Himonga describes and analyzes the major developments in succession and family laws since the country's independence and places them against the background of changing social and economic conditions. The operation of the law, its application by the courts and other institutions in the informal sphere, and popular responses to the law are a major focus of the book. The book also attempts a critical analysis of the operation of the law and legal institutions in a pluralistic society.
Volume 7 of "Law and Anthropology" brings together a collection of studies that discuss legal problems raised by cultural differences between people and the law to which they are subject. This volume developed from the idea that it can be useful to consider current discussions in various legal systems facing issues of cultural difference that cannot be regarded as legal problems related to indigenous societies alone. The book focuses on contradiction between national law and complex and diverse kinship structures, which are essential for the cultural identity of both indigenous groups and cultural minorities. The social construction of gender relations and gender conflicts is an important theme in many essays. Some of the essays examine the area of conflict between cultural practices and universal human rights standards. The demand for cultural rights may collide with human rights standards, especially with the principles of gender equality. This volume will be of great interest to academics and to all those with practical involvement in the field of cultural pluralism. Previously published by VWGO Verlag in Austria, "Law and Anthropology" will be published and distributed by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers from Volume 7 onwards.
In the 1970s and 1980s Indiana University Press published a series of books edited by Gwendolen Carter and others on economic and political conditions in Southern Africa during the apartheid era. The Uncertain Promise of Southern Africa is a return to that successful format in the post-apartheid era. Leading scholars analyze the economic, political, social, and cultural conditions in Southern Africa and the prospects for the region. The first part of the book examines the current political and development situation in six countries--South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Mozambique. The second part focuses on issues of enduring importance in the region--education, health, gender, the law, intra- and inter-regional power relations, international commerce, and popular culture.
Coming together from across several disciplines, the contributors to this book reflect on the considerable problem of inequality in Zambia, comparing it with other countries both in the region and more broadly. The World Bank consistently ranks Zambia among the countries with the highest levels of poverty and inequality globally, but the problem is not widely studied; and the studies that do exist tend to focus solely on economic measures of inequality. This book uses a multidimensional analysis of inequalities, highlighting the ways in which certain social groups and geographical locations are more likely to suffer multiple inequalities. It investigates key issues around poverty, healthcare, income, law, disability, and power inequalities. Particularly showcasing the work of local researchers, this book will be of interest to researchers of African studies, development, economics, and politics.
Within the field of management of natural resources, this book focuses on the various approaches of policy formulation and implementation. The question central to this book is how to co-operate with people, the various categories of residents as well as non-residents, in the rural areas: in a top-down, a participatory or a contractual (co-management) way. On the basis of a comparative analysis of 12 case studies in the book, these three approaches are thoroughly discussed and their internal and external constraints examined. The book starts with an editorial chapter, discussing the recent administrative and political developments in Africa as well as the new opportunities, which they offer for policies in the field of environment, and development. The question is brought up whether the recent processes of decentralization, democratization, and empowerment of local organizations have indeed created new opportunities or that they have only superficially changed the political culture of the countries concerned. In the concluding chapter of the book, the approaches are contrasted to each other as logical models, each with its own potentiality and limitations. Conclusions are formulated why the top down approach must result in improvization to escape from failure, and why the participatory approach risks to end up into a mixed balance. Special attention is given to the conditions and the prospects for the contractual or co-management approach, which has been introduced into Africa only recently. Under certain conditions, this approach seems rather promising.
