Books published by publisher Africa World Press

This work looks at conflicts between the Hutu and the Tutsi in Burundi. It is also a profile of the Hutu and the Tutsi as a people. They are two social groups which claim separate identities on ethnic or tribal basis although they speak the same language and have the same culture. The work also looks at conflicts in eastern Congo which led to the downfall of President Mobutu Sese Seko of what was then known as Zaire. The author also looks at attempts by regional neighbours to resolve the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi in Burundi, especially the role played by Tanzania and its former president, Julius Nyerere, who was the chief mediator. Most of Burundi's exports and imports go through Tanzania, giving the country leverage as the main facilitator of the peace process which sometimes has involved economic sanctions against Burundi. The conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi is one of Africa's intractable problems. It is also one of the oldest in the post-colonial era. The book sheds some light on the complex situation in Burundi and on relations between the two groups. It also provides some insights into what can be done to resolve one of Africa's perennial problems. It can also be helpful to those who are trying to learn about Burundi for the first time. Students of African studies may also find this work to be useful.

Focusing on the Akan people in Ghana as a resource for examining the overall conception of human development, this study is the first of its kind to concentrate on specific developmental processes of an African people from the ancestral world to the mundane and back to the ancestral world. From their beliefs concerning reincarnation, conception, birth, education, ethical existence and generativity, eldership, and death, the Akan people have developed a sequence of culturally defined life stage. This paradigm is predicated on a theory of personality that has its ontological basis in God (Nana Nyame) and the primordial woman and her children that formed the original matrilineal community, the ebusua. This structural model utilizes myths and concepts, rites, dreams, and elements that form the basis for human development among the Akan people. Applying the work of Erik Erikson and James Fowler, the author examines the vast, systematized, and holistic Akan concept of personality.

This book is a compilation of essays by distinguished writers, critics and artists in the field of Dance and African American Studies who address several areas and disciplines of African dance both on the continent and in the diaspora. Sir Rex Nettleford, the distinguished Jamaican choreographer, professor and writer, stresses in the foreword to the book, the continuity between all dances that derive from Africa and the significance of this book. African dance, he argues, is a dominant, pervasive and empowering force in African communities.The four themes covered are tradition, tradition and continuity, tradition transformed, and tradition contextualized. African, Brazilian, Caribbean and African American scholars each focus on some aspect of African dance that provide the connecting patterns. Besides Sir Rex Nettleford, other contributors to this book include Pearl Primus, Maware Opoku, Katrina Hazzard-Gordon, Myriam Evelyse Mariani, Cynthia S'thembile West and Omofolabo Soyinka Ajayi.

More than any other scholar, political activist or professor of his day, W.E.B. Du Bois established the intellectual and curricular groundwork for what would become the field of Black Studies in higher education in the United States. Beginning with his social study, The Philadelphia Negro, in 1898, Du Bois challenged the status quo regarding knowledge about the black experience in the United States. With the Department of Labor and the Atlanta University reports he documented the facts of black life. This book delineates the undaunted effort that Du Bois exerted in order to educate black people about themselves and to rectify the misconceptions of whites. The Great Depression, Du Bois believed, had exacerbated racial consciousness. He planned to remedy the situation of worsened race relations with a serious program of Black Studies. His plan was presented to the Annual Conference of the Presidents of Negro Land-Grant Colleges in 1941, but it would be more than twenty five years before the first Black Studies program would appear in American higher education and it would not be at a black institution. This book examines in depth Du Bois s contributions as well as chronicles the turbulent journey of Black Studies in the academy. As Black Studies moves into its fortieth year, Dr. Warren's work reminds and introduces how connected the goals and curriculum of Black Studies is related to the works of W.E.B. DuBois. Most significant is the chapter which highlights the work DuBois did on Black women. "As an advocate for gender justice," DuBois also laid the foundation for what is now known as Black Women's Studies. Dr. LaVerne Gyant , Director, Center for Black Studies , Northern Illinois University This is the first book length study to adequately capture the evolution of Black Studies s genealogy in the early work of Du Bois, which Warren delineates in a fine way. Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies, Spelman College