Abstracts Q-Z Home | Welcome | Sponsors | Schedule | Panelists Handbook | Abstracts and Bios | Contact Us |
|
Abstracts by Name Panelist
|
Welcome to the Abstracts section! Click on the letter range to find the panelist's abstract. Qualitative Methodologies in Sub-Saharan Africa: Greater Participation, Greater The aim of this paper is to understand how using grounded theory, a qualitative mixed methodology can seek to empower rural African communities and how their involvement can encourage community development and grassroots mobilization. Using methods such as focus groups, personal stories, livelihood surveys and community mapping, gives both host and refugee participants a personal element as part of a research project and facilitates the notion of sustainability and personal empowerment. The Gambia has hosted Casamance refugees fleeing from a low-level civil conflict in the Southern region of Senegal for nearly 30 years. It is West Africa’s longest running civil conflict. Official registration figures (although ambiguous) confirm 7,546 Casamance refugees are permanently self-settled within 56 local Gambian communities with no desire for repatriation. This situation is unusual given that refugees are self-settled instead of being relocated into refugee camps. Current literature on local integration aims to investigate and evaluate the effects of refugees living within refugee camps but utilizing and sharing resources with local communities. Rarely does this literature seek to investigate the local integration of self-settlement and how hosts and refugees implement and sustain integration. The paper will outline the following: the unusual nature of self-settled refugee situations and how they too can create empowerment within rural African societies; specific qualitative methods used and how they were perceived and implemented by local communities; the ethical limitations of conducting mixed-method research and the role of positionality; the baggage of humanitarian aid and colonialism and how this can limit empowerment and create dependency; and the importance of sharing outcomes and results with communities after a project has concluded to promote future participation and empowerment.
The 1952 Lagos Convict Prison Riot: A Case of Prisoners’ Unruly Behaviour or Management Incompetence? For two days in April 1952, prisoners at the Lagos Convict Prison rioted and in the process did damage to lives and property. The colonial government in Nigeria consequently instituted an inquiry into the riots. In its report, which the government accepted, the panel contended that the incident that heralded the riots on April 16 was ‘a symptom of the state of temper and of indiscipline’ of the prisoners. Adding that ‘a settled intention [had] existed among some prisoners to cause trouble’ prior to that incident because they ‘were growing contemptuous of prison authority.’ This paper relies on the submissions by the authorities of the prison and the prisoners to assess the findings of the panel.
I am the Answer The footprint of colonialism still looms large on the African continent and therefore remains deeply embedded in the psyche of the African. The false sense of dependency on people of European descent, outmoded customs and traditions, lack of information, jealousy, arrogance and the pernicious, overt feeling of subjection are the core challenges for the ordinary African today. Their present dilemma has uncanny parallels and could plausibly be tied to the continued struggle for social and economic justice for the African descended American. Having knowledge of others is considered to be a desirable characteristic of a learned person but having knowledge of self is far more elusive for people of African descent. Yet knowledge of self is the most powerful, effective, untried weapon of choice to combat the perils that the continent struggles with today. Understanding both the mindset and untenable position of the African, healing the wounds inherited by our ancestors requires a simple, thoughtful approach: Restore the African family first, (via genealogy and DNA) and then allow the work of self-empowerment guide the relationships going forward. Our ancestors fought, prayed and died for the reconciliation that both time and technology has partially helped us to answer. The balance of which lingers in the Diaspora: I am the Answer. Empowering people to believe, dream, laugh and love again comes by example; perhaps with some instruction. Whatever the pedagogy, the stars are brilliantly aligned to move ahead.
Proliferation of Non Governmental Organizations in Ghana: A Façade of Altruism The formation of non-governmental organizations in Ghana has been on the upsurge in recent times. This research work premises that the establishment of such organizations is mainly motivated by personal interests contrary to humanitarian reasons. Formation of Non Governmental Organizations has become a top bracket business in Ghana. These organizations receive enormous amount of funds to sponsor their projects but hardly use the funds for its purpose. The worst of these organizations are those who manage micro credit programmes but are actually making profit out of it. There is also duplication of work as seen in the activities of some these organizations. About 60 percent of those based in Accra are engaged in Aids awareness creation. Wouldn’t it be appropriate for some of them to focus on other poverty related issues? The paper begins with a historical and current development of Non-governmental organizations in Ghana. An attempt is then made to analyze how the activities of these organizations conflict with their intended purposes.
"No Sisterhood here: Female Anthropologists, Male Informants, and Silenced Mamas"" Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) was somewhat unusual during the colonial period because the two major colonial anthropologists were women. Audrey Richards wrote extensively on the Bemba and published a book on cisungu, Bemba female initiation. While she conceded that men were not allowed to witness cisungu, her main informants were male. Elizabeth Colson arrived towards the end of colonialism and studied the Ba-Tonga, the matrilineal people of southern Zambia, for the next four decades. Colson ignored the central role of women within the Ba Tonga society and concentrated only on male roles. Jane Parpart could write about patriarchy in the very matrilineal pre-colonial Northern Rhodesia and the power of male elders, without showing any evidence of pre-colonial male dominance. And more recently Kate Crehan gave a Gramsci analysis of male dominance in the Kaonde society of northwestern Zambia, while using only male research assistants. All of these scholars are women and according to western feminism should have found “sisterhood’ with the Zambian women they studied, but in reality all chose to have male informants and write about the secondary role of women within each of these societies. This paper will not only look at the problems with these female scholars’ analyses/ observations, but also the ideological impediments to their understanding of the crucial roles women played in these societies. Powerful women were in front of their faces, but they did not see them.
The Besieged Continent: Interrogating Contemporary Issues of Corruption and Poverty in Africa Theories have been advanced on the depressing litany of problems in Africa. Conflict ridden, wars, leadership failures, corruption, colonialism, climatic changes leading to droughts and famines besieges the continent leading to an entrapment of endemic poverty. It is said that in the last fifty years Africa is the only continent left out of the global rise in prosperity and transformation. The question is why? What went wrong with Africa? This paper offers a critique of the dominant paradigms often used to explain the roots of poverty in Africa. It argues with compelling evidence that corruption and corruptive practices pervading the basic fabric of African societies constitute the common and fundamental denominators in the impoverishment of Africans.
Creating Poor Citizens: Stunted Land Reforms, “Protecting” the Environment, and the Squatter Problem in Modern Kenya This paper seeks to demonstrate how stalled reform in land in Kenya after 1963 has largely contributed to the perpetuation of dispossessed and poor rural peasantry. The most visible outcome of this stalled development is the presence of a large number of squatters inhabiting “public”—government— and private land with no rights of ownership. The paper identifies the cause of this development as being national politics of accumulation that has led to unequal distribution of land to the disadvantage of the poor sections of the rural population. However, this has been enhanced by an environmentalist dimension to national development, whereby the conservation rhetoric has been adopted by both government and some civic institutions to reinforce the dispossession of the squatters. That is, the need to safeguard “fragile” environments such as national water catchment sites has increased the conflict between the government and squatters living in those sites. With no tangible land reforms, and with the international conservationist movement reinforcing the need to protect local environmental sites such as water catchment areas that have regional or international ramifications, the squatter problem is set to remain as a major problem in Kenya’s long history of troubled land relations. Squatter problem in Kenya manifests the failure of development in postcolonial Africa due to lack of social and economic equity. Efforts to modernize such development through environmental conservation have not cured, but failed to abate landlessness and poverty.
Coming of Age in Poverty in South Africa: The Poetry of Don Mattera’s Sophiatown (1989) Between 1955 and 2006, the names Sophiatown and Triomf had been used interchangeably for the Johannesburg suburb that evoked, in the words of Bernard Magubane, “memories of a vibrant, creative, multi-cultural community, a place where artists, writers, and musicians flourished against the odds in an atmosphere of racial tolerance.” An obstacle “in the path of apartheid,” the suburb was bulldozed into oblivion between 1955 and 1963 and the original residents forcibly removed by the government’s Group Areas Act (1950). The poet and political activist Don Mattera’s Sophiatown: Coming of Age in South Africa (1989) vividly remembers “the crucial events of the 1950’s in Sophiatown.” A self-proclaimed tsotsi (thug) and former leader of the Vultures, a gang that terrorized “the embattled and besieged streets of Sophiatown,” Mattera’s memoir of growing up in poverty and under apartheid recalls that Sophiatown throbbed and heaved like a nymph craving love, drawing me ever deeper and closer to her body from where I heard the laughter and cries of a people bound and shackled by the ancient monster called fear; where I watched my own family fall to pieces, where men and women – politicians and policemen, priests and sinners – loved and hated with such intensity that I believed God, the Catholic God I knew and feared, had forsaken Sophia town, and had forsaken and cursed my family. My paper will look at the effects poverty had on Don Mattera and his fellow tsotsis as they roamed the “deplorable, sickening slum” of Sophia town, and also the “metamorphosis”–encouraged by both Father Trevor Huddleston, the anti-apartheid campaigner, and Robert Reisha, the founder of the armed wing of the African National Congress – which helped Mattera and his friends redirect their “frustrations into political activity.”
Evolvement of Civil Society for Development: Lessons from South Korea’s Development This paper the evolvement of civil society in development field and also illustrates the contribution of civil society towards development. Also, the paper aims to indicate the mechanisms for civil society’s engagement with development, especially in government and non-government sectors. To see the evolvement and mechanism of civil society’s participation in development, this paper will conduct in-depth research on theoretical approaches and use Korea as a case study. In addition, the paper will ask the following questions; what are the theoretical frameworks for civil society’s engagement in development? How did domestic elements and international conditions allow for the evolvement of the civil society in South Korea? Based on the analysis, this paper will draw lessons for African countries to empower the civil society for development.
Reducing Poverty and Eliminating Hunger in Africa: The Role of Leaders, Policy Makers and Academia To some, it is extremely surprising that Africa is the second largest continent in the world with numerous natural resources yet majority of its populace live in abject poverty. On one hand is the school of thought that recounts the bitter impact that the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism brought on the beautiful and resourceful continent. On the other hand is the school of thought that position African leaders as the cause of Africa’s predicaments as many of them are even richer than their country. This paper examines the role of leaders and policy makers in turning the African continent from poverty to prosperity. The paper also looks at our educational system and how it can be structured to meet current standards. In the view to restructure our educational system, the paper dives into how politicians in Africa politicize education in their campaign promises to either change or maintain the system and the effects of these policies in welcoming poverty and hunger on the innocent African. I conclude the paper by evaluating how resourceful Africa can be if well empowered through industrialization of the agricultural sector, education, unity and democracy in governance which results in critical policy formulation free from politics thereby making Africa poverty free.
Micro-Financing as a Strategy for Poverty Reduction in Nigeria Poverty is a major problem that manifests in both the developed and developing nations. This paper assesses the use of micro financing as a strategy towards the reduction of poverty in Nigeria. The paper utilizes both primary and secondary data, and t-test and regression were used in the analysis. It was found that the use micro financing as a strategy in poverty reduction is a good initiative except that there are weaknesses in the system that need to be tackled in order to enhance the productivity of the strategy. The following challenges such as inadequate funding, failure of good corporate governance as well as lack of appropriate skills on the part of the operators hinder the successful operation of the strategy. It is the recommendation of the paper that there is the need to straighten the oversight function of the regulatory agency on the operation of the operators of the microfinance.
Globalization and the Curse of Poverty in Resource Rich Communities: Experiences from Bia District of Western Ghana Globalization is an umbrella term that defies an exact definition, hence, it may be better described than defined. Essentially, it is possible to isolate the general features of globalization as reflecting an ongoing process of greater interdependence among countries and their citizens which is evidenced by the integration of common economies, societies and cultures through a globe-spanning network of communication and execution (Fischer,2003). The core issue of common markets and interdependent states produce significant challenges through alterations in the economies and shifts in the socio-cultural dynamics of less developed countries as they become marginalized in an unequal and unfair international trade system (Annan, 2006). This paper examines the assumption that the unfair economic order in globalization has altered the thriving and purposeful indigenous development of Bia District of Western Ghana into a poverty stricken community which has come to depend on other societies for basic goods and services in an unhealthy exchange of primary products. Thus, the paper seeks to interrogate whether the production of gold, timber and cocoa in this area has produced unnecessary conflict and led to the depletion of land.
Between the Sublime and the Subliminal: Economic Modernity, Desire and Political Fictions in Cameroon Scholars such as Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic of Capitalism argue that a society values also shape its economic system. This paper analyzes the link between politics and economy in Cameroon. It claims that economic practices in this country are enveloped within political relationship, social interaction and cultural representation that work to legitimize mechanism of political, social and economic exclusion. It pays a close attention to Brian Larkin’s notion of “colonial sublime” (2008) to analyze a genealogy of repressive power in Cameroon. It focuses on Paul Biya’s particular brand of providential presidentialism with reinforced power with a particular attention to its re-appropriation of the colonial sublime (2008) which is the combination between the patrimonialization of public services intersecting with a powerful telecracy and a monopolistic idolatry of the president to unify and centralize attention to power. Thus, to reform the economic system also requires a profound cultural and political critique of Cameroonian society. Therefore, a vibrant economy is impossible without a real work of decolonization. Ubuntu, not Ubantu: Persistent Tribal Ethnographies and the essential Bantu The history of Portuguese and other European imaginings, distant information sources, and changing economic strategies in the context of the Atlantic Slave Trade created the philology, ethnography and tribal mappings that persist in the minds of American students, despite scholarship that together reflects a far more sophisticated understanding of Africans in the past initiating transformations in individual and community identity. The construction of a modern Ubuntu international community is perhaps the most recent example of the latter process. Still American youth miss the innovation and power in Ubuntu as they are inspired, misinterpreting the movement through worn but enduring colonial frames as persistent African "tradition." This paper will explore the conceptual historical origins of Ubuntu in contrast with the conceptual historical origins of the essential Bantu in the American mind.
Escaping the Resource Curse: Ethnic Inclusion in Resource-Rich States Natural resources have been associated with a series of social and political ills, including high corruption, lack of democracy, and economic underdevelopment. Moreover, a number of recent studies have also suggested a causal link between natural resources and the occurrence of civil violence. However, these studies have not paid sufficient attention to the political management of resource wealth. In particular, ethnic conflicts can be seen as the result of a struggle between different ethnic groups over access to the state and its resources. Natural resources, such as oil, precious metals etc., are thus key benefits of the state to which the ethno-political competitors try to gain access. The risk of ethnic conflict in resource-rich countries should there-fore increase if significant groups are excluded from power but decrease if all relevant groups are included in government. The paper tests this argument in a quantitative study of West Africa – a region often associated with resource-driven conflicts – from 1960 to 2009. Using novel data, de-rived from the U.S. Geological Survey, on yearly resource production, the results confirm the positive relationship between resource wealth and ethnic conflict risk. However, they also clearly support the theoretical argument. Ethnic power-sharing significantly decreases conflict risk. Moreover, it mediates the effect of resource production: Only where relevant ethnic groups are shut out from political power, natural resources increase the risk of ethnic conflict. Thus, the paper highlights the political possibilities of escaping the resource curse.
Somalia’s Terrorist Shabab: The Global Political Economy of Impoverishment and Disempowerment Mainstream media pay attention to Somalia as either a location in the global war on terrorism or as a human rights catastrophe. Within Somalia, al Shabab is the prime target of the U.S. inspired war on terrorism. It is also portrayed as a destabilizing and chaotic force that wages war against the US and its allies, prevents the international community from providing aid to starving Somalis, swears allegiance to al Qaeda, and is simultaneously connected to the surge of pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean. A more critical analysis of Somalia’s Shabab reveals that international aid agencies play a significant role in the impoverishment and disempowerment of both the state and the people of Somalia. Al Shabab’s conflictual relationship with aid agencies of nearly all stripes is portrayed as nearly pathological in almost all press coverage. Given this ideologically driven media coverage and US policy surrounding the Shabab, this project uses a critical hermeneutical methodology to analyze the political economy of the global response to al Shabab. This paper argues that Somalia is actually productive for capital as a conflict zone. In addition, this essay argues that international aid agencies and foundations undermine attempts at Somali independence. Under the guise of creating global political and economic security, the nation and the people of Somalia are being brought to heel. Finally, this essay critically analyzes the Shabab in a global context and concludes that it offers Somalis, albeit violent, resistance to the homogenizing forces of imperial globalism.
Politics of Foreign Financing and Development in Zambia: Zambia’s Beneficence Post independence, Zambia had great potential due to a vast richness in resources greatly sought after by the international community. In particular, this new nation had access to one of the world’s largest copper supplies, the means to extract it, and the means to make it available to global powers. Furthermore, international economic conditions were very conducive to the profitable sale of this resource. Only a decade after independence, the price of copper plummeted and the Zambian economy fell in turn. Since then, the government of Zambia has sought numerous foreign development loans and other types of investments from a number of countries. In particular, the IMF, the World Bank, and China have funneled billions of dollars worth of investments into the country. The country still remained one of the most impoverished nations in world. During the Cold War Era each of the aforementioned investors dominated Zambian foreign financing at different points in time. However, in recent years there seems to be a significant overlap in involvement. In the post Cold War era, multiple actors seem to have their stakes placed in similar industries, at the same time. International financial reviews have also indicated that Zambia’s economic condition may be finally turning around as the World Bank places it outside of the ranks of the world’s twenty poorest countries. My research will evaluate these recent developments. The first part of the paper describes the historical context that has placed Zambia where it is today. The second part details the recent involvement of the U.S., the IMF, the World Bank, and China in Zambian sectors such as the copper, medical, and construction industries. In the third part, I will use these case studies to evaluate if Zambia has been able to play China off of the Western actors to secure more desirable investments, possibly shedding some light on recent economic upturns. Furthermore I will use field research in Zambia to enhance my evaluations, reflecting on the extent to which the on-the-ground conditions appear to mirror overarching economic conditions.
Understanding ART Supply Management: A Case Study of the Northwest Special Fund for Health With frequent disruptions in the supply of antiretroviral drugs, attention has turned from funding to efficiency in the fight against HIV/AIDS. From stock-outs to overstocks, poor management procedures have prevented patients from receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) in a timely manner, risking treatment failure and death for millions across Africa. This study addresses an omission in the literature base by examining the ART supply management system at one regional pharmaceutical center, the Northwest Special Fund for Health in Bamenda, Cameroon. Established in 1992, the Northwest Special Fund differs from other pharmaceutical centers in the country by using a fixed pricing policy to guarantee equal prices and services throughout the northwest region. Another unique feature of the Fund is its dialogue structure, which enables both educated staff and community representatives to manage health centers. This constant communication also serves as an “alert mechanism” against corruption. The research conducted for this study shows that the Special Fund system efficiently forecasted, stored, and managed antiretroviral drugs. Nearly all the supply disruptions were a result of the central government inefficiently forecasting and quantifying the number of antiretroviral drugs for the country. This study concludes that an increasingly homogeneous pharmaceutical system, modeled after the Special Fund and other successful supply management systems can mitigate inefficiency and corruption.
The Paradigm of a Pan-African Economic History In How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), Walter Rodney opened a long debate about the nature of development and the historical causes of poverty in Africa. Some of his arguments dealing with the impact of slave trade and colonial domination were then integrated in the political movements calling for debt cancellation and reparations to Africa. Inspired by the Latin American dependency theory, Rodney called on African countries to exit together from the imperialist world-system in order to build their own economic system, based on the control of their own resources, the choice of their economical partners and the control of the prices of their products. All this would result in a redefinition of development which would be very close to the definition of independence, that is to say the sovereign political control of one’s territory and resources by its inhabitants or through legal representatives. Economists like Samir Amin and political activists like Aminata Traore kept defending this alternative to the capitalist crisis and the neo-colonial situation of many African countries. This paper aims to discuss the issue of disintegration and integration of African economies in the regional and global system with two questions in mind: Which pan-African economic history may be written regarding to continental Africa? In the equation between independence and development, what about the transition from the liberation and independent movements to the liberalization of African economies?
Poverty, Underdevelopment and Small and Light Arms Proliferation: Challenge for National Security More than ever before, human race faces poverty, inequality which often manifests in illegal possession of small and light weight arms by people who are unauthorized. The lack of opportunity or skills to secure employment, the inability to pay for tuition fees lead to increase in small and light arms trafficking. Possession of illicit arms is assuming a dimension which is threatening the Nigeria’s national security. Today, the greatest danger facing the country today is the hiring of millions of unemployed youths by politicians. Balser (2000) submits that the number of people killed by small and light arms in Africa is more than the number killed by nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. This paper attempts to discuss the synergy between poverty, unemployment and arms proliferation and the implication for national security. The paper suggests panacea for solving the hydra head of poverty as a way of stemming the ugly trend in small and light weapons proliferation in Nigeria.
Poverty in an Oil Rich Country (ORC): The Nigerian Situation Unarguably, Nigeria is a wealthy nation. This paper therefore profiles and examines wealth and poverty in Nigeria. It establishes that since independence till date, Nigeria records positive and sustained growth rate in its total revenue accruing from oil and non-oil earnings (7th among the top 10 oil rich countries in the world) and yet the country is rated by United Nations Development Programme as the 27th destitute nation on earth; characterized by poor human, social and economic development indicators, with high poverty incidence as a consequence. The paper is of the view that corruption, inequality in income distribution, misallocation of public expenditure and the evidence of waste and mismanagement constitute the greatest impediment to the optimum utilization of the nation’s wealth in the fight against absolute poverty in the country. This paper therefore attempts a justification of this by profiling Nigeria’s oil revenue and examines the management of government finance (oil revenue) in Nigeria vis – a-vis the poverty situation in the country. To achieve these objectives, the paper estimated two models using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method and Bivariate Correlation analyses. The results reveal that oil revenue has negative and insignificant impact on poverty population; this is far below the expected result. This situation is attributed to the strong positive relationship between corruption (measured by Corruption Perception Index) and the oil revenue which is reflected via chain effect on the poverty incidence. The positive relationship shows that 51% of the oil revenue is lost to corruption and consequently, the poor performance of the oil revenue spending in addressing absolute poverty in the country. The paper therefore concludes by arguing that if these hindrances are not addressed, the incidence of poverty will continue to increase by 10%t every three years, otherwise an annual per capita growth of 5% would be required to significantly reduce absolute poverty in the country. To achieve this, the paper recommends that government should increase its expenditure on social services (health and education), legalized capital punishment as a severe approach to fight corruption, reduce the cost of fertilizer and increase its distribution and finally, set up a national welfare targeted at the poor.
|
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Africa Conference 2012: Poverty and Empowerment in Africa Convened by Dr. Toyin Falola and Coordinated by Sylvester Gundona and Tosin Funmi Abiodun for the Center for African and African American Studies Webmaster: Adam Paddock
|