Modernising Traditions and Traditionalising Modernity in Africa
Modernising Traditions and Traditionalising Modernity in Africa

Author: B. Nyamnjoh

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2015-09-23

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 9956762792

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Chieftaincy in Africa has displayed remarkable dynamics and adaptability to new socio-economic and political developments, without becoming totally transformed in the process. Almost everywhere on the continent, chiefdoms and chiefs have become active agents in the quest for ethnic, cultural symbols as a way of maximising opportunities at the centre of bureaucratic and state power, and at the home village where control over land and labour often require both financial and symbolic capital. Chieftaincy remains central to ongoing efforts at developing democracy and accountability in line with the expectations of Africans as individual citizens and also as subjects of various cultural communities. This book uses Cameroon and Botswana as case studies, to argue that the rigidity and prescriptiveness of modernist partial theories have left a major gap in scholarship on chiefs and chieftaincy in Africa. It stresses that studies of domesticated agency in Africa are sorely needed to capture the creative ongoing processes and to avoid overemphasising structures and essentialist perceptions on chieftaincy and the cultural communities that claim and are claimed by it.

Tradition and Modernity
Tradition and Modernity

Author: Kwame Gyekye

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0195112253

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Gyekye offers a philosophical interpretation and critical analysis of the African cultural experience in modern times, and shows how Western philosophical concepts help in addressing a wide range of specifically African problems.

African Traditional Religion in the Modern World, 2d ed.
African Traditional Religion in the Modern World, 2d ed.

Author: Douglas E. Thomas

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-05-11

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1476620199

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African traditional religion encompasses a variety of non-dogmatic, spiritual practices followed by millions around the world. Some scholars argue it is related to the Nubian religion of Egypt's Dynastic Period. In an expanded second edition, this book examines the nature of African traditional religion and describes common attributes of various cultural belief systems, with an emphasis on West Africa. Principal elements studied include sacrifice, salvation and culture, modes of revelation, divination, and African resilience in the face of invasion and colonization. The religious experiences of black people throughout the Americas are also covered. The author finds the cosmology, symbolism and rituals of the Yoruba culture to be the fundamental bases of African traditional religion, and draws similarities between the oral and written literature of West Africans and that of New World practitioners. The influence of Islam and Christianity is also discussed. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

The Arts and Indigenous Knowledge Systems in a Modernized Africa
The Arts and Indigenous Knowledge Systems in a Modernized Africa

Author: Runette Kruger

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2018-12-17

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1527523624

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This collection derives from a conference held in Pretoria, South Africa, and discusses issues of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and the arts. It presents ideas about how to promote a deeper understanding of IKS within the arts, the development of IKS-arts research methodologies, and the protection and promotion of IKS in the arts. Knowledge, embedded in song, dance, folklore, design, architecture, theatre, and attire, and the visual arts can promote innovation and entrepreneurship, and it can improve communication. IKS, however, exists in a post-millennium, modernizing Africa. It is then the concept of post-Africanism that would induce one to think along the lines of a globalized, cosmopolitan and essentially modernized Africa. The book captures leading trends and ideas that could help to protect, promote, develop and affirm indigenous knowledge and systems, whilst also making room for ideas that do not necessarily oppose IKS, but encourage the modernization (not Westernization) of Africa.

Modernity and Its Malcontents
Modernity and Its Malcontents

Author: Jean Comaroff

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1993-11

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0226114406

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What role does ritual play in the everyday lives of modern Africans? How are so-called "traditional" cultural forms deployed by people seeking empowerment in a world where "modernity" has failed to deliver on its promises? Some of the essays in Modernity and Its Malcontents address familiar anthropological issues—like witchcraft, myth, and the politics of reproduction—but treat them in fresh ways, situating them amidst the polyphonies of contemporary Africa. Others explore distinctly nontraditional subjects—among them the Nigerian popular press and soul-eating in Niger—in such a way as to confront the conceptual limits of Western social science. Together they demonstrate how ritual may be powerfuly mobilized in the making of history, present, and future. Addressing challenges posed by contemporary African realities, the authors subject such concepts as modernity, ritual, power, and history to renewed critical scrutiny. Writing about a variety of phenomena, they are united by a wish to preserve the diversity and historical specificity of local signs and practices, voices and perspectives. Their work makes a substantial and original contribution toward the historical anthropology of Africa. The contributors, all from the Africanist circle at the University of Chicago, are Adeline Masquelier, Deborah Kaspin, J. Lorand Matory, Ralph A. Austen, Andrew Apter, Misty L. Bastian, Mark Auslander, and Pamela G. Schmoll.

Fo S. A. N Angwafo III Remembered
Fo S. A. N Angwafo III Remembered

Author: F. Angwafo

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2022-11-22

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 9956552704

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We are thrilled to share with you this rich harvest of tributes on Fo Solomon AnyeGhamoti Angwafo III of the Kingdom of Mankon. The tributes are by people and institutions from Mankon, Cameroon and the world at large, that knew him well and generously responded to our call for memories, testimonies and reflections to mark his transitioning from Atsum to join his ancestors at Alankyi. The tributers share with the reader their thoughts on various aspects of who King Solomon Angwafo III was and what he meant to them. A common thread in the tributes is the irrepressible admiration for the ideas, ideals, principles and values he championed and lived by for 97 years. His leadership, wisdom, deeds, sociality and humanity are in focus. Fo Angwafo III had a lifelong commitment to cultivation. To him, living was not just about tilling the soil for sustenance, it was also about tending the mind and the soul. He valued agriculture and culture in equal measure. In this and other aspects he was a pacesetter all his life. He had a warm heart and welcoming smile for all and sundry. In conversations and good company, his distinctive laughter brightened and lightened the weights of hearts and minds. In leadership, he distinguished himself most as a servant. Fo Angwafo III was father of both the beginner and the expert, the pupil and the teacher, the fool and the philosopher. He was the father of all: the good, the bad and the ugly. His disappearance offers us an opportunity for introspection. He leaves us in the well-cultivated hands of Fo Fru-Asah Angwafo IV, an educationist, through whom his presence and inspiration will continue to be felt, and from whom we will continue to learn.

Critical Terms for the Study of Africa
Critical Terms for the Study of Africa

Author: Gaurav Desai

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2018-12-07

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 022654902X

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For far too long, the Western world viewed Africa as unmappable terrain—a repository for outsiders’ wildest imaginings. This problematic notion has had lingering effects not only on popular impressions of the region but also on the development of the academic study of Africa. Critical Terms for the Study of Africa considers the legacies that have shaped our understanding of the continent and its place within the conceptual grammar of contemporary world affairs. Written by a distinguished group of scholars, the essays compiled in this volume take stock of African studies today and look toward a future beyond its fraught intellectual and political past. Each essay discusses one of our most critical terms for talking about Africa, exploring the trajectory of its development while pushing its boundaries. Editors Gaurav Desai and Adeline Masquelier balance the choice of twenty-five terms between the expected and the unexpected, calling for nothing short of a new mapping of the scholarly field. The result is an essential reference that will challenge assumptions, stimulate lively debate, and make the past, present, and future of African Studies accessible to students and teachers alike.

City Life in Africa
City Life in Africa

Author: Katja Werthmann

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-07-27

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1000603008

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This book introduces readers to the anthropology of urban life in Africa, showing what ethnography can teach us about African city dwellers’ own notions, practices, and reflections. Social anthropologists have studied city life in Africa since the early 20th century. Their works have addressed a number of questions that are relevant until today: What happens to rural people who move to the city? What kinds of livelihoods do they pursue? How does city life affect moralities and practices connected with gender roles, marriage, parenthood, and intergenerational relations? In which social situations are ethnic and other collective identifications relevant? How do people make a home in the city? What forms of authority and leadership become relevant in urban governance? How do people talk about city life? This book asks what anthropologists have come to learn about Africans’ views on city life. It provides a critical acclaim of ethnographies in English, French, and German and elucidates anthropology’s contribution to understanding city life in Africa. It highlights the significance of female, African and Diaspora scholars for an emerging urban anthropology of Africa. The chapters are organized according to everyday activities of city dwellers: moving, connecting, governing, working, dwelling, and wayfinding. The book will be an essential read for students and researchers of social anthropology, African and urban studies, but also for professionals in research and development organizations, thinktanks, and other institutions concerned with urban Africa.

African Modernities and Mobilities
African Modernities and Mobilities

Author: Nkwi, Walter Gam

Publisher: Langaa RPCIG

Published: 2015-05-10

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 9956762725

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In this book Walter Gam Nkwi documents the complexities and nuances embedded in African modernities and mobilities which have been overlooked in historical discourses in Africa and Cameroon. Using an ethnographic historical approach and drawing on the intricacies of what it has meant to be and belong in Kom- an ethnic community in the Northwest Region of Cameroon - since 1800, he explores the discourses and practices of kfaang as central to any understanding of mobility and modernity in Kom, Cameroon and Africa at large. The book unveils the emic understanding of modernity through the history and ethnography of kfaang and its technologies and illustrates how these terminologies were conceived and perceived by the Kom people in their social and physical mobilities. It documents and analyzes the historical processes involved in bringing about and making kfaang a defining feature of everyday life in Kom and among Kom subjects.