African Intellectuals: Rethinking Politics, Language, Gender and Development
Edited by Thandika Mkandawire
Published 2005; 256 pages; ISBN: 2-86978-145-8
In this thought-provoking overview of the history, fate and possible future roles of African intellectuals both within Africa and in the African Diaspora nearly half a century on from Independence, some of the continent's
most eminent thinkers discuss the issues at stake. Their starting point is the uniquely difficult circumstances confronting intellectuals: regimes intolerant of independent debate, economies in sharp decline, societies wracked by violent conflict, and official languages different from people's mother tongues. Africa has experienced, compared with Asia or Latin America,
much higher rates of emigration of its intelligentsia to North America and Europe, as well as frequent displacement from home countries to other parts of the continent.
African Intellectuals constitutes a valuable, because so rare, exploration of the complex interface between African
intellectuals and society, state and politics in the context of fundamental new departures like the restoration of multi-party politics, new economic horizons like NEPAD, and a renewed awareness of the need for Pan African cooperation.
Thandika Mkandawire is the Director of the United Nations Institute on Social development (UNRISD) based in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a
previous Executive Secretary of CODESRIA (1986–1996). He has published extensively on problems of adjustment, democratization and the social sciences in Africa. His current work is focussed on social policy in the context of development.
The Contributors: Beban Sammy Chumbow, Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Amina Mama, Ali A; Mazrui, Thandika Mkandawire, Ngugi wa Thiong'o,
Hannington Ochwada, Raymond Suttner , Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
1.Introduction
Thandika Mkandawire
2. African Intellectuals and Nationalism
Thandika Mkandawire
3. Pan-Africanism and the Intellectuals: Rise, Decline and Revival
Ali A. Mazrui
4. Intellectuals, Natio-nationalism and Pan Africanism: A Testimony
Joseph Ki-Zerbo
5. Gender Studies for Africa’s Transformation
Amina Mama
6. The Character and Formation of Intellectuals within the ANC-led South African
Liberation Movement
Raymond Suttner
7. Europhone or African Memory: The Challenge of the Pan Africanist Intellectual in the Era of Globalization
HB ISBN 1 84277 620 7 £ 65.00 $75.00
PB ISBN 2-86978-145-8 $20.00 (Africa); £ 18.95 $25.95 (Elsewhere)
For orders :
Africa:
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BP 3304
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Rest of the world:
African Books Collective
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27 Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1HU
Email:
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