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Local and domestic forces shape African reality by upholding power structures that have an impact on knowledge as well. Even while the continent has a lot of potential for reconstruction and renewal, new kinds of control and discrimination put a lot of strain on the region's constant struggle between optimism and despair, renaissance and marginalization. The wealth of Africa and its economic interconnectedness with the rest of the globe must unavoidably lead to improvements in human development if the continent is to experience a rebirth and rebuild. Following the independence of the majority of African nations from colonial imperialists, expectations were built based mostly on the belief that Africa would rapidly advance and that African leaders would lead its governance and politics. These hopes might have been influenced in part by the fervent resistance of African nationalist leaders to colonial imperialism and the liberation of Africa from its shackles. But as we can see from cont...
This special issue draws from a collection of interdisciplinary research to investigate the interplay of underdevelopment, corruption, and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using case studies from mostly four countries —Nigeria, South Africa, Burundi and Zimbabwe, the essays here-in explore the intricate web of challenges and opportunities that define these elements across the region. From examining the transnational dynamics that facilitate the persistence of corruption, economic underdevelopment, and poverty in the region, to evaluating the continuous impact of such elements on youth behaviour across regional borders and boundaries, the essays aim to identify innovative strategies, policy interventions, and grassroots initiatives that hold the potential to foster sustainable progress and bring about positive changes across the region. Ultimately, the articles offer valuable insights into the complexities and nuances of the challenges faced by these nations and suggest pathways toward ...
Global optimism over sustainable development has been voiced in academic debates and forecasts. The picture for Africa is not nearly as hopeful, given the persistent declines in hunger, poverty reduction, effective accountability and governance, efficient healthcare delivery, and citizen satisfaction with public goods and services. The peace and stability of the continent are thus threatened by provocative acts and behaviors. Because Africa is incapable of implementing and maintaining drastic measures that can stop the continent's decline within a comprehensive and integrated strategy that prioritizes democratic governance, economic growth, and fair wealth distribution as prerequisites for peace and security, the continent has remained largely unstable and underdeveloped. In many severely mismanaged African states, violent protests or uprisings are a continual concern. The current upheavals and riots are some of the signs of a weak government and the prolonging of the tenure of some un...
The dynamics of diversity and the massive endowment of natural resources in Africa make it a worthwhile and strategic region for scientific investigation. This investigation becomes very necessary in light of how the western media have always labeled Africa as a sore continent characterized by violence, diseases, bad governance, poor service delivery, weak political will and institutions, poverty, inequality, climate change, and other related problems. Although these problems have generated public and intellectual discussions within and outside Africa, the suggested solutions appear to be western ideology-laden. In other words, the nature of these solutions is not evolving towards reflecting efforts at genuinely transforming or improving Africa. This is so because the democracy that seems to renew hope for Africa’s development has largely remained unpopular in some African states. This state of affairs was a factor in the thinking of Afrocentric solutions to African problems beca...
African politics continue to elicit profound interest within and outside the continent. In recent decades, the political processes of African countries have attracted global interest. This is probably due to the developmental and other crises facing the continent. This interest is once again aglow with a series of consequential elections coming up on the continent. Senegal led the race with an electoral process that was almost scuttled by Africa’s age-long malaise of sighttight syndrome in power. However, the Senegal judiciary showed that the African judiciary can help midwife electoral systems based on justice, fairness, equity, and constitutionalism. The election was also noteworthy as it threw up the continent’s youngest democratically elected president. The just-concluded elections in South Africa also proved that Africans are ready to challenge social, economic, and political challenges via the polls, with the result showing that the African National Congress (ANC) lost its majori...
Africa, among other continents, is expected to have been transformed from its description as givers or producers of raw materials by the colonial imperialists, who scrambled for the survival of their countries after the Second World War. To be specific, Africa has been a solid yielding ground for the industrialization of what is today known as Europe and the West through her natural resources, yet it has remained largely impoverished and most backward among the continents in the global system. The continent’s inability to effectively harness its resources for sustainable development is multifaceted, ranging from the despotic influence of the colonial imperialists in the management of Africa’s resources, the nefarious activities of successive African leaders, who ascend power after colonialism, and the spoilt systemic political structure bequeathed to Africa by the colonial government to incessant military interventions in African politics. Research on why Africa is still ve...
The contemporary African state is a descendant of an arbitrary colonial system that was designed as a tool of exploitation, oppression, and dominance. Today, despite Africa’s long years of independence from these colonial administrative units, its origin largely remains exogenous, rather than evolving out of the relationships of groups and individuals in African societies. A state, using the classical definition of Max Weber, is a community of human beings with the control of the lawful and acceptable utilization of force or power within a given territory’. In many respects, the majority of African states hardly possess these features, which is why most of them are classified as fragile, failed, or failing states. It is because Africa consists of states with a community of varied and occasionally clashing linguistic, religious, and ethnic identities; they hardly can control violence or lay claim to the monopoly of force legitimately; their frequent predatory nature fails th...
This special issue of African Renaissance is a collection of well-articulated interdisciplinary research and discerning discussions of African contemporary issues that advance understanding of the appropriate mitigation strategies that can transform Africa from its present deplorable condition. Indeed, Africa, unlike other continents, has continually grappled with challenges limiting its capacity to attain the much-expected sustainable development. Comparatively, Africa is still suffering from or affected by some of the key indicators of underdevelopment, such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, poor infrastructure, bad governance, state fragility, illegitimate government, corruption, electoral mal-practices, insecurity, service delivery protests, violence, insurgency, military incursions, excessive state coercion, police brutality, weak governmental institutions, absence of rule of law, and abuse of human rights. With Africa’s large scale of arable land and natural resou...
In contemporary Africa, interests have always centered on how to completely dismantle the grip of the West on the progressive development of the continent. This expectation raises question about the capacity of Africa to effectively cope if the West has been axed from its region, especially on how Africans can galvanize their resources towards the progressive path of development. This suspicion is validated on the grounds that Africa still suffers from the limitations that affected it in the colonial era. Although Africa looks very promising, considering its endowment of natural resources and high young population index, it has hardly converted these virtues into positive developmental outcomes. It is still the poorest continent, with a high index of hunger, malnutrition, and illiteracy. Unlike other continents, Africa still suffers limitations from terrorism, insurgency, corruption, bad governance, poor leadership, military interventions, violent conflicts, and ethnic and religi...
Africa is expected to have been more developed and progressive considering her endowment of huge natural resources. These abundant natural resources, if adequately managed, could have transformed Africa and elevated it well above other continents. However, despite the availability of natural resources in many African countries, Africa has remained very poor, largely underdeveloped, and dependent on other continents. Colonialism has partly been blamed for the reasons why Africa could not effectively manage her natural resources and for the slow progress and development of Africa. Africa’s natural resources were illegally transferred for the industrialization of Europe, while Africa suffers from poverty, malnutrition, and an infrastructural deficit. It was hoped that as Africa broke away from the shackles of colonialism, significant progress and development would be achieved. African leaders were brimming with hope, optimism, and confidence that Africa would be highly develop...