Bareebe, Gerald, and Moses Khisa. “Rwanda-Uganda Relations: Elites’ Attitudes and Perceptions in Interstate Relations.” Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, May 14, 2023, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2023.2200598.

Rwanda and Uganda have had strained relations, oscillating between warm, lukewarm, hostile and outright war. Since the biggest falling out during the Second Congo War (1998–2003), both governments have variously accused each  other  of  wrongdoing,  including  allegations  of  supporting  rebel activities, covert counterintelligence operations and espionage. The most recent escalation in frosty relations saw the closure of Katuna border post. Because the respective ruling parties–the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the National Resistance Movement–at a minimum have shared ideological and historical origins, we would expect relations to be strong and constructive not hostile or tenuous. Yet, it is precisely the shared history and social ties among the politico-military and intelligence elites that shape the suspicion, mistrust and hostility that feed into official policies. This article analyses how shared ideological and historical origins, social relations and kindred ties inform individual attitudes and perceptions of key elites toward each other’s government.

Source: Article's abstract.

Bareebe, Gerald, and Moses Khisa. “Rwanda-Uganda Relations: Elites’ Attitudes and Perceptions in Interstate Relations.” Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 61, no. 2 (2023): 152–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2023.2200598.

Rwanda and Uganda have had strained relations, oscillating between warm, lukewarm, hostile and outright war. Since the biggest falling out during the Second Congo War (1998–2003), both governments have variously accused each other of wrongdoing, including allegations of supporting rebel activities, covert counterintelligence operations and espionage. The most recent escalation in frosty relations saw the closure of Katuna border post. Because the respective ruling parties – the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the National Resistance Movement – at a minimum have shared ideological and historical origins, we would expect relations to be strong and constructive not hostile or tenuous. Yet, it is precisely the shared history and social ties among the politico-military and intelligence elites that shape the suspicion, mistrust and hostility that feed into official policies. This article analyses how shared ideological and historical origins, social relations and kindred ties inform individual attitudes and perceptions of key elites toward each other’s government.

Source: Article's abstract

Bargna, Ivan. African Art. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 2000

The concept of Africa as an entity is a recent and largely artificial idea. Africa is made up of very diverse cultures, tribes, religions, traditions and geographies and it is constantly changing. In this thought-provoking study of African art, Bargna emphasises the need to connect individual items to ethnographic information with the aesthetic experience. It is important also, not to bring to the study of African art the trappings of the traditional artistic judgements with which Western art is viewed. The rich and varied production of the African continent is viewed and interpreted in terms of its close relationship with the world of the sacred, of myth and of religious ritual practices.

Source: Google Books.

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Bargna, Ivan. African Art. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 2000.

The concept of Africa as an entity is a recent and largely artificial idea. Africa is made up of very diverse cultures, tribes, religions, traditions and geographies and it is constantly changing. In this thought-provoking study of African art, Bargna emphasises the need to connect individual items to ethnographic information with the aesthetic experience. It is important also, not to bring to the study of African art the trappings of the traditional artistic judgements with which Western art is viewed. The rich and varied production of the African continent is viewed and interpreted in terms of its close relationship with the world of the sacred, of myth and of religious ritual practices.

[Source: Google Books].

Olivier Barlet

Critic (Cinema), Africultures

Location: France

facebook.com/barlet.olivier

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Barlet, Olivier. African Cinemas. Decolonizing the Gaze. London: Bloomsbury, 2000.

This book is both a personal journey and an introduction to the cinema cultures of Africa. A book about the politics of cultural survival, it is also a major overview of African cinema and television. The first part of the book traces the development of African cinema - from colonization to Afrocentrism. The author examines this development through a variety of fundamental themes: the decolonization of the imagination; the quest for legendary African origins and the mobilization of African cultural values. The second part of the book analyses specific films, particularly through narrative and in terms of their African specificity - in the use of silence, orality and humour. Finally, the author explores the social and economic contexts of the African cinema and television industry - including its often-vexed relations with the West and the problems of production and distribution African film-makers face. Winner of the French National Film Centre’s best film book of 1997 and now available in four languages, this is book which takes us into a process of learning how to look.

[Source: Bloomsbury].

Barlet, Olivier. Contemporary African Cinema. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2016.

African and notably sub-Saharan African film’s relative eclipse on the international scene in the early twenty-first century does not transcend the growth within the African genre. This time period has seen African cinema forging a new relationship with the real and implementing new aesthetic strategies, as well as the emergence of a post-colonial popular cinema. Drawing on more than 1,500 articles, reviews, and interviews written over the past fifteen years, Olivier Barlet identifies the critical questions brought about by the evolution of African cinema. In the process, he offers us a personal and passionate vision, making this book an indispensable sum of thought that challenges preconceived ideas and enriches an approach to cinema as a critical art.

[Source: Michigan State University Press].

Douglas Barrie

Senior Fellow for Military Aerospace, The International Institute for Strategic Studies

NGO

London, UK