Africa Development 

About: Africa Development is an academic journal published by Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Politics & Population. It has an ISSN identifier of 0850-3907. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 532 publications have been published receiving 5478 citations. The journal is also known as: Afrique et développement.

Public Sphere and Epistemologies of the South

Abstract: The public sphere, as the crucible for public opinion, is indispensable to modern democratic politics. This paper traces the seminal contributions of the German critical theorist, Jurgen Habermas to the elaboration of the concept. However, while Habermas’ conception has had a profound impact, it has nevertheless been criticised on fundamental grounds. And contemporary globalisation and technological changes have also had important implications for our understanding of the concept. I seek to elaborate the development of the idea of the public sphere from Habermas to the era of internet globalisation. I also examine the specific ways the idea has found expression in post-colonial Africa, showing how the global intellectual trajectory shapes the applicability of the concept to specific African contexts. If the concept of the public sphere is to relate to African realities, it must be understood not as a single public – a la Habermas – or ‘Two Publics’ – a la Ekeh, but as a multiplicity of overlapping publics. I argue that we can fruitfully re-interpret contemporary democratisation in Africa against the backdrop of this understanding of the concept of the public sphere, taking full cognizance of the other criticisms of the concept.

Nigeria's Niger Delta: Understanding the Complex Drivers of Violent Oil-related Conflict

Abstract: This paper explores the complex roots and dimensions of the Niger Delta conflict which has escalated from ethnic minority protests against the federal Nigerian State-Oil Multinationals’ alliance in the 1990’s to the current insurgency that has attracted worldwide attention. It also raises some conceptual issues drawn from ‘snapshots’ taken from various perspectives in grappling with the complex roots of the oilrelated conflict in the paradoxically oil-rich but impoverished region as an important step in a nuanced reading of the local, national and international ramifications of the conflict and its implications for Nigeria’s development. The conflict is then located both in the struggle of ethnic minority groups for local autonomy and the control of their natural resources (including oil), and the contradictions spawned by the transnational production of oil in the region. The transition from resistance – as-protest – to insurgency, as represented by attacks on state and oil company targets by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), is also critically analyzed.

The Silences in the NGO Discourse: The role and future of NGOs in Africa*

Abstract: This paper is an attempt to examine critically the role and future of the NGO in Africa in the light of its self-perception as a non-governmental, non-political, non-partisan, non-ideological, non-academic, non-theoretical, not-for-profit association of well-intentioned individuals dedicated to changing the world to make it a better place for the poor, the marginalised and the downcast. It is the argument of the paper that the role of NGOs in Africa cannot be understood without a clear characterisation of the current historical moment. On a canvas of broad strokes, I depict Africa at the cross-roads of the defeat of the National Project and the rehabilitation of the imperial project. In the face of the avalanche of ‘end of history’ diatribes, I find it necessary, albeit briefly, to reiterate the history of Africa’s enslavement from the first contacts with the Europeans five centuries ago through the slave trade to colonialism and now globalisation. The aim of this historical detour is to demonstrate the fundamental antithesis between the National and the Imperial Projects so as to identify correctly the place and role of the NGOs in it. I locate the rise, the prominence and the privileging of the NGO sector in the womb of the neo-liberal offensive whose aim is as much ideological as economic and political. I argue that the NGO discourse, or more correctly the non-discourse, is predicated on the philosophical and political premises of neo-liberalism/globalisation paradigm. It is in this context that I go on to discuss the ‘five silences’ or blind-spots in the NGO discourse. I draw out the implications of these silences on the contemporary and future role of the NGO sector in Africa. * This paper was first delivered as a keynote paper to the Symposium on NGOs at the MS-Training Centre for Development Cooperation in Arusha, Tanzania, 28-29, November 2005. ** Faculty of Law, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. E-mail: issashivji@catsnet.com

An empirical analysis of food insecurity in Ethiopia: the case of North Wello.

Abstract: No Abstract Available Africa Development/Afrique et developpement Vol.XXVII, Nos 1&2, 2002: 127-143