Awarded Special Commendation in the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa 1998. The intellectual liberation of the study of Africa is the battle cry of this forceful book. The author is one of Africas younger scholars, in the forefront of research and thinking about the role of African scholars, and the ownership and state of African Studies; and winner of The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa 1994. He describes this book as an interrogation of African Studies, its formulations and fetishes, theories and trends, possibilities and pitfalls. He argues that, as a discursiveformation, African...

In 1993 a new democratic order was initiated in Ghana. In 1997 the elected Government ran its full mandate and was re-elected, for the first time infour decades. The authors in this volume question the prevailing trendsand tendencies in the country's democratisation process. Given its historyof incomplete transitions, a thorough analysis of the extremely complexnature of the Ghanaian transition process was needed to look at previousand existing orders. The papers in this collection identify and discussthe interplay of factors impinging on the current process: the intertwinedrelationships...

Gender based violence is alarmingly widespread across cultures. Research is in its initial stages in Africa, with few statistics and resources. There is, too, little relevant legislation. This selection ofpapers from the 1997 CODESRIA Gender Institute gathering which included participants from eight African countries. The six contributors highlight how universal attitudes of male dominance and patriarchy can literally engender aculture of violence in which women and children are the victims. Case studies from East and West Africa are included.