Journal of Asian and African Studies

South Africa and India are viewed as incipient economic powerhouses of the developing world – South Africa is the biggest economy on the African continent and India a rising star in the global economy. Both countries have adopted neoliberal policies. The forms in which neoliberalism has unfolded, however, have been contingent upon the countries’ and utility sector’s historical-geographical context. In this paper we attempt to provide a comparative perspective demonstrating similar processes of neoliberalism in South Africa and India. We examine the contradictory nature of neoliberalism with respect to particular sections of the population – the poor in particular. A broadly political-economy approach is adopted. The paper reveals that there is particular state-market logic driving the delivery of basic services such as water and energy. It is this logic which has undermined the states’ attempts at providing basic services to the poor in particular.

Movements of people between Africa and Asia have exponentially increased beyond diplomatic exchanges and development aid under neo-liberal globalisation. Similarly, Ghana-Korea encounters have expanded to people-to-people engagement, including sports and entertainment in recent years. This chapter explores new forms of people-to-people exchanges that go beyond ‘Ghana as the football nation’ and ‘Korea as the Samsung Republic’. The focus is to explore innovative ways of bridging cultures and transcending boundaries. This paper relies on primary data (participation observation, interviews) and secondary data (published academic, government and ephemeral material) to highlight new areas of collaboration, ranging from commerce and investment, academic exchanges, collaboration in art and cultural endeavours, and the merging of these areas in a mutually beneficial way. Korea can learn from Ghana’s cultural diversity and tolerance; Ghana can benefit from Korea’s success in turning its art ...

Using objective measures of investor protections in 170 countries, I establish that the level of investor protection matters for cross-country differences in GDP growth: countries with stronger protections tend to grow faster than those with poor investor protections.

This paper makes a case for conviviality as a currency for frontier Africans. It argues that incompleteness is the normal order of things, and that conviviality invites us to celebrate and preserve incompleteness and mitigate the delusions of grandeur that come with ambitions and claims of completeness. Conviviality encourages frontier Africans to reach out, encounter and explore ways of enhancing or complementing themselves with the added possibilities of potency brought their way by the incompleteness of others, never as a ploy to becoming complete, but to make them more efficacious in their relationships and sociality. Frontier Africans and conviviality suggest alternative and complementary modes of influence over and above the current predominant mode of coercive violence and control.

There is a popular assumption in many Pentecostal circles that if something powerful happens in Jesus’ name—a healing, dramatic answered prayer, dream—conversion to Jesus will immediately follow. Signs and wonders are seen as the answer to the mission problem of a slow response to the gospel. My thesis in this essay is that among the great world religions with their vibrant folk religious practices “signs and wonders” acquire a much more ambiguous status. While works of power are necessary to bring people to faith in such environments, they are generally not sufficient in and of themselves to create a robust commitment to Jesus. I begin by defining “signs and wonders” and then offer a definition of the notion of “necessary but not sufficient” as it relates to encountering God’s power. In this section I narrate some of my experiences with people in the Thai setting where the manifestation of God’s power was not a fast track to conversion and which caused me to start investigating this subject. In the second part I theorize as to why works of power are not always sufficient to produce faith in the context of a world religion like Buddhism and then in the third section look at the biblical evidence for a mixed response to miracles. Finally, I examine some of the implications for ministry on the ground among people with worldviews where signs and wonders are not likely to lead to immediate allegiance to Jesus Christ.

This study explores the correlates of early sexual debut and risk factors of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among the youth in Malawi. Data was obtained from the Malawi Demographic Health Survey 2010. Out of a sample of 2987 males and 9559 females aged 15–24 years, 1405 males and 5217 females were considered. Chi-square and multivariate analysis was performed and findings presented by gender. The results indicate that females aged 15–19 years (OR=4.18), who were Muslims (OR=1.42), with no education (OR=3.99), were significantly more likely to initiate sexual debut early. Meanwhile, males aged 15–19 years (OR=3.50), from the northern region (OR=2.35) and of the Chewa ethnic group (OR=1.45) were significantly more likely to initiate sexual debut early. Muslims males (OR=0.57), from the poorest (OR=0.69) households were significantly less likely to initiate sexual debut early. Females who initiate sex earlier form a distinct risk group in this study. Specific intervention is th...

The last time I saw Jacques Depelchin I drove him (together with Ibrahim Abdullah) around the townships of Cape Town. We drove along a road bordered by shacks in Khayelitsha and Jacques commented "this is worse than anywhere I have seen in Africa." Some of those shacks were the so-called QQ section of Khayelitsha which, along with a number of areas in the Cape Town metropolis this last winter, rose in revolt at the lack of delivery of services and housing, putting up barricades of burning tyres to close the road that Jacques and I had driven on, and throwing their garbage across the road. A few weeks later I held a workshop for youth in QQ section. We talked about their situation, and about capitalism, and I encouraged them to write letters to the mayor of Cape Town, Nomaindia Mfeketo, or to Thabo Mbeki. One youth, Yanga Gregan Sawula wrote to Mbeki: "I'm writing this letter in the pain and the poor living that our, or even your, people in Site B QQ section are living, situated, and making life in. Our people are living in the danger zone under the electric poles that can explode any time. Some of us are in the squatter settlement that are not even proper made, these houses are ever flooded. We don't even have electricity, toilets or running water. "Mr President we are coming to you because our ministers and mayors are not listening to our complaints. We've tried by all means to talk to them but they show no response. We want serviced land with electricity, toilets and running water. We are demanding this thing because it is our right as the citizens of South Africa to have a better house. You have promised us a lot of things and know we demand houses so if you are not responding to our complaints then prepare for our action, what actions you will see when it happened, and you know we are capable of doing any thing. We want and demand HOUSES! QHINA [power] !!!" 1

To overcome the financial crisis, occurred in 1980s, India had undertaken economic reform measures for economic growth towards reducing unemployment and poverty. In this period, decline of economic growth, Uttar Pradesh, had also experienced. Towards tackling the decline in agrarian economic growth, the state government, by trapping the opportunity of undertaken economic reform measures by the central government, had undertaken economic reform measures through formulating Industrial Policies 1998 and 2004. On the adopted pattern of the central government for achieving economic growth and development through designing pro-service sector (urban centric) economic reform measures (treating service sector as engine of economic growth and development), the state government had also made almost the same efforts. The economic growth was planned to be achieved through industrial and agricultural growth. Resultantly, state economy grew but with imbalanced growth in economic sectors. Now service sector is dominant over the economies of India and Uttar Pradesh. In the globalization period, economic reform has adversely affected growth and development of agriculture sector, which provides foods to State's 72 percent populations. Todate, agriculture sector is being characterized by low growth, low employment, low crop, low income and high inputs. The largest population of agricultural workers (landless families and small land holder families) has also got adversely affected. The policy discrimination with agriculture sector has widened the rural-urban and rich-poor divide. In result, agricultural workers are shifting from agricultural works to non-agricultural works. Today, they are facing problems and challenges, likes, inadequate and irregular employment days, inadequate wages, inadequate income, low bargaining power, poor access to social security scheme, etc. The post economic reform effects are also raising the questions on the achievement of objectives (reducing unemployment and poverty) of Industrial policies and advertisement of good governance and inclusive growth for all.

The methodology of grounded theory has great potential to contribute to our understanding of leadership within particular substantive contexts. Leadership is a global phenomenon, but appears to have a variety of attributes and seems to elude clear definition. In this research we argue that such variation is contextually derived. Leadership is not only a socially influenced process but also a relation-influenced process that occurs within a social system. The focus in this paper is on the challenges facing leaders engaged in multicultural education. In general, grounded theorists seek to develop theory inductively from systematically gathered and analysed data. An integrative picture or story is developed from this process. In the present instance we explore how conducting grounded theory research according to a qualitative approach accentuates the need to understand and explain contextualised leadership. We conclude by suggesting how leaders might overcome challenges in multicultura...

... of Muslims in Britain are below 25 years, part of a 'burgeoning British-born second generation (Ballard 1994, p.6). Determining the size of the Muslim community in Britain is an impossible task because the census procedures do not provide figures about religious allegiances. ...

This paper focuses on the symbol of the ancient Egyptian goddess, Seshat, and its reinterpretation. The problem is discussed from the perspective of the cognitive abilities of ancient Egyptians to observe and understand some specific natural phenomena as early as the Predynastic Period. This study reveals a remarkable similarity in the design, symmetry and characteristics of the symbol of Seshat to the shadows cast by the vertical gnomon, which are oriented to the specific directions on the horizon. In addition, the geometric picture achieved as a result of observation and multiple measurements, based on the application of a specific solar method in order to find the cardinal points, is presented here in context of the shape of the symbol of Seshat. The geometric forms of both are almost identical. It is argued that in the two-dimensional representation of the sign of Seshat can in fact be seen the gnomon (stem), the directions radiating from the center (rosette) in which the shadows of gnomon can be oriented within a year at the latitude of Egypt, north of the Tropic of Cancer (hereinafter referred to as TC), and the curve (arc with two feathers or horns placed above the rosette) representing limits in which the shadows can move in connection with the apparent path of the sun in the sky during solstices or equinoxes.

The language situation in East Africa is characterized by the widespread use of Swahili. While both in Tanzania and Kenya Swahili has been systematically promoted in all spheres of everyday life, Uganda has lacked a coherent government policy on language development and the position of Swahili in Uganda has always been very ambiguous. The continued vacillation over language policy and the Luganda/Swahili opposition threatening to carve the country into two major camps of language choice which is characteristic of the Ugandan language situation suggests that the language issue is not likely to be solved in the near future.

This paper attempts to examine and investigate online shopping in Nigeria considering perceived risk and trust among online shoppers and online vendors. Trust in the Internet world can be influenced by perceptions of the vendors. This study will place more emphasis on consumers trust in online vendors rather than trust in the infrastructure. This study argues that since online vendors are the consumer’s main focus when transacting online, trust is built based on perceptions of the vendors. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of online shopping is also examined in this study know whether the Nigeria populace see a need for online shopping or even e-commerce. Some of the perceived risk identified includes risk are financial, product performance, social, psychological and time/ convenience loss. Primary source of data collection was employed in getting data for this study through administering of questionnaires. Respondents were selected from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, ...

Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk mendiskusikan dan menganalisis relevansi Konferensi Asia-Afrika (KAA) dan manfaatnya bagi Indonesia. Melalui kajian literatur, studi ini menemukan KAA dinilai masih relevan dengan keadaan masa kini. Misi KAA terkait masalah menghapus penjajahan, diskriminasi dan dominasi masih belum terwujud. Hal ini membuktikan kemerdekaan tidak lah cukup, tidak mengakhiri dominasi negara adidaya, diskriminasi ras, kemiskinan dan ketimpangan di dunia. KAA masih memiliki peran penting dalam perealisasian misi KAA yaitu hidup berdampingan dengan damai, menghapuskan dominasi, menyetarakan ras dan bangsa, memupuk solidaritas yang berujung dengan pengembangan negara masing-masing. Hal-hal inilah yang pada akhirnya akan menjadi solusi yang bermanfaat untuk kepentingan nasional Indonesia. 
Kata Kunci : Konferensi Asia-Afrika; Relevansi; Manfaat;  Indonesia.

Th is paper addresses the socio-spatial impact of the Zionists' colonial project in Palestine, including the replacement of the indigenous Palestinian people by Jewish immigrants. At present, the Palestinians, displaced or living in the remaining part of Palestinian lands number approximately ten million. Th e continuous Israeli occupation has failed to bring stability or prosperity to either the region or the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Projections indicate that demographic changes will transform the current situation into an apartheid system, where the majority Palestinians will be ruled by an Israeli minority. Th e objective of this paper is to suggest a just solution for the Palestinian-Israeli impasse in advocating the establishment a one-state solution, a proposition which appears to be gaining increasing support.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has significantly declined since the disruption of her ally the so-called “Solomonic Line” in 1974, when the last monarch was overthrown; nevertheless, she still exerts strong influence on the lives of millions even without the support of her ally, the State. Neither the divorce of Church-State relations, which culminated with the end of the monarchy and introduction of Communist ideology in the 1970s, nor the trends of pluralistic democracy-based currently flourishing Independent Churches, could remove away her influence in the country. In fact, these events have threatened the position of this archaic Church and made questionable the possiblity of her perpetuation, as can be well observed at the turn of the century.

This is a dream come true. Ever since becoming the managing editor of the AJPS in 2012, I have wanted to dedicate an edition to this important subject. My thanks to my friend, fellow missiologist, and missionary colleague, Alan Johnson (no relation) for helping me put this edition together. Any mistakes or other weaknesses are entirely my responsibility.

The debate which arose between the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) in early September 2005, concerning the history of Malaysia’s independence movement, necessitates a re-appraisal of the organisations and personalities involved. This article re-assesses the period and actors involved in bringing to fruition Malaysian independence. By utilising mainly authoritative secondary sources, the reconstructed history belies the argument of the ruling elites that they inherit the mantle of ‘real independence fighters’ from their political ancestors. Although the sources are readily available in Malaysian libraries, the truths contained in them have eluded the general public. Thus, to laypeople, political history in Malaysia has been what ruling politicians tell them and what they find in school textbooks, which have been approved by the powers that be. This article reveals that pre-independence Malaysian history is replete with contradictions and paradoxes which may transform perceptions of who were and were not independence heroes.

Pluralism as a concept and political practice concerns most post-colonial states in Asia and Africa. It is associated with the process and problems presented by the artificial creation of states by the colonial powers to include ethnically and culturally diverse imagined- communities and nations.
With respect to Malaysia, the political project of the syncretic state elite coalition to imagine the nation-building process still derived from perspectives that recognise differences, and competition among communities but without an acknowledgement of the ties that bind.

Their programme of rapid industrialisation, which includes the New Economic Policy (NEP), led to a changing social reality in which ethnicity and class are losing their strong hold whereas development and democratic concerns have become salient.

This essay aims to examine some mainstream Indian perspectives on BRI and analyze the likely adverse ramifications of BRI on India. Based on these findings, the essay considers how India should (and is likely to) tailor its foreign policy and national security responses to this Chinese initiative.

This article examines three approaches to the study of nations, nationalism, and ethnic identity: primordialism, instrumentalism, and constructivism. The discussion relies primarily on qualitative methods consisting of documentary and explanatory research to consider the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. More importantly, an attempt is made to understand Thai nationalism and ethnic identity. Applying each theoretical framework to explain the Thai nation, nationalism, and ethnic identity, this article finds that each approach has both pros and cons. This article thus proposes the mechanism of the political entrepreneur to discuss how Thai political leaders define and utilize Thai (or 'Thai-ness') as well as Thai nationalism.

Rural development practice in Nigeria has spanned over 10 decades from pre-independence to the current decade. This paper attempts a time-series review on rural development practice in Nigeria to see what has changed over a fairly long period of time. Various development plan periods have been examined in relation to rural development practice. The review shows that the greater part of public efforts on rural development was subsumed under agricultural development which was more exploitative to the rural resources and residents than improve their quality of life. Although relatively improved understanding of rural development manifested among policy makers beginning in the late 1980s, the paper argues that such understanding surprisingly did not translate into corresponding improvement in rural development practice because of several factors including weak institutional arrangements, corruption and absence of coordinated practice among competing agencies. It is the view of this pape...

Although Chinese contemporary artists are often criticized for creating superficial works that parody Chairman Mao without any deeper meaning, the employment of parody is a far more complex phenomenon. Instead of being representatives of Jamesonian pastiche, many artists employ varying methods of trans-contextual parody to express their mixed and even controversial intentions and notions. With a detailed structural analysis of the art works, and taking into account the socio-cultural context and the artists’ own intentions, I will show that the common assumptions—that parodying Mao is equivalent to political pop or that political pop represents pastiche—are oversimplifications of this complex phenomenon, especially when caricaturing is used as a method to violate the visual norms.

Keywords: Chairman Mao; contemporary art; trans-contextual parody; image; caricature

Countless Nigerian youths within the country are unemployed, yet the problem of joblessness can be effectively tackled through the development of practical skills in Fine and Applied Arts and the entrepreneurial skills to manage it. What is essential for achieving the national objective of vision 2020 is for teachers to become more proactive especially as it relates to the strategies they adopt for teaching entrepreneurial skills in schools. It is pertinent for teachers to recognize entrepreneurship as a scientific discipline and employ new teaching strategies which will be able to help students move on with their entrepreneurial intentions or to take up entrepreneurship in Fine and Applied Arts as a career.

This study examines the use of the Internet and computer-mediated communication for Christian worship in Nigeria. The seven largest and fastest growing churches in Nigeria are selected for the study, highlighting the benefits and dangers associated with online worship. The utilization of the Internet to disseminate the Christian message and attract membership across the world, and the dissemination of religious tenets and fellowship online, have resulted in the emergence of the 'Internet church' for members who worship online in addition to belonging to a local church. Most interesting is the increasing widespread claim of spiritual experience or 'miracles' through digital worship. However, there is fear that online worship endangers the offline house fellowship system, which is viewed as the reproductive organ of the local offline church. Exclusive online worshippers are also said to be susceptible to deception and divided loyalty.

Amid the range of organizations and forces described in a variety of social movement literature, organizations of people living and working in rural areas receive short shrift. This is not a new phenomenon, but it is one that has increasingly little justification. In this article, the contemporary context of neoliberal agrarian change is discussed, and the formation of the Via Campesina peasant network is presented using a Marxist sociological analysis. The problem of social movement reproduction and solidarity is then discussed drawing on the ideas of Alain Badiou.

Richard Wright's The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference has long been a fundamental book in Bandung historiography. As a crucial companion volume to The Color Curtain, Roberts and Foulcher's Indonesian Notebook: A Sourcebook on Richard Wright and The Bandung Conference showcases the previously unknown side of Wright's Bandung narrative, as told from the perspectives of the vibrant group of Indonesian intellectuals and writers who hosted him in Indonesia in 1955. Showcasing Wright’s previously unknown interactions with Indonesian modernists and his previously unknown lecturing activities in Indonesia, this book has major implications for any reading of postcolonial history and culture after the Asian-African Conference of 1955.

This article considers the history of Kazakhstan in the 1920s and 1930s from the point of view of the "empire of positive action" concept, introduced by Martin Terry. The purpose of the article is to analyze and evaluate historical events in Kazakhstan as an integral part of world history through the use of new methodological approaches. The scientific and practical value of the study is determined by the opportunity to draw accurate conclusions about the national policy pursued

In general, the ancient Egyptian deities are distinguished by their names and symbols. In spite of the decipherment of hieroglyphs by J.-F. Champollion in the 1820s and the number of published studies, some of the hieroglyphs and symbols still remain an enigma. The sign o f the goddess named Seshat can undoubtedly be included in this category. This paper based on the study o f the preserved records presents an attempt to understand the meaning of the hieroglyphic sign and symbol o f Seshat, the ancient Egyptian goddess of writing, reckoning and building. The study is divided into three parts. Part One consists of the iconographic records coming approximately from the beginning of the 3rd millennium B.C. down to the end o f the Old Kingdom in the 22nd century B.C. It contains the main information about the sign of Seshat known from the wall reliefs, such as provenance, date, and basic description of each sign etc. Part Two of the study published in this volume of the AAS journal includes the epigraphic records o f the sign of Seshat from the same period and with the same characteristics as mentioned above. Part Three intended to be published next year in the first volume of this journal is going to be the final part of the study and will bring the analysis and interpretation of the sign of the goddess Seshat in the context of its development in the Old Kingdom Period.

Beb Vuyk's article brings crucial new context to Richard Wright's landmark book The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference. For more information, see her article as it appears in Indonesian Notebook: A Sourcebook on Richard Wright and the Bandung Conference.

https://www.academia.edu/10927987/Indonesian_Notebook_A_Sourcebook_on_Richard_Wright_and_the_Bandung_Conference_Duke_University_Press_pre-order_2015_

The ZANU government of President Robert Mugabe has undertaken a credible measure of land redistribution but has yet to achieve a mutually beneficial land reform among the races in Zimbabwe. Mugabe's desire to alter the structure of economic power in a fair and equitable manner provides validity for land reform and redistribution. However, the government's political tactics in handling land reform along with parsimonious British funding significantly contributed to the failure of achieving the goal of a just, equitable and non-racial society. By conveying a portion of public land to private use, via leasehold contract, both sides stand to gain in a mutually beneficial relationship.

This study investigates the influences of religion in determining whether to support what might be perceived to be rebellious actions in Taiwan where most people are adherents of Buddhism, Taoism, and folk religions. Using data from the Taiwan Social Change Survey 2004, the estimations of the probit model suggest that there are some strong links between religion and the attitudes toward rebellious actions. In particular, being a Taoist reduces the probability of protest participation while being a Buddhist and being a folk religionist cut the likelihood of signing a petition. Moreover, the frequencies of religious attendance are positively associated with the probabilities of participating in a protest, signing a petition, and taking actions against injustice or harmful regulations.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are major players in development aid today. It is widely believed they represent civil society and that, for example, the UN and the World Bank would be strengthened if NGOs were given a larger influence over policy formulation and development. As one can hardly speak of an NGO community, the issue of representation is far from easily solved. NGOs often compete for visibility, clients and influence, and representation leaves a lot to be desired. Hence, governments' and intergovernmental institutions' reluctance to accept immediately NGOs as partners, may be necessary for NGOs to become representative and, paradoxically, for strengthening civil society as well.

This paper attempts to examine and investigate online shopping in Nigeria considering perceived risk and trust among online shoppers and online vendors. Trust in the Internet world can be influenced by perceptions of the vendors. This study will place more emphasis on consumers trust in online vendors rather than trust in the infrastructure. This study argues that since online vendors are the consumer’s main focus when transacting online, trust is built based on perceptions of the vendors. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of online shopping is also examined in this study know whether the Nigeria populace see a need for online shopping or even e-commerce. Some of the perceived risk identified includes risk are financial, product performance, social, psychological and time/ convenience loss. Primary source of data collection was employed in getting data for this study through administering of questionnaires. Respondents were selected from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, ...

The central theme of this study was to examine the implication of governance for conflict prevention, management and resolution in the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa is characterized by both intra-state and inter-state conflicts. The causes of such conflicts are the function of internally driven, externally induced and geo-politically motivated. This study gives emphasis the link between the mode of governance in the states of the Horn of Africa and conflicts. In order to understand the interplay between governance and conflict in the study area, the study employed descriptive qualitative approach and mainly based on secondary sources. On the basis of this methodology, the finding of the study revealed that conflicts in the Horn of Africa have a direct linkage with the mode of governance lied in the exercise of the public authority.

... Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, Emerson College ... On the surface many of the prescriptions of orthodox transition studies can be applied to the South African situation. ... But,ideology is not simply an illusion or false consciousness; it is a lived experience. ...

Conflict in Sri Lanka between the Tamils and the Sinhalese brought the Eastern Muslims into the crossfire. Muslim elites and politicians generally cooperate with the Sinhalese ruling class. Such cohabitation irritated the Tamils. Since 1985, relations between the Tamils and the Muslims in the Eastern region have become strained, and Muslims claimed they have some problems to be solved. This study attempts to identify some special problems of the Eastern Muslims. A questionnaire on the special problems of the Eastern Muslims was distributed to the Eastern youth, students, unemployed Muslims and farmers. The population of the target group was selected randomly. More than 150 questionnaires were issued with a 75 percent response rate. Interviews were also conducted on the phone with an educated section of the Eastern Muslims. This study also suggests solutions to the protracted ethno-political conflict based on power sharing.

consociationalism, divided societies, ethnic relations, mobilization, modernization, power sharing