31st AFSAAP conference
November 26 - 28 2008
Monash University
Building a common future: Africa and
Australasia
Fully refereed conference papers and
abstracts
Towards a
critical introduction to an Italian post-colonial literature
Ali
Mumin
Ahad,
School of Historical and European Studies, Italian Program, La Trobe University,
Melbourne
This paper will discuss how, in postcolonial Somalia, the categories and
concepts of the colonial period have been utilized and informed the political
environment. It is a postcolonial “writing back” effect, in terms of cultural
riposte and concept innovation.
During and after the colonial experience there has been a discursive failure,
and a literary failure, to produce a better description of the reality or
realities of those subjects who were once involved, in spite of themselves, in
the colonial experience. To establish a relationship between post-colonial
literature and colonial literature, right from the start, allows to go back to
the origins of this latter - that is, to colonial studies par excellence,
anthropology and history – disciplines that have played an important role
especially in literature. Where it develops subsequently as post-colonial
historiography, it continues to elaborate remorse and rarely becomes a valid
instrument for critical analysis of the present of the colonized societies.
The colonial
period means, for nearly all the countries of the Horn of Africa, a historic
opening out to wider cultural contacts. In the Horn of Africa, the Italian
presence, and Italy’s consequent cultural influence, certainly cannot be
circumscribed within the brief time-span of the duration of the former Italian
Empire, but extends before and after. In Eritrea and in Somalia, Italian, for a
long time the official administrative language, survives the end of colonialism.
Today, even if Italian is no longer the language of administration and
education, the Italian cultural heritage in Somalia is enormous and persistent.
Quantifying the Cost of African Brain Drain: An Economic Analysis of Diasporic
Remittance to Nigeria
Dr Chika Anyanwu,
Senior Lecturer, Discipline of Media, University of Adelaide, South Australia
Diaspora remittances,
migrant labour and brain drain are issues that have attracted many scholarly,
governmental and NGO policy debates, and research interests: Buch et al (2002);
Carling (2004);
Mutume
(2005);
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (2007); Mares (2005); Lucky (2007); Udogu (2005);
Balakrishnan (2007); Savina (2003);
Bester, de Koker and Hawthorne (2004);
Genesis (2003);
Mohammed (2005); Plaza (2007); Orrenius (2003); Tiemoko (2003); Sander
and Maimbo (2003); Isern, Donges and Smith (2006), and so many others. Many of
these debates have centred on the benefits of remittance
to homeland development. Even the World Bank reports of 2007 and 2008 implied
that as many people migrate from developing countries to Western countries, that
the remittances of such diasporic citizens, which have grown in excess of 240
Billion per annum, could be used as collateral to increase developing countries’
borrowing capacity. The importance of diaspora remittance became clearer when it
was discovered that since 2005, diaspora remittances have surpassed foreign aids
to developing nations.
While many
of the researches on remittance, including those listed above, have concentrated
on the benefits and costs of remittance to homeland, little has been done to
correlate remittance with intellectual
capital development in homeland economies. This research will use the 2007
Central Bank of Nigeria’s economic data on diasporic remittance to make a cost
benefit analysis of remittance on the nation’s intellectual capital development.
It is expected that the outcome of the analysis will give a better picture of
what the country and continent as whole, gains or loses as a result of brain
drain. This research data is also expected to trigger some practical soul
searching strategies for more sustainable developments and intellectual capital
management.
Dambudzo Marechera as shamanistic seer: How would Marechera
see the
Australia of today?
Jennifer Armstrong,
University of Western Australia
This paper will look at the particular mode of political criticism of late
Zimbabwean author, Dambudzo Marechera, which is in a shamanistic and prophetic
vein. It will review how he saw Britain and post-independence Zimbabwe and will
conclude by drawing together some ideas of what Marechera might have made of the
Australia today, especially in terms of its race relations and human rights
practices
Reconceptualising
Statelessness in Africa
Samantha Balaton-Chrimes,
Monash University
The UNHCR
defines a stateless person as “a person who is not considered as a national by
any State under the operation of its law” (1954 Convention relating to the
Status of Stateless persons, Article 1.1).
The very essence of
statelessness is deficiency, lack, or absence, specifically the absence of any
formal relationship to a state. Through their lack of citizenship,
stateless people are understood to be in an
undesirable and precarious condition, and particularly to be denied the
opportunity for meaningful political action in a national community. This
paper examines three conditions other than conventionally defined statelessness
which also fail to meet prescribed citizenship norms of rights and
responsibilities in relation to a state. These conditions are
refugee-ness, residence in a ‘weak’ or ‘failed’ state,
and residence in a rural area. To the extent that these three conditions share
in common exclusion from meaningful forums of state-centred political activity,
they point to the need to re-evaluate the descriptive and normative value of
citizenship and statelessness as political conditions in Africa.
Australia-Africa Education and Development Capability Alignment Strategy
Amadu Barrie,
Centrelink
This paper
aims to look at key areas considered “building blocks” of education and
development in his native country Sierra Leone in particular and Africa in
general.
Sierra Leone is a tiny West African nation that was engulfed in a decade-old
civil war between 1991 and 2002. Today, the country is a role model for
democracy and good governance, the envy of many African nations.
The author has
chosen this topic for his presentation because he believes that it is a
prerequisite for Sierra Leone to continue to maintain her post-war equilibrium
and uphold its hard won democracy. He feels strongly that Australia can play a
positive role in maintaining both short and long-term development initiatives
i.e. peace and stability through its involvement and engagement.
The key areas are:
(1)
Education & Information Communication Technology (ICT)
To bridge and
establish a robust development program that will ensure that Australia’s IT
maturity is disseminated in both the Government and Private sectors in Africa.
(2)
Government & International Relations (IR)
To establish a
conducive relationship where both nations can work together in various
development and nation building initiatives.
(3)
Tourism and culture
This is an
essential component of the overall strategy of creating a transparent
international relationship where there is an understanding of the diverse
cultures involved.
(4)
Business and Industry
This is a core
component that will ensure the continuity of a formidable relationship. It will
need to develop into a well established framework that will continuously support
the development of business and industrially related initiatives and projects.
(5)
Africans in the diaspora.
This will address
the need to conserve loyalty, domestic knowledge and local history that is
becoming scarce. Loyal Africans have had to give up ownership of assets,
relocate and start afresh in other nations due to political instability.
Strengthening community action on alcohol problems in South Africa and
Indigenous Australia - Dr Maggie Brady (ARC QEII Fellow, Centre for Aboriginal
Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, Canberra)
Despite their geographical distance from one another, South Africa and Australia
have much in common, including colonisation by European powers that displaced
and decimated the indigenous populations. Both countries established wine
industries early in their history and today have strong markets for these
products. And both countries are now dealing with alcohol problems among
indigenous and historically disadvantaged groups – problems that have developed
over many decades. This paper examines the legacy of previous alcohol control
policies, and the present day cross-fertilisation of harm reduction initiatives
between South Africa and Australia
Systematic repression and rampant human rights abuses against the Oromo People
in Ethiopia
Tarekegn Chimdi, Monash University, Clayton campus
The Oromo people are the majority and single national group in Ethiopia,
accounting for about 35 million (40%) of 75 million population. Their political,
economical social and cultural life in the Ethiopian empire assert,
discrimination and marginalisation due to colonization of their
country, Oromia ,by the Abyssinians at the end of 19th century.
Millions of citizens decimated, their egalitarian democratic institution of
governance the Gada system; their cultural traditions and language were banned;
their means of subsistence, land was confiscated and as a result forced to
slavery and servitude.
Since this regime came to power in 1991, serious systematic repression and
pervasive human rights abuses against the Oromo people has been reported. They
encountered rampant human rights abuses, absurd relocation and eviction from
their lands, experimented with unplanned resettlement schemes in hostile
environments, face abysmal poverty and contamination of epidemic diseases. In
general, people are being terrorized by federal police working-hand-in
glove with local officials and militias. Such crackdown on citizens from
all walks of life is a day to day activity in Oromia, including children as
young as 11. The government routinely subjects its critics to harassment,
extrajudicial killings, imprisonment and torture. A human rights group “ Society
for Threatened Peoples” once described the situation as “If
intellectuals, students, teachers, journalists, aid agency workers, artists,
human rights activists and peasant farmers are subjected to human rights abuses
solely on the basis of their origin, then the Ethiopian authorities are guilty
of racism”.
Anthropology,
colonialism and modernity: Max Gluckman’s vision of southern African society,
1939-1945
Dr Paul Cocks, Loyola College, Victoria
While there is some debate in contemporary
anthropology on whether there is a need for anthropology to engage with social
theory about the nature of modernity, this debate ignores such an engagement by
anthropologists in colonial southern Africa. This paper focuses on the work of
Max Gluckman in Zambia. By focusing only not only his published work but also
his attempts at ‘applied anthropology’ such as land tenure reform and reforming
African administration, I demonstrate that his central concern was to develop
the vision of the ‘common society’ articulated by W.M. Macmillan. Gluckman’s
achievement in his South African research was to address the reality of
difference posed by segregationist discourse, and then marginalise it by using
his data to demonstrate the existence of a far–reaching interdependence and
integration of all members of South Africa’s peoples into a ‘single social
system’ or ‘common society’. However, during his Northern Rhodesian research,
Gluckman went beyond this by using the comparative method to further investigate
the different ways that socio–economic groups were being integrated into the
world economy
Attitudes towards language and speech communities in Senegal: a
cross-attitudinal study
Dr Ibrahima Diallo, Lecturer, University of South Australia
Senegal is a multilingual country with several ethnic communities and a
defendable social tolerance over many years. Most official government figures
list around 25 community languages in the country. Of these, the Wolof community
is the largest (42.7%) and its native language, Wolof, is spoken by more than
80% of the population and is the lingua franca in most parts of the country.
However, fieldwork conducted in Senegal and based on a cross sectional study of
the population reveals perceptible signs of the corrosion of the attitudes of
Senegalese people towards the major speech community. For example, on questions
on the attitudes towards learning the language, 51% of the respondents (N=404)
mentioned they do not think of learning to read and write the Wolof language,
56% said they have never made any effort to learn to read and write the
language, and 46% indicated they would not attend if free Wolof classes were
offered. On questions on the attitudes towards the Wolof speech community, 27%
answered that the community is dishonest, 38% described the community as
insincere, and 43% stated that the Wolof community is unreliable. Based on a
battery of attitudinal questions, the paper examines the attitudes towards
speech communities in Senegal, namely the Wolof language and the Wolof speech
community and draws comparisons with the attitudes towards the others
communities (mother tongues), French (the colonial language), and English (the
global language). The paper argues that language policy and planning in Senegal
should focus on fostering positive attitudes towards Wolof communities in order
to promote social cohesion and meet the language needs of the Senegalese people.
The labour economy of Equatorial Africa upon arrival of European colonialism
Matthew Doherty, LaTrobe University
My paper looks at evidence, drawn from missionary
archives and elsewhere, on the labour economy of Central Africa at the time of
European colonial penetration. Specifically I address the methods of production
not directly shaped by the forces of imperialism that were commonly involved in
the daily lives of Congolese in the late 19th century. I try to build
a picture of the economic and social roles and activities of the local
population engaged in a mixed subsistence economy. The peoples of the
Lopori-Maringa basin practised a number of shifting or overlapping occupations.
The notion of enduring vocation was largely unknown with the distribution of
labour and other key roles commonly reliant, per local custom, on questions of
age and gender. The concept of authority in its social aspect within the village
is not directly addressed here. The key reality for Congolese was the prime
necessity of food production. Accordingly farming and fishing activities were
fundamental, and the elaborate systems and social relations are described and
analysed. Hunting and gathering was very prominent. Crafts, including baskets,
drums and ornamentation were common. Metal-working was greatly important, with
the blacksmith’s workshop usually occupying a central part of the village. This
then allowed access to the trade in prestige goods, metal-work (including
copper) providing the most desirable items in the at-times lively river trade on
the Upper Congo. Few populations found themselves a great distance from a
navigable waterway. This was but one way in which the climate and geography of
equatorial Africa shaped the daily lives of Congolese in the 19th
century.
Indio- African Relations: Chinese Factor and Indian
Responses
Ajay Dubey, African Studies Association of India
India Africa Forum Summit in April, 2008 emphasised India’s competitive edge
over traditional European and new Asian powers in the recent race to engage
Africa. The new rush to Africa is not just for its economic resources but also
for its growing political importance under African Union. Indian claims its
advantage lies in its old, shared and negotiated relations with African
countries. This relationship is multi dimensional and grew by accommodating the
sensitivities and interests of each other. The key to understand India’s
strength in its Africa policy and its acceptability in Africa is to understand
as how it evolved and negotiated its multi pronged Africa policy and how it
successively positioned itself since early 1950s vis-a-vis traditional
powers and its Asian competitors.
During pre- colonial period Indian traders were present in the Eastern cost of
Africa and there was a sizable presence of African diasporas along the Western
coast of India. The common subjugation of India and Africa to colonial rule gave
common experiences and legacies. It also led to massive movement of Indian
indentured workers to African territories to replace slave workers and to serve
other colonial needs like railway construction in East Africa or as soldiers in
other regions of Africa. Resistance and fight against colonial and racial
domination brought them together. South Africa converted barrister Mohan Das K
Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi, who led Indian freedom struggle. African freedom
fighters and political formations modelled themselves after Indian National
Congress. Gandhi and Nehru became their heroes. After India’s independence,
decolonisation and anti- racialism became the key rallying point for India and
Africa. Nehru took a very unpopular decision at home to actively dissociate
India from Indian diasporas in Africa and other countries. He wanted to give
comfort to natives, to contrast India’s policy from colonialist policies in
Rhodesia and South Africa and to make its diasporas integrated with the locals.
With all these good relations, India tried to promote Afro- Asian resurgence and
NAM which India was leading. But Indo- Chinese war of 1962 demonstrated that the
material support of China had an edge over India’s ideological and principled
support to Africa. During mid- 60s India restructured its policies to recover
its lost ground in Africa. It started new policies under ITEC, South-South
cooperation and Collective Self Reliance. Through these developmental
initiatives, India regained its vibrancy in Africa. In the process it also
realised that Africa is diverse, it is a continent and it cannot be treated like
one country. It had to focus on its friends in Africa. As a policy it remained
cautious of African sensitivities and came out with policies to avoid a new
pecking order that was developing in Indo-African economic engagement under the
umbrella of South-South cooperation.
Both India and Africa witnessed privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation
during 1990s. The rapid economic growth of India, under private sectors and
under the framework of globalisation, threw new challenges to Indo African
relations. Priorities and drivers of India’s foreign policies changed. Multi
nationals from India started operating in Africa. Under its larger imperative,
Africa again became important for energy hungry and fast growing Indian economy.
India needs energy and mineral resources from Africa. Beside this, with its
growing profile, India is seeking change in institutions of global governance
like Security Council. India does not have the strength like veto power in UN or
massive financial surplus as other competing suitors for Africa have. India,
therefore, intends to build on its historical goodwill and presence of over 2
million settled Indian diasporas to boost its new economic and political
initiatives in Africa. Given the history of China being a major factor for
Indian interest in Africa and alarmingly growing clout of China in Africa, India
is repositioning its interactions and policies for Africa. Can the historical
goodwill be translated for economic gain? And will African countries repeat the
history by opting for hard support of China ignoring softer and ideology linked
offers from India? In other words, are the historical goodwill and cultural
relations between India and Africa strong enough to give India an effective
competitive edge in Africa? The paper would examine whether India would have
taken same aggressive proactive policies towards Africa if China factor was not
dominant in Africa.
African Community Representation
Issa Mohamud Farah, School of Historical
and European Studies, La Trobe University
African community representative organisations in Australia are too numerous to
list. The Somali community alone has over 50 community organisations registered
or deregistered here in Victoria. The Sudanese, although recently arrived, are
close to achieving similar numbers and the Ethiopian and Eritreans; likewise
Horn of Africa communities are represented by over 100 community organisations.
All these organisations purport to work for the benefit of all their respective
national communities but when you scratch the surface you will find that they
really represent tribes, clans and sub-clans. It is unnecessary and
counterproductive to have so many organisations representing these communities.
They, and their nominal leaders, are disorganised, unable to work with each
other, and ultimately do more harm to their respective communities than good as
government service providers are increasingly confused and frustrated by an
inability to seek out and work with organisations that can help them get their
services into the communities.
It is the intention of this paper to explore and discuss the underlying issues
responsible for the high number of these organisations, their inability to work
with each other and how their leaders undermine and work against each other and
ultimately their own communities.
In addition, the paper will discuss how funding bodies and service providers are
also unwilling, frightened or reluctant to collectively talk or redress the
issues creating these problems. Funding bodies are aware of the division among
the African community organisations, but have tended to place this in a too hard
basket, preferring to continue operating in a context that is acknowledged as
being unsatisfactory.
This paper, while looking broadly at African communities in Victoria, will
concentrate on the Somali community in Australia as they are one of the largest
black African communities in Australia.
Ultimately this paper will present recommendations and approaches that can be
followed in order to overcome the problems faced by these communities so they
can have better integration to the mainstream communities in Australia.
South African social innovation and community development – strategies and
perspectives for Australia?
Anthea Fawcett, Director, Southern Exchange
For many
Australians, the 2008 apology to the stolen generations and Australia’s first
peoples was cause for celebration, relief and an ‘opening’ of hearts. A re-newed
spirit of reconciliation has been expressed, fostering new terrains of language
and action. These terrains call for more sensitively nuanced forms of social
innovation and cooperation. The National Apology effectively lifted the
complacent veil on Australia’s first world status as it exposed the reality of
third world social and economic conditions in this country. From this
perspective, as Australians seek new forms of social innovation and
collaboration, attuned to the practical and psychical legacies of social
alienation and structural disadvantage, it is timely to turn our gaze ‘west’ to
South African leadership in social innovation and community development.
Now in the adolescence of democracy, some of South Africa’s greatest
achievements occur in the liminal spaces at the interface between first and
third world realities - where educators, social entrepreneurs, non-government
organisations, corporate social investment programs and communities work
together to redefine and tackle pressing social problems that affect
disadvantaged individuals and communities. Many of these problems resonate
strongly with difficulties faced by indigenous Australians in remote, rural and
urban Australia. This paper will review a number of strategies and programs
undertaken by leading South African community development practitioners who
respectively work in youth development, urban greening, nutrition and education.
Perspectives on participatory community development that may valuably contribute
to more sustainable social development initiatives in the Australian context
will be examined.
Australia-Ethiopia Relations: Intercountry Adoption Shaping Transnational
Affinity
Richard Gehrmann, Senior Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland
Each year
a small number of Ethiopian children are adopted into Australian families as a
result of a 1993 bilateral agreement negotiated between Ethiopia and Queensland.
This paper explores the role of the intercountry adoption process in developing
awareness of Ethiopia and of Africa within Australia. As a result of the
intercountry adoption process, Australians and their extended families who might
not otherwise relate to any one African country have developed a strong affinity
for Ethiopia, in some cases becoming passionate advocates. In conjunction with
the involvement of individual families in the cross cultural adoption process,
Australia-wide support groups have taken shape and grown, Ethiopian cultural
events are promoted, linkages with the expatriate Ethiopian community have been
initiated, Australians have traveled to Ethiopia, Australian politicians have
been lobbied, and business ventures have begun. As a small part of the global
intercountry adoption phenomena, Ethiopian-Australian children have unwittingly
become agents of change, and have given their adoptive parents a hybrid sense of
identity and affinity.
Climate
change and food security: predicted changes in nutritional quality of cassava
under future climate scenarios
Dr
Roslyn Gleadow, School of Biological Science, Monash University; Dr
Julie Cliff, Faculty of
Medicine, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Maputo, Mozambique
Significant problems facing the world today are global climate change and food
and energy shortages. Cassava (Manihot esculenta; manioc) is a staple
crop for over 750 million people, particularly in Africa, and its use is
increasing rapidly. Yet it contains high concentrations of compounds which break
down to release toxic cyanide when crushed or chewed. The amount of cyanide
eaten in cassava flour is reduced by various processing methods, but not
completely. Too much cyanide and insufficient protein in the diet can lead to
outbreaks of the paralytic disease konzo. Cyanide poisoning is debilitating and
can sometimes lead to death. If cassava is to continue to feed Africa a number
of important questions need to be addressed: Will cassava be safe to consume?
Will there be any interaction with fertiliser rates and drought? During drought
the amount of cyanide in cassava flour increases and epidemiological work done
by us has documented an increased incidence of cyanide toxicity, particularly in
children and pregnant women. Similar problems arise during times of social
unrest. Until now one of the certainties of the future world was that plant
growth would be enhanced with higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Recent research by us showed that cassava produces fewer and smaller tubers
under conditions that simulate future climate scenarios. In addition, the leaves
become more toxic. It is essential to consider such issues when attempting to
mitigate the effects of climate change.
Justice
for the Oromo People
Hailu Goche, RMIT University
The Oromos
are the largest ethno-national group in the Horn of Africa and constitute over
50% of the current Ethiopian state population. Their homeland Oromia (Biyya
Oromo) borders Abyssinia in the north, Ogaden and Somalia in the East &
south-East, Sudan to the West and Kenya in the South. Despite having a
commanding lead in numbers and reside in areas rich of natural resources, they
were reduced to a minority in the political, economic and social structures of
the state.
The present geographical contour of the Ethiopian state came into existence at
the end of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. With the
introduction of guns to the area by Europeans, Menelik II managed to change the
balance of power in his favour and brought the areas inhabited and governed by
the Oromos and beyond under his imperial control. The period was marked as the
period when the then European powers (Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and
Italy) under the treaty of “the scramble for Africa” (1884/85) declared their
intention to colonize Africa in search for cheap human and material resources.
According to recent estimates, there are over 200,000 Oromo refugees around the
globe, of which around 100,000 resettled in Australia, USA and Canada. The
remaining 50% still languishing in the refugee camps in Djibouti, Kenya,
Somalia, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, and the Middle East.
This work is a brief introduction about the Oromo people, their relations with
the Ethiopian state and raises factors that contributed to the colonization of
them by the Ethiopian state for over the last 100 years. It also explores how
mistreatment and abuse in the hands of the Ethiopians have led to the birth of a
pan-Oromo (Oromoness) movement. It will also look at the emergence of Oromo
nationalism and the achievements gained and the internal and external
impediments facing them to free themselves from Ethiopian colonization.
World
Heritage: People or Places? Partnerships for the Integration of Natural and
Cultural Heritage in Australia and South Africa
Professor Lee
Godden, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne
The World Heritage Convention, adopted in 1972 offered legal protection for
natural and cultural heritage. In Australia, the convention assumed major
importance in early conservation movements. Australia has a relatively well
established World Heritage regime that includes internationally recognised areas
such as Kakadu National Park and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Most Australian
sites are the subject of varying co-management arrangements with Indigenous
Australians. Despite a sometimes turbulent history, Australia’s management of
its World Heritage areas is now regarded as a best practice paradigm.
In South Africa,
the experience with World Heritage areas is more recent, with the first World
Heritage site declared in 1999. Today, there are 8 World Heritage Sites in South
Africa. Though less extensive than regimes in Australia, the South African
program has been lauded as highly innovative in many of its policies and laws
for protected areas. In practice however, joint management of World Heritage
sites in South Africa has met with significant criticism, with many identifying
problems in establishing feasible co-management.
A key issue in both jurisdictions has been how to successfully integrate natural
and cultural heritage values into World Heritage management practices. This
article dissects this issue, to establish what effect, if any, this
nature/culture dichotomy has on the management of National Parks in Australia
and South Africa. Alongside this discussion, the necessary conditions for
genuine co-management regimes are identified, and their applicability in the
context of South Africa and Australia determined including the need to
acknowledge the continuing and complex interrelationship between environmental
and cultural significance.
Understanding the Causal Relationship between ARV Treatment Failure and
receiving a Temporary Disability Grant: A practical Study
Darren Gough, The Institute for Youth Development, South Africa
Horn of Africa small businesses in Victoria
Abdiwahid Hassan, School of Accounting and Finance, Victoria University
In the
past 10 years there has been a shift in Australian migration patterns with the
introduction of the Refugees & Humanitarian program which has included migrants
from the African continent, particularly the Horn of Africa which includes
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Sudan. Some of these migrants have
commenced their own small businesses in Western Suburbs of Melbourne
This paper report investigates those businesses operated by migrants from the
Horn of Africa and to document the experiences of the operators based on data
gathered from interviews with 24 small business operators. The paper will
report on the demographics of the businesses and their operators, motivations
for commencing the business, future ambitions, the problems they faced and their
access to business support facilities.
The study
found that most of African small businesses are micro-enterprise and are run
mainly by family members. Most of these businesses are in the areas of catering,
retailing and money transfer services and designed to serve the special needs of
African community members. The main motives of those businesses are to gain self
-employment or provide services for African customers to foster and meet their
socio-economic and cultural needs. The study found that the lack of awareness of
small business operators about the available support services and the service
providers have adversely affected to the performance of small businesses.
The findings provide useful information for those interested in supporting new
small businesses; particularly those businesses operated by persons with an
ethnic background and identify a number of problems that these small business
operators are facing.
Language, identity and settlement: Exploring language maintenance and
settlement issues among Sudanese refugees in regional Australia
Dr
Aniko Hatoss, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, University of Southern
Queensland
This paper
reports some preliminary findings of a 3-year project (2008-2010) funded by the
ARC Discovery Scheme. The project aims to develop a new theoretical model of
community-level language planning in the context of African refugee communities
in a regional Australian settlement. The study is focussed on the role various
languages play in the successful integration of the African refugee communities.
While English is the key to employment, education and social integration into
the wider Australian social fabric, African languages continue to play an
important role in maintaining strong ethnic, cultural and ethnolinguistic
identity as well as in maintaining strong social and support networks within the
refugee communities. The project outcomes provide insights for government bodies
in relation to the effects of their language intervention and the broader
resettlement programs. The preliminary findings presented here are based on a
survey conducted among secondary school Students of refugee background and 14
pilot interviews with 14 Sudanese families. The first half of the paper will
focus on the demographic background and policy background of settlement in
regional Australia. The second half of the paper presents the research method
and the preliminary findings.
National Identity and the Visual Arts
Professor Bernard Hoffert, Senior Associate Dean, Faculty of Art and Design,
Monash University
The visual
culture of South Africa has traditionally been rich and varied. During the 1970s
and ‘80s its international image was dominated by an art of resistance. In the
last decade this has given way to an increasingly diverse visual format as
greater social and political freedoms generate a more liberal approach to
contemporary art. Opportunities to express views on social and political issues
are no longer regarded as subversive and content which comments on gender,
health, sexuality and identity are emerging from a broad group of artists, where
both individual creativity and community involvement contribute to the aesthetic
output. Integral to this creative outpouring, as with most post colonial
countries, is the issue of national identity, a national perspective which
embraces the vast cultural resources of the indigenous and non indigenous
traditions and which can be seen, both internally and internationally, as the
image of South Africa. An essential aspect of this will be conveyed through the
arts, particularly visual culture. This paper considers issues of creativity and
identity for a multicultural community.
Digital
Disaster Recovery Planning for Sub-Saharan African Countries
A.
Aden Ibrahim, Somali Cultural
Civil
/ International war appears in many international newspapers almost daily. Most
of those civil/international wars are in Africa.
Why has Africa had so much civil/international war? In all other regions of the
world the incidence of civil/international war has been on a broadly declining
trend over the past thirty years, but in Africa the long term trend has been
climbing up.
Of course, every civil/international war has it’s ‘footprints’ – the warlords,
the social cleavages; the triggering events being the inflammatory speeches, the
ethnic cleansing and atrocities. Once the preliminary stages of the war starts,
internal systems of the country start to self-destruct, by exodus of he
knowledgeable and skilled brains, by looting of the public properties and basic
infrastructure, and by diverting most, if not all of the country resources
towards military needs. However can we learn from the past experiences and
start introducing disaster recovery planning for all sub-Saharan African
countries, while the target country is still in order and accessible.
The international organisation with more experience and financial resources will
start initiating in time, the DRM for the education systems, by funding a
predesigned plan to backup electronically, the entire ministry of education’s
records, frameworks, instructional materials, and all supplementary related
educational materials (rhyme, songs, children and pre-school materials).
These will be
kept in a confidential, common African vault, until the dust settles. Meanwhile
the international community will have something to start to work with, to
develop emergency educational material, from frameworks known to both educators
and students for the country at war.
Slowing
the implosion of the Horn of Africa
Mohamed
Ibrahim, Chairman, Centre for Research and Dialogue, Mogadishu, Somalia
The Horn of Africa is a failed region. Civil wars, corrupted leaders, natural
disasters (famine, floods, etc), are the main causes that contribute to the
implosion of the region. This paper traces the source of the major problems that
retards the economic progress and human development of the region, cause the
civil wars that lead to the refugee crises and the famines that follow. It is
easy to document major problems and analyse them, however, we will attempt to
put forward policy suggestions and ideas for government decision makers and
others to consider before they load the next shipload of rice to a refugee camp
in Darfur or Ogaden. How can we expect that the same failed policies of the past
50 years to produce different outcome in the future, if all the variables
involved still remain the same?
Has it always been like this? Are there ways to slow down, arrest and reverse
the tragic implosion of the region? Has the international community’s aid and
humanitarian efforts helped resolve the past crises? Can they do it now or in
the future? Are there alternative strategies one should consider to break the
well known ‘poverty-civil War-economic-under development’ cycle?
The colonial legacy and pointing the finger to past injustice will not resolve
the current crises. Organic new ideas and creative methods from within the
region are urgently needed to solve the problems of the Horn of Africa. The
role of the diaspora from the region is crucial but limited. Expanding the role
of the diaspora and engaging them with the intention of ensuring their positive
contribution in resolving the problems of the region is one of the suggestions
the paper will promulgate.
Africa
hit hardest by global warming despite its low greenhouse gas emissions
Dr
Temesgen Kifle, School of Economics, University of Queensland
There is now
overwhelming scientific evidence that the earth is warming and its consequence
is significant for countries with limited human, institutional and financial
capacity to adapt to and cope with change. Africa hit hardest by global warming
despite contributing very little to global climate change. Given the limited
human and capital resources, many countries in Africa have been making efforts
to cope with climate change; however, integrated and sustainable measures should
be taken by developed nations and international organisations to help Africa
mitigate the effects of global warming. Though the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) is to help developing countries to achieve
sustainable development by allowing developed countries invest in climate
mitigation projects in developing countries, Africa is currently getting a
meagre share as countries like China, India and Brazil gain strong competitive
advantage.
Development Co-operation, Crisis Management Vs EU Visibility in Africa
Patrick Kimungui, Monash University
This paper seeks to examine the role of the EU in managing crises in Africa. It
argues that the EU’s involvement in conflict prevention and resolution in Africa
is driven by the dual aim of becoming more visible as a major international
actor and also enhancing its presence on the continent. To this end, since the
1990s, the EU has been re-inventing development cooperation and instruments for
humanitarian assistance. It has also been creating instruments for crisis
management within the framework of its Common Foreign and Security Policy
(CFSP), which may enable it to be in a better position to exercise its influence
on conflict prevention in Africa. Part One of this paper reflects on the
post-Cold War discourse on EU policy towards Africa. Part Two focuses on the
EU’s development cooperation policy as a conflict prevention instrument. Part
Three examines the EU’s response to humanitarian crises. Part Four, examines the
EU’s policy on conflict prevention in Africa within the CFSP framework and Part
Five is the Conclusion.
Collecting Then and Now: Recent African Acquisitions at The South Australian
Museum
Dr Tabawebbula
J Kivubiro, Margaret Trowell School of Fine & Industrial Arts, Makerere
University Kampala, Uganda
This paper
looks at newly acquired Baganda artefacts at the SA museum, collected by an
African guest curator and its relationship to an earlier one of Baganda
artefacts from the early 20th century by a prominent South
Australian, Victor Newland, (maternal grandfather of former foreign minister
Alexander Downer in the Howard Government). Aside from the fact that the old
collection came to the SA Museum by accident of historical circumstances the new
acquisition was especially collected for the museum for a specific purpose
unrelated to the earlier one, although intended to complement it. The paper
explores the status, significance and meaning of this material (new and old)
within the SA Museum as Western cultural institution vis a vis
that of its indigenous origins within the cultural context of owner producers.
In the process it highlights new and evolving significance of the material with
respect to current social changes in Australian culture and the new roles the
material may come to play within the museum as a changing institution in
Australia society today. African material culture in Australian museum
collections symbolises a common heritage between African and Australia burdened
with baggage originating in the colonial enterprise. However it provides an
important link to cultural origins for African migrants via which they negotiate
their shattered identities and assert their cultural presence in Australia. It
also offers opportunities for peoples of the two continents to forge ahead
together in collaboration to overcome problems and embrace a common future with
dignity especially via culture.
The
Rapidly Emerging Africa-China Trade and Investment Ties: Sources of Legitimacy
Nir
Kshetri,
Assistant
Professor, Bryan School of Business and Economics, the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro
The
intra-developing world trade (also known as: South-South trade) is rising
rapidly. In particular, strengthening economic and business ties between Africa
and China have attracted policy makers’ attention worldwide. In this paper, we
examine how Chinese firms have won and maintained political, social and economic
legitimacy in Africa and give an overview of the main sources of legitimacy in
the Africa-China business ties. First, we examine the strategic fit of
China-originated resources from the standpoint of consumers, businesses and key
decision makers in Africa. Then, we employ institutional theory as a lens to
provide insights into how China fits in the macro-level rules of games in the
continent.
Discourse of capacity building in Kenya: The NGO case study
Dr
Kiprono Langat,
Charles Sturt University
This paper
identifies the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) discourses of building the
capacities of the communities in Kenya by way of education/training, poverty
alleviation and ‘sustainable development’ that I have considered as being some
of the neocolonial tools for constructing and ‘developing’ impoverished
subjects. Some of these major tools that I refer to as metanarratives (used
interchangeably with discourses) include project short-termism, partnership,
sectorisation, harambeeism and prioritization, ‘old’ and ‘new’,
managerialism, and most recent ‘Internally Displaced Peoples’ (IDPs). Most of
these metanarratives are discussed by relating them to the selected
stakeholders’ perceptions.
Cape Flats Smile
Ismail Larney
The dental practice of extracting the four maxillary incisors from patients who
request a “Cape Flats Smile” is unique to the Cape Flats area of Cape Town,
South Africa. The “Cape Flats Smile” or commonly known as “passion gap” is a
phenomenon that is known to exist for approximately 80 years and coincides in
origin with the Cape Minstrels Carnival (also called the Cape Coons), as well as
the graduation of the first, South African trained dentists (1926).
The Cape Flats phenomenon has three coincidences of timing, viz; (1)
the effects of the freeing of the slaves, (2) first dental graduates, (3),
passion gap extractions. These, plus the unique and critical geographic
location of the Cape Flats as well as the innate spirituality and humanism
(ubuntu) in the way Africans overcome great hardship, were the collective
characteristics that formed the evolution of the “Cape Flats Smile”, phenomenon.
It is my belief that any case of ablation of teeth by means of a rock or spear,
during the last eighty years, would be recorded as “common assault” and not be
defined by the judicial authorities as a “Cape Flats Smile.”
Australian Miners in Africa: Some dot points and research questions
Dr David Lucas
and Penny Kane, Australian National University
In his Africa Day speech in May, 2008, Australia’s Foreign Minister, the Hon.
Stephen Smith, stated that more than 300 Australian resource companies are
active in Africa, with existing and prospective investments of around US $15
billion.
This introductory paper looks at changes associated with the resources boom. It
does not attempt an inventory of all 300 companies: instead it focuses on
newspaper reports covering a few dozen of these. A core Table will show their
operations and geographical distribution. The discussion includes the problems
of comprehensively studying this industry, the progress, risks and returns for
the Australians, and the extent to which Australia is profiting from Africa. The
paper also briefly touches upon the role of Chinese in Africa, Australia’s
understanding of Africa and the common future of Africa and Australia.
An
AFSAAP Renaissance?
Dr David Lucas,
Australian National University
In 2008 AFSAAP will be 30 years old. Prior to the
2007/8 AFSAAP conference in Canberra there was some informal discussion about
whether or not AFSAAP needed to reinvent itself. This paper will provide a basis
for the discussion of this theme, starting with ‘the prognosis for African
Studies in Australia’ made by Cherry Gertzel in the June, 1998, issue of the
AFSAAP journal, African Studies Review.
Initial questions are whether AFSAAP
Various groups
that are largely disconnected from AFSAAP are identified: these include African
students in Australian Universities, Australian miners and other companies who
are operating in Africa, and community organizations and service providers that
cater for Africans in Australia.
The paper evaluates AFSAAP’s current activities, and makes suggestions for
broadening its involvement in areas such as monitoring, advocacy, and the
dissemination of information, and for linking up with other organizations, both
locally and internationally.
Globalisation, Failed States and Pharmaceutical
Colonialism in Africa
Dr. Tanya
Lyons, Senior Lecturer, School of Political and International Studies, and
the Globalisation Program, and 2009 Editor of the Australasian Review of African
Studies
Within the
discourse of failed states, is the perennial debate about definitions of what
makes a weak or failed state. The capacity of the state to protect its citizens
from forces both within and outside its borders is one criterion relevant here.
Another criterion is the economic and social vulnerability of the people. The
significance of these two criteria of weak states in the age of globalization is
because global corporations can take advantage of weak policies and institutions
within that state in order to exploit the poverty and to be examined here the
case of diseases of the people to use them as ‘guinea pigs’ in clinical drug
trials, in many cases for drugs destined for the western market, for western
illnesses. Indeed the pharmaceutical industry and its operations in developing
countries have come to light in the wake of the success and publicity of the
film The Constant Gardener (2005), based on John le Carre’s novel (2001)
of the same name, and following from this, the release of Sonia Shah’s
non-fiction version of the same issues in the Body Hunter: Testing New Drugs
on the World’s Poorest Patients (2006). It will be argued here that this
{dysfunctional) marriage between global corporations and weak states creates a
form of ‘pharmaceutical colonialism’, that is enabled by the processes of
globalization.
Mac Maharaj
Peacemaking and power sharing in Africa - Building on the South African
experience
Work
and Family in a Cross Cultural Context: A Comparative Review of Work/life
Experiences of Working Mothers in Adelaide (Australia) And Harare (Zimbabwe)
Dr
Virginia Mapedzahama, Lecturer, University of South Australia
The issue of work/life “balance” has, in recent years, attracted increasing
media and research attention. However,
much work/family research
continues to focus on single countries (predominantly affluent countries of the
west); based primarily on studies conducted with white (oftentimes middle-class)
workers, and with relatively little comparative research done with other regions
of the world. By juxtaposing the black African (Zimbabwean) woman’s work/life
experiences with those of her western (Australian) counterpart, the
study reported in this paper
contributes towards filling this
gap in research. Specifically, this paper is based on the analysis of interviews
with thirty women in Australia and Zimbabwe (fifteen in each research site), to
explore the commonalities and diversity of the work/life experiences of women in
two diverse regions of the world. Keeping in mind the distinct economic and
socio-cultural heritages of the two countries, my rationale for comparing two
such different countries is that it is possible to learn more from such
analyses, and therefore more about the diversity of employed women’s
experiences, than through the study of two countries that are similar to one
another. By drawing out the commonalities of the women’s work/family
experiences, the paper also affirms the complex nature of the work and family
interface for women in Zimbabwe, whose work/family experiences remain a
neglected subject of research. In so doing, the paper
concludes that work
and family linkages are as much an issue for women in Africa as they are for
women in the west; what differs is the ‘magnitude of burden’.
‘Discipline and Punish’: Inscribing Metaphors of the Body in Zimbabwe’s
Postcolonial Crisis
Kudzai Matereke, PhD Candidate (Australia) and Lecturer (Zimbabwe), University of New
South Wales and Great Zimbabwe University
While the postcolonial crisis in Zimbabwe has received wide attention from an
array of perspectives, little, however, has been done to show how metaphors of
the body can be utilised to fully capture how the contending players have
appealed to the metaphors in their claims for both legitimacy and relevance.
This paper seeks to contribute to the discourse of African postcolonial thought
by showing how metaphors of the body can illuminate and add new nuances to the
current postcolonial crisis. Relying on the Foucauldian thought that hegemonic
culture maintains its dominance through its management of the body; this paper
seeks to show how ‘disciplining and punishing the body’ not only invokes the
structuration and discursive forms of power in the body politic but also depicts
the miserable status of the body politic itself and thus explain the current
crisis bedevilling the nation. The paper demonstrates the centrality of the body
in the history of political and religious thought as it seeks to argue for new
ways of appreciating the Zimbabwean postcolonial crisis. The metaphors of the
body and the prevalence of the appeals to the body by political actors mimic the
deplorable suffering of the body politic in ways that seek further analysis of
the maladies within the nation.
On the question
of the marginalisation of community groups - some lessons from rural South
Africa
Patrick
McAllister, Anthropology Programme Director, University of Canterbury
Racism
experience for young Southern Sudanese men in Melbourne
Ndungi wa
Mungai
Young refugee men from Southern Sudan have reported experiencing racist
treatment from the police and other agencies. This confirms a consistent pattern
of African men’s experiences in their settlement in Australia. The study is part
of my PhD that examines the role of the intersection of gender, age, culture and
class in the determination of health inequalities among young refugee men. The
research involved interviews with 29 young men, 10 service providers and two
focus groups with young men and with fathers of young men.
Literature indicates that racism has a significant impact on health via stress
and has both physiological and social consequences. At the physiological level,
stress has adverse effects on our health and at the social level it reduces our
chances in accessing vital resources such as employment, education, housing and
recreational amenities. Discrimination and subsequent stress effects depends on
other factors including previous experiences, personal resilience and
availability of social support.
For the Southern Sudanese young men, the previous experiences include being a
refugee and a marginalised nationality in Sudan. As young people, they also
experience other disadvantages in society in terms of various restrictions and
generally low incomes. Young Sudanese men also explained that, in their culture,
it is common to travel in groups. However, here they often get harassed by the
police for being in groups and wearing hip-hop street fashion. The full impact
of racism, therefore, needs to be appreciated in the context of the intersection
of refugee background, age, gender, culture and class.
Art and Democracy in
South Africa – A Southern Perspective
Dr Kevin Murray,
Research Fellow, Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University.
It is
tempting to think that the international support for the struggle in South
Africa completed its work with the abandonment of Apartheid policy in 1990.
However, Apartheid can be seen to have supported hierarchies that continue to
shape South African society. While blessed with a particularly vibrant craft
scene, there are few pathways for a talented South African craftsperson to
present their works in the context of an art gallery. This effectively excludes
black rural communities from access to a privileged theatre of cultural
identity. At the same time, the romantic Western idea of artist is challenged by
indigenous models of creativity such as sangoma. Initiatives in South Africa are
emerging to re-consider the methodology of Western art history, such as the
Gavin Jantje's Visual Century and the CIHA colloquium on Art and the Global
South. What emerges from this cultural reform in South Africa has important
relevance for other cultures across the latitude, such as Argentina and
Australia.
The
Ethnic and Linguistic Turn in Zimbabwean Politics: 1980 – 2008
Finex Ndhlovu,
Research Fellow, Victoria University
The terrain of Zimbabwe’s postcolonial national politics has always been
characterized by struggles within a struggle. These struggles that have
punctuated the internal politics of the ruling party and opposition parties
alike have in the main been motivated by ethnic/linguistic factors as opposed to
differences in political ideology. In this paper, I attempt to flesh out and
discuss relevant empirical evidence indicating that in Zimbabwean politics
ethnic and linguistic loyalties matter a lot. I argue that while violence,
intimidation, appropriation of the liberation war and political patronage may
have helped sustain and perpetuate Robert Mugabe’s uninterrupted hold onto power
for almost three decades, the linguistic/ethnic factor has been equally
influential. The split of the MDC into two factions in October 2005, which left
the opposition party weaker than ever before, did not have as much to do with
differences in political ideology as did the differences in ethnic and
linguistic loyalties. During his 28 year rule, Robert Mugabe has managed to
outwit his potential challengers from within and from outside ZANU PF by
skillfully manipulating the ethnic and linguistic card to his advantage. At the
end of the day, the main political contenders have remained embroiled in
parochial ethnic/sub-ethnic squabbles leaving Robert Mugabe swimming above the
storm with very little or no hindrance at all. By highlighting the role of
language and ethnic issues in shaping the contours of national politics, this
paper hopes to bring some new insights to our understanding of the Zimbabwe
crisis.
Somali
youth and cultural adaptation in school context (Melbourne, Australia, and
Minneapolis, USA)
Yusuf Sheikh Omar, LaTrobe University
Somali
youth from the cities of Melbourne and Minneapolis, are generally spirants to
and positive about the current and future educational opportunities they have in
Australia and the USA. But those from Minneapolis tend to speak more clearly
about these opportunities. Both youth and parents agree that Somali girls
perform well at school compared to boys. Students’ preferences for
post-secondary programs are varied. Reasons for choosing these programs are also
different, but the most popular reason is to help Somali people who are in
difficult situations because of the protracted civil war. Both student groups
from Melbourne and Minneapolis mentioned several educational challenges. Girls,
however, believe that parents’ pushing their daughters to get married earlier is
the biggest challenge that may prevent them from continuing further studies and
future professional work. Whether they are inside or outside school, most Somali
students who participated in this study make their friends from among Somali
youth because of cultural and religious similarities, and because of pleasing
their parents. Finally, with the exception of two girls, Somali youth show that
they have been fairly treated by their teachers.
The
role of the African Diaspora needs to play in the future development of Africa
Leigh Pillay,
President, Australia Africa Business Council NSW
The African Diaspora living in western countries ARE African investment abroad.
We have a significant contribution to make to our home countries. Most of us are
educated professionals or business people who have lived and learned in the west
for many years. We have acquired a wealth of skills , resources, knowledge and
finances. We are looking to invest in development programs in Africa for a fair
return. We have greater access to information, opportunities and ideas which can
translate into assisting the development of the domestic African population.
African
governments need to realise that they have a vast untapped resource abroad and
work more aggressively toward targeting, encouraging and engaging their Diaspora
on a more consistent basis to invest in their home countries.
If
Okonkwo Could Write, What Would He Have Said?: Intertextuality and the
Representation of the Igbo Writer in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of A
Yellow Sun
Anita Harris
Satkunananthan, School of EMSAH, University of Queensland
This paper
explores the characters of Ugwu and Okeoma in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half
of a Yellow Sun as embodiments of the educated Igbo man and writer. Adichie
is a contemporary Nigerian woman writer in diaspora who has dealt with the idea
of Biafra in both her novels as well as a play. In Half of a Yellow Sun,
she writes back to the idea of both the figure of the poet, Christopher Okigbo,
and the character, Okonkwo, in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Christopher
Okigbo, an important figure in the consciousness of Igbo writers, is, in
Adichie’s novel, an enigmatic, sub-cultural hero who represents the ideal of the
Biafra revolution. Adichie's representation of Okigbo is as a complicated,
intertextual simulacra of the man which speaks to the idea of narrative
constructing identity. Her main character, Ugwu, on the other hand, begins the
novel as a semi-literate boy from a village, and ends up an unexpected author
who pens a Biafran elegy. In doing so, the persona of Ugwu seems to enter into
an intertextual dialogue with the mysterious, reflexive authorial persona which
narrates Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. This paper looks at how the
intertextuality and narrative in Adichie’s novel provide a means of intersecting
with the recent past while also exploring how these figures have influenced
contemporary Nigerian women writers. In doing so, the paper aims to unearth how
identity and a sense of belonging are constructed within the narrative spaces of
these writers.
Caught in the Crossfire: Writing conflict in two African novels
Dianne Schwerdt, Discipline of English, University of Adelaide
The link between history and literature is nowhere more clearly seen than in the
last fifty years of writing out of Africa. Historical events underpin those
narratives that focus on the damaging fall-out from wars of liberation and the
dismantling of Empire. In this context, the history of Africa is a history of
violence and African literature is writing that attempts to reflect and reflect
on the conflicts embedded in Africa’s disengagement from Europe and its legacy
of violence. This paper looks at the very different construction of such
conflict in two novels, published almost half a century apart. Ngugi wa
Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat (1967) and Yvonne Vera’s The Stone Virgins
(2002) are two of the most seminal texts of their times. Ngugi’s novel, set in a
village in Kenya in the days leading up to Independence in 1963, and looking
back on the period of the Emergency, is one of the first fictional
representations of the impact of a war of liberation on an indigenous
population. Vera’s novel, set in the five years that followed the declaration of
Independence in Zimbabwe in 1980, is a powerful contemporary rendering of the
continuing impact of such wars. Both novels redefine commonly experienced
conflict through an interrogation of the ordinary, focusing on local figures
caught in the crossfire of globally driven forces.
Delivery
of Settlement Services for inclusion, Growth, and advancement in the Australian
wider community by the “Eastern And Central Africa Communities of Victoria Inc.”
-
Theresa Sengaaga Ssali, Eastern and Central Africa Communities of Victoria Inc.
Among
Others, EACACOV Manages the African Holistic Social Services of Victoria (AHSSV)
a delivery services agency run by Africans for Africans to Support and Develop
Africans and other migrant groups in Victoria
An
evaluation of EACACOV’s achievements against its aims and objectives will be
presented, thus assessing the contributions to the African communities in
Victoria (Australia). Basing on experience, research and client feedback, noted
is that its use of innovative approaches has provided the clients with
culturally sensitive support, which has helped build independence thus
facilitating integration into the Australian society. For example in 2007, over
40 complex cases connected with African-Australians were referred to EACACOV by
the mainstream services providers (due to cultural sensitive issues) such being
on top of the usual service delivery across a diverse geographic spread around
greater metropolitan Melbourne at Prahran, Footscray, Noble Park, St. Albans,
Oakleigh, Clayton, and Dandenong.
Given the
foregoing, this paper will present and provide education on how some
African-Australians are using community organisations to build a better future
for fellow Africans from all the diverse communities in Victoria in particular
and Australia in general. This case study provides some lessons about how
groups could use their environment to create developmental initiatives of a
better common future of Africans and Australians including enhancing linkages
with home countries for various joint outcomes.
The Use of Force in
UN Peacekeeping: the Experience of MONUC
Jim Terrie,
Independent consultant (former
Senior Analyst International Crisis Group – Africa)
The
UN mission in the DRC, MONUC, was established in 1999 as an observer mission but
by mid-2003 it faced collapse, The French led an EU force to stabilise the
region of Ituri that had seen some of the worst atrocities. The respite allowed
the UN to reconfigure and reinforce its mission but it was again challenged and
failed in mid-2004 when Congolese Tutsi rebels, led by dissident General Laurent
Nkunda, captured the town of Bukavu which was being protected by UN forces.
The near collapse of the mission led to substantial reinforcement. From early
2005 the Eastern Division of MONUC, under the command of Dutch General Patrick
Cammaert, expanded its use of force, confronting militias and creating an
improved security situation in Ituri and the Kivus.
Many of the mission’s weaknesses are endemic of most UN missions: poor
management, doctrinal confusion and an over-stretched force operating with too
few troops. However, while the mission evolved to meet the changing situation
on the ground, these changes have largely been made as a consequence of events
rather than in anticipation of them - often after violence has occurred, with
Congolese civilians paying the price. MONUC’s problems are both specific to the
mission itself and also symptomatic of the challenges and problems of UN
peacekeeping operations. The greatest challenge has been to use force
effectively in order to protect civilians, the mission, broader peace process
and occasionally regional stability. This paper will discuss the experience on
MONUC, particularly in the period 2005-2007 to assess the evolving use of force
and asses the impact and lessons for UN peacekeeping more broadly.
African
Cultural Education and the African Youth in Western Australia: Experimenting
with the Ujamaa Circle
Peter Mbago Wakholi, High School Teacher and Doctoral Candidate, Murdoch
University
In this paper examines cultural issues that concern a specific group of African
migrant youths. The ten youth participants three of whom are male and seven
female share their concerns and desires about issues relating to their cultural
identity. As a minority group in a predominantly Eurocentric society they are
faced with cultural challenges, which influence their being namely: Racism and
the pressure to assimilate. In this paper I explain the application of “The
Afrikan Centred Cultural Democracy” approach and how it was applied to the
participants. Through the Ujamaa Circle process the youth participants along
with the facilitator examined the challenges to their cultural identities and
alternative liberatory options. Growing up in a culturally alienating
Eurocentric culture, they felt the need for an African cultural space, in which
they could explore issues affecting them as African descendants. In particular
racism and assimilation were of major concern to them. They were of the opinion
that there should be an ongoing African Cultural Education Program to facilitate
cultural re-evaluation and continuity. The paper concludes by proposing that
there is a need for an ongoing African Cultural Education to facilitate cultural
re-evaluation and continuity. Cultural re-evaluation may lead to a conscious
development of Bicultural Competence. Within the African Cultural Education
conceptual framework, in addition to African cultural-re-evaluation, it is
possible to critically explore oppressive and domineering practices of the
mainstream culture.
English
language proficiency and settlement: Perspectives from Australia’s Africans
Vera Williams Tetteh, Macquarie University
Australia
is a plurilingual state that maintains English as its national language – the
language for participation and possibly progression in mainstream society.
English proficiency plays an important role for immigrants’ settlement in the
country by affording them a foothold on the rungs of a stratified society. This
paper proposes that language training may yield positive outcomes –
proficiency. However, English proficiency may not necessarily provide
immigrants with the needed social and symbolic capital, and recognition
(Bourdieu 1989) for progression in this predominantly western society. This
sociolinguistic ethnographic study examines issues pertaining to language
training for settlement with insights from adult English-as-a-second language
(ESL) learners. I draw on the language learning and settlement trajectories of
African immigrants in particular and settlement discourse in general to analyse
the role of English language as a socialisation tool in Australia. Critical
Discourse Analysis’s (CDA) discourse-historical approach (Fairclough 1985; Wodak
2001) is employed to map micro (interaction) data on to macro
(social) issues to highlight the social (co)construction of the African identity
in Australia.
Findings will (a) complement previous work on the socialisation and the
(co)construction of minority immigrants in western societies and (b) illuminate
the complex dynamics at work in African settlement in Australia.
Mediatised public crisis and the racialisation of African
youth in Australia
Joel Windle,
Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash University
In this paper I argue that patterns of reporting on ‘African youth’ in Australia
show how both the constraints under which the media operates and the wider
sources of institutional racism contribute to new applications of racialising
frames. I seek to establish specific patterns of racialisation through an
analysis of newspaper articles appearing in Melbourne over a roughly two month
period when media attention was focused on a series of violent incidents in
which African refugees were identified as either victims or perpetrators.
Initial reporting is determined by journalistic reliance on police accounts of
incidents involving a racially defined ‘problem group’ as evidence of the
predispositions of this group within a wider narrative of worsening gang crime.
The racialising premises established by police are retained even in subsequent
coverage framed by the problematic of ‘integration’. Despite racism being
identified and named in the course of reporting, it remains subsumed under the
weight of frames which assume that the problem lies essentially with the
‘problem group’.
The new
scramble for Africa – plunder and resistance
Leo Zeilig,
Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg
In the
last eight years Africa has been in the grip of what has been called the ‘new
scramble for Africa’, or more precisely the scramble for African resources. The
new thirst for Africa’s mineral and oil wealth was triggered by a number of
factors. In the post 9/11 world the United States became particularly concerned
with the inadequacy of its post-1945 global oil strategy that rested on the
tenuous stability of two regions – the Middle East (principally Saudi Arabia,
Iran, Iraq) and South America (notably today Venezuela). Even if the US was
prepared to intervene in Iraq in 1990 and to invade and occupy Iraq in 2003 to
secure these supplies, Africa was regarded as an important alternative source.
The continent - with Nigeria pre-eminent - has become a central focus in the
global hunt for oil supplies. Oil explorations have proliferated. The Gulf of
Guinea in West Africa has become an area of frenzied and contested activity that
has seen international corporations competing for oil contracts. The commodity
boom - another important element in the recent scramble - has been fuelled by
additional demand from China, and to a lesser extent India. Africa has again
become a disputed site for geo-political competition, today between the US,
China and the EU. But still some commentators were ready to pronounce this
moment as one of great possibility for the continent. The IMF’s World
Economic Outlook stated excitedly in October 2007:
‘Sub-Saharan Africa
is clearly enjoying its best period of sustained growth since independence.’
The recent scramble for resources in Africa gives us no reasons to be cheerful.
This paper will look at the extent of some of this recent scramble, but also to
those forces that have traditionally contested the plunder of the continent.
China’s Investment in Africa: Expanding the ‘Yellow River Capitalism’ and its
implications
Dr
Connie Zheng,
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
In recent years, China has been seen as a major investor and aid donor in
Africa. Some argue that China does so to help Africa moving out of poverty (eg.
Ravallion, 2008). Others contend that China intends to build ‘an alternative
world order’ and shift the world political power from Washington to Beijing
(Leonard, 2008, p. 118; cf. Alden, 2007). For the economists, China’s
investment in Africa seems a natural move as China demands for natural resources
and energy to fuel its continuous economic growth and the resource-rich Africa
is complementary to meet such demand (Goldstein et al., 2006). For the
political scientists and sociologists, long term risks which impose further
inequity between sectors and among rich and poor may need to be appropriately
assessed when appraising the short term opportunities to boost the African
economies (Posner and Young, 2007). This paper intends to shed some lights on
the extent of China’s investment in Africa and discuss the implications of the
expansion of the ‘Yellow River Capitalism’ on the social, political and economic
contexts in Africa at the macro-level and on the international management at the
micro-level.
Diasporic
Sensibility
Kirk
Zwangobani, Teacher / PhD Candidate, University of Canberra
James
Clifford (2005) in his essay Diasporas asserts that the language of
diaspora is increasingly invoked by displaced people who feel a connection with
a prior home, or rooted in a homeland. Anthony Appiah (1996) in his
early work on cosmopolitanism discusses this rooted-ness as a form of
cosmopolitan patriotism, living here whilst maintaining patriotism to our
homeland. Both suggest the roots of one’s identity in country and kin far
beyond the borders of the “host country”.
Picking up on the notion of diaspora I seek to explore the effect on the
formation of identity when those roots are severally weakened or severed due to
ongoing violence and destabilisation of an economy, a currency and democracy as
in the case of Zimbabwe. In other words how do we reflect upon the turmoil and
instability occurring and negotiate the possibility of our origins disappearing
in a place that has shaped who we are How does my identity, firmly rooted in
Zimbabwe as a homeland, change when the experience of a stable homeland
now remains either in my memory or in my hopes for the future?
In an attempt to answer such questions I will examine ‘second generation’
African Australians’ sense of belonging to the emergent African diaspora in
Australia and the tension that exists between notions of “rooted” and “routed”
cosmopolitanism. I will draw on my PhD research of African Australian youth in
Canberra, the Australian media representations of events in Zimbabwe and my own
position as an African Australian with familial links to an African homeland in
Zimbabwe.
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