1st Edition

Development In Modern Africa Past and Present Perspectives

Edited By Martin S. Shanguhyia, Toyin Falola Copyright 2020
    248 Pages 33 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    248 Pages 33 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Development in Modern Africa: Past and Present Perspectives contributes to our understanding of Africa’s experiences with the development process. It does so by adopting a historical and contemporary analysis of this experience. The book is set within the context of critiques on development in Africa that have yielded two general categories of analysis: skepticism and pessimism.





    While not overlooking the shortcomings of development, the themes in the book express an optimistic view of Africa’s development experiences, highlighting elements that can be tapped into to enhance the condition of African populations and their states. By using case studies from precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial Africa, contributors to the volume demonstrate that human instincts to improve material, social and spiritual words are universal. They are not limited to the Western world, which the term and process of development are typically associated with.





    Before and after contact with the West, Africans have actively created institutions and values that they have actively employed to improve individual and community lives. This innovative spirit has motivated Africans to integrate or experiment with new values and structures, challenges, and solutions to human welfare that resulted from contact with colonialism and the postcolonial global community. The book will be of interest to academics in the fields of history, African studies, and regional studies.

    1. Introduction  2. The Priority Argument, Politics, and Development in Africa  3. Female Chastity, Peace and Security in the Precolonial Yorubaland: Implications for National Development  4. Handicraft (ise owo): A Tool for Sustainable Development among Women in Akokoland, 1900-1960  5. Gender and Development in Africa: The Revolving Influence of Urban Centers on the Traditional Obligation of Umuada in Igboland, Nigeria  6. Railways and Economic Development: The Nigerian Experience in the Global Context  7. Community Development in the Light of Ecclesiastical sensitivity to Climate Change in Ilorin, Nigeria  8. Conflict, Insecurity, and Sustainable Development in Africa: The Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria  9. The Creation of Contestation and the Conditions of Encroachment: Land Grabs, Squatting, and the Legacy of Land Reform in Tanzania and Nepal  10. South Africa's policy vision for black businesses - the role of entrepreneurship in development  11. Hypomobility - An Epidemiological Analogue for Viewing Urban Transport Conditions in Africa and other Developing Countries  12. Development Planning Under Stress in West Africa: Exploring Options to Forge Ahead 

    Biography

    Martin S. Shanguhyia, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of African History in the History Department in Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, New York. His research and teaching interests reflect an intersection between colonialism, environment, economy, and development. He studies these elements regarding African rural communities, both agricultural and pastoral.



    Toyin Falola, Ph.D. is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of History, The University of Texas at Austin.