Description
Africa’s modern history is replete with different forms of encounters and conflicts. From the fifteenth century when millions of Africans were forcefully taken away as slaves during the infamous Atlantic slave trade; to the colonial conquests of the nineteenth century where European countries conquered and subsequently balkanized Africa and shared the continent to European powers; and to the postcolonial era where many African leaders have maintained several instruments of exploitation, the continent has seen different forms of encounters, exploitations and oppressions. These encounters and exploitations have equally been met with resistance in different forms and at different times. The mode of Africa’s encounters with the rest of the world have in several ways, shaped and continue to shape the continent’s social, political and economic development trajectories. Essays in this volume have addressed different aspects of these phases of encounters and resistance by Africa and the African Diaspora.
While the volume document different phases of oppression and conflict, it also contains some accounts of Africa’s resistance to external and internal oppressions and exploitations. From the physical guerilla resistance of the Mau Mau group against British colonial exploitation in Kenya and its aftermath, to efforts of the Kayble group to preserve their language and culture in modern Algeria; and from the innovative ways in which the Tuareg are using guitar and music as forms of expression and resistance, to the modern ways in which contemporary African immigrants in North America are coping with oppressive structures and racism, the chapters in this volume have examined different phases of oppressions and suppressions of Africa and its people, as well as acts of resistance put up by Africans.
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Phases of Oppression and Resistance
Kenneth Kalu and Toyin Falola
Section A: Reflections and Mediation on the African Condition
Chapter 1: Emerging African Women Writing the Diaspora
Delphine Fongang
Chapter 2: Acts of Culture: Similarities between Amílcar Cabral's Unity and Struggle and Walter Rodney's The Groundings with my Brothers
Michael Sharp
Chapter 3: Ali Mazrui’s Analytical Penchant for the Dialectics: Intellectual Creativity and the Explanatory Potency of Mazruiana
Wanjala S. Nasong’o
Chapter 4: Heroes Are Usually Honored: Hip Hop’s Revival of Dedan Kimathi
Mickie Mwanzia Koster
Section B: Faces of Oppression and Resistance
Chapter 5: The Lasting Cultural Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Spanish Caribbean
Ann Albuyeh
Chapter 6: Emerging Trajectories in the Niger Delta Struggle
Olawari D.J Egbe and Temitope B. Oriola
Chapter 7: Kabyle Resistance & Berber Oppression
Céline A. Jacquemin
Chapter 8: From Gun to Guitar: The Performance of Tuareg Nationalism
Bonnie Bates
Section C: Conflicts and Conflict Resolution
Chapter 9: African Reconstruction (or Reinvention) in Confederate and Neo-colonial Landscapes of the Twenty-First Century
Rev. Monica M. Esparza
Chapter 10: Transcending Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Art
Thérèse De Raedt
Chapter 11: Faith-Based and African Traditional Perspectives in Conflict Transformation and Resolution
Daniel Njoroge Karanja
Chapter 12: African "Communal" Ritual as Tool for Conflict Transformation
Oluwagbemiga T. Dasylva
Conclusion
Kenneth Kalu and Toyin Falola
