Postcolonial African Context Research Articles

Land Ownership in Cameroon: An Overview

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to thoroughly examine land ownership in Cameroon, focusing on the legal classification of land, the legal and institutional framework governing land registration, and the procedures for obtaining a land certificate.
 Methodology: This study adopts a qualitative research approach, emphasizing content analysis of relevant data. It involves a detailed examination of legal documents, policies, and case studies related to land ownership in Cameroon.
 Findings: The findings reveal a diverse array of land forms in Cameroon, highlighting a comprehensive legal framework for land acquisition. However, discrepancies exist in the implementation of these laws, leading to conflicts and uncertainties in land ownership. The study identifies a significant gap in land title formalization, with many landowners relying on informal agreements or deeds of conveyance as proof of ownership. Furthermore, the findings suggest the need for further research into the intersection of ethnicity, land ownership, and the role of private corporations in land disputes.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice, and Policy: This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of land ownership in a post-colonial African context, specifically examining the complexities in Cameroon. It offers practical insights for policymakers, legal practitioners, and landowners on the challenges and potential solutions in the land registration process. The study strongly recommends a revision of the existing land laws in Cameroon to align with contemporary realities and address the identified challenges.

Long-distance nationalism, diaspora mobilisation, and the struggle for Biafran self-determination in Nigeria

Existing works on the sources of secessionist agitations in postcolonial Africa tend to be methodologically nationalist but also circumvent the diasporic dimension. Particularly, the resurgent ethnic separatism amongst Igbos in southeastern Nigeria has been predominantly analysed from the theoretical standpoints of relative marginalisation and material deprivation that focus on domestic politics in post-war Nigeria. We broaden this literature by underscoring the diasporic dimension of this secessionist conflict. Drawing on the literature on diaspora nationalism with a focus on the case of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)—a transnational separatist movement—we reveal evidence showing how the Igbo diaspora instigate and exacerbate separatist tensions in the homeland by reviving collective memories of the macabre Nigeria-Biafra war (1967–1970) and reimagining alternative political futures for ethnic Igbos devoid of the state’s grand narratives of nationhood. We contend that the diasporic dimension is profoundly critical to comprehending separatist agitations in southeastern Nigeria with implications for wider postcolonial African contexts.

The Boubou and Post-Colonial African Musical Performances: Ami Koïta, Bi Kidude, and Sibongile Khumalo

Fashion and music share a relationship as mediums used to project the identities of post- colonial female vocalists. When viewed from post-colonial African contexts, the boubou is an item used to express these identities. Using the performances of Ami Koïta, Bi Kidude, and Sibongile Khumalo between 1995 and 2013, this article analyzes their use of the boubou. My research shows that Koïta’s use of the boubou coincides with her innovative and controversial musical composition, argued herein, and works to express her “solo artist” status. Kidude’s garb demonstrates her attempt to show her Zanzibari and African artist identity. Khumalo’s garb expresses a South African and African musician identity and projects South Africa as a “new nation.” These findings suggest that when used in various locales, the boubou holds context- specific meanings that align with each country’s socio-cultural and socio-political contexts. While this clothing item has been affiliated with fashion designers and tailors and their contribution to the African fashion and clothing system, this article’s contribution is the role played by female vocalists. These women show their identities through fashion and music and cement the boubou’s position as an important item of the African clothing and fashion system.

Being, Belonging and Becoming in Africa: A Postcolonial Rethinking

This paper focuses on the nature and significance of belonging and its intersection with Identity and being in the world. Its primary impetus is to address the question of belonging as it arises in postcolonial multi-ethnic, language, religious and racial identities in Africa. Where does ethnic and national Identity intersect and diverge? It remains a highly politicised and contested issue. Narratives on African belongings provide insights into the shape and complexity of the contemporary African debate and illustrate how, in the presentation of belonging as having multiple and competing manifestations, what it is to belong per se is rendered indistinct. This exemplifies the critical problem where Belonging is concerned. While Belonging is invoked as an issue of crucial existential concern in public discourse and across a broad range of disciplines, there is an apparent and troubling lack of conceptual or linguistic apparatus. The notion can be grasped and critically analysed. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore and redress this problematic situation. Consideration of Belonging also involves Identity and thinking of how these two concepts are articulated together in theory. This latter question is explored by surveying the theoretical and conceptual frameworks from which ‘senses’ of Identity and Belonging are commonly expressed in postcolonial Africa. Belonging qua correct relation represents an entirely new way of understanding, in existential terms, what it is to belong (or not), not only in the postcolonial African context but wherever and whenever the question arises.

‘Samae Spirit’ Assist toward ‘Ubuntu Spirit’ Model for Rural Adult Christian Education in Zambia

This article argues that in the ongoing effort to promote ubuntu spirit as an instrument for decolonization, the church in Zambia can learn lessons from how Rev Pai Min-soo deployed the indigenous model of samae spirit to construct adult Christian education for Korean rural development. The samae spirit is utilized to underline the necessity for the affirmation of the ubuntu spirit for the critical consciousness of the rural dwellers in Zambia. It stresses that while non-African models cannot substitute indigenous decolonial models, they can assist in understanding how postcolonial African contexts can leverage indigenous knowledge systems for social transformation.

Challenging the frivolities of power: the ubiquitous camera and Nigerian political elites

AbstractThe last decade has witnessed the ubiquitous presence of camera devices, from conventional cameras to communication gadgets (such as mobile phones, iPads and tablets), built with the capacity to produce, edit, disseminate and interact through photographs. In this article, I analyse visual materials circulated on Facebook, YouTube and Nairaland (a locally popular social-networking website used by Nigerians) to demonstrate how the ubiquity of the camera, its overt and surreptitious use, and the transformation and circulation of the resulting photographs constitute political acts in a postcolonial African context. The camera's ubiquity encompasses the increasing availability of photographic devices, but also the growing, and politically charged, inclination to put them to use, framing the world through which their users move. The production and dissemination of the resulting photograph gives it the status of an eyewitness account, amidst contestations that heighten its force as political articulation. Lastly, the ubiquitous camera is a means through which the public observes, polices and exposes the duplicity of state functionaries. The article contributes to an understanding of the ways in which digital infrastructure allows public access to the political undertaking of photography.

We know to whom we belong? The drama of ministerial practice in a postcolonial African context

We are busy celebrating 500 years of reformation and one of the basic convictions of the reformers was that we know to (W)whom we belong. During the student uprisings that we experienced in 2015 and 2016, it became clear that the notion of ‘belonging’ was deeply contested. Students still experience that black people are socially, economically and psychologically abused by the white systems, including university campuses.In empirical research conducted in 2016 with colleagues from five other faculties, these feelings and experiences of exclusion, of not belonging and of injustice among theology students and even some lecturers, were confirmed. This led to the basic research question focused on the subject field for which I am responsible at the Faculty of Theology: how do we work together as lecturers and students to help create such spaces of human dignity in the training of students who are busy preparing for ministry practice in a postcolonial African context in which they experience belonging? This article endeavours to provide an answer to this question.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The empirical part of the research was conducted by colleagues from five different faculties including Arts and Science, Engineering, Law, Education and Theology. In that sense, the research was not only intradisciplinary but also interdisciplinary.

‘Our ancestors taught us the business know-how in Africa’: Continuity and Innovation in Ismaili Transnational Business Culture

Through a comparison between transnational business practices of Ismaili Muslim settled in the British and Portuguese colonial territories of East Africa and in contemporary Angola, we aim to discuss the impact of colonial experiences in the reconfiguration of postcolonial migrant entrepreneurial cultures. Articulating several guiding empirical questions, we will attempt to show that the continuing centrality in the (politico-economic, relational, and cultural) logic of the particular nation-state in which Ismaili business activities are embedded, the notion of a disadvantageous network closure, concomitant with the importance of face-to-face contacts, the mutual trust and understanding sustained through personal relations, and the tendency for national loyalty to prevail over religious belonging (whenever any potential conflict between the two exists) constitute crucial dimensions of an accumulated tacit knowledge (functional, behavioural, identitarian) which is significant in the analysis of the Ismaili competitive advantage in different colonial and postcolonial African contexts.

Tourism experiences, visitability and heritage resources in Saint Louis, Senegal

ABSTRACTThis paper studies heritage tourism experiences in the postcolonial World Heritage Site of Saint Louis, Senegal. Based on fieldwork and archival research, it shows the complexity and discrepancy linked with heritage presentation and design from the experiential realities encountered on the ground. The argument put forward is that colonial heritage, although it is simplified and controlled to meet specific tourist expectations by official authorities, appears to be dynamic, performative and subject to multiple interpretations from visitors, tourist guides and local residents. It further suggests that social and economic conditions of the communities living in the site affect the heritage space and shape vicariously or directly tourists’ experiences, despite professionals’ efforts of keeping the heritage visible in certain ways. The article extends its discussion to adjacent topics of power and gender issues, demonstrating how heritage tourism in postcolonial African context is intimately intertwined with the changing everyday realities of the communities.

On rainbows and butterflies: the Classics, the Humanities, and Africa

The purpose of teaching the Humanities and, in particular, the Classics, in a postcolonial African context, has been the subject of intense debate within South African and African universities. In this paper, I contribute to this debate by considering how the University of Ibadan in Nigeria has appropriated the classical tradition in a post-colonial context, and what classicists in South Africa can learn from the Ibadan exemplum. A brief discussion of the complex patron-client relationships, which underpin the survival of a strong Department of Classics at Ibadan, is intended to suggest how local cultural politics, inextricably linked to the history of the institution and the department, will affect the transformation of the curricula within African universities. Departments of Classics at South African universities will have to negotiate their own paths to transformation as they reflect on why Classical Studies should continue to be taught in their specific South African contexts. ‘There’s a rainbow outside, sir. Have you seen it? What’s the Greek for a rainbow?’ ‘Something to do with the goddess, Iris, I imagine. Ἴρις, I suspect. Thus arcoiris in Spanish.’ ‘And Latin?’ ‘The same, surely. Iris.’ ‘And butterfly?’ ‘I really don’t know. Why are you asking me this?’ ‘I saw one yesterday for the first time in ages. I know from my Italian course that it’s farfalla in Italian.’ ‘And mariposa in Spanish. Borboleta in Portuguese.’ ‘And papillon in French, sir.’  Chairperson’s address, Classical Association of South Africa, 30th Biennial

Gay rights, the devil and the end times: public religion and the enchantment of the homosexuality debate in Zambia

This article contributes to the understanding of the role of religion in the public and political controversies about homosexuality in Africa. As a case study it investigates the heated public debate in Zambia following a February 2012 visit by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who emphasised the need for the country to recognise the human rights of homosexuals. The focus is on a particular Christian discourse in this debate, in which the international pressure to recognise gay rights is considered a sign of the end times, and Ban Ki-moon, the UN and other international organisations are associated with the Antichrist and the Devil. Here, the debate about homosexuality becomes eschatologically enchanted through millennialist thought. Building on discussions about public religion and religion and politics in Africa, this article avoids popular explanations in terms of fundamentalist religion and African homophobia, but rather highlights the political significance of this discourse in a postcolonial African context.

Language and Body in Performance: Working across Languages in the Ghanaian Production I Told You So

Language is central to any discussion of theatre, particularly in the post-colonial African context where playmakers still struggle with the dilemma of language choice, and actors are faced with th...

The Third Voice: Writing Case-notes

The article examines the activity of writing case-notes. For this purpose, case-notes are broadly defined as textual records of encounters between mental health practitioners and their clients. The primary focus is on psychotherapy notes, written for private use. It suggests that note writing is potentially a lively addition to the dialogue within the therapy room, an essential part of the unique relationship that grows between practitioner and client. In particular, it looks at the possibilities of representing intersubjectivity, the third voice, emerging from the dialogue between two subjectivities, in ways that forward both theoretical understanding and the therapeutic endeavour. It will argue that serious engagement with case-notes must of necessity tackle questions of voice, speaking rights, a variety of deafnesses, power, the inscription or oblation of race and gender in professional discourses, and reclamation of knowledge colonized by patriarchal and colonial structures of authority. It is feminist in its orientation. It speaks from a postcolonial African context, and a psychoanalytic approach, and draws on psychotherapy experience saturated with those foundational identities.

Democratic Concept Development: A Dialogic Process for Developing Education Curriculum

Curriculum is a mechanism for citizenship preparation. Although a large body of literature speaks to the important role of official and hidden curriculum in fostering or hindering democratic classrooms, much less attention has been given to the processes of curriculum development, especially between Western researchers and teachers in postcolonial African contexts. This article discusses a curriculum development method, namely, Democratic Concept Development (DCD), created by 2 American social educators (Kubow & Fischer) in their work with groups of South African and Kenyan teachers during an international project. The methodology—premised on 4 critical social aims (namely, dialogue, consciousness raising, change, and transformation)—provides a way to make public teachers' views of democracy. For those who view the means (democratic processes) to be just as important as the ends (democratic lessons), DCD represents a pedagogical process for developing citizenship education curriculum.