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ISSN : 1744-2532 (Print)
ISBN : 2516-5305 (Online)
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From the Editor/ Publisher
Africa and Arabia: Co-operation or Conflict
Jideofor Adibe, PhD
Enter the African Renaissance
The decision to set up this journal arose from a series of discussions, mostly via email exchanges, with some Africanists. Interest on African Renaissance had been re-ignited by President Thabo Mbekis I am an African speech. The speech had given rise to different reactions, with some mockingly asking when Africa ever had its naissance. We were among the group of Africanists that saw the notion as a narrative for development, and a project for intellectually resisting any drive towards re-colonisation. The invasion of Iraq and subsequent re-colonisation of the country had been a wake-up call to all Africanists.
Our interest in the theme led to the setting up of a publishing venture, Adonis & Abbey publishers Ltd, based in London, and incorporated on 18 March 2003. Our aim was to build a global book publishing outfit, which would help to ensure that no voice is muffled in the development debate on Africa, and that different cadences, storylines and narrative forms are properly represented in the debate. For us therefore, the notion of African Renaissance was never a feel-good project as some cynics maintained. After the setting up of our publishing company in 2003, one of the first books we published was The Making of the Africa-Nation: Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance (edited by Professor Mammo Muchie). We asked 17 Africanists from virtually all parts of the world, including China, Arabia, USA, France, Britain, Scandinavia, Continental Africa, and Diaspora Africa, to critically evaluate the notion, and its relevance to the development and unity projects in Africa. The book, published in October 2003, has been very well received.
In January this year we decided to add three journals to our publishing menu the African Journal of Economic and Business Research, (AJEBR), the African Journal of Political and Social Research (AJPSR), and African Renaissance (AR). AJEBR and AJPSR are academic journals, edited respectively by John Kuada, an Associate Professor in International Management at Aalborg University, Denmark, and Steven Friedman, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, Johannesburg, South Africa. Both journals will debut later this year. Our aim is to have internationally respected academic journals in these fields where African researchers will set their own research agenda, and methodologies for such research, without being manacled by any consideration, including any possible subterranean inclinations of any funding agency or owner institution. To the best of our knowledge, AJEBR and AJPSR will be the first academic journals on Africa in the fields, which are not affiliated to any University or research institution or driven by the gratitude of any donor. Our policy is zero per cent interference in the editorial policies and judgements of these journals.
For the African Renaissance, we wanted to have a bi-monthly journal, where the articles will be a cross between academic research works and features as in any serious magazine or newspaper. The aim is to create a non-ideological, non-sectarian platform, where serious exchanges can take place among Africanists without the Shenanigans and tribalism often associated with academic journals. We expect this to become one of the most credible reference sources for policymakers, policy professionals and stakeholders in Africa.
In every issue, we will have a lead theme (or cover story in magazine-speak), where authorities with different perspectives will be asked to write on various aspects of the theme. We hope that through this, enough information and perspectives on the selected theme will be presented for the readers to make up their own mind. The lead theme in each edition will be concluded with a section in which comments on some of the lead articles are published.
For our maiden edition, we have chosen to examine the relations between Africa and Arabia. We brought together professionals and authorities of different persuasions, and asked them to approach the theme as they saw fit. What we have is a rich menu, which we believe will raise sufficient questions, if not answers, for any one really interested in the dynamics of the relations between Africa and Arabia. We have also published comments on some of the contributions.
Besides the lead theme, there are also many other stimulating analyses, from the recent elections in South Africa to the AIDS epidemic.
From the next edition, we will introduce a section, Reviews, where readers could write letters to the editor, or write short articles offering a different perspective to any of the articles published in the journal or elsewhere. We will also have Book Reviews in that section. We hope you will enjoy what we have assembled, and that you will become one of our friends. Naturally, we welcome any suggestions for improvement.
Lead theme for the next edition: As a bi-monthly journal, the next edition will be for August/September. The lead theme will examine the whole notion of African identity. As every Africanist knows, the need for development and technical progress has been recurring themes in virtually every analyses of Africa.There is also usually a recognition that a truly united, developed, andself-confidentAfrica cannot be made without a prior making of the African. Currently, there is a consensus that a shared sense of being an African, remains, at best, in a state of flux. The idea of Africa itself has also not been satisfactorily settled, and in many ways, is still contested..
Many Africanists are also worried about certain dynamics in the relations among different cultural Africans, between Continental Africans and the Diaspora Africans, and even among different national Diaspora Africans themselves. Why is this so Can anything be done about this Could the national Diaspora Africans ever have the same emotional attachment to Continental Africa, as say, many Jews in the Diaspora have for Israel
Keep a date with us in the next edition.