Books in the Society & Politics in Africa series

Somali Oral Poetry and the Failed She-Camel Nation State: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Deelley Poetry Debate (1979-1980) examines the most expressive medium in Somali culture and politics, that is, oral poetry, in its ideological and discursive dimension. Oral poetry has a formidable impact on Somali society and its internal dynamics.

Political History of Guinea since World War Two provides an in-depth study of the political evolution of Guinea from World War Two to the present. Based on primary-source information, it examines with rare depth and breadth the eventful history of this nation-state, whose trajectory has impacted in no small ways Francophone Africa and the rest of the continent.

In recent years, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been linked with socioeconomic development with the assumption that they can be harnessed for economic growth in developing countries and facilitate integration into the global information society. However, very few studies in the ICT-for-development field examine the direct connections between ICTs and socioeconomic growth. Information and Communication Technologies in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges for Development is a compelling account of the development of ICTs in Nigeria. It examines the ICT policy framework and the societal context within which application of the technologies emerged and highlights the potentials of ICTs in socioeconomic development. However, this book also demonstrates, through interviews and case studies, that ICTs are not the panacea to underdevelopment; constraining factors in different countries can limit their capacity to succeed. The author employs a rare multidisciplinary approach that makes the book appealing and accessible to a diverse range of readership.

French Investment in Colonial Cameroon: The FIDES Era (1946-1957) analyzes French investments in Cameroon during the era of the program for the development of French colonies known as FIDES. It offers not only a description of the economic structures of colonial Cameroon, but also an analysis of French public and private investment in Cameroon, the Franco-Cameroonian economic and financial relationship, the contribution of Cameroon to the dynamics of French capitalism, and the role played by French capitalism in the economic development of Cameroon. It is particularly useful for its detailed financial evaluation and assessment of the various effects of FIDES investment in Cameroon and includes numerous tables and figures. French Investment in Colonial Cameroon: The FIDES Era (1946-1957) is based on a variety of sources collected in Cameroon, France, and the United States and will be useful for instructors teaching courses related to colonial, modern, or contemporary Africa, the economic history of Africa, and French colonial history, and to all interested in these subjects.

Focusing on yellow fever, cholera, and plague epidemics as well as on sanitation in the context of urban growth in Saint-Louis-du-Senegal between 1867 and 1920, this book explores how the French colonial and medical authorities responded to the emergence and re-emergence of deadly epidemic diseases and environmental contamination.

Sufi oral discourse in Senegal is overwhelmingly dominated by stories about past and current shaykhs. These oral texts, deeply rooted in their context of production, which dictates their form and functions, are still generally unknown to scholars of Islam in Senegal and West Africa. By filling this gap, this book contributes to the discourse of religions in general and Sufi Islam in particular.

African antiquity has been discerned both nullifyingly and constructively. Uses of African Antiquity in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries reveals how reading the past can be extended to understand sensitivities involving origins and how it apprises collective postures.