African Identities

Asogwa, Nicholas; Ezeibe, Christian

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2020.1813548pmid: N/A

The debates on hate speech regulation have divided scholars and practitioners. While the liberals largely argue that hate speech ban is anti-democratic and counter-productive for preservation of fundamental human rights, the humanists posit that hate speech is harmful and its regulation is relevant in order to avert the collateral damage/harm it inflicts on human dignity and equality of human beings. Despite the significant efforts in Africa to regulate hate speech, its debates focus on United States and Western Europe. Thus, the account of hate speech regulation in African context is largely understudied. This study therefore examines the impact state regulation of hate speech on sustainable democracy in Africa. Using the qualitative dominant mixed methods approach and data generated from Nigeria and Kenya, the paper argues that state regulation of hate speech presents an opportunity for fostering order, advancing national cohesion, reducing hate speech and promoting inclusive governance for all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion and economic status. The paper concludes that implementing hate speech legislation alongside other non-legal, dialogue-based, egalitarian, voluntary approaches are relevant for diminishing hate speech and the harms it engender as well as promoting sustainable democracy in Africa and beyond.

Togarasei, Lovemore

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2020.1813549pmid: N/A

Although political violence has characterized the Zimbabwe body politic from colonial times, state-sponsored political violence escalated from the time of the violent land reform in the early 2000s. The violence has been well documented; however, the possible factors underlying it have not been well reflected on. When the state unleashes violence among its people, who does it think itself to be and what does it believe its role to be? This article attempts to answer this question from a gender theory perspective debating the gender of the state. States have been described as either male or female with gender scholars often concluding that the state is a direct expression of men’s interests. This has led to the idea of a ‘male state’ or a ‘sado-state’ in the words of Mary Daly (Gyn/Ecology) who assimilated the state to the destructive aspect of male sexuality. Arguing along this line, this article theorises that state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe is a result of a state that sees itself as the disciplining father who takes a cue from the biblical teachings of ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’. The article provides a history of state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe, considers patriarchy and biblical teachings on disciplining as factors influencing the violence and then calls for a new perspective of the gender of the state for addressing state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe.

Tade, Oludayo

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2020.1813550pmid: N/A

African urban market spaces are heavily congested and mostly unfavourable for mobility. Understanding this difficult terrain, human porters facilitate navigation of difficult layouts. They negotiate with buyers and carry their loads to the bus stops or car parks. Load carriers are of both sexes but very little has been empirically done to understand women as porters and the dynamics of their work as well as its organization. In this study, we interviewed 30 female porters in Bodija food market in Ibadan. Findings show that due to their fragile nature, light luggages are carried by women unlike men who carry bags of beans and rice. Variations exist in resumption and closing among women porters. There was seasonality in portage labour with high earnings at month end, weekends and during festivities.

Bhanye, Johannes; Dzingirai, Vupenyu

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2020.1813551pmid: N/A

The scholarly discourse on migrants and land access in peri-urban spaces is advancing theoretically and empirically. This paper contributes to this important discourse by examining the structures and networks used by migrants of international descent in accessing and securing the much coveted land in peri-urban spaces of destination countries. The study is qualitative, based on an ethnographic inquiry among Malawian migrants in Lydiate, an informal peri-urban squatter settlement in Zimbabwe’s Norton town. The finding of the paper is that migrants resort to alternative institutions including kinship, political networks and investors in accessing and securing land in peri-urban spaces. Migrants also establish themselves through the occult, a religious and ritual-based form of authority that is associated with deathly symbols. Because it is feared by adherence and indigenes alike, the occult is able to yield and guarantee land to migrants seeking it in its name. Migrant squatter settlements, therefore, emerge as dynamic spaces with novel forms of authority that regulate access to resources. Beneath the semblance of chaos that characterizes squatter settlements, there is another different ‘world’; ordered and shared by those who constitute it. The paper further argues that, the reason why migrants turn to alternative forms of authority in accessing and securing land is not because they prefer it; very often, there are no formal institutions that they can turn to. What this means for academia and policy makers is that, there is a broad scope of players that need to be engaged in the planning and governance of peri-urban spaces in the age of transnational mobility. These players include political patrons, investors, and other primordial forms of authority which include kinship and the feared occult. These players not only need to be understood but also require to be engaged in the ongoing construction and governance of peri-urban spaces.

Amare Kenaw, Aweke

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2020.1813552pmid: N/A

Migration of people from a certain area to a new destination is as old as human history. It is often made as a result of factors necessitating the movement either in the form of pull and push factors. In Ethiopia too, there has been various peoples’ movements since whenever in history from their home areas to new destinations across the country. Some have resulted for permanent settlements and full-fledged citizenship in the areas they settled but it has also produced very complicated relations in some. Besides individual oriented movements in search of better opportunities, there were also state operated movements based on the severity of circumstances. This paper, therefore, is dedicated to comment on the political and citizenship status of state operated settlers in Ethiopia in light of the experiences of Settlers in Asossa woreda, Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State (BGRS) of Ethiopia.

Chipenda, Clement

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2020.1813553pmid: N/A

This article examines the socio-cultural dynamics of redistributive land reform on the ‘new generation’ after Zimbabwe’s fast track land reform programme (FTLRP). Firstly, using the transformative social policy conceptual framework (TSP) as a heuristic and evaluative tool, it makes a conceptual contribution that land and agrarian reforms are a social policy instrument that can transform the welfare and wellbeing of citizens. This marks a departure from conservative ideologies and doctrines on welfare which have seen social policies having a neo-liberal orientation which wrongly assume that the welfare needs of citizens are met through the market. Secondly, it presents field-based evidence which shows that for the new generation, land reform has transformed socio-economic and cultural relations while enhancing their productive capacities. The article is informed by data which was gathered from Goromonzi District. It employed an interpretive research paradigm and a qualitative life history approach which entailed the use of several data-gathering instruments. Findings suggest that in addition to the generational transfer of land, there are some outcomes of the FTLRP which have not been subjected to rigorous empirical interrogation. Due to the FTLRP, it shows that in the resettlement areas; cultures, rituals and traditions are being undertaken by the new generation. These practices are of sentimental, symbolic and practical significance creating a bond and sense of identity between resettled households and the land. From a TSP perspective, it can be shown that access to land has had multiple-interrelated outcomes which include production, reproduction, protection, redistribution and social cohesion outcomes.