Dani Wadada Nabudere, the illustrious Ugandan scholar, produced a diverse body of work on various aspects of African culture, politics, and philosophy. Toward the end of his life, he formulated a theoretical construct that he termed Afrikology. Unlike most other Afrocentrists, who have stopped with the task of proving the primacy of the Egyptian past and its numerous cultural and scientific achievements, Nabudere strenuously attempts to connect that illustrious heritage with the African present. This, remarkably, is what makes his project worthy of careful attention. His corpus is multidisciplinary, although a major preoccupation with Africa is discernible in virtually all his works. His writings deal with critiques of imperialism, African political systems, processes of globalization and Africas location within them, and finally the ideological and existential imperatives of Afrocentric discourse.
African philosophy has for long been rejected on the basis that it is not known, or has not been written down. Behind this view is the idealist presumption that for something to exist, it must first be perceived. However, for something to be perceived, it must first exist. African Philosophy: Critical Dimensions examines what constitutes African philosophy in terms of its meaning, foundation, sources, methodology, characteristics, and relevance. The book analyses traditional African philosophy from the political, social, ethical, epistemological and metaphysical angles. The book further critically discusses modern African political philosophy, modern African social philosophy, modern African economic philosophy, and modern African philosophy of religion. It ends with the identification of the different conclusions that were derived from the study and general recommendations, some specifically for researchers and writers, especially in the area of African philosophy. Wilfred Lajul joins other authentic voices examining African Philosophy.
This book was inspired by the need of post-conflict societies to manage knowledge resources in such a way that it creates lasting restoration of durable peaceful relationships among people. It aims to demonstrate the challenges of the management of knowledge for restorative justice in Africa and the principles and practices by which these challenges can be met. To achieve this aim they applied what they call the 'Trans-dimensional Knowledge Management Model (TDKM-M)' to specific cases of restorative justice in South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Liberia. After an analysis of the cases studies, the author successfully demonstrated the challenges of the management of knowledge for restorative justice in Africa and the principles and practices by which these challenges can be met. The authors revealed common challenges to restorative justice such as establishing the 'truth'; the institutionalisation of recommendations by truth and reconciliation bodies; the handling of non-cooperative offenders; and replacing of 'good' values' with 'bad' values as major challenges to restorative justice. To meet these challenges, they propose certain principles of trans-dimensional restorative justice: the establishment of a 'trans-dimensional knowledge foundation' (not some version of 'the truth'); leadership in the implementation of strategies and plans; restoration or establishment of good relations among all people (not only the ruling elites); the identification of tacit and unseen factors that will determine successful restoration of these relationships; and changing these tacit and unseen factors.
The Niger Delta region of Nigeria had a long standing history of crises even before the late Ken Saro-Wiwa helped to bring these crises to the attention of the world. The international community increasingly needs Nigerian oil largely because of the political dislocations and uncertainties in some of the major oil-producing regions of the world. But unfortunately the crises in the Niger Delta, which produces most of Nigeria's oil, have also been escalating to alarming proportions, often turning the region into a site of seemingly unending uncertainty and conflicts. The book focuses on Ogoniland - one of the oil-producing communities that make up the Niger Delta. It examines the colonial origins of these crises and their links to the dynamics of petroleum exploitation in the region as well as to the structure of Nigeria's contemporary political economy. It relates the ways in which the crises in Ogoniland are connected to the generalised turmoil in the Niger Delta and argues that they are often exacerbated - rather than attenuated - by the Nigerian federal process and its unique combination of militarism, ethnicity and religion.
This monograph is intended to examine the epistemology of restorative rights in view of the continuing violation of rights in all aspects of life on the African continent and other parts of the world. It is based on the research, which the Marcus Garvey Pan-Afrikan Institute undertook between 2006ñ2008, under a cross-disciplinary research project entitled Restorative Justice and its Relationship to International Humanitarian Law, which resulted in a Comprehensive Report that was later discussed at an international conference in Nairobi in August 2008. This conference was opened by the Prime Mi.
Historical documents and legends are replete with treasure lore providing stories of lost treasure founded in real events and fact, this book relates just such a story. Although it can and has happened, it is a rarity for a treasure deposit to be discovered by the "merest chance." True, many lost treasures have been discovered, but typically the discovery is made through years of exhaustive, dedicated research, and the blood, sweat and personal sacrifices of thorough exploration. Other treasures have been discovered just to be lost again. Still others have proven to be hoaxes, while others remain hidden awaiting discovery. This is the story of a quest for one such treasure, portions of the ransom of the Inca Atahualpa purportedly spirited into an obscure mountainous region of Ecuador known as the Llanganatis by Atahualpa's half-brother General Rumiñahui in the year 1534. Treasure stories like any story, have a beginning, middle and an end. Throughout any story there can be misdirection and misinformation, but the paranoia, greed and lust associated with possessing secrets associated with a lost treasure deposit appears to amplify a storyteller's incentive to hide and obscure the complete truth through misinformation and misdirection. For this reason, the closer one can get to a first person narrative, the closer one gets to the truth. Previously, Commander Dyott's involvement in the story relied on third, fourth and fifth hand accounts that increasingly blurred the lines between fact and fiction. Now we have the ability to bring everything back into focus with first and second hand accounts. Dyott's account will not be paraphrased, but background information and clarification will be provided in order that the circumstances that form the setting for events, statements and ideas, can be fully understood and assessed. For the first time in print, posthumously related through extensive personal correspondence, George M. Dyott and the "family in New England" expose their involvement in a Quest for Inca Gold, Atahualpa's treasure. Once and for all the fog of misinformation, misdirection and literary license which has obscured the truth for decades shall be lifted. With the characters unveiling the story in their own words as it developed, through Commander Dyott's Llanganati expedition of 1947, the reader is provided an experience like none other. Whether the reader has any previous knowledge of the story of Atahualpa's ransom and the quest for his treasure, or is just discovering the story for the first time is irrelevant. The intriguing story about to be told provides sufficient background information and new evidence that exposes a different version of events. Regardless if you are an active explorer, treasure hunter, historian or armchair adventurer, the true story of Commander Dyott's journey into the unknown awaits within.
Vice president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Issa Aremu, has been writing a column in the Daily Trust, Nigeria for several years and has been an occasional contributor to a number of other Nigerian publications. Covered in this volume Prof. Aremu recounts his personal experiences with individuals whose ideas, lives and brilliant minds have been applied to the critical examination of the human condition, the African condition: Fidel Castro; Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Wole Soyinka, Fela Kuti and others.
This book serves as a drive and medium for constructive analysis, critical thinking, and informed change in the broad area of cultural heritage studies. In Africa, how to overturn the gory effects and reverse the wholesale obnoxious and unpardonable losses suffered from the excruciating experience of colonialism in a manner that empowers the present and future generations, remains a burning question. Colonial and liberation war heritage have received insignificant attention. The relevance, nature, and politics at play when it comes to the role of memory and colonial heritage in view of nation-building and sustainability on the continent is yet to receive careful practical and theoretical attention and scrutiny from both heritage scholars and governments. Yet, colonial heritage has vast potentials that if harnessed could reverse the gargantuan losses of colonialism and promote sustainable development in Africa. The book critically reflects on the opportunities, constraints, and challenges of colonial heritage across Africa. It draws empirical evidence from its focus on Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique, to advance the thesis that cultural heritage in Africa, and in particular colonial heritage, faces challenges of epic proportions that require urgent attention.
One of the fundamental challenges in deconstructing, rethinking and remaking the world from a Pan African vantage point is that some captives have tended to delight in the warmth of the [imperial] predators mouth. In other words, some captives forget that the imperial predators mouth gets warm because empire is eating and heating up from prey on the continent. (De-)Militarisation, Transnational Land Grabs and Restitution in an Age of the New Scramble for Africa: A Pan African Socio-Legal Perspective is a book that knocks on key aspects relating to land, militarisation, a PostAfrican World Order and a chaotic Post-God World Order, which require critical scholarly and policy attention in the quest to free Africa from centuries-old imperial depredations. The book carefully navigates the imperial entrapments which are designed to focus African attention only on decolonising African minds without also engaging in the [imperially more unsettling] decolonisation of African materialities.
In 1996 President Nelson Mandela described Professor Ali A. Mazrui (1933-2014) as "an outstanding educationist and freedom fighter." In 2002 the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan referred to Professor Mazrui as "Africa's gift to the world." Author of more than 35 books and hundreds of articles, Professor Mazrui was an African scholar who had treated with uncommon verve and flair a wide-range of themes that included globalization, the triple heritage, peace, and social justice. This volume engages with some of those themes that excited his mind for over six decades. The multidisciplinary essays seek to underline the highlights of Mazrui's intellectual journey and attest to the fact that he was public intellectual par excellence. Indeed, in 2005, he was named one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world. This book is a product of a symposium held from 15 to 17 July 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya. The symposium was jointly organized by the Twaweza Communications, Nairobi, Kenya, and the Institute of Global Cultural Studies (State University of New York at Binghamton) which Ali Mazrui created and presided over as the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities from 1991 to 2014.
