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FirstView articles

Contents

Page 1 of 6

AFRICA GENERAL

Scholarly Review Essay

  • Building the City from Below: Toward a Citizen-Centered City-Making

  • Jeffrey W. Paller
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    21 March 2025, pp. 1-9
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  • In his book Seeing Like a State, James Scott writes, “We have repeatedly observed the natural and social failures of thin, formulaic simplifications imposed through the agency of state power” (1998, 309). State and top-down planning lacks mētis, or the common sense and practical experience that people on the ground possess of their everyday environments. Instead, Scott proposes a focus on practical knowledge, which “depends on an exceptionally close and astute observation of the environment” (1998, 324).

SOUTHERN AFRICA

Book Review

AFRICA GENERAL

Book Review

SOUTHERN AFRICA

Book Review

Corrigendum

AFRICA GENERAL

Book Review

SOUTHERN AFRICA

Book Review

Article

  • Violence against Muslims: Conquered, Not Fully Colonized, in the Making of the Muslim “Other” in the Central African Republic

  • Suzanne Francis
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    12 March 2025, pp. 1-23
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  • Muslims in the Central African Republic have experienced extreme violence for more than a decade. Through ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, this article shows how the foundations for contemporary violence were created through colonial and postcolonial state-making. The civilizing mission of republican colonialism set Muslims apart. Lifestyle and mobility were never fully colonized; escape depicted difference. Nationalist liberation mythologies render Muslim citizenship as foreign, precarious, and subject to ongoing contestation. Pentecostalism, a lateral liberation philosophy presented as patriotism, provides power to anti-Muslim discourse. Violence against Muslims is situated in an accumulated “pastness” of state-making and struggle in Central African historiography.

Film Review

SOUTH AFRICA

Book Review

Book Review

AFRICA GENERAL

Book Review

EAST AFRICA

Book Review

SOUTH AFRICA

Book Review

AFRICA GENERAL

Book Review

Film Review

EAST AFRICA

Book Review

Article

  • Women and Gendered Roles in the History of Diamond Mining in Colonial Ghana

  • E. Sasu Kwame Sewordor
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    26 February 2025, pp. 1-18
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  • The extant literature on diamond industries in Africa has predominantly focused on men, with few attempts to examine the industry from a gendered lens. I trace women and highlight their gendered roles in the diamond-mining industry in colonial Ghana (Gold Coast). Relying on archival, oral, and visual sources, this article highlights women’s involvement in Ghana’s diamond industry in different capacities—as discoverers, washers, licensed prospectors, and dealers. Ultimately, I argue that the dominance men have enjoyed in studies about diamond mining in Ghana (and Africa generally) reproduces the colonial archive but can be overcome through creative and innovative research.

Film Review

Neglected Voices in African Studies

  • Chinweizu’s Vision: Unveiling the Complexities of Pan-Africanism and African Sovereignty

  • Richard Atimniraye Nyelade
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    21 February 2025, pp. 1-22

  • The paper critically revisits Chinweizu’s contributions to Pan-Africanism and African sovereignty, focusing on his analysis of Arab and Western imperialism, internal complicity, and the concept of “culturecide.” His call for a distinct Black African identity is explored as a foundation for reclaiming sovereignty, while also addressing critiques of nativism and essentialism. A nuanced approach to decolonization is proposed, emphasizing its relevance in today’s globalized world. Chinweizu’s ideas challenge a rethinking of the intersections between history, culture, and power in the ongoing quest for African autonomy.

Page 1 of 6