Preface. Note to Maps. Maps. Introduction. 1. Are Nations Modern?. a Modernistsa and a Primordialistsa . Ethnie, Myths and Symbols. The Durability of Ethnic Communities. Part I: Ethnic Communities in Pre--Modern Eras:. 2. Foundations of Ethnic Community. The Dimensions of Ethnie. Some Bases of Ethnic Formation. Structure and persistence of Ethnie. 3. Ethnie and Ethnicism in History. Uniqueness and Exclusion. Ethnic Resistance and Renewal. External Threat and Ethnic Response. Two Types of Ethnic Mythomoteur. 4. Class and Ethnie in Agrarian Societies. Military Mobilization and Ethnic Consciousness. Two Types of Ethnie. Ethnic Polities. 5. Ethnic Survival and Dissolution. Location and Sovereignty. Demographic and Cultural Continuity. Dissolution of Ethnie. Ethnic Survival. Ethnic Socialization and Religious Renewal. Part II: Ethnie and Nations in the Modern Era. 6. The Formation of Nations. Western Revolutions. Territorial and Ethnic Nations. Nation--Formation. The Ethnic Model. Ethnic Solidarity or Political Citizenship?. 7. From Ethnie to Nation. Politicization of Ethnie. The New Priesthood. Autarchy and Territorialization. Mobilization and Inclusion. The New Imagination. 8. Legends and Landscapes. Nostalgia and Posterity. The Sense of a The Pasta . Romantic Nationalism as an a Historical Dramaa . Poetic Spaces: The Uses of Landscape. Golden Ages: The Uses of History. Myths and Nation--Building. 9. The Genealogy of Nations. Parmenideans and Heraclitans. The a Antiquitya of Nations. Transcending Ethnicity?. A World of Small Nations. Ethnic Mobilization and Global Security. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

The Ethnic Origins of Nations

L’auteur essaie de demontrer qu’il n’existe pas d’identite africaine que l’on peut designer par un seul terme ou ranger sous une seule rubrique. L’identite africaine n’existe que comme substance. Elle se constitue, a travers une serie de pratiques, notamment de pratiques de pouvoir et du soi, ce que Michel Foucault, appelle les jeux de verite, Ni les formes de cette identite, ni ses idiomes ne sont toujours semblables a eux meme. Ces formes sont mobiles, reversibles et instables. Par consequent, elles ne peuvent etre reduites a un ordre purement biologique base sur le sang, la race, ou la geographie. Elles ne peuvent non plus etre reduites a la tradition, dans la mesure ou celle-ci est constamment reinventee.

https://calternatives.org/resource/pdf/African%20Modes%20of%20Self-Writing.pdf

African modes of self-writing

Catherine Boone examines political regionalism in Africa and how it affects forms of government, and prospects for democracy and development. Boone's study is set within the context of larger theories of political development in agrarian societies. It features a series of compelling case studies that focus on regions within Senegal, Ghana, and Cote d'Ivoire and ranges from 1930 to the present. The book will be of interest to readers concerned with comparative politics, Africa, development, regionalism and federalism, and ethnic politics. Multi-country study of politics and political development in Africa. Book places African political development in the mainstream of studies of state-formation in agrarian studies. Study combines macrosociology with choice-theoretic perspectives in Political Science.

Political Topographies of the African State: Territorial Authority and Institutional Choice

Acknowledgements 1. The study of politics in Africa 2. The movement legacy 3. The problematic state 4. The economy of affection 5. Big man rule 6. The policy factor 7. The agrarian question 8. Gender and politics 9. Ethnicity and conflict 10. The external dimension 11. So what do we know? 12. Quo vadis Africa? References Index.

African Politics in Comparative Perspective

The Global Movement for Mental Health has brought renewed attention to the neglect of people with mental illness within health policy worldwide. The maltreatment of the mentally ill in many low-income countries is widely reported within psychiatric hospitals, informal healing centres, and family homes. International agencies have called for the development of legislation and policy to address these abuses. However such initiatives exemplify a top-down approach to promoting human rights which historically has had limited impact at the level of those living with mental illness and their families. This research forms part of a longitudinal anthropological study of people with severe mental illness in rural Ghana. Visits were made to over 40 households with a family member with mental illness, as well as churches, shrines, hospitals and clinics. Ethnographic methods included observation, conversation, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with people with mental illness, carers, healers, health workers and community members. Chaining and beating of the mentally ill was found to be commonplace in homes and treatment centres in the communities studied, as well as with-holding of food ('fasting'). However responses to mental illness were embedded within spiritual and moral perspectives and such treatment provoked little sanction at the local level. Families struggled to provide care for severely mentally ill relatives with very little support from formal health services. Psychiatric services were difficult to access, particularly in rural communities, and also seen to have limitations in their effectiveness. Traditional and faith healers remained highly popular despite the routine maltreatment of the mentally ill in their facilities. Efforts to promote the human rights of those with mental illness must engage with the experiences of mental illness within communities affected in order to grasp how these may underpin the use of practices such as mechanical restraint. Interventions which operate at the local level with those living with mental illness within rural communities, as well as family members and healers, may have greater potential to effect change in the treatment of the mentally ill than legislation or investment in services alone.

/pdf/local-suffering-and-the-global-discourse-of-mental-health-2e3g2k1nbp.pdf

Local suffering and the global discourse of mental health and human rights: An ethnographic study of responses to mental illness in rural Ghana

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: The Universal and the Particular Part I. General Considerations 2. A Philosophical Perspective on the Concept of Human Communication 3. Are There Cultural Universals? 4. The Biological Foundation of Universal Norms Part II. Religion and Morality 5. Universalism and Particularism in Religion from an African Perspective 6. Custom and Morality: A Comparative Analysis of Some African and Western Conceptions of Morals Part III. Conceptual Contrasts 7. Formulating Modern Thought in African Languages: Some Theoretical Considerations 8. The Concept of Truth in the Akan Language 9. African Philosophical Tradition: A Case Study of the Akan 10. The Need for Conceptual Decolonization in African Philosophy 11. Post-Colonial African Philosophy Part IV. Democracy and Human Rights 12. An Akan Perspective on Human Rights 13. Philosophy and the Political Problem of Human Rights 14. Democracy and Consensus: A Plea for a Non-Party Polity 15. Postscript: Reflections on Some Reactions Notes Index

Cultural universals and particulars : an African perspective

These thirteen original essays bring the concept of social class to the analysis of contemporary African politics. Each considers different aspects of a single theme: the 'authoritative allocation of values', or who gets what when, where, and why - and who gets left out. The book addresses problems of major concern in the daily lives of ordinary people, pointing out just how precarious life was for most Africans during and after the colonial period. The authors, who represent a "highlight" of political perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds, also "highlight" the importance of the state, religion, ideology, gender, ethnicity, language, and international relations in determining policy and in understanding society in general. Readership: political scientists, sociologists, and economists with a particular interest in Africa; Third World specialists.

Studies in power and class in Africa

Power and Class in Africa

Power and Class in Africa.

Traditional social structures in new African states have not withered away according to the plans of modernising African leaders or the projections of western social scientists. Leaders and social interests of long ancestry continue to count, and often determine the policies of so-called modern governments. Many chiefs and religious figures have succeeded in maintaining their relative positions of power vis-a-vis their former subjects.

Irving Leonard Markovitz

Papers

Cultural universals and particulars : an African perspective

Studies in power and class in Africa

Power and Class in Africa

Power and Class in Africa.

Traditional Social Structure, the Islamic Brotherhoods, and Political Development in Senegal