African Yearbook of Rhetoric

The African Yearbook of Rhetoric is motivated by the belief, supported by observation, that a democracy that does not provide its people with the means to argue, rhetoric, is bound to be perverted. This journal is impelled by the conviction, borne by international scholarship in rhetoric, that a duty of deliberation is placed on both governed and government, and is fundamental to the reasonable exercise of citizenship. Scholars, in turn, are duty-bound to interrogate rhetorical processes and truth-making beliefs that instruct, or destroy life in a democracy.
The journal prefers to publish invited papers only, on set themes. Authors who would like to offer papers should direct their enquiries to: The Editor in Chief: africarhetoric@rhetoricafrica.org
The journal publishes articles in English/French/Spanish/Chinese/Arabic.
Publisher | AfricaRhetoric Publishing |
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Frequency | Annually |
Coverage | Vol 1 2010 - current |
Language | French/English |
Journal Status | Active |
Collection(s) |
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What are we talking about? For a day, a virtual eternity in the governing “news cycle”, the left-leaning international media buzzes with commentary regarding the South African government’s decision to parole Eugene de Kock. For those familiar with South Africa’s history and its transition to non-racial democracy, de Kock requires no introduction. An Afrikaner who “distinguished” himself in the apartheid government’s “border wars”, he is best and widely known as the leader of an apartheid death squad that took its name from the farm outside of Pretoria where it was headquartered — Vlakplaas. Operating from the mid-1980s into the early 1990s, de Kock’s Vlakplaas unit kidnapped, tortured, and murdered scores (the precise number remains unknown) of anti-apartheid activists, many of whom were members of the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK).
I stated clearly, right after the final round of the presidential elections, that I would neither rally to the cause of Marine Le Pen, captain of the parliamentary extreme right, nor to Macron, who was leading a “democratic coup d’état”, as a pseudo-reformer at the behest of Big Capital.
Here come the eagles. There go the locusts. The sky delivers the hand of God as well as fallen angels on their Hell-bound descent. We welcome the spring sunshine, and shelter from the cyclones. Rain gives life while space junk burns through the stratosphere. From above comes the invisible hand of capitalism, apportioning wealth and destitution, and manufacturing privileged oases alongside toxic ruins. Airplanes deliver emergency food-aid and tons of bombs. Gods and monsters dwell in deep space, so in the sky, as on earth, humanity can greet its most perfected and horrendous mutations. And from our airspace descends the topic of this article – drones. Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs], deliver figurative payloads that interconnect the political, religious, capitalistic, visual and visceral global society.