Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenor:
-
Motoji Matsuda
(Kyoto University)
- Location:
- 101b
- Start time:
- 16 May, 2014 at
Time zone: Asia/Tokyo
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
African urban societies today face the task of how to prevent violence and recreate the living world The aim of this panel is to explore the road to the realization of coexistence by elucidating the African potential embodied in the knowledge and social institutions created by the African people.
Long Abstract:
Contemporary African urban societies face the task of how to prevent violence and how to recreate the living world of coexistence. The aim of this panel is to explore the road to the realization of coexistence, and reconciliation by elucidating the African potential embodied in the knowledge and social institutions created, and managed by the African people themselves.
The difficulty faced by African urban society today is the exhaustion and fragmentation and compartmentalization of social order brought about by violence, insecurity, unequal distribution of wealth, and ethnicization. To cope with this situation, the international community has achieved some success through development aid projects, and aid activities of the NGOs. However, the firm guiding principle of these "interventions" was the Western values and mores of liberal democracy and justice under the law.
By contrast, our panel is based on the assumption that African people themselves have created, accumulated, and managed knowledge and social institutions that have proven to be effective in maintaining/creating social order and achieving coexistence This capacity of Africa which we term, the African Potentials, is not to be regarded as some isolated and unchanging entity, but rather, an evolution formed out of repeated collision and integration with the outside influences of the West and the Arab/Islamic world. This panel will reassess African potential capacity, to seek practical and effective applications of the potential capacity for coexistence and reconciliation.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
When norms for resource exchange are violated and, the essences of social relations are challenged, disputes often emerge among people. These disputes have to be handled through one or more of the various strategies. This paper discusses one such strategy called hammeenna among the Arsii Oromo of Ethiopia.
Paper long abstract:
When norms for resource exchange are violated and, the essences of social relations are challenged, disputes often emerge among people. These disputes have to be handled through one or more of the various strategies. This paper discusses one such strategy called hammeenna among the Arsii Oromo of Ethiopia. Hammeenna approaches the concept of avoidance in dispute handling as it involves disputants engage in mutual avoidance by severing channels of communication and resource sharing. Data generated through case studies and in-depth interviews conducted in the Arsii Oromo villages revealed that: (1) People routinely employ avoidance as a temporary strategy for handling disputes. (2) Almost all disputes that resulted in avoidance occurred among people with prior intimate relations, and involved breach of promises or expectations related to informal resources exchange or mutual obligations. (3) Resource related avoidance is often initiated by a right claimant while those related to failure to meet social obligations could be initiated by either party. (4) Avoidance serves as moral and social pressure imposed on (or felt by) a wrongdoer. (5) Avoidance may have two simultaneous consequences: in the short term, avoidance curtails avenues of cooperation and solidarity. This is important particularly in a setting where social solidarity and informal exchange of resources is so essential for people's livelihood. On the other hand, avoidance manages a dispute from developing into a violent conflict thereby contributing towards conflict resolution and people's long-term co-existence. It help maintain 'cracks' caused by a dispute narrow enough to be mended and, 'wounds' shallow enough to be healed relatively easily.
Paper short abstract:
In this presentation, I investigate the riots and unionization of the street traders’ association “SHIUMA” in Mwanza city, Tanzania to reconsidering informality that creates new relationship between the government, the informal sector and civil society in Africa.
Paper long abstract:
The street traders who occupy African urban space in a chaotic fashion are conspicuous. The "round-ups of street traders" designed to move street traders to public markets and the riots incited by the street traders in response have been identified as visible manifestations of the latent friction between the state and the informal sector.
There has been recently a movement to unionize among street traders who have frequently rioted. Previous research has considered the issues of street business as consultation for the various rights to the resources on the streets among the state, street vendors, and civil society, and it has discussed the formal unionization of street traders within the framework of civil society theory. However, such previous studies have neglected to sufficiently discuss the logic behind their everyday practices as an informal sector that fluidly and flexibly creates a livelihood for themselves in this uncertain urban environment, and in what manner formal unionization is continuing within the nationally planned economy. In this presentation, I investigate the details of unionization of the street traders' association in Mwanza city is called as SHIUMA to reconsidering informality of the street traders. I will point out that the unionization of street traders is not a movement to form a formal organization, rather the association themselves exist in parallel with the actual street-space, and the ability exists to test the formalized framework and logic requested by the government that is included in one of the constant learning materials on street-space.
Paper short abstract:
Voluntary associations are very active in many African cities. I consider urban voluntary associations as “African potentials” and describe how these groups produce various ties among urban dwellers and work to maintain social harmony in the case of Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Paper long abstract:
In African urban anthropology, "voluntary associations" have been studied extensively since the 1950s. Such voluntary associations are still very active in many African cities. This presentation discusses urban voluntary associations as "African potentials" and describes that these groups produce various ties among urban dwellers and function to maintain social harmony.
In Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon, rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), called tontines in French, are very popular. Tontines are organized not only for monetary purposes but also for establishing social ties since members of tontines need to meet regularly. To start tontines, people connect with colleagues, neighbors, their fellow villagers, and so on. It can also be said that people start a tontine to form a community. Members of a tontine often help each other by lending money, giving advice and information, making introductions, etc. In Yaoundé, there are various other types of associations as well. For example, young men make associations with neighbors as sandlot soccer teams. They strengthen social ties by playing soccer every weekend.
Urban dwellers make and strengthen many ties through various associations, and these ties sometimes reach beyond differences of ethnicity, religion, nationality, etc. Such micro ties function as foundations for coexistence in African cities where many people suffer from high crime rates, social injustice, and economic disparities. In other words, urban voluntary associations are some of the important "African potentials" that help create the numerous positive social ties necessary for a healthy urban society.
Paper short abstract:
Zimbabwe's urban informal sector is characterised by colonial economic policies which were inherited by the post-independence state. Metal manufacturing was at the centre of this transformation. Anthropological study was done at the height of the economic downturn as western embargo took effect.
Paper long abstract:
Zimbabwe's urban informal sector is young owing to discriminatory and draconian laws that characterised colonial economic policies which were inherited by the post-independence state. Race and class relations were replaced by neocolonial elite control since the 1980 independence. This invoked a war veteran-led economic revolution that sought a rupture from elite dominance and alliance with domestic settler economy and international capital. Most popularly expressed as a land occupation upheaval was an informal sector revolution with unprecedented potential to drive the economy even beyond the economic siege. With the highest literacy rate and occupying the second position in industrial development on the continent, Zimbabwe's informal sector has experienced unique comparative advantages. Anthropological investigation revealed a visionary and inventive workforce behind this third world economy that was suffocating under the weight of globalisation and western imperialist attacks. The cause of adversity with Europe and its western allies led by Britain, was the bottom up revolution. Political independence lost meaning as this was not commensurate with economic power transfer to the black majority. A new political environment, with vicious opposition to the twenty-year-old ruling party, emerged as a backdrop to this economic challenge viewed by some analysts as completion of National Democratic Revolution. Metal manufacturing was at the centre of this transformation serving as a microcosm to reflect what was happening in the economy generally. The study applied was both quantitative and qualitative approaches and was done at the height of the economic downturn as western embargo took effect. The struggle continues.