News & Issues
Samir Amin at 80: An Introduction and Tribute
By John Bellamy Foster, Oct 1, 2011
We commemorate the life and career of the recently deceased Samir Amin by including this biographical article written about him in 2011. Samir Amin was born in Cairo in 1931, and studied within the French educational system in Egypt (Lycée Français du Caire). He pursued his higher education in Paris at Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (“Sciences Po”) receiving his diploma in 1952; then at Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, obtaining his Ph.D. in Political Economy in 1957. He worked in the planning agency of Egypt from 1957 to 1960, until the Nasser regime’s persecution of communists forced him to leave. His analysis of economic and political structure will continue to be impactful for students and scholars worldwide.
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Migrants À Tanger: Un Drame Sans Fin
Par Tahar Ben Jelloun, le 30/07/2018
Je fais demi-tour, je m’approche et là je me trouve devant le drame relaté quasi quotidiennement par les médias: des migrants risquant leur vie. Des migrants échoués. Il y a une grande différence entre les images et les visages réels, entre les vidéos et les corps étendus sur le sable.
Je suis à Tanger, sur une plage déserte, face à l’océan atlantique. Je fais comme tous les matins ma marche. Des mouettes et des chiens errants passent. J’avance sans me retourner. Une plage immense où il n’y a personne. Soudain les mouettes et les chiens crient de manière inhabituelle. Je poursuis ma marche. Surgi de derrière les sables, un policier sur un quatre roues de plage. Je me retourne et je le vois se diriger vers une masse noire indistincte, une masse humaine qui bouge à peine. Cela me fait penser à la dernière page du livre d’Elias Canetti «Les Voix de Marrakech» où il évoque une masse noire qui bouge.
Read the story in this link:
http://fr.le360.ma/blog/le-coup-de-gueule/migrants-a-tanger-un-drame-sans-fin-171182
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the Tyranny of Language
By Francis Wade, August 6, 2018
Thirty years after graduating from his missionary-run high school near Nairobi, the Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o had gained enough distance to reflect on the lasting effect of colonial education policy in Kenya. “Behind the cannon was the new school,” he wrote in Decolonising the Mind, the 1986 exposition on cultural imperialism in which he examined how the colonial classroom became a tool of psychological conquest in Africa and beyond. “Better than the cannon, it made the conquest permanent,” he wrote. “The cannon forces the body and the school fascinates the soul.”
Read the story in this link:
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the Tyranny of Language
www.nybooks.com
Thirty years after graduating from his missionary-run high school near Nairobi, the Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o had gained enough distance to reflect on the lasting effect of colonial education policy in Kenya. “Behind the cannon was the new school,” he wrote in Decolonising the Mind, the 1986 exposition on cultural imperialism in which he examined how the colonial classroom became a tool of psychological conquest in Africa and beyond. “Better than the cannon, it made the conquest permanent,” he wrote. “The cannon forces the body and the school fascinates the soul.”
How the Film “Looking for Oum Kulthum” by An Iranian Director shocked Egypt
The film “Looking for Oum Kulthum” by Iranian director Shirin Neshat takes on a topic that verges on the sacred to Egyptians, and to an extent to the rest of the Arab world: the legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kulthum, whose fame is as strong as ever more than 40 years after her death. The fact that Neshat, as a non-Arab, tackled the subject of Kulthum’s life and legacy has made her a target for criticism in Egypt, and the film, released in September 2017, had only a limited screening in the country. It was shown at the Aswan International Women Film Festival in February 2018 and at the Cairo Cinema Days festival in April 2018 and otherwise has not been distributed in theaters in Egypt, in spite of having played at prestigious film festivals around the world. However, Neshat has insisted that Kulthum’s influence spreads beyond the Arab world and that the struggles faced by Kulthum as a female artist in a male-dominated society are similar to the struggles still faced by women in Iran and elsewhere.
Read the story in this link:
How the Film “Looking for Oum Kulthum” by An Iranian Director shock Egypt?
How economic integration is helping growth in Africa
By IMF Direct, August 6th, 2018
Contrary to popular belief, countries in sub-Saharan Africa are more closely tied than ever, thanks to rising trade with one another and remittances—the money people send home when working in another country. A new study shows that closer ties expose countries to each other’s good and bad fortunes. Booming large economies spur partners’ growth by demanding more of their goods, and because people working in a booming economy will send home more remittances. Downturns in one country impact another by the same means. So, tighter economic ties also raise challenges.
Read the story in this link:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/08/trade-and-remittances-within-africa/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
How economic integration is helping to improve Africa’s growth
www.weforum.org
Closer ties amongst African countries is increasing GDP.
The Ancient Origins of Both Light and Dark Skin
By Ed Yong, October 12th, 2017
Few human traits are more variable, more obvious, and more historically divisive than the color of our skin. And yet, for all its social and scientific importance, we know very little about how our genes influence its pigment. What we do know comes almost entirely from studying people of European descent. To Sarah Tishkoff, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania, that’s a ridiculous state of affairs. “It gives you a very incomplete perspective,” she says. This sentiment is supported by new research concerning a study of diverse people from Africa which shows that the genetic story of our skin is more complicated than previously thought.
Read the story in this link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/a-brief-history-of-the-genes-that-color-our-skin/542694/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=cm&
The State of African Cities 2018: The Geography of African Investment
By UN Habitat, June 20th, 2018
The aim of this report is to contribute to development policies that can turn African cities into more attractive, competitive and resilient foreign direct investment (FDI) destinations. Attracting global FDI is highly competitive and crosses various geographic scales, therefore regional cooperation by cities and nations is critical. But FDI is not a panacea since it has both positive and negative effects. Careful choices need to be made by cities in their pursuit of FDI in order to foster inclusive economic growth. This report aims to provide guidance on these choices and to facilitate understanding of the complexity of global investment in Africa.
Read the story in this link:
https://unhabitat.org/books/the-state-of-african-cities-2018-the-geography-of-african-investment/
The State of African Cities 2018 – The geography of …
unhabitat.org
The aim of The State of African Cities 2018: The geography of African investment report is to contribute to development policies that can turn African cities into more attractive, competitive and resilient foreign direct investment (FDI) destinations. Attracting global FDI is highly competitive and …
NEW BOOKS كتب جديدة
Township Girls: The Cross-Over Generation
[بنات البلد: الجيل المتمازج]
Author/ (Editor): Wadzanai Garwe, Farai Mpisaunga Mpofu and Nomsa Mwamuka
This collection is comprised of the stories of women who grew up in two countries: Rhodesia prior to Independence and Zimbabwe post-1980. The contributors reflect on their childhoods with refreshing candour. Many of their memories retain the crystalline clarity of childhood and thus provide insights into worlds that have often remained unexplored. Behind these women stood dedicated, hard-working parents – often teachers, nurses or businessmen and women – who placed value in their children’s education. The commitment of these parents, representing an emerging middle class, provides us with a tragic reminder of the negative obduracy of the Smith regime which consistently denied such citizens the right to vote. Nonetheless, we are repeatedly reminded not of the dark side of an essentially racist regime, but of the joys of a secure childhood when parents and communities were steadfast in their values, and families consistently offered stability and security. Few will read this work without feeling that they have learned something new.
Publisher: Weaver Press, Zimbabwe, 2018
Doomed Interventions: The Failure of Global Responses to AIDS in Africa
[التدخلات المنكوبة: فشل التدخلات الدولية لعلاج مرض الإيدز في أفريقيا]
Author: Kim Yi Dionne
Between 2002 and 2013, bilateral donors spent over $64 billion on AIDS intervention in low- and middle-income countries. During the same period, nearly 25 million died of AIDS and more than 32 million were newly infected with HIV. In this book, Kim Yi Dionne tries to understand why AIDS interventions in Africa often fail. Dionne observes misaligned priorities along the global chain of actors, and argues this misalignment can create multiple opportunities for failure. Analyzing foreign aid flows and public opinion polls, Dionne shows that while the international community highly prioritizes AIDS, ordinary Africans view AIDS as but one of the many problems they face daily. For students of political economy and public policy in Africa, as well as those interested in global health, this book is a great resource.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press 2018
L’Afrique libre, ou la mort
[أفريقيا, اِمّا الحرية واِمّا الموت]
Author : Kemi Seba
L’Histoire se souviendra que l’année 2017 fut celle d’un début de contestation sans précédent depuis la période des indépendances dans les pays d’Afrique de la zone Franc. Le motif de ces mobilisations ? La dénonciation de la Françafrique, terme générique servant à définir le néocolonialisme effectué par l’oligarchie française qui prévaut encore en Afrique au 21e siècle. Ce dernier se matérialisant par les bases militaires françaises présentes sur la terre Mère, l’utilisation du Franc CFA qui appauvrit le continent africain, enrichit les tenants du système néo-libéral hexagonal, et surtout, la collaboration des réseaux occultes de l’Élysée avec les pires sanguinaires autocrates du continent Africain, ces derniers étant bien souvent “placés” à la tête de ces états par l’entremise du prétendu pays des “droits de l’Homme”. À l’initiative de ces manifestations continentales, un homme qui clive : Kemi Seba. Pour une bonne partie de la jeunesse africaine et caribéenne, il est un héros qui a remis de manière médiatique la question de la souveraineté des peuples afros au centre des débats en ce nouveau millénaire. Pour l’intelligentsia africaine (bien souvent formatée idéologiquement par l’Occident), c’est un populiste, un dangereux démagogue qui pousse la jeunesse à l’anarchie, à la haine anti Occident et à la rébellion contre ses élites endogènes. Enfin, pour les autorités françaises, il est actuellement, la plus grosse menace du courant qualifié de souverainiste africain. Pourquoi ce combat, et jusqu’où ira cette nouvelle génération africaine désabusée et hostile à l’Occident ? Dans ce récit épique écrit dans des conditions périlleuses, Kemi Seba inscrit la lutte contemporaine pour la souveraineté africaine dans les pages de l’Histoire. Une histoire tumultueuse ou géopolitique et résistance locale s’entremêlent pour ne plus être que les deux facettes d’une même pièce face à l’hydre néolibérale.
Publisher: New African Cultures, 2018
Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past: Essays in Honour of Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias
[قراءات في مظاهر الطبيعة والمنابع التراثية والمشروعات الفكرية في ماضي منطقة غرب أفريقيا]
Author (editor): Toby Green and Benedetta Rossi
This text offers a comprehensive assessment of new directions in the historiography of West Africa. With twenty-four chapters written by leading researchers in the study of West African history and cultures, the volume examines the main trends in multiple academic fields. The critical interpretation of Arabic sources, new archaeological surveys of trans-Saharan trade, the discovery of sources in Latin America relating to pan-Atlantic histories, and the continuing analysis of oral histories are among the fascinating topics addressed. The volume is dedicated to Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias, whose work inspired the intellectual reorientations that informed the book’s central focus on the relationship between political conjunctures and the production of sources.
Publisher: Brill, 2018
Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture
[الانكار المضاعف: صورالسود والثقافة الشعبية]
Author: Racquel J. Gates
From the antics of Flavor Flav on Flavor of Love to the brazen behavior of the women on Love & Hip Hop, so-called negative images of African Americans are a recurrent mainstay of contemporary American media representations. In Double Negative Racquel J. Gates examines the generative potential of such images, showing how some of the most disreputable representations of black people in popular media can strategically pose questions about blackness, black culture, and American society in ways that more respectable ones cannot. Rather than falling back on claims that negative portrayals hinder black progress, Gates demonstrates how reality shows such as Basketball Wives, comedians like Katt Williams, and movies like Coming to America play on “negative” images to take up questions of assimilation and upward mobility, provide a respite from the demands of respectability, and explore subversive ideas. By using negativity as a framework to illustrate these texts’ social and political work as they reverberate across black culture, Gates opens up new lines of inquiry for black cultural studies.
Publisher: Duke University Press, 2018
Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement
[تاريخ الأوبرا لدى السود: السلطة والالتزام السياسي]
Author: Naomi André
From classic films like Carmen Jones to contemporary works like The Diary of Sally Hemings and U-Carmen eKhayelitsa, American and South African artists and composers have used opera to reclaim black people’s place in history. Naomi André draws on the experiences of performers and audiences to explore this music’s resonance with today’s listeners. Interacting with creators and performers, as well as with the works themselves, André reveals how black opera unearths suppressed truths. These truths provoke complex, if uncomfortable, reconsideration of racial, gender, sexual, and other oppressive ideologies. Opera, in turn, operates as a cultural and political force that employs an immense, transformative power to represent or even liberate. Viewing opera as a fertile site for critical inquiry, political activism, and social change, Black OperI lays the foundation for innovative new approaches to applied scholarship.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2018
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Research Africa welcomes submissions of books, events, funding opportunities, and more to be included in the coming edition.
