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Discourses in African Musicology: J.H. Kwabena Nketia Festschrift highlights the proceedings of a 2011 conference at the University of Ghana in honor of Professor J.H. Kwabena Nketia on his 90th birthday. Professor Nketia was instrumental in shaping the field of ethnomusicology and providing the foundation for an African Musicology. The conference gave scholars and performers an occasion to explore the multi-faceted subject of African music studies, and provided its many attendees the opportunity to extend the scholarly discourse on African music.
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Asante Court Music and Verbal Arts in Ghana is a comprehensive portrait of Asante court musical arts. Weaving together historical narratives with analyses of texts performed on drums, ivory trumpets, and a cane flute, the book includes a critical assembly of ancient song texts, the poetry of bards (kwadwom), and referential poetry performed by members of the constabulary (apae). The focus is on the intersections between lived experience, music, and values, and refers to musical examples drawn from court ceremonies, rituals, festivals, as well as casual performances elicited in the course of fieldwork. For the Asante, the performing arts are complex sites for recording and storing personal ex...
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The contemporary world has reached a pivotal moment of escalating injustices and apocalyptic risks, but also of unprecedented opportunities. Mounting pressures of social and ecological problems are met by a confluence of intellectual trends that allow the questioning of entrenched assumptions and the unleashing of a forward-oriented sociological imagination. In Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World, a diverse collection of international experts explore contemporary trends, alternative visions, and new directions for sociological research, raising issues that reflect the complexity of challenges facing future projects on a shared planet. Topics include: Global Inequality Multipolar Globalization Climate Change Contentious Politics and Social Movements Feminist and Indigenous Perspectives in Latin America An African-centred approach to Knowledge Production Post-Islamist Democracy Based on the revised papers of the Opening and Closing Plenaries of the Third ISA Forum of Sociology in Vienna, Austria, July 2016, which Markus Schulz organized on the theme "The Futures We Want: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World."
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This wide-ranging volume presents the most complete appraisal of modern African history to date. It assembles dozens of new and established scholars to tackle the questions and subjects that define the field, ranging from the economy, the two world wars, nationalism, decolonization, and postcolonial politics to religion, development, sexuality, and the African youth experience. Contributors are drawn from numerous fields in African studies, including art, music, literature, education, and anthropology. The themes they cover illustrate the depth of modern African history and the diversity and originality of lenses available for examining it. Older themes in the field have been treated to an engaging re-assessment, while new and emerging themes are situated as the book’s core strength. The result is a comprehensive, vital picture of where the field of modern African history stands today.
Rituals are among the most enduring aspects of the African cultural landscape. They appear to exist outside of time, eternal and unchanging. Joseph Adjaye argues that while rituals may seem to be static, in reality, they are dynamic and changing. Through intense analysis of child naming ceremonies, libations, puberty initiation rights, funerals and two major Ghanaian festivals, Adjaye explores the interplay between ritual and audience interaction and participation. By so doing, he shows the many ways rituals have provided Ghanaians with a means to conceptualize and change their present and shape their future. In other words, rituals help individuals escape the boundaries of self by promoting a sense of collective purpose and agency. This book will appeal to not only Africanists, but to readers interested in the roles rituals play in their own lives and the ways that rituals encourage socially transforming initiatives.
This book emerges at a time when critical race studies, postcolonial thought, and decolonial theory are under enormous pressure as part of a global conservative backlash. However, this is also an exciting moment, where new horizons of knowledge appear and new epistemic practices (e.g. symmetry, collaboration, undisciplining) gain traction. Through our critical engagements with structural, relational, and personal aspects of knowing and unknowing we work towards a greater multiplicity of knowledges and practices. Calling into question the asymmetrical global economy of knowledge and its uneven division of intellectual labour, our interdisciplinary volume explores what a decolonial horizon could entail for African Studies at the crossroads. Contributors are Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Eric A. Anchimbe, Edwin Asa Adjei, Susan Arndt, Muyiwa Falaiye, Katharina Greven, Christine Hanke, Amanda Hlengwa, Catherine Kiprop, Elísio Macamo, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Cassandra Mark-Thiesen, Lena Naumann, Thando Njovane, Samuel Ntewusu, Anthony Okeregbe, Zandisiwe Radebe, Elelwani Ramugondo, Eleanor Schaumann
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