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Global environmental politics is emerging as a key field for South African diplomacy and foreign policy, in which Pretoria is endeavouring to lead by example. Environmental summits and conferences such as Johannesburg (2002) and Copenhagen (2009) have been crucial stages for the performance of this role as an environmental leader, and in December 2011 Durban will host the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. There are also signs from within policy-making circles that 'the environment' is seen as a field in which some of the lustre of South Africa's post-1994 international high moral standing could be recovered. However, tensions remain between South Africa's performance and rhetoric on the global stage, and domestic development paths which continue to be environmentally unsustainable. The article concludes by suggesting that while the visibility and prominence of South Africa as an actor in global environmental politics is likely to grow, it remains doubtful whether this represents a sustained and committed new direction in South African foreign policy. © The Author(s) 2011.

This paper is a contribution to the discourse around the politics and the polemics of 'the popular'. It focuses on the definitions and uses of African popular fiction. The problematic in the definition of 'African popular fiction' starts from the difficulty in the definition of African popular culture itself which the fiction in question is supposed to reflect or influence (Barber, 1997). This paper does not take the term 'popular' as a received notion but as a contested notion because there is politics behind it. 'Popular fiction' is a term originating from outside Africa in the West while in Africa there is a problem of distinction between what is popular and what is not popular. The transpositions from Western to African popular fiction require adjustments beyond substituting black for white or beyond bringing the proletariat-bourgeois dichotomy because contexts are totally different. Popular fiction acquires new characteristics and uses when transposed to the African local and when transposed to a different local within Africa. African writers re-interpret or extend the boundaries of this genre in order to make it do new intellectual work and address questions of social and political power. This form is conscripted for new ends and is made to address emergent issues of social contradiction in Africa. It is itself an institution of social critical analysis.

I seek funding to continue my work this summer on the collaborative African Legislatures Project with Professor Robert Mattes of the University of Cape Town (UCT). This project is a comparative study of the role of legislatures in fostering and sustaining emerging democracies in 42 African countries. It focuses on the three key functions of democratic legislatures – lawmaking, representation, and oversight – and collects systematic quantitative data on the institutional, organizational, political and attitudinal variables that impact the capacity of legislatures to perform these three functions while accommodating the tensions inherent among them. The project's research design combines examination of primary and secondary documents in all 42 African countries with intensive in-country research and national surveys of corresponding samples of legislators and constituents in 18 countries. The project's overall goal is to advance systematic analysis and understanding of how legislatures foster and sustain successful democracies in Africa and elsewhere.

This paper examined the boundary discord between Ethiopia and Eritrea over the region around Badme which started as a result of artificial boundaries created by the Italian imperialists. The study depicts the evolution of Italian colonialism in Ethiopia between 1936 and 1941. It exposes the differentials existing between the Muslim lowlanders and Christian highlanders. This paper further showcased the activities of armed resistance movements that emerged such as Eritrean Liberation Front (EFL) and Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF). The paper discussed the root causes of the war, unlawful expulsion and destruction of houses of Eritreans. The paper concluded with the quest for peace to bring an end to the border discord between Ethiopia and Eritrea.Keywords: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Border Politics, Colonialism, Conflict Resolution

This article contributes to a critical assessment of the concept of democracy and consensus decision-making of the Bemba matrilineal governance system as a basis for a democratic model of engagement in African politics from an African theological perspective. It is of the opinion that assessing the concept of democracy by consensus decision-making of the Bemba provides a dialogue between the African traditional governance systems as a viable form of political governance ideal for multi-ethnic countries such as Zambia. This is a pinnacle of the 21st century debate which elaborates the important task of African Christian Theology in the rehabilitation, or renovation process of politics of identity for an authentic governance system with authentic African flavour for African governance systems. ; Rev. Dr Simon Muwowo was a Doctoral student of Prof. Dr Vuyani Vellem, professor of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics, University of Pretoria. This article is based on a dissertation written by the author as part of the fulfilment of the requirements for the PhD degree at the University of Pretoria, completed in 2015 under the supervision of Prof. Dr Vellem. ; http://www.hts.org.za ; am2016 ; Dogmatics and Christian Ethics

Tropical countries are often blamed for not managing their natural resources sustainably. But what if overexploitation is inherent in political structures and policies&mdash ; rooted in foreign colonial order&mdash ; and is consistently detrimental in the contemporary use of forestlands? This article argues that post-colonial land development policies and related political interests seriously impede the sustainability of forest ecosystems in Cô ; te d&rsquo ; Ivoire. Methodologically, the study builds on a historic contextualisation of forestland use policies in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Cô ; te d&rsquo ; Ivoire serving as a case study. The results indicate that the increasing development of so-called rent crops clearly follows the historical dynamics of &lsquo ; land grabbing&rsquo ; and a post-colonial agrarian model. This situation benefits agribusiness entrepreneurs and, more recently, sustainability standards. The study discusses the findings based on recent literature and empirical evidence. In conclusion, the post-colonial heritage and the manipulation of the related patterns by elites and policy-makers largely explains the present-day unsustainable forestland conversions in Cô ; te d&rsquo ; Ivoire.

Political communication inquiry principally investigates institutions such as governments and congress, and processes such as elections and political advertising. This study takes a largely unexplored route: An assessment of political messages embedded in music, with a focus on the artistic works of three male African music icons&mdash ; Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (Nigeria), Lucky Dube (South Africa), and Alpha Blondy (Cô ; te d&rsquo ; Ivoire). Methodologically, a purposive sample of the lyrics of songs by the musicians was textually analyzed to identify the themes and nuances in their political messaging. Framing was the theoretical underpinning. This study determined that all three musicians were vocal against corruption, citizen marginalization, and a cessation of wars and bloodshed in the continent.

I seek funding to work on two collaborative research projects this summer with Professor Robert Mattes at the University of Cape Town (UCT). One project involves the creation and analysis of a dataset on public opinion surveys of nationally representative samples of 6000 respondents in Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa to clarify the influence of social intermediaries-primary social networks, secondary associations, the media, and values and ideologies- on how voters vote. The other project involves establishing the conceptual framework and research design for, and the organizational structure for the administration of , a comparative study of how the constitutional powers, internal organization and procedure, and constituency linkages affect the lawmaking, oversight and representation functions of democratic legislatures in African Countries. The overall goal of both projects is to advance systematic analysis and understanding of how voting behavior and legislatures foster and sustain successful democracies in Africa and elsewhere.

Realising that most youth militias in African politics get to a point where they dump their erstwhile leaders for change and new political dispensation, this study sought to explore the dynamics behind and the main factors driving youth abandonment of their political ideologies for new pursuits. The study conducted through desk analysis followed a qualitative path in order to produce descriptive results. It specifically focused on Africa. Manifest Content Analysis was employed to process data. The study established that most leaders create political environments that do not allow independent intellectuals and youth empowerment resulting in youth getting tied to the leaders" ideology for hope and survival. Along the way, they are used to protect the leaders" continued stay in office. It also established that over time, most youth realise the level of abuse and what any other alternative might offer for their development before they suddenly and permanently switch sides. Often times, the abandonment of these leaders mark their demise politically.Key words: Political Youth, Development, Allegiance, Leadership, Youth militia, Ideology

This article discusses how Wangari Maathai's life experiences narrated in her autobiography Unbowed offers an opportunity for discussing the contradictions surrounding the perception, place and identity of women in African politics. Against the backdrop of gendered nationalism which glorifies the role and place of women in the construction of nations, the article presents a different reality of how some male leaders of postcolonial nation states like the Kenyan example, silences the voices of women politicians by urging them to behave like 'proper women'. Maathai's autobiography demonstrates that the social construction of womanhood in African politics is influenced by socio-cultural and patriarchal ideologies that construct the ideal African woman as the docile one, the one who does not question male authority. Maathai's autobiography becomes a lens that can be used to view and question the social construction of womanhood versus manhood and the influence on gender power relations on women's participation in the politics of the postcolonial nation states in Africa.

Tropical countries are often blamed for not managing their natural resources sustainably. But what if overexploitation is inherent in political structures and policies—rooted in foreign colonial order—and is consistently detrimental in the contemporary use of forestlands? This article argues that post-colonial land development policies and related political interests seriously impede the sustainability of forest ecosystems in Côte d'Ivoire. Methodologically, the study builds on a historic contextualisation of forestland use policies in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Côte d'Ivoire serving as a case study. The results indicate that the increasing development of so-called rent crops clearly follows the historical dynamics of 'land grabbing' and a post-colonial agrarian model. This situation benefits agribusiness entrepreneurs and, more recently, sustainability standards. The study discusses the findings based on recent literature and empirical evidence. In conclusion, the post-colonial heritage and the manipulation of the related patterns by elites and policy-makers largely explains the present-day unsustainable forestland conversions in Côte d'Ivoire. ; Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 2018 ; peerReviewed

This article provides a review of literature on African Agency and the drivers of change within EU–African trade politics in negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements between the European Union and African governments. ; Revised Author's Version. ; Agence africaine et de partenariat économique UE-Afrique. Revue article Cet article fournit une revue de littérature sur l'agence africaine participative et les facteurs de changement au sein de la politique commerciales UE-africains dans les négociations sur les Accords de partenariat économique entre l'Union européenne et les gouvernements africains.

In this paper, we use a qualitative reflexive approach to understand the dynamics of Chinese migrant perceptions of Africans upon arrival in Africa and the changes in their views upon returning to China. The research is based on in-depth, semi-structured field interviews with Chinese workers and managers in Mozambique and South Africa, as well as interviews with returning migrants to China, carried out in Beijing. Thus, we are able to gauge the learning experience that occurs and how the underlying Confucian philosophy that has been embraced by the Chinese polity manifests such changes in perception. The research suggests that there is a positive learning process which occurs through the migrants&rsquo ; experience and underlying racial stereotypes of Chinese regarding Africans are eroded. Confucian framing of China&rsquo ; s role in Africa is also mitigated towards a more hybridized view of African cultures and societies that reflects to adaptive propensities of contemporary Chinese society.

This thesis explores the functioning of branch politics within the African National Congress (ANC) and the influence of branch politics on the organization and its structures. The ANC has many of the characteristics of a mass party. In mass parties, mass participation is supposed to be promoted through the activities of party branches. This thesis documents the weakening of the ANC's local level structures and their political control over the organization's decisions. ANC branches are investigated as democratic vanguards of ANC's mass party persona, in relation to their functioning as the most basic units of the organization. The thesis reflects on branch members' experiences in different ANC branches to understand the interplay between branch politics, political power, and patronage politics within the ANC. This research project also explores the possibility of manipulation of ANC branches by senior leaders and would-be-leaders of the ANC. The thesis then concludes by summarising the state of branch politics within the ANC and giving recommendations on further study with regards to branch politics of the ANC. ; Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2021

Includes abstract. ; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-97). ; The Boipatong massacre has been widely recognised as a key moment in the South African transition, yet limited scholarly attention has been given to the details of this event. The massacre is frequently cited as an example of state complicity in the political violence that shook the country during a period of negotiation and reform. This thesis considers the underlying forensic truths of the Boipatong massacre, but more importantly it examines the ways in which the meanings of the massacre were contested by different political interest groups. Analysis of these contestations gives insight into the dynamics of the transition, shedding light on the discursive struggles that have defined it. Through the agency of certain political actors, a dominant narrative of the Boipatong massacre arose. However, the truths this narrative posited remain contested and contentious.