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African
Renaissance
Nov./Dec 2004
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Wars and
Conflicts
Kofi Annan,
Marcel Kitissou, Don Kraus, Peter Fabricus
Peter
Ashton, Doris Avotri, Kenneth Omeje, Issaka K. Souare
Austin Onuoha, , Laurie Nathan,
Solomon, Bankie Forster Bankie
From the Publisher
Jideofor Adibe, PhD
Editor,
African Renaissance
Publisher:
Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd
In this edition
In the September/October edition of the
journal, we focused on the issue of African identity and sought
answers to a number of fundamental questions: who is an African?
Do all people regarded as Africans or having an African identity
regard themselves as such? Are all who regard themselves as
Africans accepted as being so? Where does African identity fit
into in the mosaic of identities that people of African ancestry
or people who have African passports bear? What should be the
basis of any relationship between Africa and Africans in the
Diaspora?
In this edition we are taking on one of the
most intractable problems in the continent: wars and conflicts.
Africa has a disproportionate share of global conflicts and
wars. Some of the
implications of this are clear: resources in conflict areas are
diverted away from where they are needed most to procuring arms
and containing insurrections, the image of the continent as a
figurative expression for anarchy is reinforced in the western
imagination, investors run scare, and the continent continues
what some cynics have referred to as its terminal decline to the
abyss.
With wars and conflicts as part of any
narrative for Africa’s underdevelopment, some questions beggar
answers: Is Africa, specifically sub-Saharan Africa, doomed?
Will Africa ever know peace?
What are the real causes of wars and conflicts in the
continent? And what should be done to prevent wars and
effectively manage conflicts?
We have assembled some eleven
thought-provoking articles on the theme, each focusing on a
different dimension of the problem. As a framework, we have
reprinted (with permission) the extensive report of the
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, to the
Security Council, on the issue. We have reproduced the entire
report - an exception to our strict policy that articles for the
journal should be a maximum of 4,000 words. In fact so important
do we consider the theme of wars and conflicts in Africa that
one of our sister journals, the African
Journal of Political and Social Research, a peer-reviewed
scholarly quarterly, will debut next year with the theme (see
page).
We believe the contributions on the theme,
and the discussions of some of the contributions that follow (in
our unique seminar/workshop format) are very thought-provoking,
and will certainly be useful to policymakers on Africa and
others engaged in conflict management elsewhere.
Besides the lead themes we have also
assembled other thought-provoking articles – from an
assessment of the relevance of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s
Africa Commission, to a review of AIDS narratives in African
fiction.
Our American debut
We made our debut in the USA and Canadian
markets with our September/October edition, and sold out in less
than a week. We have continued to receive inquiries about where
copies could be bought. In North America, copies could be bought
from independent stores or from many of the leading chains
including Barnes & Noble, Hastings, Borders and
Dalton.
You can also contact our distributors in
North America: Ingram periodicals Inc. at
magorder.sales@ingramperiodicals.com
(phone: +1 615 793 5522).
Inquiries from UK and Europe should be
directed to Gazelle Distribution Services Ltd at sales@gazellebooks.co.uk
(phone: +44 (0) 152468765).
Next edition
Since the events of 11 September 2001 and
their aftermaths, ‘war on terrorism’ has been the dominant
global rhetoric. In the US and much of the Western world, it has
been one of the primary determinants of foreign policy. In the
just concluded US presidential election, it was decisive in
influencing the outcome of the election. But how has the war
affected Africa? How does Africa see terrorism? Where does
Africa stand in the whole ‘war against terror’? And what are
the implications of the ‘war’ for Africa’s development
aspirations, and for the entire democracy project in the
continent? Read about all these and more in the January/February 2005 edition
of the journal.
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Guarding the Flame of Life
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Strange Fruit Lynching Report
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Ancient African Nations
Contemporary African Immigrants to The United States
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African immigration to the United States
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African Renaissance
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Kwame
Nkrumah, Kenyatta, and the Old Order /
God Save His Majesty
For Kwame Nkrumah
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Night of the Giants /
The Legend of the Saifs /
Interview with Yambo Ouologuem
Yambo
Bio & Review
African
Renaissance (Journal)
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Our African
Journey
We stood in El Mina slave dungeon, on the
Cape Coast of Ghana on a recent trip to West
Africa, overwhelmed by despair, grief, and
rage. Without needing to verbalize it, we
were both imagining what reaching this spot
must have felt like for some long-ago,
un-remembered African ancestor as she stood
trembling on the precipice of an unknown and
terrifyingly uncertain future.
It was hard to process the fact that for
over three hundred years, millions of women,
men and children, mothers, fathers,
grandmothers, aunts, sisters, brothers,
potters, weavers, had begun their long and
brutal journey of being captured, kidnapped,
sold, and enslaved from the very spot where
we now stood the portal now infamously known
as the door of no return.
Growing a Global Heart
Belvie and Dedan at the Door
of No Return |
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Bob Marley— Exodus
Bob
Marley was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and
musician. He was the lead singer, songwriter
and guitarist for the ska, rocksteady and
reggae bands The Wailers (19641974) and Bob
Marley & the Wailers (19741981). Marley
remains the most widely known and revered
performer of reggae music, and is credited
for helping spread both Jamaican music and
the Rastafari movement (of which he was a
committed member), to a worldwide audience.
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Exodus
By Bob Marley
Exodus! Movement of Jah people! oh-oh-oh,
yea-eah!
Well uh, oh. let me tell you this:
Men and people will fight ya
down (tell me why!)
When ya see Jah light.
(ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
Let me tell you if you're not wrong; (then,
why? )
Everything is all right.
So we gonna walk—All
right!—through
de roads of creation:
We the generation (tell me why!)
Trod through great tribulation—trod
through great tribulation.
Exodus! All right! Movement of Jah people!
Oh, yeah! o-oo, yeah! All right!
Exodus! Movement of Jah people! oh, yeah!
Yeah-yeah-yeah, well!
Open your eyes and look within.
Are you satisfied with the life you're
living? uh!
We know where we're going, uh!
We know where we're from.
We're leaving Babylon,
We're going to our father's land.
One, Two, Three, Four
Exodus! Movement of Jah people! oh, yeah!
Movement of Jah people!—send
us another Brother Moses!
Movement of Jah people!—from
across the Red Sea!
Movement of Jah people!—send
us another Brother Moses!
Movement of Jah people!—from
across the Red Sea!
Movement of Jah people!
Exodus! All right! oo-oo-ooh! oo-ooh!
Movement of Jah people! oh, yeah!
Exodus!
Exodus! All right!
Exodus! now, now, now, now!
Exodus!
Exodus! oh, yea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-eah!
Exodus!
Exodus! All right!
Exodus! uh-uh-uh-uh!
One, Two, Three, Four
Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!
Open your eyes and look within.
Are you satisfied with the life you're
living?
We know where we're going;
We know where we're from.
We're leaving Babylon, yall!
We're going to our father's land.
Exodus! All right! Movement of Jah people!
Exodus! Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!
Jah come to break downpression,
Rule equality.
Wipe away transgression.
Set the captives free!
Exodus! All right, all right!
Movement of Jah people! oh, yeah!
Exodus! Movement of Jah people! oh, now,
now, now, now!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!
uh-uh-uh-uh!
Movement of Jah people!
Move!
Movement of Jah people!
Move!
Movement of Jah people)!
Move!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people)!
Movement of Jah people)!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people! |
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The Slave Ship
By Marcus Rediker
In this
groundbreaking work, historian and scholar
Rediker considers the relationships between
the slave ship captain and his crew, between
the sailors and the slaves, and among the
captives themselves as they endured the
violent, terror-filled and often deadly
journey between the coasts of Africa and
America. While he makes fresh use of those
who left their mark in written records (Olaudah
Equiano, James Field Stanfield, John
Newton), Rediker is remarkably attentive to
the experiences of the enslaved women, from
whom we have no written accounts, and of the
common seaman, who he says was a victim of
the slave trade . . . and a victimizer.
Regarding these vessels as a strange and
potent combination of war machine, mobile
prison, and factory, Rediker expands the
scholarship on how the ships not only
delivered millions of people to slavery,
[but] prepared them for it. He engages
readers in maritime detail (how ships were
made, how crews were fed) and renders the
archival (letters, logs and legal hearings)
accessible. Painful as this powerful book
often is, Rediker does not lose sight of the
humanity of even the most egregious
participants, from African traders to
English merchants.—
Publishers
Weekly |
Marcus Rediker
is professor of maritime history at the University of
Pittsburgh and the author of
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1987),
The Many-Headed Hydra (2000), and
Villains of All Nations (2005), books that
explore seafaring, piracy, and the origins of
globalization. In The Slave Ship, Rediker
combines exhaustive research with an astute and highly
readable synthesis of the material, balancing
documentary snapshots with an ear for gripping
narrative. Critics compare the impact of Rediker’s
history, unique for its ship-deck perspective, to
similarly compelling fictional accounts of slavery in
Toni Morrison’s
Beloved and Charles Johnson’s
Middle Passage. Even scholars who have written
on the subject defer to Rediker’s vast knowledge of the
subject. Bottom line:
The Slave Ship is sure to become a
classic of its subject.— Bookmarks
Magazine
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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Strange Fruit Lynching Report
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Anniversary of a Lynching
Willie
McGhee Lynching /
My Grandfather's Execution
Dr. Robert Lee Interview /
African American Dentist in Ghana
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African Aid breeds African dependency
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Speaking Truth to Power: Selected Pan-African Postcards
By Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (Author)
Salim Ahmed Salim
(Preface), Horace Campbell (Foreword)
Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's
untimely death on African Liberation Day 2009 stunned the
Pan-African world. This selection of his Pan-African postcards,
written between 2003 and 2009, demonstrates the brilliant wordsmith
he was, his steadfast commitment to Pan-Africanism, and his
determination to speak truth to power. He was a discerning analyst
of developments in the global and Pan-African world and a vociferous
believer in the potential of Africa and African people; he wrote his
weekly postcards for over a decade. This book demonstrates Tajudeen
Abdul-Raheem's ability to express complex ideas in an engaging
manner. The Pan-African philosophy on diverse but intersecting
themes presented in this book offers a legacy of his political,
social, and cultural thought. |
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Represented here are his fundamental respect for the
capabilities, potential and contribution of women in
transforming Africa; penetrating truths directed at
African politicians and their conduct; and
deliberations on the institutional progress towards
African union. He reflects on culture and emphasises
the commonalities of African people.
Also represented are his denunciations of
international financial institutions, the G8 and
NGOs in Africa, with incisive analysis of
imperialism's manifestations and impact on the lives
of African people, and his passion for eliminating
poverty in Africa. His personality bounces off the
page—one can almost hear the passion of his voice,
'Don't Agonise! Organise!'
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (1961-2009)
was a Rhodes scholar and obtained his D. Phil in Politics from Oxford
University. In 1990 he became Coordinator of the Africa Research and Information
Bureau and the founding editor of
Africa World
Review. He co-founded and led Justice Africa's work, becoming its
Executive Director in 2004, and combined this with his role as General Secretary
of the Pan-African Movement. He was chair of the Centre for Democracy and
Development and of the Pan-African Development Education and Advocacy Programme
in Uganda and became the UN Millennium Development Campaign's Deputy Director in
2006.
update 7 May 2010
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