Title: Cheikh Anta Diop:The social sciences, humanities, physical and natural sciences and transdisciplinarity
Author/s: Dani Wadada Nabudere
Page: 6
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Abstract: Abstract: This article presents a critical exposition of the contributions of Cheikh Anta Diop to a scientific understanding of ancient African history, race, and the study of culture. It sets out the history of Diop’s successful struggle against flawed Eurocentric scholarship which sought to deny the contributions of ancient black Egyptians to world civilisation. Diop’s intellectual odyssey across physics, linguistics, through anthropology, ethnology, genetics and history is recounted here to demonstrate the limitations of mono-, inter- and multidisciplinarity and clearly identifies him as a pioneer of transdisciplinarity in the field of knowledge production. [back to top]

Title: Collecting on their investments, one woman at a time: Economic partnerships among Caribbean immigrant women in the United States
Author/s: Dianne M. Stewart
Page: 35
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Abstract: This article treats rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) from a constructive cultural perspective. The female-based African-Jamaican tradition of paadna (partnership) is examined within the theoretical scope of womanist (Black feminist) thought, a seminal discourse intersecting both the African diaspora and women’s studies. Across the multiple scholarly approaches within women’s and African diaspora studies, academic theory acquires cogency through legitimate correspondences with tangible liberating practices and traditions that can be documented and interrogated for conceptual insights. The practice of economic partnering is one such tradition that substantiates the ethical directives and imperatives of womanist theory and practice. A womanist reading of paadnas is proposed, not because the participants have any self-conscious commitment to feminism/womanism, but because of the institution’s efficacy in enhancing the socioeconomic standing of Black families through a relatively small-scale capital enterprise. Through paadna networks, Jamaican women have transplanted a flexible self-help tradition to America that is arguably one of the most reliable sources of social and economic mobility among groups of African descent in the United States. [back to top]

Title: In search of elusive humanity: Philosophy in 159 years of Africa’s independence
Author/s: Josephat Obi Oguejiofor
Page: 58
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Abstract: This article was developed from a paper presented at the Unesco World Philosophy Day Symposium hosted by the University of South Africa, 21 November 2006, under the theme ‘Philosophy and 159 years of Africa’s Independence.’ It explores the subject through the prism of African humanity from the perspectives of Western philosophy, traditional African philosophy and contemporary African philosophy, exposing the weaknesses of each in their treatment of the African. Throughout, the article endeavours to deconstruct the elitist self-image of the discipline and concludes by questioning the utility of philosophy in enhancing development in modern Africa. [back to top]

Title: African Renaissance: The need for gender-inclusive developmental states
Author/s: Sheila Bunwaree
Page: 73
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Abstract: This article was developed from a paper presented at a seminar at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria in 2006 while the author was an Archie Mafeje Fellow. It argues the urgent need for the construction and consolidation of gender-inclusive democratic developmental states as central to grounding the concept of an African Renaissance, for an effective transformation of the human condition, and for ensuring that this renaissance does not become romanticised and meaningless. While the notion of developmental states has gained currency in recent years, very little, if at all, has been said about gender in relation to these debates – despite the United Nations warning that ‘without engendering development, development itself is endangered.’ In other words, formulating and implementing development policies with gender lenses are crucial for development. [back to top]

Title: Ubuntu as public policy in South Africa: A conceptual framework
Author/s: Gessler Muxe Nkondo
Page: 88
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Abstract: Beginning with an overview of the origin and core elements of ubuntu, this article focuses on the idea that the analytic process required to illustrate how a social theory and a political ideal can be extracted and developed out of their constitutive elements has not been given the rigorous attention it deserves. Without such rigour it is extremely difficult to recommend a coherent conceptual framework for political action. It then suggests guidelines for policy development and implementation, confident that nuanced variations in the various understandings of UBUNTU are not so fundamental as to prevent trend-data analysis and generalisation. [back to top]

Title: I MBIZO: Culture, integration and African Renaissance
Author/s: Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow
Page: 101
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Abstract: A translated and edited version of an address to the First Pan-African Cultural Congress organised by the African Union, Addis Ababa, 13 November 2006. [back to top]

Title: THE RECORD: ‘One step at a time’
Author/s: An interview with Jean-Bertrand Aristide (former President of Haiti)
Page: 107
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Abstract: This interview was conducted in French, in Pretoria, on 20 July 2006. It was translated and edited by Peter Hallward, professor of philosophy at Middlesex University. The text of the complete interview will appear as an appendix to Hallward’s forthcoming book, Damming the flood: Haiti, Aristide and the politics of containment, due for publication by Verso in 2007. [back to top]

International Journal of African Renaissance Studies