This book considers the promises and challenges of globalization for Africa. Why have African states been perennially unable to diversify their economies and move beyond export of primary produce, even as Southeast Asia has made a tremendous leap into manufacturing? What institutional impediments are in play in African states? What reforms would mitigate the negative effects of globalization and distribute its benefits more equitably? Covering critical themes such as political leadership, security challenges, the creative sector, and community life, essays in this volume argue that the starting point for Africa’s meaningful engagement with the rest of the world must be to look inward, examine Africa’s institutions, and work towards reforms that promote inclusiveness and stability.
Globalization is not a new phenomenon in the international system. However, the various phases of globalization have had divergent scopes, actors, dimensions and dynamics - that is, each of the phases of globalization can be differentiated according to these terms. Against this background, this book focuses on the 'new globalization', a phase that emerged when the Cold War ended and which is, significantly, the most expansive and technologically advanced of all the phases of globalization. The contributors identify and discuss many of the frontier issues in Africa that are being impacted by the dynamics of this new globalization - debt, human rights, development, state sovereignty, the environment, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The volume will hold particular interest for students, scholars and researchers of African and development politics.
This edited volume examines the challenges of globalization in light of the need to revisit and reconceptualize the notion of Pan-Africanism. The first part of the book examines globalization and Africa’s socioeconomic and political development in this century by using the Diopian Pluridisciplinary Methodology. This approach is imperative because the challenges faced by Africa vis-à-vis globalization and socioeconomic development are so multiplexed that no single disciplinary approach can adequately analyze them and yield substantive policy recommendations. The chapters in the second part analyze the imperatives for Africa’s global knowledge production, development, and economic transformation in the face of the pressures of globalization. Part two demonstrates an urgent need for Africa’s significant participation in the global knowledge economy in order to meet the continent’s modern transformation and development aspirations. The final part examines lessons from old and new Pan-Africanism and how they can be utilized to deal with the challenges emanating from the forces of modern globalization. With its multidisciplinary approach to a wide range of pressing, modern issues for the African content, this book is essential reading for scholars across the social sciences interested in where Africa is now and where it should go in this increasingly globalized world.
Africa, Empire and Globalization is a set of original essays in honor of the distinguished historian, Professor A. G. Hopkins, whose career of over fifty years covers three main areas that are global in reach, but connect to ideas that are generated in such major cities as Lagos and London. The volume celebrates the key principles that have emerged from the cumulative body of Hopkins'' work: searching for originality; extending the frontier of knowledge through new data and interpretations; questioning received assumptions and wisdom; promoting conversations between multiple, often divergent, sets of ideas from different disciplines; presenting ideas such that those within and outside of the academy can benefit; and applying theories drawn from various disciplines to organize the evidence and to present it in digestible form. The first section covers Africa, with essays on the economic history of Lagos and West Africa, the connections between economic change and imperialism, and the role of Africa in the world economy, including the trans-Saharan, trans-Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean World. The role of Africans in creating wealth and responding to new economic opportunities receives prominent attention in some chapters. In the second section, new topics on imperialism are explored, such as the British expansion to India, the role of trade in the Gambia, and the overall impact of the empire. Hopkins'' idea of "gentlemanly capitalism" generates considerable debate in various chapters, and is also applied to various contexts and places. The current issues around the theme of globalization are developed in the third section in terms of the relevance of the concept, the contributions that historians can make to the subject, the arguments for and against, and its impact on capitalism and democracy. From peace to war, from economic prosperity to economic decline, from the use of power to nationalist resurgence, the section looks at the dominant concerns of our time. Hopkins'' career, as the volume amply demonstrates, is rich, held together by interest in the connections between the local and the national, the national and the regional, and the regional and the global. In thus interconnecting the world, a philosophy of history emerges--how economic forces shape political realities. His work, while being quite broad-ranging spatially, has remained topically focused on economic history, for the most part. This emphasis will be a large part of what he passes on to future scholarly generations. As we pay various tributes through the original essays collected here, we believe that, for our shared benefit, Professor A. G. Hopkins has demonstrated how to remain candidly involved in the debates over one''s work, to defend oneself when appropriate, to reconsider one''s work when necessary, and continually to build upon one''s own body of work in compelling and relevant version. This book is part of the African World Series, edited by Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin. "This weighty and impressive book is a thoroughly appropriate scholarly festschrift for Tony Hopkins....Wherever one cares to dip into the volume, one finds finely crafted, densely textured pieces of historical research." -- Journal of African History "[A]n important volume and a fitting tribute to the work of A.G. Hopkins....[T]he anthology may look and feel like a tome, but it is a delight to read. The breadth of topics and careful scholarship should ensure this collection receives a broad readership and stimulates further debates over Africa, empire, and globalization." -- H-Net Reviews "...this is not a deferential miscellanea, but a volume of the widest interest to all those who practise in the fields in which Tony Hopkins has worked. It is the best possible tribute." -- The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
This volume emphasizes the economic, political, and socio-cultural aspects of globalization from a variety of African perspectives. Although the book's emphasis is on the post-Second World War period, the ten chapters of Globalization and the African Experience also touch on the history of globalization in traditional and colonial African societies. It is a resource that can be used both as a scholarly guide to those interested in globalization in Africa and as a textbook for modern era African history courses. The book's strength lies in its ability to approach African history within a twenty-first century historiographical view; it reinforces the idea that the processes of globalization are age-old and multi-faceted and underscores the necessity of taking a local and global approach in assessing their impact. The book is divided into two sections. In the first, "Economic and Political Globalization," the authors analyze Africa's economic relations with the West and with developing world economies. The first section also addresses the relationship between conflict and globalization and the role of NGOs, the state, the market, and civil society. The second section, "Socio-Cultural and Intellectual Globalization," focuses on the junction of globalization and gender issues as well as issues of health, medicine, and the biomedical industries. It analyzes globalizing influences on African traditional societies and the very different impact on popular and youth culture while also addressing Africa's role in the intellectualization of Blackness. Individual contributors employ localized research and integrate it with larger, global themes to reveal the depth and complexity of globalization and how the processes affect Africa and Africans at the micro and macro levels. This book is part of the African World Series, edited by Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin. "Well documented with chapter notes and chapter bibliographies. Summing Up: Recommended." -- CHOICE
The World and a Very Small Place in Africa is a fascinating look at how contacts with the wider world have affected how people have lived in Niumi, a small and little-known region at the mouth of West Africa’s Gambia River, for over a thousand years. Drawing on archives, oral traditions and published works, Donald R. Wright connects world history with real people on a local level through an exploration of how global events have affected life in Niumi. Thoroughly revised and updated throughout, this new edition rests on recent thinking in globalization theory, reflects the latest historiography and has been extended to the present day through discussion of the final years of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s regime, the role of global forces in the events of the 2016 presidential elections and the changes that resulted from these elections. The book is supported throughout by photographs, maps and Perspectives boxes that present detailed information on such topics as Alex Haley’s Roots (part set in Niumi), why Gambians take the risky "back way" to reach Europe, or "Wiri-Wiri," the Senegalese soap that has Gambians’ attention. Written in a clear and personal style and taking a critical yet sensitive approach, it remains an essential resource for students and scholars of African history, particularly those interested in the impact of globalization on the lives of real people.
In this book scholars present new interpretations of African cities, from the pre-colonial to the modern, set in the context of national and international economy, politics and culture. While providing insights into the evolution of African cities, they also raise issues of vital importance to the survival of African cities. The chapters capture the mixed legacies of colonialism and the lingering consequences of neo-colonialism in a so-called age of globalisation.
DIVA collection of Ferguson's essays that bring the question of Africa into the center of current debates on globalization, modernity, and emerging forms of world order./div
An important new discussion of Africa's place in the international system. This volume discusses Africa's place in the international system, examining the way in which the Westphalian system, in light of the impact of globalization and transnational networks, continues to play a major role in the structuring of Africa's international relations. The book provides a solid empirical analysis of key global players in Africa - France, the UK, the US, Japan, Germany, the EU and the UN - and of their policies towards the region. In the context of the 'war against terrorism', African political stability becomes a consideration of increasing importance. By analyzing the relevance of the states in the North, this book challenges conventional wisdom in recent international relations thinking. It applies the concept of an 'international policy community' to bridge the gap between the 'domestic' and the 'international', explaining why Africa retains a role in global politics out of any proportion to its economic weight.
