Engaging Africa / Engaging Africans: Knowledge, Representation, Politics
December 2 - 4 2010
~~~ Conference papers ~~~
All Conference Papers and Abstracts have been fully refereed by AFSAAP
Martin GarangAher Who killed MajurManyang? Tragedy and culture shock among
Sudanese migrant youth in Australia
Abstract
- For young Sudanese migrants, and indeed many other asylum seekers,
humanitarian entrants and refugees, arrival in Australia holds out the hope
of an end to the atrocities, injustice and arbitrary violence they have
experienced almost all their lives. But sudden death continues to strike
Sudanese migrant youth in Australia at an alarming rate. A recent incident
in Perth, which will be the focus of this presentation, was the death of
MajurManyang in
April 2010. The underlying reasons for what are represented as outbursts of
irrational and extreme behaviour on the part of young refugees often remain
unexplored both in academic and popular accounts of these incidents. In
tragic situations that result in innocent deaths, media and legal
institutions for the most part move hastily, superficially and sometimes
with breathtaking agility. Academic research on this area leaves the
solution in the hands of the communities and family members of the victims.
But are these communities and migrant families immune from violence that
claims the lives of their youth? This paper will discuss the violent deaths
of young Sudanese migrants in the context of culture shock and the
institutional responses to this.
Keywords - Sudanese migrants, sudden death, Sudanese youth,
MajurManyang,
irrational and extreme behaviours, violence, culture shock
Berhan
Ahmed The
effect of climate change on termite taxonomy and distribution in Africa
Abstract - Termites constitute an integral component of various ecosystems
in Africa. Termites are also amongst the most difficult of the insects to
study because of their cryptic behaviour. There are around 2600 species of
termites (Isoptera) in 280 genera which have
been described worldwide and about 39% of the total termite species are
found in Africa. Some termite species are well known pests of agricultural
crops, forest trees, wood products and timber-in-service. Thus, they are
responsible for considerable damage in building structures in Africa.
Termite identification is crucial to understanding termite distribution and
to developing an integrated termite pest management (IPM) system. Published
literature on the taxonomy and distribution of termites in Africa with
particular reference to climate change is scanty. Little is known about the
effect of climate change on the potential distribution of pestiferous
termite fauna of Africa, especially the wood-destroying exotic species.
This African termite review attempts to collate information on termite
taxonomy, distribution and climate change and highlight the gaps in
knowledge and challenges in Africa, which is the centre of origin of the
Macrotermitinae. Economically important African
termite species will receive sufficient attention for identification and
distribution compared to other termite species. The use of traditional
identification methods coupled with molecular techniques, which promises to
resolve some of the challenges in termite taxonomy and distribution with
particular reference to climate change in Africa, will be discussed.
Keywords - Isoptera, taxonomy, distribution,
climate change, molecular techniques, Africa
John A. Arthur
Incorporating migration in development and nation-building in Africa
Abstract - The purpose of this paper is to position the importance of
international migration in Africa’s economic and cultural development.
International migration has become a major force of social change in Africa
south of the Sahara. Through international migration, African immigrants are
yearning to integrate their societies into the global systems of economic
and cultural production. At the macro-economic level, African immigrants
domiciled abroad are using their assets and resources to assist in homeland
development. At the micro-level, the beliefs, values, new roles, and norms
that immigrants learn in the Western host societies are modified and
transmitted back to Africa, positioning these immigrants in the forefront of
social change. The results can be found in diverse areas of African social
structure in both rural and urban sectors where these transnational
immigrants are altering the African landscapes. This paper highlights the
varied ways in which African immigrants in the West are altering the
dynamics of development in their respective countries. It seeks to
investigate the sustainability of these processes and how African central
governments can harness the resources, assets, and human capital of their
citizens abroad. The paper ends with a sociological assessment of the
policies needed to ensure seamless harnessing of immigrant and government
resources to implement robust and sustainable development in the region.
Keywords - International migration, social change, integration into global
systems, altered dynamics, sociological assessment of policies, robust and
sustainable development
MamadouDiouma Bah
Natural resources and conflict management: The case of Guinea
Abstract - This paper explores the relationship between natural resources
and conflict management in West Africa, with a
special focus on the Republic of Guinea. Recent literature on
theories of contemporary civil wars identifies several key variables as
significant triggers of civil war onset. These studies conclude that, since
the early 1990s, the presence of abundant natural
resources contributed to the outbreak of civil wars in a number of
countries in West Africa. In Guinea, however, the state managed to avoid
descending into civil war since independence from France in 1958, despite
being endowed with vast natural resources. Why
did the presence of
abundant natural resources
fail
to be associated with civil war onset in Guinea? Existing models of the
relationship between natural resources and armed conflict fail to explain
the cases of countries which managed to avoid descending into civil war
despite the availability of abundant natural resources. We still do not
understand why some countries do not descend to civil war despite the
presence of abundant natural resources while others do. Using qualitative
data drawn from Guinea’s experience, this paper
will address this apparent gap by aiming at identifying ways in which
natural resources can be linked with domestic peace and stability instead of
large scale violent conflict.
Keywords - Natural resources, peace, conflicts, West Africa, Guinea
Samantha Balaton-Chrimes The
Nubians of Kenya as a political community
Abstract - The Nubians in Kenya, a community who have in the past been
considered stateless, have recently begun to emerge from their marginal
status in the country. Over the past two years, as individuals Nubians have
had improved access to ID cards and as a group they received a code in the
2009 census. However, these political gains are only part of a greater
struggle on the part of the community to be fully recognized as a tribe of
Kenya. Identity politics and claims for recognition dominate social
politics in many African countries. However, the normative underpinnings of
these complex and often challenging claims are yet to be fully explored in
the African context. Drawing on seven months of qualitative fieldwork,
this paper characterizes the Nubian community as a political community, and
therefore as a site of citizenship worthy of preservation through
recognition. By articulating a positive vision of the moral and political
value of ethnic community embedded in citizenship theory, the paper makes a
critical contribution to theory of the politics of recognition in the
African context.
Keywords - Nubians, Kenya, identity politics, political community, ethnic
community
Carmela Baranowska
Representing
the pain of others: Western Sahara
Abstract - This paper analyses a recent outburst of Australian documentary
interest in Western Sahara. Often referred to as ‘Africa’s last colony’,
Western Sahara is both geographically remote and usually ignored in the
Australian media landscape. While little known here, Western Sahara shares a
crucial historical and documentary bond with the independent nation of
Timor-Leste. Through a comparison of select documentary films I will discuss
a link that also highlights a historical shift. The East Timorese and
Western Saharawis embraced earlier anti-colonial
struggles in Portuguese and French Africa. However, over a thirty-five year
period there has been a period of transition. The rhetoric of third world
liberation struggles, as outlined by the key figure of Frantz Fanon, has now
been replaced by the United Nations-sanctioned discourse on human rights.
How have the production, recent distribution and dissemination of these
Western Sahara documentaries in Australia contributed to this trend? How has
the language of human rights been reproduced in the documentary
representation of Western Sahara? Are we now living in a post-colonial time?
Keywords - Documentary, Western Sahara, colonialism, human rights
Abstract - The influential Martinique philosopher, Frantz Fanon, wrote in
1967 that he ‘joined the Jew, [his] brother in misery’ because ‘an anti-semite
is inevitably an anti-Negro’. Histories of racial oppression link Africans
and Jews. French-Algerian philosopher, academic and feminist Hélène
Cixous writes (addressing women): ‘Because you
are Africa, you are black’. When Maya Deren
received the first Guggenheim fellowship for motion pictures, she
traveled from the US to Haiti where she was
welcomed as ‘a prodigal native daughter finally returned.’ Acclaimed
Brazilian author Clarice Lispector was painfully
aware of the situation of many people of African origin in her adopted
country. My three protagonists have white skin, relative affluence and
social position, and so are in a position to bestow on Africans the position
of the ‘other’. However, their acute awareness of their own lack of
belonging – as Jews, women and artists, exiled from the country of their
birth – means that they also feel particular affinities to anyone else who
can be identified as ‘other’. I will explore the way they use the
paradoxical push-pull of ‘other’ and ‘same’ towards Africans in their work,
both to explore their own identities, and to reveal insights about our
relationships to each other and the world – ‘the thing itself’.
Keywords - Identity, representations of Africans in art, Hélène
Cixous, Maya Deren,
Clarice Lispector, otherness
Alison Burgin (In)Visible
minorities: Does French aid promoting cultural diversity benefit African
cinema in France or on the continent?
Abstract - The days of Josephine Baker's 'négressesauvage' and the smiling face of the
Senegalese ‘Tirailleur's 'y'a
bon Banania’ slogan have finally been put to
bed in France, indicating an awareness of the necessity to represent
seriously and responsibly African and West Indian communities both within
and outside the Hexagon. Although France has been a promoter of African
cinema and television since 1960, when the majority of France's former
colonies gained independence, it was during the 1990s that France's
self-appointed role as protector and promoter of cultural diversity of the
global South, especially via cinema, became truly discernible. Today,
African filmmakers are eligible for a diverse range of government and
institutional funding in France. This includes the opportunity of
co-producing with French companies and additional schemes intended to ease
the burden of the costly filmmaking process, all seemingly working towards
goal of supporting cultural diversity globally. Yet although films are in
fact being made, cinema emerging from Africa is as invisible as ever, viewed
neither by the African communities they are seemingly intended for nor the
French tax-payers who fund them. African filmmakers complain of living in a
ghetto within the industry itself, while their films, if and when production
is completed, rarely make commercial distribution, raising questions as to
the goal of their original funding. Through a policy analysis of major
French funds supporting African cinema, this paper will consider some
possible factors that may be contributing to this invisibility and will
suggest that despite its intentions, the French example of a transnational
humanitarian-aid approach to African film funding is flawed. Drawing on
filmic case-studies, the paper will investigate of how cultural diversity
rhetoric may be producing the unwitting contradiction of a standardised ‘Africanness’
vis-à-vis the promotion of a contemporary, Eurocentric discourse about
Africa that homogenises the very identities of those whom the cultural
diversity policy is attempting to represent.
Keywords - Cultural diversity, cinema, representation, humanitarian aid,
racial discrimination, France, Africa
McLytton
Clever
Sleep quality, beliefs and attitudes about sleep: A comparison of Caucasian
Australian, Zimbabwean and Ghanaian immigrants resident in Australia
Abstract - This paper reports on a study that examined ethnic differences in
sleep quality as well as beliefs and attitudes about sleep in a community
sample of Caucasian Australians (CAA), black immigrants from Zimbabwe (BZW)
and those from Ghana (BGH), all currently resident in Australia. The sample
consisted of 176 participants. Groups were matched on age and gender, with a
strong predominance of professional occupations in all groups. To be
included in the study, BZW and BGH participants had to be resident in
Australia for less than 15 years. All participants completed the Pittsburgh
Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Dysfunctional
Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep (DBAS), and the SF-36 Health Survey. No
statistically significant group differences were found on sleep quality,
daytime sleepiness, and physical health. However, significant ethnic group
differences on beliefs and attitudes about sleep (DBAS) were found, as well
as some other differences involving gender and mental health factors. This
ethnic difference may have implications for the health education of black
African immigrants, with more emphasis needed on the link between sleep and
psychological problems. While previous international studies have reported
differences in sleep quality among ethnic groups, particularly those of low
socioeconomic status (SES), the current results found no ethnic differences
in sleep quality. This inconsistency may arise from differences in the SES
levels of the participants across the studies, with no (or less) ethnic
differences in sleep quality being evident in higher SES groups.
Rachel Gavarotto
“Everyone disappears”: Housing insecurity and social exclusion of Sudanese
women in outer western Sydney
Abstract - This paper investigates how Sudanese women in outer western
Sydney experience housing insecurity as one aspect of social exclusion once
they have been re-settled in Australia. The paper also explores whether
their encounters with social exclusion are linked to their local community,
policy development and the context of Australian society more broadly. In
addition, the paper is concerned with a range of avenues of social exclusion
faced by Sudanese women, as defined by the Australian Social Inclusion Board
(2008). A comparison is then made between community members’ experiences,
government expectations and community workers’ professional insights into
the aforementioned areas. The paper builds on existing literature and
previous research, while various local and international interpretations of
social exclusion and inclusion will be explored to better understand
Australian social policy frameworks and suggest recommendations for future
service delivery with regard to secure long-term housing provision. The
research is undertaken from the perspective of social change and feminist
and ethnographic research. It draws on experiences shared by the target
population, encapsulating women’s voices, experiences and opinions in
relation to identified avenues of social exclusion. The main method of data
collection used was in-depth qualitative interviews with Sudanese women and
community workers in the Sudanese communities in outer western Sydney. This
paper is most interested in how the women’s own knowledge and ideas reveal
the ‘truth’ about their lives and formulate culturally appropriate solutions
to social exclusion.
Keywords - Refugees, Sudanese, women, social exclusion, housing insecurity,
barriers, neo-colonial HaileluelGebre-Selassie
Harnessing the African diaspora to enhance the re-engagement with African
countries
Abstract - In the wake of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, countries
around the world are seeking new ways to bolster ties with the African
continent. The UK and USA have implemented various programs to help
re-engage members of the African Diaspora with their respective countries.
In April 2010, Australia's Minister for Education, Skills and Workforce
Participation, The Hon Bronwyn Pike, launched a pilot five-month African
Leadership Development Program which aims to build the capacity of African
community associations. One of the potential long-term benefits is to help
Australia's African community become a means of engagement between Australia
and Africa through business and trade, social development support, cultural
activities, peace and conflict resolution, advocacy and representation,
human rights activities. Thirty-three African community leaders from 12 of
Australia's African communities – Liberian, Serra Leonean, Congolese,
Somali, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Sudanese, Kenyan, Zimbabwean, Nigerian and
Malawian – took part in the Leadership Development Program.
As well as examining the existing international models and programs that
seek to maximise the skills and knowledge of the African Diaspora, this
paper will also demonstrate the interconnectedness of the local Leadership
Development Program with the future potential for engagement with
participants’ respective African countries of origin.
Keywords - African Diaspora, re-engagement, African Leadership Development
Program
Roslyn Gleadow, Julie Cliff, Anna Burns,
AnabelaZacarias,
Rebecca Miller, Howard Bradbury & Tim Cavagnaro
Predicting climate change impacts on yield and cyanogen
levels of cassava, an important African staple
Abstract - Cassava (manioc, Manihotesculenta) is the third most important food
source in the tropics (after rice and maize), consumed by approximately one
billion people, with the greatest per capita daily consumption in African
countries. Despite this, little is known about the impacts of elevated CO2
concentrations and associated climatic changes on the yield and nutritional
value of this important crop. Cassava is a hardy plant and can be grown in a
wide range of climatic conditions. The tubers are high in starch but
relatively low in protein, minerals and vitamins and a monotonous diet can
result in nutritional deficiencies. All parts of the cassava plant contain
anti-nutritional compounds called cyanogenicglucosides (cyanogens), which can break down to
release toxic cyanide. Bitter varieties contain more cyanogens that sweet
varieties, but are reputed to be higher yielding.
The degree to which cyanogens can be tolerated depends on the concentration,
the rate of consumption and the overall diet. The consumption of highly
cyanogenic varieties of cassava have been
associated with epidemics of the permanent paralysing disease
konzo, which particularly affects children and
women of child-bearing-age; and incidences of tropical ataxic neuropathy and
goitre. All varieties become more bitter when
there is a drought. Outbreaks of konzo are also
more common where there is social unrest, probably due to inadequate
processing of cassava tubers.
Any lowering of the nutritional quality of cassava has implications for
human health and the need to further improve post harvest processing of the
cyanogenic tubers. Building on an existing
cassava research and breeding program in Mozambique, we are studying the
interactive effects of drought, temperature and soil nutrient availability
on the cyanogenic potential and yield of
cassava. By creating a framework to facilitate predictions for the future
nutritional value and productivity of cassava as a staple crop which we
detail in this paper, we will be able to make future projections of the
impacts of these aspects of climate change on the nutritional value and
productivity of cassava. Adaptation strategies to avoid cyanide poisoning
from cassava in the future could include development and implementation of
low-cyanide, high-yielding and pest-resistant varieties of cassava; improved
processing of cassava products; and diversification of the diet of
cassava-dependent communities.
Michele Grossman
"There’s just this projection about Africans": Race, safety and policing in
Melbourne’s Western suburbs
Abstract - A spate of reports around issues of racism and the police in
Victoria, largely in relation to new African-background migrants, has
dominated media reporting and research agendas in recent times. Despite the
‘moral panics’ around African-background youth ‘gangs’ that continue to fuel
community and public policy debates, the realities of the problems faced by
police and African-background youth at street level in relation to community
safety and to each other are both more banal and more complex than such
sensationalising discourses suggest. What do young people themselves from
the large Sudanese-Australian community in Melbourne’s inner west have to
say on these issues?
Drawing on a recently concluded two-year research project on young people,
community safety and policing (Grossman and Sharples,
2010) that focused in part on the experience of young Sudanese aged 15-19 in
Melbourne’s Brimbank region, this paper looks at
what might be gained from better understanding how recently arrived young
Sudanese negotiate the issues of ‘race and place’ in their everyday lives
and locales, particularly in relation to their experiences of dealing with
the police.
Our findings suggest that the ways in which young Sudanese manage their
community relationships, particularly with the police, are more complex than
previously thought. New paradigms are needed for thinking about how to
promote positive engagement between young Sudanese and the police and how to
re-negotiate police understandings of race and racism in relation to
African-background arrivals to Australia. This paper brings together the
concept of community resilience with some of the insights of critical race
theory as one theoretical frame for exploring the prospect of strengthening
relationships between African-background youth and police in Melbourne.
Anne Le Guinio
Challenges and solutions in implementing national languages in educational
institutions: The case of Cameroon
Abstract - Our paper proposes an overview of the linguistic situation in
educational institutions in Cameroon, Central Africa. The official languages
of Cameroon are English and French. Arabic may also be one of the teaching
languages. However, there are around 250 national languages. Some 50 years
after independence, it is only now that the first trial for the teaching of
selected national languages in government schools is taking place.
We will outline the pioneering efforts and farsightedness, although more
often than not informed by vested interests, of various organisations and
individuals that worked on preserving some of those languages. We will look
at the ideological and methodological difficulties which may have prevented
the teaching of national languages from starting earlier. Some of the
issues considered will be the problem of defining the boundary of a language
and thereby enabling its standardization; the difficulties in training and
finding formal teachers, and the positive role played by national languages
in promoting literacy and tolerance.
Keywords - Cameroon, national language implementation, language
preservation, standardisation, literacy and tolerance
Anne Harris
"Culture is our future": African-Australian representation in film and
video, 1985-2010
Abstract - ‘Culture is our Future’, a short web-based film by
Senegalese-Australian artist LamineSonko (AHRC 2010), is one example of an
increasing body of films and videos by and about African-Australians
emerging over the past two decades. Australian media representations of
African-Australians has been persistently negative,
and film represents a counter-representation to this negative stereotyping
while assisting in the co-construction of cultural and sub-cultural
identities.
In this sense, African-Australians remain ‘constitutively visible’ (Derrida,
1996) despite mainstream media attempts to render them invisible. With
increasing funding and audience support for culturally diverse artworks, the
number of multimedia projects is steadily increasing. This paper will
contextualise these films in a consideration of larger ‘filmic diasporas’
which represent the diversity and richness of African communities emerging
in multiple diasporic locations, (particularly
Australia) and yet interrogates how these types of identity
performativity (Butler 1990) may also be used as
‘mechanisms of exclusion’ (Lumby, 2008). The
‘human multiplicities’ (Deleuze; Derrida)
apparent in these films expose the ‘fictive unity’ (Souter, in Hall 2000) of
a singular ‘African/Australian’ identity, and assert the value of
co-constructing these multiple-identity narratives (Hall, 2000; Delgado
2000) with and against outside ‘others’, both in countries of resettlement
and back home.
Emerging economies are planning or operating mines throughout the continent
and many Western companies feel potentially ‘crowded out’ by the activities
of these new players, especially by the state-owned companies of China.
Allegations that Chinese companies engage in restrictive or unfair practices
abound, but the benefits said to flow from mining can be questioned across
the whole front of mining activity. Emerging international rules, as in the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), address some issues of
social impact and financial benefit, and nineteen African governments have
signed as candidate members, with another currently suspended.
But questions about the capacity of African governments and international
rules to address the long-term consequences of mining activity for the
peoples of Africa remain unanswered, and the impact of the global financial
crisis and resource depletion in other parts of the world seems likely only
to intensify the prospects of further exploitation in Africa. This paper
addresses the issues in the context of a number of case studies of company
activity, covering especially Chinese companies and Australian companies,
which also have emerged recently as significant actors in Africa.
Keywords - Effective mining, Chinese and Australian companies, extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
Chantelle
Higgs
White boy jeans and African stylez: Young
Sudanese and Somali’s negotiating visible difference in Melbourne’s Inner
West
Abstract - Young people operate within multiple fields of power and it is
within these realms that they (re)produce and negotiate social difference.
This paper examines the narratives of young people of African background in
Melbourne’s inner west to consider how visible difference, gender and class
intersect and inform feelings of belonging. Here, young people’s discourse
will be analysed to discuss the continued role of visible difference in the
construction of identity(s). It will be argued that young people of African
background discuss and understand their inclusion and exclusion as being
spatially and socially informed.
Furthermore, this paper will argue that the performance of differences is
indicative of how young people to situate themselves and others in relation
to Australia’s national identity. This supports the paper’s overarching
contention that young people’s subjectivities are multiple, fluid and
relational.
Carmel Hobbs
Talking about teeth – Working together to improve the oral health of the
African community in Melbourne’s inner west
Abstract - ‘Talking about Teeth’ is a project
designed to increase connections between the African community and oral
health services in Melbourne’s inner west, ultimately leading to the
improved oral health status of the African community in the area.
The Flemington public housing estate in Melbourne has a large African
community with over 40% of residents speaking an African language as their
main language at home, compared with 23% who speak English. To uncover the
existing challenges in accessing oral health services, we ran four focus
groups with the community and nine individual interviews with current
employees of the local community health dental clinic. The study revealed a
number of areas in which future collaborative partnerships such as peer
education programs, staff training, and public forums can improve both the
oral health of the community, and the ways in which the dental clinic
delivers its services to this community group.
Throughout the project, community participation has been a high priority.
Community members have been involved with project planning, data collection
and analysis. This presentation will discuss the benefits and challenges of
community engagement and identify strategies for enhancing engagement
between the health service and the African community.
Keywords - Oral health, engagement, community participation,
community health
ShiyavanthiJohnpillai
Men who have sex with men in Sub-Saharan Africa: Decriminalisation of
consensual sexual behaviours and the consequences for HIV vulnerability
Abstract -
Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, many countries have laws criminalising
same-sex sexual relationships. On a global scale, men who have sex with men
(MSM) are considered a high-risk group that is particularly vulnerable to
contracting HIV. Yet, in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that carries the brunt
of the global burden of HIV/AIDS, MSM have been neglected from national
prevention policies. MSM groups have been stigmatized and discriminated
against, subjected to violence and detention, and are isolated from social
and health resources (Smith et al, 2009, 418). As such, the criminalisation
of same-sex behaviour has shifted from raising merely legal and moral issues
to human rights and public health concerns as well.
This paper is an examination of MSM behaviour in Sub-Saharan Africa and its
connection with HIV/AIDS. It will look at barriers that prevent social
acceptance towards same-sex relations in Sub-Saharan Africa, the
consequences of criminalising MSM behaviour and how this has affected
people’s vulnerability to HIV. It will also reflect on what could change
with the decriminalisation of MSM behaviour, using South Africa (a nation
which decriminalised same-sex behaviour in 1994) as a case study to
illustrate this.
Keywords - HIV/AIDS, Sub-Saharan Africa, homosexuality, sexual health,
criminalisation
TemesgenKifle
Socio-economic issues facing African Australians: Analysis and policy
options
Abstract - According to the 2006 Census, a total of 248,699 people born in
Africa were living in Australia. This number represents 5.6% of Australia’s
overseas-born population (or 1% of the country’s total population). Since
the 2006 Census, an additional 50,000 African-born migrants have arrived in
Australia. Theoretically, for most African migrants, Australia is not only a
safe place to live in but also a prosperous country where they improve their
livelihood and help family members and relatives left behind. At the same
time, African-Australians have much to contribute to the Australian society.
Yet in practice, African migrants suffer from discrimination in every aspect
of life including employment, education, health and housing, which in turn
affects their well-being. The purpose of this paper is first to identify
aspects of life satisfaction for which African-born people in Australia have
scored much less relative to the other groups, and then to explore the
determinants of such low well-being scores using statistical analysis.
Data for this study were obtained from the first eight waves (2001-2008) of
the Household, Income, Labour Dynamics in
Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Survey,
which collects information about economic and subjective well-being, labour
market dynamics and family dynamics, is Australia’s only large-scale
nationally representative longitudinal household survey that interviews the
same households and individuals each year. Based on this information,
a separate ordered logistic regression is run to estimate the determinants
of different aspects of life satisfaction for African-Australians.
Keywords - African-Australians, life satisfaction, well-being KwamenaKwansah-Aidoo
Market research in Africa: Challenges and prospects
Abstract - More and more international market research is being conducted as
companies seek to expand their markets. Across the globe, emerging economies
are widely regarded as offering substantial future potential as companies
seek to expand their markets and increase profits. Accordingly, just as in
developed markets, more and more market research is being conducted in these
economies to serve as a basis for making forays into emerging markets.
However, emerging market research projects are typically much more complex
than similar studies in developed countries. Whilst there have been several
studies examining the problems associated with international marketing
research few focus specifically on Africa.
This study focuses on Africa and is based upon secondary research, as well
as qualitative interviews with professionals working in Africa’s Market
Research industry. The findings reveal an array of complex challenges that
researchers face when working in Africa. These encompass the availability of
reliable secondary data, the availability of research resources and
suppliers, appropriateness of data collection methodologies and research
costs variations. There are also a host of related macro and environmental
differences such as political and legislative issues, basic infrastructure,
cultural differences, social and market structure differences, communication
and technology difficulties, accessibility and many others. It is important
for researchers to be aware of and appreciate these potential difficulties
so that projects can be designed to overcome them.
Keywords - Market research in Africa, complex challenges, macro and
environmental differences
Louise Kyle & Lynne Carolan
Teaching African students in Legal Studies at VU
Abstract-
This paper will draw on a range of theoretical perspectives to describe and
analyse the on-going teaching and curriculum development practice of a group
of Victoria University (VU) teachers and lecturers who have collaboratively
taught and developed Certificate IV and Advanced Diploma level courses to
facilitate African student participation and success in Legal Studies/Law
courses at VU.
Many of the students share the challenges of disrupted education, trauma
caused by war, time spent in temporary accommodation (including refugee
camps), post-traumatic stress and cultural adaptation to Australia. We are
aware that each community brings different and unique perspectives to their
study, different languages and cultural backgrounds and understandings of
what constitutes a community and how it is organised.
Teachers in these courses at VU have worked together to change subject
matter, assessments, and delivery because we saw the need to change our
teaching practice rather than problematise the
students. Learning is greatly enhanced where course material has more
meaning and relevance and students are able to bring their cultures and
experiences into the classroom to ‘scaffold’ their understanding. This
learning is two-way as the teachers’ subjectivities and awareness of
cultural assumptions are challenged and a more reflexive and effective
delivery of difficult legal concepts and language is possible.
Keywords - African students, law, teaching across cultures, post-refugee
experiences and identities
Kiprono Langat
Young refugees and schooling: A paradigm shift in school leadership and
pedagogical practices in an ethnically diverse school in regional New South
Wales
Abstract - Australia’s rural refugee resettlement policy has led to
increasing numbers of refugees being resettled in rural and regional areas.
This trend has had major impacts upon regional towns, yet few educational
studies have examined its implications for schools.
This qualitative case study aims to document the perspectives of a range of
key stakeholders including school leaders, teachers, students, and allied
staff in terms of how increasing cultural diversity has impacted upon school
leadership and pedagogical practices, attitudes and beliefs. It seeks to
analyse first, the leadership and pedagogical discourses and practices which
are now shaping an ethnically diverse regional school in Southern New South
Wales and second, the leadership policies, discourses and practices at
regional executive level which guide and inform leadership and pedagogy in
such schools.
Hence, the study is informed by a critical perspective on educational
leadership and a poststructural theoretical
perspective. The guiding research question is: What are the implications for
leadership and pedagogical practices, attitudes and beliefs in a regional
school, which has recently experienced a shift from a largely mono-cultural
to an increasingly ethnically diverse student body?
Keywords - Paradigm shift, young refugees, rural resettlement, ethnic
diversity, leadership and pedagogy, educational leadership
Emanuel Laryea
"Mining" Africa: The imperatives of law, economics and leadership failures
Abstract
- Undoubtedly, Africa is a continent of immense natural resource endowments,
but it also has the largest proportion of global poverty per capita. The
seeming paradox of poverty and debt amidst heavy resource endowments has
been the subject of much study and writing. Some have called the situation
the “resource curse”, suggesting a correlation between the resource
endowments and poverty and underdevelopment. Others disagree, as does this
presenter.
This paper examines the imperatives of law, economics and actions by African
leaderships in the exploitation of the available resources. First, it
discusses the development of international investment law and principles
relating to resource investments in Africa, and elsewhere. It notes that the
law developed mainly in a rational way. Second, the paper examines the
economic factors that influence the law and actions of stakeholders
(investors and parties in whom resources are vested, mainly the leaderships
of host states). Third, it argues that failures of African leaderships are
the cause for the often lopsided arrangements for resource investment in
favour of investors. It observes that recent developments in the global
economic and political dynamics relating to resources may present some
opportunities for ameliorating some of the imbalances.
Abstract - What has been distinctive about the post-Cold War era and, in
particular, the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide is a change in
expectations about international responses to mass atrocities. The
establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998 and the
adoption of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle in the 2005 World
Summit mark the birth of two forms of responsibilities: responsibility to
punish and responsibility to protect. The interaction of R2P with the ICC,
however, reflects an inherent tension between protection and punishment in
the temporal trajectory of international society’s response to mass
atrocities.
This paper explores the relationship between R2P and the ICC by questioning
the tendency to perceive protection of civilians and punishment of
perpetrators as priori synthetic. In particular, it brings forward the
analysis of time dimension in judging the international community’s
effectiveness in halting mass atrocities in Africa.
Keywords - Mass atrocities, International Criminal Court, responsibility to
protect, international
IbolyaLosoncz
Respect and community inclusion – post-settlement Sudanese experiences
Abstract - Discrimination and social exclusion are widespread experiences
among African-Australians, as confirmed recently in a review by the
Australian Human Rights Commission. Interviews with African-Australians
communities highlighted the issue of community tension, including: low
levels of acceptance in public life, rejection by local neighbourhoods,
experiences of isolation and disrespect, and perceptions of mainstream
communities that they are not integrating. There are also repeated calls
from community leaders for more respect and respectful treatment of African
refugees by the wider community and social institutions.
However, what is ‘respect’? What does this ubiquitous yet under-theorised
term amount to in practical terms? Moreover, why should we care about
respect? This paper analyses interviews with Sudanese-Australians on their
conceptualisation of respect, what behaviours signal respect or disrespect,
and why respect is seen as so important in their interactions with the wider
community and authorities. The paper also explores the relationship between
respect, community connection and inclusion. Specifically, it queries how
everyday acts of respect and acceptance can promote inclusion.
Keywords - Social inclusion, community connection, respect
David Lucas
Australian mining companies in Africa 2008-2010
Abstract - In 2008 Donnelly and Ford published ‘In Africa: How the resource
boom is making the sub-Saharan Africa more important to Australia’, which
was perhaps the first economic overview of the extent of Australian mining
operations in Africa.
However, the resource boom was soon checked by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC),
when the prices of most metals fell and investment and exploration were
curtailed. This paper focuses on changes and strategies involving the
Australian miners, ranging from the juniors to the multi-nationals, which
occurred in the three-year period of 2008-2010. Apart from the impact of the
GFC, the sovereign risks (both political and fiscal) in African countries
will be considered, as well as how companies threatened to move projects to
Africa when the Australian Rudd government threatened to introduce a
Resource Super Profits Tax in 2010.
Abstract - ‘There are no votes in Africa’.
This is how Higgott (1983) concluded his chapter
on Australia and Africa covering the period 1976-1980. Apparently, since
then there has been a ‘period of neglect’ (Smith 2010a; 2009b) in all
sectors of government, diplomacy, trade, aid and defence.
In terms of any general analysis of Australian-African relations, there have
been only rare published accounts since Higgott’s
that service an understanding of the major issues facing Australian policy
discourse (see Ford 2003). It would seem that the only groups not to lose
interest in Africa have been the small non-governmental organizations and
faith-based charities, which find commitment and reward in supporting
various African crises. Private aid to Africa surpasses official
development assistance.
Fifteen years ago, Evans and Grant wrote that ‘Australia’s relations with
Africa have tended to develop on a largely ad hoc basis, often as a
consequence of policies on other issues, such as human rights, the
Commonwealth and, especially, apartheid’, and they warned that ‘it would be
wrong for Australia to ignore Africa, or to allow our relations to drift
without substance. African nations are able to exert considerable influence
internationally; in the United Nations and its various agencies and in the
Commonwealth’ (Evans and Grant 1995).
This paper will examine the historical relations between Australia and
Africa over the last three decades, before focusing on the policies of the
Rudd-Smith/Gillard-Rudd Labor government. It
will also examine Australia’s bid for the UN Security
council in 2013, and the connections with increased funding to
African countries.
Keywords - Australian-African relations, Australian government policies,
African influence internationally, UN Security Council, increased funding
Virginia Mapedzahama
The paradox of skilled nurse migration in Australia: The case of black
African migrant nurses
Abstract - This paper explores the ‘paradox of skilled nurse migration’ in
relation to African migrant nurses working within the Australian healthcare
system.
The ‘paradox’ arises out of a contradiction between active recruitment of
skilled nurses to solve Australian nursing skills shortage who may find
that, once here, they are presented as ‘a problem’ to the very system which
sought them out.
Drawing on interview data from a pilot study conducted with 14 skilled
African migrant nurses, the paper explores the nurses’ practice world to
interrogate not only the challenges of ‘being a black migrant nurse’ in
Australia but also the severe lack of workplace preparation for the nurse
migrants that culminates in the paradox. Research into skilled African
migrant subjectivities in general, and specifically skilled African migrant
nurses, remains neglected in Australia. As a result, little is known about
how this cohort experiences their work world. Current research (though also
limited) has tended to focus on African refugees. Even then, the focus has
been on issues (such as such as English language competency, labour force
experience and participation, youth violence, and resettlement) that cast
the migrant her- or himself as ‘the problem’.
By centring the voices of skilled migrant nurses, the paper not only makes
visible the experiences of a hitherto un-researched group, but presents a
counter-narrative to the current one of the ‘problematised’
African migrant.
Kudzai Matereke
Mortgaged citizenship and domesticated agency in postcolonial
Zimbabwe: Towards a politics of recognition
Abstract - One key question in postcolonial studies is: How should we
understand postcolonial identities? As an intellectual discourse,
postcolonial theory seeks, among other things, to question how the
transition from colonialism to independence has produced diverse effects on
the identities of Indigenous populations. Key to this endeavour is whether
the postcolonial dispensation has successfully turned colonial ‘subjects’
into ‘citizens’.
This paper seeks to make a contribution by situating the debate within the
context of the Zimbabwean postcolonial crisis and critically reflecting on
the complexities that confront postcolonial citizenship. It argues that at
the core of the challenges is a ‘revolution logic’ that is deployed as a
founding tale of the nation and continues to mediate and inscribe what it
means to be Zimbabwean and African.
The paper suggests that this challenge should be viewed as a potential
threat to the democratic processes in Africa, especially with the recent
regrouping of the revolution movements. It also highlights how the
‘revolution logic’ stifles the critical agency of the citizens and results
in ‘mortgaged citizenship’. By employing the political principle of
‘recognition’, it seeks to demonstrate how the ‘revolution logic’ can be
deconstructed, thus making a vital contribution to how postcolonial
identities and citizenship need to be reframed.
Key words - Postcolonial, citizenship, agency, recognition, revolution,
Zimbabwe
Abstract - A recent doctoral study conducted in Western Australia to
investigate the perceptions of post-settlement African background students
found that their needs are not only extensive but diverse and include
educational, emotional, physical, social and familial issues. This concurs
with other studies undertaken that have continued to reveal that refugee
students, including those of African background, now present new challenges
to Australian teachers. This is often due to prior traumatic experiences,
their sometimes interrupted education and/or low levels of literacy.
Additionally, there are vast differences between African refugee students’
native culture and the host culture in Western Australia. Further, these
differences present real barriers to their smooth adjustment/acculturation
into the new culture.
The primary focus of the study was to ascertain whether or not the
curriculum was assisting them in their integration into their new cultural
context, with the aim of developing a more culturally inclusive curriculum
which will assist their adjustment. The research reported on here was
undertaken using qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Participants
were recruited from Intensive English Language centers with the assistance
of staff from district offices of the Western Australian State Education
Department. Focus groups, individual interviews and surveys were undertaken
to develop a general understanding of the beliefs they hold about the ESL
curriculum.
Keywords - Perceptions, African, refugees, adjustment, culture, curriculum,
Western Australia
StephenMcLoughlin
Mitigating risk of ethnic violence in Africa: An examination of Rwanda and
Botswana
Abstract - In the 1980s, two nations in Africa stood out for their
development and stability in a continent beset with famine, war and strife.
Both Rwanda and Botswana earned the moniker ‘the Switzerland of Africa’ as
they successfully pursued economic growth and development. But for Rwanda,
things went drastically wrong. In 1994 extremist elements led the most
intense genocide of the twentieth century, resulting in the deaths of close
to one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu in just a ninety-day period. The
country was devastated, and sixteen years later, is still recovering.
By contrast, Botswana has been able to maintain its strong economic growth
and reputation as an oasis of stability. It has gone from one of the
poorest countries in the world at its independence in 1966 to a solid
middle-income nation. The presence of ethnic divisions and inequalities has
not derailed Botswana’s progress, which has occurred despite the presence of
a number of the risk factors typically associated with nations fraught with
ethnic strife. While Botswana appears on Genocide Watch’s most recent
watch-list of nations at risk of mass atrocities, it is ranked relatively
low risk and has not experienced any major interethnic violence. The risk
factors present in Botswana appear to have been offset by the nation’s
multiple strengths.
This paper seeks to compare risk and resilience in Rwanda and Botswana.
There has been extensive analysis of what ‘went wrong’ in Rwanda, but there
is much less information available about what ‘goes right’ in countries such
as Botswana. The case studies of these two nations suggest that
understanding the pathways that lead to genocide and mass atrocities not
only requires a consideration of risk, but a more complex analysis of the
interaction between risk factors and mitigating factors that can have a
protective function.
Keywords - Rwanda, Botswana, Switzerland of Africa, genocide and mass
atrocities, stability
Sara Meger The
globalization of sexual violence: Western resource demand and the use of
rape in contemporary armed conflict
Abstract -
The systematic rape of women has been a regular feature of war and in
today’s civil conflicts, rape is a systematic and brutal weapon used by
armed groups against civilian populations. Though rape
has occurred in mass and systematic forms previously, it was not as primary
of a weapon as it is in contemporary conflicts. Civil conflict has become
the primary form of warfare around the world, employing smaller arms than
traditional inter-state wars, and featuring a greater focus on
guerrilla-style fighting tactics. It is in this context that rape has become
a central feature of contemporary war.
The aim of this paper is to understand firstly the function of rape in
contemporary conflict and then explain the wider systemic factors that
construct sexual violence as an effective and strategic weapon of war.
This paper argues that the extreme forms of sexual violence being used in
contemporary conflicts are a result of the nature and context of these
conflicts. Using the Democratic Republic of Congo as a case study, this
paper argues that the extreme levels of sexual violence being witnessed in
this conflict is a direct outcome of the changed nature of conflict, which
is itself a consequence of processes of international political and economic
globalisation.
Keywords - War rape, sexual violence, globalisation, new wars, resource wars
Charles Mphande A
way and ways: Engaging Africa and Africans
Abstract - This paper is exploratory; it seeks to ask questions and
stimulate discussion which will lead to learning and action. At present
Africa as a region is largely unknown to the majority of Australians. The
few that do have an interest in Africa, such as scholars and members of
AFSAAP, find hardly any support or encouragement, philanthropic or
otherwise, to engage with Africa through meaningful scholarship. For
scholars, even the Excellence in Research in Australia (ERA) rankings of
journals that publish studies on Africa are an
obvious discouragement. For the general public, media representations of
Africa are not inviting. The identity of an African tends to be shunned in
general as a result. This state of affairs does not seem conducive to
engaging Africans and Africa. It also stands in contrast to the
long-standing engagement of Africa and Africans by other regions such as
North Europe (Scandinavia), Western Europe (particularly UK, Germany,
France) and now, increasingly, China.
This paper therefore asks how the theme of this conference – engaging Africa
and Africans – can be realized in the Australian context. A broad question
is: what models of engagement with other regions are available? What role
can African- Australians play in the models of engagement? What role can
African scholars/universities in the African region (mainland Africa and the
surrounding island nations) play in the engagement model? What benefit would
such associations as AFSAAP (Australasia), Africa Studies Association (US)
and others offer? And how can we draw upon African
diasporas scholarship in other regions?
Keywords - Engaging Africa and Africans, media representations, engagement
in other regions, models of engagement, African scholars/universities
Samuel Muchoki
Sexuality and post-refugee experience of migrants from the Horn of Africa: A
new research agenda
Abstract - In 2004-05, there was a significant shift in the pattern of
resettlement in Australia at a time when 70% of the 13,000 resettled
refugees were from Africa. In 2007, the quota allocated to refugees from the
African region was reduced due to a (perceived) failure of integration.
In this paper I review the challenges faced by African-Australians from
refugee backgrounds as they endeavour to integrate, with a specific focus on
sexuality. To date, there is a scarcity of studies that address sexuality
issues within this community. On arrival, these Australians find themselves
in a ‘new’ sexual culture which they must explore with little, or no,
assistance. This paper sets up the foundation for a new research agenda
around sexual health that is helpful not only for this community but also to
service providers working at the intersection of integration, gender and
sexuality among African-Australians.
Ndungi wa Mungai &
YangiMoi
The challenges facing single parents of African background in Wagga
Wagga, NSW
Abstract - This research explores the problems facing single parents of
African background in Wagga Wagga in regional
New South Wales (NSW). Most of these single parents have a refugee
background and have lost their spouses through conflicts. Research has shown
that single parents face problems that include financial constraints,
isolation, parenting issues, balancing family needs, unemployment and
housing. In addition to experiencing the problems faced by other single
parents, African single parents have limited knowledge of available services
and the services have limited knowledge of their needs.
Drawing on qualitative research methodology, this primary social work paper
discusses the range of problems as well as the resilience of these single
parents, and proposes ways of bridging the gap between single parents and
service providers in Wagga Wagga. The objective
of this research is to make these problems visible and also assist in
reducing the isolation.
Keywords - Single parents, service delivery, service providers, African,
refugee backgrounds, resilience
Paul Munro
Improving rural education in Sierra Leone: The potential role of small-scale
solar power and ICT interventions
Abstract - Sierra Leone and its capital city of Freetown were once dubbed
“the Athens of Africa” due to the country’s high education standards and
being home to the first ever western-style University in West Africa (Fourah
Bay College). Yet this moniker has since been dropped as many areas of the
education sector have subsequently crumbled during years of authoritarian
patrimonial rule in the 1970s and 1980s and the subsequent civil war during
the 1990s.
This has particularly been the case with schools located in the country’s
rural areas, which suffer from acute skilled teacher shortages, lack of
schooling materials and physical infrastructure – most notably, mains
electricity is scarce in Sierra Leone and is non-existent outside urban
areas.
This paper will examine the potential role that solar power installations
and information and communication technologies (ICTs) could play in
ameliorating these problems, drawing upon fieldwork experience and research
conducted by the organization Energy for Opportunity (EFO). Specifically, it
will examine how such interventions can have a positive impact on rural
education in Africa, from the very basics of providing reliable light for
reading, to the potential role of ICTs in diversifying education
opportunities for rural secondary students by connecting them to a global
online education community.
Keywords - Sierra Leone, teacher shortages, solar power, rural education,
school materials and infrastructure, global online education community
Paul Munro & Greg Hiemstra-van
der Horst
Conserving exploitation? A political ecology of forestry policy in Sierra
Leone
Abstract - For over a decade, Sierra Leonean
resource management policy has been firmly embedded in broader political
commitments to decentralisation and community ‘empowerment’. Nonetheless, in
response to a sudden influx of foreign timber interests, the country’s
Forestry Division recently introduced new legislation centralizing forest
control to the federal level. While ostensibly ‘conservationist’ in nature,
this revised Forestry Act nearly illegalizes ‘local’ use of forest resources
while easing access for foreign capital.
As this paper demonstrates, however, this outcome is not essentially
neoteric but rather a reflection of the tensions
and contradictions produced by the entwining of ‘forest conservation’ and
‘timber production’ throughout the history of Sierra Leonean forestry
policy. This discursive dynamic has ultimately created a confused mosaic of
policies which different powerful actors have, at various times, exploited
at the expense of ‘local’ populations.
The paper begins with a historical analysis of how particular ideas and
practices around conservation and logging emerged during the early colonial
period and how these were subsequently shaped through various historical
processes. Building on this analytical and contextual foundation, the paper
then presents an examination of contemporary interactions between foreign
timber companies, governmental actors and forest-reliant local communities.
Keywords - Sierra Leone, forestry management, timber extraction,
colonialism, conservation
Robert Munro Processing digital communications in
less-resourced African languages
Abstract - Text-messaging (SMS) has quickly become the dominant form of
remote communication across much of Africa. Every day, millions of messages
are sent in hundreds of languages, with local organisations leading the way
in leveraging mobile technologies to support health, banking and education.
This has created a new information bottleneck as these communications often
need to be rerouted, filtered, and/or triaged. This presentation will report
on recent work in techniques for managing SMS in the Chichewa language in
rural Malawi. Using the FrontlineSMS:Medic
software, doctors at a central clinic communicate directly with remote
community health workers via SMS. The doctors currently spend about 1 hour
per day sorting incoming messages, but with a patient-population of over
200,000 this averages to just 5 seconds per patient per year.
By utilizing natural language processing (NLP), managing this data can be
partially automated, saving time locally and allowing monitoring bodies to
identify potential outbreaks early on. However, like most languages,
Chichewa has rich affixing and spellings may be more or less phonetic. This
presents a considerable challenge, as almost all communication management
systems rely on 'keyword'-based filtering and data mining: what works for
English has double the error in Chichewa. Fortunately, this 'subword'
variation is linguistically predictable. In a novel approach, we show that
one form of machine learning can automatically learn these variations,
allowing another level of machine learning to then accurately classify and
reroute messages. This has very broad (and promising) implications for the
application of digital technology to many African languages
Keywords - African languages, digital communication, data
Simon Musgrave, Finex
Ndhlovu, Julie Bradshaw & Phuong Dzung
Pho
Demography and language: African immigration to Australia
Abstract - Immigration to Australia from Africa has grown substantially over
the last two decades, including the intake of both refugees and voluntary
migrants from various African countries. To some extent, this change has
been driven by various crises, both natural and man-made, which have
affected different parts of the African continent, and it is not difficult
to track these pressures in the available census data. Information about the
place of birth of Australian residents allows us to see that different
African nations have been the dominant source of migrants at different
times.
However, it is by no means so simple to extract information about the
linguistic demography of Australia’s African migrants from census data.
While Borland and Mphande have provided an
excellent introduction to the issue for the population in Victoria (Borland
and Mphande 2006, 2009), Bradshaw,
Deumert and Burridge
include some information specific to the question of interpreting services
(2008) and Musgrave and Hajek (2010) give some
information about the micro-level demography of the Sudanese community in
Melbourne, in this paper we discuss the various factors which make the task
of linguistic demography difficult for this population.
First, many languages with small numbers of speakers in Australia are simply
not individually represented in the census tables.
Second, and compounding the first problem, many migrants from Africa
are multilingual and may choose to represent themselves as speakers of a
language of wider communication rather than as speakers of their first
language for various reasons. A third factor posing difficulty for
accurately assessing the linguistic demography of Australia’s African
community is the lack of geographical specificity of certain languages. This
factor can obscure the situation not only within the African community, as
in the case of Swahili, but also across populations from different
continents, as in the case of Arabic. We conclude that census data provides
an inadequate picture of the linguistic diversity of this community, and
that further research is urgently needed to give a more complete picture.
Keywords - African languages in Australia, linguistic demography, census
data, linguistic diversity
Clovis Mwamba Mikili:
An initiatory and migratory route for Congolese
Abstract - For the Congolese, “Mikili”
indicates (countries of) Europe and carries the meaning of El Dorado.
However, traditionally it also held meaning as the ‘true country’, which
prior to colonialism meant the ‘village’ to most Congolese.
The notion of the village as ‘true country’ began to change under colonial
rule. For Congolese, much was absent in the vacuum left by the removal of
the policy of “indigénat” (the Belgian
system of apartheid in Congo). The city had been designed and organised by
whites during the colonial period to suit their own needs. The former notion
of education within the village has been replaced by people leaving the
villages, attracted by the city. Even within the city, indigenous Congolese
have found it more attractive to live as the former colonial bosses were
living. The concepts of time, money, wages, competition, social classes,
private property, the nuclear family, and so on were unknown before colonial
domination and have caused the catastrophic erosion of community
egalitarianism, collective ownership and blood ties. In a cultural sense,
the colonial ‘kingdom of heaven’ became the ‘true country’ (true
mokili) while the ‘village shared with
one’s ancestors’ becomes the false mokili.
More recently, Congolese refugees have discovered that the onslaught of
globalisation means that the world has become very small. They have been
forced to challenge the notion that El Dorado exists only in the northern
hemisphere. Australia has now become Mikili.
This paper addresses the question of how traditional concepts of initiation
and education embodied in Mikilii have
changed over time, and which colonial and post-colonial factors have shaped
Mikili for the modern Australian
Congolese. The focus will be on the traditional importance of family and
community and the paradoxes raised by the ‘individualised’ explorations of
Mikili. Further, traditional cultural
concepts of hierarchy through elders and the symbolic and psychological
importance of names will be explored.
FinexNdhlovu "I
can’t become an Australian because I am always too something to be
Australian”: African identities, discourses of exclusion and resurgent
racism in Australia
Abstract - There is resurgent racism in Australia reflected in elite, media
and public discourses on issues around being and becoming an Australian
citizen. While citizenship is largely conceptualized in formal/official
terms that define it on the basis of social rights, privileges and
responsibilities that all members of a given polity are entitled to, this
definition ignores salient non-official elements that determine people’s
levels of active citizenship participation. Officially becoming a citizen
does not always automatically open doors of access to equal socio-economic
and political opportunities. This paper reports on the outcomes of a study
that was aimed at documenting personal stories of African refugee background
Australian citizens regarding their experiences with being and becoming
Australian; and how they are dealing with life in Australia. It reflects on
and discusses some of the subtle micro-social issues impacting on active
citizenship participation by recently conferred Australian citizens of
African refugee backgrounds.
The ultimate goal of the paper is to recast conceptions of citizenship in
ways attuned to everyday forms of social interaction in public spaces, way
out of the gaze of official government policies.
Michael Nest The
rise of African consumer power: How activists wanting to change the world
need to persuade the consumers who matter
Abstract - Consumer boycotts are established strategies for pressuring firms
to change the conditions under which commodities are produced and traded.
Recently, activists concerned about war in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) have advocated boycotts of products made from ‘conflict minerals’
produced in militia-controlled mines, and demanded that firms guarantee
their products do not contain such minerals. Mobile phones are a key target
of these campaigns. Yet 75% of mobile phones are in developing countries –
Africa has more mobile phones than the US – and handsets are increasingly
manufactured in China.
This paper analyses initiatives to restructure the global supply chain for
tantalum or ‘coltan’, a mineral extracted in the
Congo that is an essential ingredient in electronic devices. The paper
argues that assumptions about the power of western consumers are becoming
redundant for certain products, including mobile phones. A geographical
shift in markets to African and other developing country markets poses
challenges for activists and governments seeking to end war in Congo by
targeting armed groups’ resource profits. Coltan
initiatives also hold lessons for transnational activism generally: namely,
the need to engage with newly powerful consumers in societies where
transparency in business and government is limited and where activism has
historically focused on domestic issues.
Stephen O'Brien
Behind the decline in HIV in Zimbabwe
Abstract - For more than ten years Zimbabwe has been known for political and
economic instability, including the near collapse in 2008 of its health
system. Paradoxically, this period has also seen the development of a major
public health success which has only recently gained significant
international attention. The prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV) in the population has fallen from an estimated 29% in 1997 to 13.7% in
2009.
This paper will summarise the various reports which have been used to
provide the evidence of this achievement in the fight against the Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic. It outlines how factors such as
HIV incidence, migration, mortality and behaviour change have contributed to
the decline. The paper also addresses issues such as health funding, the
availability of antiretroviral therapy and the development and management of
Zimbabwe’s AIDS response. These factors will be considered in the light of
the implications of this public health success for the still considerable
number of people living with HIV and the Zimbabwean state
Keywords - Zimbabwe, HIV incidence, HIV prevalence, behaviour change, AIDS
Ben O'Mara
Using mobile phones to support the health and wellbeing of African
communities: A critical approach to communicating information with Digital
Technology
Abstract - Recent research has found that mobile phones are considered a
ubiquitous, relatively affordable and preferred form of digital technology
by people from the Sudanese community in Victoria (O’Mara,
Babacan and Borland 2010). At the same time, a
number of digital technology projects in Africa are using mobile phones as a
key platform for communicating finance, health, education, agriculture and
weather information. Mobile phones, like other digital media platforms, are
increasingly converging with the internet, and perform many tasks once
limited to computers. They demonstrate considerable potential to communicate
information effectively with African communities.
The experiences of African communities with mobile phones are complex,
however. There are differences in the quality and frequency of access to
mobile phones due to factors such as age, language, socioeconomic
background, educational level, the diversity of
makes and models, and familiarity with technical functions (Castells
2006; O’Mara et al. 2010). Additionally, communication preferences and
social context shape the ways in which digital technology is used.
This paper reviews current literature and ICT projects involving African
communities and mobile phones. It also examines data collected from
interviews and focus groups conducted with members of the Sudanese community
in Melbourne’s west and the regional community of Warrnambool conducted as
part of a VicHealth-funded digital technology
study. It seeks to develop a critical perspective on the ways in which
mobile phones are used with African communities to support their health and
wellbeing, and argues for more inclusive and nuanced communication
strategies created in partnership with communities to help address their
needs and agendas.
Keywords - Mobile phones, key communications platform,
Sudanese community, digital technology
Rachel Outhred
Black first and a student second? Exploring
embodied experiences of African-born students in Australia’s higher
education system
Abstract - In 1985, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson
submitted a thesis to the Department of Sociology at Princeton University
entitled Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community. In her
introduction, the now First Lady of the United States of America stated,
‘I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.
Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with whites at
Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a
student second’ (Robinson 1985).
This paper focuses on voice, exploring the extent to which African-born
students, receiving a place in Australia’s tertiary education system,
are also given space to voice their differences as well as their
similarities. It contributes to a broader agenda of re-imagining student
equity in Australian higher education in terms of aspiration, mobility and
voice (Gale and Sellar 2009). The paper draws on
the phenomenological notion of corporalité
(Merleau-Ponty 1962), to explore embodied
experiences as narrated by African-born students participating in higher
education within Australia. It acknowledges the relationship between
different bodies in educational settings as sites for socially just
education (Lingard 2007) and explores the extent
to which African-born students feel personally and ideologically comfortable
within Australia’s university environment.
Abstract - This paper will explore the types of labels applied to migrants
and refugees of African-backgrounds in Australia. Currently the term
‘African-Australian’ is used to describe people originating from a diverse
range of countries comprising many cultural backgrounds. Yet it is hard to
imagine a similar scenario where the European-Australian label could be
employed without protest.
This paper will ask why ‘African-Australian’ has come to be used
unquestioningly. How are so-called ‘African-Australians’
represented in the public domain by specialist and mainstream services?
What are these representations based on and what impact do they have? This
paper will also argue that for refugees in particular, this label is largely
based on a deficit model that focuses disproportionately on trauma, loss and
victim status. Indeed, the dominant image of Africans in Australia is as
refugees, so that all ‘African-Australians’ are stereotyped as ‘problems’ in
need of solutions. This will be linked to both the wide body of literature
that considers when refugee-status ceases and scholarship on how the ‘Other’
is positioned by the majority. Drawing on research data investigating the
resettlement experiences of Australians from Southern Sudanese backgrounds,
I will argue that convenient labelling for some has negative consequence for
many new Australians from African backgrounds.
Abstract - That man over there says that women
need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the
best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over
mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And
ar'n't I a woman? Sojourner Truth, 1851 In 1960, the pan-African identity
campaign advocating ‘black is beautiful’ attempted to discourage black
people from straightening their hair, lightening their skins or mimicking
Caucasian appearance. This movement achieved many things but failed to
dissuade many black women, especially in the US and Europe, from
straightening their hair. To date, an industry dedicated to “ethnic
cosmetics” thrives. Despite this tendency to move towards Caucasian-shaped
aesthetics, the editorial team of Elle Magazine decided in 1997 to
put AlekWek, a
former Sudanese refugee and the darkest-skinned young model in the industry,
with closely cropped natural ringlets of African hair on the cover of its
November issue. Their justification was her shape, not her colour.
This paper examines the range of questions that arose from
Wek’s success and what the debate says about
race and beauty, especially to Africans in the Diaspora. A review of
existing feminist and poststructuralist literature reveals that mainstream
fashion media is increasingly constructing beauty around the image of a
tall, thin and ‘nicely’ shaped woman. This allows beauty to be applied to
all races and encourages African women in the Diaspora to aspire to
‘universal beauty’ such as Wek’s, their own
cultural ideas of beauty notwithstanding. In analysing this discourse I rely
on a comparison of a young African woman recently featured in Australia’s
Next Top Model reality television show with another young Africa model
in the United States. Drawing on poststructuralist analysis, I examine
their statements, performances and public reaction to these. My analysis
suggests that the mainstream construction of beauty emphasises shape.
Whether this emphasis is to the exclusion of race may be the subject of
future research.
Ben Silverstein
"Do you see what we see?"/"Africa wants you to leave us alone": Images of
Africans in the West
Abstract - This paper is a reflection on the contemporary role of images in
conditioning forms of ‘Western’ engagement with ‘Africa’ as a concept and
African people. I will compare two recent distinct images of Africans
designed to be viewed through Western eyes. The first is a postcard
distributed as part of a World Vision campaign in July 2008, encouraging
Australians to sponsor needy children overseas. This campaign featured
advertisements asking ‘us’ whether, when we looked at the image of a young
African boy, we saw what they saw. What did they see and, by extension, what
were we supposed to see? And what were we not supposed to see? The second
image is a mural painted in Basel, Switzerland earlier this year by South
African artist Breeze Yoko, dominated by images of African liberation
activists and statesmen designed to signify African strength and
self-reliance. The question posed by World Vision here seems apposite again:
what do we see in these images of Africans staring out at the viewer?
Both images not only call upon the viewer to respond in different ways, but
interpellate the viewer as a subject in
relation to a hyperreal Africa. I will draw
on Althusser’s work on interpellation, as well
as Butler’s refinement of the concept, to try to unpick the mechanisms by
which these ‘Africas’ call certain subjects into
being. I will also draw on the work of Mudimbe
and others on Africa as a sign in order to work through the ways such images
of Africa are linked with the constitution of ambivalently external
subjects. The two images, with their differently signified
Africas, work through a dialectic of image and
text, viewed and viewer, encouraging different ways for ‘outsiders’ to
relate to Africa.
Keywords - Images of Africa/ns, interpellation, Africa as sign, subject
relations, outsiders
Abdullah Teia
The importance of arts and African cultural heritage for Australian-African
identity and social inclusion
Abstract - Our paper begins by introducing state and local policies and
structures relating to multiculturalism in South Australia. It will also
provide background and context for the recent history of African migration
to South Australia, including some of the challenges faced by new arrivals
and particularly young people from African backgrounds.
We then turn to a discussion of the importance of arts programs as a means
to revitalise communities and to maintain traditional crafts, using the
Jamba Africa project as an example. Specific
African-based community arts projects such as the Magic Waterhole, a core
project program based on a traditional Sudanese story that has been used
successfully to introduce African culture to the wider community, can be
seen to promote meaningful multicultural engagement and provide a vital tool
to strengthen Australian-African relationships at many different levels.
Most importantly, they demonstrate the ways in which art, an integral part
of human life, can be used to show that African cultural heritage has more
to offer to Australia in terms of social inclusion than has been previously
recognised.
Keywords - Arts, African cultural heritage, identity, social inclusion,
multiculturalism, strengthening African-Australian community relationships,
maintenance of traditional crafts
Vera
Tetteh
"You know African women want to work”: Language, identity and social
inclusion of African women in Australia
Abstract - This paper reports on an aspect of my broader sociolinguistic
ethnographic PhD project. It draws on settlement narratives of black African
women to examine how ideologies of language and identity intersect to impact
their settlement experiences in regional/rural New South Wales. In this
context, black African women as second language learners and users of
English are also ‘cultural gatekeepers’ and ‘cultural brokers’ (Kourtzin,
2000; Piller, 2001) in the negotiation and (re)positioning
of selves for social inclusion. However, the
gendered migration, second language use and settlement experiences of this
marginalized group is poorly understood.
As Hooks (1994) and, more recently, Creese and
Kambere (2003) argue, black women’s experiences
are seldom the focus of Western scholarly research. Therefore, this paper
aims first, to illuminate the complex dynamics of language ideologies and
socialization processes of black African women, and second, to include the
voices of this marginalised group in Australia’s settlement discourses.
Keywords - African women, language, identity, social inclusion,
regional/rural
Abstract: The first FIFA
World Cup to be held in Africa is over and despite the absence of an African
team in the final it was generally viewed as a success for the continent.
One of the notable aspects of the event was the sound of the vuvuzelas, the
plastic horns that created as much noise as controversy at stadiums and
around television sets across the world. The vuvuzelas will be remembered as
a unique and defining feature of the tournament. The origin of the vuvuzela
and the etymology of the word is subject to much debate. Some have claimed
that the horns are a modern version of the kudu horns that were used to call
villagers in various parts of southern Africa to gather. Others suggest a
more recent and mundane origin as an adaptation of a metal vehicle horn.
This paper explores the use and representation of the vuvuzela in the
context of the African World Cup and in relation to globalization and
neo-traditionalism.
Keywords - Identity, globalization, neo-traditionalism, football
Peter MbagoWakholi
Festival as an educational experience: The African Cultural Memory Youth
Arts Festival (ACMYAF)
Abstract - Australia has become home to a significant number of African
migrants from Africa and many of them experience acculturation challenges
which influence identity construction and social being. For young people of
African migrant descent, acculturation entails appropriation of cultural
influences from both the dominant culture and the cultural heritage of their
parents. This occurs in conditions which are sometimes contradictory,
whereby African parents teach their children African culture and values
while at the same time Australian schools, media and other socialising
institutions insist on Eurocentric values. Australian
media mostly portray Africa and Africans negatively, sustaining stereotypes
of Africa as a region of poverty, war, and teeming with wild beasts without
acknowledging positive aspects of the continent. This in turn
influences the way the wider community perceives African-Australians and how
the latter construct their own identities. Xenophobic attitudes and
alienating curriculum in schools can add to the complexities of trying to
construct an African-Australian identity.
Yet evidence from social psychology and immigration studies suggest that a
strong and secure ethnic identity makes a positive contribution to
psychological well-being. This paper explores the concept of a bicultural
socialisation educational program (BSEP) developed as an outcome of a
community-based festival research project conducted among young people of
African migrant descent in Western Australia. The paper will demonstrate how
the festival, as a (BSEP) event, was organised on the basis that integration
that involves simultaneous ethnic retention and adaptation to the new
society as the most adaptive mode of acculturation conducive to
African-Australians’ well-being.
Keywords - African migrants, cultural identity, cultural memory, bicultural
socialisation and education, acculturation, festival, performance, embodied
knowledge, bicultural competence
Helen Ware
Mining, governance and war in Africa
Abstract - Both poverty and mineral wealth appear to constitute curses in
the African context. Blood diamonds have become notorious and have served to
emphasize the role of the end-users of Africa’s mineral resources.
This paper explores the tangled interrelationships between mining and war in
Africa. With a special emphasis upon West Africa, it examines the links
between the type of mining and the development and cross-regional spread of
conflict. It also contrasts and compares the governments of Sierra Leone and
Botswana and how they have handled mining issues and revenues.
Keywords - Africa, war, mining, poverty, blood diamonds
Tim Watson
Resettlement in an Australian regional town: Refugees as citizens, employees
and customers
Abstract - Citizens from all backgrounds spend large amounts of time and
money as part of interacting with the private sector. In the case of newly
arrived groups from refugee backgrounds, very little attention is given to
community members’ interactions as customers of telecommunications
companies, banks, insurance companies, real estate agencies and car sales
businesses. These companies provide products and financial services, which,
if not well understood, can leave newly arrived groups vulnerable to
indebtedness, potentially exacerbating the effects of trauma and stress. In
addition, private sector organisations are given no government support, nor
is there adequate advocacy by government, to ensure such services can be
accessed equitably. For example, funding for the provision of free
interpreter services, which is available to government contracted services,
is not made available to the private sector.
This paper will draw on extensive documentation undertaken as part of the
Castlemaine African Community Project (CACP). The CACP is a 2.5 year
Victorian state government funded project supporting a community of Sudanese
Australian people based in the town of Castlemaine (pop. 9,000), 120 km from
Melbourne, Australia. The paper will use a number of case studies to draw
out themes which typify the challenges faced in small regional locations by
people from refugee backgrounds, and services responding to them.
It will highlight how some challenges have been overcome, and where barriers
continue to exist due to systemic policy gaps at a local, state and national
level, focusing especially on three key areas largely neglected in policy
planning for refugee settlement support:
- Developing mainstreamservice responses to citizens with
settlement needs
- Working with employers to strengthen their capacity to better support
employees from refugee backgrounds
- Working with private sector organisations to increase accessibility of
information provision to customers from refugee backgrounds
Keywords - Refugees, Sudanese resettlement, regional Australia, systemic
policy gaps, settlement, employment and information needs
Lisa Webber
Regional places and social networks: A case study of Sudanese refugees in
Colac, Victoria
Abstract - A social network immediately conjures up ideas of people and
relationships. However, there are many other factors at play that act to
create and influence how these networks are performed. One such influencing
factor is place. Be they locally performed or at a distance, the place in
which social networks are performed and negotiated plays a crucial role in
the negotiation of these relationships.
This paper is part of a larger research project in which I aim to produce a
nuanced picture of the social networks of Sudanese refugees in a regional
town, Colac, Victoria. This paper looks at the important role that Colac
plays in the creation and negotiation of social networks on various levels
and scales for the Sudanese people who call the town home. This paper will
look at the space of Colac as both a place in which social networks are
performed by the Sudanese research participants (with a focus on the unique
layers of social networks that the regional place encourages) and the role
that Colac itself plays as an actor in these social networks.
Keywords - Regional places, social networks, negotiation of relationships,
Sudanese refugees in Colac
JaneckWille
Integration and the Australian society: Notions of belonging and social
cohesion
Abstract - African refugees in Australia have received much attention in
recent years. Public commentary and academic debate reached its crescendo
with former Minister Andrews’ controversial statements in 2007 on the
difficulties African refugees face integrating into Australian society. The
current policy focus on social cohesion, social inclusion and belonging
therefore leads to sociological questions concerning how newly-arrived
communities adapt, develop, adjust and feel included in a society under
circumstances where specific groups feel maligned both by media and by some
politicians.
My research considers the highly contested concept of integration through
examining related concepts such as home/belonging, recognition and
contribution. It discusses the claim that successful integration based on
inclusion and belonging strengthens the long-term policy goal of social
cohesion and analyses the value of a sense of contribution and recognition
among refugees resettling in Australia.
Based on interviews with over 20 Sudanese men and women living in Canberra
as well as analysis of related research on the Sudanese community in
Australia, I explore in this paper whether different experiences of
integration have implications for a more cohesive society. The paper
distinguishes between, on the one hand, ‘functional’ aspects of integration
such as employment, language and education and, on the other hand, a sense
of belonging, knowledge of a secure future, and being accepted as part of
the general society – the ‘social’ aspect of integration (Zetter
et al. 2002; Atfield et al. 2007). I argue that
these social and functional aspects of integration are equally important
through representing both the significance of being recognized and valued as
active agents in society and a knowledge of one’s
own contribution to society.
Keywords - Sudanese refugees,
integration, recognition, belonging, and social cohesion
YirgaGelawWoldeyes
Beyond Afropessimism: Engaging Africa through
cultural renaissance
Abstract - I argue for the significance of
cultural renaissance to challenge Afropessimism.
Afropessimism is a perspective that views Africa
as a continent fated for destruction, helplessness and chaos. I will
summarily trace the development of this view in the historical relationship
between Africa and the West and in the practice of state and media
institutions that have externalised the active roles and viewpoints of
African peoples in defining and acting upon their destinies. Africa,
beginning from its ‘invention’, is still encapsulated in the exotic and void
representations of ‘otherness’ or ‘nothingness’.
The resistance against the image of nothingness is possible only through a
cultural renaissance that celebrates the strength and values of the African
peoples for themselves. Such strengths and values could be drawn from what
has enabled African peoples to endure, resist and survive the very long and
brutal sufferings perpetuated against them by self-serving and patrimonial
systems. Africa still lives and will always live because there is something
that works among its people. I will draw examples from cultural resistance
movements, belief systems, and thoughts to support my assertion that
engaging Africa requires a cultural frame that pays attention to what is
working and valued among its peoples.
Keywords - Afropessimism, Africa and the West,
state and media institutions, cultural renaissance
Mary Young, Robyn Alders & Celia Grenning
Village poultry: Helping to meet the Millennium Development Goals
Abstract - Village poultry make a significant contribution to poverty
alleviation and household food security in many developing countries. In
traditional village poultry systems, chickens provide scarce animal protein
and are available for sale or barter where cash is not abundant. They are
generally owned and managed by women and children and fulfil a range of
other functions to which it is difficult to assign a monetary value.
However, for many smallholders, disease has been a major constraint to
poultry production.
For over 25 years, the Australian Centre for Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)
have supported village poultry research and development, particularly
control of Newcastle disease. The International Rural Poultry Centre (IRPC)
of the KYEEMA Foundation works with the support of ACIAR,
AusAID, the European Community and the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to improve the livelihoods
and standard of living of rural families by promoting cost-efficient,
sustainable improvements to village poultry production. By increasing
household incomes, improving family nutrition and empowering women, village
poultry improvement programs have the potential to contribute to each of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
