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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 open access book responds to the need for a specifically African focus on public policy. It outlines the fundamental principles of public policy research, and engages with major issues in the study of public policy from an African perspective, covering essential topics such as the location and centrality of social sciences in relation to public policy, leadership, methodology, institutions, governance, and gender. This book is essential for understanding the various aspects and dimensions of policy making in Africa that underscore quality research and are at the core of excellence in teaching and learning.

Africa is said to be rising, turning a definitive page in its history, heralding new and exciting possibilities for the continent. This discourse maintains that with upsurge in economic growth comes improved governance and endogenous dynamics; that the emerging economies, and especially the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), have been instrumental in diversifying Africa's international relations, perhaps leading to a radical change in the global order, favourable to the developing world. But to what extent is this true, and how deep and how broad has been the impact on society at large? This book takes a critical look at the prevalent Africa Rising discourse, and explores the nature and implications of Africa's "rise" and the role that the BRICS have played in it. The author argues that Africa has still to undergo any structural transformation; that there is strong evidence that deindustrialisation and jobless growth have accompanied the upsurge of interest in the continent; and that far from making a radical turn in its developmental trajectory, Africa is being pushed into the resource corner as commodity exporters, to the North (and now, the BRICS) with little scope for industrial progress or skills advancement. Hope that the BRICS might offer an alternative to the extant neoliberal order are misplaced, for the BRICS have a stake in maintaining the current global unequality. Africa must therefore fashion its own independent path - while the emerging economies will be important, relying on external actors may simply reproduce anew the current state of underdevelopment. Ian Taylor is Professor in International Relations and African Politics, University of St Andrews; Chair Professor, Renmin, University of China; Professor Extraordinary, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; Honorary Professor, Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, China; and a Visiting Scholar at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda.

This volume arises from a cooperation between Ghanaian and German academics. It answers the need to have a more comprehensive and up to date volume which addresses key topics, areas and problems of the Ghanaian education system with a focus on history, policy, and curriculum-related issues. For many years now there have not been new comprehensive publications in this field, and it is necessary to introduce a lot of recent changes in Ghanas education system and reflect about their challenges. The information and positions collected in this volume will be of interest to Policy Makers, Educators, Lecturers, Scholars, Students, Teachers, Parents and other interested people of Ghana and other (West)-African countries. The book will also be of great interest to international scholars who want to understand the Ghanaian education system or are involved in academic projects such as internship, exchange programmes and joint research activities with Ghanaian academics and educational institutions. Akwasi Kwarteng Amoako-Gyampah (PhD) is a senior lecturer in the Department of History Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana and a senior research associate in the Department of History, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Bea Lundt is Prof. (emer.) of History and still teaches at the Europe University Flensburg (Germany). She is also Guest-Professor at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Ghana.