African Studies Commons^™

No. 52: Migration, Remittances And ‘Development’ In Lesotho, Jonathan Crush, Belinda Dodson, John Gay, Thuso Green, Clement Leduka

Southern African Migration Programme

Lesotho is one of the most migration dependent countries in the world. Migrant remittances are the country’s major source of foreign exchange, accounting for 25% of GDP in 2006. Lesotho is also one of the poorest countries in the world due to high domestic unemployment, declining agricultural production, falling life expectancy, rising child mortality and half the population living below the poverty line. The majority of households and rural communities are dependent on remittances for their livelihood. Households without access to migrant remittances are significantly worse off than those that do have such access.

Since 1990, patterns of migration from …

Locating Xenophobia: Debate, Discourse, And Everyday Experience In Cape Town, South Africa, Belinda Dodson

Geography & Environment Publications

In May 2008, South Africa experienced an outbreak of violence

against foreign Africans living in the country. Political

leaders expressed shock and surprise, but there has in reality

been long-standing and well-documented hostility toward

African immigrants in South Africa. Several competing explanations

have been put forward, with debate gaining urgency

and polarization since the xenophobic attacks of 2008. After

a selective review of the relevant literature to sketch the

contours of that debate, this paper presents findings from

research conducted with African immigrants living in Cape

Town. Their experiences provide further evidence that antiimmigrant

attitudes and behaviors on the part …

The Urgency Of Building Oromo National Consensus, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Development Sportswriter: Covering African Football, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Faculty Publications

Football is Africa’s game, but performance in world competition reveals the sport as metaphor for African development is stymied by political corruption, infrastructure deficiency, and neo-colonial exploitation. The media-sport complex has perpetuated this cycle. Development journalism contrarily posits media as a force for good. Where the ideal of objectivity dominates traditional news, development journalism stresses nation-building. However, emphasizing news, development journalism overlooks the powerful role of sport in African life. Through meta-analysis, this article compares the values and practices of development journalism and of sportswriting. The article concludes that sportswriters are well positioned to act as development journalists. As mediator …

Amazigh Legitimacy Through Language In Morocco, Sarah R. Fischer

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Contemporary Morocco rests at a geographic and developmental crossroads. Uniquely positioned on the Northwestern tip of Africa, Morocco is a short distance away from continental Europe, cradled between North African tradition and identity, and Western embrace. The landscape is varied: craggy mountains trail into desert oases; cobbled streets of the medina anchor the urban centers; mud homes dot the rural countryside. Obscured from the outside observer, behind the walls of the Imperial cities and between the footpaths of village olive groves, Morocco’s rich and diverse Arab and Amazigh cultures and languages circle one another in a contested dance. Morocco’s identity …

Introduction: Human Rights In The Middle East And North Africa (Mena), Raslan Ibrahim

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The wave of revolutions and popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the dawn of 2011 highlights the inescapable relevance and impact of human rights on the region’s politics and security. The Arab regimes’ violations of human rights and lack of respect to the human dignity of their citizens are in fact the seeds of the Jasmine revolution in Tunisia, the rebellion of the Egyptian people against Mubarak regime, as well as the ongoing uprisings across the rest of MENA. The women and men who are protesting in the streets of Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Syria, Yemen, …

Persecution Of Coptic Christians In Modern Egypt, Alla Rubinstein

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The Christian community of Egypt dates back to the seventeenth century and comprises 12 per cent of the population today. As one of the oldest churches of the world, the Coptic Christian Church, first formed in Alexandria, has stood resilient and faithful to its traditions against intolerance, siege and persecutions. Having been present in most institutions of the state among the overwhelmingly Sunni-Muslim population, Copts are not new to the slow process of Islamization that Egypt has been undergoing for the last twenty years. What has been unique to the recent Coptic experience is the forced integration of Shari’a law …

The Abuse Of Child Domestic Workers: Petites Bonnes In Morocco, Joanna Miller

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The International Labor Organization (ILO) classifies child domestic labor as a “worst form of child labor” for a very good reason. Driven by dire poverty and lack of access to education, children are sent away from their homes, often moving to large and unfamiliar cities to work for wealthier families. Morocco has one of the worst child domestic labor problems in Northern Africa with an ILO estimated 66,000-88,000 children between the ages of 7 and 15, 70% of whom are under age 12, working in Morocco today (Rinehart 2007). Many of these child laborers are young girls working as maids, …

Paul Okojie On Darfur And The Crisis Of Governance In Sudan: A Critical Reader. Edited By Salah M. Hassan And Carina E. Ray. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. 528pp., Paul Okojie

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Darfur and the Crisis of Governance in Sudan: A Critical Reader. Edited by Salah M. Hassan and Carina E. Ray. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. 528pp.

Beyond The Brink: Somalia’S Health Crisis, Bryson Brown

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Somalia is approaching a daunting anniversary: in 2011, the country will begin its twentieth consecutive year without an effective centralized government. The fall of the Soviet supported Siad Barre government in 1991 created a power vacuum that was filled by warlords, clans and, most recently, Islamists. Fourteen interim governments have failed to supplant those forces. Health infrastructure and the general health of the population have been devastated as a result. Precious few organizations are still providing health-related services. Unfortunately, recent events suggest that this crisis is going to get worse before it gets better.

Dying For Love: Homosexuality In The Middle East, Heather Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Today in the United States, the most frequent references to the Middle East are concerned with the War on Terrorism. However, there is another, hidden battle being waged: the war for human rights on the basis of sexuality. Homosexuality is a crime in many of the Middle Eastern states and is punishable by death in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iran (Ungar 2002). Chronic abuses and horrific incidences such as the 2009 systematic murders of hundreds of “gay” men in Iraq are seldom reported in the international media. Speculation as to why this population is hidden includes the …

The Political Economy Of Contract Farming In Tea In Kenya: The Kenya Tea Development Agency (Ktda), Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng Ochieng

Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng Ochieng

No abstract provided.

The Urgency Of Building Oromo National Consensus, Asafa Jalata

Asafa Jalata

First, the paper explains how some political achievements without strong organizational and institutional structures have increased political crises in the Oromo national movement. Second, it identifies and explores external and internal factors that have hampered the development of the Oromo national consensus. Third, it suggests what Oromo activists and political organizations should do to overcome their ideological and political weaknesses and political ineptness to develop a national declaration that will be the central guiding principle of the Oromo national movement for human liberation and sovereignty in Oromia and beyond.

Urban Centers In Oromia: Consequences Of Spatial Concentration Of Power In Multinational Ethiopia, Asafa Jalata

Asafa Jalata

This paper examines the essence and characteristics of cities and urban centers in Oromia and the major consequences of the centralization and spatial concentration of Habasha (Amhara-Tigray) political power in a multinational Ethiopia. It speci!cally demonstrates how the integration of indigenous Oromo towns into the Ethiopian colonial structure and the formation of garrison and non-garrison cities and towns in Oromia consolidated Habasha political domination over the Oromo people. Ethiopian colonial structure limited the access of Oromo urban residents, who are a minority in their own cities and towns, to institutions and opportunities, such as employment, education, health, mass media and …

The Tigrayan-Led The Ethiopian State, Repression, Terrorism, And Gross Human Rights Violations In Oromia And Ethiopia, Asafa Jalata

Asafa Jalata

The Tigrayan-led Ethiopian government has engaged in state terrorism and genocide with the support of global powers, including the US, countries of emerging economy like China and India, global institutions like the World Bank and the IMF; it has massacred, assassinated, imprisoned, and tortured millions of Oromos and members other colonized peoples. Millions of Oromos have been also evicted and replaced by thugs and thieves who have no morality and conscience.

An Abundance Of Violence And Scarcity Of Words (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

It is hard to avoid knowing something about the conflict in Darfur. There are divestment movements, student campaigns, actors raising awareness and the ‘genocide olympics’ to remind us of the ongoing conflict. There is also an increasingly ugly exchange in which two sides are talking and neither is listening. This exchange is not between the combatants, as one might expect, but among activists and scholars who disagree on the best way to portray the conflict. While it is difficult to avoid knowing something about the violence in Darfur, finding a deeper analysis that goes beyond the attempts to gain attention …

Worldliness In Out Of The Way Places, Eric Gable

Sociology and Anthropology

This paper looks at such youthful cosmopolitan aspirations among Manjaco of Guinea-Bissau and Lauje in Sulawesi. It is often argued that these attempts at worldliness reflect claims for equal rights of membership in an unequal global society. Yet, an aspiration to worldliness also entails their assertion that we are, or at least should be, like them. This paper suggests that Manjaco and Lauje might seem to want to look like us but they talk very differently about what they expect of us in a world we mutually make.

Tunisia–The Imprisonment Of Fahem Boukadous (Part One Of A Series), Rob Prince

Human Rights & Human Welfare

To most Americans with the exception of those few who, for whatever reason, have an attachment to the North African country of Tunisia, the name Fahem Boukadous, foreign to American ears, means nothing. It means a good deal more to "Reporters Without Borders” and to the US State Department that actually issued a statement (half way down the page) on his behalf, to the US intelligence agencies and military that have carefully followed the Spring, 2008 uprising in the Tunisian region of Gafsa–deemed the most extensive and militant social protest in that country’s history in the past quarter century.

© …

Globalization And Economic Growth In Sub-Saharan Africa, Hadiatou Barry

Gettysburg Economic Review

This study analyzes Sub-Saharan Africa through the framework of globalization. The study‘s objective is to determine whether globalization is a significant factor when associated with economic growth in the region. Using panel data from 1995-2005 for 41 countries and the KOF globalization index, an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model was employed to examine the relationship between globalization and other traditional factors of economic growth such as trade, foreign direct investment, loans, aid, natural resources, corruption, and rule of law. The study shows that globalization has a positive, though statistically insignificant impact on the economic growth of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, globalization …

The Tigrayan-Led The Ethiopian State, Repression, Terrorism, And Gross Human Rights Violations In Oromia And Ethiopia, Asafa Jalata

Sociology Publications and Other Works

The Tigrayan-led Ethiopian government has engaged in state terrorism and genocide with the support of global powers, including the US, countries of emerging economy like China and India, global institutions like the World Bank and the IMF; it has massacred, assassinated, imprisoned, and tortured millions of Oromos and members other colonized peoples. Millions of Oromos have been also evicted and replaced by thugs and thieves who have no morality and conscience.