Meneses, Maria Paula. “Singing Struggles, Affirming Politics: Mozambique’s Revolutionary Songs as Other Ways of Being (in) History”. In Mozambique on the Move: Challenges and Reflections edited by Sheila Khan, Maria Paula Meneses, Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, 254–278. Brill 2019.

Music is a fundamental mode of political expression and a political enactment. In the early years of independent Mozambique, revolutionary songs, broadcasted by the leading nationalist force, FRELIMO, became a significant part of developing a new sense of belonging to an alternative political project, of becoming Mozambique.

[Source: Chapter abstract as culled from researchgate.net].

‍

Mershon, Carol. "What effect do local political elites have on infant and child death? Elected and chiefly authority in South Africa." Social Science & Medicine 251(2020): 112902.

Mershon argues that traditional authority has local power and the potential to affect public goods. She questions how electoral pressure and chiefly authority affect social welfare by examining the response of traditional authority in supplying public goods such as pipe born water and sanitation services in South Africa as political elites invest and implement public goods and service delivery. The fact that political elites can determine where and who gets access to drinking water for example, gives room for political manipulation. As more and more African countries seek to grow their democracies, traditional leaders who are mostly unelected elites also serve as vote brokers for party politicians and in turn get to control the provision of public goods in their communities. Mershon describes the relationship between the African ‘local’ voters and their chiefs as complex, based on reciprocity and to some extent, exploitation. In Mershon’s study she finds out that the majority of black African households in S.A were more likely to face child or infant mortality under the age of five. Where the chiefs are strong(influential,) the mortality rate was much lower. Also, households in districts where voter turnout was high, had a relatively lower probability of infant and child death. Most significantly, her study showed that where the ANC party dominance coincides with strong chiefly authority, voter turnout rises and thereby reduces the likelihood of infant and child deaths.

Meschac Gaba

Artist (Painting)

Location: Benin

instagram.com/meschacgaba/?hl=en

Meyer, Laure. Art and Craft in Africa: Everyday Life, Ritual, Court Art. Paris: Editions Terrail, 1995.

The beautiful African objects presented in this book bear witness to the diverse esthetic and technical accomplishments of more than 100 African tribes, revealing the innate beauty of simple objects such as bowls, baskets, and masks, plus elaborate examples of weaponry, textiles, beadwork, and jewelry.

[Source: Google Books].

Ifan Ifeanyi Michael

Filmmaker

Location: Nigeria

instagram.com/thinkifan/?hl=en

‍

Mistry, Jyoti, Antje Schuhmann, Katharina von Ruckteschell, Max Annas, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Jihan El-Tahri, Beti Ellerson, Taghreed Elsanhouri, Henriette Gunkel, and Katarina Hedrén, eds. Gaze Regimes: Film and Feminism in Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2015.

Gaze Regimes is a bricolage of essays and interviews showcasing the experiences of women working in film, either directly as practitioners or in other areas as curators, festival programme directors or fundraisers. It does not shy away from questioning the relations of power in the practice of filmmaking and the power invested in the gaze itself. Who is looking and who is being looked at, who is telling women’s stories in Africa and what governs the mechanics of making those films on the continent? The interviews with film practitioners such as Tsitsi Dangarembga, Taghreed Elsanhouri, Jihan El-Tahri, Anita Khanna, Isabel Noronhe, Arya Lalloo and Shannon Walsh demonstrate the contradictory points of departure of women in film – from their understanding of feminisms in relation to lived-experiences and the realpolitik of women working as cultural practitioners. The disciplines of gender studies, postcolonial theory, and film theory provide the framework for the book’s essays. The contributors who provide valuable context, analysis and insight into, among other things, the politics of representation, the role of film festivals and the collective and individual experiences of trauma and marginality which contribute to the layered and complex filmic responses of Africa’s film practitioners.

[Source: Wits University Press].

Misuzulu Sinqobile kaZwelithini

Traditional leader (King of Zulu, South Africa)

Chieftaincy/Traditional leadership

South Africa

umlalazi.gov.za

Mlambo, Daniel N., and Toyin Cotties Adetiba. “Post‐1994 South Africa’s peacekeeping and military intervention in Southern Africa, reference from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Lesotho”. Journal of Public Affairs, (June 2019), 20(5).

The paper used a qualitative method approach to examine whether conflict resolution was viewed as a pivotal element for the new democratic government in order to stimulate beneficial relations with other African states post the apartheid era.