Africa beyond Political Sovereignty: a 60@ Anniversary Imperative

This year marks 60 years since the establishment of the first inter-state institution for Africa, the Organisation of African Unity. It was established principally to support the achievement of independence and political freedom by African colonies during a decade that is associated with the idea of winds of change. Political sovereignty through the control of the nation-state was seen as critical to the achievement of the ideals of Pan-Africanism, including African unity, African pride, cohesion, and common African prosperity

Comprehensive and holistic human security for a post-colonial southern Africa : a conceptual framework

At the heart of the conundrum of regional integration in Africa is the very conceptual basis of the idea and its agendas. In southern Africa, the agenda has for decades been about fighting poverty and enabling a good life for the citizens of the region, but the so-called developmental regional integration agenda is undermined by the lack of coherence and synergy between the security and development arms of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The former has the Strategic Indicative Plan of the Organ of Security Cooperation and Defence (SIPO) and the development efforts are guided by the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP). Both claim to pursue human security by placing the plight of ordinary citizens at the centre of all efforts, yet in reality this shared aspiration has not provided a basis conceptually speaking, nor practically, for a deep cohesion in the manner in which SADC pursues its overriding goals. This article provides a critical analysis of the evolution of the concept and it also anticipates how it will evolve into a holistic idea in southern Africa. It identifies major obstacles to the achievement of the goal and offers possible solutions to the conceptual confusion that confounds the idea of human security by suggesting a comprehensive understanding of the concept and how it might apply in southern Africa.http://www.up.ac.za/en/political-sciences/article/19718/strategic-review-for-southern-africaam2018Political Science

Decolonising the Human

"Decolonising the Human examines the ongoing project of constituting ‘the human’ in light of the durability of coloniality and the persistence of multiple oppressions. The ‘human’ emerges as a deeply political category, historically constructed as a scarce existential resource. Once weaponised, it allows for the social, political and economic elevation of those who are centred within its magic circle, and the degradation, marginalisation and immiseration of those excluded as the different and inferior Other, the less than human. Speaking from Africa, a key site where the category of the human has been used throughout European modernity to control, exclude and deny equality of being, the contributors use decoloniality as a potent theoretical and philosophical tool, gesturing towards a liberated, pluriversal world where human difference will be recognised as a gift, not used to police the boundaries of the human. Here is a transdisciplinary critical exploration of a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and decolonial studies.

The challenges of development A SADC response to HIV/AIDS

Respecting no borders HIV/AIDS is by far the most lethal threat to development in the SADC regio

African Union approaches to peacebuilding : efforts at shifting the continent towards decolonial peace

This article argues that the African Union (AU) approach to peacebuilding, out of Africa’s historical experience and lessons from the United Nations (UN), is comprehensive and holistic, but requires the existence of a legitimate government, a functional society and domestic parties for dialogue to begin. Without these conditions, the approach leads to extended peace enforcement rather than peacebuilding. Yet, whatever the conditions that prevail, peacebuilding in Africa has experienced limited success due to the failure to fundamentally transform the inherited post-colonial state, society and politics. The neo-colonial conditions helped to stall the achievement of lasting peace. The African experience with peacebuilding demonstrates a need for a more fundamental peace than is internationally the norm – a peace paradigm that hinges on the continued decolonisation of the African state and society in order to give rise to what may be called a decolonial peace.http://www.accord.org.za/publications/ajcram2018Political Science

Book Review: The Global Financial and Economic Crisis in the South: Impacts and Responses

Book Title: The Global Financial and Economic Crisis in the South: Impacts and ResponsesBook Authors: Jose Luis Leon-Manriquez and Theresa Moyo (Eds.)Dakar, CODESRIA, 2015. 334 pp

Decolonising international relations and its theory: a critical conceptual meditation

One of the main implications of the push for transition from the monoculture of Eurocentric scientific knowledge towards the ecology of knowledge is to force us to pose the question: what does a decolonial turn in International Relations (IR) entail? This article grapples with this question in light of growing demands for a decolonial turn in knowledge and power. The aim is to meditate on this question with a view to open up new avenues for a structured conversation on decolonising IR and its theory. This imperative to decolonise is linked to the question of epistemic justice with implications for the epistemological structure underpinning IR, methodological frameworks for the study of IR, theoretical outlines and the teaching of the discipline. Epistemic justice is a necessity alongside historical justice for those on the margins of a world system constructed with the help of imperialism, systematic enslavement and colonialism. This article discusses the question of the decolonial turn in IR in the hope of stimulating debates on the views of the margins regarding the present state and the future of this area of knowledge, and thus move us closer to an ecology of knowledge and power.https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cpsa202019-03-21hj2019Political Science

BRICS and Africa in perspective

The Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) platform has passed the ten-year mark. In the process, it has also managed to expand its presence beyond the five founding countries by reaching out to African, Euro-Asian, South-east Asian, South Asian and Latin American countries. This expansion began when South Africa hosted the BRICS summit in 2013, the first summit to take place on African soil. South Africa wisely invited a number of key African countries – representing various regions and types and sizes of economies – to an outreach meeting with BRICS leaders on the sidelines to discuss BRICS’ cooperation with Africa. This was used to firm up the process of making Africa’s interests a key part of the BRICS strategic agenda, which now includes Africa’s economic renewal, peace and security, social and human development. At both the 2013 and 2018 BRICS outreach to African countries, the leaders of African countries unanimously indicated that Africa was ready to become a key factor in the global economy, especially in relation to investment and trade that is meaningful for their peoples and the world.http://www.ajol.info/index.php/aiam2019Political Science

A decolonial turn in diplomatic theory: Unmasking epistemic injustice

Diplomacy has been used in the conduct of foreign policies in Africa. However, a disconcerting trend in the practice of diplomacy in Africa is the often limited successes, and sometimes failures, of states and regional organisations in achieving foreign policy objectives. Remarkably, such failures are not only typical of diplomacy targeting external actors, but are equally visible in intra-African diplomacy. By and large the diplomatic skills of Africa are tested mostly during periods of conflicts and threats to regional security. In most of these situations, diplomacy has proved to be ineffective in achieving desired outcomes. Consequently, most conflicts remain unresolved, while threats to good governance persist. The failures of diplomacy are largely due to a confluence of factors, including the quality of diplomacy and mediators, the pervasiveness of conflicts, Africa’s lack of international influence, its dependence on external actors and consequent lack of assertiveness, as well as Africa’s lack of courage to stand up to errant leaders whose actions threaten good governance and regional security