Table of contents

Table of contents

This revised and expanded second edition of African Politics in Comparative Perspective reviews fifty years of research on politics in Africa and addresses some issues in a new light, keeping in mind the changes in Africa since the first edition was written in 2004. The book synthesizes insights from different scholarly approaches and offers an original interpretation of the knowledge accumulated in the field. Goran Hyden discusses how research on African politics relates to the study of politics in other regions and mainstream theories in comparative politics. He focuses on such key issues as why politics trumps economics, rule is personal, state is weak and policies are made with a communal rather than an individual lens. The book also discusses why in the light of these conditions agriculture is problematic, gender contested, ethnicity manipulated and relations with Western powers a matter of defiance.

An Introduction to African Politics is the ideal textbook for those new to the study of this vast and fascinating continent. It makes sense of the diverse political systems that are a feature of Africa by using familiar concepts, chapter by chapter, to examine the continent as a whole. The result is a textbook that identifies the essential features of African politics, allowing students to grasp the recurring political patterns that have dominated this part of the world since independence. Features and benefits of the book include: * thematically organised, with individual chapters exploring issues such as colonialism, ethnicity, nationalism, social class, ideology, legitimacy, sovereignty, and democracy * identifies the key recurrent theme of competitive relationships between the African state, its civil society, and external interests * contains useful boxed case studies of key countries at the end of each chapter, including: Kenya; Tanzania; Nigeria; Botswana; Ivory Coast; Uganda; Somalia; Ghana; Zaire; and Algeria * each chapter concludes with key terms and definitions as well as questions, advice on further reading, and useful notes and references * clearly and accessibly written by an experienced teacher of the subject.

African American Political Thought offers an unprecedented philosophical history of thinkers from the African American community and African diaspora who have addressed the central issues of political life: democracy, race, violence, liberation, solidarity, and mass political action. Melvin L. Rogers and Jack Turner have brought together leading scholars to reflect on individual intellectuals from the past four centuries, developing their list with an expansive approach to political expression. The collected essays consider such figures as Martin Delany, Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Audre Lorde, whose works are addressed by scholars such as Farah Jasmin Griffin, Robert Gooding-Williams, Michael Dawson, Nick Bromell, Neil Roberts, and Lawrie Balfour. While African American political thought is inextricable from the historical movement of American political thought, this volume stresses the individuality of Black thinkers, the transnational and diasporic consciousness, and how individual speakers and writers draw on various traditions simultaneously to broaden our conception of African American political ideas. This landmark volume gives us the opportunity to tap into the myriad and nuanced political theories central to Black life. In doing so, African American Political Thought: A Collected History transforms how we understand the past and future of political thinking in the West.

"This is an extraordinarily rich collection full of informative detail and excellent interpretative analysis. There is not a single piece that fails to fascinate... " --Leeds African Studies Bulletin "... an impressive collection of inspiring and thought-provoking essays." --Media Development "This is a book that should find its way into many syllabuses and onto the bookshelves of Africanist scholars in many disciplines. Its publication marks a key turning point in scholarlship on the cultures of contemporary Africa." --Africa Today This book surveys the popular culture of contemporary Africa, including popular literature, oral narrative and poetry, dance, drama, music, and visual art, with special emphasis on the verbal arts. The essays cover six main areas: views of the field; oral tradition revisited; social history, social criticism and interpretation; women in popular culture; "little genres of everyday life"; the local and the global.