McDade, Barbara E., and Anita Spring. “The ‘New Generation of African Entrepreneurs’: Networking to Change the Climate for Business and Private Sector-Led Development.” Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 17, no. 1 (2005): 17–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/0898562042000310714.

This paper discusses the entrepreneurial landscape in Africa and locates a new generation of African entrepreneurs and their business networks within it. Unlike others in that landscape(i.e. micro- or small-scale informal sector vendors, and traditional or multinational large-scale formal sector firms), the ‘new generation’ entrepreneurs are business globalists who organized a system of business enterprise networks consisting of national, regional, and pan-African organizations. The study analyses interview data from 57 men and women network members from 10 countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). Some defining characteristics of these entrepreneurs are interactive social and business relationships, use of modern management methods and information technology, trust among fellow members, transparent business practices, advocacy on behalf of the private sector, and commitment to increasing intra-African commerce. Their mission is to improve the climate for private sector business in Africa and to promote regional economic integration. They pursue cross-national commercial ventures, maintain official observer status at established regional economic organizations, sign memoranda of understanding with multilateral agencies, establish venture capital funds, and help to change government policies. The paper identifies characteristics of the ‘new generation’ entrepreneurs, evaluates goals and achievements of their networks, and concludes that despite limitations, these entrepreneurs and their organizations have created intra- and cross-national networks that strengthen private-sector-led economic growth in Africa.

Source: Article's abstract

McDonnell, Erin Metz. “Conciliatory States: Elite Ethno-Demographics and the Puzzle of Public Goods Within Diverse African States.” Comparative Political Studies 49, no. 11 (2016): 1513–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414015626441.

This article analyzes the puzzle of Ghana, the 12th most diverse state globally, yet among the most peaceful, democratic, and developed African states. It argues the position of post-independence political elites within ethno-demographic structures helps explain why some diverse African states pursued broad nation-building public goods, mitigating the political salience of diversity. Diversity encouraged provision of social goods with broad-based support in states with a modest plurality—not large enough to dominate, but without proximately sized ethnic groups—especially for leaders from a minority. Comparative historical analysis of Ghana is expanded with abbreviated case studies on Guinea, Togo, and Kenya.

Source: Article's abstract

JoAnn McGregor

Professor, Human geography

University of Sussex

+44 (0)1273 678753 Ext.8753

J.Mcgregor@sussex.ac.uk

profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p135339-joann-mcgregor

McGregor, JoAnn, Heather M. Akou, and Nicola Stylianou, eds. Creating African Fashion Histories. Politics, Museums, and Sartorial Practices. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2022.

Creating African Fashion Histories examines the stark disjuncture between African self-fashioning and museum practices. Conventionally, African clothing, textiles, and body adornments were classified by museums as examples of trade goods, art, and ethnographic materials — never as "fashion." Counterposing the dynamism of African fashion with museums’ historic holdings thus provides a unique way of confronting ways in which coloniality persists in knowledge and institutions today. This volume brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and curators to debate sources and approaches for constructing African fashion histories and to examine their potential for decolonizing museums, fashion studies, and global cultural history. The editors of this volume seek to answer questions such as: How can researchers use museum collections to reveal traces of past self-fashioning that are obscured by racialized forms of knowledge and institutional practice? How can archival, visual, oral, ethnographic, and online sources be deployed to capture the diversity of African sartorial pasts? How can scholars and curators decolonize the Eurocentric frames of thinking encapsulated in historic collections and current curricula? Can new collections of African fashion decolonize museum practice?

[Source: Indiana University Press]

Romuald Meango

Associate Professor of Economics. University of Oxford

Email: romuald.meango@economics.ox.ac.uk

Medeiros, Paulo de, and Livia Apa, eds. Contemporary Lusophone African Film: Transnational Communities and Alternative Modernities. Milton: Taylor and Francis, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429026836.

Offering a range of critical perspectives on a vibrant body of films, this collection of essays engages with questions specific to the various cinemas and films addressed while putting forward an argument for their inclusion in current debates on world cinema. Drawing on various theoretical perspectives, the volume strives to reverse the relative invisibility that has afflicted these cinemas, arguing that most, if not all, Lusophone films are transnational in all aspects of production, acting, and reception. The initial three chapters sketch broad, comparative overviews and suggest theoretical approaches, while the ensuing chapters focus on specific case studies and discuss a number of key issues such as the convergence of film with politics, the question of gender and violence, as well as the revisiting of the period immediately following independence. Attention is given to fiction, documentary films and recent, short, alternative video productions that are overlooked by more traditional channels. The book stresses the need to pay attention to the significance of African film, and Lusophone African film in particular, within the developing field of world cinema.

[Source: Routledge].

Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)

Regional independent non-governmental organisation

Location: Accra, Ghana with partner organizations across West African countries

Contact: +233 302 555327 / +233 302 955213/ Email and website: info@mfwa.org/ Website: mfwa.org

Description

The MFWA is a regional independent non-governmental organisation with a network of national partner organisations in all 16 countries in West Africa. It is the biggest and most influential media development and freedom of expression organisation in the region with UN ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) Consultative Status. The MFWA also has Equivalency Determination Certification with NGOSource that certifies the organisation as being the equivalent of a public charity in the United States. The MFWA is also the Secretariat of the continental Network of the most prominent Free Expression and Media Development Organisations in Africa, known as the Africa Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX).  It also works in partnership with other regional and international organisations through different networks such as IFEX, AFEX, the Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) and the African Platform on Access to Information (APAI). The organisation also works closely with the regional inter-governmental body, ECOWAS. It also engages frequently with mechanisms of the African Union (AU) and the UN.

Mehta, Makrand. “Gujarati Business Communities in East African Diaspora: Major Historical Trends.” Economic and Political Weekly 36, no. 20 (2001): 1738–47.

Gujarati emigrants to East Africa were central to the economic development of that region both before and during European colonial rule. Not the undifferentiated mass of' Indians' or 'Asians' recorded by the colonial powers, the Gujaratis were both internally divided by caste, community, and religion, and bound together by common ties of language an orientation towards business. It was those ties, and the carefully maintained kinship and community networks, which the various communities utilised to build their economic fortunes in their new lands. Thus it is to those networks that attention must be turned to understand both the foundations of Gujarati success in East Africa as well as their continuing links back to Gujarat.

Source: Article's abstract