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In responding to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s decolonial call for ‘a quest for relevance’, this essay deals with the issue of removal of colonial and apartheid-era monuments in South Africa as a way of creating a ‘liberating perspective’ and shaping a new national identity of the country. With a view to throwing light on the value and functionality of past vestiges, the paper engages with the definition of ‘heritage’ and its meaning for present-day communities. By examining the process of the selection of historical material and ways of assigning meaning to the relics of the past in heritage practice, it raises the question of power in historical knowledge production. By interrogating the concept of the truth of historical narratives, it discusses the plurality of interpretations of the past to stress the need for an ‘ecumenical heritage’ that would be relevant to the realities and self-image of South Africans today.

The 2015/2016 student protests at former Afrikaans-medium universities in South Africa challenged, among other matters, the status of Afrikaans as a language of teaching and learning at South African universities. Inspired by the #RhodesMustFall protest movement, which called for the decolonisation of curricula at tertiary institutions in the country, movements, such as Open Stellenbosch and similar movements at Pretoria, Free State and North West universities, demanded that Afrikaans be replaced by English to allow more access for the formerly marginalised population groups in South Africa. Since neither Afrikaans nor English is the first language of most South African university students, and since both languages were largely imposed on black Africans through acts of colonial and apartheid violence, it would be interesting to explore the ambivalence inherent in the students’ choice of English over Afrikaans. The contradictions or ambiguities inherent in the language protests are explored through Ng˜ug˜ı’s thesis of decolonising the mind and Bourdieu’s concepts of the ‘linguistic habitus’ and ‘linguistic market’.

While the democratisation of South Africa incorporated political change, a concurrent requirement was placed on the government-of-the-day to develop a transformed normative framework. The necessity for a normative framework continues to be an essential platform for the practice of democratic governance in South Africa. Emphasis remains on the promotion of the democratic rights of persons with disabilities within a global context. In light of the ‘new’ dispensation, the challenges faced by persons with disabilities have come under the spotlight. International instruments relevant to persons with disabilities have served as a compass for the South African government. The international framework pertinent to persons with disabilities has provided a normative basis for the fair treatment and promotion of equal rights for such persons in the South African context. Questions have been raised regarding the viability of these international instruments in providing an effective normative framework for enhanced democratic governance and positive representation of the rights of persons with disabilities.

The notion of a lack of ethical leadership, or what I would term a leadership curse in Africa has received much attention in the last few decades in post-colonial Africa. However, we seldom hear of great African thought leaders such as Thomas Isadore Sankara. This paper, therefore, seeks to critique and analyse what Ren` Otayek terms ‘the Sankara phenomenon’ that can help us better understand what virtues and traits are required for ethical leadership in Africa. Despite Sankara’s considerable achievements in Burkina Faso, his effective leadership style and skills remain under-acknowledged. In martyrdom, Sankara continues to be a source of inspiration, especially for African youth on the continent and abroad. Despite the affection and adoration for Sankara, he is one of the great African leaders who has not been sufficiently recognised, considering the impact he had on the lives of the ordinary working-class people of Burkina Faso.

The objective of this paper is to explore ways in which African governments can engage the private sector to successfully create conditions and incentives for accelerated private sector investment in climate change adaptation and resilience activities in their countries. The paper is based on a critical review of both grey and published literature, with arguments being supported by cases of experiences in different African countries. The paper finds that while there are clear opportunities for private sector involvement in climate change adaptation and resilience efforts in Africa, there are also several critical financial and non-financial barriers that have to be dealt with, to ensure that private sector players successfully tap into the available opportunities. The paper recommends the setting up of coherent and coordinated policy and regulatory frameworks towards creating a conducive environment for private sector investment in climate change adaptation and resilience activities in Africa.

This paper seeks to analyse the challenges associated with building a new nation on the Africa continent and how such challenges could be overcome. The paper equally examines the hostile interrelations between the Republic of Sudan (the Sudan) and the Republic of South Sudan (South Sudan) over the unresolved Abyei Heglig oilfield. South Sudan’s occupation of Abyei and the Heglig oilfield is perhaps rooted in the complex nature of nation-building in postcolonial Africa. Suffice it to say, the religious, sociological and political discontinuities between the north and south in Sudan presuppose the display of antagonistic cleavages, which have persisted into postcolonial times. The Sudan was a colonial construct, which lacks the necessary ingredients for a strong and united country. The postcolonial political elite’s marginalisation of the periphery has eroded any sense of national belonging in the Sudanese psyche. Nonetheless, the inability of South Sudan to address fundamental nationbuilding challenges, further exposes the country to the Republic of Sudan’s machinations and put paid to the assertion that South Sudan was not ready for independence in the first place.

Literature and research on the upgrading of informal settlements in developing countries are synonymous with the writings of JFC Turner and the policies of the World Bank. Despite being dominated by once-off case studies, evidence from both the international and South African literature indicates that the upgrading of informal settlements could potentially be a vehicle to enhance security of tenure, housing consolidation, improved basic services, quality of life and poverty alleviation. However, it should also be acknowledged that schemes on the upgrading of informal settlements are being criticised for their failure to, amongst other things, keep up with the maintenance costs of infrastructure and thus compromising health standards and the effectiveness of poverty alleviation initiatives. Furthermore, contrary to government’s expectation of using projects on the upgrading of the informal settlements as a tool for incremental housing or housing consolidation, some of these projects did not live up to this expectation, with housing development showing signs of deterioration over time. 

Against this background, this paper intends to make a threefold argument and to adopt a longitudinal approach to look at three household surveys done in 1999, 2008 and 2014 in the Thabong township next to the mining town of Welkom in the Free State goldfields. First, survey findings indicate that the South African government could use the upgrading of informal settlements as an effective tool for households to access basic services and social amenities. Second, survey findings indicate that the ability of projects on the upgrading of informal settlements to promote housing consolidation or incremental housing are largely dependent on: the time factor; the macro- and micro-economic circumstances; the rate of employment; and the rate of migration, particularly amongst the original homeowners of an upgraded informal settlement area. Third, survey findings indicate that longitudinal studies are critical in profiling and promoting a better understanding of trends and dynamics in an upgraded informal settlement area over the long-term.

The rate at which Nigerians relocate to foreign countries has been increasing in recent years; most are relocating in pursuit of better economic opportunities. This study attempted to examine Nigerian immigrants’ negotiation and sustenance of Nigerian identity as they seek to make a living in their new locations abroad. The study explored the self-identification experience of the mover, before and after relocation, as well as hosts’ attitudes to them, in their quest to find meaning as they strive to adjust to living in the diaspora. The study employed the narrative method of data collection and was conducted in Peckam, London, UK, with 20 participants selected through the snowball sampling technique. The study also used a questionnaire to collect data from participants regarding their demographics. The findings revealed that, despite the negativity in the news about the home country, participants expressed a strong self-identification with their home country. How this was made possible was analysed in the paper. In contrast, the results showed that the same could not be said about the children taken out of the country or born in diaspora: their self-identification was with the country of residence, i.e. the United Kingdom (UK). The study also showed that: Nigerians in the diaspora were unfavourably perceived by the host country; those who were perceived to have failed in the struggle to adjust and find meaning in life abroad would perhaps end up in care homes. The study suggested that further studies should be done to verify this claim.

Following the final lecture of the African National Congress (ANC) Centenary Dialogue that was hosted by the Centre for African Studies at the University of Free State on 13 February 2013, Professor Kwesi Kwaa Prah published an important book in 2017, which was a detailed response to Denis Goldberg, who is a renowned Marxist-Rivonia trialist. Prah is a well-known Marxist pan- Africanist, who has written several books, presented countless talks and published extensively. Prah has devoted a great deal of his time to Anthropological Linguistics and specifically to the harmonisation of African orthographic conventions.