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"Traditional African beliefs, together with African cultural traditions, are enjoying a new-found respect in South Africa, due in large part to the advent of the country's democratic constitution. In fact, a large majority of the South African population adheres to some form of traditional belief, often in combination with observance of other religions. Even so, the traditional faiths are poorly understood and, in spite of constitutional guarantees, receive far from equal treatment, a situation quite at odds with the country's commitment to equality and religious and cultural diversity. Throughout Africa, there is a strong tendency to confound indigenous beliefs with culture. Because religion is always taken more seriously than culture, this means that traditional beliefs do not attract the respect they deserve. While there are numerous works on the subject of religion in Africa, there are no works on traditional African religions and their legal implications. The issue is nevertheless of serious political and legal concern in South Africa, since it raises diverse questions involving freedom of religion, the equal treatment of religions, traditional healing, witchcraft, animal sacrifice, circumcision, marriage and burial. The overall purpose of the title is to consider whether indigenous African religions, independent African churches and traditional practices deserve constitutional protection and recognition by the state. If recognised, they will then become subject to certain state controls and benefits: the need for registration; the licensing of ministers as marriage officers (with consequences for the validity of customary and other marriages); and significantly, of course, tax exemptions. This title thus explores the legal and constitutional implications of traditional religion and, in particular, the state's intervention in religious matters."--Publisher's description

"Considering the African presence in China from an ethnographic and cultural studies perspective, this book offers a new way to theorise contemporary and future forms of transnational mobilities while expanding our understandings around the transformations happening in both China and Africa. The author develops an original argument and new theoretical insights about the significance of the African presence in Guangzhou, and presents an invaluable case study for understanding particular modes of transnational mobility. More broadly, it challenges forms of (re)presenting and producing knowledge about subjects on the move; and transforms existing theorisations and critical understandings of mobility and its shaping power. Through an ethnographic approach, the book brings us closer to a number of practices, features and objects that, while characterising the lives of Africans in Guangzhou, are also evidence of the interplay between individual aspirations, and the structural constraints embedded in contemporary regimes of transnational mobility. Raising critical questions about ways of (un)belonging in the precarious settings of neoliberal modernity and the future of African mobilities, this book will be of interest to scholars of transnational, African and Chinese Studies"--

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of figures -- Acknowledgements -- Preface: A fleeting encounter -- Introduction: Foreigners in China -- China as a land of opportunities -- Why Guangzhou?: an historic trading centre -- Previous African histories in China: diplomacy through education -- The Africa-China narrative -- Academic engagements and methodological challenges -- Methodological challenges -- The structure of the book -- A note on methodology: the cultural politics of ethnography -- References -- Chapter 1: The emergence of the 'Chocolate City': Multiethnic spaces, catering networks, and articulated subeconomies -- Looking for the 'Chocolate City' -- The city as a trade fair: urban transformations and foreign arrival -- Welcome Aboard! -- Counting the numbers: the early population surveys -- The French connection: Dengfeng Village -- China's internal migrants: the 'others' on the move -- Debunking the 'Chocolate City' narrative: multiethnic assemblages in a Chinese village -- Vantage point: Dengfeng-Xiaobei -- Catering networks and articulated subeconomies -- The 'ethnic enclave' vs. the 'African community': modalities of sociospatial imagination -- The 'ethnic enclave' = the 'Chocolate City' -- The 'African community' and 'bridge theory' -- Interconnected multiethnic archipelagos? -- References -- Chapter 2: The materialities of transnational movement: Food, hair, fashion, movies, and other 'things' -- Translocal image-inations -- 'Things in formation': gatherings of people and practices -- 'Africa fish' and the emergence of transnational foodscapes -- The translocal story of tilapia: from Lake Victoria to the Pearl River -- The transnational hair route -- Fashion -- The DVD trade: transnational (re)production -- Little things, 'major' transformations? -- References.

The first migrations of people from Africa to the Indian Subcontinent took place about fifty‑sixty thousand years ago. However, most of the Indo‑African population of India came to the Subcontinent in the last five hundred years. They became naturalized to both the Indian culture and the Indian way of life reasonably quickly, they became involved in politics and social disputes, and many of them rose to a high authority in the Indian society. The aim of the article is to show the status development of Africans in India and the change in social attitude towards them, by means of an analysis of examples chosen from the history of African settlement in India.

In Pensée 1, "Africa on My Mind," Mervat Hatem questions the perceived wisdom of creating the African Studies Association (focused on sub-Saharan Africa) and the Middle East Studies Association a decade later, which "institutionalized the political bifurcation of the African continent into two academic fields." The cleaving of Africa into separate and distinct parts—a North Africa/Middle East and a sub-Saharan Africa—rendered a great disservice to all Africans: it has fractured dialogue, research, and policy while preventing students and scholars of Africa from articulating a coherent understanding of the continent.

Examines US foreign policy since the failed intervention in Somalia, and whether it is an excuse for decreased American involvement, in light of the spread of dictatorial regimes and democratic reverses; focus on political conditions in Somalia and Liberia. Describes one of the most popular "African solutions", the National Resistance Movement of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

The question, who is an African? in the context of understanding African identity has biological, historical, cultural, religious, political, racial, linguistic, social, philosophical, and even geographical colourations. Scholars as well as commentators have continued to grapple with it as it has assumed a syncretistic or intersectional characterisation. The same applies to, "what is Africa?" because of the defined Western construct of its geography. This foray of concepts appears to be captured in 'I am an African', a treatise that exudes the telos of African past, present and the unwavering hope that the future of Africans and Africa is great in spite of the cynicism and loss of faith that the present seems to have foisted on the minds of many an African. Through a critical analysis, it is argued that African religion has a value that is capable of resolving the contentious identity crisis of an African.

African extreme poverty is probably a function (although not solely) of the balkanized post-colonial geopolitics of Africa. It is also probably a function (although not solely) of the income distribution generated by a typically perverse African political economy, through its effect on the allocation of resources to development. As between these two causes, the second is probably much the more important. This reinterpretation puts considerably more of the blame for African poverty on the Western great powers than does the "poverty trap" analytic that is a common contemporary way of thinking about the African economic situation.

An examination of the relationships between pol'al & religious factors in the growth of African prophetic cults, presenting an analysis of `the African Savior' - Simon Kimbango of the Congo, 'Kimbangoism' representing the way in which pol'al feelings are expressed in religous terms. Other movements are cited; circumstantial variations are found between the movements which make it impossible to deal with them as representing a single type. While the movements serve pol'al functions, these are not as immediate as is often stated. They must be understood also as symbolic of a new life which is demanded against such conditions as colonial rule. The movements have also functioned to (1) differentiate the areas of religion & pol; (2) free Christianity from its association with colonialism; & (3) diffuse new ideas. D. Cooperman.