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Nigeria

Zangbeto : Navigating Between the Spaces of Oral Art, Communal Security and Conflict Mediation in Badagry, Nigeria

Upphovsperson: Hunsu, Folashade
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Grass roots groups, Traditional culture, Vigilantes, Human security, Peaceful coexistence, Ethnic groups, Social and cultural anthropology, Yoruba, Nigeria, Badagry, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
This Discussion Paper critically examines Zangbeto, a highly revered society, among the Egun people in the town of Badagry, near the city of Lagos, in south west Nigeria, that have creatively re-invented tradition to serve multiple purposes. It shows how Zangbeto has in the context of economic crisis and challenges linked to urban growth, adapted its roles to include communal policing, conflict mediation, oral art and entertainment, and the maintenance of communal order. In more ways than one, it captures the essence and multiple identities of Zangbeto within Badagry society. The involvement of Zangbeto in local policing or ‘night watching’ provides an alternative or an exception to the dominant representation of vigilantism in Nigeria as disorderly violence, sometimes for political or criminal ends. This paper also demonstrates how Zangbeto, drawing upon local Egun culture and traditional practices is able to maintain security and local order at the community level. It is argued that rather than act in an arbitrary and violent manner, Zangbeto operates through the combination of traditional symbolic actions and oral art in mediating local conflicts and preserving social harmony and local order. An interesting point relates to how Zangbeto co-exists peacefully with formal political and security institutions, and operates without causing tensions within Badagry town, where some inhabitants share different ethnic identities and religious faiths. The study also opens up a humanist perspective to how the aesthetics of Zangbeto’s cultural tropes of oral presentation, rhetoric and representation act as a powerful force for preserving cherished communal norms and values, and facilitating communication in ways that strengthen social cohesion. In this regard this paper demonstrates the wealth of possibilities that exist within Africa’s traditional cultures and oral arts for alternative grassroots based conflict mediation and security.

Reconceptualising Democratic Local Governance in the Niger Delta

Upphovsperson: Ebobrah, Solomon T.
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation |
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Nigeria, Niger Delta, Federalism, Public administration, Decentralization, Local government, Governance, Democratization, Social participation, petroleum resources, Resource allocation, Community development, Political science, Statsvetenskap
This Discussion Paper critically examines local governance in the Niger Delta and its relevance to the search for inclusive and sustainable conflict-resolution in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It critiques the existing local government system and explores the possibility of reconceptualising local governance along more inclusive, accountable and participatory lines that would institutionalise democracy, development and peace at the grassroots or community level in the troubled oil-rich region. Its originality lies in its departure from top-down perspectives, and its refocusing of attention on the oft-neglected local sites of conflict and under development. The paper will appeal to scholars, policy actors and development planners with a particular interest in developments at the African grassroots level.

Natural Resource Governance and EITI Implementation In Nigeria

Upphovspersoner: Abutudu, Musa | Garuba, Dauda
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Globalization, Trade and Regional Integration |
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Nigeria, natural resources, Petroleum industry, Governance, Administrative reform, Institutional framework, International organizations, Corruption, Economic implications, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
In their Natural Resource Governance and EITI Implementation in Nigeria, Musa Abutudu and Dauda Garuba provide the most up-to-date and in-depth analysis of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), providing a balanced yet critical evaluation of its performance, limitations and potential as an institution for helping Africa’s largest oil exporter to escape the so called resource curse and lay a firm basis for sustainable development. This Current African Issue contains valuable insights and information that will be of interest to all those with a keen interest in institutionalising transparency and accountability in natural resource governance in Africa.

Nyanyan Slummin Jätehuollon Hanke Abujassa, Nigeriassa

Upphovsperson: Adama-Ajonye, Onyanta
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Helsinki : Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Waste management, Slums, Urban areas, Nigeria, Abuja, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
A short contribution in the book 'Afrikan aika: näkökulmia Saharan eteläpuoliseen Afrikkaan' edited by Annika Teppo. Helsinki: Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press, 2011. 372 p. ISBN: 978-952-495-199-9

The Nigerian state, oil and the Niger Delta crisis

Upphovsperson: Ukiwo, Ukoha
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | London; Uppsala : Zed Books; Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Energy resources, Petroleum industry, international trade, Transnational corporations, Geopolitics, Responsibility, Governance, Corruption, Political crisis, ethnic conflicts, Dispute settlement, Human rights violations, Political violence, Protest movements, Conflict management, Political conditions, Nigeria, Niger Delta, Political science, Statsvetenskap
The recent escalation in the violent conflict in the Niger Delta has brought the region to the forefront of international energy and security concerns. This book analyses the causes, dynamics and politics underpinning oil-related violence in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It focuses on the drivers of the conflict, as well as the ways the crises spawned by the political economy of oil and contradictions within Nigeria's ethnic politics have contributed to the morphing of initially poorly coordinated, largely non-violent protests into a pan-Delta insurgency. Approaching the issue from a number of perspectives, the book offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive analysis available of the varied dimensions of the conflict. Combining empirically-based and analytic chapters, it attempts to explain the causes of the escalation in violence, the various actors, levels and dynamics involved, and the policy challenges faced with regard to conflict management/resolution and the options for peace. It also examines the role of oil as a commodity of global strategic significance, addressing the relationship between oil, energy security and development in the Niger Delta.

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.

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