Securing Africa: Local Crises and Foreign Interventions
edited by Toyin Falola and Charles Thomas
Africa has been and currently is the site of numerous conflicts and crises. Authors previously wrote of these as specifically African problems or the problems of Europeans in Africa, but newer scholarship on other aspects of Africa has come to stress the interconnectness of Africa and the wider world. Still, it has often been limited to studies of isolated instances within African countries, with little-to-no connection to greater patterns of international power and violence. This volume explores the historical and present local and international dimensions of the myriad security crises in Africa, from the role of international relations during liberation to multination efforts against piracy.
African Culture and Global Politics: Language, Philosophies, and Expressive Culture in Africa and the Diaspora
edited by Toyin Falola and Danielle Sanchez
This volume attempts to insert itself within the larger discussion of Africa in the twenty-first century, especially within the realm of world politics. Despite the underwhelming amount of attention given to Africa's role in international politics in popular news sources, it is evident that Africa has a consistent record of participating in world politics- one that pre-dates colonization and continues today. In continuance of this legacy of active participation in global political exchanges, Africans today can be heard in dialogues that span the world and their roles are impossible to replace by other entities. It is evident that a vastly different Africa exists than ones that bolster images of starvation, corruption, and compliance. The essays in this volume center on Africa and Africans participating in international political discourses, but with an emphasis on various forms of expression and philosophies, as these factors heavily influence Africa's role as a participant in global politics. The reader will find a variety of essays that permeate surface discussions of politics and political activism by inserting African culture, rhetoric, philosophies into the larger discussion of international politics and Africa's role in worldwide political, social, and economic debates.
Intellectual Agent, Mediator and Interlocutor: A. B. Assensoh and African Politics in Transition
edited by Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah
Encompassing the time period from the colonial era to the present day, this book critically examines the changing nature of African politics and the factors that underpin such changes. We argue in the volume that many of the problems that plague contemporary politics (ethnicity, governance, conflict, bad economic policies, the absence of dialogue and other social issues) have their roots in the fifteen years after the Second World War, just prior to independence (1945-1960). Because these issues had been grossly mismanaged by the colonial enterprise, those fifteen years could arguably be characterized as the incubation period for the dysfunction that has stymied African politics since independence. For it was during these transitional years that African leaders learned how not to speak to each other. How to introduce meaningful dialogue to address issues between and among Africans is where the transition in African politics stands today.
Contemporary Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
edited by Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah
60 years after independence, African nations still find it difficult to face a number of challenges, from establishing meaningful democratic institutions to establish social structures centered on the advancement of gender equality. This volume approaches these contemporary African challenges while combating a reflexive and facile Afro-Pessimism.
Education, Creativity, and Economic Empowerment in Africa
edited by Toyin Falola and J. Abidogun
Education and the arts offer multiple, mutually clarifying lenses through which to examine and understand issues of poverty and empowerment. Here, both are combined in a fascinating look at how these two often overlooked elements promote social equality and cultivate personal agency across Africa's diverse political-economic landscapes. The volume more specifically examines education, languages, literatures and music as a means of economic and political agency. The book's key inquiry asks: "How do Education and the Arts promote equity and empowerment across African political economic landscapes?"
Mandela: Tributes to a Global Icon
edited by Toyin Falola
This book presents some of the best eulogies on Nelson Mandela, reflecting on his virtues, greatness, and contributions. An African, a universalist, and humanist, his lifestyle and leadership reinforce the adage that character makes a person. A courageous fighter, an honest and tireless worker, an original thinker, the Madiba, as he was popularly called, put people at the center of his activities. The progress of South Africa and of all Africans was the principal motivation for his behavior, actions, and decisions.
