São Tomé and Príncipe: More than the Land of Cocoa and Coffee

2020 ◽  
Vol 03 (03) ◽  
pp. 2050006
Author(s):  
Francisco B. S. José Leandro ◽  
Anthony Lobo
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Sao Tome And Principe ◽  
Island State ◽  
Regional Engagement ◽  
Development Paths ◽  
The One

The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, a small and remote island state, located in the Gulf of Guinea, has long offered little geopolitical and geo-economic interest. This situation is however gradually changing. In fact, since 2016, interest in the country has begun to grow, after the country resumed diplomatic relations with People’s Republic of China (hereafter China) and recognized the “one-China policy”. While the island state and Cabo Verde have followed different development paths in the post-colonial era, both share common features and both have the potential to perform important geopolitical regional roles in the context of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI). This paper discusses São Tomé and Príncipe’s regional engagement in the Gulf of Guinea (GG), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP), and in multi-level cooperation in light of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (FM) as well as bilateral cooperation. We argue that São Tomé and Príncipe is of geopolitical value to China and that the island state will serve Chinese interests in extending the BRI in the Gulf of Guinea. The microstate of São Tomé and Príncipe has the potential to transform itself to function as the “Qatar of the Gulf of Guinea”, and contribute to regional stability by providing regional services for shipping, banking, finance, high-quality education, tourism and as an engaged partner. This paper presents a methodological theoretical-inductive and constructivist perspective, combining qualitative, quantitative and non-participant observation.

The ant as metaphor: Orientalism, imperialism and myrmecology [W. T. Stearn Student Essay]

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-361
Author(s):  
Carissa Chew
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Ant Colony ◽  
The Other ◽  
White People ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Inferior Status ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
The One ◽  
Civilized Society

Myrmecological texts that circulated in Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth century can be interpreted, from the perspective of the post-colonial theory of Orientalism, as belonging to a wider body of colonial-era European literature that has historically portrayed New World peoples and animals as the “Other”. In implicit ways, colonial-era literature on ant behaviour reproduces the Orientalist dichotomy of civilization and savagery. At different times, the ant colony has been portrayed, somewhat paradoxically, as both a civilized society in miniature and a foreign savage order. On the one hand, some British myrmecological texts rendered the ant as a symbol of Britishness and civilization: the elevated image of the ant reflected the imperialist trope that non-white people were inferior, savage Others. On the other hand, the ant colony was portrayed elsewhere in British myrmecological literature – and in other European texts that were translated into English and circulated in Britain – as a dangerous, merciless and aggressive Otherness itself. Accordingly, in these texts, the ant and the “native” are depicted as accomplices who share an antagonism toward the colonial project. Both these positive and negative representations of the ant reflect and reproduce Orientalist tropes, which have historically been used to emphasize the perceived inferior status of non-white colonial subjects.

Afterword A Long Road To Travel

2018 ◽  
pp. 257-274
Author(s):  
Alec G. Hargreaves ◽  
Mark McKinney
Keyword(s):  
Public Funding ◽  
The Other ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Road ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Box Office ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The One ◽  
Minority Ethnic

In assessing the extent to which creative works by post-migratory artists are shaped by the legacy of the colonial era in present-day France, we delineate a spectrum stretching between two poles – on the one hand, postcolonial entrenchment, and on the other, post/colonial detachment – between which lie a range of more nuanced and multi-polar positions. Politically hard-edged rappers typify the more entrenched end of the spectrum, positioning themselves in conflict with the state and appealing to audiences in which post-colonial minorities are to the fore. More consensual positions, suggesting that France is moving or has moved beyond the polarized divisions of the colonial era, tend to characterize the work of artists such as professional dancers benefiting from public funding and others, such as the filmmaker and actor Dany Boon, whose minority ethnic origins have been largely effaced in productions that have achieved high-profile box office successes among broadly based audiences. The works of many other post-migratory artists are positioned between and in some respects disjunct from these poles, tracing multi-polar trajectories in which Anglophone spaces often displace the binary logic of (post-)colonialism. At the same, many of these artists complain that, no matter how hard they may try to leave behind divisions inherited from the colonial past, they remain in many ways framed by them in majority ethnic eyes, suggesting that a long journey still lies ahead on the road from a neo-colonial to a post/colonial France.

Whose Swadeshi? Contending Nationalisms among Indian Christians

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Tharamangalam
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Lower Caste ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Nationalist Discourse ◽  
Oppositional Discourse ◽  
The One ◽  
Western Hegemony

AbstractThe current resurgence of Hindu fundamentalism in India is broadly situated in the search for a pan-Indian Hindu identity, and in the assertion of a pan-Indian "Hindutva" (Hindu-ness) that is claimed to be the true heritage of Indians. This discourse inevitably involves the demarcation of the "Hindu" from the "other" — minorities defined as less Indian, if not foreign. Historical grievances are constructed against them and used to justify attacks on them. These "others", however, have their own discourses, their own constructions of identities, and their own articulations of historical grievances; and these are not necessarily defensive, or reactions to the Hindu fundamentalist discourse. This paper discusses the nationalist discourse of Indian Christians during the anti-colonial struggles and in the post-colonial era; an era that contained not only a rejection of Western colonial domination, but also a critique of Western hegemony over Christianity itself. Included in this discourse are the celebration of indigenous Christian traditions on the one hand, and the "Inculturation" (or simply, Indianization) of Christianity in such areas as the liturgy and even theology. Ironically, however, this process, spearheaded by the "upper caste" Christian elite, led to an oppositional discourse of the subaltern "lower caste" Christians, who resent what they see as "Sanskritization" or even "Brahminization". They have attempted to formulate their own forms of inculturation, including a sophisticated Dalit Theology. This paper examines the dialectic of these discourses, situating these in their specific historical, local-global contexts.

Land, Law, and the Courts in Zimbabwe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Verheul
Keyword(s):  
Land Reform ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Substantive Justice ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One ◽  
Land Policies

Through a focus on land cases, this chapter looks at the place of law and the judicial system in Zimbabwean politics. To contextualize the understandings, imaginations, and invocations of law that emerged in contestations over land in the courts after 2000, the chapter first situates the law historically to examine the judicial culture that emerged from the interplay of law’s repressive and reformative roles under Rhodesian rule. It shows that under colonial rule the tensions between judicial officers’ commitment to formalism on the one hand and their efforts to deliver ‘substantive justice’ on the other, shaped the legal cultures that carried over into the post-colonial era. In response to growing opposition in the late 1990s, ZANU-PF emphasized a narrow retelling of liberation war history and turned to land for political currency. When land reform was challenged through the courts, ZANU-PF drew on its understanding of history to frame its land policies as both ensuring ‘justice’ for colonial land alienation and protecting the ‘sovereignty’ of the Zimbabwean nation. In this manner, challenges to the government’s land policies were cast as ‘unjust’. Certain legal and political actors, however, contested ZANU-PF’s interpretation of ‘justice’ by drawing attention to the judiciary’s historical commitment to ‘substantive justice’. Through public debates over whose justice the law ought to protect, the law continued to be central to state authority.

Who Writes and Reads African History and Why? Locating African Voices in the Twenty-First Century, From 1960 to the Present

Utafiti ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 67-83
Author(s):  
Maxmillian Julius Chuhila
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Current Production ◽  
The One

This paper provides an analysis of recent past and current trends in the production and use of African historiography, viewing the changing dynamics and progress of this discipline as products of the politics of knowledge production in the wider domain of African studies throughout the late post-colonial era. On the one hand, we should not encourage radical separatist manifestos preventing non-African historians from writing about the continent. However, there is an urgent need to review the stark imbalances that have resulted in a steadily decreasing participation of African based scholars in the current production and use of historical knowledge. Despite the growing number of institutions of higher learning, and the increasing percentages of African-born and bred scholars that are employed on the continent, the dependency still remains upon foreign powerhouses to deliver definitive African historical narratives and paradigms from outside Africa: in America, the Caribbean, Europe, and more recently in Asia. Because of this, we continue to consume more knowledge from outside than we can export; thereby we fail to be influencing the world with knowledge about Africa produced from within the continent. It remains difficult for participants from within the African continent to control any of the politicised processes of knowledge production; and unfortunately, there appears little that can be done to reverse this situation at the present time.

Intra-national IR in Africa

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
DOUGLAS LEMKE
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
African State ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right

AbstractScholars debate whether Eurocentric theories of International Relations (IR) offer useful explanations of African international politics. They also debate the applicability of Eurocentric theories of state making for understanding African state making in the post-colonial era. I argue that theories like realism and war-and-state-making appear inconsistent with African political reality because when IR scholars apply these theories to Africa, they study the wrong actors. The ‘right’ actors for understanding these theories include not only the official states IR scholars traditionally analyse, but also all of the autonomous political entities that control territory, possess military resources, and struggle to survive under anarchy. I substantiate my claims about the usefulness and necessity of expanding the roster of actors studied with an historical narrative of the first six years of Congo's independence. During this time six autonomous political entities, in addition to the one official state, warred with each other, allied with each other, and struggled to make states.

Óscar Romero and the Politics of Sainthood

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-291
Author(s):  
Manuel A. Vasquez ◽  
Anna L. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil War ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
The Other ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Holy See ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Face ◽  
Crisis Of Modernity ◽  
The One

In this article, we explore the debates surrounding the proposed canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero, an outspoken defender of human rights and the poor during the civil war in El Salvador, who was assassinated in March 1980 by paramilitary death squads while saying Mass. More specifically, we examine the tension between, on the one hand, local and popular understandings of Romero’s life and legacy and, on the other hand, transnational and institutional interpretations. We argue that the reluctance of the Vatican to advance Romero’s canonization process has to do with the need to domesticate and “privatize” his image. This depoliticization of Romero’s work and teachings is a part of a larger agenda of neo-Romanization, an attempt by the Holy See to redeploy a post-colonial and transnational Catholic regime in the face of the crisis of modernity and the advent of postmodern relativism. This redeployment is based on the control of local religious expressions, particularly those that advocate for a more participatory church, which have proliferated with contemporary globalization

Subordinate-Deity Models of Ultimate Reality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley J. Wildman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Metaphysical Problem ◽  
Axial Age ◽  
Colonial Resistance ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

Subordinate-deity models of ultimate reality affirm that God is Highest Being within an ultimate reality that is neither conceptually tractable nor religiously relevant. Subordinate-deity models ceded their dominance to agential-being models of ultimate reality by refusing to supply a comprehensive answer to the metaphysical problem of the One and the Many in the wake of the Axial-Age interest in that problem, but they have revived in the twentieth century due to post-colonial resistance to putatively comprehensive explanations. Subordinate-deity ultimacy models resist the Intentionality Attribution and Narrative Comprehensibility dimensions of anthropomorphism to some degree but continue to employ the Rational Practicality dimension of anthropomorphism, resulting in a strategy of judicious anthropomorphism. Variations, strengths, and weaknesses of the subordinate-deity class of ultimacy models are discussed.

Taxonomic revision of the Jita snakes (Lamprophiidae: Boaedon) from São Tomé and Príncipe (Gulf of Guinea), with the description of a new species

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Luis MP Ceríaco ◽  
Ana Lisette Arellano ◽  
Robert C Jadin ◽  
Mariana P Marques ◽  
Diogo Parrinha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Taxonomic Revision ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Sao Tome And Principe ◽  
A New Species

The Normalization of Sino-French Diplomatic Relations in 1964 and the Formation of the “One-China” Principle: Negotiations over Breaking French Diplomatic Relations with the Republic of China Government and the Recognition of the People’s Republic of China as the Sole Legitimate Government

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 252-271
Author(s):  
Madoka Fukuda
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Republic Of China ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One

AbstractThis article examines the substance and modification of the “One-China” principle, which the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) pursued in the mid 1960s. Under this principle, a country wishing to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC was required first to break off such relations with the Republic of China (ROC). In 1964 the PRC established diplomatic relations with France. This was its first ambassadorial exchange with a Western government. The PRC, in the negotiations over the establishment of diplomatic relations, attempted to achieve some consensus with France on the matter of “One-China”. The PRC, nevertheless, had to abandon these attempts, even though it demanded fewer conditions of France than of the United States (USA), Japan and other Western countries in the 1970s. The PRC had demanded adherence to the “One-China” principle since 1949. France, however, refused to accept this condition. Nevertheless, the PRC established diplomatic relations with France before the latter broke off relations with the ROC. Subsequently, the PRC abandoned the same condition in negotiations with the African governments of the Republic of Congo, Central Africa, Dahomey and Mauritania. After the negotiations with France, the PRC began to insist that the joint communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations should clearly state that “the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government of China”. However, France refused to insert these words into the communiqué. Afterwards, the PRC nevertheless insisted on putting such a statement into the joint communiqués or exchanges of notes on the establishment of diplomatic relations with the African countries mentioned above. This was done in order to set precedents for making countries accede to the “One-China” principle. The “One-China” principle was, thus, gradually formed in the process of the negotiation and bargaining between the PRC and other governments.

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