Thought Provokers
Class Struggle in Africa
Kwame Nkrumah wrote a number of books and pamphlets. Here are a few notes from his “Class Struggle in Africa” (1970): “Many members of the African bourgeoisie are employed by foreign firms and have, therefore, a direct financial stake in the continuance of the foreign economic exploitation of Africa. Others, notably in the civil service, […]
Tags: #Class Struggle in Africa #Kwame Nkrumah #Liberation #Neocolonialism #Power Politics
Theory and the Politics of Knowing
Ngugi wa Thiong’o is one of the most influential and read postcolonial literary critics. His Decolonizing the Mind (1986) is essential reading. He has also penned many works of fiction and theatre, as well as other non-fiction works. The following are some notes from his 2012 Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing (which is […]
Tags: #Alienation #Globalectics #Ngugi wa Thiongo #Poor Theory #Recentering knowledge
Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare
One of the great leaders and thinkers of the liberation struggle across Africa was Kwame Nkrumah, who would become President of Ghana. He has penned several works, one of which is “Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare” (1968). Reading this book makes clear why writings such as this are not as commonly on reading lists as are […]
Tags: #Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare #Kwame Nkrumah #Liberation #Revolution #Sham Independence
Food Aid in Sudan
Darfur has received food aid for one of the longest running periods anywhere. Decades has passed and the crisis of insecurity and malnutrition continue. Long-time humanitarian practitioner, turned academic, Susanne Jaspars, authored “Food Aid in Sudan: A History of Power, Politics and Profit” in 2018 to distill the complex story. The book is readable and […]
The Fire Next Time
Notes from Baldwin’s 1962 two essays in The Fire Next Time, the first a letter to his nephew and the second a longer piece that reflects on engagements with faith and identity: “Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?” (p. 94) “Let me spell out precisely what I mean by that, […]
Tags: #Baldwin #Justice #Racism #The Fire Next Time #The Impossible
Men in the Sun – Ghassan Kanafani
In a letter to his son, Kanafani wrote: “Do not believe that man grows. No; he is born suddenly – a word, in a moment, penetrates his heart to a new throb. Once scene can hurl him down from the ceiling of childhood on to the ruggedness of the road.” (p. 11) Coverage from Al […]
Tags: #Ghassan Kanafani #Men in the Sun #Palestine #Revolution #Struggle
Language & Governance in the African Experience
Notes from The Power of Babel: Language & Governance in the African Experience (1998) by Ali A. Mazrui and Alamin M. Mazrui” “One of the gross linguistic anomalies of post-colonial Africa, in fact, is that whole classes of countries are named after the imperial language they have adopted as their official language. We do constantly refer […]
Tags: #Africa #decolonization #Language #Mazrui #The Power of Babel
Globalization and Seed Sovereignty
Walshe’s “Globalisation and seed sovereignty in sub-Saharan Africa” (2019) explores some of the contestations and contradictions that exist between globalization and sovereignty (Ch 1), sovereignty in a globalized world (Ch 2), and seed sovereignty (Ch 3). The book provides two country case studies on Kenya (Ch 4) and Ethiopia (Ch 5), exploring their respective laws / regulations / proclamations […]
Tags: #Ethiopia #Globalization #Kenya #Seed #Seed Sovereignty
When Victims Become Killers
Mahmoud Mamdani should be on every essential reading list, whether that is African Studies (with When Victims Become Killers), colonialism and colonization (with Citizen and Subject) or political science (with Good Muslim, Bad Muslim). For anyone interested in Rwanda, the genocide, colonization and identity, When Victims Become Killers (2001) is required reading. A detailed history […]
Tags: #Genocide #Mahmoud Mamdani #Politics #Rwanda #When Victims Become Killers
Participatory Development Practice
Book review: Kelly, Anthony and Westoby, Peter. 2018: Participatory Development Practice: Using Traditional and Contemporary Frameworks. There is an emerging recognition that many of the ideas, practices and approaches within development studies and practice can replicate colonial attitudes, be paternalistic and disempowering, and may entrench marginalization. The emergence of a wide array of participatory methodologies […]
Tags: #Development Practice #Development Studies #Gandhi #Participation #Participatory Development Practice
About me
Logan Cochrane
Associate Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last fifteen years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.
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