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- Convenors:
-
Marieke van Winden (conference organiser)
(African Studies Centre Leiden)
Ton Dietz (ASC Leiden)
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- Stream:
- D: Cases of regional and disciplinary specifics
Long Abstract
This panel invites papers about long-term developments in knowledge institutionalization in specific countries or regions in Africa, with the aim of contributing to building histories of knowledge development. There will be a focus on recent developments and future prospects in individual African countries or regions. The panel will be linked to the attempt to present a database about the current knowledge infrastructure in all or major African countries.
Accepted papers
Session 1
Meta knowledge about areas
Ton Dietz
(ASC Leiden)
Paper short abstract
Keywords: meta-knowledge, knowledge history, area studies, decolonization of the minds, Pokot, Kenya and Uganda
Paper long abstract
Area studies have a long history, and so have academic centres dealing with specific areas (like the African Studies Centres) or the specific journals dealing with certain areas (like the Journal of Southern African History). However, very few area studies specialists use an approach to study the historical development of knowledge about a specific area, as a kind of meta knowledge study. In this paper I will try to show what the knowledge development history is about the area of the Pokot in Kenya and Uganda: what is the 'harvest' of specific knowledge about that area? Who did influence who? Where did the people come from who studied that area, and how did that change through a 120-year long period of written sources? And what does it tell us about the 'knowledge hypes', the major topics studied in particular periods. With the assistance of google scholar and other search machines it is possible to reconstruct the networks of references used in academic (and other) studies, next to doing a detailed analysis of the references used in scholarly work about an area. One of the interesting aspects in this paper will be the study of the types of sources used: academic/non-academic, languages used, disciplines used or neglected. As a hypothesis we can already formulate the statement that the specific topic studied about an area often tells more about the (scientific/societal) questions relevant to the countries where scholars come from, than about the questions that are relevant for the situation in the particular area that is being studied. And also: for peripheral areas like the Pokot areas, 'formal' knowledge development has hardly been done by people from the area itself. Most knowledge has an external gaze. Local people mainly play a role as research subjects and as research assistants or language interpreters. Meta knowledge studies show the need to decolonize minds and to become far more inclusive in integrating local researchers.
Beyond 'Westplaining' in writing West-African intellectual history
Pieter van Hensbroek
(University of Groningen)
Paper short abstract
Gold Coast political action between 1870 and 1910 tried to revitalise Fanti states facing British encroachment - with focus on the Fanti Confederation and the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society. Contrary to Westplaining accounts, such movements were directly rooted in Fanti political culture.
Paper long abstract
Describing the emergence of African nationalism as resulting from African intellectuals contacting Enlightenment idea about freedom and equality can be considered an example of 'Westplaining'. In this way indigenous knowledge traditions and social ideals are neglected and the creative thinking of African activists remains unseen. This paper reports on a study of Gold Coast debates and political action between 1870 and 1910 that tried to revitalise Fanti states in the face of British encroachment - with special attention to the remarkable Fanti Confederation and the Aborigines Rights Protection Society. It shows that, contrary to most accounts by historians, such movements were not steered by a separate, westernised 'educated elite', but were directly rooted in local political and intellectual cultures, and produced remarkably sophisticated and original political thinking.
History education in Ethiopia post-1991: rethinking the nation's history in the context of 'decolonization' debates.
Jon Abbink
(ASCL, Leiden University)
Paper short abstract
This paper reconsiders history teaching to university students in Ethiopia in the context of debates on 'national identity' formation. Relating it to the 'decolonisation' debates, I do this via a brief evaluation of the latest 'Hist 102 Module' (2020), to be taught in Ethiopia's universities.
Paper long abstract
Ethiopia's historical identity as a nation and a polity (a political community) is under scrutiny, notably since the EPRDF ethno-federalist regime (1991-2018), which actively discouraged an encompassing national narrative in favour of an ethnicized one. This has had its reflections not only in public debate and policy, but also in the academic teaching of history in high schools and in higher education. On the basis of a discussion of some recent products of this process of rethinking Ethiopian history teaching (mainly the Module Hist 102, 'History of Ethiopia and the Horn', of January 2020), I in this paper discuss some of the main positions in the current debate, and relate it to the 'decolonization' discussion. The question is posed whether a 'common', minimally shared history of Ethiopia - as a nation and a political entity (polity) - is now seen as illusory by most interlocutors, or still a shared aim - and if so, how it might be scientifically defended and taught as part of the curriculum. The discussion can be related to the theme of the 'Africa Knows' conference regarding manifold calls for 'decolonizing knowledge'. As in the debates in Western academia and elsewhere, the alternative versions of history (writing) from the standpoint of indigenous or minority groups in Ethiopia have to be encouraged when they aim towards equality and inclusiveness of representation, but may be problematic when they 'subjectivize' knowledge or become parochial and skewed - which would lead to reductionist, partial histories that make any national history outline remote and ignore its lines of connection.
Employing the elite capture critique to legitimize top-down control of development resources
Peter Shapland
(Wageningen University and Research)
Conny Almekinders
(Wageningen University Research)
Annemarie van Paassen
(Wageningen University Research)
Paper long abstract
"Elite capture" largely refers to local elites usurping the benefits of community development and decentralization programs in the Global South. Development interventions can be understood in terms of political and normative struggles that determine resource flows and our socially-constructed notions of development. As Bourdieu predicts, development actors' disposition toward elite capture frequently aligns with their position in these struggles: development researchers and practitioners identify elite capture as a central problem with bottom-up development approaches and use the elite capture critique to legitimize top-down control of project resources, while the participants of development projects see many of these alleged instances of elite capture as unproblematic. We employ Bourdieu's notions of reflexivity and symbolic power to investigate the history and use of competing conceptualizations of elite capture. We examine the narrow framing of the elite capture critique, and we evaluate the critique's relevance to the roles and capacities of local elite in West African villages. Finally, we understand elite capture in terms of the larger context of powerful actors throughout the aid chain capturing development resources. Our findings suggest that the elite capture critique is a form of symbolic power that legitimizes arbitrary power relations between international development institutions and rural communities in the Global South.
Capacity Development - when international development studies meet human resource management
Torben Andersen
(Aarhus University)
Annette Skovsted Hansen
(Aarhus University)
Paper long abstract
In this paper, we try to combine the recent changes in international development studies with a human resource management and development perspective by looking at Capacity Development (CD) as the common meeting ground. CD has been pursued by political institutions and practitioners working in the public and private sectors. Recently we have seen theoretical contributions trying to combine the two disciplines of capacity development and human resource management (see Analoui and Danquah, 2017 and Danquah, 2017). However, exploring CD is a story about very diverse concepts understood, and used, in a variety of ways over the last two decades. Likewise HRM, is by no means characterized by a shared definition or a common understanding among practitioners and within the research community. It is based on many different approaches and success criteria, and different actors attach various meanings to the concept - from highly normative to a severe critique. But does it solve anything to combine two very diverse disciplines and try to apply them to practice? In the paper, we juxtapose international development literature with human resource management and introduce Garavan et al. (2018)'s model of multilevel analysis, as a potential solution to sort the many questions. We try to disentangle, reflect on, and debate these various understandings and potential challenges - using examples from Ghana-Denmark public-private relations in and around the new Tema port terminal (MPS), the largest in West Africa. Through this illustrative example, which is part of a longer, on-going, project, it is our hope to qualify the CD conceptual approaches within the two domains (what domains?) and to further develop the knowledge on cross-national public private partnerships in international development.
Paper long abstract
The article examines two Ghanaian-born intellectuals - economist George N. B. Ayittey and anthropologist and sociologist Kwesi Kwaa Prah - and their positions on both local and global inequalities by studying their writings from the mid 1980s-1990s. It answers the question of how and through which debates both intellectuals addressed and engaged with notions of global inequality. Methodologically anchored in global intellectual history, this article offers a historical, qualitative, and actor-oriented study. Earle (2018) has underlined that the question of how African intellectuals have shaped the intellectual history of the modern world represents an understudied field within global intellectual history (para. 45). In an attempt to address this void, I show how Ayittey and Prah invoked global inequalities through different notions of neo-colonialism as well as criticisms of African elites - such as their rootlessness - within broader debates on African development. The article argues that their conceptions of global inequalities are hinged on the internalist/externalist debate revolving around the larger issue of African under-/development while their proposed solutions are founded on African indigeneity drawing on earlier African thought. I show how they actively reuse ideas of indigenous development as formulated by African intellectual Joseph E. Casely Hayford (1866-1930) in the be-ginning of the 20th century.
Paper short abstract
A case study of a randomized controlled trial of community-based sociotherapy for Congolese refugees in Rwanda and Uganda
Paper long abstract
Global mental health as a field of global health has gained increasing recognition due to randomized controlled trial (RCT) based positive evaluations of the effectiveness of innovative delivery systems of packages of care for mental disorders in low- and medium-resource settings. These settings and the context-adapted care packages confront researchers conducting RCTs with critical methodological and ethical issues. Psychosocial support interventions, in particular when targeting people affected by mass violence, raise the complexity of these issues. Rigorous trials to evaluate these interventions are still scarce. Internationally the urgency of more Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPPS) - preferably linked with peacebuilding and implementing a community self-help approach - for war-affected populations is growing. Proven effectiveness of the different kinds of MHPPS interventions as developed over the past decades may lead to more support by governments, international organizations and the non-governmental humanitarian sector for the scaling up of these interventions. Internationally there is a strong faith in RCTs as the tool per excellence to provide the evidence of effectiveness.
This paper focuses on challenges encountered in a still ongoing RCT of the effectiveness of community-based sociotherapy (CBS) for Congolese refugees living in refugee camps in neighboring countries. The major challenge addressed is the tension between the implementation of rigorous research procedures and protocols developed in the West and the implementation of CBS as developed over the past 15 years in Rwanda. In the CBS adaptation to the RCT-linked procedures and protocols what are considered as some of the key characteristics of CBS are crumbling away. On the other hand, there is also some merit in being asked by 'outsiders' to clearly explain the ins and outs of sociotherapy in writing and provide additional documents required for a smooth running of the RCT.
CBS was introduced in Rwanda from Netherlands in 2005. As a Western approach implemented in clinical settings, it was co-creatively redesigned to fit a society shattered by genocide and continuously adapted to changing local contexts, resulting over time in what can be considered a home-grown approach. Once the implementation of CBS in refugee camps has been tested and results are positive, a scale-up of CBS for refugees elsewhere in the world lies ahead. At issue is whether the RCT measured intervention is suitable for such scale-up. This raises the question whether measurement methodologies can be developed that leave interventions to be evaluated intact and are internationally recognized as valid.
Developing African science: a case study on the importance of local insights in the co-creation of scientific knowledge
Theoneste Rutayisire
(University of Rwanda)
Stefan Jansen
(University of Rwanda)
Paper long abstract
During the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, over one million people - out of a population of seven million - were killed in the span of a mere 100 days. The impact of the genocide is felt until today and damaged the social fabric. Issues of neighborly trust and a willingness to live together are all but evident. Now, 25 years after the genocide, genocide perpetrators are being released from prison in large numbers - whether they have shown remorse or not - putting additional pressure on society and highlighting the societal importance of reconciliation and a successful reintegration of genocide perpetrators.
Sociotherapy, an approach first developed in the Netherlands, was introduced in Rwanda in 2005. In Rwanda, the approach is aimed at reconciliation and peacebuilding and it was transformed from an institution-based to a community-based approach. Some members from the community are trained to lead groups of fifteen community members through fifteen three-hour sessions to discuss and share on issues of trust, safety, care and redefining a future for themselves. The group leaders themselves, called sociotherapists, identify and invite the community members that will take part in the group meetings. Groups can be quite diverse and can consist of both genocide survivors and perpetrators.
In the ongoing research project, we are measuring the impact of Sociotherapy on the reintegration of ex-prisoner genocide perpetrators in their communities. In addition to using standardized and validated measures on mental health, mental health wellbeing and some reintegration and reconciliation measures, we also try to capture how sociotherapy is functioning today, as it evolved over the past fifteen years. Through a collaborative co-creation approach between University of Rwanda researchers and Sociotherapy experts, we are creating African science by: 1. Redefining the phases and principles that guide the sociotherapy approach to make sure that they capture the present-day local dynamics. Based on this work, we are developing and psychometrically validating a 'Restoring Human Dignity' scale that captures our local understanding of the sociotherapy phases and principles; 2. Developing and psychometrically validating a 'Human Dignity' scale, as we jointly came to understand human dignity as the primary outcome goal of Sociotherapy. By testing and validating these scales in a pre-post design, alongside known and validated questionnaires, we introduce two Rwandan concepts in the global scientific language and we produce theory to explain the meaning and relevance of these novel concepts.
Worlding classrooms: studying local-global issues through a multi-polar lens
Lothar Smith
(Nijmegen School of Management)
Paper long abstract
Over the last decade education on themes linking globalization to human mobility and developmental issues has seen increasing revision. This is not only because of fast changing dynamics in the current world order, but also because of increased recognition, through debates in fields such as critical feminism and post-colonialism, that the theoretical premises of our educational programmes still very much rest on increasingly problematic paradigms. These hail from a past in which development was seen as singularly progressive, and in which the role of governments was clearly scripted along visions based on western ideals (Simm & Marvell 2017). This hegemony in theorizing societal development is problematic, for it accords superiority to such theories, and fails to accept the value of alternative perspectives. Fascinatingly, where insights from the global south have permeated into academic discussion on developments in the global north (e.g. community participation), these often derive from developmental practices in the global south, as applied by practitioners from the global north. However, this is now slowly changing, as efforts are made to be more open to alternative perspectives when conceptualizing a particular societal development, e.g. the rising popularity in Europe of the concept ubuntu (van Oorschot 2003: 26; Baart 2016).
To the detriment of the student, as a budding, critical global citizen, cross-fertilization has remained rather more limited in education. However the emerging worlding classroom approach exemplifies an important cultural turn in education, bringing internationalisation to a next level. It calls for a "reevaluation of the interrelationship between space and learning",(Waters, 2017: 282) and marks an important shift away from archetypal local educational spaces (ibid, 279), not only by recognizing the increasing diversity within student populations (Paull et al. 2016: 490), but also by inciting student-led learning processes.
With a transnational design, connecting universities around the world, the worlding classroom seeks to incite serious comparative analysis of situations around the world by connecting students (and indirectly supporting academics) to jointly assess particular societal processes (Solem 2007:168). Such an approach helps to better understand global-local connections in issues such as societal views on migrants, the meaning of citizenship and the future of cities. Issues studied are intimately connected to society, and require a learning approaches with this society (communities of practise). Thus given study sites are also places of practices, and not distant, objective entities (Comaroff & Comaroff 2012; Hentschel 2015; Roy & Ong 2011).
'We have other priorities': framing pro-environmental attitudes in Africa
Harrison Awuh
(Aeres University of Applied Sciences Almere)
Paper short abstract
An analysis in Cameroon, Egypt and Ghana revealed that environmental attitudes are largely influenced by basic need values.
Paper long abstract
Mindful of the significance of human behaviour as a major driver of most environmental problems, it is increasingly becoming acknowledged that efforts to promote positive global environmental outcomes must now include attempts to understand local attitudes concerning environmental issues. These attitudes are influenced by worldviews which people hold. Nevertheless, environmental attitudes in Africa haven't received much attention. To date, most research on environmental attitudes has been western-centric.
An analysis based on questionnaire surveys in Cameroon, Egypt and Ghana revealed that environmental attitudes are largely influenced by utilitarian values. People are less reluctant to make pro-environmental changes in their lives if these changes are going to threaten their ability to fulfil basic needs such as food. On the other hand, people are more willing to make pro-environmental changes in their lives in the domain of broader issues which do not have direct impacts on their basic needs. The findings also show that basic needs are not solely financially-linked. A basic need can also be a cultural factor such as religion and this accounts for regional differences in environmental attitudes in Africa.
This research amplifies calls for the framing of pro-environmental knowledge in Africa either within the utilitarian domain (with the provision of ecosystem services which address basic needs such as the production of food and water), or, the socio-ecological systems approach which is consistent with holistic framings of nature and culture as one in several traditional African societies.
The rejection of African solutions to African problems. The African Union and the Islamic Courts Union
Jude Cocodia
(Niger Delta University, Nigeria)
Paper long abstract
The dependence of the African Union (AU) on its western benefactors compels it to abide by their dictates in the provision security on the continent. The influence of these donors sometimes inhibits the security objective of the AU and the intervention in Somalia clearly proves this point. Unfortunately, the western narrative on the salience of AU intervention in Somalia has dominated conflict literature and the majority of African scholars have kept with this trend. This paper takes an alternative view and questions the rationale behind the AU's peace enforcement in Somalia. Were there viable alternatives? Can the AU retrace its steps? Is there some way through which stability can be achieved? This research adopts a problem solving approach in arguing that the AU ignored viable indigenous options for peace in Somalia in order to promote the interests of its donors. It advocates that a change in strategy is needed to bring peace to south-central Somalia and a cue can be taken from the indigenous modes of governance in Somalia's northern regions where stability has long since been achieved.
Education curriculum reforms in Kenya: from theory to competency based curriculum
Nelly Andiema
(Kibabii University)
Paper short abstract
This paper analyses the education development before pre-colonial period, during the colonial period and after independence. With the country's (Kenya) gearing towards attaining middle income status by 2030, reforms in the education system are key.
Paper long abstract
Studies conducted in the country have shown that there is a missing link between the graduates coming out of the education system in Kenya in relation to the industry demands. This has been attributed to the system of education that the country has in place which emphasises more on passage of examinations rather than acquisition of necessary competencies and skills which was the form of education system that existed in Africa before colonial period (apprenticeship model). In the last decade several countries across Africa have made reforms in their education sector to ensure production of graduates who posses required employability skills. Countries like Tanzania and Rwanda are far much ahead of Kenya in terms of implementing competency based curriculum in their education system. The new competency based curriculum (2-6-3-3-3) replaces the unpopular the 8-4-4 (introduced in 1985) system that has largely been blamed for decline in education standards around the country. In history, the country inherited colonial system of education that failed to meet the desires and needs of the country social economic development and has partly been blamed for pitfalls associated with it. This paper therefore discusses the education curriculum reforms in Kenya which has largely been theory based for many years into competency based curriculum which is aligned to the Kenya developmental Vision 2030 that aims to put this nation as a middle income country. Lessons learnt over the various curriculum reforms initiatives are presented in this paper as part of ensuring that other African countries journeying towards competency based learning can learn from the strides made by Kenya