Full Description
The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Africa presents to a broad readership an accessible, comprehensive, up to date, and topical comparative analysis of sociological thinking in Africa. Sociological discourse about African societies has been challenging and difficult, due to a lack of both comprehensive analyses and holistic sociological evidence that covers Africa from past to present times. This Handbook brings together latest analyses of sociological phenomena from the best scholars working on numerous thematic areas. It provides contributions that locates African sociological thinking in historical context and takes a critical look at its current manifestations across the continent. This collection builds upon an existing body of literature which has demonstrated that while the analysis of African societies has long been an item on the agenda of sociologists worldwide, advances of the decolonial critique made notably by African scholars in Africa enhances the scholarship of the sociology of Africa. Thus, the collection is premised upon the understanding that in order to understand the sociology of Africa as significant intervention, the participation and representation of African ways of knowing and doing is a critical starting point. This Handbook comprises a series of scholarly and interdisciplinary perspectives on current debates over how best to unpack sociological imaginations in African context. The scholarly contributions, therefore, are based on both perspectives illustrating the importance of specificity in sociological phenomenon.
The Handbook is arranged in seven parts: Context and Perspectives; Race, Ethnicity, and Religion; Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality; Medical Sociology: Political Economy and Development; Crime and Violence; and The Family and Education. Premised on the importance of African ways of knowing and doing, these chapters offer sociologists, researchers, and students an invaluable starting point for a fuller understanding of African sociology.
Contents
I. THE SOCIOLOGY OF AFRICA:
THE CONTEXT AND PERSPECTIVES
1. The Sociology of Africa: A Thematic Contextualization of the Discourse
R. SOORYAMOORTHY AND NENE ERNEST KHALEMA
2. The Epistemology of African Sociological Knowledge Practices
ANSELM K. JIMOH, MOSES M. AKPOUGHUL-ABUNYA AND PEACE O. JEMIBOR
3. Decolonizing Sociology in Africa: Insights from Zimbabwe and South Africa
SIMBARASHE GUKURUME
II. RACE, ETHNICITY & RELIGION
4. Race and its Sociological Inquiry in Africa: Problematic Suppositions and Contemporary Predicaments
NENE ERNEST KHALEMA
5. Ethnicity, Politics of Power Sharing and Nation Building in Africa
INYOKWE SUNDAY OTINCHE
6. Religious Life in African Societies
NICOLETTE D. MANGLOS-WEBER
7. Advent, Development and Impact of Christianity in Africa
ISAAC DEJI AYEGBOYIN AND MICHAEL ADELEKE OGUNEWU
III. GENDER, SEXUALITY AND INTERSECTIONALITY
8. Women's and Gender Studies in Africa
NAKANYIKE B. MUSISI
9. Intersectionality of Gender and Sexuality in African Cultures
GABISILE MKHIZE
10. Prevalence and Consequences of Gender-Based Violence on Families in Africa
SITAWA R. KIMUNA AND PACIFICAH F. OKEMWA
IV. MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY
11. Medical Sociology in Africa: Understanding Health, Illness, and Healing
TOLÁ OLÚ PEARCE
12. African Sociology of Health and Well-being
JIMOH AMZAT, OLIVER RAZUM AND AISHA A. ADARANIJO
13. Social Determinants of Health in Africa
JIMOH AMZAT, KAFAYAT AMINU AND BRENDA MUCHABVEYO
14. Infectious Diseases in Africa: Emergence, Social Contexts, Political and Media Discourses
N'KOUÉ EMMANUEL SAMBIENI AND DAVID HOUÉTO
V. POLITICAL ECONOMY AND DEVELOPMENT
15. The Sociological Implications of Africa's Political Economy
MANU LEKUNZE
16. Pan-Africanism and Development in Africa: Trajectories and Prognoses
ERNEST TOOCHI ANICHE, IKENNA MIKE ALUMONA, AND VICTOR H. MLAMBO
17. The Sociology of Science in Africa
NELIUS BOSHOFF, JOHANN MOUTON AND SIMILO NGWENYA
18. Sociological Processes of Urbanization: The African Experience since the Twentieth Century
DONALD CHIUBA OKEKE AND MAXWELL UMUNNA NWACHUKWU
19. Africa's Nature: A Continental Treasure, a Global Heritage and the Real Wealth of the Present and Future Generations
NOEL CHELLAN
20. Climate Governance and Justice: Power Pull and Unequal Exchanges with Peripheral Africa
AYODELE ADEKUNLE FAIYETOLE AND GODWIN CHINEDUM IHEMEJE
21. Civil Society, NGOs and Human Rights in Africa
MOHAMED EL HACHIMI AND RACHID TOUHTOU
VI. CRIME AND VIOLENCE
22. Criminology in Africa
BIKO AGOZINO AND NONTYATYAMBO DASTILE
23. African Criminologies: Decolonization, Relativism and Resistance
IAN WARREN AND EMMA RYAN
24. Elusive Peace: Extraction and Violent Conflict in Africa
DAVID MATSINHE
25. Insurgency and Organized Violence in Africa: A Cross-National Approach
OBASESAM OKOI AND TEMITOPE B. ORIOLA
VII. THE FAMILY AND EDUCATION
26. Familial Roles, Responsibilities, and Solidarity in Diverse African Societies
RUTH EVANS, ROSALIE ADUAYI DIOP AND FATOU KÉBÉ
27. Managing Uncertainty, Creating Stability: The Enduring Value of Kinship for Family Formation
SANGEETHA MADHAVAN, KIRSTEN STOEBENAU AND SEUNG WAN KIM
28. Challenges to Higher Education in Africa and the decolonized "Academia We Want"
CHRISTINE SCHERER
