Sökformulär

cultural identity

Musical Violence : Gangsta Rap and Politics in Sierra Leone

Upphovsperson: Tucker, Boima
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation |
År: 2013
Ämnesord: Sierra Leone, youth, Popular music, politics, Social change, cultural identity
Hip Hop has become a global force in recent years. However, when taken up by youth outside its American birthplace, it is often dismissed as a shallow adaptation or imitation of American popular culture. However, its global popularity cannot be questioned, and its proliferation is aided by its adaptability to local contexts. It has become associated with an emergent youth political identity in many parts of the world, a result of its ability to embody rebellious youth energy. Hip Hop is a new global lingua franca for youth rebellion that exists beyond the boundaries of the state, and is aided by the emergence of the internet and accompanying communications technologies. Analysis of the political ramifications of Hip Hop in West African societies is vital to gaining a true sense of what democracy means in the local context. This paper focuses on the West African country of Sierra Leone, and explores how youth participation in Hip Hop there is a radical political project.

Child Migration in Africa

Upphovspersoner: Thorsen, Dorte | Hashim, Iman
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | London, Uppsala : Zed Books, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Rural-urban migration, Labour migration, Labour mobility, Migrants, youth, children, Childhood, Living conditions, Social environment, cultural identity, Livelihood, Interviews, West Africa, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ethnography, Etnografi
Child Migration in Africa explores the mobility of children without their parents within West Africa. Drawing on the experiences of children from rural Burkina Faso and Ghana, the book provides rich material on the circumstances of children's voluntary migration and their experiences of it. Their accounts challenge the normative ideals of what a 'good' childhood is, which often underlie public debates about children's migration, education and work in developing countries. The comparative study of Burkina Faso and Ghana highlights that social networks operate in ways that can be both enabling and constraining for young migrants, as can cultural views on age- and gender-appropriate behaviour. The book questions easily made assumptions regarding children's experiences when migrating independently of their parents and, by drawing parallels with children's migration in Latin America and Asia, contributes to analytical and cross-cultural understandings of childhood. Part of the groundbreaking Africa Now series, Child Migration in Africa is an important and timely contribution to an under-researched area.

Inequality and Identity : Causes of War?

Upphovsperson: Holmqvist, Göran
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Globalization, Trade and Regional Integration |
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Africa, Civil war, conflicts, Social inequality, cultural identity, Intergroup relations, Social control, Theory, comparative analysis, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
In this paper, four theories on the causes of civil war are reviewed. One theory, associated with Paul Collier, emphasises feasibility over factors related to grievance. A second theory, espoused by Frances Stewart, focuses on the role of horizontal inequalities. The third theory, identified with William Zartman, highlights the different roles “need, creed and greed” factors play in various phases of a conflict. And the fourth theory, associated with the World Bank /World Development Report 2011, points out “commitment” problems leading to institutional failures as a crucial factor. Each of the theories leads to quite different policy conclusions. Their strengths and weaknesses, and their claimed empirical support, are discussed.In addition, some of the mechanisms underpinning the theories are highlighted on the basis of empirical data. In particular, the central role of horizontal inequalities between social groups is discussed.

The bush is sweet : identity, power and development among WoDaaBe Fulani in Niger

Upphovsperson: Loftsdóttir, Kristín
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2008
Ämnesord: Ethnic groups, Pastoralists, cultural identity, Ethnicity, Traditional culture, Social change, Social and cultural anthropology, Fula, Niger, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi
In this book Kristín Loftsdóttir gives the reader a highly personal insight into the lives of the Wodaabe nomads of Niger, who are striving to make a living between the bush and the city. Spending nearly two years as a Wodaabe, within a Wodaabe extended family and alternating between the nomadic setting of the bush and the urbanised life-style of the capital, Niamey, she was in a unique position to observe the effects that increasing urbanisation and globalisation, together with the modern tourist industry’s preconceptions and demands, have had on the identity and power relations of the Wodaabe. Interwoven with the abstract scientific observations are the more personal reflections and analyses of a young white woman on living within, and sharing all aspects of, the everyday lives of the Wodaabe with the broad spectrum of reactions which this entails. These sensitively written and honest descriptions, including details of what the author at times experiences as her own shortcomings within her project, give a most interesting dimension to the work not always found in social science studies which means that this book should appeal to a wider readership than might initially be expected.

Contexts of migration

Upphovspersoner: Thorsen, Dorte | Hashim, Iman
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | London; Uppsala : Zed Books; Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Rural-urban migration, Labour migration, Labour mobility, Migrants, youth, children, Childhood, Living conditions, Social environment, cultural identity, Livelihood, Interviews, West Africa, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ethnography, Etnografi
Child Migration in Africa explores the mobility of children without their parents within West Africa. Drawing on the experiences of children from rural Burkina Faso and Ghana, the book provides rich material on the circumstances of children's voluntary migration and their experiences of it. Their accounts challenge the normative ideals of what a 'good' childhood is, which often underlie public debates about children's migration, education and work in developing countries. The comparative study of Burkina Faso and Ghana highlights that social networks operate in ways that can be both enabling and constraining for young migrants, as can cultural views on age- and gender-appropriate behaviour. The book questions easily made assumptions regarding children's experiences when migrating independently of their parents and, by drawing parallels with children's migration in Latin America and Asia, contributes to analytical and cross-cultural understandings of childhood. Part of the groundbreaking Africa Now series, Child Migration in Africa is an important and timely contribution to an under-researched area.

Knowledge, renewal and religion : repositioning and changing ideological and material circumstances among the Swahili on the East African coast

Medarbetare: Larsen, Kjersti
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: Social anthropology, Cultural anthropology, cultural identity, Islam, Social change, modernization, Social history, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi
In the past decades religion has entered the political debate and is evoked in relation to a variety of events taking place around the world. Religion and religious differences, not political, economic or social, are claimed to be the cause rather than an expression of – or even a reaction to – ongoing problems. Islam and Christianity (or also Islam and Hinduism) are, in most cases, represented not only as opposed, but also as incommensurable worldviews, value systems and identities, where the one is threatening the existence of the other. Among the Swahili on the East-African Coast, this trend provokes questions related to whether we should approach what appear to be expressions of religious positioning in terms of renewal of previous understandings and relationships, or as a rephrasing of complex and conflictual matters that were always part of Swahili society. The papers in this book reveal that the Swahili are experiencing worsening economic, political and social conditions. Within these circumstances, Islam is invoked as a source of knowledge that not only explains the current state of life and living, but also gives directions on how to cope with and to change the situation for the better. Islam is both what reinforces Swahili identity and a particular way of life, and at the same time, given the current international climate, further marginalizes Swahili society and culture.

Playing with identities in contemporary music in Africa

Medarbetare: Palmberg, Mai | Kirkegaard, Annemette
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet ; Sibelius Museum; Dept. of Musicology, Åbo Academy University
År: 2002
Ämnesord: cultural identity, music, popular culture, South Africa, Uganda, Cape Verde, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Senegal, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The musics of Africa play a particularly important role in expressing and forming identities. This book brings together African and Nordic scholars from both musicology and other disciplines in an attempt to analyse various aspects of the complex playing with volatile identities in music in Africa today. Taken together the papers put new light on the assumed or real dichotomies between countryside and city, collective and individual, tradition and modernity, authentic and alien. The papers are based on contributions for a conference organised by the research project "Cultural Images in and of Africa" of the Nordic Africa Institute together with the Sibelius Museum/Department of Musicology and the Centre for Continuing Education at Åbo Akademi University in Åbo (Turku), Finland in Oct. 2000. The book includes a keynote speech by Christopher Waterman (UCLA), and an introduction by Annemette Kirkegaard, Copenhagen University. Both Southern, West and East Africa are represented in the studies, which cover a great variety of musics.

Sidor