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- Book Review: Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa: Regionalism by
Design by Boone, Catherine
Authors: Awoyemi AdeniyiSchool of Public; International Affairs, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2025-04-13T03:09:16Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397251330314
- International Aid and Its Role in Shaping Agriculture Policy Narratives in
Ghana
Authors: James Boafo; Kristen Lyons, Senyo Dotsey
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
International aid in the form of development assistance helps developing countries meet their development needs. Aid is also used as a conduit to drive the interests of donor countries in recipient countries. In Ghana, there is a renewed interest from ...
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2025-04-02T05:28:46Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397251325868
- Memory-Making in an Urban Park: Colonial and Contemporary Uses of
Kumase’s Jackson Park
Authors: Eugenia Ama Breba Anderson; Karen Lauterbach
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Jackson Park in Kumase, Ghana, was designed to serve the recreational interests of its immediate African community. The article analyses how Asante citizens appropriated a colonial park and how it was refashioned by the postcolonial Ghanaian state. This ...
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2025-03-28T08:01:10Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397251330918
- Book Review: International Statebuilding in West Africa: Civil Wars and
New Humanitarianism in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire by Bah,
Abu Bakarr and Emmanuel Nikolas
Authors: Buyisile Ntaka54701Corvinus University of Budapest; Budapest, Hungary
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2025-03-13T02:09:10Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397251324952
- Dwelling in Drifting: Kenya–China Life Writing Feipiao
Authors: Mingqing YuanInstitute for Near Eastern; Civilizations, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
With an increase in interactions between Kenya and China at all levels, transnational encounters in everyday life add shades and nuances to the understanding of these recent Africa–Asian encounters beyond the grand narrative. This article focuses on the ...
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2025-03-13T02:08:55Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397251321863
- Anatomy of a Border: Contradictory Discourses on Othering and Mobilities
on the Ghana–Togo Border'
Authors: Edem Adotey; University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Two “contradictory” perspectives of the borderlands exist: one is that the creation of arbitrary borders and different nationalities imposed on single communities and families not only others them and casts them as aliens in their traditional homelands but also restricts their mobilities and access to resources. The second perspective is that borderlanders do not recognise these borders and continue their activities as if the borders do not exist. This paper disentangles this contradiction by exploring how borders impact othering and mobility on the borderlands. Through historicising bordering practices based on people's lived experiences on the Ghana–Togo border, this paper argues these perspectives are complementary rather than contradictory. It shows how people's experiences of the border are shaped by bordering practices that are neither homogenous nor static. This paper highlights the complex relationships that point to a more nuanced understanding than this dichotomy.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2025-02-28T06:48:58Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397251321505
- Family Support and Migration in Nigeria
Authors: Daniel Tuki; Integration Transnationalization Research Unit, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Berlin, Germany
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Using novel large-N survey data collected from the state of Edo – Nigeria's migration epicentre – this study examines how family support relates to people's migration aspirations and their perception of the risks associated with migrating to Europe. The regression results reveal that family support positively correlates with migration aspirations and raises people's confidence in their chances of reaching Europe should they decide to migrate, effectively decreasing their perception of migration risks. Women are less optimistic about reaching Europe than men.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2025-01-24T08:14:18Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241310450
- Africa's Emergent Tech Sector: Characteristics and Development
Implications
Authors: Jann Lay, Tevin Tafese; Tevin Tafese234884German Institute for Global Area Studies (GIGA), GIGA Institute for African Affairs, Hamburg, Germany
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
This study examines the characteristics of Africa's tech sector and its implications for development. Using a database of technology firms in Africa, we show that start-ups are increasingly attracting funding across Africa, especially in underdeveloped sectors such as finance, retail, and transportation. We then illustrate that African start-ups’ digital technologies are often tailored to local contexts to attract, connect, and retain customers. Finally, we discuss transmission channels and review the existing evidence on the impact of digital technologies, particularly platforms, in Africa. We conclude that digital platforms hold significant development potential by addressing key market and government failures, as documented for the expansion of mobile money, but that the impact of other platforms, such as e-commerce, may be more ambiguous than expected. Consequently, there is an urgent need for more evidence on the impact of emerging digital technologies on African individuals, firms, and farms to guide effective policy responses.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2025-01-23T10:19:27Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241306454
- Assessing the Implications of Agricultural Mechanisation for Customary
Land Tenure Relations in the Transitional Zone, Ghana
Authors: Kwasi Sarfo, Bernard Okoampah Otu, Michael Atakro; Bernard Okoampah Otu, Michael Atakro
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Agricultural mechanisation promotes continuous cultivation on a piece of land and expansion of the area under cultivation, thereby intensifying competition for land. This impacts the land tenure system based on customary land tenure and communal landholding that thrived under land fallowing. Situated within the evolutionary theory of land rights and adopting an empirical qualitative research approach, this paper examines the effects of agricultural mechanisation on customary land tenure relations in Ghana's Transitional Zone. The paper argues that the widespread adoption of agricultural mechanisation has led to farm extensification and intensification which have engendered intense competition and conflicts over land and trends towards individual landholding. This has provided the arsenals for manipulation by the powerful in society and ushering in a new form of customary land tenure relations that replaces traditional social relations with capitalist relations and creates tension between allodial rights holders and the usufructuary and customary tenancy rights holders
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-12-05T07:42:15Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241290533
- Rethinking Regulation beyond the Normative Threshold: Mechanisms of
Control and Access to the Central Market of Kinshasa
Authors: Héritier Mesa; 26659Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
The article explores regulation practices governing access to the central market of Kinshasa. It argues that, contrary to conventional ideas, urban trading places do not escape state regulation, nor are they outside the realm of legitimacy. These places and the economic activities that take place in them are highly regulated. Yet, their regulations do not always conform to official standards. The dominant binary divide of formal/informal obscures different processes and scales of effective regulation. Hence, to better understand how these places and activities are regulated, it is necessary to go beyond the binary divide. Drawing on practical norms’ literature, the article shows the multiplicity of overlapping norms, their corresponding logics, and how different actors navigate regulation. Regulations can have diverse effects on people. Some deviations from official laws have reassuring effects, leading to forms of organisation that serve traders’ needs or provide them with space for resistance against exclusion. However, certain other deviations serve to extract more resources from vendors and can lead to the (re)production of social inequalities.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-11-06T06:52:07Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241288617
- The Complexities of Regulating Traders’ Activity: The Case of Small
Traders in Ouagadougou's Rood Woko Market (Burkina Faso)
Authors: Sylvie Ayimpam; Aubervilliers, France
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
This paper analyses the complexity of regulating the activities of small traders at the Grand Marché in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Markets in Africa are places where small-scale trading takes place par excellence, and the traders who work there are generally considered to be self-employed. The plurality of regulations governing commercial activity observed there seems to be particularly conducive to such an analysis. We examine these complexities within the theoretical framework of “social regulation” as well as that of “normative pluralism,” which encompasses both official and practical norms. We show that the work of traders is regulated both by norms issued by the Régie Autonome de Gestion des Équipements Marchands (Independent Management Board for Commercial Facilities) – an official structure – and by traders’ own practical norms, which have both collective and individual aspects to them. The complexities of the relationship between these official and practical norms lie in the fact that sometimes they are not always articulated and may both co-exist and contradict each other.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-11-04T07:10:15Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241291585
- Introduction: Studying Work Regulation Processes Beyond the
Formal/Informal Divide
Authors: Benjamin Rubbers; Universite de Liege, Liège, Belgium
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
This introduction provides an outline of what an approach to work regulation processes beyond the formal/informal divide might look like. The first section briefly reviews the different approaches to informal economies that have been developed since the early 1970s. The second section takes a step back from this literature to draw attention to the intellectual and political weaknesses of the concept of informal economy. Building on this critique, the third section proposes avenues for studying work regulation processes beyond the formal/informal divide. To conclude, the fourth section highlights the contributions that the articles of this special issue bring to the analysis of work regulation and labour dynamics in Africa.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-10-25T06:51:27Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241290255
- Towards a Critical Decolonial Turn/Theory: Beyond the Binary of the West
Versus Africa
Authors: Richard Fosu; International Relations, 2541Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
As writing on decolonisation in African Studies has surged, efforts to avoid the concept becoming a mere metaphor, bandwagon, ideological trope, or mantra have grown, with scholars emphasising decolonial theory's ongoing relevance to the emancipation of formerly colonised Africans. This essay argues that to achieve its emancipatory goals, decolonial theory and intended praxes must re-centre the everyday realities of African societies. Recentring Africans is needed to move beyond Global North versus Africa as the ontological site for decolonisation. Recentring African societies has important epistemological and methodological implications for recentring African agency to make the decolonial project less reactionary and more proactive. I propose “post-independence” as an approach to decolonisation that offers descriptive and prescriptive means to locate the (im)material responsibilities of Africans in recentring their history. Post-independence allows a reimagining of how to undo the effects of colonialism by presenting colonialism as an episodic moment in Africa's long history.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-10-15T07:36:13Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241285042
- Governing Labour Relations Despite the Law: The Routine of Labour
Inspection (Dakar)
Authors: Sidy Cissokho; 27023Université de Lille, Lille, France
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
This article is based on a series of observations made in the offices of the Dakar Labour Inspectorate between 2020 and 2023 and describes how labour is regulated by the inspection agents. The recent developments in the Labour Code deprived the department of virtually all its sanction powers, and the authority of labour inspectors depends on their ability to maintain people's belief in their power rather on than their actual powers of punishment. The work of inspection agents is a function of the law, of course, but it is also the product of the dynamics of the interactions among these agents, workers and employers. This is the only way the state can hope to impose its authority on the heart of labour relations.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-10-15T07:35:34Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241277212
- Against Climate Aid Colonialism: The Case for Climate Reparations and
South-South Solidarity
Authors: Nick Malherbe, Abiodun Omotayo Oladejo; Abiodun Omotayo Oladejo
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Legacies of colonial rule, continuing neocolonial extraction, and excessive carbon dumping have meant that the majority of those living in the Global South experience many of the consequences of climate change more acutely than those in the Global North. As such, several countries in the Global North have committed to providing climate aid to decarbonise and reverse the alarming climate trajectory in the Global South. Yet, climate aid by and large discounts the internal competencies and resources within the Global South and aligns climate policies with neoliberal market agendas. In arguing against what has been called climate aid colonialism, we advocate for South-South solidarity and climate reparations, wherein climate justice articulated and advanced at the grassroots level from within the Global South is attuned to the socio-political requirements of decolonisation. Together, climate reparations and South-South solidarity can address the structures of coloniality that drive both climate change and climate aid.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-10-13T10:39:00Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241285040
- Book Review: India’s Development Diplomacy and Soft Power in Africa by
King Kenneth and Meera Venkatachalam
Authors: Manish Karmwar, Abhinav; Abhinav
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-09-24T07:08:48Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241280988
- Local Aspirants and Politicised Chieftaincy Disputes: Evidence from
Northern Ghana
Authors: Xiran Chen; Technology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Why do politicians intervene in some chieftaincy succession disputes but not others' The key actors and their motivations in these processes remain understudied. In this article I leverage a comparative analysis of two similar chieftaincy disputes in Ghana's Upper West Region, and develop inductively a theory of local aspirants – political actors with dual memberships in chieftaincy and politics. I find that local aspirants from disputing factions that seek to change the status quo of the dispute have particular interests in politicising the chieftaincy disputes. These findings contribute to our knowledge about how chieftaincy disputes become politicised, by emphasising the roles played by politicians embedded in chieftaincy.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-09-24T07:08:18Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241271303
- Book Review: Disability is not Inability: A Quest for Inclusion and
Participation of People with Disability by James N. Amanze, and Fidelis
Nkomazana
Authors: Philipp Öhlmann; Berlin, GermanyUniversity of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-08-30T10:56:00Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241272222
- Baleinières’ Riverine Environment and the Materiality of Transport
Regulation on Congo's Inland Waterways
Authors: Peter Lambertz; Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Encouraged by a crippling road infrastructure and the proliferation of Chinese low-tech engines, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo)'s baleinières have reappropriated and significantly increased the potential of DR Congo's inland waterways by democratising and tacitly decolonising the national river transportation. Given their role in the country's food security, and in the face of frequent accidents, effective regulation is requested by some as a salvatory necessity. Baleinières’ origins in the local rural economy and their clever recourse to artisanal rather than hard infrastructure make regulation difficult, however. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on and around the DR Congo's waterways, this article explores attempts and challenges to regulate medium-scale river transportation between the rural and the urban. Looked at from within the same analytical frame enabled by ethnography, governmental, and economic actors jointly emerge and condition each other's work and ethics. This challenges the conceptual binary of a putatively formalising state vs. a putatively evasive informal economy.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-08-28T01:50:11Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241272221
- Book Review: Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move
by Nyabola, Nanjala
Authors: Joanna Da Sylva; Cambridge, MA, USA
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-08-28T01:35:39Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241271206
- “Status,” Inter-Normativity, and Socio-Professional Differentiation
among Construction Workers in Douala, Cameroon
Authors: Ludovic Bakebek; 26658University of Liège, Liege, Belgium
Abstract: Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
Based on qualitative research conducted in the construction sector in Douala, Cameroon, this article analyses the contractual practices that underpin employment relationships between construction actors. The aim is to provide an account of the social dynamics that lead to the differentiation of employment conditions in the construction sector beyond the binary categorisations that set formal against informal in analyses of African labour markets. The central argument here is that, beyond formality, the relationship between stability/protection and uncertainty/precariousness is based on the category of status, defined as the “perceived quality” of workers. Employment relationships based on status are organised through interrelated legal, social, and moral norms (inter-normativity) that contribute to differentiating socio-professional experiences. This is illustrated through a series of case studies, ranging from the salaried segment of the construction sector to the large market of auto-construction dominated by micro-entrepreneurs.
Citation: Africa Spectrum
PubDate: 2024-08-23T07:14:16Z
DOI: 10.1177/00020397241272223
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