Modern Africa Research Articles

Pastor Nevers Mumba’s Quest to Actualize the Declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation through “Zambia Shall Be Saved” Campaign, 1993–2021

Abstract This article is grounded in the findings from qualitative and interpretivist research based on secondary and primary data. Two analytic frameworks have been used to make sense of the data. The first is Stephen Ellis and Gerrie ter Haar’s hypothesis that politics in sub-Saharan African societies cannot be fully understood without reference to religious ideas therein; and the second is the notion of African Political Theology which, according to Emmanuel Katongole, means going beyond addressing realities of violence, civil unrest, poverty, tribalism, and corruption, but deploying the story of salvation in Jesus as a concrete social, material, political, and economic reality in the African social imaginary for the construction of modern Africa. The article argues that through “Zambia Shall be Saved” orations from 1993 to date, Pastor Nevers Mumba has been calling for actualizing the declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation (henceforth referred to as “Declaration”) made by President Frederick Chiluba in 1991. Katongole’s understanding of African Political Theology provides an invaluable lens for conceptualizing Mumba’s “Zambia Shall be Saved” discourse. The Declaration remains a topical issue among Zambian and international analysts and the significance of this particular article lies in the fact that it relates Mumba’s cry of “Zambia Shall be Saved” to the new conversation on “Actualizing the Declaration” coined by the government of the republic of Zambia in 2016. Overall, the article seeks to contribute to an ongoing discourse on Zambia’s Christian nationhood.

The State, Religion, and Violence in Colonial and Postcolonial Malawi

In the histories of both colonial and postcolonial Malawi, there have been cases of religious-related violence, both in its physical and non-physical forms. Such cases have led to the deaths of the “perpetrators” of violence and ‘innocent’ believers, destruction of property, prison detentions, and even the forced removal of citizens from the country. This paper analyzes two case studies, one in which private citizens perpetrated the violence, led by a preacher called John Chilembwe, of the Providence Industrial Mission (PIM), challenging British colonial authorities during the second decade of the twentieth century. In the second case, the focus is on the independent Malawi government, which used violence against members of the Jehovah’s Witness (JW) religious sect from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, owing to the Witnesses’ disassociation from the demands of the secular state. Using data primarily drawn from various archives and other published studies, this paper argues that the use of ‘religious-based violence’ is not just a domain ‘reserved’ for those experiencing oppression, exclusion, and marginalization. Rather, authoritarian governments, like the one that emerged in postcolonial Malawi and other parts of Africa, also resorted to using ‘religious-based violence’ to serve as a tool for eliminating ‘non-conforming’ religious sects and organizations. In doing so, this paper contributes to the various fields of scholarship, including the relationship between religion and violence in modern Africa and the dynamics and operations of the state in both colonial and postcolonial Africa.

Chains of Currency: Manilla Money Bracelets, Early Modern Africa and the Ties That Bind

Manilla money bracelets emerged during the early modern period (ca. fifteenth century AD) as a form of currency between western Europe and West Africa, and continued to circulate until the early twentieth century. While there has been little formal scholarship on manillas, narratives abound: some histories cast the bracelets as the blood money of the transatlantic slave trade; others highlight them as the copper source used to make the Benin Bronzes; and still others uphold the manilla as a symbolically important West African cultural object in and of itself. This study begins with a history of the manilla, from its rapid proliferation to its eventual obsolescence. The term “metastasizing symbol” is proposed to describe objects like the manilla, whose propagation is underwritten by unsustainable systems of cultural difference, and thereby contains within itself the seeds for the object’s transition to disuse. The authors also describe a portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of nine manilla bracelets from the Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG). When compared to manilla composition data from previous studies and projected into PCA space, the nine YUAG manillas appear most similar to specimens produced in England during the mid-nineteenth century and traded extensively in British West Africa throughout the colonial period. KEYWORDS: Manilla Money Bracelets; pXRF; Transatlantic Slave Trade; Europe; West Africa; Early Modern Period; European Imperialism; Provenance

Philosophy Education and the Reconstruction of Subjectivity and Modernity in Africa

Abstract The article explores the role that can be played by philosophy education in terms of addressing the crisis of subjectivity and modernity in Africa. Philosophy education in Africa can play the function of liberating Africans from alien modalities of existence and ways of being, and in return embarking on a new journey of self-invention. Without succumbing to a reactive epistemic nationalism that identifies the totality of European philosophy with the ideologies of colonialism, there is a need to develop a form of philosophy education that is cognisant of the troubled path within which the African mode of individual existence and modernity are constituted within. This contributes to the development of a vision of an African future that is founded on collective histories and struggles.

Christian Charismatic Movements in Modern Africa: A Meeting Point between Missionary Christianity and African Indigenous Worldviews

Christian Charismatic Movements in Modern Africa: A Meeting Point between Missionary Christianity and African Indigenous Worldviews

A critical analysis of ubuntu as the nexus of identity development in present-day Africa

In African society today, ubuntu as a notion of African humanism has been, and still is, subject to critical discussion. In African literature, philosophy, ethics, anthropology and theology, ubuntu plays a vast role and scholars in Africa and globally find the notion highly debated. The concept of identity development on the African continent has been written about broadly. This article unpacks the ubuntu philosophies of Augustine Shutte, Kwame Gyekye and John Mbiti. The views of these scholars will be contrasted to critically engage the conceivable commonalities for identity development through cultures. The question addressed herein is: What are the similarities and dissimilarities of ubuntu as a cornerstone for identity development in modern Africa? This article also examines the divergent definition and historical development of ubuntu culture, ubuntu philosophy of identity development, environmental development and various thinkers’ understanding of this African worldview in current Africa and further afield.Contribution: This research contributes to African theological ethics of the new landscape identity and explores the ubuntu worldviews as a developmental process of identities across cultures. Since identity development across cultures is highly dynamic, the hermeneutical interpretation of the principles of ubuntu is crucial.

The Russian Diaspora in Africa. History and Modernity

The article is devoted to the history of the Russian diaspora on the African continent. Russia is a country with a relatively long emigration tradition. Having taken on a massive scale at the end of the XIX century, emigration from Russia continues to this day, representing a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that has always had a great impact on the life of Russian society, regardless of the position that the state authorities took in relation to it at one time or another in history. The article traces its formation at different stages – from its inception at the beginning of the twentieth century to the middle of the twentieth century, marked by the beginning of the national liberation struggle of African peoples for their independence. An independent section of the article is devoted to the current state of the Russian Diaspora in the countries of the African continent., which highlights the problems of the formation of the Russian Diaspora at the present stage, comprehensively analyzes the civil and socio–cultural characteristics of the female Russian contingent - the main source of replenishment of the Russian Diaspora in modern Africa, the specifics of this group of compatriots and their descendants from Afro- Russian marriages de jure and de facto, its role in the social and cultural life of recipient countries and relations with the historical homeland. the unique potential of the “soft power” of the Russian Federation, concluded in its interaction with Russian-speaking communities on the African continent.

Civilizational Transit and Post-Coloniality

The work is the result of the scientific events held on March 23, May 11 and September 21, 2020 by the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Commission on Socio-Cultural Issues of Globalization of the Academic Council “History of the World Culture” under the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the topic «Civilizational transit and Post-Coloniality». The problems debated in the course of the aforementioned scientific events went beyond the issues stated for discussion and were of an interdisciplinary nature. The problem of the forms and features of Christianity as one of the most important confessions of modern Africa received special attention at the conference. The problem of the clash of secular and religious trends in the civilizational development of post-colonial Africa turned out to be of no small importance. The work starts with an introduction, which reflects the topic, problems, purpose, as well as the issues stated for discussion. It is followed by the short theses of the conference participants, representatives of the leading scientific and educational centers of Russia. At the end of the work, a conclusion is given, which summarizes the main results of the conference.

Indigenous Approaches to Socio-Cultural Cohesion among the Ngie of Cameroon, 1863-2011

Communities continuously find it difficult to live together and forge a sense of common development in modern Africa, even though government policies have enacted policies in that direction over the years. This is because most governments have ignored indigenous practices that were in force before colonialism, explaining why most communities have witnessed rampant conflicts between various groups within their vicinities. It is because of this that the study analyses the indigenous approaches which bounded African communities and enhanced coexistence. Using the historical method of analyses with data drawn from primary and secondary sources, the study argues that the indigenous socio-cultural approaches of the Ngie were cohesive in building a sense of common belonging and identity among the diverse groups of the area. It holds that communication modes, justice system, religion, cultural activities and intermarriages as well as social unions were instrumental in that dimension. The paper concludes that if indigenous mechanisms of cohesion are embraced by most colonial governments in Africa, the rampant differences and conflicts in communities will be minimised.

Ọ̀rúnmìlà and the Yorùbá Intellectual Tradition: Words and Language vis-à-vis Western Modernity

Abstract The essay offers a decolonial reading of the thought of Ọ̀rúnmìlà, the ancient legendary Yorùbá African messenger and interpreter of the spiritual tradition of Ifá with the aim to address the problem of hegemonic languages (such as English and French) and epistemic bias that have affected the Yorùbá intellectual tradition. The essay argues that reflection on the deep history of Yorùbá and the applied philosophy of Ọ̀rúnmìlà can better clarify the problem of language and epistemic injustices that European modernity has generated in modern Africa. The essay therefore explores what could be described as the interaction of nature-culture in the Yorùbá African intellectual tradition that continues to be silenced and distorted by imposed hegemonic languages and cultures. Through a new reading of the thought of Ọ̀rúnmìlà within the context of Ifá, the essay highlights how the problem of language and epistemic injustices disrupts the continuity of inherited African philosophical and historical traditions in modern times. Ultimately, such reading aims at revealing the contribution of the Yorùbá intellectual tradition to the global philosophical and historical discourse.

Joseph C. A. Agbakoba, "Development and Modernity in Africa: An Intercultural Philosophical Perspective"

Joseph C. A. Agbakoba, "Development and Modernity in Africa: An Intercultural Philosophical Perspective". An article from journal Philosophy in Review (Volume 43, Number 1, February 2023, pp. 1-46), on Érudit.

Review of [Development and Modernity in Africa: An Intercultural Perspective], by Joseph C A Agbakoba

No Abstract.

The Cynque Syndrome: Tracing the Germs of a Hereditary Disease in Armah’s Osiris Rising

The following article discusses the attitude of one of Armah’s major characters in Osiris Rising: Ras Jomo Cynque. It seeks to uncover how an appeal to a glorious African past can divert present generations in Africa from understanding their history, facing their present and building their future. Using the concepts of romantic Gloriana and romantic primitivism from Ali Mazrui and Fanon’s analysis of mental alienation, it investigates the rationale behind Cynque’s conduct and his determination to lead a life reminiscent of African kingdoms into a modern Africa after he decides to leave America, where his life was strained by racism and disappointment, and to establish himself in Africa, in the fictitious state of Hapa. Cynque’s attitude, as that of Seth Spencer, another character working for the repressive machine of the Hapa regime, is at odds from the dedication and commitment of characters such as Ast, an American from African descent, who returns to the continent in order to help into its rebuilding under the efforts of the Manda group led by the revolutionary Asar.

Spatial co-occurrence patterns of sympatric large carnivores in a multi-use African system.

Interspecific interactions can be a key driver of habitat use, and must be accounted for in conservation planning. However, spatial partitioning between African carnivores, and how this varies with scale, remains poorly understood. Furthermore, most studies have taken place within small or highly protected areas, rather than in the heterogeneous, mixed-use landscapes characteristic of much of modern Africa. Here, we provide one of the first empirical investigations into population-level competitive interactions among an African large carnivore guild. We collected detection/non-detection data for an eastern African large carnivore guild in Tanzania's Ruaha-Rungwa conservation landscape, over an area of ~45,000 km2. We then applied conditional co-occupancy models to investigate co-occurrence between lion, leopard, and African wild dog, at two biologically meaningful scales. Co-occurrence patterns of cheetah and spotted hyaena could not be modelled. After accounting for habitat and detection effects, we found some evidence of wild dog avoidance of lion at the home range scale, and strong evidence of fine-scale avoidance. We found no evidence of interspecific exclusion of leopard by lion; rather, positive associations were observed at both scales, suggesting shared habitat preferences. We found little evidence of leopard habitat use being affected by wild dog. Our findings also reveal some interspecific effects on species detection, at both scales. In most cases, habitat use was driven more strongly by other habitat effects, such as biotic resources or anthropogenic pressures, than by interspecific pressures, even where evidence of the latter was present. Overall, our results help shed light on interspecific effects within an assemblage that has rarely been examined at this scale. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of sign-based co-occurrence modelling to describe interspecific spatial patterns of sympatric large carnivores across large scales. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for large carnivore conservation in modern African systems.

Africa Is Not A Country by Dipo Faloyin

ABSTRACT: This review of Africa Is Not A Country, the book that has been written to break stereotypes of modern Africa, looks at the importance of narrative and suggests how geography teachers can use the content of Dipo Faloyin’s book to develop their own subject knowledge and enhance their teaching about the continent of Africa.

Nineteenth Century Attempts at Economic Modernization in Africa

Nineteenth Century Attempts at Economic Modernization in Africa

Преподавание русского языка как иностранного в Республике Экваториальная Гвинея: задачи и предпосылки

Importance. The research examines the important problem of teaching Russian as a foreign lan-guage to residents of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. The prerequisites for studying Russian as a foreign language by residents of Equatorial Guinea are considered; the prospects for the Russian Federation to create conditions for cooperation with this state and teaching its citizens the Russian language are analyzed; the features of modern language policy in Equatorial Guinea are described. Materials and Methods. The research presents the results of a survey conducted among students from a number of African countries currently studying at the preparatory department of the Lipetsk State Pedagogical P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky University, which made it possible to identify the peculiarities of perception of Russia and the Russian language by young residents of modern Africa. Results and Discussion. During the research, problems associated with the distorted perception of Russian people by the African consciousness are identified, and recommendations are proposed for working with students from the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. The research showed that modern residents of African countries, even those intending to get higher education in the Russian Federation, do not have systematic knowledge about Russia or its culture and are given almost no opportunity to study the Russian language at home. However, in general, their attitude towards our country can be characterized as positive. Conclusion. The results obtained have theoretical value, since they allow us to draw conclusions about the problems that can be encountered when teaching Russian as a foreign language to Afri-can residents, and practical significance, since they make it possible to develop recommendations for ensuring cooperation with the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and teaching Russian to its citizens.

Why Rara Burns Judas during Lent: Rethinking the Origins of Catholic Elements in Haitian Culture from an Afro-Iberian Perspective

AbstractUntil the 1980s, Catholic elements in Haitian culture tended to be interpreted exclusively in connection to the forced conversion of the enslaved population under French rule. This changed following John Thornton's groundbreaking research into the development of Christianity in early modern Africa—Kongo in particular—and the awareness that a significant number of enslaved Africans already identified as Christian before their arrival in Saint-Domingue. This article's goal is to go beyond Thornton's research by showing that we can acquire a better understanding of Catholic elements in Haitian culture if we start our analysis in late medieval Iberia. To illustrate this, the article focuses on one of Haiti's most enigmatic cultural traditions, known as Chariopié, Lwalwadi, or, most commonly, Rara. Although this performance has received abundant scholarly interest, questions relating to the origin of its Catholic elements have remained largely unanswered. This is regrettable considering that Rara parades follow the liturgical calendar of Lent and intensify in frequency during Holy Week. Moreover, a key element of Rara consists of the destruction of an effigy of Judas Iscariot, in accordance with the Biblical account of the Easter story. Using a comparative analysis, this article presents a number of remarkable parallels between Rara and late medieval Iberian Lent traditions. To explain these parallels, it claims that enslaved Africans who were familiar with Iberian practices prior to their arrival in the Caribbean established, by their own initiative, a network of mutual aid and burial societies modeled on Afro-Iberian Catholic brotherhoods.

Is Transitology Relevant for Effective Gender Sensitive Conflict Transformation Practice in Africa?

The continuously evolvement of complex conflicts like terrorism and cyber warfare necessitate the quest for theories that are relevant and applicable across the global geographical divide. This triangulation of theories aids to a better understanding of how past and present human relations, historical dynamics and material conditions intersect to shape conditions for conflict and peace. Few researchers have inquired how the triangulation of old and new theories can enhance an understanding of modern democratic transitions. To address this research gap, I reflect on transitology and feminist epistemology, to explore their relevance, rationality and value addition to the study of conflict transformation in modern Africa. Transitology, one of the oldest theoretical frameworks that enhanced the study of conflict transformation in the West before the end of the Cold War, is majorly criticised as outdated and irrelevant to the study of modern governance and democracy processes (Mohamedou & Sisk, 2017; Saxonberg and Linde, 2016). Likewise feminist epistemology is criticised for narrowly focusing on women and girls’ rights, thus detaching itself from realities of conflict and peace studies (True, 2014; Anderson, 2020). Against this background, I strive to establish the link between transitology - a framework of theories of change towards democracy and feminist epistemology - a framework of theories of change towards inclusive conceptualisations of knowledge, to prove the relevance and rationality of both frameworks, and their capability to catalyse democratic practice towards egalitarian relations and societies. This study contributes to new modalities of knowledge production in the field of women, peace and security. Using secondary data from seventy-five articles, I juxtapose transitology against feminist epistemology, drawing examples from various African countries, to build evidence that demonstrates the relevance of both theoretical frameworks in the study of conflict transformation.

African Philosophy Post 1994: In Conversation with Alena Rettova

The present article aims to initiate a conversation with Alena Rettová on her article “Post-Genocide, Post-Apartheid: The Shifting Landscapes of African Philosophy, 1994-2019” that was published in Modern Africa in the Summer of 2021. We identify several issues in her historical account of African philosophical thoughts that need polyphonic engagement in order to ensure that Africa’s pluralistic intellectual heritage is not reduced to a monophonic one. We are intentional at being Rettová’s intellectual dialogical partner on the reading of African philosophy, while bearing in mind that the ideologies of apartheid and genocide are still active. While we explore some key aspects of her work, we also acknowledge that African philosophy is constantly in the making and it would be problematic to use the yardstick of one context, in this case, the Western context, as a benchmark in order to account for the progression of philosophical thoughts in other philosophical contexts (Africa) without taking into account the historical peculiarities of each context.