34th AFSAAP conference
"Africa 2011"
Flinders University
November 30 - December 2 2011
Conference
proceedings
All
submitted papers appear in alphabetical order, followed by abstracts in
alphabetical order. All have been peer reviewed by a panel of experts.
Tanya Lyons, Flinders
University
Africa 2011: The challenges
Keynote Speech - Naomi
Steer, National Director, Australia for UNHCR
The Horn of Africa crisis - The humanitarian response
Keynote Speech - Gashahun
Lemessa Fura, Jimma University
Inter-university linkage approach to African Studies of Australasia: Some
reflections on Jimma-Flinders Universities recent Academic linkage
~~~~
Oluwabukola Adelaja, University of New South Wales
Catching up with the rest of the world: The legal framework of cybercrime in
Africa
With the global advancement of technology, the Internet world needs a legal
regime for cybercrime and Internet law enforcement Africa. For this reason,
there is a crucial need for African countries to not only formulate relevant
domestic cybercrime related laws but also forge international alliances to fight
the cybercrime menace. A common trend in other parts of the world is that
countries with established cyber laws forge cooperative alliances to administer
effective cybercrime enforcement actions. This means that countries that form
part of these alliances are able to extend the reach of the law beyond their
territories and therefore are able to give full effect to the legislative intent
of relevant laws. For example, the Australian Spam Act enables the incorporation
of international conventions that relate to commercial electronic messages and
address harvesting software into the domestic law. This paper will analyze the
current cybercrime legal framework in Africa and compare it to those of other
developed countries such as the USA, UK and Australia. The aim of this exercise
will be to establish a need for relevant and dynamic cyber laws and the
advantages of cooperation within and outside Africa to ensure proper enforcement
through cooperation. Finally, recommendations will be made for legislative and
regulatory systems to be established. Emphasis will be placed on the role of
education awareness to legislators and the public in order to drive a successful
anti-cybercrime regime in Africa.
Dapo Adeleke, PhD Candidate, School of Arts, University of New England, Armidale
The African writer: an endangered species in the African socio/political milieu
– Nigeria as a case study
Africa is a global concern even in 2011 in spite of her vast economic and human
resources. Economic mismanagement, corruption, and the inordinate ambition of
many African rulers to perpetuate ‘self’ in power at all costs have led to civil
wars, poverty, starvation and political instability. The ruling class has
consistently resisted, with force, divergent voices for political stability and
good life for the African people. African writers have been in the vanguard of
these divergent voices. Consequently many of them have suffered different
dimensions of brutality. In the last five decades, cases of writers incarcerated
without trial, assassinated, kidnapped or disappeared are common in Africa. This
paper looks at the African writers in the context of Africa’s political and
socio-economic development with Nigeria as a case study. The struggle of
Nigerian writers to ensure good governance, socio-economic development and good
life for the people has met with brutality from the ruling class. This is the
case all over Africa. In spite of the United Nations’ proclamation of 2011 as
the “international Year for People of African descent” coupled with Australia’s
bold and commendable step to improve the lot of Africa in various fronts, Africa
may remain a pathetic global concern unless the African political classes
accommodate divergent voices and carry along all the stakeholders in the African
project.
Melanie Baak, PhD Candidate, University of South Australia
"I think it’s a little bit the same": Negotiating belongings as Diäärjäng from
Sudan, through exile to Australia
Belonging is a concept that in recent years has been investigated at length
particularly with relation to migration. It affects us all, but for those who
have been displaced, unsettled or made ‘homeless’ by the increased movements of
the current globalising era ‘the ideas and practices associated with belonging
are under constant challenge’ (Ilcan, 2002, p. 1). This paper will explore the
importance of belonging for six Diäärjäng (Dinka women/wives). The narratives of
these six women were recorded using ethnographic, autoethnographic and oral
history approaches and analysis identified various ways in which belonging was
sought and negotiated. This paper will focus on how the women negotiated their
ethicised and gendered belongings as Diäärjäng. Discourses on women,
globalisation, migration, ethnicity and culture frequently construct women in
the role of ‘carriers of tradition’ rather than as symbols of change
(Yuval-Davis 2009, p. 13). In contrast to this, the narratives of the women in
this research emphasised both change and sameness in how they negotiated their
belongings as Diäärjäng through their migration journeys. Their ways of
belonging as Diäärjäng were challenged and shifted by their own physical
migrations as well as the migrations of ideas and other people. This paper will
consider how these continuities and discontinuities resulted in the women’s
belongings as Diäärjäng being a continual negotiation.
Jean Burke, School of Social Work, Australian Catholic University
Swahili-based concepts: Explaining how social ties manage HIV and infant feeding
In Tanzania where HIV transmission is high, decisions to avoid or modify
breastfeeding are crucial for infant survival yet difficult due to competing
risks. A study in Central Tanzania explored the role of social dynamics in
infant feeding decisions to prevent HIV. Qualitative data was collected from
in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with people living with HIV and
community members, including village leaders, traditional healers and midwives
within the Dodoma region. Data was analysed using grounded theory and natural
Swahili language. Emerging themes were based on Swahili categorisations. In the
context of HIV, infant feeding is a moral issue of fear and safety (salama);
decisions seek to maximise kinga (immunity). Swahili-based conceptualisations
were used to explain how social relations (jamii) manage HIV and infant feeding
in complex, dynamic ways, by acting as kinga, and as gates of open paths for the
flow of capacities (uwezo) into and within networks. The use of language in this
study opened up Tanzanian ways of thinking, some of which are positive
dimensions to more widely embraced negative concepts, especially ideas of
maximising immunity (rather than reducing risk), building openness (rather than
fighting stigma) and embracing responsibilities (rather than demanding rights).
Clare Buswell, Flinders University
Moral authority, power and women’s identity in colonial Kenya
Utilising the concept of moral authority facilitates a deeper understanding of
the fluid interconnections that exist between what are seemingly separate
spheres of women’s lives. Importantly, moral authority highlights the way in
which agency, power, culture and meaning impact on the daily experience of life.
This paper examines the gendered notions of moral authority that protect women’s
political spaces and identity. For women under colonial rule the use of moral
authority provided not only a sense of personal power but a method of
confronting powerful menfolk and undermining the colonial regime. In exploiting
the power that came from being a wife, or a mother, or via links with the spirit
world, women confronted those who impinged on their rights and livelihoods. In
present-day Kenya, does the use of moral authority contribute to women’s agency
and challenge notions of identity?
Christine Cheater, University of Tasmania
Exposing without sensationalising: The Christian Science Monitor and the plight
of child soldiers in Africa
Founded in 1908 with a mission "to injure no man, but to bless all mankind", the
Christian Science Monitor is now an international newspaper published daily
online. Despite its name, the Monitor is not a religious-themed paper, and does
not promote the doctrine of its patron church. Instead it has become a voice
that champions human rights and exposes crimes against humanity while developing
a reputation for a "distinctive brand of non-hysterical journalism". In the
early 1990s it began publishing a series of article on the plight of child
soldiers in Africa and other parts of the globe. Since then it has consistently
published articles on this issue with a particular focus on child soldiers in
Sierra Leone and the activities of the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda. This
paper looks at how the Christian Science Monitor has exposed the conditions
endured by child soldiers in Africa without resorting to sensational journalism.
Bornwell C. Chikulo, Department of Development Studies, North West University
Local governance and service delivery in South Africa: Progress, achievements
and challenges
With the advent of the democratic dispensation in 1994, the South African
Government was faced, with a host of daunting development challenges inherited
from the Apartheid regime. . Local government which constitutes the third sphere
of governance in South Africa has been mandated by the Constitution to address
apartheid era inequalities and facilitate local economic development amongst the
previously disadvantaged black majority. This paper reviews the progress,
achievements and challenges faced by the South African local governance in its
attempt to facilitate the access to freedom from hunger and poverty among the
previously disadvantaged majority. It starts by outlining the geographical and
socio-economic profile, the development challenges and recent development policy
frameworks and responses. Section two discusses the institutional arrangements
established to facilitate and anchor effective service delivery and integrate
“voice” of local communities. Section three analyses the service delivery
provided to alleviate poverty .The paper concludes that the recurrent
,widespread, violent and increasingly xenophobic municipal service delivery
protests, are indicative of the fact that, despite the progress made in the past
seventeen years to establish the policy framework and institutional structure,
to effectively facilitate socio-economic development, and address the backlogs
of access to basic social services and poverty alleviation, challenges still
remain.
David Duriesmith, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of
Melbourne
Masculinity in the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone: Greed, grievance
and entitlement
During the conflict in Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
developed a distinct model of conflict that focused on terrorising civilians.
They prioritised sexual violence, torture, abduction and looting. The violence
was widespread, but it was not completely indiscriminate. The particular tactics
chosen by the RUF, such as gang rape or amputation, shows logic when placed in
Sierra Leone’s broader context. The violence acted out is best understood when
placed in the context of RUF military culture. This paper explores the complex
relationship between the construction of militarised masculinity in the RUF and
the tactics they developed. It suggests that the RUF model of warfare is
explained by the concept of protest masculinity and the patrimonial system of
Sierra Leone. The concept of youth revolt is explored from a gendered
perspective to explain the form that violence took. To do this the forms of
violence used, the targets of violence chosen and the role of military
leadership have been explored. Finally, the lessons learned through a study of
the RUF are placed within the broader context of unconventional conflict.
Geoffrey Hawker, Macquarie University
Natural resources of minerals and food: A missing link in agency
Life in all its forms depends everywhere on the products of the earth. At a
human level, food must be wrung from the soil and the artifacts of civilization
from the oil and minerals that are found within it. At the level of politics and
public policy, these two broad necessities are increasingly seen to conflict, as
when mining explorations encroach on farming land or when biofuels supplant
production for food. A reconciliation between the imperatives of the extractive
industries and of food production is scarcely ever attempted. Rather do
reformist prescriptions exist on each side, running parallel without meeting.
One the one hand, a strengthening coalition of policy actors suggest that the
norms of ‘good governance’ can deliver the financial benefits of mining to local
communities. On the other, an overlapping coalition suggests that modern methods
of intensive monocrop cultivation for the (distant) market, heavily dependent on
energy-hungry chemicals, should give way to production through organic methods
for local consumption. The defence of prevailing methods in each case comes from
the companies and their political proponents who profit from the status quo.
Christina Kenny, Australian National University
I could never be your woman – Gendered citizenship and the 2007 General Election
in Kenya
The Kenyan feminist and scholar, Maria Nzomo, has lamented the failure of the
post-colonial era to provide women with improved access to their human rights.
She argues “the trend in the status of women's human rights in Africa is
increasingly one of violation rather than promotion of those rights. The
ratification of Kenya’s new Constitution in 2010 with its entrenched Bill of
Rights provides a unique opportunity to explore the impacts of International
rights frameworks in national and local contexts. I will examine Nzomo’s dire
assertion in the context of Kenyan women’s rights - more particularly, I will
explore the ways in which African feminist scholarship has contributed to the
promotion and experience of Kenyan women’s sex and sexuality rights. I will also
interrogate the contributions of Western feminist scholarship toward the
development of flexible and culturally aware rights frameworks in African
contexts, and raise the possibility that the Western radical feminist critique
of institutional structures is more useful in African contexts where gendered
identities continue to be primary regulatory units of social organisation.
Tiffany Knight, Drama Centre, Flinders University
African voices: Who may speak? Who is listening? An examination of the process
of theatre making and the right to speak in another's voice
The Syringa Tree, by Pamela Gien, is a one-woman play that tells the
story of two South African families, one black, one white, and their deeply
entwined relationship at the height of apartheid. Although seen primarily
through the eyes of six-year old Lizzie Grace, The Syringa Tree requires
one actor to play 24 different roles, vastly ranging in age, gender and cultural
background. The process of theatre-making by its nature demands that an
individual adopts another person’s identity for a brief period of time. In
bringing a character to life, the actor has both the privilege and
responsibility to see through the eyes of the Other. The insights revealed
through story-telling and role-play offer opportunities to communicate, educate
and connect. Tiffany Lyndall Knight is a professional actor and Head of Voice at
Flinders University Drama Centre. In examining scenes from The Syringa Tree,
this presentation and subsequent panel discussion will pose questions about the
role of theatre in education, the potential for art to heal, and the right to
speak in another person’s voice.
Lynda Lawson, Thandie Ngoma and Kashim Oriaje, Queensland University of
Technology
African student experience at university, a paradigmatic case using narrative
analysis
This initiative was implemented based on a significant increase in the number of
CALD university students with residency or citizenship status in Australia. Of
particular concern are an increasing number of African students, mostly from
refugee backgound, many mature age, who are entering the universty.This
population has specific language and learning needs that are not being met
through traditional channels of support. We received funding both from the
Australian Association of Language and Learning (AALL) and some HEPP funding.
This permitted us to employ two African students as research assistants: to
identify and connect with African students on campus, to develop and mentor the
African student’s association,to assist the researcher in the conduct of
research into the profile and learning needs of this group and to assist the
researcher in the development of strategies, materials and approaches to
facilitate the learning of this group. This is an emerging field and very little
has been published in this area in Australia. The research used narrative
accounts (Pepper and Wildy, 2009) to capture the stories of these students.This
paper highlights key themes from these narratives and reports on inititiatives
designed to respond to needs found through the research. (Pepper, C. & Wildy, H.
(2009) Using narratives as research strategy. Qualitative Research Journal 9.2.
18-26).
Raymond Kwun Sun Lau, PhD candidate, Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility
to Protect, University of Queensland
Intervention to stop mass atrocities in northern Uganda: first protection, then
justice?
There has been a change in expectations about international response to mass
atrocities in the post-Cold War era and, in particular, the aftermath of the
1994 Rwandan genocide. In a bid to ensure that the world never again fails to
act, 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 of civilians and punishment of
perpetrators in the temporal trajectory of international society’s response to
mass atrocities. Using northern Uganda as a case study, this paper explores the
relationship between R2P and the ICC by questioning the temporal ordering of
R2P-ICC linkages in international society’s response to the twenty-five-year-old
conflict. In particular, it explains why invoking ICC judicial intervention
instead of R2P political action in the first place tends to be unsuccessful in
stopping the ongoing mass atrocities in northern Uganda.
Elizabeth Lang
Reframing our knowledges: The formation of Africa’s newest state, the Republic
of Southern Sudan
With the formation of Africa’s newest State, the Republic of Southern Sudan, we
are challenged to believe that our knowledge of Africa needs to be fluid, ever
changing and dynamic in nature. The formation of Africa’s newest State, the
Republic of Southern Sudan has come after decades of civil war, bloodshed and
oppression under many tyrannical rulers, ranging from the ancient times to the
present. The country has been witness to decades of war and instability under
many dictatorships. With the birth of this new nation come many hopes and
aspirations for the development of the country. Many challenges lie ahead to the
‘nation building project’ of the Republic of Southern Sudan, including
continuing conflict with the Khartoum administration over oil rich areas such as
Abyei and other areas also experiencing mass conflicts such as Darfur. It is
these barriers to development and peace that the paper seeks to highlight and
explore possible approaches for addressing the challenges.
Anlia Pretorius, Nita Lawton-Misra & Tanya Healey. University of the
Witwatersrand
Disability: Continued marginalisation!
This paper will explore equal access in the higher education environment in
South Africa and explore how equal access is spread (or not spread) throughout
society. Although higher education institutions have begun to improve access and
ensure equitable participation for students with disabilities, South African
society needs to address disability equity more holistically. While some
advances have been made regarding policy formulation, the majority of people
with disabilities still face many challenges related to equal access, which
leaves the disabled in a vulnerable position. The conscience of a nascent
democracy demands that past injustices be addressed. But genuine redress occurs
in stages. In South Africa, huge strides have been made to redress race and
gender issues, but access for disabled people remains a challenge. While
legislative changes have been in place for 10-15 years, the questions remain:
have the necessary changes taken place to reflect the intent of the legislation?
What is required to allow for a seamless transition into an inclusive society?
This needs to be questioned in light of the low number of students with
disabilities in the South African HE system. The paper will address these
questions and present the findings of a recent study into disability in Higher
Education in South Africa.
David Lucas
Multinationals and minnows: Australian companies operating in Africa
Out of the top 25 Australian companies (in terms of market capitalisation), the
following seven have current interests in Africa: BHP, Rio Tinto, Woodside,
Newcrest, Orica, Brambles, Macquarie Bank, and Orica. At the other end of the
scale are the numerous minnows, otherwise known as small caps or juniors, who
took many of the risks that have enabled Australia to became a major player in
Africa. Mergers and acquisitions of small explorers and producers has enabled
large companies to expand and diversify. This paper looks at the impact of
Australian firms of different size on Africa and at the beneficiaries of their
involvement. The framework is provided by issues identified in Chapter 6 of the
2011 Parliamentary report, Inquiry into Australia’s relationship with the
countries of Africa. These issues include capital raising, sovereign and country
risk, the quality of infrastructure, bureaucracy, corporate social
responsibility, and transparency. A number of case studies of companies of
different levels of capitalisation and operating in different countries will be
used as illustrations.
David Lucas, Barbara Edgar and Monica Jamali
Zimbabwe’s exodus to Australia
According to Crush and Tevera (2010:3), in their edited book Zimbabwe’s Exodus,
’Estimates of the number of Zimbabweans who have left the country in recent
years vary widely-from the barely plausible to the totally outlandish.’ The
estimated numbers have been increasing markedly since 2000, when Mugabe’s
government authorised seizure of white-owned land through a loosely organised
group of war veterans. At first it was mostly white Zimbabwean farmers who were
leaving the country, but with the worsening of economic and human rights
conditions in 2002, black Zimbabweans have also started to leave the country for
South Africa and other countries. However, not much has been written about the
increasing number of Zimbabweans who have migrated to Australia, a country with
good migration data. This profile discusses the migration patterns of
Zimbabweans to Australia, by undertaking primary analysis of the 2006 Australian
Census using Table builder software, together with the settlement reporting
facility of the Department of immigrants and Citizenship (DIAC). In addition to
looking at the basic characteristics of the Zimbabwe-born, date of arrival in
Australia will be related to political events in Zimbabwe, while language spoken
at home and ancestry will be used as proxies for ethnicity.
Marie-Louise McDermott, PhD candidate, Edith Cowan University
Investigating actor-networks linked to South African & Australian ocean pools
Using actor-network theory, this paper investigates the people, places and
things involved with the development and sustained use of the many ocean pools
now present on the rocky surfcoasts of Australia and South Africa. Those pools
can host aquatic play, learn-to-swim programs and watersports, afford pleasures
unmatched by other public pools and offer safe alternatives to unpatrolled surf
beaches. The actors that persuaded others to take on particular roles in ocean
pool actor-networks include rips, sharks, rocks, waves, seabathers, swimmers,
holidaymakers, swimming clubs, schools, councils, tourist businesses, transport
networks, surf lifesavers and news media. Those actor-networks nevertheless
remain volatile and unreliable. Their strength and extent can be threatened by
declining fear of sharks, increasing costs to maintain ageing ocean pools,
demands for faster, safer, warmer pools usable year-round, beliefs that public
pools should be closed when unsupervised or that ocean pools form no part of a
fashionable, modern beach or pool culture. Ocean pools widely acknowledged as
essential elements of a valued beach or pool culture can best resist these
threats.
Jean-Claude Meledje, Flinders University
The separation of ethnicity and election in Africa: The case
for Côte
d’Ivoire
On 28 November 2010, Cote d’Ivoire held its first democratic presidential
elections. The run off was a battle between Laurent Gbagbo and Allassane
Ouattara. The ballot was not “fair” because the election was rigged in the north
which is a stronghold of Ouattara and mostly dominated by Muslims. The result
has sparked off another ethnic tension between the Dioula and Bete. Given the
introduction of an ultra-nationalist politics known as Ivoirite, Ivorian
electorate is known for its complexity because ethnicity seems to play a
significant role on the choice of voters and politicians. This essay seeks to
examine the effect of ethnicity on democratic elections in Africa in general and
Cote d’Ivoire in particular. It argues that while the possibility of ethnic
impact cannot be fully ignored and while the ethnic tension between north and
south is a reality, this divide is not necessary linked to the ethnic factor.
This argument is illustrated with evidence from 2000 and 2010 elections in Cote
d’Ivoire. An analysis shows a contrast in various forms in terms of individual
vote and the modification of ethnic allegiance and family members have different
views about candidates during elections. Voters’ choices in Cote d’Ivoire are
probably based on the politics of identity but not all political parties are
determined by ethnicity.
Dani Milos
Customary v Statutory legal systems: The challenge for South Sudanese
communities in Australia
The Australian legal system is based on written rule, applied and adjudicated by
lawyers and judges in a formal setting. The legal rules are clearly documented
in legislation which is accessible to all citizens. If one experiences an
injustice or a legal dispute, there are services and avenues available to offer
advice and representation to take the matter through the legal system. The south
Sudanese legal system is quite different to the Australian however. It is based
on customary, oral laws passed down from generation to generation, applied by
the local chiefs and leaders in a public, informal setting. Disputes are not
considered ‘legal’ but rather ‘familial’ and ‘communal’, and resolutions are not
decided according to legal precedents by unknown judges, but according to the
wellbeing of the community by its most respected chiefs or elders. These
differences may not come as a surprise and may not cause an upset in a global
setting. However, for south Sudanese communities residing in Australia, these
differences can lead to misunderstandings with the law, lack of access to
services and legal injustices. This paper explores the legal implications of
these differences in dispute resolution processes for Sudanese communities in
Australia, drawing upon a qualitative study in progress. It highlights the
difficulties south Sudanese communities face in understanding, following and
applying the Australian law, as well as the importance customary law still plays
in their daily lives in Australia. The paper concludes that service providers in
Australia need to have a clearer understanding of the functions of south
Sudanese customary law before they can tailor services to meet the legal needs
of south Sudanese communities.
Clive J Napier, Department of Political Sciences, University of South Africa
South African local government – New roles and challenges evaluated – The uneasy
fit
Since the early 1990s South African local government has undergone fundamental
reform both constitutionally and functionally. Local government has assumed a
new identity and additional functions such as economic development. A shift has
been made away from regulation to community governance by the establishment of
ward committees as a new decision making structures. Accompanying this formal
change, South African local government has become more politicised, most local
governments have become less viable financially and have been subjected to
sporadic service delivery protests. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the
viability of reformed local government as a service delivery vehicle in the
South African context. Specific reference will be made to the Tshwane
municipality as a case study illustrative of the new roles and challenges faced
by local government.
Theo Neethling, Department of Political Science, University of the Free State
South Africa, The African Union and International Intervention in Libya: A
critical appraisal
The implementation of the UN Security Council vote (1973, 2011) in favour of a
no-fly zone in Libya was met with mixed reactions by South African foreign
policy observers and commentators in the stage immediately after Western forces
started to enforce the no-fly zone in March 2011. On the one side it was
basically argued that, in essence, the dilemma posed by the crisis in Libya was
no different from what often confronts the international community, namely how
and under what conditions to protect citizens from their own governments. On the
other hand it was essentially argued that US-European military action and aerial
strikes were practically aimed at regime change in Libya and specifically at
toppling Muammar Gaddafi as head of state. Soon after the initial stage of
implementation the South African government made an appeal to international
role-players to respect the unity and territorial integrity of Libya as well as
its rejection of any foreign military intervention. Immediately, this sparked
(renewed) criticism on South Africa’s foreign policy position. Critics asserted
that South Africa had to be goaded into accepting a no-fly zone, but soon turned
against her own position, eviscerating any iota of credibility she had left in
international relations. It was argued that in some instances the normative
objective of South Africa’s foreign policy is aimed at contributing to
democracy, human rights and justice in the international community. In other
instances the South African government is upholding the principles of national
sovereignty and non-interference – principles that often suit despots around the
world. These issues will be the main focus of the paper. Furthermore, as far as
South Africa’s foreign policy/relations are concerned, the concept of norms
subsidiarity (based on the work of Amitav Acharya) seems to be helpful in
explaining something of South Africa’s confused foreign policy stance since
Western forces started their attacks on Libyan targets. This will specifically
be explored in the paper.
Bernard Nwosu, Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of
Waikato
The integral state and construction of hegemony: Gramsci and democratisation in
Nigeria
I argue that the engagement between agents in the Nigerian state and civil
society during the struggle for end of military rule and establishment of
democracy from the 1980s to the current elective civil rule fits into Gramscian
war of position. Struggle by activists to make military rulers establish
democratic civil rule in Nigeria elicited backlash from forces controlling the
state. In the current post military era, entrenchment of democracy beyond
institutional parameters also warrant relations of forces with either
pro-democratic or anti democratic agenda. In the struggle for democracy,
clusters of interests operating in two broad directions of democratisation or
de-democratisation seek to extend their values and control on the state
structure. Gramsci explains this by synthesising the Hegelian and Marxian
theories and showing the connections and interstices between state and civil
society in the process of articulating or contesting hegemony. Democratisation
in itself is related to the hegemonic processes. Connecting the thesis of
Antonio Gramsci to various strategies of pro-democracy groups and the
corresponding effort to squelch them by contrary forces both in state and civil
society, I argue that the struggle for establishment of civil rule and
consolidation of democratic processes is a war of position.
Sylvester Odhiambo Obong’o, PhD Candidate, University of Newcastle
Particularistic exchanges and pacts of domination in Africa: Examining how
patronage appointments may have increased resistance to public sector reforms in
Kenya
The complex bureaucratic institutional mechanisms that make it difficult to
implement reform policies are deliberately set up by most African rulers to
serve their specific interests which are diametrically opposed to the objectives
of public sector reforms. In order to be successful, the proposed reforms
require altering the internal incentive of the bureaucracy, which in turn begins
to fundamentally alter the power controls and relationships on which a
traditional bureaucracy is based. It means that the emergence of a new form of
institutional arrangements which can be able to produce more efficient patterns
of relationship between state, markets and civil society in the management of
public policies, depends on dismantling the old order. However this new and more
efficient pattern of relationships has for a long time been resisted by the
existing web of associations created by patronage appointments. This essay looks
at how politics of patronage appointments created an ‘unholy alliance’, of elite
class bent on staying in power by controlling key state organs and creating
wealth for themselves thereby out of necessity leading them to resist public
sector reforms. Under such circumstances, as Willy McCourt noted, prospects for
reforms depended either on fundamental political change or on engaging with that
class’ fear that reform represented a threat to their interests (McCourt 2007).
Franklin Obeng-Odoom, Department of Political Economy, The University of Sydney
Is life in Africa getting better?
Now that the UN has declared 2011 as the International Year for people from
African descent, it is important to ask whether life is getting better in
Africa. Far from being a straightforward question, it is an issue that strikes
the core of the political economy of Africa’s development. How we look strongly
affects what we see. So, the socio-economic progress of Africa has been the
subject of various interpretations. The Economist (2000) became (in)famous for
declaring Africa a ‘hopeless continent’. Recent research by the African
Development Bank (2010), however, suggests that life is getting better. Building
on the work of Stilwell (1999), I shall examine the political economy of the
development indicators, including the Millennium Development Goals, which are
typically used to analyse life (and death?) in Africa, highlight their inherent
tensions and contradictions, and show why they continue to be used regardless of
their inadequacies.
Ryan O’Byrne, MA Candidate, Anthropology, Victoria University of Wellington
Speaking from experience: Issues surrounding third country resettlement for
Sudanese Acholi in New Zealand
The process of the successful integration for refugees within countries of
resettlement is often difficult, sometimes painful, yet always complex. Success
can be measured in many ways, but should ideally include refugee’s participation
and integration into all political, economic, social and cultural aspects of
their new society. Through the use of collaborative interviewing (Ellis & Berger
2003) and anti-oppressive (Potts & Brown 2005) research methodologies, in this
paper I provide a narrative-informed yet ethnographically-grounded analysis of
the issues of resettlement and return for refugee-background South Sudanese
Acholi in New Zealand. I focus on those ideas and ideals of the refugee
resettlement process which seem most pertinent to members of the Sudanese Acholi
Cultural Association (SACA) themselves, and discuss how their own experiences
and perceptions of this process provide the basis for the choices made about
which particular traditions to maintain and which customs to practice. I argue
that it is through the maintenance of ‘traditional’ cultural practices which
require ongoing communication and exchange with the place of origin that the
possibility of “return” to those relationships and places is preserved. These
are not, however, fictionalised narratives or idealised dreams, but instead very
real responses to the problems of their only partial integration into wider New
Zealand society.
Aideen O’Connor; MA Candidate, Department of History, University of Sydney
Governance and regional co-operation as factors of post-independence stability:
The role of education in the Belgian Congo and French Senegal
Both the Belgian Congo and French Senegal achieved independence in the climactic
year of 1960. While the French presence had existed in Senegal for many
centuries, albeit in an informal way until the late nineteenth century, the
Belgian presence in the Congo was a comparatively embryonic colonial system. The
French presence in Senegal created a system of regional connections within
Afrique Occidentale Française as colonial expansion took place. In comparison,
the Belgian Congo was essentially an ‘isolated island’ at the heart of the
continent, lacking connections to other colonies. Both colonial powers
demonstrated different forms of governance with varied impact on the development
of an African elite. The formation, and stability, of the state
post-independence was affected by such development, and therefore by the methods
of rule employed during the colonial era. Robert C. Good, in his 1964 article
“Changing Patterns of African International Relations”, argues the relationship
between colony and metropole created a system of vertical links to the exclusion
of horizontal links with other colonised states. In this paper I will utilise
the premise of such an argument and expand on it by demonstrating how the
differing approach of two colonial regimes advanced the capacity of an emergent
African elite to govern, and how such an elite were aided, or indeed hindered,
by the regional connections created pre-independence. Such an argument relates
to the present issues in African governance by examining the origins of current
concerns and by demonstrating the earliest manifestations of the regional
relationships which exist today.
Truphena Oduol, Victoria University of Wellington
Ethical issues: A case study of secondary school leaders in Kenya
Over recent years secondary school leaders in Kenya have been bedeviled by
ethical challenges. These challenges emanate from the governance structure of
the education system and changes in the socio-cultural environment as well as
change in the political environment. The outcomes include school leaders being
faced with the necessity of having to take increased decision making
responsibilities with the expectation that they will engage in the resolution of
conflicting stakeholder interests. Such competing interests are almost
invariably based on differing personal, community and organizational values.
Using a social constructivist theoretical framework for analysis and
interpretation and drawing on both Eurocentric and Afrocentric paradigms, this
case study undertaken in one province of Kenya with 40 participants, highlights
some of the ethical issues faced and the ways in which school leaders respond to
them.
Mike Oliver, PhD Candidate, Flinders University
Standing up, reaching out and letting go: Experiences of resilience and school
engagement for African high schoolers from refugee backgrounds
The significance of engagement between Australia and Africa is gaining
increasing attention, and few groups represent the future of this engagement
better than the many young people born in Africa who have resettled in
Australia. This paper explores the coping strategies of young Australians born
in countries in West Africa, Central Africa and the Horn of Africa, who arrived
in Australia on humanitarian visas. Educational attainment is one of the main
developmental tasks of adolescence, and is valued by adolescents of refugee
background, their families and communities, and the wider Australian society.
However, secondary schooling places high demands on humanitarian entrants who
arrive with low levels of prior education. These young people encounter these
demands when they are already facing challenges presented by adolescence, the
refugee experience, migration, and acculturation. Through a series of
semi-structured interviews and focus groups, young African-Australians told
their stories of resettlement and schooling, discussed the challenges they
faced, and the ways in which they sought overcome those challenges. Qualitative
analysis identified a range of coping strategies that young people deployed and
perceived to be effective in adapting to a new life, characterised by complex
patterns of conflict, optimism, frustration and achievement.
Rachel Outhred - Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation, Australian Council for
Educational Research
"[The NGO] is here to obliterate what we have left of our African culture".
Escaping the traditional / modern dichotomy in program design
Within the worldview of modernity, traditional beliefs are imagined as ‘objects
of science [and] obstacles to science’ (Pigg 1996: 161). Within this paradigm
culture is constructed as an antithesis to development. This paper explores the
ways in which the worldview of modernity informs development practices in
post-colonial states and the impact on rural women and children. The paper uses
the case study of Ghana’s Trokosi women and children, who are reported to be
victims of a cultural practice which legitimates violence against women.
Investigating the program logic of a variety of development responses to the
Trokosi practice, both the espoused theories and the theories-in-practice
(Friedman 2001: 161) are analysed. It is found that the program responses
delivered by several aid organisations function within the imagined continuum of
the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’ and that such dichotomies only make sense
within the worldview of modernity (Pigg 1996: 165). The paper builds the
argument that such programs fail to build collective capacities, and rather
continue to construct poor rural women as the battlegrounds on which the
maintenance of culture is fought. The paper argues that Appadurai’s (2004)
‘capacity to aspire’ offers a valuable theoretical framework to inform a
future-oriented program logic that is grounded in culture.
Olasupo Owoeye, University of Tasmania
The WTO TRIPS Agreement, the right to health and access to medicines in Africa
The international legal regime for patent protection under the Agreement on
Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) poses considerable
threat to public health in relation to access to medicine concerns of many
countries. However, the problem in Africa is particularly acute; the continent
is facing significant health crises which have been made even more complicated
by the TRIPS requirement that patents must be made available for inventions in
all areas of technology, including medicines. African countries, with perhaps
the exception of South Africa, have done little to explore the flexibilities
allowed by TRIPS to combat health crises. The continent continues to experience
an increasing escalation in prices of important life saving drugs that are under
patent, whilst most people still live well below the poverty line. According to
the 2010 UN Human Development Report, Africa remains the least developed
continent in the world, with Sub-Saharan Africa particularly found to possess
the lowest Human Development Index indicators of any region. The paper seeks to
highlight the need for Africa, under the auspices of the African Union, to form
a common front to explore the currently under utilised flexibilities in TRIPS
whilst giving force to the right to health in Africa.
Kiran Pienaar
An analysis of dissident representations of the "problem of AIDS" in South
Africa (1999-2008)
This paper presents an analysis of AIDS dissidence in South Africa during the
period of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency (1999-2008). In contradistinction to existing
analyses it does not seek to uncover the underlying motivations for
government-led AIDS dissidence. Instead, it sees this controversial account of
AIDS as a discursive configuration, which bears the impress of antecedent
colonial discourses and geopolitical relations between Western powers and
Africa. I suggest that the Mbeki executive constructed AIDS as bound up with the
‘disease of racism’ and with Africa’s history of dependence on Western
scientific interventions. As a result, they framed the ‘problem of AIDS’ as a
battle to combat, not a virus, but what they saw as the pervasive racism and
imperialism of orthodox science on AIDS. Drawing on the insight that knowledge
is constituted through struggles for power (Foucault 1972), the politically
supported AIDS dissident movement can partly be read as a quest to advance
uniquely African knowledge on the AIDS epidemic. I argue that Mbeki effectively
mobilised HIV/AIDS as part of a Pan-Africanist agenda to achieve Africa’s
self-determination and autonomy from the West. The paper considers what aspects
of the epidemic are subordinated by this nationalist rhetoric, including the
pressing issue of HIV treatment, the feminisation of the epidemic in South
Africa and its material effects. The paper concludes by considering the
implications of Mbeki’s AIDS dissidence for national HIV/AIDS policy.
Stefan Plenk, M.A. Faculty for Political and Social Science, University of
Munich
Paper tiger or veto player? The role of OPDS in Southern African security polity
architecture
Since the reorganization of the African Union (AU), African regional integration
organizations (RIO) obtained a more important role, not only within the African
Economic Community, but also for regional security reasons. Hence parallel to
the RIOs becoming columns for an African economic integration process, their
meaning as regional security clusters has to be mentioned too. Through the
establishment of regional standby forces (SADCBRIG) and the reformed regional
security architecture namely the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security (OPDS),
Southern African Development Community (SADC) tries to build up the regional
security column for a new African security and defence architecture. Since 2001
OPDS is the SADC answer to the claims of AU, but does the Organ really play an
important role on regional security matters? Is OPDS more or less a ‘paper
tiger’ without any influence on regional crisis prevention and security
policies, or is it able to have a real impact on the national and regional
decision-making processes? Is it just an ineffective ‘spirit’, has it yet
transformed into a non active regional arena, or turned OPDS out to become a
real active political actor even with some veto player abilities? After a short
definition and distinction between the various roles OPDS could theoretically
have and an introduction to the Organ, four case studies are consulted in which
the Organ participated. Hence the most important aim of the Organ is to prevent
crisis and open (regional or intra-state) conflicts, the majority of the cases
are:
(a) The Lesotho crises 1998 (before the Organ’s reform in 2001)
(b) The ‘first African World War’ in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and
(c) The enduring decline of Zimbabwe.
Finally together with (a, b, c) case (d) the importance of the Organ during the
establishment of SADCBRIG, will show us, that OPDS is still a Paper Tiger with
some tendencies to become a more important regional security arena without
greater actors quality. Furthermore the results will also underline most of the
gravest recent problems regional African security policies have.
Danielle Potts, Flinders University
Botswana - an African success story: Liberal Democracy, a misconception?
Botswana has long been viewed as a 'shining light' of democracy in Southern
Africa. But, Botswana’s “democracy” has produced a one-party rule by the
Botswana Democratic Party since independence in 1966, and there has been much
criticism and concern expressed in the last few years about the growing power of
the executive parliament and the consequent weakening of democracy. This paper
aims to look at the way in which democracy is diminishing in Botswana and
whether or not Botswana is really as democratic as it is represented to be. It
looks at how, Botswana acts a one-party party system in a multi-party state, and
in this system, extensive powers are concentrated in the hands of a presidency
that is not directly elected by the people. Throughout this paper we also see
that Botswana is actually characterised by elitism, centralised political power
and weak executive accountability (Good, 1999, p52).
Kofi Poku Quan-Baffour, College of Education, Department of Adult Basic
Education, University of South Africa
Sankofa: ‘looking back’ to reclaim indigenous knowledge and skills to confront
youth unemployment in Ghana
Sankofa means ‘go back to reclaim the past’. It comes from the three Akan words-
san[return], ko [go] and fa [take]. Sankofa is an indigenous philosophy
symbolically depicted by a bird whose neck is turned backwards. Before
colonialism indigenous craft men taught the youth the trades through
apprenticeship to equip them with skills for employment. The colonialists
introduced Western education to educate locals for employment at the lower
levels in their administration. The formal education overshadowed the indigenous
knowledge instead of integrating it into the school curriculum. This absence of
practical skills in the curriculum led to the colonial legacy of unemployable
school graduates. The education system did not only fail to cater for children
with no aptitude for academic education but more importantly succeeded in
creating the culture and crave for white collar jobs. Today most school leavers
regard the trades as jobs for illiterate people. Since independence successive
governments have done little to integrate indigenous skills into the school
curriculum and the absence of transformation could be the cause of unemployment
in Ghana. Using the philosophy of Sankofa as its theoretical foundation this
paper advocates ‘reclaiming the past’ by integrating indigenous knowledge skills
and knowledge for self-employment.
Anna Rabin
How will demographics affect Kenya’s ability to reach Millennium Development
Goal One
Linkages between demographics and development have been well documented, from
Malthus’ fears over food production to more contemporary debates surrounding the
impact of population growth on our fragile environment. With this in mind, it is
quite remarkable that the Millennium Development Goals fail to make any direct
mention of demographics.
With the date for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals less than
five years away, the reality that the majority of countries will not make their
targets is being realised. Although the reasons for such failures will be wide
and varied, with sub-Saharan Africa having witnessed a four-fold increase in its
population since 1950, issues of demographics will undoubtedly play a role. My
paper will therefore evaluate the impact demographic trends, namely population
growth and the ‘youth bulge’, will have on Kenya’s ability to reach the
Millennium Development Goals one and two, the eradication of poverty and hunger
and the attainment of universal primary education.
Rachel Riak, Victoria University
Gender balance issues in Africa
This paper, explores existing issues of gender imbalances in Africa, focusing on
women in South Sudan the world’s newest country. These imbalances are course by
lack of education, forced marriages, dowry, inheritances, and other undesirable
practices. Most women lack education opportunity compare with men thus has the
highest level of illiteracy in South Sudan and other countries of Africa. There
are fewer opportunities for women to go school as they are regarded as source of
wealth (dowry). Girls are kept at home closer to parents to ensure that parents
preside over their marriages. About 90 percent of marriage decisions are made
for young women by parents and relatives. When a husband dies his wives are
inherited by male relatives without any objection. Women are culturally
responsible to doing the household tasks including child rearing. Being in such
situation women are left in closed doors hardly allowed into the domain
workforce. Today more women are still victims of these long-standing societal
attitudes and cultural beliefs of forced arranged marriages and other
undesirable social injustices. However, with growing awareness on Human Rights
education championed by African women in the Diaspora who are determine to
overturn the challenges to opportunities, there is hope for change to women’s
rights in Africa.
David Robinson, Edith Cowan University
The political economy of China in Africa: The case of Mozambique
China’s growing requirements for stable sources of energy and raw materials, and
desire for international influence, has motivated it to adopt a neo-mercantilist
approach to states in Africa. China has found in Mozambique a number of
opportunities for profitable investment and a state open to improving diplomatic
links. Over the last two decades Mozambique’s revolutionary character of the
1980s has given way to engagement with the West and structural adjustment.
Reforms have produced a domestic business class in Mozambique, scaled back state
power, and introduced a nominal system of multi-party democracy, but the nation
remains riven with poverty and corruption. This creates an opportunity for China
to be genuinely popular with Mozambicans if they can foster real development
outcomes through aid and investment, as well as affinity with Mozambique’s state
and business elites who want to resist pressure to fight corruption and increase
democratic accountability. As the West is associated with Mozambique’s history
of colonialism and their devastating civil war, but China has a positive history
of supporting liberation movements, there is little cultural capital to keep
Mozambicans from an Eastern turn. This reflects developments across the region
and foreshadows a wider displacement of Western hegemony throughout the
continent.
M. D. Suleiman, History Department, Bayero University, Kano
Southern Kaduna: Democracy and the struggle for identity and Independence by
non-Muslim communities in Northern Nigeria 1999-2011
Many non- Muslim communities were compelled to live under Muslim administration
in both the pre-colonial, colonial and post colonial era. While colonialism
brought with it Christianity and western education, both of which were employed
by the non-Muslims in their struggle for a new identity and independence, the
exigencies of colonial administration and post independence struggle made it
difficult for non-Muslim communities to fully assert their independence.
However, Nigeria’s new democratic dispensation ( i.e. Nigeria’s third republic
1999-to 2011 ) provided great opportunities and marked a turning point in the
fortune of Southern Kaduna: first, in his 2003-2007 tenure, Governor Makarfi
created chiefdoms ( in Southern Kaduna) which are fully controlled by the
non-Muslim communities themselves as a means of guaranteeing political
independence and strengthening of social-political identity of the non-Muslim
communities, and secondly, the death of President ‘Yar’adua led to the emergence
and subsequent election of Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa in April 2011 as the
first non-Muslim civilian Governor of Kaduna State. How has democracy brought a
radical change in the power equation of Kaduna state in 2011?
Helen Ware, Peace Studies, University of New England
“Good enough governance”: Destroying kleptocracy as a path to poverty reduction
and reform in post-conflict Africa
On any list of fragile, failed or broken apart states, post-conflict African
entities tend to predominate. Merilee Grindle (2004 and 2009) has created the
concept of ‘good enough governance’ in relation to allowing developing countries
in general to get on and achieve some level of development and poverty
reduction. This paper focuses on ‘good enough governance’ with a focus on
post-conflict states in Africa and most especially in West Africa. Given that
achieving the World Bank’s 116 good governance agenda items is near impossible
for any African state, let alone one emerging from a civil war, this paper
focuses on asking the question as to what are the dozen or so priority goals for
building peace and a degree of widely shared prosperity. How long will it be
feasible to go on blaming colonialism for Africa’s current woes? Leaving
ideology to one side, is there a workable master plan for ending the situation
where kleptocracy by the elite remains the norm because capturing the state is
the one obvious path to wealth?
Nicole Webster, Anthropology, University of Canterbury
Resisting reproduction: An anthropological analysis of self-induced abortion in
a rural Ghanaian village
Unsafe abortions claim the lives of thousands of women every year. Globally,
women in Sub-Saharan Africa face the highest risk of death and injury from
abortion-related complications. Current global and national efforts to reduce
incidences of unsafe abortion are highly ineffective in the rural Ghanaian
community where this research was undertaken because programmes of action fail
to address patterns of gender violence and patriarchal control by medicalising
women’s social suffering. Medical discourses and policy output about family
planning and reproductive health, produced and reproduced at the level of the
national body politic, in fact obscure more deeply embedded, powerful ideologies
and social praxis about female sexuality and reproduction which are produced and
reproduced within the context of popular interpretations of tradition and
customary law. These aspects of the customary social structure and its current
transformations, combine with economic hardship to dominate patterns of social
relations in the village and thus, maintain the necessity for women to utilise a
dangerous local plant in order to facilitate potentially fatal self-induced
abortions as a means of resisting culturally-defined fertility patterns.
Conference Abstracts (papers pending)
Julie Abimanyi-Ochom, Bruce Hollingsworth and Brett Inder
A comparison of characteristics of respondents seeking ART services from two
service providers in central Uganda
Objective: To explore similarities and differences of patients from two major
antiretroviral service providers in Central Uganda. Data and methods: Study
sample is about 600 households from a cross sectional survey undertaken in
eleven districts of central Uganda. Data was collected from households of
clients that obtained antiretroviral drugs from two major service providers of
antiretroviral therapy in Central Uganda; The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO)
and Ministry of Health (MOH), Uganda. Logistic regression is employed to
investigate how these clients differ in different aspects like the dependence
ratio, wealth status, allocation of resources like labour and time, having a
savings account or loan, education status and employment status. Results:
Hypothetically, TASO clients are expected to be better off than the MOH clients.
This is because TASO clients obtain additional help like home based care, income
support, educational support in addition to antiretroviral, unlike MOH. Results
are mixed, and this poses the question of whether not only the kind of
assistance matters, but the magnitude of support may be important to realise
significant benefits.
Juma Abuyi
African community leadership and community development in Australia
In many communities in Australia, I see people coming together to pool
accessible resources, knowledge’s, skills, talents and offer time for the common
good and that of their community. In African society, the community provides the
most significant method of learning about our social, political, religious and
cultural values. I argue that African peoples have long-standing cultural
traditions that connect them to the concept of community and make them who they
are in relation to African identity, personality and dignity. In Australia, it
is through that African people are still connected through shared values that
are necessary features of African identity and culture. On the other hand, I
would also argue that some of these acclaimed values seem to be largely missing
in Australia and a good number of young – and even older – Africans are becoming
more and more detached from their community-related matters. It is not clear
whether the problems rest with the African community leaders, service providers
or the African communities themselves. This presentation focuses on the
achievements of the African communities. The paper does not intend to judge or
criticise the African community and their stakeholders but point out some of the
key contributing factors leading to the deterioration of African communities in
Australia. Most of the issues discussed may not be totally different from those
found within African communities in other parts of the world, especially those
living in diaspora communities. Mr. Abuyi is the first Police African Liaison
Officer in South Australia and his duties centre on enhancing understanding
between members of the African community and South Australia police, enhancing
South Australia Police cultural competencies and use problem solving approach to
prevent and reduce crime involving members of the African community in South
Australia. Juma is an African from South Sudan and has a wealth of knowledge in
working with people of African background.
Nyok Achuoth
What does the experience of Darfur suggest about whether or not the
Responsibility to Protect, as a doctrine, has been adopted in practice?
The concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a contested doctrine.
Historically, R2P is a concept driven from the Westphalia notion of
sovereignty’s role to protect its citizens and sovereignty has come to signify
the legal identity of the state based on the international law (ICISS, 2001,
p.12, and De Waal, 2006). The doctrine focuses on preventing and halting four
crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing.
Specifically, there is a debate whether R2P has been adopted or not in the
experience of Darfur since it lacks support from other countries due to
criticism it generated on its application (Evans, 2009). Some states express
concern on R2P application on the grounds that it infringes national sovereignty
and can be misused by stronger states against weaker ones for political
purposes; hence, it remains as a contested doctrine. This paper examines the
ways in which the R2P as a doctrine was adopted in principle but not in practice
in the experience of Darfur. The experience of Darfur involved mass atrocities
and ethnic cleansings of African tribes in the Darfur region of Sudan by a proxy
militia (Janjaweed) supported by the Sudanese government (Reeves, 2004). The
structure of this paper is: first, a brief elaboration of R2P emergence from
humanitarian intervention concept to an international norm and cynicisms it
generated from opponents affect its implementation are introduced. Second, five
issues (Deng, 2006) led to the R2P failure in practice: the complexity of
Sudanese politics; the incapability of the African Union (AU) to intervene; the
failure of regional institutions (such as the EU, NATO), the individual states
such as the US and the UK to support the AU technically; the slow response from
the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) due to division within; and western
media played a selective role by ignoring Arabs minority who were also victims
of war while their suffering was needed to be heard by the world. Thirdly, the
paper will analyse practical failure of the R2P doctrine on three distinct kinds
of things that play significant roles for determining the R2P implementation in
the Darfur case includes: political will; there was not enough generated
political will to avert Darfur catastrophe, conceptual; there was enough
evidence that activated R2P action under the international law that bound states
from interfering in other states’ internal conflicts, but the international
community failed to act on the R2P doctrine, and institutional challenges; the
AU as a regional institution lacked capacity that led to the failure of the R2P
doctrine practically. Fourthly, based on the lesson drawn from the experience of
Darfur, it is suggested that: the UNSC have to empower regional institutions
like the AU in order to avert catastrophes of the same scale in the future;
intervention could have saved lives in Darfur if it was taken on time with a
support of International Criminal Court (ICC), hence, this should be an example
to any future Darfur genocides’ where timely investigation led by the ICC should
lead to intervention; overlooking on catastrophe of Darfur in the expense of
North-South Sudan fragile peace arbitration should be a lesson to a future
Darfur genocide. This paper concludes that, the R2P doctrine was principally
adopted but not in practice in the experience of Darfur. However, this does not
mean the R2P doctrine cannot be fully implemented in the future because cases of
R2P applications might differ with the experience of Darfur.
John A. Arthur
Incorporating migration in development and nation building in Africa
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.
Atem Atem
Sudanese humanitarian entrants: Case for recognition of agency
Between 1999 and 2010 about 25,000 Sudanese Humanitarian Entrants come to
Australia. What are the settlement experiences of Sudanese Humanitarian
entrants? How do the settlement needs of Sudanese Humanitarian Entrants arise
and how best to meet them? These are some of the questions that I will try to
address using data from my fieldwork that I am currently conducting in Sydney. I
argue that the settlement challenges and needs of Sudanese Humanitarian Entrants
arise from the lack of recognition of agency that Humanitarian Entrants bring to
Australia with them. I conclude that recognizing agency and building on it for
Humanitarian Entrants will lead to better settlement outcomes.
Mamadou Diouma Bah
Where did all the bauxite money go? Mining and underdevelopment in Guinea
The issue of how to explain underdevelopment in natural resource rich countries
has long been the subject of much study. The ‘resource curse’ and the ‘Dutch
disease’ are among the dominant approaches in explaining the situation. However,
a growing amount of literature raises the question of whether mining companies
might outmanoeuvre states and their governments. It has been pointed out
elsewhere that “the capacity of individual states and their governments to deal
with the powerful mining companies of the first world is of primary concern to
activists, scholars and multinational agencies alike.” Accordingly, it is not
clear whether the balance sheet between the presumed profit and the actual
states’ revenue from mining is matching each other. Thus, prompting the question
of whether governments really get all the money they are supposed to get out of
the mining sector. Using the Guinean case, this paper investigates whether
successive Guinean governments have been getting a good bargain from mining
companies. The Guinean case is important due to the fact that this West African
nation has been endowed with vast natural resources, yet paradoxically, it is
also one of the poorest countries in West Africa.
Samantha Balaton-Chrimes
Detribalised natives, subject races and ethnic strangers: The history of the
Nubians of Kenya
The contemporary Nubians of Kenya have, in the last decade or so, launched a
struggle for recognition as a tribe of Kenya. In a nation where belonging is
determined by an unspoken indigenous status closely linked to colonial
categorisation of particular ethnic groups as native, this is a controversial
claim. This paper explores the history of the Nubians in order to understand the
background to their marginalisation and their claims for inclusion. The Nubians’
story is more than anything else the story of a search for a home, and like all
human stories, it is one of contradictions. It is a story of displacement and
settlement, of efforts to be included and tendencies towards isolation, of
desperate pleas and a lack of compromise, of divided loyalties and manipulable
understandings of history. Perhaps the only consistency in the Nubians’ story is
their status as in-between or outside the mainstream categories that dictate
belonging in the communities in which they found themselves. Far from being
liminal in an inconsequential sense, the various ways in which the Nubians have
occupied anomalous social, political and legal categories have been symptomatic
of the hierarchical and exclusionary tendencies of the colonial and
post-colonial orders. This paper extends Mamdani’s category of the ‘subject
race’, above the native but below the settler, to capture the nature and form of
the Nubians’ exclusion from the Kenyan political community and Kenyan society,
culminating in an argument that the Nubians are best considered ‘ethnic
strangers’ in Kenya. The various and often paradoxical ways in which the Nubians
have successfully or unsuccessfully negotiated their status – as askaris,
detribalised natives (a subject race), and ultimately ethnic strangers – are
illuminating for our understanding of Kenyan political culture.
Carmela Baranowska
Why not Western Sahara?
Why has Western Sahara not experienced its own Arab Spring? On the one hand,
Tunisia and Egypt have undergone regime change and others in the region are at
the beginning, middle or end point of different uprisings. One can argue that
North Africa - with its heavy internet penetration and connectivity and the
presence of the Arabic language TV station Al Jazeera which was quickly able to
spread the message of revolution, openness and democracy - had technological and
political means to implement change. The paper’s analysis will turn on a
specific event that took place in early November 2010, before the beginning of
the Arab Spring. Indeed, I would argue that this event was the repressed point
of origin for the Arab Spring. In El-Ayoun, Moroccan controlled Western Sahara,
a demonstration was organized by Saharawis as a form of protest. The Moroccan
government’s response was swift and brutal. Polisario, the Western Sahara
liberation movement, claimed that 19 Saharawis were killed, hundreds wounded and
159 missing. The only filmed representation of this event exists on Youtube. If
the internet was used as a successful tool in publicizing the recent Arab
spring, why do human rights abuses persist in Western Sahara? Why does Western
Sahara remain forgotten?
Barry Craig
Sudanese objects in the South Australian Museum
Adelaide has a significant and increasing population of refugees from the Sudan.
Many of these people feel the gap between their own culture and that of
Australians. Although the number of objects of Sudanese origin in the South
Australian Museum are relatively few, an exhibition of these might provide some
comfort to people traumatised by their experiences of conflict and contribute to
understanding in the wider community. This paper will introduce these objects to
conference participants with the possibility of a small exhibition in the near
future.
P. A. Croucamp
Political risk in a developing political economy: South Africa
This paper reflects on the indicators of Political Risk in the South African
Political Economy with reference to the institutional capacity of the democratic
state to maintain a distributive and extractive regime which will sustain the
relative stability in state-societal relations since 1994. The theoretical
framework reviews the state-society dichotomy, and identifies the varying regime
preferences within the state as well as within society. Contending regime
preferences, unless stabilized in a durable compromise, erode the consolidation
of democratic experiments, especially so under conditions of economic
contraction. Low levels of economic growth, high levels of unemployment, and a
compromised institutional and constitutional architecture are raised - in the
public and scholarly discourse on South Africa - as fundamental to an
significant recent increase in the (measurable) levels of political risk. The
indicators of risk are indexed and scaled under societal risks, political risks,
economic risks and institutional risks. The research is based on an ongoing
project for the coal mining industry of South Africa.
Ashleigh Croucher (not presented)
Conflict minerals and rape as a weapon of war: A never-ending cycle of impunity?
In the aftermath of World War II, wartime rape and enforced prostitution was
prohibited in the Fourth Geneva Convention and reinforced by the 1977 Additional
Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Despite these prohibitions, enshrined
in international law, rape as a weapon of war has continued and increased in
magnitude, severity and geographical spread. Rape first became recognised as
crime against humanity when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia issued arrest warrants for perpetrators, based on the Geneva
Conventions and Violations of the Laws or Customs of War. The Tribunals for both
Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia made historic developments in the prosecution
of wartime rapists, however the arrests, trials and prosecution of rapists is
often incomplete and ineffective. Whilst the Tribunals for both Rwanda and the
former Yugoslavia made historic developments in the prosecution of wartime
rapists, there is a greater need for prevention mechanisms that address the root
causes of the problem. This paper examines the correlation between rape as a
weapon of war and natural resource exploitation, or ‘conflict minerals’, using
the case of the endemic rates of rape in the Eastern provinces of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. Conflict minerals refer to minerals mined in the midst of
conflict and other various human rights abuses. In the specific case of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Congolese Army and rival rebel groups
profit from the sale of minerals, which further finances the conflict. Due to
the profits made by conflict minerals, the various groups involved have a vested
interest in the continuation of conflict, with the control of various mines
(notably coltan, tin, tungsten and gold) becoming a focus of the fighting. This
paper examines how the correlations between varying dimensions of conflict
minerals and grievances such as rape in civil war are a self-perpetuating cycle,
which has negative impacts on the prevention of rape as a weapon of war.
Hamish Dalley
Neo-liberal anti-colonialism and the Nigerian novel: Internet fraud in Adaobi
Tricia Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You by Chance
Everyday millions of people receive fraudulent emails originating from West
Africa that seek to deprive them of their money. Often extremely creative, these
emails represent the anarchic potential of digital technology to disrupt
geo-political systems that “normally” keep Africa quarantined from the centres
of global capital. In this paper I explore a recent representation of this
illegal industry, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s 2009 novel I Do Not Come to You by
Chance. Nwaubani unpacks the political ambiguity of internet fraud in Nigeria.
For many, it is a kind of “neo-liberal anti-colonialism”, a chance for African
people at last to claim a fair share of global wealth. Stripped of their
protection by the internet’s time-space compression, the “rich of the earth”
have no defence against the “wretched”, whose newfound superiority means the
future belongs to Africa. Yet this story is complicated by the novel’s form, a
traditional realism that cuts across the contemporaneity of its subject matter
and reinserts Nigeria’s internet scammers into a longer history of
epistemological and moral regulation going back to the eighteenth century.
Alongside its quasi-evolutionary optimism, then, the novel poses a darker
temporality of history as repetition rather than liberation. Past and present
emerge not as sequential but as intertwined, and the regulative potential of
modernity to contain insurgent forces reappears in the very contradictoriness of
“neo-liberal anti-colonialism”.
David Dorward
An image worth a thousand words: An exposition on a missionary photograph
The image is from the Equatoria Province in the Belgian Congo and appeared in
the February 1910 issue of "Regions Beyond", the journal of the Regions Beyond
Missionary Union of Harley How, Bow, in London, England. It encapsulates much of
the African experience under the rule of Leopold, King of the Belgians and his
so-called 'Congo Free State" and provides a vehicle for a critique of European
colonialism in Africa.
Imogen Halstead
On farm learning about a new technology: Pineapple in Ghana
Understanding the mechanisms through which farmers learn how to use a new
technology is critical for the development of policy seeking to support the use
of productivity-enhancing methods. Conley & Udry (2010) found evidence of social
learning amongst pineapple farmers in Ghana by tracing changes in their
behaviour regarding a new technology – fertilizer – to information on profitability
transmitted along specific social networks: those defined by who farmers go to for
advice about their farms. This paper explores the complementary significance of
distinct labour networks in facilitating on-farm social learning in this same
setting. An explicit test for learning along labour networks is inconclusive,
but a body of suggestive evidence is discovered. In particular, this paper finds
evidence that farmers imitate the behaviour of their information contacts,
rather than learning from the actions of successful farmers exclusively; this
suggests learning through observation rather than conversation.
Kiros Hiruy
Bottom-up empowerment and inclusion in African communities in Australia
Community empowerment is considered as a process that has both structural and
organisational aspects aimed at changing social systems and creating structural
alternatives beyond one’s own situation. As such it is a social change process
which involves self-organising and re-creating a community that is able to
influence its future. This implies that the process of empowerment develops a
sense of responsibility, commitment, and ability to care for collective survival
among members of community groups, as wells as skills in problem solving, and
efficacy to influence changes relevant to one’s quality of life. Such a concept
of community empowerment has gained currency in the last three decades in public
policy and service delivery across the globe with a particular focus of enabling
vulnerable community groups to take charge of their own affairs. In this paper
by drawing lessons from African Community groups in two States, I argued that
‘community empowerment’ provides a better policy alternative to deal with
socio-economic disadvantage and enhance social inclusion among African community
groups in Australia. By highlighting some of the mechanisms by which community
empowerment is mediated and the social structures and conditions that are
necessary for its effectiveness; it is also argued that disadvantage and
exclusion of people of African descent can only be effectively dealt with by the
community themselves by creating collective intention and mobilising their own
resources and assets and those of their supporters to ultimately take collective
action to change their situation.
Marama Kufi
Unethical investment policy in developing countries of Africa – taking visible
advantage by the cost of invisible society
“The problem is the water. We are drinking a disease”
(One of the residents - drinking river polluted and poisoned by chemicals
released from a factory) “Give us a choice. Should we live in the dark?”(One of
the developing countries government authority who initiates the advancement of
the factory). In the current globalisation era, do investors have any legal and
ethical responsibilities in African countries, at all? If so, what are the
controlling mechanisms for their responsibilities and their profit-generating
role? What is their ethical obligation to protect and advance the societies’
welfare and wellbeing? As ‘Globalisation for Good’ thinkers, human right
activists, and the society’s health and wellbeing promoters, it is reasonable to
build a foundation that can be seen to be grounded on relatively uncontroversial
values. It is workable and promising to build principles that acceptable as a
centre for an investment policy, privatisation agenda and pro-environmental
schema that might provide a bridge to the advancement of common, fair and
justified development of human being and their environment. So far, the outcomes
of global environmental changes while taking the developed countries to
‘systemic changes’ (O’Brien, 1998), such as, increase concentration of green
house gases and concerning for the sea level rise and so forth, on the other
hand, as the results of unethical investment the global environmental change
taking the poor communities in developing countries to ‘cumulative local
changes’ (Curran, 2004), that is drinking water pollution, land use change, and
soil degradation and the like. Therefore, this presentation critically explores
the needs of ethical and responsible investments in developing countries of
Africa. The presentation also insists focus should be more appropriately placed
on the political, socio-economic, moral, and safety of the local communities.
Therefore, the presentation discusses evidently the scope of consideration
should be given to the invisible population while attention and the centre
target of investment would be on making profit.
Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo and Virginia Mapedzahama
“That’s because I am black; there’s no [other] reason!” Everyday racism and the
new black African diaspora in Australia
This paper uses Essed’s (1988) notion of ‘everyday racism’ as a theoretical
framework to introduce critical perspectives in understanding experiences of
contemporary racism among the new African diaspora in Australia. In spite of the
steady but significant increase in the flow of black continental Africans into
Australia over the last three decades, research into their experiences of racial
relations and racism remain limited. Rather, research into the ‘African
Australian’ experience remains largely focused on aspects of ‘refugee’ lived
realities. This is mostly in relation to issues such as problems of integration
and adjustment, lack of English language proficiency, lack of relevant
qualifications and non-recognition of prior qualifications and work experience.
As a result of such a deficit-driven and paternalistic focus – which tends to
construct the African migrant as problematic – there is very little documented
and empirical research about the pervasiveness and experiences of racism in the
everyday lives of this group. In applying the concept of ‘everyday racism’ as a
lens through which we analyse and interrogate the everyday lived realities of
participants interviewed for this research, our paper attempts to address this
gap in research. The concept of everyday racism deals with the everyday
manifestations and (re)-production of systemic inequality based on race and/or
assumptions around race, whether intended or unintended. We draw on preliminary
analyses of findings from an ongoing study on the post-migration experiences of
skilled black African migrants in Australia, to expose the covert, subtle and
contestable forms that racism takes in the Australian society. By discussing
participants’ views and opinions about working and living as skilled ‘black’
African migrants in Australia, which make up the black African migrant racial
narrative, the paper ultimately explores the paradox of racism in Australia,
that is: its simultaneous existence and denial. We therefore conclude that the
lack of academic literature/research that interrogates black migrants’ racial
experiences in Australia is not an indication of the success of multicultural
policy and discourse, but rather, it is a negative by-product of that policy.
Ibolya (Ibi) Losoncz
Cultural values and identities in the context of government institutions and
policies
This paper builds on the proposition of Richard Sennett that government
institutions, by passing approval or judgement on our behaviours, have the
capacity to influence communal and self-respect. We come away from our
interactions with institutions/authorities with them having an effect on our
sense of worth and identity. But government institutions, by their nature, tend
to exclude the very element of the individual. They are driven by processes to
deal with abstract segments of human behaviour. While phrases such as
‘consultation’ and ‘empowering’ feature frequently in their client engagement
strategy, their focus is on managing the issues these human behaviours present
to the policy and delivery objectives of the organisation. This lack of
acknowledgement of the person and his/her cultural identity came up strongly in
interviews with South Sudanese Australians on their relationship with
authorities. They felt that Australian authorities did not understand their deep
roots and commitment to their culture. Their communication was dominated by
reiterations of Australian laws and the conflict between these laws and the
cultural values of their clients. But as suggested by Francis Deng, to be
constructive, policies and strategies must make effective use of people’s values
and positive identities rather than ignoring them. This paper will draw on the
author’s 10 years experience in the Australian Public Service, recent interviews
with South Sudanese Australians for her PhD thesis, and theories of
self-identity and cultural values to explore how to better mesh Australian law
and government policy with the cultural values and identities of people from
South Sudan.
Kudzai Matereke
Rawls’s political conception of the person and the discourses of postcolonial
citizenship in Africa
The question of how to promote political cohesion and equal citizenship remains
at the core of the postcolonial nation-building projects. This question evokes
what may be termed ‘the politics of belonging’ – a phrase which raises
convoluted claims to citizenship on the basis of such identity categories as
ethnicity, race, gender, autochthony or religion. On one hand, these categories
have found support from advocates of ‘politics of identity’ whose thrust is that
political theory and practice should take seriously such identity categories as
they hold significance for political agency. This has led to the tendency to
valorise and accord special significance to group membership. On the other hand,
these identity categories have been accused of encouraging the ‘politics of the
belly’ which instigate the formation of associations and networks that entrench
political power within a select minority while relegating large sections of the
population to a status of ‘quasi-citizenship’. The tendency that has emerged is
to attack these identity categories as primordial and obsolete in modern times.
This paper seeks to chart a new course by interrogating Rawls’s political
conception of the person paves new ways for reconceptualising a postcolonial
citizenship that encourages free and equal citizenship without denigrating those
identity categories as archaic.
Russell McDougall (not presented)
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic: English literature in Sudan, Condominium to
Independence
In 2007 a middle-aged “English” teacher named Gillian Gibbons was jailed in
Khartoum, convicted of inciting religious hatred by allowing her class to name
an quintessentially English teddy bear “Mohammed.” No subject has played a more
important or ambiguous role in British colonial education than English; and no
educator was more important to nation building across the British Empire than
the English Teacher. Yet English teachers in Africa have often played the role
of a double agent, working both for and against local interests. This paper will
focus on the subject English during Sudan’s transition to independence, a period
uniquely complicated in the history of the British Empire, not only by the
tensions between Britain and Egypt but also by the new Cold War positioning of
the Middle East in global politics. It will show how the discipline – both at
the University of Khartoum and in British universities - responded to the
emergent Sudanese independence movement, to the achievement of independence in
1956, and to the first suspension of democracy with the coup of 1958.
David Mickler (not presented)
Post-secession Sudan: What now for Darfur?
The secession of South Sudan on 9 July 2011 has in important ways altered the
Sudanese state and polity. But while this provides the opportunity for the South
to develop peacefully as a sovereign entity after decades of brutal ethic
conflict and misrule by Khartoum, and by colonial malgovernance before that, the
fact that the regime of Omar al-Bashir — indicted by the International Criminal
Court for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for its
counter-insurgency operation in the north-western region of Darfur — remains in
power in the capital raises serious questions about post-secession governance in
northern Sudan. The conflict in Darfur between local rebels, the Sudanese
government, and government-allied militias, which has cost the lives of over
300,000 people and displaced a further 2.7 million, continues. In addition to
the political demands of Darfur rebels, the broader ‘Arab Spring’ has placed
further pressure on Khartoum for democratic reform, while the loss of key oil
revenue to the South has created severe economic challenges. International
actors, long engaged in resolving the north-south conflict, have since 2004 also
engaged with Darfur, albeit with greater frustration and less success, and
‘sequencing’ the international response in Sudan has at times meant prioritising
the CPA over peace in Darfur. This paper first situates Darfur inside a
post-secession Republic of Sudan and examines current proposals and attempts for
resolving the ongoing Darfur crisis, highlighting the significant challenges
involved. The paper then evaluates the involvement of international actors in
Darfur and proposes how these actors might best assist in mitigating insecurity
for displaced and vulnerable civilians, achieving justice for victims,
facilitating a sustainable peace process, and creating a viable future for the
peoples of Darfur inside a new Sudan.
Sekepe Matjila
Land dispossession, land evictions, of black South Africans depicted by African
languages literature
In this paper lefatshe (land) is first presented in terms of the relationship
between land and identity in the African and Batswana context. It draws upon
African, black South African and African languages poetry in the generations
following Plaatje. The view of lefatshe (land) based on African values
implicitly challenges Eurocentric notions of land and property ownership as a
universal value and specifically as a mark of the “civilised” man. [It also
implicitly interrogates the Afrikaner notions of land ownership and identity as
embodied in polasi (the farm) and articulated in the pastoral novel of J. M.
Coetzee. Secondly, the paper brings to bear historical instances of land
dispossession mostly from the African experience. Plaatje’s critique of the 1913
Native Land Act, based upon land evictions described in Native Life in South
Africa. His use of Biblical allusion points up the duplicity of the white press
and the inconsistency of Christianity, professed yet not practiced by white
South Africans towards blacks. By implication, his critique shows how land
dispossession constituted, not only a physical attack but an attack on the
cultural actualisation of black South Africans, that is, on the continuity and
natural evolution of time-honoured cultural practices, values and worldview.
Deborah Mayersen
‘Society is composed of individuals of highly unequal value’: Race and politics
during decolonisation in Rwanda
In at least some parts of Rwanda, Hutu and Tutsi subgroups have existed since
pre-colonial times. Under German and Belgian colonial rule, the distinction
between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority was perceived as a racial
distinction. The Tutsi minority was regarded as racially superior, and given
privileged access to education and indigenous positions of authority. Over time,
this perception of Tutsi superiority was both institutionalized and internalised
within Rwandan society. The ‘Hutu Awakening’ during the 1950s, however, saw
issues surrounding race and privilege become highly politicised. As
decolonisation loomed, the intersections between race and power became sites of
bitter contestation. The Tutsi elite, long accustomed to their privileged
status, sought to retain their hegemony through a rapid transition to
independence utilising the existing power structure. The nascent Hutu
counter-elite, by contrast, desperately sought access to the organs of power,
lest they be ‘condemned forever to the role of subordinate manual workers, and
this, worse still, after achieving an independence which they will have
unwittingly helped to obtain’. Utilising a range of primary documents from the
period, including manifestos of political parties, statements of leaders, and
documents tabled at the United Nations Trusteeship Council, this paper will
analyse the intersection of race and politics during decolonisation in Rwanda.
The roots of the ethnic hatred that led to the 1994 genocide can be traced to
this period of great ethnic tension.
John Mugambwa
Ugandan land law and practice impedes foreign investment in the country -an
armchair analysis and perspective
In the last twenty odd years, Uganda to a large extent has liberalized its laws
and economy and opened the country up for foreign investment. The country is
still listed amongst the worst performers in sub-Sahara Africa in attracting
foreign investment. There are, course, several variable that affect investor
sentiment. The World Bank’s Investing Across Borders report, 2010, in its
analysis of laws and practices that affect Foreign Direct Investment in
countries around the world, identified access to land as one of the key factors
that may tilt the balance in favour of investing in another country. Access to
land not only refers to agricultural or vacant land, but also offices,
warehouses and other premises to set up and operate business. How difficult is
it to obtain land? How secure is the land title? What are the restrictions on
land use? The paper seeks to demonstrate that Ugandan land law and its
implementation impedes foreign investment in the country. The analysis is not
based on empirical research; rather upon legislation, commentaries and
statements, especially, in Ugandan newspapers.
Ndungi wa Mungai
African resettlement in regional New South Wales: Experiences, challenges and
opportunities
This paper on African resettlement in regional New South Wales is part of a
research that analyses the needs and challenges of new migrants in the Riverina
based on four recent groups. The research aims to highlights some of the salient
issues for new migrants in the Riverina region. The region has a long history of
resettling migrants and Griffith has an established Italian and Punjabi Sikh
migrants leading to its recognition as a model of multiculturalism success.
Wagga Wagga has also recently become home to a significant number of African
families arriving predominantly on humanitarian visas and the Sudanese are the
largest group. Each new group of migrants experiences settlement differently due
to a wide range of factors relating to the migrants’ origin as well as the host
community and government policies. By employing exploratory and qualitative
research methods, the study looks at how these recent African migrants have been
experiencing settlement and gives voices to their experiences. The findings of
this research will help settlement services understand better the gaps that
exist in service provision. Isolation from the larger communities in
metropolitan areas present a challenge to the new migrants and the service
providers.
Michael Nest
The making of coltan: How an obscure mineral became a social justice issue
Coltan is increasingly the focus of media and activist campaigns that link
western consumers to war in Congo via profits from mining coltan – a critical
ingredient in mobile phones and laptops – earned by armed groups waging war.
Objectively, however, coltan is relatively unimportant as a source of profits
for warlords, and natural resources are only one of many causes of conflict. Why
has a mineral that is relatively unimportant as a cause of conflict become the
object of activist and media interest, and even legislation in the US? This
presentation analyses how and why coltan, and conflict minerals generally,
became a social justice issue. Coltan initiatives build on historical narratives
of Congo to popularize the story of coltan: of savage tribes fighting over
scarce resources with westerners being central to Congo’s, and Africa’s,
fortunes. Such narratives are rooted in antiquated ways of understanding Africa
and give an importance to the West that is no longer warranted. The presentation
also argues that interest in coltan originates in political science debates of
the 1990s around natural resources as causes of conflicts. Following successful
blood diamonds campaigns, activists invented the term ‘conflict minerals’ as a
way of broadening and building on these campaigns.
Jane Wambui Njagi
Sexual and abortion politics in Kenya: A Feminist analysis
Each year, an estimated 300,000 Kenyan women undergo induced abortion. More than
2,000 of the abortions result in death while more than 20,000 women are admitted
to public hospitals with complications. However, the issue is still mired in
ambivalence, occupying a luminal space between legality and illegality, and
dealt with in contradictory ways by the state. Despite the critical importance
of this issue for politics and policy, there has been little scholarly attention
directed at explaining the role played by the state in abortion politics in
Kenya. This paper addresses this gap in the scholarship. Using information based
on multiple sources of evidence, including interviews with major stakeholders in
2009, this paper provides an in-depth understanding of the Kenyan state’s
inability and/or unwillingness to institute substantive policy changes. It
argues that the neopatrimonial and patriarchal nature of the Kenyan state has
resulted in marginalising the issue of abortion, and consequently, women’s
rights. Furthermore, the state uses women’s subordination as a unifying factor
to galvanise support from men as a group. Consequently, populist policies,
especially those targeting control of women’s sexuality, have been maintained,
although not enforced. These findings validate feminist research that sees the
state not as a neutral arbiter, but as a patriarchal hierarchy which often acts
to reinforce female subordination when need arises.
Olayide Ogunsiji
Childbirth beliefs and practices of recent West African migrant women in
Australia
Achieving the World Health Organisation (WHO) millennium development goal of
improving maternal health during and after pregnancy demands an understanding of
cultural beliefs and practices of pregnant women from diverse cultural
backgrounds. West African migrant women are among the relatively new but growing
immigrants to Australia whose childbirth beliefs and practices may not be
understood by the health care providers in their new country. This paper which
is part of a larger study that explored the meaning of health and health seeking
behaviour of West African migrant women in Australia, presents on the childbirth
beliefs and practices of these women. This qualitative study utilised
naturalistic approach in engaging 21 West African migrant women, recruited
through snowballing technique, in a semi-structured face-to-face audio-taped
interview which lasted between 1.5-2 hours. Following verbatim transcription of
interviews and thematic analysis, one of the identified themes was “meeting our
childbirth needs” wherein the women discussed their childbirth beliefs and
practices. The women believed that traditionally, certain rites need to be
observed to protect their pregnancies. They explained that they massaged their
stomachs with hot water after childbirth to restore the stomach to pre-pregnancy
position. This paper suggests that midwives and community nurses need to
understand these women’s childbirth beliefs and practices in order to improve
their childbirth outcomes.
Olayide Ogunsiji
Overwork and health of West African migrant women in Australia
Immigrant women’s experience of overwork is neglected in the literature despite
its implication on the women’s health in their new countries. The aim of this
paper is to report on part of the findings of a study which explored the meaning
of health and health-seeking behaviour of West African migrant women in
Australia. Informed by naturalistic inquiry, the qualitative study engaged 21
West African migrant women accessed through snowballing technique in a
face-to-face semi-structured audio-taped interview which lasted between
60-90minutes.Data was transcribed verbatim and data analysis was through
thematic analysis. One of the emerging subthemes was “being overworked” and this
was presented through their stories of attending house chores alone; meeting
family demands in Australia and Africa. The women explained that their
experience of cooking and cleaning alone as well as the demand for financial
assistance from extended family members in Africa compelled them to do multiple
jobs. This experience according to the women negatively affected their health in
terms of chronic experience of fatigue, bodily aches and pains. This study
reiterates the need for health care providers caring for West African women in
the acute care area, community or multicultural women’s health centres to
consider their experience of overwork in the provision and development of health
promotion strategies.
Julian Prior
Facilitating community adaptation to climate change in Africa: Lessons learned
from Landcare in Australia and South Africa
The ability of poor and vulnerable communities to adapt to climate change is one
of the compelling issues for many African countries. Impacts on agriculture,
water resources, health, ecosystems and biodiversity, forestry, coastal zones
and food security will progressively threaten the livelihoods of millions.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the cost of
adaptation in Africa may be 5 to 10% of the continent’s GDP, and the yields from
rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50% by 2020.
The ability of communities to adapt will depend upon a number of key factors
including the identification and testing of adaptation strategies, locally
suitable technologies and practices, rapid learning processes at the household
and community levels, and the capacity of governments to produce enabling policy
environments and targeted investments. This paper highlights the lessons that
can be gleaned from the experiences of South African and Australian Landcare in
the areas of building a community’s social capital for sustainable agriculture
and sustainable natural resource management.
1. Defining key elements and philosophy of Landcare which are locally relevant
2. The need for political and policy champions at the national level
3. The development of real partnerships between government, and supporting
agencies such as NGOs and communities
4. Targeted capacity building for government, supporting agencies such as NGOs,
and communities
5. The development and maintenance of Landcare facilitator networks
6. Defining, selecting and promoting examples of good Landcare practice through
building upon the successful experiences of existing CBNRM projects within the
country.
7. Identification of appropriate policy and institutional frameworks to support
Landcare
8. Development of appropriate Landcare technologies that provide tangible NRM
outcomes.
9. Defining the criteria for success of Landcare so that programs have something
against which to measure and demonstrate their progress
10. Aligning community funding programs with these success criteria
The paper concludes by making policy recommendations for using a Landcare-type
approach to develop policy, institutional and community development strategies
to enhance the ability of resource-poor communities to adapt to climate change.
Peter Run
From crisis to democracy? A systemic assessment of South Sudan’s founding
constitution
After 55 years of conflict between Sudan’s northern Muslims and southern
Christians/traditionalists, the Government of Sudan (GoS) and southern
liberationists, the Sudan People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) reached a
military stalemate which, along with international pressure, made possible, the
signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) negotiated in Naivasha,
Kenya, in 2005. One of the hallmarks of the CPA was the self-determination
clause which granted the people of South Sudan the right to choose between
secession and unity. On January 9, 2011, almost 99% of registered voters chose
to establish the newest state – the Republic of South Sudan. Soon after the
referendum results, the president of South Sudan, Mr. Salva Kiir formed a
committee to review the interim constitution, which according to the CPA is
operational only between January 9, 2005 and July 9, 2011. The committee has so
far released a draft and a public consultation process is underway before the
matter is tabled in South Sudan Legislative Assembly in May. After necessary
amendments, the constitution will take affect upon independence on July 9, 2011.
The constitution stipulates some democratic principles that may prove trying to
existing political ideologies and civic culture. This paper examines these
principles in the context of the country’s troubled history and its web of
diversity by using emergence theory as a means of understanding the chaotic
state in which this new nation-state is being formed (Sawyer 2005, pp. 1-10).
Aime Saba and Joseph Hongoh
Regionalism for whom? Emerging questions around regional integration in Africa:
The case of the East African community
Regional integration has been conceptualised as a home-grown mechanism for
consolidating peace, security, development and prosperity in Africa. This paper
explores some critical issues which continue to escape the attention of both
intellectual and political elites currently engaged in this debate. In this
paper, we draw upon positive aspects of the concept of “African Solutions to
African problems” and apply these to the case of the East African Community (EAC).
In particular, the paper assesses the impacts of the persistent legacies of
colonial structures in relation to crises of identity, belonging, governance,
land tenure, and conflict and ecologically-induced migration, and builds on
writings by scholars such as Mahmood Mamdani, Oliver Richmond, Joel Migdal, and
Siba Grovogui. Viewed from their perspectives, the authors of this paper argue
three things: First, the current processes of regional integration are
exclusionary, elitist, extractionist and in many ways disempowering. Second, and
related, unless these contentious national issues are raised and addressed at
national levels through genuine participatory democracy – which includes
meaningful decentralisation of political power, and social and economic justice
– , regional integration will remain an imported, transplanted concept with
little impact on the everyday realities of political subjects within EAC
member-states. Third, the current expansionist nature of EAC presents two
contrasting outcomes: on the one hand, the inclusion of Burundi and Rwanda (and
soon South Sudan), may please advocates of the doctrine of free market. However,
on the other hand, the absence of the Democratic Republic of Congo undermines
past and ongoing efforts towards regional peace and stability.
Andrew Savage
A North African proverb at the centre of cultural conflict
In early 2011 the media spotlight fell on the coastal cities of North Africa.
This paper shines a spotlight not on the coast or on the cities, but on one of
North Africa’s remote desert regions, southern Algeria, and on the changes
taking place within a single minority ethnic group, the ‘Tamahaq’ people,
commonly known as ‘Tuaregs’. In this generation, for the first time in history,
hundreds of Tamahaq young people have left their homeland to complete their
University education in the coastal cities. Many have returned to their
villages, and the resulting clash of values is not unexpected. What is
unexpected, however, is to find a simple Tamahaq proverb at the centre of this
clash: ‘Deran isaran’, translated as “Ambition brings on sickness”
(Aghali-Zakara 2004). Based on more than a decade of research in the Tamahaq
language and culture, and with a database of 1500 proverbs (Savage 2006, 2010),
I will highlight this particular proverb’s meaning and explain why reactions to
it accurately reflect and clearly identify the internal cultural clash. This
paper not only presents a case study within the Tamahaq language community, but
will also help in understanding similar cultural conflicts taking place in many
of the hundreds of other minority language groups across the African continent.
Alec Thornton, Jinnah Momoh and Paul Tengbe
Institutional capacity building for urban agriculture research using
Participatory GIS in a post-conflict context: A case study of Sierra Leone
In post-conflict societies, cities often experience drastic change in settlement
and land-use patterns that transform human-environment relationships. In many
African cities, these patterns and relationships are being shaped by urban and
peri-urban agriculture (UPA), a production system that ensured food security for
thousands of rural-migrants seeking relative safety in urban areas. In a
post-conflict scenario, UPA continues to provide food security and employment in
an environment struggling to physically and emotionally recover. Methodologies
using a geographical information system (GIS) for urban ecosystem assessment (UEA)
is gaining currency among researchers, planners and practitioners to improve
understandings and find solutions for sustainable urban development. This paper
will discuss the use of a GIS for post-conflict urban assessment of
human-environment relationships in Sierra Leone, where a ten-year civil war,
which ravaged the country-side, resulted with the internal displacement of
thousands of rural inhabitants to the capital city, Freetown.
Lorraine Towers (not presented)
Exploring linguistic diversity: Practice and potential in schooling in Ethiopia
I wish to explore the potential of the rich linguistic diversity of Ethiopia in
school practice. It will be argued that, dependent upon its deployment, the
potential of a nation’s rich linguistic diversity can have far-reaching
consequences for equitable and cohesive cultural, linguistic, social and
economic development. This argument will be pursued through an examination of
language policies and their implementation that have shaped the nature of school
practice over time and, in consequence, shaped the nature of access and
legitimate participation as well as a sense of inclusion and belonging in both
schooling and the broader arena of the nation-state. A particular focus is given
to the experiences of afaan Oromoo speaking participants based on original
historical and contemporary research. It will be contended that despite
understandings of the unifying potential of national formal schooling, past
regimes of linguistic practice in education have articulated a contemporary
understanding of a difference of political interest out of linguistic diversity.
This has manifest in a contestation between various linguistic traditions and
their core speakers, which underlies the assertion of competing rights to
legitimate place, authority and power in national development and to
representation of the nation in the global arena.
Michael M. van Wyk
Let's do the “riel”! [Re]Claiming cultural heritage: An Afrocentric-indigenous
perspective
The Afrocentric method is derived from the Afrocentric paradigm which deals with
the question of African identity from the perspective of African people as
centred, located, oriented, and grounded. The Afrocentric philosophy is based on
the principles of inclusivity, cultural specificity, critical awareness,
committedness, and political awareness (Asante, 1995). The “riel” is the oldest
entertainment form of dance used as a social, cultural and educational tool by
the Khoisan people. The purpose of this article is [re]claiming the “riel” as
indigenous knowledge by showing ways that the Afrocentric approach can be used
for researching indigenous culture. Data was collected through oral history,
photographic images, field notes and semi-structured interviews. Suggestions
were formulated to revive the Khoisan dance as cultural heritage.
Conference Panels
Roundtable: The emerging Australia-Africa relationship
David Mickler - Chair
Discussants - Gashahun Lemessa Fura (Jimma University); Geoffrey Hawker
(Macquarie Uni); Sam Makinda (Murdoch Uni); Peter Run (Uni of Queensland); Tanya
Lyons (Flinders Uni)
As part of a broader aim for Australia to play a more prominent role in global
politics, and in seeking to increasingly ‘look west’ in foreign policy
orientation, the Rudd/Gillard Labor governments have since winning office in
2007 proclaimed and pursued ‘new engagement’ with the peoples, countries and
markets of Africa. Key to this new engagement has been the pursuit of emerging
economic opportunities, particularly in the natural resources sector, in parts
of Africa in which peace and stability are taking hold; a recognition that
Australia can make important and specific contributions to African development,
security, and governance challenges; and a desire to secure African votes for
Canberra’s UN Security Council seat bid. As such, and as a relatively new player
in the region, Australia has increased its diplomatic representation on the
continent, including a new embassy in Addis Ababa, home of the African Union;
encouraged high-level political exchanges between Canberra and African capitals;
and increased its aid budget for Africa, among other initiatives. In June 2011,
the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade tabled its
report on the Inquiry into Australia’s Relationship with the Countries of
Africa, which made seventeen recommendations for how Australia might further
enhance this relationship into the future. This roundtable panel will discuss
and debate the nature, dimensions, interests, and challenges of Australia’s new
engagement with Africa, including the recommendations of the Inquiry, and will
consider the significance of this engagement for both Australian foreign policy
and for the peoples and countries of Africa.
South Sudan: From conflict to the drawing boards of nation-building
Peter Run - Chair
The independence of South Sudan on July 9, 2011 marks an end to one of the most
protracted conflicts in Africa and a beginning for the reconstruction of one of
the least developed countries in the world. Even as jubilant crows celebrated
separation with the north after 55 years of violent coexistence on July 9,
little capacity exists to develop the new nation: illiteracy is rampant; infant
mortality rate and birth-related deaths are the highest in the world; no
functioning infrastructure; sanitation is poor; no rule of law; violence is high
and so is corruption. Despite this unfortunate beginning, some South Sudanese
and interested observers tend to be optimistic about the young nations future.
In non-existing agricultural sector, they see the productive potential of the
land; on being landlocked, they see regional cooperation; on the “oil curse”
they see economic boom; on fractured and uneducated citizenry, they see a chance
to create a cosmopolitan civil society. This panel brings together experts who
have worked/lived and continue to observe developments in South Sudan. It seeks
to unpack what is already happening there with regards to nation-building and
how that compares to previous cases of state-formation after decolonisation
(e.g. East Timor, Eritrea or Kosovo) as potential sign of where the country is
headed.
‘African-Australians’ functional English: What hindrances does it pose to their
successes and integration in Australia?
A number of African-Australians have claimed that limitations in English
language acquisition to the level of the main stream speaker competencies, it
has not only affected their employment, inclusion, and integration prospects; as
well it has inhibited their social mobility and successful living (i.e.
remaining in the lower end of the social ladder). Therefore, it is questioned
whether the African-Australians’ Functional English is an Absolute determinant
of their competencies, knowledge, skills, and abilities for work, inclusion, and
integration in Australian community? A triangulated approach of literature
review and in-depth interviews has been used in investigating the above
question, and preliminary findings are presented in this paper. A panel to share
experiences and discussion by key members from the African-Australians
communities will follow the presentation articulating on the issues of: access,
participation, retention, and success especially in regard to employment
opportunities.
Millsom Henry-Waring and Melissa Phillips
Does visibility matter? African-Australian refugees and migrants in regional
Victoria
This panel will explore the multiple meanings of visibility in relation to
recently arrived refugees and migrants from African countries who have resettled
in regional and rural Australia. The heuristic value of the notion of visibility
lies in its sensitivity to context, it carries meaning only in relation to a
specific place and time. Furthermore visibility is multi-dimensional, it is
experienced by the person who identifies herself as visible and the person who
identifies someone else as visible. We argue that visibility affects the contact
and interaction between local communities and newly arriving residents, often
negatively. This panel will also explore the hypothesis that the perception of
visibility differs between metropolitan and rural locations in Australia. Do
African Australians feel more visible in Colac than in Footscray, for example,
and how does this impact on their sense of identity and belonging, on their
employment experience and their overall sense of Self post-arrival compared to
pre-arrival. To discuss these questions the panellists will draw on recently
collated interviews with African Australian refugees and migrants as well as
focus groups with settlement workers and other local stakeholders. This research
forms part of an ongoing Australian Research Council-funded Linkage Project on
the regional and rural settlement of visible refugees and migrants in Australia.
The research foci of the two panellists pertain to pre-arrival experiences and
identity and belonging.
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