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The question of SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) diasporic identity formation has been widely debated in area studies, ethnic studies, and the burgeoning field of Arab American Studies with scholars such as Sarah Gualtieri (2009), Nadine Naber (2012), and Neda Maghbouleh (2017) arguing that people of SWANA descent are racial minorities even though the U.S. government classifies them as white. However, these works have not adequately addressed SWANA racialization in the context of higher education following 9/11. This co-authored paper closely examines institutionalized SWANA erasure from the shared intersectional perspective of one faculty member, one graduate student, and two undergraduate students at a California State University campus in Southern California. Specifically, in this co-authored paper, we draw on our individual and collective co-organizing experiences to illustrate (a) the persistence of specific structural inequities that SWANA heritage people face in the academy, (b) the multilayered impact of these educational barriers, and (c) our wide range of ongoing activist responses to them. We say "khalas!" (enough!) to systemic oppression and argue that the ultimate antidote to institutionalized SWANA erasure is solidarity within and between marginalized subjects at every level of academia in the service of anti-racist and anti-colonial education. This co-authored paper uplifts SWANA resilience and resistance in California's most diverse public university system to shed new light on the understudied issue of how higher education perpetuates SWANA racialization.

In this paper, we explore moments of racial awakening among East African communities in Minnesota. We examine how the events around the George Floyd protests have opened up racial conversations (and gave permission) for many East African Americans in Minnesota, to voice their own pain of being racialized. We call these private and public stories of racial resistance. We highlight stories that take place in private spaces of the community, where experiences of racial violence are silenced, avoided, or outright denied because they cause shame, which mirrors other types of supremacist ideologies within East African societies. We find that these narratives add complexity to notions of Blackness and Black suffering. By looking closer, they are motivated by a desire to struggle against white supremacy. We draw on three of our own stories from two distinct contexts: community conversations and George Floyd protest site in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We do this to examine the different discourses surrounding notions of Blackness and Black sufferings. Through lived experiences of racialization, we interrogate the issue of Black voice, and particularly Black immigrant voice as a site of complex and competing interest that seeks to reconcile different ideologies around Blackness. We put phenomenology of race in conversation with Coloniality and anti-colonial literature to tease out tensions surrounding Blackness and Black suffering in US context. We end with suggestions on alliance building that recognizes and builds on the collective humanity of Black diasporic people.

The transition from one-party rule and other forms of authoritarianism to multiparty democracy in the 1990s has had a profound impact on the organisation and role of student politics in Africa. Against the background of student involvement in African politics in the twentieth century, leading up to student participation in Africa's "second liberation" in the early 1990s, the paper analyses the organisation of student governments, student representation in institutional and national governance, student unionism and the emergence of political parties in student politics in the 2000s. Proceeding from Munene's argument regarding a shift in oppositional politics in Africa away from students to multiparty politics, this paper finds that party politics is also increasingly implicated in African student politics with varied results. The paper concludes by proposing a tentative framework for understanding the impact of high levels of resource exchange between student leaders and political parties on student representation.

I am nurtured by indigenous African musical arts education philosophy and practice, and encountered literary music education and scholarship in adulthood. It is with dual musical sensibilities that I ponder the human mission of school music education. My reflections will derive from experiences of applying African indigenous musical arts in classrooms and practical research sites. The objective has been to awaken the instincts of students who are searching to know music for a fulfilling musical life. Researching the nature of the fuel (the innate musical disposition of learners) is critical for better determining the nature of the spark (knowledge content and actualization strategies) that will ignite innate capabilities into a fulfilling professional pursuit or amateur engagement with the music of life. (Contains 7 notes.)

This paper is based on research into the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa. The research investigated whether, through being active members of this social movement, HIV-positive activists learn things they could not otherwise learn about their status and the epidemic, and how they put such knowledge to use. We show how activists develop a critical understanding of the underlying causes of their ill health and its link to economic poverty and global politics. The paper concludes by suggesting that adult educators can assume direct responsibility for poverty reduction by working in and with social movements.

Copyright of Critical African Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Globally, the issues of extrajudicial killings are on the increase. From racial killings in the West to wanton human rights violations in Africa, the pains are the same. Thus, protests have always been a channel employed by many including activists, labour and union leaders among others, to press home grievances and demands against unfavourable policies and social malaise. This paper draws attention to how youths in Nigeria utilised the physical space to spark a protest, in October 2020. Notable actors, musicians, comedians, activists and the international community in their numbers, moved to the streets in defiance of security orders to protest against police brutality and harassment. In view of the outcome of the protest, which was later hijacked by hoodlums, the paper examines a non-violent alternative which can be used to address societal issues. It is in this context that the paper examined the role of theatre as a tool for activism, advocacy and communication with specific reference to street theatre, a type of improvised street drama performance that addresses unfavourable socio-political and cultural issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion of political activism in Africa considers whether educational institutions will become arenas of social struggle as other avenues of dissent close. Social and economic context, the cycle of student action and predictable government reaction, rising violence in student demonstrations, and emerging solidarity between students and social groups are examined. (Author/MSE)

Informal waste management (IWM) has over the years been a contentious issue in urban development policy in Africa. Surprisingly, knowledge contributions on the subject have remained somewhat poorly assessed by urban development researchers throughout the continent. This paper reviews developments in IWM in Africa, drawing from lessons learned over a decade of research and activism in Nigerian cities. The aim is to evaluate the scholarship impact of Nigerian informal garbage geographies and to accentuate emerging innovations in IWM research and activism in the country. The paper first contextualizes IWM in Africa, zeroing in on Egypt and South Africa, two countries with widely acknowledged systems. Next, it draws attention to some unique developments in the Nigerian system while also linking the Nigerian case study to broader literatures on Africa. On the basis of a critical sub-sectoral review of African literature and a comparative analysis of research and activism in Nigeria, the paper argues that research on Nigerian IWM has seemingly enjoyed a modicum of international acceptability and recognition as evidenced by the involvement of reputable Afro-oriented institutions and associations and the high quality of the resultant publications. The paper avers that in the absence of sustainable solutions from the formal sector, IWM appears to have carved a niche through innovations and inserted itself into the solid waste governance and development paradigm in many Nigerian cities. Emerging innovations in research and activism in Nigerian IWM are examined while their public policy relevance in Africa is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the development of social values and the birth of the poet; the first poets and the crystallization of poetic symbols, including Black and White symbols; India as a civilization conquered by poetry; African and African-American poetic resistance to imperialist social values; African combat poetry; and the Black value-setting in the 1980s. (RDN)

Discussed are the issues now emerging that seem likely to dominate thinking, planning, and decision-making in the United States and elsewhere during the next decade. These include campus unrest, China as a world economic force, controlling health-care, birth defects, role of the computer in education, and human language/computer language. (RM)

This article is based on a distinctive study that seeks to analyse the nascent role of teenagers' activism and protests for climate change action. With the increasing realisation of children's rights to participation, the past few years have marked the rise of the new dispensation of climate activism and protests in which teenagers have occupied the centre stage. We pay specific reference to Greta Thunberg, a Swedish child climate activist, in as much as she can set a framework upon which Africa can draw parallels, lessons and insights for climate activism and protests. Even though the context may be different, the paper attempts to inform vibrant climate action through activism by children and ultimately climate policies, laws and management for environmental sustainability in Africa. We engaged document review and thematic approaches, and it emerged that children climate activism and protests in Africa are not as vibrant as they should be given the prevalence of climate inaction across the continent. Therefore, there is much to learn from Thunberg by pushing national governments and regional organisations to increase the decision-making space of children in the fight against climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most efforts to promote gender equity in sub-Saharan Africa have been rooted in a Western heteronormative framework inherited from colonialism that aims at 'balancing' gender rather than deconstructing it. Dismantling this entrenched, though exogenous, binary is a daunting task, especially since, over time, it has become widely accepted as 'authentically' African, while the more radical initiatives of African trans* activists are seen as foreign. African trans* activism is theoretically sophisticated, deeply committed, and highly skilled, but its impact has been confined largely to an 'Afropolitan' elite. Based on interviews with leading trans* activists, this paper examines some of the key challenges to deconstructing the imported binary at grassroots levels. It looks at how linguistic and cultural particularities affect trans* activism in Africa and proposes new strategies, using lived cultures as a basis, that will be more appropriate and effective in a postcolonial context in which both indigenous and exogenous elements legitimately interact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite Africa's reputation as a place of political repression and limited popular agency, activism and popular mobilisation have been central to political change in colonial and post-colonial Africa. The social and cultural identity of activists has been neglected by historians, who have commonly studied activism through imposed normative frameworks (e.g. class struggle or decolonisation) that have not always been central to the motivations of activists themselves. This article identifies and analyses specific phases of popular activism. Mass mobilisation was crucial to the success of anti-colonial nationalism, but did not commonly result in governments that addressed the aspirations or grievances of activists. From the 1970s, African governments became vulnerable to popular pressure, in the form of urban riots and uprisings, but attempts to establish more institutionalised pressure groups for change were not generally successful. The pro-democracy movements of the early 1990s again utilised mass mobilisation to achieve their aims, but the advent of multi-party democracy across the continent did not translate into meaningful popular reform. Since 2000, popular movements have expressed discontent with neo-liberal economic policies and authoritarian governments. The Arab Spring has inspired new waves of activism, but it remains unclear whether this will bring about significant political change across the continent. Two underlying linked themes will be analysed in the paper. Firstly, the interaction between local activism and broader ideological movements and influences (nationalism, socialism, religious belief, etc): to what extent have these ideological frameworks, commonly introduced by external agents, assisted or hampered in the development of discourses of resistance or activism? Secondly, African activists, in contrast to their western counterparts, have commonly operated in relationship to both local state and western or international elites, including colonial governments, multinational corporations and international donors. The paper will examine the extent to which these relationships have shaped the ideas and behaviour of African movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the global social context for the insertion of kleptocratic elites into the putatively liberal international order? Drawing on cases from our work on Eurasia and Africa, we sketch a concept of 'transnational uncivil society', which we contrast to 'transnational activist networks'. While the latter denotes the liberalizing practices of global civil society, the former suggests a specific series of clientelistic relations across borders, which open space for uncivil elites. This distinction animates a growing line of conflict in global politics. These kleptocrats eject liberal activists from their own territories and create new spaces to whitewash their own reputations and build their own transnational networks. To do so, they hire political consultants and reputation managers, engage in public philanthropy and forge new relationships with major global institutions. We show how these strategies of reputation-laundering are neither illicit nor marginal, but very much a product of the actors, institutions and markets generated by the liberal international order. We compare and contrast the scope and purpose of civil and uncivil society networks, we explore the increasing globalization of Eurasian and African elites as a concerted strategy to distance themselves from associations with their political oppression and kleptocracy in their home countries, and recast themselves as productive and respected cosmopolitans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies who is talking about climate change in Africa, both in the mainstream media and on Twitter, and analyses the key messages emerging from the different platforms. For the mainstream media, we used Google's Global Database of Events, Language and Tone (GDELT) platform to access articles using the search terms 'climate change AND Africa' or 'climate change' and the name of all 54 African countries. We then identified the top five countries with the most articles in the sample and using random sampling, undertook a frame analysis of the articles. Regarding Twitter, we downloaded tweets containing 'climate change AND Africa' or 'climate change' and the name of all 54 African countries, identified who was tweeting and what they were tweeting about. We also identified key African climate change activists and analysed their tweets. While the nature of mainstream media coverage varies across the top five countries, a slight shift towards articles focused on adaptation and mitigation was observed, away from purely disaster narratives. Worryingly, for Twitter, very few African voices are tweeting about climate change and what they are tweeting does not draw much attention to pertinent issues on the continent in respect of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent rise in Islamist-inspired women’s activism is posing challenges to the longstanding secular women’s movements in post-Ben Ali Tunisia. Starting from the conviction that cohesive, cross-class women’s coalitions are better suited to achieve gender justice for women of all walks of life, this article draws on the concept of ‘agonistic pluralism’ (Chantal Mouffe) to understand how Tunisia’s women’s movements can deal with the new, multifaceted conflict in their ranks. Through a discussion of the ‘Dialogue of Tunisian Women’, the grounds for strategic coalition-building and ‘agonistic’ engagement between secular and Islamist women’s rights actors are illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, African states have witnessed a surge in digital activism aimed at demanding political accountability and social change. Although there is a budding literature on digital activism in Africa, it is unclear whether it translates into tangible social change on the continent. Similarly, the surge of digital repression by African leaders is yet to be accounted for. Using qualitative data, the author claims that digital activism amounts to 'small gains' as against holistic changes in the form of reform and restructuring of socioeconomic and political institutions, systems and policies that engender political repression, human rights violation, and socioeconomic miseries on the continent. The study argues that the surge of digital repression by African leaders is aimed at frustrating use of the internet and digital technologies for mass mobilisation and physical protests considered a threat to the longevity of their repressive rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing from an African and philosophical position, we argue that intellectual activists require an unfoldment, because they have been hindered by different factors such as co-option and exile. The African philosophy of ubuntu, particularly its epistemic dimension, is used as the basis for unfoldment. We depart from the justified but extremely combative critique of (neo)colonialism, and posit that there is the potential to solve African problems without perpetually blaming colonialism. Using the African Renaissance theory, we emphasise a shift towards becoming better through development and by analysing the question of poverty. Poverty is worsened by development policies, which often remain unchallenged. African philosophy can simultaneously fight colonial discourses on Africa while contributing towards human well-being by situating intellectual activism in the African condition of poverty. Intellectual activists should participate, together with citizens, in the formulation of relevant and practical policies. This requires a reframing of the intellectual landscape in order to stimulate a participatory intellectual project. It enables alternative understandings of what it means to be an intellectual, beyond the usual role of writer. Reframing intellectual activism offers an opportunity to use indigenous languages to make sense of local and lived realities on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does corruption increase general and anti-government protest? Scholarship has produced seemingly incompatible results, with some research demonstrating a strong connection between corruption and the onset of contentious politics and other research finding that heightened perceptions of corruption decrease activism. This article addresses this puzzle by examining how different types of corruption condition diverging contentious outcomes. Focusing on two highly salient forms of corruption in the African context—elite corruption and police corruption—this article argues that the different consequences, salience, and costs associated with these two forms help to condition whether citizens rise up or stay home. This argument is tested via two methods. First, it draws from a survey experiment conducted in five Nigerian states in 2017. The survey experiment tests whether exposure to different types of corruption affects willingness to join in protests. Second, it draws from statistical analysis of geo-located perceptions of corruption and protest across Africa, incorporating checks for both collinearity and endogeneity into the model. The statistical analysis examines whether heightened perceptions of corruption correlate with increased counts of general and anti-government protest. The results from both methods demonstrate that elite corruption is positively correlated with protest, whereas police corruption is not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the impact of digital technologies as emerging platforms for social activism in sub-Saharan Africa. Even though the African continent still lags behind in smartphone ownership and internet connectivity compared to other regions of the world, there is enough evidence to suggest that online-based movements have fundamentally transformed political engagement in Africa. This article uses the cases of hashtag activisms #ThisFlag (Zimbabwe) and #RhodesMustFall (South Africa), to demonstrate that social media has accentuated resistance in Africa. Particular attention is directed to the unique ways in which online-based movements have been used to enact resistance. The article provides critical insights into the centrality of context in the discussion of social media efficacy. State response and the promise of social media activism as foci for resistance is further outlined in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction to the special issue on decolonizing African Studies, we discuss some of the epicolonial dynamics that characterize much of higher education and knowledge production in, of, with, and for Africa. Decolonizing, we argue, is best understood as a verb that entails a political and normative ethic and practice of resistance and intentional undoing – unlearning and dismantling unjust practices, assumptions, and institutions – as well as persistent positive action to create and build alternative spaces and ways of knowing. We present four dimesions of decolonizing work: structural, epistemic, personal, and relational, which are entangled and equally necessary. We offer the Black Academic Caucus at the University of Cape Town as an example of how these dimensions can come to life, and introduce the contributions in this special issue (the first of a two-part series) that illuminate other sites and dimensions of decolonizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I examine grassroots cinematic connections between China and Africa by using Queer University, short for the Queer University Video Capacity Building Training Program, a 3-year (2017–2019) participatory video production program between Chinese and African queer filmmakers and activists, as a case study. Through interviews with Queer University organizers and participants, I discuss the transnational politics and decolonial potentials underpinning these grassroots initiatives. Drawing on Françoise Lionnet and Shu-mei Shih's critical term "minor transnationalism," I study transnational queer grassroots collaborations in the Global South, and, in doing so, unravel the hopes, promises, and precariousness of emerging people-to-people exchanges taking place in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article conceptualises the slogan 'silencing the guns in Africa' as a metaphor for actions that promote development and peace, and which require participation by the youth in the quest to end all wars in Africa. The aim is to answer questions such as: How can the youth be part of the African democracy-building project being promoted through the African Governance Architecture (AGA) and the African Governance Platform (AGP) institutions? Secondly, how can this participation be extended to including the youth in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) project? Secondary data was used to analyse how violent youth activism has transformed African politics, and how the youth get driven into insurgent behaviour and armed violence. The discussion on the systemic deficiencies in national and regional youth empowerment institutions contributes to the recommendations for utilising the AGA to push for silencing the guns and encouraging the pursuit of entrepreneurial activities. The peace dividend that will be delivered by silencing the guns is essential for the success of the AfCFTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines religious leaders' engagements with gender transformative activism during prevention training workshops for sexual and gender-based violence. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in 2017 and 2018 in a South African NGO that promotes gender equality and human rights across Africa. My aim is twofold: to explore the tensions between the private and public dimensions of religious leaders' engagement with gender transformative activism; and to demonstrate how they navigate those tensions by co-creating an 'interstitial' language and social space that allows them to conform new emotional repertoires, meanings and practices that ought to transform their gendered relations. I argue that doing so enables leaders to become tactical when engaging with gender activism in adverse religious contexts. By acting in the form of tactical activism, they establish interstices where religious and secular stances on gender can intersect whilst at the same time coping with the difficulties of inducing change in the given patriarchal structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction to this special issue argues that in many countries in southern Africa a new phase in the entanglement between the religious and the political has set in. Increasingly, activists in political fields are borrowing from religious registers of discourse and practice, while conversely, activists in the religious domain are adopting discourses and practices originating in the political domain. We suggest that this religiopolitical activism is simultaneously the product of a climate of profound social change and an important transformative force within it. In order to do justice to the complex dynamics of southern African religiopolitical activism in its manifold manifestations, we draw on the concept of 'family resemblances'. This allows us to examine how the boundaries between religious and political registers are made the object of situated social negotiations. The family resemblances explored in this special issue range from religiopolitical activists' habitus and their communication strategies via religious leaders' self-positionings in relation to the political, to the creation of specific religiopolitical spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite experiencing a proliferation of youth-led mobilizations in recent years, Africa remains peripheral to the analysis of the U.S.-centered Movement for Black Lives (M4BL). This article explores points of convergence and tension between African uprisings and the M4BL, with a focus on two movements at the intersection of education and activism: Nigerian “Occupy” protests and the “Fees Must Fall” movement in South Africa. Ultimately, I make the case for more engagement on the part of U.S. scholars and activists with struggles in Africa and other global contexts, in the interest of research and solidarity practices that value Black lives everywhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the dialogue between metropolitan political elites and Algerian activists that grew up during the Second Empire, revisiting an important moment in the making of France's "modern" republican democracy. Through an examination of Algerian newspapers and publications, it assesses the role that colonial public opinion played in the "republican renaissance" of the 1860s, detailing how colon polemicists consciously tailored an ideology of moderate republicanism to fit colonial society and elaborate a brand of republican colonialism that would, in time, provide the ideological basis for the colonial republic. In placing nineteenth-century French political history in a trans-Mediterranean framework, this article challenges the customary history of hexagonal France, indicating the vital role colonial activists played in the making of republican colonialism, influencing considerations of the French nation and citizenship that would, in time, encourage the conception of a French imperial nation-state supported under the Third Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young activists who took part in South Africa's Black Consciousness movement challenged the apartheid status quo with their bold calls for black psychological liberation. This article uses new evidence to elucidate the work these youthful activists did in health and economic projects in the rural Eastern Cape that, in part, upheld certain customs. The article also brings young professional women into the history of African youth, arguing that the involvement of professional black female activists changed the way activists and villagers perceived the abilities and roles of young black women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Not only is the participation of developing countries in international trade negotiations growing, so is their influence over the global trade agenda. This article highlights the increasing activism and impact of African states through a detailed study of the current Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) negotiations with the European Union (EU). In examining African resistance to EPAs, the article develops a constructivist approach to North-South trade negotiations that pays close attention to the role of development discourses. We argue that the growing willingness of African states to challenge the EU to deliver on its development promises during the decade-long EPA process was crucial to informing their sustained opposition to the EU's goal of completing a comprehensive set of sub-regional economic agreements. We document African resistance to EU trade diplomacy in the EPAs, exploring how these otherwise weak countries were able to pursue normative-based negotiation strategies by recourse to the EU's promise of a 'development partnership.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the reason for African studies scholarly community to reject the military and intelligence funding during the U.S. Cold War intervention in Africa, despite of the pressure from the government and senior administrators. He examines the Cold War policies that put down the position of Africa and the changes in the African activism. He also explain the quality and scale of the less comprehended U.S. military planning for Africa and the possible response of Africanists.

The author discusses the theory to activism with specific regard to the borders field. She states that social sciences and anthropology, mainly focusing on borders issues in Africa and reconstructing the genealogy of the Euro-African borderland. She further states that theory and activism can be conceived as a helpful instrument for recovering the notion of the human condition.

This article develops a bottom-up approach to global trade governance and explains how subordinate states are able to develop resistance strategies to top-down processes in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It highlights the growing activism and influence of African states in the global governance of international trade through a case study of the involvement of African states in the current Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations. In so doing, it presents new evidence of the role played by non-dominant states in shaping and contesting the rules and practices of contemporary global trade governance. The article also provides theoretical insights into the source of African resistance in the WTO by drawing attention to the role of discourse in contemporary global trade governance. In this case study the analysis focuses in particular on how subordinate African actors make use of prevailing discourses of development to hold major powers and the WTO to account for their public commitment to negotiate new trade rules that will deliver development. It underlines the extent to which subordinate actors tend to use what is available to them—in this case the discourses of dominant actors—to challenge existing power structures. The conclusion reached is that African resistance creates an African dilemma; while resistance to existing power processes means that African member states can no longer be ignored in WTO negotiations, it also means that the WTO as a forum for global governance is less effective since consensus-based agreement becomes more difficult to achieve. And the less effective the WTO is in multilateral trade governance, the more member states—and in particular dominant states—ignore the WTO and seek bilateral and regional alternatives in order to secure market opening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational social movement studies have long neglected the way activists from the South, and particularly from Africa, have participated in World Social Forum processes. Alterglobal activists have also been accused of neglecting or dominating southern voices. The organization of the WSF in Nairobi was seen as an opportunity to make African voices be heard. This examines how Africans activists participated in Nairobi, and the complex relationship they have to northern and other southern (such as Asia and Latin America) activists. The African alterglobal movement is seen as a space of tensions (i.e. between South Africans and the rest of the continent, between French and English speaking Africa, or between NGOs and more radical organizations) reflected in national mobilizations. Our team of 23 French and 12 Kenyan scholars made collective ethnographic observations in more than a hundred workshops and conducted 150 biographical interviews of African activists in order to examine how: Africa was referred to in the WSF; activists financed their trip to Nairobi; and Afrocentric, anti-imperialist, and anticolonial arguments have been used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its inception in 2001 World Social Forum (WSF) has grown in numbers and drawn activists from all areas of the globe. It has also spawned a myriad of social forums around the world. But the pattern of participation within the WSF global event or within other forums has not been evenly spread in geographic or spatial terms. This chapter examines how and why social forum activism emerged in some places and not others. We map the social forum from the first WSF in 2001 through its proliferation and fragmentation over time as it has taken root at various levels-continental, national, regional and local. Then we provide comparative case studies of sub-global forums drawn from North and South America, Europe and Africa. We also compare different manifestations of social "forumism" along a number of dimensions. Drawing on comparative politics and its emphasis on the specifics of place and the role of context we discuss these patterns and the factors that might account for why these forms of resistance find barren or fertile ground around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politique Africaine is the property of Karthala Editions Diffusion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Political and economic developments in many African countries in the last two decades have led to significant transformations in the media and enhanced academic scholarship in the field. Despite the tremendous growth and the changes in media and communication systems, there is a dearth of feminist media scholarship in Africa that needs to be addressed. This article provides a feminist reappraisal of African media in the context of democratic and economic change and proposes a tall research agenda for Africanist feminists aimed at filling the gaps in media and gender scholarship. The author argues that research should interrogate afresh old concerns as well as new opportunities and challenges brought about by redemocratization, an expanded public sphere of civil society activism, rapid technological developments and legal and policy reforms of the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article outlines the ineffectiveness of the dominant social work intervention methods of casework and community development currently used in Africa. It advocates that the majority of social service clients that has been affected by structural and political problems. With this, social workers are urged to adopt political activism as an intervention strategy aimed at creating a conducive environment in which other social work methods can be practiced. The main problems affecting the country include, unemployment, poverty, inequality, illiteracy, homelessness, child streetism, ill-health, HIV/AIDS, abuse of human rights and civil liberties, civil conflicts and official corruption.

African university students have long engaged in political activism, responding to changing political, social and economic circumstances through protest that has at times exerted considerable influence on the national stage. Student activism employs highly spatialised strategies yet has received minimal attention from geographers. Drawing on case studies from Senegal and Zimbabwe, we identify four phases of activism in which students have mobilised distinctive relational spatialities in responding to changes in the spatial expression of dominant political power. In so doing, we highlight the inadequacies of approaches to resistance that give excessive emphasis to a power/resistance dualism or to questions of scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an essay that explores the contributions of civil societies to democratic governance in Africa. It states that these organizations are voluntarily created for the protection of the society's interests and values, however, they are separated from the state. Activisms are common among lawyers, professors and students' associations in Ghana, Kenya and Togo as well as student protest on economic mismanagement in Benin and Mali. Christian organizations mediate the political conflicts between the aristocrats and democrats as well as criticize the repression and government's mismanagement.