Underdevelopment, Development and the Fu

Munyaradzi Mawere

• Publisher: Langaa RPCIG
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9789956764631
• eBook ISBN: 9789956764884
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Global Development Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

In view of the resilience of Africas underdevelopment, what do Africans make of their determined aspirations for development? The continent of Africa has constantly drawn global attention, most especially for both human and natural evils. Underdevelopment, it appears, is one of the most eminent threatening evils. It has plunged and promises to maintain the majority of Africa in abject poverty, insecurity, and vulnerability. What perpetuates the ghost and gory of underdevelopment in Africa, despite a proliferation of development rhetoric and initiatives? How do ordinary Africans react to repeated talk and claims of development with little evidence of transformation for the better in their material circumstances? This book interrogates the tenacity of underdevelopment amid calls for Africa to rise from its slumber and reclaim its position in global affairs as the mother continent of humankind. It contributes to the ongoing debates on why Africa remains trapped in the clutch of underdevelopment many decades after the purported end of colonialism. The book comes at a critical time in human history; a time when the talk on Africas [under-]development is louder due to the ravages of economic downturns and dysfunctional conflicts. It poses a challenge to development practitioners, civil society activists, statesmen, economists, political scientists and theorists to rethink and reconsider their role as technocrats, experts and ambassadors of positive change in Africa and the world beyond.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• List of Contributors
• Contents
• Chapter 1 - Africa’s Postcolonial Challenge: The Politics and Resilience of Underdevelopment
• Chapter 2 - Hearing the Footfalls of Humanoid Robots: Technoscience, (Un-)employment and the Future of “Development” in Twenty-First Century Africa
• Chapter 3 - China for Africa, Africa for China or Africa and China for Each Other? Assessing Chinese Development Collaboration for African Transformations
• Chapter 4 - Logical Fallacies in African Development Debates
• Chapter 5 - Breaking the Barriers to Africa’s Development? The Prospects, Opportunities and Challenges of China’s Approach to Development in Africa
• Chapter 6 - “Let My People Go!” A Contextual Reading of the Book of Exodus in Light of Political and Economic Crisis in Post-independent Zimbabwe
• Chapter 7 - “Poverty in the Midst of Plenty”: A Study of Poverty and Underdevelopment in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria
• Chapter 8 - “Jungle” Education Curriculum and Language of Instruction as Hindrances to the Development of Science and Technology in Africa: Insights from Nigeria
• Chapter 9 - Indigenous Epistemologies, Disasters and Development: In Search of Africa-based Mechanisms for Disaster Risk Reduction and Socio-economic Development
• Chapter 10 - Africa and the Remedies to the Problem of underdevelopment
• Chapter 11 - Poverty, Natural Resources “Curse” and Underdevelopment in Africa
• Chapter 12 - Language for National Integration, Unity and Development in Nigeria
• Chapter 13 - Education for Conquest’ and Africa’s Underdevelopment: A Quest for Epistemic Liberation
• Chapter 14 - African Political Parties and the Question of Development and Underdevelopment: Insights from Nigeria
• Chapter 15 - Development Discourse and the Legacies of Precolonial Shona Environmental Jurisprudence: Pangolins and Political Opportunism in Independent Zimbabwe
• Chapter 16 - Theorising Agency in ICT4D: Epistemic Sovereignty and Transformation-in-Connection
• Chapter 17 - Conflict Management, Co-existence and Development: Exploring the Impact of Conflict and Civil Unrest on Africa’s Development
• Chapter 18 - Women’s Agency in the Maize and Millet Commodity Chain Analysis in Mbarara District, Uganda
• Back cover