SOCIAL SCIENCES

Fault-lines in South African democracy : continuing crises of inequality and injustice

Upphovsperson:	Hendricks, Fred T.
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2003
Ämnesord:	Post-apartheid, Political transition, political development, Democratization, South Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

The transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa has raised questions, on the one hand, about the tension between the imperatives of justice and equality and, on the other, reconciliation. Transforming the decades' old apartheid system under conditions of a political compromise has turned out to be a formidable challenge. This paper is about the complexity of the transformation processgoing on in South Africa. Although too early for a real assessmentof the experiment, the tensions, dilemmas, contradictions, paradoxes and some of the changes have already begun to manifest themselves. In this Discussion Paper, the author gives the full measure of the tensions, dilemmas, and paradoxes involved in the transformation of South Africa. Apartheid was more than formal discrimination along racial lines: it was a system of exploitation and oppression in which race, class, gender and other markers of social identity all overlapped. The paper shows how political deals affect the administration of justice, and how they impinge upon the nature of democracy, often by frustrating efforts to realise social goals in the post-authoritarian phase. It also raises the fundamental question of the broader necessities for the long-term survival of democracy in South Africa, which, the paper argues, must include: - addressing the enormous disparities between wealth and poverty and black and white left in the wake of apartheid and - creating a legitimate polity that respects the rule of law.

The new African initiative and the African Union : a preliminary assessment and documentation

Upphovsperson:	Melber, Henning
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2001
Ämnesord:	political development, African Union, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

During the year 2000 an initiative among the African states to transform the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) gained momentum. It resulted in the ratification of the Constitutive Act and its adoption at the 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 2001 in Lusaka. Parallel to this process of reorganisation towards closer inter-state collaboration on the African continent in the spirit of Pan Africanism emerged the systematic effort to redefine developmental priorities and to claim a new common position of African states in the globalised world. The "African Renaissance" initiative of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki resulted in a "Millenium Africa Recovery Programme", which was finally revised and presented as the "New Africa Initiative" (NAI). Adopted at the same OAU Summit in Lusaka in July 2001, the NAI serves as a blueprint for Africa's development strategy at the beginning of the 21st century. It was presented to the G8 summit in Genoa, where the leaders of the world's powerful countries decided on a follow up by appointing individual special advisers to explore support to the NAI and future collaboration on the basis of this document. This paper offers a preliminary assessment of the New Africa Initiative within the context of the transformation of the OAU into the AU. It identifies and summarises essential new aspects advocated, critically examines the degree of realism and points at the possible limitations. The analysis also considers first reactions to the initiatives and reflects on the perspectives.

Structural stability in an African context

Upphovsperson:	Kappel, Robert
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2003
Ämnesord:	Crisis, Development aid, Economic and social development, economic aspects, NEPAD, Partnership, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Structural Stability is a particular focus for reconceptualising developmental strategy and development aid and has provoked unfore-seen responses in the course of a recent, mainly German debate. This debate began late in 2000 when a number of prominent German scholars in African Studies initiated a policy dialogue through a widely circulated and publicly discussed "Afrika Memorandum" centred on the notion of structural stability. Its arguments are relevant not only to a German audience but offer stimulating and thought-provoking inputs into the debate in the wider European context on bilateral and multilateral relations with Africa. This Discussion Paper presents the revised contributions to a Consulta- tive Workshop on Structural Stability in an African Context that took place at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala on 31 March and 1 April 2003.

Development from below : a Namibian case study

Upphovspersoner:	Kössler, Reinhart | Melber, Henning | Strand, Per
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2003
Ämnesord:	Southern Africa, Namibia, colonialism, history, Independence, Globalization, Ethnicity, Traditional culture, Nation-building, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This Discussion Paper offers a revised lecture by Reinhart Kössler, which was originally presented to a Research Forum organised by The Nordic Africa Institute jointly with the Seminar for Development Studies of Uppsala University. It deals with aspects of rebuilding societies from below firstly in a general development studies discourse on a more theoretical level, considering aspects of the current debate on globalisation. This is followed by a concrete case study from southern Namibia. It illustrates local responses by the Witbooi-Nama in Gibeon to (re-)define identity within the context of a (nation-)state in a post-apartheid society. The paper is commented upon by two discussants (Per Strand and Henning Melber). The contributions reflect on the issue of social reconstruction in the context of (southern) Africa with reference to a particular marginalised group. They deal, among other things, with the question of social power and the "invention of tradition" in local efforts to gain from, or seek integration into, the nation building process.

Women informal traders in Harare and the struggle for survival in an environment of economic reforms

Upphovspersoner:	Mupedziswa, Rodreck | Gumbo, Perpetua
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2001
Ämnesord:	Structural adjustment, Informal sector, trade, Women, Household consumption, Survival strategies, Zimbabwe, Harare, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This report summarises the results of the fourth and final round of interviews carried out among informal sector women traders in Harare, Zimbabwe as part of a longitudinal study of their conditions of work and livelihood in the context of economic crisis and structural adjustment. The evidence which was available from the interview points to a deepening social crisis in Zimbabwe as attested to by the increasing crisis of subsistence and livelihood among the overwhelming majorette of the informal sector workers. Far from being the terrain where sections of the populace might be able to find economic liberation, the informal sector is, in fact characterised by serious internal differentiation, very low incomes, and an over-saturation that results in the inability of the women survey to do anything other than struggle at the margins for basic survival.

Gender and agricultural supply responses to structural adjustment programmes : a case study of smallholder tea producers in Kericho, Kenya

Upphovsperson:	Ongile, Grace Atieno
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	1999
Ämnesord:	Kenya, East Africa, Agricultural production, Tea, Structural adjustment, Smallholders, Gender, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This study investigates the gender implications of agricultural sector reform in Kenya. The author focuses on smallholder tea production with the aim of pinpointing the factors that influence the adoption of tea among male and female farmers assessing female farmers' perceptions of the changes in living standards over the research period, and suggesting appropriate policy reforms to ensure that women's interests are taken into account in the design of agricultural reforms.

Zimbabwe - the political economy of decline

Upphovspersoner:	Dansereau, Suzanne | Zamponi, Mario | Melber, Henning
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2005
Ämnesord:	Zimbabwe, political development, Economic and social development, economic aspects, social aspects, cultural aspects., SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

The two articles are revised versions of papers presented at the end of May 2004 to a Zimbabwe Conference at the Nordic Africa Institute, which was co-organised by the project "Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa" (LiDeSA). They highlight current socio-economic aspects of Zimbabwean society. By doing so, they raise relevant issues, yet ones that have tended to be neglected given the almost exclusive concentration on political events. While this is understandable, the articles fill the gap in our knowledge and add insights into important sectors of society. These include information on the Zimbabwean economy and the present constraints of the decline, which together help us to understand the structural legacy that any future government will have to deal with. What is more, the elections in Zimbabwe in 2005 provide an ideal moment to discuss such matters. This Discussion Paper will thereby make a substantive contribution to the analysis of the overall picture in Zimbabwe. CONTENT Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Zimbabwe's Development Impasse. Suzanne Dansereau From Social Justice, to Neo-liberalism, to Authoritarian Nationalism - Where is the Zimbabwean State going? Mario Zamponi

Africa in the new millenium

Upphovspersoner:	Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges | Suttner, Raymond
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2001
Ämnesord:	political reform, Globalisation, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

The contributions to this Discussion Paper were prepared for a workshop on "Africa in the new millennium" held in Stockholm in May 2001. The idea of the workshop was not to counter "negative" perceptions of Africa with "positive" ones. Nor was it to arrive at finalised ideas or prescriptions for governments or the continent as a whole. The aim was to raise important questions, which may help contextualise and deal with the problems facing the continent. It was an attempt to go below the surface of immediate crises and open up a debate around Africa and its international relations. It is hoped that publication of these papers will encourage further debate, and contribute towards realising the goal of African recovery.

Cross-border trade and the parallel currency market - trade and finance in the context of structural adjustment : a case study from Kano, Nigeria

Upphovspersoner:	Hashim, Yahaya | Meagher, Kate
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	1999
Ämnesord:	Nigeria, West Africa, International Trade, Trade liberalization, Currencies, Exchange Rate, French Franc area, Structural Adjustment, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

A "new regionalism" is gathering pace in West Africa, underpinned by the growing activities of informal cross-border traders. The authors of this study challenge the assumptions of the World Bank that the expansion in informal cross-border trade is a vindication of the market liberalising thrust of structural adjustment, and that adjustment policies have, in an organic manner, improved the effectiveness of an "independent" bourgeoisie that is emerging out of this trade as an agent of regional integration. Instead, they make the case for the adoption of what they call a "development approach" for tapping the benefits of the informal currency markets, as an alternative to the "market coercion" of structural adjustment.

Music as instrument of diversity and unity : notes on a Namibian landscape

Upphovsperson:	Mans, Minette
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2003
Ämnesord:	Namibia, music, cultural identity, Nation-building, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This report explores the interface between recent socio-political changes in Namibia, and the way they are reflected in emergent musical practices and identities within the country. The potential tension between unity and diversity is investigated within musical landscapes in traditional and contemporary frames. Sadly, diversity is often seen to be the precursor of divisiveness rather than a product of human creativity and ingenuity. Based on a decade of field research undertaken mainly in the north and central areas of Namibia since 1993, this report poses questions about fundamental purposes of music-making, and the conscious response of people to the contemporary Namibian socio-political situation. It provides a broad overview of music emanating from different cultural practices in Namibia, and relates this to the State's political strategies for ensuring unity and nation-building through policy-making, education and broadcast media. The changes that occur in musical practices are seen as strategic cultural choices and ongoing identity-formation.

Sidor