9 research outputs found
Responsible Politics in Africa and South Africa
"This essay sets out to discuss politics and responsible political leadership.
It situates the discussion in the context of Africa in general and
South Africa in particular. The essay does not purport to paint a comprehensive
and broad representation of politics and political leadership
but employs an African feminist pragmatic critical methodology
in discussing responsible politics and political leadership. This
approach uses contextual case studies, stories and experiences to elucidate
political, ethical, and epistemological concepts and discourses [...]", p. 304 (Introduction
Women's moral agency and the quest for justice in Africa
Peer reviewedThis article explores womenâs moral agency in post-apartheid
South Africa and Africa by examining the intersections of
governance and the public space; we shall also look at the
agency of African women from the perspective of African
feminist social ethics. The article begins by discussing the African
post-colonial state. It then goes on to evaluate the portrayal
of African womenâs agency in the dominant discourses of the
human sciences, particularly as these are articulated in South
Africa. The purpose of this article is to unearth how African
womenâs agency is perceived, interpreted and understood. We
also want to evaluate whether African women inhabit or reject
the negative way in which they are portrayed. The second part
of the essay identifies and discusses African womenâs agency
and demonstrates the ways African women agitate for justice,
and claim political agency and citizenship. The essay then calls
for emancipatory and transformatory justice in the public
sphere and in the human sciences; it rejects the objectification
of African women, and protests against treating them as objects
of research. Instead, it understands African women as subjects
and agents in their own lives, including in the private and
public spheres.Research Institute for Theology and Religio
Bioprospecting and intellectual property rights on African plant commons and knowledge: a new form of colonization viewed from an ethical perspective
This study engages in an ethical examination of contemporary socio-ecological and economic issues which takes seriously the plight of Africa, African communities, indigenous knowledge and biodiversity. It studies the impact of bioprospecting, biopiracy and intellectual property rights regimes on the protection, use, access to, and conservation of biodiversity and indigenous knowledge in Africa. The study also examines the ways in which northern multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and their agents prospect and convert African resources (biological commons and indigenous knowledge) into their intellectual property as well as private property. It argues that the transfer of African biological commons and indigenous knowledge is exacerbated by economic globalisation and the neo-colonial mentality of conquest concealed under the guise of commerce.
The study demonstrates through concrete case studies the tactics used by northern multinational corporations to claim these resources as their intellectual property rights and private property. It observes that the privatisation of biological commons and indigenous knowledge only brings about nominal or no benefits to African communities who have nurtured and continue to nurture them. It also observes that this privatisation results in fewer benefits for biodiversity as they lead to the promotion of monoculture, i.e. commercialisation of all things. To address the injustice and exploitative implications of bioprospecting, biopiracy and intellectual property rights, the study recommends the adoption and implementation of the African model law, the establishment of defensive intellectual property rights mechanisms, and the strategy of resistance and advocacy. It suggests that these measures ought to be grounded on the African normative principle of botho and the Christian ethical principle of justice.Systematic Theology and Theological EthicsD.Th.(Theological Ethics
A journey on the path of an African feminist theologian and pioneer, Mercy Amba Oduyoye : continuing the pursuit for justice in the church and in society
Peer reviewedThe central thrust of this article is a review of Mercy Amba
Oduyoyeâs contribution to African feminist theologies in her pursuit
of justice in the church and in society, particularly with regard to
gender justice. The article studies the context in which African
feminist theologies emerged and some of the thematic areas that
stimulated their âeruptionâ in the African church and academia. It
also explores their implications for the church and society. This
article suggests that it is imperative that African feminist theologies,
especially those which have been adopted by the members of the
Circle of Concerned Women Theologians, be used to expand the
theological methods and lenses of doing theology beyond cultural
hermeneutics in order to attend to the ecological, economic and
social struggles that impact life in Africa. The affirmation of the
relevance of cultural hermeneutics, it is suggested, ought not to
exclude the possibilities of expanding the contours of analyses or
using other hermeneutical approaches such as ecological,
economic and social analyses â particularly in Africa where most
people are hindered from experiencing fullness of life because of
ecological degradation, economic exploitation and social power
struggles in local and international politics.Research Institute for Theology and Religio
African feminist reflections on the Accra Confession
Peer reviewedThis article sets out to discuss, from an African feminist theological
perspective, the Accra confession: Covenanting for justice in the
economy and the earth (hereafter the Accra Confession). It uses
descriptive analyses to understand the role and implications of the
confession for ecological, gender and economic justice. The first
part of the essay briefly describes the history behind the
confession. The second part gives a detailed overview of the
contents, scope and thematic issues addressed by the confession.
The third interprets the confession and analyses its implications for
the church and society. The fourth part explores feminist and
womenâs responses and or critiques of the Accra confession, thus
outlining its relevance for feminist theologies and ethics, and their
conceptions of economic, ecological and gender justice.Research Institute for Theology and Religio
The Idea of a University in the Post-Covid-19 World
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.
Arundhati Roy, Azadi: Freedom, Fascism, Fiction, 202