State-Building and Multilingual Education in Africa

State-Building and Multilingual Education in Africa PDF Author: Ericka A. Albaugh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139916777
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
How do governments in Africa make decisions about language? What does language have to do with state-building, and what impact might it have on democracy? This manuscript provides a longue durée explanation for policies toward language in Africa, taking the reader through colonial, independence, and contemporary periods. It explains the growing trend toward the use of multiple languages in education as a result of new opportunities and incentives. The opportunities incorporate ideational relationships with former colonizers as well as the work of language NGOs on the ground. The incentives relate to the current requirements of democratic institutions, and the strategies leaders devise to win elections within these constraints. By contrasting the environment faced by African leaders with that faced by European state-builders, it explains the weakness of education and limited spread of standard languages on the continent. The work combines constructivist understanding about changing preferences with realist insights about the strategies leaders employ to maintain power.

State-Building and Multilingual Education in Africa

State-Building and Multilingual Education in Africa PDF Author: Ericka A. Albaugh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139916777
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
How do governments in Africa make decisions about language? What does language have to do with state-building, and what impact might it have on democracy? This manuscript provides a longue durée explanation for policies toward language in Africa, taking the reader through colonial, independence, and contemporary periods. It explains the growing trend toward the use of multiple languages in education as a result of new opportunities and incentives. The opportunities incorporate ideational relationships with former colonizers as well as the work of language NGOs on the ground. The incentives relate to the current requirements of democratic institutions, and the strategies leaders devise to win elections within these constraints. By contrasting the environment faced by African leaders with that faced by European state-builders, it explains the weakness of education and limited spread of standard languages on the continent. The work combines constructivist understanding about changing preferences with realist insights about the strategies leaders employ to maintain power.

Democracy in Africa

Democracy in Africa PDF Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316239489
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.

The Leadership Challenge in Africa

The Leadership Challenge in Africa PDF Author: John Mukum Mbaku
Publisher: Africa World Press
ISBN: 9781592211791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 592

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Book Description
This collection of essays, written by an outstanding group of scholars, makes a significant contribution to the debate on poverty alleviation in Cameroon, the country's stalled transition to democratic governance, identity and citizenship and the equitable allocation of resources. The essays contain a refreshing, rigorous and informative analysis of the Biya regime, opposition politics and provides practical strategies to enhance peaceful co-existence and sustainable develpment in the country.

Cameroon's Social Democratic Front: Its History and Prospects as an Opposition Political Party (1990-2011)

Cameroon's Social Democratic Front: Its History and Prospects as an Opposition Political Party (1990-2011) PDF Author: Milton Krieger
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956715859
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
" Cameroon's Social Democratic Front (SDF) was among the watershed challenges c.1990 by sub-Saharan Africa's democratization forces against autocratic regimes, but it crested in 1992 and has subsided since. Yet the party survives, participates in the National Assembly, maintains a grass roots structure, and prepares for a presidential ballot in 2011 that will likely determine its fate. The author conducted research four times in Cameroon, 1989-1999, focusing on the SDF since 1991, and maintains party contacts to the present. The book assesses its history and its prospects, covering the SDF in Africa-wide as well as Cameroonian terms. ""Krieger has given us the first, superbly researched, finely tuned analysis of the fortunes of a major contemporary African opposition party, Cameroon's Social Democratic Front (SDF)."" - Victor Le Vine, Washington University, St. Louis, USA. ""The book goes far beyond its title and puts in context a daylight re-emergence of political opposition in Cameroon. To say that this long overdue history of the SDF party is a prolegomena to understanding contemporary Cameroon social forces is not an overstatement."" - Ambroise Kom, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. ""...a level-headed but provocative examination of the structure and workings of a major African country...the sobriety with which he evaluates institutions and leadership is commendable, yielding exceptional analysis that will stand the test of time."" - Toyin Falola, Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria. Milton Krieger started teaching and research about sub-Saharan Africa in 1970. Nine trips there include four research visits providing two years time in Cameroon, 1989-99. The second, 1991, coincided with 'villes mortes' and turned his primary scholarship to the Social Democratic Front. Access to party documents, officials, and rank and file members included visitor status at the 1995 and 1999 national conventions. Party contacts continue to the present."

Neoliberal Bandwagonism. Civil society and the politics of belonging in Anglophone Cameroon

Neoliberal Bandwagonism. Civil society and the politics of belonging in Anglophone Cameroon PDF Author: Piet Konings
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9956558230
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
While neoliberals typically view civil society organizations as vital channels for the implementation of economic and political reforms, they are also inclined to blame the politics of belonging for the poor record of these reforms. Piet Konings rejects such notions and argues that the relationship between civil society and the politics of belonging is more complex in Africa than Western donors and scholars are inclined to admit. He argues that ethno-regional associations and movements are more significant constituents of civil society in Africa than the conventional organizations that are often uncritically imposed or endorsed. He shows how the politics of belonging, so pervasive in Cameroon, and indeed much of Africa, during the current neoliberal economic and political reforms, has tended to penetrate the entire range of associational life, and he calls for a critical re-appraisal of prevalent notions and assumptions about civil society in the interest of African reality.

The Anthropology of Africa: Challenges for the 21st Century

The Anthropology of Africa: Challenges for the 21st Century PDF Author: Nkwi, Paul Nchoji
Publisher: Langaa RPCIG
ISBN: 9956792799
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description
In 1999 (August 30 - September 2) the Pan African Anthropological Association (PAAA) marked the 10th anniversary of its creation by holding its 9th Annual Conference in Yaounde, Cameroon - the city and country of its birth. The conference, themed "The Anthropology of Africa: Challenges for the 21st Century", was attended by some seventy participants, mostly African. Among the international participants was Dr Sydel Silverman, President of the Wenner Gren Foundation at the time - a long term partner of the PAAA; she was present at the inaugural conference in 1988. The conference proceedings were initially published in 2000 with very limited circulation. Given the continued relevance of the papers presented, and in view of the call by the President of the PAAA for African anthropologists to reunite anthropological theory and practice in the teaching programmes of African universities, the PAAA is pleased to republish the proceedings of its landmark 9th Annual Conference. The book consists of forty three divided into eight parts, namely: i) teaching anthropology in the decades ahead; ii) Health Challenges: HIV/AIDS Anthropological Perspectives; iii) NGOS: Use and Misuse of Anthropology; iv) Anthropological Focus on Environment; v) Some Applied Issues in Anthropology; vi) The African Family in Crisis; vii) Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflicts; and viii) Population issues and anthropology: Fertility Crisis. Paul Nkwi concludes his introduction to the volume with these words: "The Anthropology of Africa will remain for a long time, fundamentally applied if it is to meet the challenges of the 21st Century."

Nigeria, Africa, and the United States

Nigeria, Africa, and the United States PDF Author: Robert B. Shepard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780253352095
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Shepard argues that U.S. policy toward Nigeria has never had much to do with what was going on there or in Africa as a whole. Instead, U.S. policy makers have seen what they wanted to see and proceeded accordingly. He charts the changing face of a relationship which is in many ways typical of U.S. policy toward the nations of Africa. "... the lesser known Nigerian side of the relationship is presented in illuminating detail." --Foreign Affairs "... lucid and straightforward. It is well documented from sources both in the USA and Nigeria... highly recommended... " --The Round Table

Health in Humanitarian Emergencies

Health in Humanitarian Emergencies PDF Author: David Townes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107062683
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 509

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Book Description
A comprehensive, best practices resource for public health and healthcare practitioners and students interested in humanitarian emergencies.

Decentralization and Constitutionalism in Africa

Decentralization and Constitutionalism in Africa PDF Author: Charles M. Fombad
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192585037
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 673

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Book Description
This collection of essays assesses the efforts of African governments to constitutionalise decentralisation, be it in the form of federalism, local government or traditional authorities. Since the end of the Cold War jurisdictions across Africa have witnessed an ostensible return to multi-party democracy within the paradigm of constitutionalism and the rule of law. Linked to the democratisation process, many countries took steps to decentralize power by departing from the heavily centralized systems inherited from colonial regimes. The centralization of power, typically characterized by the personalization and concentration of power in the hands of leaders and privileged elites in capital cities, mostly resulted in repressive regimes and fragile states. As decentralisation is a response to these challenges, this volume analyses the dynamic relationship between the efforts to implement decentralization and presence or absence of constitutionalism. This volume examines a variety of forms and degrees of decentralization found across Africa. It advances a new understanding of trends and patterns and facilitates the exchange of ideas among African governments and scholars about the critical role that decentralisation may play in democratization of and constitutionalism in Africa.

Constitutional Identity and Constitutionalism in Africa

Constitutional Identity and Constitutionalism in Africa PDF Author: Charles M Fombad
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198906307
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
This book in the Stellenbosch Handbooks in African Constitutional Law series provides a critical analysis of existing paradigms, concepts, and normative ideologies of modern African constitutional identity.