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11. Cultural Diversity in the Cameroon Higher Education Policy Definition: A Historical Appraisal

Author:
Hyasinth Ami Nyoh
Publication Date:
06-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
The subject of cultural diversity in education has attracted considerable research interest with varying focal points that form the sustenance of this paper. Meier and Hartell (2009, 180) have argued that increasing cultural diversity in educational institutions necessitates that educationists teach and manage learners with cultures, languages and backgrounds that are unknown to them. Du Toit (1995) focusing on the Republic of South Africa takes the view that the opening of schools to all races does not automatically ensure mutual understanding and acceptance between educators and learners and amongst learners themselves. The assertion here is that desegregation per se does not lead to predictable and meaningful attitudinal changes of groups to each other and can, in actual fact, lead to the heightening of tension and prejudices within the South African context. O’Neill (2009, 81) sees multicultural education as a process of comprehensive school reform and basic education for all students. He asserts that multicultural education challenges and rejects racism and other forms of discrimination in schools and societies and affirms the pluralism (ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, economic and gender, among other things) that students, their communities, and teachers represent. In her research on teaching and learning in two desegregated South African high schools, Van Heerden (1998, 110) asserts that the process of desegregation in these schools is primarily a case of assimilating black learners into the school and its culture, with the result that the status quo is kept intact.
Topic:
History, Culture, Diversity, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Africa and Cameroon

12. From Mandela to Zuma: The Importance of the Southern Atlantic Region for South Africa’s Foreign Policy

Author:
Anselmo Otavio
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
As it is known, Ceuta’s conquest by Portugal in 1415 initiated the discovery and, consequently, strategic transformation of the Southern Atlantic region by European powers. It is important to consider, first, that these actions were a process, since from the 14th century the necessary conditions for maritime expansion were being created by Portugal. Secondly, the arrival at Ceuta represented not the end, but the beginning of a phase marked by the search for an alternative maritime route that would connect Europe to India and would grant the Portuguese Crown access to spices from India’s territory. Although this process was initiated by Portugal, it is a fact that, throughout the centuries, countries like Spain, the Netherlands and England have also pursued the same development. From then, the territories belonging to the South Atlantic coast have been impacted by European powers, since, due to colonization, they were encompassed by different political and economic dynamics. While Lisbon connected Brazilian and Angolan territories through a relationship based on the purchase and sale of slave labor, the Netherlands at first, England later, comprised the Cape Colony to the Afro-Asian dynamic, keeping this territory’s interactions circumscribed to their respective colonies in the Asian side.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, History, and Colonialism
Political Geography:
Africa, South Africa, and Portugal

13. Democratization Processes and Political Competition in 1990’s Africa: The Cases of Mozambique and Zambia

Author:
Fidel Terenciano, Maria Do Socorro Souza Braga, and Carlos Augusto da Silva Souza
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
Democracy and democratization must be understood within its scope, considering the singularities and the contextual aspects of each society. And the democracies of the third wave also contemplate singularities that cannot be measured by the rubble of other contexts. The pretension of the present research is to study democracy and democratization in Mozambique and Zambia considering two elements: the electoral system, its singularities and then the formation and the shape of the party system with its correspondent nuances. Because it is important to analyze the effect of one in relation with the other, we focus our analysis in two aspects: first, the political and electoral competition in both countries, emphasizing to the party fluctuations in the Parliament, and secondly we analyze the electoral competition in the perspective of power alternance, which constitutes one of the dimensions to measure the level of stability of democracies.
Topic:
Democratization, Politics, History, and Democracy
Political Geography:
Africa, Mozambique, and Zambia

14. African Studies in China in the 21st Century: A Historiographical Survey

Author:
Li Anshan
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
Academic studies are always the reflection of reality. With fast development of China-Africa relations, Africanists outside China have showed great interest in China-Africa academic engagement. One of the important aspects is what has been done in China regarding African studies. I once published an article on African study in China and divided it into four phases, i.e., Contacting Africa (before 1900), Sensing Africa (1900-1949), Supporting Africa (1949-1965), Understanding Africa (1966- 1976) and Studying Africa (1977-2000) (Li 2005). Although China’s trade with Africa increased from $10.5 billion in 2000 to 220 billion in 2014, African studies in China did not have the fortune as the trade. However, the dramatic development of the relation has provided Chinese Africanists with new opportunities and challenges. This paper will elaborate what Chinese Africanists have studied in the period of 2000-2015. What subjects are they interested in? What are the achievements and weaknesses? It is divided into four parts, focus and new interests, achievements, young scholars, references and afterthoughts.
Topic:
History, Engagement, and Academia
Political Geography:
Africa and China

15. Regional Integration in West Africa (1960-2015): Balance and Perspectives

Author:
Mamadou Alpha Diallo
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
To reflect about West Africa is always a pleasure, however, to write this article now is even better. First, because it marks the 40th birthday (1975- 2015) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); second, because it marks the fifteen years of the existence of (2001-2015) the African Union (AU). At last but not least, it marks fifteen years of our important academic life in Brazil, which is a starting point for opening a new dialogue, reflections and exchanges among Brazilian Africanists and the world. Besides, it is the result of a long period of dedication researching, teaching and participating in extension projects of the Brazilian Center for African Studies (CEBRAFRICA) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. That said, this article seeks, throughout a historical analysis of the regional West African integration process, to reaffirm the pioneering region in terms of socio-economic, political and cultural integration, but also to highlight the persistence of the difficulties and the challenges of the political unity consolidation in the region, especially after the internalization of colonial boundaries. The article has set as a goal the understanding of why, despite the enormous efforts and several attempts, the pan-Africanist dream of autonomy, unity and development is still below the expectations. It starts with the hypothesis that the difficulties are historical in nature (colonial heritage) and structural, connected to the difficult relationship between the internal processes of state-building and the inclusion of it in the international system dominated by the capitalist imperialism of the colonial and neo-colonial countries. In a nutshell, the low speed of the economic, political and socio-cultural integration process and, especially, the lack of autonomy are closely tied to the unfinished independence processes due to endogenous and exogenous factors.
Topic:
International Relations, History, and Regional Integration
Political Geography:
Africa and West Africa

16. Revolutions and International Relations: The African Case

Author:
Paulo Fagundes Visentini
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
In 1974, during the oil crisis, two apparently disconnected events shook the African continent and placed it at the center of the international agenda. A military coup in February in Ethiopia, the long-lived and oldest African empire, ended the monarchy in September, thus marking the beginning of a revolution and of a socialist regime. Meanwhile, in April, the longest fascist regime in Europe was overthrown (in the Carnation Revolution) and the first (and last) maritime empire crumbled. Angola, Mozambique and the Lusitanian enclaves in Africa became independent, under the leadership of national liberation movements of Marxist orientation. The fifteen years of armed struggle in the former Portuguese colonies gave place, in 1975, to civil wars and to an international conflict in Southern Africa between Cuba and the Warsaw Pact, who supported the new regimes, on one side, and South Africa and the NATO nations alongside the insurgents on the other. Likewise, the Horn of Africa became a hotspot in the Cold War. As always, revolutions became inter-state conflicts fomenting the heated debate between academic internationalists. Finally, what is the place of revolutions in International Relations? Do they comprise of a dysfunction within the world system? Here, we propose to discuss this question, focusing on the African revolutions of the 1970s.
Topic:
International Relations, Politics, Authoritarianism, History, and Revolution
Political Geography:
Africa and Brazil