The Problems of a Multi-Racial Society in Central Africa

The following address was given by the president of the NorthernRhodesia Mines African Staff Association at a joint meetingof the Royal African Society and the Royal Commonwealth Societyon July 23, 1958. Earl De La Warr, President of the Royal CommonwealthSociety, took the chair.     

The Challenge of Education in British Overseas Territories

This address was. given at a joint meeting of the Royal AfricanSociety and the Royal Empire Society on December 5, 1957. Major-GeneralSir Ralph Hone presided.     

America Discovers Africa

The address that follows was given before a joint meeting ofthe Royal African Society and the Royal Empire Society on February6, 1958. Mr. B. F. Macdona, vice-chairman of the Council, presided.     

Current Events In Tunisia

The following address by the Tunisian Ambassador in London wasgiven at a joint meeting of the Royal African Society and theRoyal Empire Society on March 6, 1958. Sir Knox Helm, formerGovernor-General of the Sudan, presided.     

Education in the Gold Coast

The July journal contained articles on African higher educationby a number of distinguished authorities, all European. Thewriter of the following (slightly abridged) lecture is an African,Principal of the Mfantsipim College, and William Paton Lecturerat Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. He gave it the subsidiarytitle of Growing Pains and Growing Points when he deliveredit at the Royal Empire Society on the 29th June, Lord Haileybeing in the chair.     

The Developing Federation and Partnership How is it Progressing?

The address that follows was given by the Head of the RhodesianDepartment of Selection Trust at a Joint meeting of the RoyalAfrican Society and Royal Commonwealth Society on July 3, 1958The High Commissioner for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland,Sir Gilbert Rennie, G.B.E., K.C.M.G., M.C., took the chair.     

Libyan Aspirations

This article is a lecture delivered by a former member of theCivil Affairs Branch, Middle East, at a combined meeting withthe Royal Empire Society on the 27th November. It is designedin some sort as a companion to Brigadier Longrigg‘s analysisof Eritrea, published in African Affairs for October, and itmay also be read with Dr. Evans-Pritchard’s Italy andthe Bedouin in Cyrenaica in the journal for January 1946.     

Corrigendum

In the short note published in the last issue, ‘The SeventiethAnniversary of the Founding of the Royal African Society’it was erroneously stated that Mr Swanzy had been editor ofthe Society's journal ‘for many years before 1944’and Alan Gray from 1944 to 1966. Mr Swanzy points out that his editorship ran from 1944 to 1954,when he was succeeded by Alan Gray. It was in fact he who renamedthe journal African Affairs to differentiate its content fromthat of the International African Institute, and who institutedthe valuable, though exacting, feature ‘Quarterly Notes’. Mr Swanzy himself contributed to the 1951 Jubilee number animportant review of the Royal African's Society's history tothis date. The editors much regret these substantial errors and omissions,and are glad to be reminded of them.     

Errata Volume 47

p. 4 I. 10. For Iro read Ivo p. 5 I. 35. Delete Dr p. 12 I. 10. For Carnavon read Carnarvon I. 16. For Bloemfoentein read Bloemfontoin p. 21 I. 26. Read, He was only emerging from a stage where hegrew enough for himself I. 35. Insert only after not I. 36. For or read but more I. 39. Insert merely after moment I. 40. For District Council read Legislative Council I. 42. For every read many p. 54. I. 53. For Ibo-Efi read Ibo-Efik p. 62. Under Junco read Coloniales p. 69. I. 14. For Obadeyando read Obadeyanedo p. 75. I. 19. For Colonel read Sir Stewart p. 79. I. 23. For Masubas read Mabubas p. 93. I. 32. For Salukive read Selukive (and p. 94, I. 29) p. 134. I. 26. For Riyon read Riyom p. 139. I. 17. Delete the reference to King Farouk p. 146. I. 31. For island read islands p. 184. For H. D. HOOPER read H. M. GRACE p. 190. I. 34. For lobolo read lobola (and I. 36)      

Corrections

There are a number of small corrections to be made, for themost substantial of which I have to thank Mr. K. MacNeill Stewartin the Gold Coast. P. 96. l.11. For 1946 read 1956. P. 100. I.17. For working period read probationary period. P. 103. l.11 from end. For V.H. read V.G. P. 173. L.20. For Omude read Ominde. P. 191. 1.16. For Syrian read Greek. P. 212. L.8. For 613,137 iea.d 413,137. P. 253. Title. Add 369 pages.      

Correction

A number of errors from the last number have come to light.On p. 280, 1. Io, the site of the new Uganda land project cannotbe North-west of Lake Albert if it is to be in Bunyoro. theSources on p. 329 require a certain modification. For AfricanMorning Post, one should read Gold Coast Observer. For Bulletinde l'nstitud Centrafricain, Bulletin de l'Institut des ÉtudesAfricaines, for Congo Ocersee, Kongo Oversee. One should alsoadd the useful Books for Africa to the list for Britain andl'Egypte Contemporain for Egypt. It is also necessary to pointout thatmanysources found useful in the past have for one reasonor another, ceased to flow and cannot always be recalled evenby an act of memory. On p. 341, on the last line of the reviewby J. A. Barnes, external should read eternal. The principalcovey of errors comes however in a paragraph on the top of p.347. The title of the German book is Mythe, Mensch und Umwelt,it is published in Bamberg, one writer is Harald von Sicard,the Nyama beliefs are West African, nor can they be strictlycalled a cult. On p. 384, the reference to the Belgian guiderather misses the point when spelt with two l's. It should readTracelers, as it does in American English.      

Malaysia: the making of a grand design

Anthony Stockwell is Professor of Imperial and Commonwealth History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He was President of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2002–2003 and is currently a Vice-President. His publications include British Policy and Malay Politics during the Malayan Union Experiment (1979) and, as editor, British Documents on End of Empire: Malaya, 1942–1957 (three parts, 1995). He has been joint editor of the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History since 1990. This is a version of a lecture delivered to the Royal Society for Asian Affairs on 26 February 2003.     

What harm? Kenyan and Ugandan perspectives on khat

What harm does khat actually do to users and the communitiesin which they live? In this article, the health-related, social,economic, and religious arguments of Kenyans and Ugandans forand against khat consumption are reported. The medical evidencefor harm from khat is far from compelling, and the East Africandebate on khat is informed by local political discourses thatoften are closely connected to issues of ethnicity and the controlof resources. As a result, the harm attributed to khat consumptionis contested. The objective of most local efforts to curb theuse of khat in East African towns is the reduction of socialand economic ills. Yet, eliminating khat consumption would notreverse the problems that it is identified as causing. ^1. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. ^2. See, for example, Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich, Drugs and Narcoticsin History (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995); JohnGoodman, Paul E. Lovejoy, and Andrew Sheratt, Consuming Habits:Drugs in history and anthropology (Routledge, London and NewYork, 1995). ^3. Daniel M. Varisco, ‘The elixir of life or the devil’scud? The debate over qat (Catha edulis) in Yemeni culture’,in Ross Coomber and Nigel South (eds), Drug Use and CulturalContexts: ‘Beyond the west’ (Free Association Books,London, 2004), pp. 101–118. ^4. Ezekiel Gebissa, Leaf of Allah: Khat and agricultural transformationin Harerge, Ethiopia 1875–1991 (James Currey, Oxford,2004). ^5. UNODCCP, The Drug Nexus in Africa (UN Office for Drug Control& Crime Prevention Monographs, Vienna, 1999); H.M. Adamand R. Ford (eds), Mending the Rips in the Sky: Options forSomali communities in the 21^st century (Red Sea Press, Lawrencevilleand Asmara, 1997). ^6. Neil Carrier, ‘Miraa is cool: the cultural importanceof miraa (khat) for Tigania and Igembe youth in Kenya’,Journal of African Cultural Studies, forthcoming. ^7. ESRC Award (RES-143-25-0046): ‘The Khat Nexus: trans-nationalconsumption in a global economy’. ^8. The British colonial authorities attempted to ban khat in Kenyabetween 1945 and 1956 but found regulation unworkable. ^9. Paul Goldsmith, Symbiosis and Transformation in Kenya’sMeru District (University of Florida, unpublished PhD thesis,1994). ^10. Neil Carrier, The Social Life of Miraa: Farming, trade and consumptionof a plant stimulant in Kenya (University of St Andrews, unpublishedPhD thesis, 2003). ^11. M. Ahmed and M. Garret, Proceedings of a Seminar on Khat andHealth (Tower Hamlets Health Strategy Group, London, 1994);H.A. Utteh, ‘The plight of Somali refugees in Europe,with particular reference to Germany (1993)’, in Adamand Ford, Mending Rips, pp. 449–59. ^12. Mark Horton and John Middleton, The Swahili: The social landscapeof a mercantile society (Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, 2000). ^13. Interview with Imam Mahmoud Abdulkadr of Lamu. ^14. Goldsmith, Symbiosis and Transformation. ^15. Interview with Imam Mahmoud Abdulkadr. ^16. Thanks to Imam Mahmoud Abdulkadr and committee members for providingcopies of campaign correspondence. Photocopies of correspondencein the possession of the author. ^17. Undated leaflet, issued by Nairobi office of UNODC, is entitledKHAT: (Catha edulis). ^18. UNODC, KHAT: (Catha edulis). ^19. See, for example, John Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise: Theinstitutionalized use of the drug qat in North Yemen (ReidelPublishing Company, Dordrecht, 1987). ^20. M. Dhadphale and O.E. Omolo, ‘Psychiatric morbidity amongkhat chewers’, East African Medical Journal 65, 6 (1988),pp. 355–9. ^21. M. Kithure, ‘Price of miraa. Your brain or the twig’.The Daily Nation, Nairobi, 17 May 2001. ^22. Goldsmith, Symbiosis and Transformation; Carrier, The SocialLife of Miraa. ^23. W.J. Eggling, The Indigenous Trees of the Uganda Protectorate(The Government of the Uganda Protectorate, London, 1951), p.79. ^24. Carrier, ‘Miraa is cool’. ^25. New Vision published articles on khat on 20 January 1994, 25May 1994, 26 May 1994, and 19 December 1994. Reviewed by SaidiFamau. ^26. 30 May 1998, New Vision. ^27. A.O. Ihunwo, F.I.B. Kayanja, and U.B. Amadi-Ihunwo, ‘Useand perception of the psychostimulant, khat (Catha edulis) amongthree occupational groups in south western Uganda’, EastAfrican Medical Journal 81, 9 (2004), pp. 468–73. ^28. The interviewers, Musa Almass and Mzee Hasan, were trained bySusan Beckerleg. The results were analysed using SPSS12. ^29. There is little research on the effects of khat on libido, potency,and fertility. However, Hakim found a weak association betweenkhat use and abnormal seminal fluid analysis profiles. See.L.Y. Hakim, ‘Influence of khat on seminal fluid amongpresumed infertile couples’, East African Medical Journal79, 1 (2002), pp. 22–28. ^30. Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise. ^31. See Gebissa for an account of the spread of Ethiopia khat linkedto the introduction of modern transportation in the Horn ofAfrica. See also Carrier, ‘The need for speed’,Africa, forthcoming. ^32. Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise, p. 237. ^33. Varisco, ‘The elixir of life’, p. 108. ^34. Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise, p. 194. ^35. Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise. ^36. See Goldsmith, Symbiosis and Transformation; Carrier, The SocialLife of Miraa. ^37. Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise, p. 193. ^38. Gebissa, Leaf of Allah, p. 18. ^39. Varisco, ‘The elixir of life’, p. 104. ^40. Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise, p. 232. ^41. Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise. ^42. Varisco, ‘The elixir of life’, pp. 111–12. ^43. Kennedy, The Flower of Paradise, p. 108. ^44. Gebissa, Leaf of Allah, p. 3. ^45. A. Almeddom and S. Abraham, ‘Women, moral virtue and Tchat-chewing’,in M. MacDonald (ed.), Gender, Drink and Drugs. (Berg, Oxford,1994), pp. 249–58. ^46. Gebissa, Leaf of Allah, p. 11. ^47. Almeddom and Abraham. ‘Women, moral virtue and Tchat-chewing’,pp. 249–50. ^48. Ihunwo, et al., ‘Use and perception of the psychostimulant,khat’, p. 472.     

Telecentres and transformations: Modernizing Tanzania through the internet

This article argues that a discourse which constructs the Internetas an inclusive development tool that can be deployed in strategiesfor modernizing Africa has become hegemonic among developmentdonors and telecommunications organizations. Based on researchcarried out in and around three Internet cafes in Dar es Salaam,and one Multipurpose Community Telecentre (MCT) in Sengerema,this article takes issue with this discourse and suggests thatthe geographies of inclusion and exclusion created by the Internetare more complex. For Tanzania’s information and communicationtechnologies (ICT) elites, the Internet will shape the populationinto knowledge- and market-seeking, productive citizens, stimulatingnational growth. For Internet cafe users and non-users, theInternet has become a marker of modernity, a way for peopleand places to indicate their relative level of development,and Internet use is currently dominated by leisure, communicationand information relating to global popular culture. However,the article demonstrates that development interventions whichturn the symptoms of poverty into technical problems to be solvedwith technological responses are inherently flawed, since thefailure to deal with the causes of poverty means that the majorityof Tanzanians continue to be excluded from the ‘informationsociety’. An earlier version of this article was presented at the AfricanStudies Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, 11–14November 2004, and to the Postcolonial Seminar at the Universityof Leicester, 8 December 2004. ^1. World Bank, Knowledge for Development: World development report1998/99 (Oxford University Press, NY, 1998). ^2. UNDP, Human Development Report 2001: Making new technologieswork for development (Oxford University Press, New York, NY,2001). ^3. Donors include Department for International Development (DFID),Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Swedish Agencyfor International Development (SIDA) and United States Agencyfor International Development (USAID) (the Leland Initiative);NGOs include the International Institute for Communication andDevelopment; multilateral initiatives include the InternationalTelecommunications Union (ITU), the G8 (Dot Force), United NationsEconomic Commission for Africa (UNECA) (the African InformationSociety Initiative) and United Nations Educational, Scientificand Cultural Organization (UNESCO). ^4. D. Ott and M. Rosser, ‘The electronic republic? The roleof the Internet in promoting democracy in Africa’, Democratization7, 1 (2000), pp. 137–55. ^5. M. Jensen, The African Internet – A Status Report, 2002,<http://www3.sn.apc.org/africa/afstat.htm> Accessed on27 October 2002. ^6. M. Castells, End of Millennium. The Information Age: Economy,society and culture, Vol 3 (Blackwell, Oxford, 1998), p. 161. ^7. UNDP, Human Development Report 2001, p. iv. ^8. Accenture, Markle Foundation, and UNDP, Creating a DevelopmentDynamic: Final report of the digital opportunity initiative,2001, <http://www.opt-init.org/framework.html> Accessedon 30 October 2002, p. 68. ^9. UNDP, Human Development Report 2001; World Bank, Knowledge forDevelopment; World Bank, Can Africa Claim the 21^st Century?(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000). ^10. R. Cline-Cole and M. Powell, ‘ICTs, "virtual colonisation"and political economy’, Review of African Political Economy31, 99 (2004), pp.5–9; K. Gyekye, ‘Philosophy, cultureand technology in the postcolonial’, in E. Eze (ed.),Postcolonial African Philosophy: A critical reader (Blackwell,Oxford, 1997), pp. 25–44; F. Nyamnjoh, ‘Global andlocal trends in media ownership and control: implications forcultural creativity in Africa’, in W. van Binsbergen andR. van Dijk (eds), Situating Globality: African agency in theappropriation of global culture (Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands,2004), pp. 107–46; Y. Z. Ya’u, ‘The new imperialismand Africa in the global electronic village’, Review ofAfrican Political Economy 31, 99 (2004), pp. 11–29. ^11. R. Meier, ‘Late-blooming societies can be stimulated byinformation technology’, Futures 32 (2000), pp. 163–81;D. Polikanov and I. Abramova, ‘Africa and ICT: a chancefor breakthrough?’, Information, Communication and Society6, 1 (2003), pp. 42–56; M. B. Robins and R. L. Hilliard(eds), Beyond Boundaries: Cyberspace in Africa (Heinemann, NH,2002). ^12. M. Green, ‘The birth of the "salon": poverty, "modernisation"and dealing with witchcraft in southern Tanzania’, paperpresented at the American Anthropological Association AnnualMeeting, Chicago, 18 November 2003; S. F. Moore, ‘Post-socialistmicro-politics: Kilimanjaro, 1993’, Africa 66, 4 (1996),pp. 587–606. ^13. United Republic of Tanzania, National Information and CommunicationsTechnologies Policy (Ministry of Communications and Transport,Dar es Salaam, 2003). ^14. The three urban cafes were located in Dar es Salaam, where atotal of 279 customers completed open-ended questionnaires overthree days in August 2001. One city-centre cafe attracted mostlybusiness, government and office workers, while the other twocafes were located on main roads in the residential suburbsof Mwenge and Magomeni. The fourth location was the Internetcafe at the Sengerema Multipurpose Community Telecentre, wherethe same open-ended questionnaire was put to 265 customers inAugust 2003. Semi-structured interviews with customers and focusgroup discussions with non-customers were held, and 299 townresidents were interviewed to contextualize the questionnaireresponses. ^15. ‘Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank: A regime changes’,The Economist, 2 June 2005; T. Kelsall, ‘Shop windowsand smoke-filled rooms: governance and the re-politicizationof Tanzania’, Journal of Modern African Studies 40, 4(2002), pp. 597–620; C. Mercer, ‘Performing partnership:civil society and the illusions of good governance in Tanzania’,Political Geography 22 (2003), pp. 741–63. ^16. United Republic of Tanzania, National Information and CommunicationsTechnologies Policy, p. 1. ^17. Ibid. ^18. Ibid. ^19. Accenture et al., Creating a Development Dynamic. ^20. SIDA, A Country ICT Survey for Tanzania (SIDA, Dar es Salaam,2001). ^21. Ibid. ^22. National Bureau of Statistics, Tanzania Household Budget Survey2000/01 (National Bureau of Statistics, Dar es Salaam, 2002). ^23. World Bank, Tanzania Country Brief, 2004, <http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/TANZANIAEXTN/0,,menuPK:287345~pagePK:141132~piPK:141107~theSitePK:258799,00.html>Accessed on 20 June 2004. ^24. The main donors have been IDRC, ITU, UNESCO and Danida, in collaborationwith other international partners including the British Council,Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNDP, World HealthOrganization (WHO) and national governments. ^25. COSTECH, Progress Report to International Development ResearchCentre (IDRC) as from January 2001 to February 2003 (COSTECH,Dar es Salaam, 2003). ^26. NBS, Tanzania Household Budget Survey. ^27. Planning Commission and Regional Commissioner’s OfficeMwanza, Mwanza Region Socio-Economic Profile (Dar es Salaam,1997). ^28. NBS, Tanzania Household Budget Survey. ^29. Tanzania Cotton Board, Prices Paid to Farmers for the Last 12Years, n.d., <http://www.tancotton.co.tz/Producer%20price%202001-02%20season.htm>Accessed 15 May 2004. ^30. Sengerema MCT, Annual Report 2002 (Sengerema, 2002). ^31. COSTECH, Progress Report to IDRC, p. 1. ^32. NBS, Tanzania Household Budget Survey. ^33. COSTECH, Progress Report to IDRC. ^34. In 1999, a major ISP in Dar es Salaam analyzed the materialbeing accessed by its customers and found that 55% of it wascategorized as pornography (personal communication). ^35. See, e.g. <www.clickz.com, http://www.pewinternet.org/> ^36. B. Wellman and C. Haythornthwaite (eds), The Internet in EverydayLife (Blackwell, Oxford, 2002), p. 18. ^37. Ibid. ^38. A. Bahi, ‘Internet use and logics of social adaptationof youth in Abidjan cybercafes’, CODESRIA Bulletin 1–2(2004), pp. 67–71. ^39. W. van Binsbergen, ‘Can ICT belong in Africa, or is ICTowned by the North Atlantic region?’, in W. van Binsbergenand R. van Dijk (eds), Situating Globality: African agency inthe appropriation of global culture (Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands,2004), pp. 107–146. ^40. International Development Research Centre, ‘African Telecentres:A pioneering experience’ (unpublished document), n.d. ^41. D. Miller and D. Slater, The Internet: An ethnographic approach(Berg, Oxford, 2000). ^42. L. Mehta, ‘From darkness to light? Critical reflectionson the World Development Report 1998/99’, Journal of DevelopmentStudies 36, 1 (1999), pp. 151–61. ^43. Van Binsbergen, ‘Can ICT belong in Africa’, pp.111–115. ^44. World Bank, Can Africa Claim the 21^st century?, p. 2. ^45. J. Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine: ‘Development’,depoliticization and bureaucratic power in Lesotho (Universityof Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1994). ^46. B. Weiss, ‘Thug realism: inhabiting fantasy in urban Tanzania’,Cultural Anthropology 17, 1 (2002), p. 100. ^47. C. Piot, Remotely Global: Village modernity in West Africa (Universityof Chicago Press, London, 1999). ^48. A. Perullo, ‘The life that I live: popular music, agency,and urban society in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’ (unpublishedPhD dissertation, Indiana University, Indiana, 2003); Weiss,‘Thug realism’. ^49. N. Ng’wanakilala, Mass Communication and Development ofSocialism in Tanzania (Tanzania Publishing House, Dar es Salaam,1981), p. 63. ^50. Perullo, ‘The life that I live’. ^51. A. Appadurai, ‘Disjuncture and difference in the globalcultural economy’, Public Culture 2, 2 (1990), pp. 1–23;D. Miller, ‘Could the Internet defetishise the commodity?’,Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 21, 3 (2003),pp. 359–72. ^52. J. Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity: Myths and meanings ofurban life on the Zambian copperbelt (University of CaliforniaPress, London, 1999), p. 212. ^53. All unattributed quotations refer to interviews conducted duringfieldwork. ^54. From fieldnotes. ^55. From fieldnotes. ^56. K. Askew, Performing the Nation: Swahili music and culturalpolitics in Tanzania (University of Chicago Press, London, 2002). ^57. Sengerema MCT, Annual Report, p. 6. ^58. Guardian, 6 August 2001. ^59. Ibid., 24 July 2001. ^60. Daily News, 27 June 2001. ^61. Askew, Performing the Nation. ^62. Miller and Slater, The Internet. ^63. See, e.g., A. Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural dimensionsof modernity (University of Minnesota Press, London, 1996);Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity; U. Hannerz, ‘Epilogue:on some reports from a free space’, in B. Meyer and P.Geschiere (eds), Globalization and Identity: Dialectics of flowand closure (Blackwell, Oxford, 1999), pp. 325–30; B.Meyer, ‘Visions of blood, sex and money: fantasy spacesin popular Ghanaian cinema’, Visual Anthropology 16 (2003),pp. 15–41; Weiss, ‘Thug realism’. ^64. W. Arens and I. Karp (eds), Creativity of Power: Cosmology andaction in African societies (Smithsonian Institution Press,London, 1989); I. Kopytoff, ‘Ancestors as elders in Africa’,Africa 41, 2 (1971), pp. 129–42. ^65. My thanks go to Clare Madge for this insight. ^66. Weiss, ‘Thug realism’.     

Correction

For once, there are few corrections to make, apart from obviousmisprints, like the word Nelhi for Delhi on p. 219, 1. 7, andothers less obvious: a comma after moran, who do not like work(p. 208,1. 9 from the end). I have, however, been asked by thewidow of Arthur ffoulkes, who was mentioned in the history ofthe Society as one of the most vivid of early contributors tothe Journal, to make one or two small amendments. Her husbandwas not a Captain, and the reference to funeral customs camein a longer study of The Company System of Cape Coast Castle.His death at the time was given out as due to blackwater fever,but it is believed that he was poisoned by order of the priestsof the fetish Borgya and Abirva, which he had been ordered toroot out.      

Islam in Mali in the neoliberal era

If before 11 September 2001, many praised Mali as a model ofdemocracy, secularism and toleration, many have now begun toexpress concern about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism inMali. I consider a number of recent public debates in Mali overmorality, so-called women’s issues, and the proposed changesin the Family Code and show how the perspectives of many Malianson these issues are not new but rather relate to longstandingand ongoing debates about Islam, secularism, politics, moralityand law. What is new is the way in which some Muslim religiousleaders have been articulating their complaints and criticisms.Since the guarantee of the freedom of expression and associationin the early 1990s, there has been a proliferation of independentnewspapers and private radio stations and new Islamic associationswith a coterie of increasingly media-savvy activists. I explorehow some Muslim activists have used such outlets to articulatethe concerns of some ordinary Malians, who face the contradictionsof living as modern Muslim citizens in a modernizing and secularizingstate where, in this age of neoliberal governmentality, theallegedly un-Islamic seems to be always just around the corner. Portions of the paper have been presented at the workshop, ‘Islam,Society and State in West Africa’, Rutgers University,New Brunswick, 29 March 2003; at the symposium, ‘Constructionand Dissemination of Islamic Knowledge in Africa’, IndianaUniversity, Bloomington, 19 April 2003; and at the conference,‘Governance and Insecurity in West Africa’, NorthwesternUniversity, 13–15 November 2003; and at UniversitätBayreuth. ^1. United States Agency for International Development, ‘Assistanceenvironment’, in USAID MALI: Country Strategic Plan 2003–2012(USAID, Bamako, Mali, 2002), p. 11. ^2. Economist Intelligence Unit, ‘The political scene’,in EIU Country Report: Mali (EIU, London, March 2002), p. 47. ^3. See Joshua Muravchik, ‘Freedom and the Arab world’,The Weekly Standard, 31 December 2001. ^4. ‘Overview’. USAID MALI: Country Strategic Plan 2003–2012(USAID, Bamako, Mali, 2002), p. 18. Such sentiments were alsoexpressed in journalistic accounts published shortly after 11September 2001. See, for example, Douglas Farah, ‘Mali’sMuslim clerics send troubling message: fragile democracy seenas vulnerable to extremism’, Washington Post, 30 September2001, p. A24; Kader Konaté, ‘Mali. Le danger islamiste’,Le Continent, 14 September 2001, p. 1. ^5. See Joan Baxter, ‘Challenging tradition’, BBC Focuson Africa Magazine, January-March 2002, pp. 48–50. Otherexamples include Nicolas Colombant, ‘Mali’s Muslimssteer back to spiritual roots’, Christian Science Monitor,26 February 2002, p. 8. ^6. These included various Western media outlets and several Maliannewspapers. ^7. James Ferguson and Akhil Gupta, ‘Spatializing states:toward an ethnography of neoliberal governmentality’,American Ethnologist 29, 4 (2002), pp. 981–1002. ^8. For critical perspectives on the fashionable civil society approachto ‘good governance’ in Africa, see John L. Comaroffand Jean Comaroff (eds), Civil Society and the Political Imaginationin Africa (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1999);Béatrice Hibou and Richard Banégas, ‘Civilsociety and the public space in Africa’, CODESRIA Bulletin1 (2000), pp. 39–47. ^9. For example, Sunjata, the mythical founder of the medieval Malianempire, Mansa Musa, the Muslim rulers of Macina (r. nineteenthcentury), al-Hajj Umar Tall (d. nineteenth century), the Kuntashaykhs of the Timbuktu region, and Shaykh Hamallah (d. twentiethcentury), to name only some of the most prominent. ^10. For an example of how such ‘orthodoxy’ changes overtime and space in Mali, see Benjamin F. Soares, ‘Muslimproselytization as purification: religious pluralism and conflictin contemporary Mali’ in Abdallah A. An-Na’im (ed.),Proselytization and Communal Self-Determination in Africa (Orbis,Maryknoll, NY, 1999), pp. 228–45. ^11. Two studies that have received quite a bit of attention areAnna L. Tsing, In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginalityin an out-of-the-way place (Princeton University Press, Princeton,NJ, 1993); Charles Piot, Remotely Global: Village modernityin West Africa (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1999). ^12. See Gregory Starrett, ‘The political economy of religiouscommodities in Cairo’, American Anthropologist 97, 1 (1995),pp. 51–68. ^13. On these developments, see Robert Launay and Benjamin F. Soares,‘The formation of an "Islamic sphere" in French colonialWest Africa’, Economy and Society, 28, 4 (1999), pp. 497–519;Benjamin F. Soares, ‘Islam and public piety in Mali’,in Armando Salvatore and Dale F. Eickelman (eds), Public Islamand the Common Good (Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2004);Benjamin F. Soares, Islam and the Prayer Economy: History andauthority in a Malian town (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburghand the University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2005). ^14. Malians with access to satellite television have a wider arrayof choices, which are hard to quantify. ^15. Some of the themes in this section are treated at greater lengthin my book, Islam and the Prayer Economy. ^16. Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments (Princeton UniversityPress, Princeton, NJ, 1993). ^17. See Seydina Oumar Diarra, ‘Haut Conseil Islamique du Mali’,Info-Matin, 18 January 2002, p. 5. ^18. Benjamin F. Soares, Islam and the Prayer Economy, p. 212. Seealso David Robinson, Paths of Accommodation: Muslim societiesand French colonial authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880–1920(Ohio University Press, Athens, OA, 2000); David Robinson andJean-Louis Triaud (eds), Le temps des marabouts: Itinéraireset stratégies islamiques en Afrique occidentale françaisev.1880–1960 (Karthala, Paris, 1997). ^19. Many Malians also regularly apply diverse principles from ‘custom’,which is often referred to as laada (from the Arabic) in theregion’s vernaculars. ^20. For one example, see Benjamin F. Soares, ‘Notes on theanthropological study of Islam and Muslim societies in Africa’,Culture and Religion, 1, 2 (2000), pp. 277–85. ^21. Ahmad Uthman Bah, Diya’ al-ghasaq manzuma nasihat al-shabab(Matba’at al-najah al-jadida, Casablanca, Morocco, 1992). ^22. See, for example, Amadou Tall, Dimensions de l’Islam (DarEl Fikr, Beirut, Lebanon, 1995–1996). ^23. On Haïdara and his career, see Soares, ‘Islam andpublic piety’ and Soares, Islam and the Prayer Economy.Cf. Dorothea Schulz, ‘"Charisma and Brotherhood" revisited’,Journal of Religion in Africa, 33 (2003), pp. 146–71. ^24. See Louis Brenner, Controlling Knowledge: Religion, power andschooling in a West African Muslim society (Indiana UniversityPress, Bloomington, IL, 2001). ^25. Cf. Olivier Roy (trans. C. Volk), The Failure of Political Islam(Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1994); Olivier Roy, GlobalizedIslam (Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 2004). ^26. Cf. Armando Salvatore, ‘Social differentiation, moralauthority and public Islam in Egypt: the case of Mustafa Mahmud’,Anthropology Today, 6, 2 (2000), pp. 12–15. ^27. For a discussion of Haïdara and his association’srelation to Sufism and Sufi orders, see Soares, Islam and thePrayer Economy. ^28. This was also a topic of discussion in some print media. See,for example, Cheick Sidya Diombana, ‘La jeunesse et lafoi en l’Islam’, La Roue, 25 October–3 November1993, p. 5. ^29. I am grateful to Roman Loimeier for making his copy of thissign available to me. ^30. See, for example, ‘Déclaration finale des associationsislamiques du Mali concernant les valeurs islamiques et àpropos du programme d’action de Beijing rélatifaux droits des femmes’, La Roue, 22–31 January 1996,pp. 3–5. ^31. For a discussion of some of the controversy around excision,see Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund (eds), Female ‘Circumcision’in Africa: Culture, controversy, and change (Lynne Rienner,Boulder, Colorado, 2000). For campaigns against excision inMali, see Claudie Gosselin, ‘Handing over the knife: Numuwomen and the campaign against excision in Mali’, in BettinaShell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund (eds), Female ‘Circumcision’in Africa, pp. 193–214; Jean Sanou, ‘Lutte contreles mutilations génitales feminines’, Le Soudanais,22 November 2000, p. 3; Yousouf Camara, ‘Réligionet excision’, Le Tambour, 22 June 2001, p. 3; MamadouBlodin Sissok, ‘Religion et excision. Quand les chrétienss’engagent contre les mutilations génitales féminines’,Info-Matin, 29 June 2001, p. 8. ^32. See, for example, Mady M. Dembélé, ‘L’excisionest un poids des traditions, elle n’a rien de religieux’,Les Echos, 18 July 2001, p. 5. ^33. See C.H. Sylla, ‘Interview exclusive. Le Présidentdu Collectif des islamistes parle’, Le Républicain,16 May 2001, pp. 1, 4–5; Mohamed Kimbiri, ‘L’excisionau Mali. La position des musulmans’, Nouvel Horizon, 30January 2001, p. 5; Mohamed Kimbiri, ‘Interdire l’excisionest une atteinte grave’, Le Républicain, 31 January2001, p. 5. ^34. ‘Brèves’, Le Politicien Musulman, 18 March–18April 2002, p. 8. ^35. Leaflets produced and distributed by AISLAM (Association islamiquedu salut) in the author’s possession. ^36. See Mamadou Keïta, ‘Les imams à l’affûtdes jouisseurs’, Nouvel Horizon, 23 November 1998, p.4. ^37. Mohamed Kimbiri, ‘Boycottons "Miss Cedeao" ’, NouvelHorizon, 16 October 1998. See also Mamadou Keïta, ‘MissCedeao’, Nouvel Horizon, 2 November 1998, p. 5. ^38. Yoro Sow, ‘Incertitudes pour la tenue du Congrèsdes homosexuels’, Sud Info, 8 December 1999, p. 4. ^39. However, some prominent Muslim religious leaders, most notablyChérif Haïdara, would eventually take positionsin support of condom use. See Benjamin Soares, ‘Mali:Im Visier der Islamismus-Fahnder’, INAMO 41 (2005), pp.16–18. ^40. Talal Asad, ‘Religion, nation-state, secularism’,in Peter van der Veer and Hartmut Lehmann (eds), Nation andReligion: Perspectives on Europe and Asia (Princeton UniversityPress, Princeton, NJ, 1999), p. 191. ^41. Djibril Traoré, ‘El Hadji Mahmoud Dicko,’Le National, 2 October 2000, p. 5. ^42. El Hadj Mahmoud Dicko, ‘Declaration du Collectif des associationsislamiques du Mali’, Info-Matin, 7 May 2001, p. 7. Seealso El Hadj Mahmoud Dicko, ‘Déclaration’,Le Républicain, 4 May 2001, p. 7; Amara Diapy Diawara,‘Meeting du Collectif des associations musulmanes du Mali’,Info-Matin, 13 February 2001, pp. 4–5. ^43. See, for example, Michael Taussig, Mimesis and Alterity (Routledge,New York, NY, 1993); Homi Bhabha, ‘Of mimicry and man’,in The Location of Culture (Routledge, New York, NY, 1994),pp. 85–92. ^44. On this heightened sense, see Dale F. Eickelman and James Piscatori,Muslim Politics (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ,1996). For Malian press coverage of the OCI meeting, see, forexample, ‘Organisation de la Conférence islamique.Le monde musulman’, Liberté, 3 July 2001, p. 4. ^45. See the extensive coverage of the meeting in a special editionof Le Continent, 2 February 2001. ^46. For a discussion of some of the proposed reforms and specificcontroversies, cf. Benjamin F. Soares, ‘The attempt toreform family law in Mali’, in Margot Badran (ed.), Genderand Islam in Africa (Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, forthcoming);Dorothea E. Schulz, ‘Political factions, ideological fictions:the controversy over family law reform in democratic Mali’,Islamic Law and Society, 10, 1 (2003), pp. 132–64. ^47. Birama Fall, ‘Islam et politique. La colère desislamistes contre le pouvoir’, Le Républicain,23 April 2001, p. 1; Belco Tamboura, ‘Le front religieux,un front de plus pour Konaré’, L’Observateur,14 June 2001, p. 6. ^48. C. H. Sylla, ‘Code de la famille et excision. La dernièrevictoire des islamistes sur Alpha’, Le Républicain,10 June 2002, p. 5. ^49. See Christian Coulon, Le marabout et le prince: Islam et pouvoirau Sénégal (Pédone, Paris, France, 1981). ^50. Boukary Daou, ‘Code de la famille et excision. Les musulmansdisent non à Alpha’, Le Républicain, 5 June2002, p. 1. ^51. Cf. Michael Bratton, Massa Coulibaly, and Fabiana Machado, ‘Popularviews of the legitimacy of the state in Mali’, CanadianJournal of African Studies 36, 2 (2002), pp. 197–238;Michael Bratton, Robert Mattes and E. Gyimah-Boadi, Public Opinion,Democracy and Market Reform in Africa (Cambridge UniversityPress, Cambridge, 2005).     

Speaking the Unspeakable,Naming the Unnameable: The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

ABSTRACT

The establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse followed years of lobbying by survivor groups, damning findings from previous inquiries, and increasing societal recognition of the often lifelong and intergenerational damage caused by child sexual abuse. Through extensive media coverage, the Royal Commission brought into public view the reality that the sexual abuse of children was widespread, and its recommendations are prompting organisational, policy, and legislative reform. This article explores the background to the Royal Commission, situating it within the history of previous inquiries and growing community outrage at the failure of institutions to adequately protect children and respond appropriately when abuse occurs. The article explores the ways in which the Royal Commission, more so than previous inquiries, brought child sexual abuse into public discourse. It also serves as an introduction to this special issue of the Journal of Australian Studies, which illustrates how the Royal Commission has fostered new scholarship across a range of disciplines as researchers engage with complex issues related to institutional child sexual abuse, its history, causes, impacts, and the important role of inquiries in confronting it.