Bøger udgivet af Mkuki na Nyota Publishers

Mulokozi discusses African epic poetry from a context-performance perspective, and asserts that oral epic poetry is a living and lived event, besides being a literary text. His work is based on previously unpublished material from the Enanga epic tradition of the Bahaya of Tanzania, and material on the African epic, gathered from West, Central, Southern and Eastern Africa since 1970, and arises from the controversies about the occurrence of the epic in Africa from this time. It includes full texts of the poems themselves in the original Luhaya language and set alongside English translations. For each poem, the author presents a profile of the singer, and an introduction and anaylsis of the socio-historical context, literary content and stylistic features of the poem. Adopting a sociological, generative approach, he re-examines questions of oral composition, oral poetics, the nature and role of music in epic performance, the concept of heroism in African epic poetry, and how it stands in relation to history and philosophy. As a whole, the study reaffirms the existence of the African epic, and generates new definitions and theoretical approaches taking forward scholarly debate on epic poetry in Africa.

This book is a translation of a special issue of IFRA's journal Les Cahiers d'Afrique de l'Est, n°37, and of a collection of articles from Politique Africaine, n°109. These both focused on the General Elections in Kenya at the end of 2007. The on-site presence of several researchers (Bernard Calas, Anne Cussac, Dominique Connan, Musambayi Katumanga, Jérôme Lafargue, Patrick Mutahi), fieldwork carried out by others between December 2007 and February 2008 (Florence Brisset-Foucault, Ronan Porhel, Brice Rambaud), as well as a good knowledge of the country by researchers on regular visits (Claire Médard, Hervé Maupeu), were all ingredients that led to the production of hundreds of pages within a limited period. These articles were actually published in April 2008. Some political information has not been updated but this changes nothing in terms of the initial aim of taking into account and analyzing the events that set the country on fire for several weeks. However, since April 2008, the situation-to all intents and purposes-stabilized. The coalition government took shape, with Mwai Kibaki remaining President while Raila Odinga became the Prime. The country, more so than ever, is truly in suspense. This includes the donors, who had made it possible for Kenya to restore a semblance of peace. But to what point will they be interested in investing in the country and to protect their place in it?The tone of this book may, undoubtedly, not sound highly optimistic. However, this should not dampen the unanimous sense of hope in the country that the political and social situation will once more be more than just tolerable.

This study focuses on women living in Dar es Salaam who have higher incomes than their husbands. The research exposes the social construction of gender in everyday life, pointing to the contradictory nature of gender relations in a dynamic urban and social context in a developing country, which is continually transforming itself. The study contests that gender determinants are some of the most crucial factors to an understanding not only of the social and political tissue of the urban environment in question, but also of the urbanisation process itself in Africa which though still in an exponential phase, is one of the most crucial development issues of our time. The voices of individual women and men from different social classes are included, as well as institutional viewpoints.

'Mashindano' - from Kiswahili, Kushindana (to compete) - is a generic term for any organised competitive event. Here it relates to popular entertainment activities within which cultural groups competing for recognition by their communities, as leaders in their fields. Nineteen leading scholars contribute new studies on this little researched area, making a long overdue contribution to musical scholarship in East Africa, with a focus on Tanzania. The authors address key questions: What are the various roles played by competitive pratices in musical contexts? How do music competitions act as mechanisms of innovation? How do music competitions act as mechanisms of innovation? How do they serve their communities in identity formation? And what, specifically, do competitive music practices communicate, and to whom? Local dance contests, choir competitions, popular entertainment, song duels, and sporting events are all described. Work is drawn from ethnomusicology, history, musicology, anthropology, folklore, and literary, post-colonial, and performance studies.

The series Political Dialogue Studies takes up topical issues that are directly or indirectly relevant to political dynamics in Tanzania. This first publication in the series analyses the new partnership agreement between the EU and ACP states signed in June 2000, and governing the next twenty years. The ideas presented emanate from a critical observation of the dynamics of EU development policy and the pertinent developments in the international system. The author assesses the viability of, and the practical options for, regionalised co-operation between the EU and the economies of the Eastern and Southern African sub-region as envisaged in the framework agreement. Through detailed study of the Lome Convention and the pertinent global developments, the author examines the implications of regionalising EU-ACP co-operation for the Eastern and Southern African states within a broader context. He makes concrete suggestions from the analysis as to the future shape of co-operation.

Lack of transparency and accountability in the planning practice allow for misuse and abuse of the planning system to serve the interests of the more powerful and influential groups, including those entrusted with the powers of planning. The outcomes of a non-inclusive, non-transparent and insensitive planning include: insecurity of land tenure rights and subsequently investments in land; poverty; informal land subdivision and building; unplanned spatial growth and endless conflicts in land development. These are detrimental to the residents and erode their trust and confidence in the government. It takes an organized, informed, confident and courageous group of residents or community to reject the non-inclusive form of planning and cause adoption of inclusive and collaborative planning that allows them space in the planning process. The achievement of such an organized group - a turn towards democratic planning practice - leads to a conclusion that informed, organized, confident and courageous civil society is a pillar of democracy. This book therefore argues that ineffective planning results, among other things, from defective land policy and legislation, and planning inability to recognize and make use of opportunities for shaping the built environment.

In Tanzania, transfers of rights of occupancy frequently encounter procedural problems, and as regards land transfers, existing legal structures are inadequate. Case law in this area remains insufficiently documented, is contradictory, and there is a dearth of adequate information to guide practitioners through existing precedents. By way of response to these limiations, this manual addresses aspects of procedures involved in land transfer. It sets out the governing laws and summarises principles governing the acquistion and transfer of rights of occupancy, and regulating land ownership in Tanzania. It covers acquisition of public land by individuals and institutions, and the rights and duties of parties between date of contract and date of completion; and the author makes reference to the new 1999 Village Land and Land Acts. He provides a checklist of the steps constituting a transfer, and in a series of annexes presents in detail the relevant statutory provisions, specimen forms, scales of duties and fees payable. Issa Shivji, renowned academic, Professor of Law, and Advocate to the High Court in Tanzania & Zanzibar, provides a forward to the manual.

Languages of Instruction for African Emancipation is a collection of case studies from seven African countries poses questions such as: What alternatives are there for educational language policies towards African emancipation? What efforts have governments made to change the language policy in favour of African languages and how far have they succeeded? What challenges do African learners face when it comes to current language of instruction policies? The authors reject a language education policy that neglects the multilingualism existing in Africa; that reinforces patterns of privilege that existed in the colonial era, further entrenching the schism between the elite and the masses. They give short shrift to the 'new' justification of the unjustifiable status accorded to English in Africa as the language of globalisation, suggesting that it is not relevant to the vast majority of African lives and their human development. The sum of thoughts presented suggests that the answer to the language question provides the key to development challenges and further emancipation of the African peoples, which, it is argued, is at the same time a question that will determine whether Africa will remain a recognisable and distinctive cultural component of humanity or whether Africans will cease to exist culturally as Africans.

This award-winning novel is set in Zanzibar in the years before the revolution.