An important feature of Ghanaian tertiary education is the foundational African Studies Programme which was initiated in the early 1960s. Unfortunately hardly any readers exist which bring together a body of knowledge on the themes, issues and debates which inform and animate research and teaching in African Studies particularly on the African continent. This becomes even more important when we consider the need for knowledge on Africa that is not Eurocentric or sensationalised, but driven from internal understandings of life and prospects in Africa. Dominant representations and perceptions of Africa usually depict a continent in crisis. Rather than buying into external representations of Africa, with its 'lacks' and aspirations for Western modernities, we insist that African scholars in particular should be in the forefront of promoting understanding of the pluri-lingual, overlapping, and dense reality of life and developments on the continent, to produce relevant and usable knowledge. Continuing and renewed interest in Africa's resources, including the land mass, economy, minerals, visual arts and performance cultures, as well as bio-medical knowledge and products, by old and new geopolitical players, obliges African scholars to transcend disciplinary boundaries and to work with each other to advance knowledge and uses of those resources in the interests of Africa's people.

The topic of African moral economy was first raised by Goran Hyden in 1980 as one of the main obstacles to economic transformation of the African peasantry. The suggestion caused serious academic debates between the proposer and other scholars on African societies, especially those using political economy as the framework of their analysis. But Hyden continued to defend his thesis until interest in the debate faded out. More recently Japanese scholars have taken up the topic as it appears to have new relevance in comparison with the fast transformations which have taken place in Southeast Asian rural communities. The focus of this book is to give a detailed comparison between African rural communities and those of Southeastern Asia. Attention is focused on the two main aspects of African peasantry life: the right to subsistence and the norm of reciprocity. A wide interdisciplinary approach is employed to demonstrate the dynamism displayed by these societies.

Contemporary Perspectives on Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora explores African derived religions in a globalized world. The volume focuses on the continent, on African identity in globalization, and on African religion in cultural change.

This important book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the subject of international sanctions. It provides summaries of fourteen major cases, including South Africa, Iraq and Serbia, and analysis of the complex political and economic problems which sanctions pose for governments of sender states as well as for targets. Goals, costs, vulnerability and humanitarian considerations are examined in the light of 20th-century experience and the enhanced role of the United Nations since the end of the Cold War receives detailed consideration.

In contemporary understanding, the working areas of children's psychology are expanding considerably. The mental health of the children ensures that they are able to use their developmental abilities, cope with difficulties in life, be productive and be creative, and demonstrate cognitive, emotional, and behavioral characteristics appropriate to their developmental turn. This research was conducted to be able to identify behavioral disorders that may be a sign of children's mental problems and to shed light on the resolution of possible problems by facilitating the follow-up of psychosocial developments during the period of growth. This book presents an overview of the contemporary approaches in the departments of child education and psychology, with the hope of them growing up as happy, peaceful, balanced, thoughtful confident and successful individuals.

Philosophical Foundations of the African Humanities through Postcolonial Perspectives critiques recent claims that the humanities, especially in public universities in poor countries, have lost their significance, defining missions, methods and standards due to the pressure to justify their existence. The predominant responses to these claims have been that the humanities are relevant for creating a “world culture” to address the world’s problems. This book argues that behind such arguments lies a false neutrality constructed to deny the values intrinsic to marginalized cultures and peoples and to justify their perceived inferiority. These essays by scholars in postcolonial studies critique these false claims about the humanities through critical analyses of alterity, difference, and how the Other is perceived, defined and subdued. Contributors: Gordon S.K. Adika, Kofi N. Awoonor, E. John Collins, Kari Dako, Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu, James Gibbs, Helen Lauer, Bernth Lindfors, J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Abena Oduro, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Olúfémi Táíwò, Alexis B. Tengan, Kwasi Wiredu, Francis Nii-Yartey

Zakat, being the third pillar of Islam, is an act of worship fulfilled by Muslims. As an obligatory means of alms- giving expected of Muslims, it also helps to alleviate poverty in society by assisting such individuals to achieve a state of financial independence. It is maintained by Muslims that the principles of zakat derived from the Sharia are expected to remain unchanged with passing time. However, in order to achieve efficiency in the administration of zakat, innovation and technology can be used even within the parameters of Sharia. The objective of this textbook is to provide the opportunity to learn the basics of zakat and its contemporary application by highlighting the innovative practices of zakat with issues and challenges.

This book surveys the impact of the Monroe Doctrine on United States relations with Latin America, with a particular focus on the Caribbean Basin, since its proclamation in 1823. It explores the historical role of the Monroe Doctrine as the instrument to foreclose future European colonial adventures in the American hemisphere and to exclude from it any political system(s) deemed to be incompatible with the American political tradition. Modeste examines the elastic interpretations of the Monroe Doctrine to justify American territorial expansion and imperial ambitions, premised on a strategic question – the power controlling the Latin American/Caribbean trade routes and Sea Lines of Communication. Fundamental to the narrative is the linkage of the tenets of the Monroe Doctrine to contemporary local/regional crises where governments have applied extraordinary, extra-constitutional measures to exercise control or achieve political ends, mechanisms of peaceful conflict resolution failures, and subversive elements that use unorthodox methods to threaten the integrity of the state. Modeste also traces the transformation of the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral policy declaration to a multilateral compact for the collective defence of the hemisphere.

This book focuses on the myriad ways that people collectively remember or forget shared pasts through popular dance. In dance classes, nightclubs, family celebrations, tourist performances, on television, film, music video and the internet, cultural memories are shared and transformed by dancing bodies adapting yesterday’s steps to today’s concerns. The book gathers emerging and seasoned scholarly voices from a wide range of geographical and disciplinary perspectives to discuss cultural remembering and forgetting in diverse popular dance contexts. The contributors ask: how are Afro-diasporic memories invoked in popular dance classes? How are popular dance genealogies manipulated and reclaimed? What is at stake for the nation in the nationalizing of folk and popular dances? And how does mediated dancing transmit memory as feelings or affects? The book reveals popular dance to be vital to cultural processes of remembering and forgetting, allowing participants to pivot between alternative pasts, presents and futures.

This book is a collection of papers presented at the National Symposium on “India-China Relations: Recent Developments”, organized by UGC Centre for Indian Ocean Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad, in December 2015. The book deals with China’s growing geostrategic presence in the Indian Ocean and the infrastructural and development initiatives by China which caused ripples in the Economic, Strategic and Political spheres not only in the neighbouring countries but also around the world as well. The emergence of new institutions for development and cooperation and its impact on India-China relations is a cause of concern, for the two countries are likely to be major players in the region from a long-term point of view.