Bücher der Reihe African Governance and Development

This book, written by African scholars on both sides of the Atlantic, explores contemporary debates, controversies, achievements, challenges, and future prospects of African development and democratization from diverse theoretical perspectives.

For about one hundred years, Pan-Africanism—as a social, cultural, economic, political, and philosophical idea—thrived. Towards the tail-end of the twentieth century, however, it waned. But in more recent times, there has been noticeable resurgence. And as we approach the second decade of the twenty-first century, there are indications of significant transformations vis-à-vis the role and place of Pan-Africanism and Pan-Africanists. Consequently, this book offers a new, further, and better understanding of Pan-Africanism—not just from the traditional, African, and African American points of view, but also from a global perspective. It does so by offering an analysis of its early years in terms of the personalities, ideas, and conferences that shaped it; it also examines many of the factors that brought about its decline—and its eventual rebirth.Contributing to this seminal work are scholars of different but complementary styles and intellect, who deviate from the more traditional or obvious approaches. For instance, one of the chapters explores Pan-Africanism from the geographic perspective, while another examines the role and place of women in the Pan-African movement. There are also voices that advance the conversation from the regional and continental viewpoint—hence chapters that investigate the status of Pan-Africanism in Latin America, in the Caribbean, and Islam and Pan-Africanism in the modern world. Ethnonationalism and xenophobia are also part of the treatise because, increasingly, these injurious phenomena are reemerging in Africa’s landscape and consciousness. In an increasingly interdependent and interrelated world, this book also suggests that Pan-Africanism will undergo a metamorphosis: problems and challenges will be seen and tackled from the globalization and global common perspective. Pan-Africanism in Modern Times goes beyond the historicity of Pan-Africanism and examines the challenges, concerns, and constraints it faces; and also examines it from an inclusive perspective to have a broader understanding of this phenomenon and its future trajectory.

The problems and challenges of the Niger Delta predate Nigeria as a Republic. The resultant violence can be traced to 1966, when the late Isaac Boro and his colleagues attempted to secede from Nigeria due, in large part, to the underdevelopment of the region. Historical reality aside, since 1970 oil has displaced agriculture as Nigeria's primary revenue earner and it has, for the last four decades, been the nation's breadbasket. But in spite of this, the Niger Delta remains vastly underdeveloped and has been given the least federal presence. These deficiencies led to high unemployment, social dislocations, youth restiveness, and extralegalities. It was these realities that bred disaffection with the government and the multinational oil companies and eventually, to violent militancy. Between 2003 and 2009, it also led to low intensity conflict between militant youths and the Nigerian government. In the summer of 2009, however, the Nigerian government extended an offer of presidential pardon (amnesty) to the militants. The amnesty program was intended to bring peace and quiet to the region. However, this has not been the case. In spite of the financial and political resources that have been expended, the region continues on the path of volatility. This book looks at the issue of nationhood, the cause and cost of the crisis, past approaches and current efforts at solving the crisis. In addition, it offers a tenable solution to the decades-old crisis. Furthermore, the case is made that unless there is a fundamental restructuring of the Nigerian state and its governing structure and institutions, the problems of the regionand the larger problems that makes the country such a difficult to place to live in and govern, is likely to continue.

This book contributes to the current discourses about immigration, xenophobia, globalization, and cultural exchanges. The book explores the varied immigration experiences of Africans from neighboring African countries and western countries while recognizing the social, cultural, economic, political, and institutional impacts on host countries.

This book challenges the long-held conventional wisdom that Africa is a post-colonial society of sovereign nation-states despite the outward attributes of statehood: demarcated territories, permanent populations, governments, national currencies, police, and armed forces. While it is true that African nation-states have been gifted flag independence by their respective colonial masters, few have reached fully developed status as a secure nation-state. Most African nation-states have, since independence, been grappling with the crisis of state-building, nation-building, governance, and myriad security challenges which have been chronically exacerbated by the dynamics of the post-Cold War era. To focus merely on the agency of the African political elite and their inability to sustain functional modern nation-states misses the point. The central argument of the book is that an understanding of Africa's contemporary governance and security challenges requires us to historicize the discourse surrounding nation-building and state-building throughout Africa.