Africa Today

"Doing Being a Father": Ethnographic perspectives on intimate fathering as identity work in Côte d’Ivoire

2023-07-25T14:33:02+00:00

The paper looks at fatherhood and fathering as performative practices. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among middle-class fathers in urban Côte d’Ivoire the paper explores intimate fathering and emic theories of parental determinism as reinterpretation of “hegemonic masculinities.” I suggest that both “fatherhood” (emic conceptualizations of the social role of being a father) and “fathering” (the practices associated with being a father) should be discussed together in order to better understand how discourses and practices of intimacy, care and paternal determinism provide fathers with building bricks for their individual self-choreographies as men and fathers. By imagining and with ostentation performing being a particular kind of father, men used fatherhood as a means of aspirational identity work. The paper addresses a two-parted blind spot in the study of contemporary parenting in Africa: first it focuses on paternal performances of care, which still are often neglected in favor of mothering and second it argues against the dominant discourse of African fatherhood in crisis by highlighting a more nuanced view of engaged fatherhood.

Political Party Dynamics and Women's Parliamentary Representation in Ghana

2023-05-31T20:23:23+00:00

Political parties are central to the pursuit of gender parity in politics. Their activities prepare and re-orient citizens’ mindset about women's role in politics. This study examines the dynamics of political party activities in championing adequate women's representation in Ghana’s parliament. It notes that political parties have pursued various strategies to facilitate the representation of women in various political positions in Ghana. However, after almost three decades (29 years) of Ghana’s 4th Republic, parliamentary seats occupied by women fall short of the international threshold of at least 30 percent. Using a qualitative research approach, it argues based on the findings that political parties must approach the issue with greater proactiveness. by supporting women at every level of political organization.

Disobeying Monoversal Literary Canonism: Africanizing Global Literature and Globalizing African Literature

2023-01-26T15:26:11+00:00

Drawing examples from pioneering, established and emerging African writers’ works, this paper advocate an enrichment of global literature through Western and African writers’ and critics’ acknowledgement and celebration of the existence of a plurality of literary canons. It limns the Africanization of global literature and the globalization of African literature by arguing that African literature has unduly suffered from biased comparisons and subsequent denigrations by Western critics who often uncritically dub Western literature as the canon that needs to be sheepishly emulated by African writers who wish to enjoy global or universal acclaim. The paper concludes that both global and African literatures would be enormously fecundated if their writers and critics were to acknowledge the existence of regional canons and masterpieces thereby encouraging literary communities to nurture and celebrate their own canons and masterpieces alongside other societies’ canons and masterpieces in a spirit of creative complementarity.

Students’ and Governments’ Entanglements in Ghana’s Political Transition: How (Not) to Understand Students’ Relations with Civilian and Military Regimes, 1960–92

2023-05-26T01:18:19+00:00

This study examines the relational entanglements between civilian and military regimes and the effect on political transition in Ghana. While the related literature indicates stronger student unions’ support for military than civilian regimes, there is inadequate comparative discussion on students’ relational dynamics with civilian versus military governments in Ghana’s chequered political history leading to the Fourth Republic. We use a historical approach to address this knowledge gap, drawing on archival data and interviews. We found that students were initially tolerant of military governments and skeptical of civilian governments due to the political ideologies and development aspirations usually pronounced by military leaders, which were in sync with the aspirations of the masses. However, students subsequently reversed their support for military governments mainly due to poor performance.

Book Review of Students of the World: Global 1968 and Decolonization in the Congo

2023-07-31T14:52:05+00:00