scholarly journals Vision Versus Illusion: A Symbol of Reality in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Emenyi Abang ◽  
Kalu, Kalu Obasi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
The Novel ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Invisible Man ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
American Society ◽  
The 1960S

Vision Versus Illusion: A Symbol of Reality in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man attempts to x-ray Ralph Ellison’s portrayal of the struggles and experiences of the Negro in the American society. The work examines his plot, characterization and his artistry which are all geared towards the success of the novel. The paper examines the role of these literary elements employed by Ellison to dissect the American society showing the conditions and plights of the Negro living among the whites in America. America is in the midst of chaos. Her oppression and antagonism of the Negro has resulted in a blindness that is contagious, and everybody is affected. This work attempts to unravel the state of incompatibility hinged on racism and exploitation as practiced in America against the Negroes. This has been the hallmark of literary expression of the 1960s and beyond among nations that have experienced exploitation and oppression. The nations notably include: South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, and other West African countries. These conditions have engendered literary reactions among scholars across the Globe. 

Imagining Africa’s futures in two Caine Prize-winning stories: Henrietta Rose-Innes’s “Poison” and NoViolet Bulawayo’s “Hitting Budapest”

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aghogho Akpome
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
A Site ◽  
Chemical Explosion

Since its launch in 1999, the annual Caine Prize for African short stories has assumed a dominant position on the continent’s literary landscape. It has been hailed for the exposure it provides for its winners who are mostly budding writers. Expectedly, it has also attracted stinging criticism, especially for what is perceived to be its legitimization of stereotypical narratives about Africa. In this article, I examine how the two winning entries of 2008 and 2011 represent contemporary African realities and in so doing reinforce the growing significance of the prize and the short story genre to modern African literary expression. I argue that, taken together, Henrietta Rose-Innes’ “Poison” (2007) and NoViolet Bulawayo’s “Hitting Budapest” (2010), both set in cities, contribute to problematic imaginings of African futures. Bulawayo does this through her representation of slum life and dystopian childhoods in Zimbabwe while Rose-Innes’s story speculates on the apocalyptic aftermath of a chemical explosion in post-apartheid South Africa. I highlight, also, how these two narratives reflect apparent relationships between the short story and the novel in contemporary African writing as well as the increasing role of the postcolonial city as a site from which unfavourable visions of postcolonial societies are generated.

English in West Africa

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Gut
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Structural Properties ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Current Role ◽  
British Colonization

This chapter describes the history, role, and structural properties of English in the West African countries the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, the anglophone part of Cameroon, and the island of Saint Helena. It provides an overview of the historical phases of trading contact, British colonization and missionary activities and describes the current role of English in these multilingual countries. Further, it outlines the commonalities and differences in the vocabulary, phonology, morphology, and syntax of the varieties of English spoken in anglophone West Africa. It shows that Liberian Settler English and Saint Helenian English have distinct phonological and morphosyntactic features compared to the other West African Englishes. While some phonological areal features shared by several West African Englishes can be identified, an areal profile does not seem to exist on the level of morphosyntax.

Adoption of E-Government in Africa

2014 ◽  
pp. 101-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priti Jain ◽  
Akakandelwa Akakandelwa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Present State ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Theoretical Underpinning ◽  
Government Services ◽  
The World ◽  
Citizen Empowerment

Increasingly, the importance of e-government is growing owing to higher quality delivery of government services, improved citizen empowerment through access to e-information, and better interactions between governments and their stakeholders. Despite all this recognition and appreciation of e-government, there is slow uptake and high failure of e-government in developing countries. A huge imbalance still remains between developed and developing countries, specifically in Africa because of numerous impediments. Africa lags far behind all other regions in the world. Some African countries have initiated e-government, such as Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, yet others have not taken any initiative or are very slow in realizing its full take off, for instance, Tanzania, Botswana, and Zambia. In light of the above background, the main purpose of this chapter is to determine the challenges and based on the findings make recommendations for adoption of E-Government in Arica. The chapter reviews the theoretical underpinning of E-Government as a tool for modernizing public administration; examines the present state of e-government in Africa; highlights the challenges and barriers African countries encounter in their quest to develop E-Government; reviews the role of public libraries in E-Government, and finally, makes recommendations for E-Government adoption in Africa and other developing countries.

Bureaucrats and the Senegalese Political Process

1971 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
'Ladipo Adamolekun
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Political Process ◽  
West African ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Military Regimes ◽  
The Military

While independence in West Africa focused academic attention on political parties, the proliferation of military régimes in the late 1960s– by 1970, seven West African countries had experienced military rule — brought two other institutions into prominence: the military and civil bureaucracies. This article seeks to throw some light on the place of the civil bureaucracy in Senegal through a study of the role of bureaucrats in the country's political process.

THINKING ABOUT ROBERT PUTNAM'S ANALYSIS OF DIVERSITY

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Kilson
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Contact Theory ◽  
Social Psychologist ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
American Society ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractThe article evaluates Robert Putnam's discussion of two differing concepts of the role of the diversity perspective toward inter-ethnic/inter-racial relationships in American society since the 1960s—namely, the “contact theory” and the “conflict theory.” The former was initially formulated by Harvard social psychologist Gordon Allport in The Nature of Prejudice (1954). Putnam's analysis—published in the comparative politics journal Scandinavian Political Studies (Vol. 30, No. 2, 2007)—favors the “conflict theory,” which holds that diversity sharpens “us-against-them” inter-ethnic/inter-racial interactions. Putnam's view opposes diversity-influenced public policies. By contrast, “contact theory” holds that diversity erodes “us-against-them” interactions and thus eventually democratizes such interactions, and thereby American society generally. “Contact theory” influenced the NAACP-led civil-rights movement's quest for desegregation public policies during the 1950s, 1960s, and onward.

scholarly journals Building Capacity for Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in West Africa Sub-region: The Pivotal Role of RETRIDAL

Open Praxis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Clifford Amini ◽  
Oluwaseun Oluyide
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Building Capacity ◽  
Training And Research ◽  
Open And Distance Learning

The paper posits the Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDAL) as an institution established for the purpose of enhancing Open and Distance Learning in the West African sub-region. The institute has pursued this mandate with an unparalleled vigour since its establishment in 2003 —a partnership of the Commonwealth of Learning and the National Open University of Nigeria. It is the opinion of this paper that enhancing the Open and Distance Learning mode of education in the West African subregion will require building capacity. Consequently, RETRIDAL has championed this cause through workshops and training sessions as well as commissioning research studies in Nigeria and other West African countries. The objective is to produce suitably qualified manpower that is able to utilise ODL to mitigate the exploding demand for access to education in the sub-region. The paper also foresees a future of ODL and RETRIDAL for West Africa, as many universities are keying into the distance education paradigm.

scholarly journals Dominance-driven autocratic political orientations predict political violence in non-WEIRD and WEIRD samples

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrikas Bartusevicius ◽  
Florian van Leeuwen ◽  
Michael Bang Petersen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Original Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Political Orientations

Given the costs of political violence, scholars have long sought to identify its causes. We examined individual differences related to participation in political violence, emphasizing the central role of political orientations. We hypothesized, specifically, that individuals with dominance-driven autocratic political orientations are prone to political violence. Multilevel analysis of survey data from 34 African countries (N = 51,587) indicated that autocracy-oriented individuals, compared to democracy-oriented individuals, are considerably more likely to participate in political violence. As a predictor of violence (indexed with attitudinal, action intent, and behavioral measures), autocratic orientation outperformed other variables highlighted in existing research, including socioeconomic status and group-based injustice. Additional analyses of original data from South Africa (N = 2,170), Denmark (N = 1,012), and the United States (N = 1,539) indicated that the autocratic orientation-political violence link reflects individual differences in dominance orientations, and that the findings generalize to societies extensively socialized to democratic values.

scholarly journals New Private Media in French-Speaking West African Countries: Problems and Prospects

Afrika Focus ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 85-117
Author(s):  
Frere Marie-Soleil
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Active Role ◽  
West African ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The Press ◽  
French Speaking

In this paper, we will try to take a closer look at the rise of the democratic transition in two French-speaking West African countries: Benin, often referred to as “the country where it all started”, and Niger that can be considered as one of the weak copies of the Beninese model. In the first part of the paper, we will try to show how the democratic experiment took place in both countries and how private and government-owned media came to play an active role in all main political changes. In the second part, we will take a closer look at the role of the new private written press in the democratic transition and try to mention the main problems facing both the press and the democracy implementation. Eventually, we will mention the recent political events that occurred in Benin and Niger, showing that the democratic process has generated very different outcomes.

Promoting Renewable Energy in African Countries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Glazewski ◽  
Lee-Ann Steenkamp ◽  
Peter Kayode Oniemola
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Fiscal Incentives ◽  
Fiscal Incentive ◽  
Oil Revenues ◽  
Made In

This chapter reviews the development and role of financial mechanisms and fiscal incentives in two African economic powerhouses, South Africa and Nigeria, and the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases on the continent. Inoutlining both countries’ financial and fiscal policy response to promoting renewable energy, the term ‘financial mechanisms or incentives’ refers to macro-economic instruments such as feed-in tariffs; while ‘fiscal incentive’ refers to narrower revenue incentives including disincentives such as a carbon tax. In South Africa, a shift from traditional carbon-based energy sources towards renewables is encouraged by both financial mechanisms and fiscal incentives . In Nigeria, fiscal incentives are promoted by focusing on measures to increase non-oil revenues, primarily through improved tax policy and administration The chapter reveals that while significant strides have been made in both countries to invoke fiscal and financial incentives to promote renewable energy many challenges remain before this ideal becomes a reality.

“Walahé!”; “You should have seen it”: Validating the Truth of Wartime Absurdities in Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah is Not Obliged

Gragoatá ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (45) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Cecilia Addei
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
West African ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Novel ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Ahmadou Kourouma ◽  
Folk Wisdom ◽  
Wartime Experience

Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah is Not Obliged is a fiction based on the civil wars in the West African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone as a result of the breakdown of democracy. It employs the point of view of a child narrator, Birahima, a literalist picaro, to narrate wartime atrocities. The novel, mainly a satire, employs the devices of irony and humour that allow Birahima to present his world, which is turned upside down, and morality, reversed, in a way that makes the reader laugh in spite of the horror. The reality of Birahima’s wartime experience, which has left him in a kind of developmental “limbo”, is difficult to believe to be true. However, he makes every effort in his use of language to prove the truthfulness of the absurdity he narrates. This paper considers how the protagonist/narrator Birahima’s entry into war leaves him in an absurd, cyclical limbo while he resorts in frustration to validate his absurd experience through appealing to God, folk wisdom and dictionaries.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“WALAHÉ!”; “VOCÊ TINHA QUE TER VISTO”: VALIDANDO A VERDADE DOS ABSURDOS DA GUERRA EM ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED, DE AHMADOU KOUROUMAAllah is Not Obliged, de Ahmadou Kourouma, é uma obra de ficção baseada nas guerras civis nos países da África Ocidental Libéria e Serra Leoa resultantes do colapso da democracia. Através do ponto de vista de um narrador infantil, Birahima, um pícaro literalista, a obra narra as atrocidades da guerra. O romance, essencialmente uma sátira, emprega os recursos da ironia e do humor para permitir que Birahima apresente seu mundo deturpado e sua moralidade invertida de uma maneira que faz o leitor rir apesar do horror. É difícil aceitar como verdade a realidade que Birahima vivenciou na guerra, que deixou o seu desenvolvimento em uma espécie de limbo. No entanto, ele se utiliza da linguagem ao máximo para provar a veracidade do absurdo que ele narra. Este artigo considera como a entrada do protagonista / narrador Birahima na guerra o deixa em um limbo cíclico e absurdo, enquanto ele se frustra para validar sua experiência absurda apelando a Deus, à sabedoria popular e aos dicionários.---Artigo em inglês.

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