African Studies Commons

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Recent Articles in African Studies

"Thaai Thathaiyai Ngai Thaai": Narratives Of Rituals, Agency, And Resistance In The Klfa (Mau Mau) Struggle For Kenya's Independence, Henry Muoki Mbunga Syracuse University

"Thaai Thathaiyai Ngai Thaai": Narratives Of Rituals, Agency, And Resistance In The Klfa (Mau Mau) Struggle For Kenya's Independence, Henry Muoki Mbunga

Pan African Studies - Theses

The purpose of this project is to examine the role of rituals in the Mau Mau struggle for Kenya's independence. Traditionally, research on the Mau Mau has focused on the political and socio-economic aspects of Kenya's anti-colonial struggle. As a result, the place of spirituality and, in particular, the role of rituals in the Mau Mau struggle has largely been ignored in existing literature. Initially, when KLFA rituals were studied at the height of the Mau Mau struggle, the task was undertaken by colonial anthropologists and psychologists who were often unable to escape the snare of racist and ...


Disrupting Discourses Of Failure: Counter Narratives Of Black Male Students And Academic Success, Brandi N. Williams Syracuse University

Disrupting Discourses Of Failure: Counter Narratives Of Black Male Students And Academic Success, Brandi N. Williams

Pan African Studies - Theses

In the twenty-first century, African-American males continue to be significantly "left behind" academically in comparison with other ethnicities and even compared to their female counterparts. Nonetheless, there appears to be one school that has been situated to have the "antidote" for this gap. This working case study draws on an interview methodology to investigate the programming experiences of alumni, former faculty, current faculty, and administration from a predominantly all-Black male school with a reported 100 percent graduation rate that is situated in the nation's third largest school district. Through a critical race theoretical lens, the interviews present narratives that ...


Deepening Democracy At The Grassroots Level: Citizen Participation In State Devolved Funds (Cdf) In Kenya, Fredrick Omondi Otieno Syracuse University

Deepening Democracy At The Grassroots Level: Citizen Participation In State Devolved Funds (Cdf) In Kenya, Fredrick Omondi Otieno

Pan African Studies - Theses

That democracy is the most suitable form of government is no longer contested. However many questions shaking this global consensus continue to abound. Why is there a growing cynicism and apathy with the notion of democracy across the globe? Why has the concept of democracy had to attract adjectives that attempt to qualify or categorize it in different parts of the world? And perhaps most importantly, if in deed democracy is such a good "thing" how can it be made meaningful? This thesis looks at citizen participation in a state devolved fund (CDF) in Kenya as a space through which ...


Indigenous Peoples And The Capitalist World System: Researching, Knowing, And Promoting Social Justice, Asafa Jalata University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Indigenous Peoples And The Capitalist World System: Researching, Knowing, And Promoting Social Justice, Asafa Jalata

Asafa Jalata

This paper explores the major consequences of the expansion of the European-dominated capitalist world system, colonial terrorism, and continued subjugation for indigenous Americans, Australians, and Afri- cans between the late fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Western powers as well as most of the descen- dants of European colonialists in Europe, the Americas, Australia, and in Africa and their regional and local collaborators deny or forget or minimize the crimes committed against indigenous peoples and claim that their ancestors spread modernity and civilization around the world.


Legal And Policy Frameworks Regulating The Behavior Of Politicians And Political Parties In Ghana: Interrogating Institutional Mechanisms, Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, Fiifi Edu-Afful Kennesaw State University

Examining The Legal And Policy Frameworks Regulating The Behavior Of Politicians And Political Parties In Sierra Leone, Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, Fiifi Edu-Afful Kennesaw State University

Repurposed Narratives: The Battle Of Ṣiffīn And The Historical Memory Of The Umayyad Dynasty, Aaron M. Hagler University of Iowa

Repurposed Narratives: The Battle Of Ṣiffīn And The Historical Memory Of The Umayyad Dynasty, Aaron M. Hagler

Mathal/Mashal

The Battle of Ṣiffīn (36/657) is the flash point in the emergence of sects within Islam. The presentation of the Ṣiffīn story in Arabic historical writing therefore changed over time as the sectarian split among Sunnīs and Shīʿites became increasingly defined. This paper will trace the development of the presentation of the Ṣiffīn story in Arabic histories across developing Sunnī and Shīʿite identity crystallization and the region of origin of their authors, as well as literary and stylistic developments in the field of Arabic historical writing.

The specific historians examined have been chosen in part because they demonstrate a ...


Contemporary Challenges To Peacekeeping Operations In Africa, Emmanuel Wekem Kotia Kennesaw State University

Contemporary Challenges To Peacekeeping Operations In Africa, Emmanuel Wekem Kotia

Emmanuel Wekem Kotia

A presentation to students of the PhD and Masters Programs in International Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University. Outlines types of United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa and discusses structural challenges to same.


Emerging Threats To National Security And Development In Africa, Emmanuel Wekem Kotia Kennesaw State University

Emerging Threats To National Security And Development In Africa, Emmanuel Wekem Kotia

Emmanuel Wekem Kotia

A presentation to students of the PhD and Masters Programs in International Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University.


Copyright ©2013, American Sociological Association, Volume Xix, Number 1, Pages 130 - 152, Issn 1076 - 156x The Impacts Of Terrorism And Capitalist Incorporation On Indigenous Americans, Asafa Jalata University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Colonial Terrorism, Global Capitalism And African Underdevelopment: 500 Years Of Crimes Against African Peoples, Asafa Jalata University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Colonial Terrorism, Global Capitalism And African Underdevelopment: 500 Years Of Crimes Against African Peoples, Asafa Jalata

Asafa Jalata

This article critically explores the essence and characters of European colonial terrorism and its main consequences on various African peoples during racial slavery, colonization, and incorporation into the European-dominated capitalist world system between the late fifteenth and twentieth centuries. It employs multidimensional, comparative methods, and critical approaches to explain the dynamic interplay among social structures, human agency, and terrorism to critically explain the connections among all forms of violence, the emergence of globalization, and African underdevelopment. The piece focuses on four central issues: First, it conceptualizes and theorizes terrorism to clarify its roles in creating and maintaining the global system ...


Metal Detecting: One Step To Better Consideration Of African American Resources, Chris Espenshade, Patrick Severts University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Metal Detecting: One Step To Better Consideration Of African American Resources, Chris Espenshade, Patrick Severts

African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter

Difficulties in discovering, delineating, and evaluating ephemeral archaeological sites is a recognized issue in African American archaeology. It is argued that the addition of metal detecting to the methodological toolbox for survey, boundary definition, and testing will result in the better treatment of ephemeral sites of African American occupation.


The Impacts Of Terrorism And Capitalist Incorporation On Indigenous Americans, Asafa Jalata University of Tennessee, Knoxville

The Impacts Of Terrorism And Capitalist Incorporation On Indigenous Americans, Asafa Jalata

Asafa Jalata

This article demonstrates the connections between terrorism , colonial state formation, and the development of the capitalist world system, or globalization, exploring theconsequences of colonial terrorism on indigenous American peoples. First, the piece introduces the central argument and conceptualizes and theorizes terrorism. Second, it examines the structural aspects of colonial terrorism by connecting it to specific colonial policies and practices. Third, it explain the ideological justifications tha Euro-American colonial settlers and their descendants used In committing crimes against humanity and dispossessing the homelands of indigenous Americans, as well as in amassing wealth/capital by ignoring moral, ethical ,and philosophical issues and ...


A New Nation, A Brighter Future? Strategic Norwegian Oil Development Assistance In South Sudan, Even Kvelland Macalester College

A New Nation, A Brighter Future? Strategic Norwegian Oil Development Assistance In South Sudan, Even Kvelland

The Macalester Review

Post-independence South Sudan faces numerous development obstacles and many consider oil to be a redeeming factor for the new state. This paper discusses the resource curse related to the country’s oil industry and how with proper management, the oil can largely benefit the new state. It explores Norway’s history of oil development and examines ways in which Norway can assist South Sudan in managing their oil, making it the most effective for the people. Key elements of the assistance are the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, technical support focusing on increased oil recovery, and building stronger state ...


A Question Of Humanity, Ruani S. Freeman Colby College

A Question Of Humanity, Ruani S. Freeman

Colby Magazine

Lt. General Roméo Dalliare asks the West to consider its role in the genocide in Rwanda.


The Last Page: Egypt's Rise: Serving Security Through Development, Yvonne Siu Colby College

The Last Page: Egypt's Rise: Serving Security Through Development, Yvonne Siu

Colby Magazine

Yvonne Siu ’03 on Egypt’s democracy.


A Fine Line: Oscar-Nominated Filmmakers Andrea Nix Fine And Sean Fine Strike A Balance Between Tragedy And Beauty, Gerry Boyle Colby College

A Fine Line: Oscar-Nominated Filmmakers Andrea Nix Fine And Sean Fine Strike A Balance Between Tragedy And Beauty, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

Documentary filmmaker Andrea Nix Fine ’91 and her husband and co-director, Sean Fine, wanted their film War/Dance to tell the world the story of children living in a refugee camp in war-torn northern Uganda. The world watched, as War/Dance was nominated for an Academy Award.


Promoting And Developing Oromummaa (Power Point), Asafa Jalata University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Promoting And Developing Oromummaa (Power Point), Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.


Promoting And Developing Oromummaa, Asafa Jalata University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Promoting And Developing Oromummaa, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

As any concept, Oromummaa has different meanings on conventional, theoretical, and political, and ideological levels. Although the colonizers of the Oromo deny, most Oromos know their linguistic, cultural, historical, political, and behavioral patterns that have closely connect together all of their sub-identities to the Oromo nation. There is a clear conventional understanding among all Oromo branches and individuals on these issues. The Oromo national movement has gradually expanded the essence and meaning of Oromummaa. The colonization of the Oromo and the disruption of their collective identity and the repression and exploitation of Oromo society have increased the commitment of some ...


Egyptian Civil Society (Transnational Vs. Local): The Distinction Between Theory And Practice, Jeremiah Davis University of San Francisco

Egyptian Civil Society (Transnational Vs. Local): The Distinction Between Theory And Practice, Jeremiah Davis

Master Theses

Abstract:

The strength and dominance of political society, rather than the weaknesses of civil society, is arguably one of the primary reasons for massive civil uprising in Egypt led by independent, unaffiliated members of society. In many cases it appears that civil society was behind the Egyptian Revolution, although is this the case? Did the Revolution happen in spite of civil society? Just as the state can be a roadblock to development and democratization, civil society may also be detrimental to society’s growth. In this thesis, the development and civil society community is analyzed to discover the functions of ...