Suchergebnisse

Introduction: Toponymic cultures and the study of place naming in African (and Israeli) contexts -- Names in the city: Street signage in urban Africa and Israel -- A Tale of two Brazzas: Intertwining (post-)colonial namescapes -- Beyond street names: A tapestry of toponymic legacies in Dakar, Senegal -- An off-the-grid toponymic ambiguity at the heart of a world city: The case of Givat Amal, Tel Aviv -- Conclusion: The worldling of toponymic legacies.

Understanding contemporary conflicts in Africa remains directly dependent on the approaches employed to decipher or interpret them. This article first examines the bias of conventional approaches (inherited from the Cold War) and then those of a series of supposedly 'newer' approaches. Relying primarily on West African examples, it offers a brief overview of current knowledge, issues, and avenues for research, based on three apparent characteristics of a 'new generation' of conflicts: the regionalization of wars, the privatization of violence and security, and the recourse to extreme forms of brutality. These three major trends bear witness to a rapid transformation of war and armed violence over the past 20 years, but they are not sufficient to establish a radical historical break between 'old' and 'new' conflicts in Africa. By concealing elements of continuity a priori, the most influential 'new' approaches actually make it impossible to ponder their own limits. To that end, fashionability and struggles for influence within the Africanist field play a major role in perpetuating dominant, sensationalistic, or simplistic (and invariably incorrect) portrayals of African conflicts. Adapted from the source document.

The doctrine of international relations (inter-state, indeed), territorial ideologies, the logic of autochthony and its ramifications, ethnic cleansing, are all hinged at different levels upon the same pseudo-fact: to every society a closed and exclusive territory demarcated by fixed and linear borders. This way of thinking, totally foreign to African societies for a long time, has generated today more contradictions than it can ever solve. The authors of this book make a clear distinction between territory formation ""from the top"" as being a deliberate political project, and its formation

The doctrine of international relations (inter-state, indeed), territorial ideologies, the logic of autochthony and its ramifications, ethnic cleansing, are all hinged at different levels upon the same pseudo-fact: to every society a closed and exclusive territory demarcated by fixed and linear borders. This way of thinking, totally foreign to African societies for a long time, has generated today more contradictions than it can ever solve. The authors of this book make a clear distinction between territory formation "from the top" as being a deliberate political project, and its formation "from below" as being a more diffused historical process which is determined by the scheme of antagonisms and compromises between social forces. In lieu of a stark opposition between "the top" and "below", the authors unveil the interdependence and mutual influence which form the basis of a dual system within which legal formation -by the colonial authorities first, then by the postcolonial one- is confronted with a host of subaltern spatial dynamics, neglecting thereby the legitimacy which only them can provide. As an essential read for anyone who is interested in the relationship between knowledge and power, this book offers stimulating perspectives on the issue of African unity and its epistemological and political challenges. It renews profoundly our approaches to human security, citizenship, borders and mobility. Contributions are in English and in French

Die Aufsätze sind aus drei Konferenzen in Accra 1996, Kampala 1997 und Accra 1999 hervorgegangen, die sich mit dem Thema "Medien und die Schaffung von Frieden in Afrika" beschäftigten. Auslöser hierfür war das Verhalten und die Mitverantwortung der Medien während des Genozids in Ruanda 1994 gewesen. Vor diesem Hintergrund setzen sich die Autoren mit der Frage auseinander, welche Rolle Journalisten in den afrikanischen Gesellschaften in Konfliktfällen einnehmen (müssen bzw. können) und inwiefern ihnen eine unparteiliche Haltung möglich ist, wenn der Staat Repression in vielfältiger Form mit dem Argument der nationalen Sicherheit begründet. Die Ausführungen allgemeiner Art werden durch ausführliche Einzelbeispiele untermauert. (DÜI-Wgm)