African Studies Blog

From African Affairs

Across Africa, many countries have taken initiatives to increase the participation and representation of women in governance. Yet it is unclear what meaning these initiatives have in authoritarian, single-party states like Rwanda. Since seizing power in 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front has taken many steps to increase the participation of women in politics such as creating a Ministry of Gender, organizing women’s councils at all levels of government, and instituting an electoral system with reserved seats for women in the national parliament. This article explores the dramatic increase in women’s participation in public life and representation in governance and the increasing authoritarianism of the Rwandan state under the guise of ‘democratization’. The increased political participation of women in Rwanda represents a paradox in the short term: as their participation has increased, women’s ability to influence policy making has decreased. In the long term, however, increased female representation in government could prepare the path for their meaningful participation in a genuine democracy because of a transformation in political subjectivity.

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From ELDIS:

“Is there a rationale for conditional cash transfers for children in South Africa,” this paper assesses the rationale behind Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) in South Africa. It looks at evidence of the reach and impact of major CCT programmes, particularly in Latin America, and the Child Support Grant (CSG) in South Africa.

Cash transfers (CTs) are one of a range of measures for addressing poverty. A regular amount of money is allocated directly to particular groups such as the elderly, the unemployed, or children. The nature and extent of cash transfers that a country provides can be viewed as a reflection of its welfare regime. In an unconditional CT programme, once a person qualifies to enter the scheme, the amount is an entitlement, for a fixed period. The current South African CSG is an example of a means tested unconditional social assistance transfer in respect of children. This review of the evidence suggests that introducing behavioural inducements to poor people in South Africa to ensure the best educational and health outcomes for their children should not be the main focus of attention for policy makers.

Key points include:

• the new South African government has done much to redress the racism and repressive aspects of apartheid - it has introduced the ‘Batho Pele’ set of principles into administration to ensure fairer and more transparent service to the public, and an Administrative Justice Act, yet procedures in the implementation of the CSG contradict both
• the CSG in South Africa has rolled out very rapidly; by stealth, some of the policy intent is being subverted by administrative action - patterns of take-up suggest that the means test is an unnecessary and ineffective measure, and it should be lifted altogether or be replaced by a far simpler measure
• a universal categorical grant for children would sit with greater ease in what on paper appears to be a social democratic policy agenda.

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From ELDIS

Eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa  Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia have been given emerging country status by the International Finance Corporation. The term emerging markets is used to identify countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have financial markets and attract investor interest. The following are found to encourage emerging market status:

• group takeoff in growth
• growth led by the private sector
• public policy embracing market-led growth
• financial markets in which to invest

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From The Economist:

The UN says that 3.2m Somalis (out of about 8m) now need aid just to stay alive: a 77% rise on last year. A sixth of Somali infants are at risk of starving to death. Due to what aid organisations call “intolerable insecurity”, almost all international charity workers have left. Offshore, Somali pirates are as bold as ever. They are holding around ten vessels, including three large tankers with 130 crewmen captured this week.

From The Economist:

This article gives an interesting analysis of Kenya six months after the bloody election crisis.  Even though the  joint administration of Kibaki and Odinga is hanging together the country has nothing to celebrate and  is still struggling to return to normalcy.

The Kenya Tourism Board says the country lost $191m in revenue in the first half of the year, with visitors down 36% to 561,000 compared with the first six months of 2007. Agriculture is struggling due to poor rains, a tripling in the cost of fertiliser and pesticide, and land disputes linked to the election crisis have wrecked this year’s maize harvest. The Kenya Cereal Growers’ Association says production will slump from 34m bags of maize to 24m.

H-Net announces the above exhibition on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta through July 11, 2009.  It is a special installation, showcasing four masks from the permanent collection and two masks on loan from collector Emmet Bondurant. The installation spotlights masks carved by artist Yacouba Bonde, including one presented in full costume. The masks carved of wood and painted with black, white and red geometric patterns-include a hyena, a chameleon, a bush cow, a snake (nearly fifteen feet high) and a butterfly (nearly nine feet wide). Read the full announcement.

Oxford University Press and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and
African American Research at Harvard University would like to announce
an ambitious new project, the Dictionary of African Biography (DAB). In
the spirit of the Dictionary of National Biography, the American
National Biography, and the African American National Biography, all
three published by Oxford University Press, the Dictionary of African
Biography will be a major biographical dictionary covering the lives and
legacies of notable African men and women from all eras and walks of
life. This groundbreaking resource will tell the full story of the
African continent through the lives of its people.  The initial print
edition of the DAB, scheduled for publication in 2011, will include
2,000 entries in five volumes.  A further 2,000 entries will be added
online. Read the full announcement.

BBC News-Africa reports that African software and language experts have started a project to translate Mozilla’s Firefox web browser into the local Ugandan language of Luganda.  The aim of the project is to increase the number of non-English speakers who use computers particularly in the rural areas of Uganda. Read the full article.

This is the title of an article in the Washington Post  describing the issue of women with fertility problems in Africa, specifically Uganda.  It provides some insights on African belief systems, culture and the issue of social stigmatization of women with such problems.  It describes the gradual introduction of fertility clinics in Africa and how stimatization might prevent women from seeking help.

National Geographic Cairo DestinationMap.

Evergreen, CO : National Geographic Maps, c2003.

DestinationMap Dar es Salaam : includes Zanzibar & Pemba.

Evergreen, CO : National Geographic Maps, c2003.

Cape Town : destination map.

Evergreen, CO : National Geographic Maps, c2003.

 Victoria Falls : destination map.

Evergreen, CO : National Geographic Maps, c2003.

India in Africa, Africa in India : Indian Ocean cosmopolitanisms.

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2008.

Africa and the Americas : culture, politics, and history : a multidisciplinary

encyclopedia.

Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c2008.

A search for origins : science, history and South Africa’s ‘Cradle of

Humankind’.

Johannesburg : Wits University Press, 2007.

Population, health and development in Ghana : attaining the millenium [sic]

development goals.

Accra : Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2007.

Poverty reduction strategies in action : perspectives and lessons from Ghana.

Lanham : Lexington Books, c2008.

Akpan, Uwem.

Say you’re one of them.

1st ed.

New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2008.