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Though many historians of colonial Africa are familiar with petitions preserved in archives, few have looked at what this genre of letter writing tells us about broader colonial society. In a rigorously researched and compelling narrative, Petition Writing and Negotiations of Colonialism in Igboland, 1892–1960: African Voices in Ink fills this gap through the exploration of petitions written by Igbo petitioners in southeastern Nigeria to British officials which shows how these Igbo individuals influenced colonial decision-making. In challenging colonial authority through petition writing, Igbo petitioners used language of rights and justice to navigate the colonial system. Utilizing a larg...
This book offers new perspectives on the history of exploitation in Africa by examining postcolonial misrule as a product of colonial exploitation. Political independence has not produced inclusive institutions, economic growth, or social stability for most Africans—it has merely transferred the benefits of exploitation from colonial Europe to a tiny African elite. Contributors investigate representations of colonial and postcolonial exploitation in literature and rhetoric, covering works from African writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kwame Nkrumah, and Bessie Head. It then moves to case studies, drawing lines between colonial subjugation and present-day challenges through essays on Mobutu’s Zaire, Nigerian politics, the Italian colonial fascist system, and more. Together, these essays look towards how African states may transform their institutions and rupture lingering colonial legacies.
This book considers the past and present legacies, continuities and change of the United Nations Trusteeship System by assessing consequences and legacies of decolonization in contemporary society, international organizations and international politics. International contributors address the UN Trusteeship System as a venue for multiple state and non- state actors and its effect on the international system. Rather than viewing UN trusteeship as a bygone phenomenon, the volume underscores its current relevance, particularly in view of the recent resurgence of trusteeship models such as in Kosovo and East Timor. Offering a novel and robust, yet simple and intuitive analytical framework through which to understand a broad range of cases related to the Trusteeship System and its impact on the international system, the book places emphasis on the agency of states in the Global South and highlights the importance of multiple actors in global governance. It will be of interest to scholars of international relations theory and history in a variety of fields, ranging from African Politics to Intergovernmental Organizations and Comparative Politics.
This book introduces readers to the rich discipline of Africana Studies, reflecting on how it has developed over the last fifty years as an intellectual enterprise for knowledge production about Africa and the African diaspora. The African world has always had a wealth of indigenous knowledge systems, but for the greater part of the scholarly history, hegemonic Western epistemologies have denied the authenticity of African indigenous ways of knowing. The post-colonial era has seen steady and deliberate efforts to expand the frontiers of knowledge about black people and their societies, and to Africanize such bodies of knowledge in all fields of human endeavor. This book reflects on how the m...
In Fragmented Identities of Nigeria: Sociopolitical and Economic Crises, edited by John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji and Rotimi Omosulu, readers are offered essays which explore the historiogenesis and ontological struggles of Nigeria as a geographical expression and a political experiment. The transdisciplinary contributions in this book analyze Nigeria as a microcosm of global African identity crises to address the deep-rooted conflicts within multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, multi-religious, and multicultural societies. By studying Nigeria as a country manufactured for the interests of colonial forces and ingrained with feudal hegemonic agendas of global powers working against the emancipation of...
This first comprehensive study of the Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970) through the lens of gender explores the valiant and gallant ways women carried out old and new responsibilities in wartime and immediate postwar Nigeria. The book presents women as embodiments of vulnerability and agency, who demonstrated remarkable resilience and initiative, waging war on all fronts in the face of precarious conditions and scarcities, and maximizing opportunities occasioned by the hostilities. Women’s experiences are highlighted through critical analyses of oral interviews, memoirs, life histories, fashion and material culture, international legal conventions, music, as well as governmental and non-gover...
That Africa is at a crossroads in an increasingly globalised world is indisputable. Equally unassailable is the fact that the humanities, as a broad field of intellection, research and learning in Africa, appears to have been pigeonholed in debates of relevance in the development aspirations of many African nations. Historical experiences and contemporary research outputs indicate, however, that the humanities, in its various shades, is critical to Africa’s capacity to respond effectively to such problems as security, corruption, political ineptitude, poverty, superstition, and HIV/AIDS, among many other mounting challenges which confront the people of Africa. The vibrancy and resilience o...
With the right to petition the United Nations, the Ewe and Togoland unification movement enjoyed a privilege unmatched by other dependent peoples. Using language conveying insecurity, the movement seized the international spotlight, ensuring that the topic of unification dominated the UN Trusteeship System for over a decade. Yet, its vociferous securitisations fell silent due to colonial distortion, leaving unification unfulfilled, thus allowing the seeds of secessionist conflict to grow. At the intersection of postcolonial theory and security studies, Julius Heise presents a theory-driven history of Togoland's path to independence, offering a crucial lesson for international statebuilding efforts.
Nigerian Gods is an enlightening and sobering review of the impact of the introduction of the three main Abrahamic religions on Nigeria's traditional religions, culture and way of life, viewed through the prism of its eleven largest and two of the smallest ethnic groups. Kome Otobo, gives here a factual and acute description and presentation of the main characteristics of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria - historical background and socio-political structures, demography, traditional religions, differing impacts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and major occupations and modes of existence - which should serve to propel all to a fuller assessment of the complexities of the directions which a Post-Covid-19 World is tending rapidly, ethnically and racially exploited differences jumping to the fore to question erstwhile dominant political ideologies and political arrangements based on them.