle of nomadic pastoralists, villagizing and resettling peasants in areas of high productivity, and exploiting laborers in large farms. This creates social disintegration, mass migration in urban informal economy, and poverty.This is a dynamic and moving analysis of foreign aid that will be of interest to students of African studies, governmental programs, rural development, and political economy.

Resistance to Modernization in Africa

Resistance to Modernization in Africa PDF Author: Giordano Sivini
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135149323X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
Giordano Sivini has been an international aid consultant for over twenty-five years. Here he channels a 1960s and 1970s idealistic political commitment into fieldwork and the sphere of development from the 1980s to the present. Sivini writes with both passion and cynicism about his experiences with the numerous African aid projects he has been involved with over the years.While the fathers of independence of British and French decolonization wanted to change the colonial conditions of exploitation, Sivini finds that their good intentions have been shipwrecked. Ironically, the longer Sivini served as an aid consultant, the more he found himself dismayed at the various projects that were under way or slated to begin. He perceived some of the projects as grotesque, and, almost all ineffective. The money was wasted on such ventures not because of a particular government's interest in the social effects they would have on the local populace, but because of the direct and indirect benefits the government would receive.Sivini sees international development aid as its own market: development is a commodity that takes the form of large and small projects, and is traded for loans and gifts to generate political and economic advantages for the institutional participants in the exchange. Ultimately, governmental and aid projects often stimulate resistance from the local populace as agencies upset their usual system of production by regimenting peasants to produce for the market, then appropriate the cattle of nomadic pastoralists, villagizing and resettling peasants in areas of high productivity, and exploiting laborers in large farms. This creates social disintegration, mass migration in urban informal economy, and poverty.This is a dynamic and moving analysis of foreign aid that will be of interest to students of African studies, governmental programs, rural development, and political economy.

The Idea of Development in Africa

The Idea of Development in Africa PDF Author: Corrie Decker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110710369X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
An engaging history of how the idea of development has shaped Africa's past and present encounters with the West.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa PDF Author: Walter Rodney
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1788731204
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
The classic work of political, economic, and historical analysis, powerfully introduced by Angela Davis In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed 20th century Jamaica's most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.

Our Continent, Our Future

Our Continent, Our Future PDF Author: P. Thandika Mkandawire
Publisher: IDRC
ISBN: 155250204X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.

Beyond Liberal Order

Beyond Liberal Order PDF Author: Harry Verhoeven
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197654215
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
What does liberal order actually amount to outside the West, where it has been most institutionalised? Contrary to the Atlantic or Pacific, liberal hegemony is thin in the Indian Ocean World; there are no equivalents of NATO, the EU or the US-Japan defence relationship. Yet what this book calls the 'Global Indian Ocean' was the beating heart of earlier epochs of globalisation, where experiments in international order, market integration and cosmopolitanisms were pioneered. Moreover, it is in this macro-region that today's challenges will face their defining hour: climate change, pandemics, and the geopolitical contest pitting China and Pakistan against the USA and India. The Global Indian Ocean states represent the greatest range of political systems and ideologies in any region, from Hindu-nationalist India and nascent democracy in Indonesia and South Africa, to the Gulf's mixture of tribal monarchy and high modernism. These essays by leading scholars examine key aspects of political order, and their roots in the colonial and pre-colonial past, through the lenses of state-building, nationalism, international security, religious identity and economic development. The emergent lessons are of great importance for the world, as the 'global' liberal order fades and new alternatives struggle to be born.

Modernization and the Crisis of Development in Africa

Modernization and the Crisis of Development in Africa PDF Author: Jeremiah I. Dibua
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351152904
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
In this book, Jeremiah I. Dibua challenges prevailing notions of Africa's development crisis by drawing attention to the role of modernization as a way of understanding the nature and dynamics of the crisis, and how to overcome the problem of underdevelopment. He specifically focuses on Nigeria and its development trajectory since it exemplifies the crisis of underdevelopment in the continent. He explores various theoretical and empirical issues involved in understanding the crisis, including state, class, gender and culture, often neglected in analysis, from an interdisciplinary, radical political economy perspective. This is the first book to adopt such an approach and to develop a new framework for analyzing Nigeria's and Africa's development crisis. It will influence the debate on the development dilemma of African and Third World societies and will be of interest to scholars and students of race and ethnicity, modern African history, class analysis, gender studies, and development studies.

The African Diaspora

The African Diaspora PDF Author: Toyin Falola
Publisher: University Rochester Press
ISBN: 1580464521
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
The African diaspora is arguably the most important event in modern African history. From the fifteenth century to the present, millions of Africans have been dispersed -- many of them forcibly, others driven by economic need or political persecution--to other continents, creating large communities with African origins living outside their native lands. The majority of these communities are in North America. This historic displacement has meant that Africans are irrevocably connected to economic and political developments in the West and globally. Among the known legacies of the diaspora are slavery, colonialism, racism, poverty, and underdevelopment, yet the ways in which these same factors worked to spur the scattering of Africans are not fully understood -- by those who were part of this migration or by scholars, historians, and policymakers. In this definitive study of the diaspora in North America, Toyin Falola offers a causal history of the western dispersion of Africans and its effects on the modern world. Reengaging old and familiar debates and framing new ones that enrich the discourse surrounding Africa, Falola isolates the thread, running nearly six centuries, that connects the history of slavery, the transatlantic slave trade, and current migrations. A boon to scholars and policymakers and accessible to the general reader, the book explores diverse narratives of migration and shows that the cultures that migrated from Africa to the Americas have the capacity to unite and create a new pan-Africanist movement within the globalized world. Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the 2011 recipient of the Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association and serves as the vice president of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Slave Route Project. His previous books published by the University of Rochester Press include The Power of African Cultures and Nationalism and African Intellectuals.

A History of Modern Africa

A History of Modern Africa PDF Author: Richard J. Reid
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119381924
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
The new, fully-updated edition of the acclaimed textbook covering 200 years of African history A History of Modern Africa explores two centuries of the continent’s political, economic, and social history. This thorough yet accessible text help readers to understand key concepts, recognize significant themes, and identify the processes that shaped the modern history of Africa. Emphasis is placed on the consequences of colonial rule, and the links between the precolonial and postcolonial eras. Author Richard Reid, a prominent scholar and historian on the subject, argues that Africa’s struggle for economic and political stability in the nineteenth century escalated and intensified through the twentieth century, the effects of which are still felt in the present day. The new third edition offers substantial updates and revisions that consider recent events and historiography. Greater emphasis is placed on African agency, particularly during the colonial period, and the importance of the long-term militarization of African political culture. Discussions of the postcolonial period have been updated to reflect recent developments, including those in North Africa. Adopting a long-term approach to current African issues, this text: Explores the legacies of the nineteenth century and the colonial period in the context of the contemporary era Highlights the role of nineteenth century and long-term internal dynamics in Africa’s modern challenges Combines recent scholarship with concise and effective narrative Features maps, illustrations, expanded references, and comprehensive endnotes A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present, 3rd Edition is an excellent introduction to the subject for undergraduate students in relevant courses, and for general readers with interest in modern African history and current affairs.

African History: A Very Short Introduction

African History: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: John Parker
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0192802488
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.

The Politics of Land Reform in Africa

The Politics of Land Reform in Africa PDF Author: Doctor Ambreena Manji
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848137532
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
Across Africa land is being commodified: private ownership is replacing communal and customary tenure; Farms are turned into collateral for rural credit markets. Law reform is at the heart of this revolution. The Politics of Land Reform in Africa casts a critical spotlight on this profound change in African land economy. The book illuminates the key role of legislators, legal consultants and academics in tenure reform. These players exert their influence by translating the economic and regulatory interests of the World Bank, civil society groups and commercial lenders in to questions of law. Drawing on political economy and actor-network theory The Politics of Land Reform in Africa is an indispensable contribution to the study of agrarian change in developing countries.