This book analyzes the leadership ethics dilemma of whether the diaspora ought to vote specifically in their homeland franchise. This quagmire becomes even more complex in the case of Africa, where some diasporas participate in their countries’ elections and others don’t. It implies and goes beyond the mere question of “why” or what are the reasons behind the fact that members of some countries vote and those of other nations do not. The analysis contained in the book deals with whether it is right or wrong (good or bad; just or unjust; virtuous or immoral, desirable or undesirable) for citizens living overseas to participate in their countries’ suffrages, and for the leaders of African countries to extend the franchise rights to their diaspora. Pedagogically, the book proposes an applied methodology of leadership decision-making based on ethical dilemmas, which instructors and learners of various disciplines, particularly those in leadership ethics, as well as global leaders might find useful. The combined DIRR (Description, Interpretation, Rehearsal and Re-discernment) proposed by Enomoto & Kramer (2007) and the prudent pragmatism by Bluhm & Heineman (2007) correspond to the traditional African “baobab tree” as a physical space of social and political conflict resolutions. In this book, the “baobab tree”, an ethical arena of public debates, helps to weigh primarily the need for diaspora Africans to get the right to vote, as well as the social, political and economic benefits such a right, if it were granted, would entail for all the parties involved. Drawing from the examples of countries that have championed some form of democratic processes, including expatriate elections, the book brings to the forefront the crucial role of both the leadership of Africa and that of their diaspora in spearheading the continent on the path of sustainable development.

African Leadership is an edited collection enriched by the people who have lived and experienced indigenous leadership first-hand, demonstrating how African leadership is distinctive from usual Western hegemonic paradigms.

Africa needs fresh thinking on its leadership and governance challenges, particularly when it comes to the disconnects between traditional leadership models and governance structures within the modern state. In this open access book, Kofi Anani finds ways forward through the Blended Representation Principle (BRP), which stipulates that power be shared between leaders selected on the basis of Western-democratic ideals and leaders chosen on the basis of traditional African norms and conventions. Drawing on his research and professional experience, Anani shows how incorporating the BRP into African leadership and governance thinking would encourage more voluntary public participation in politics, guarantee transparency and accountability in decision-making, particularly when it comes to the use of public resources, and ultimately encourage more public confidence in leaders. Anani also provides concrete suggestions for how to achieve all this, not through quick fixes, but rather through educational campaigns directed at public officials and through new communities of learning and practice designed to champion the BRP in villages, schools, workplaces, places of worship, and other social organizations. This book is a must-read for all scholars and students of postcolonial governance and leadership, and it is of keen interest to anyone concerned with how Western-style state-making might ultimately find a balance with other, indigenous modes of social organization. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.

The book presents a thorough study of the changing landscape of state-diaspora relations in Africa, as well as a robust analysis of diaspora engagement policies being pursued across the continent. As the Africa diaspora strengthens its socio-economic and political clout, countries of origin in Africa have sought to engage their citizens living abroad. Over the past decade, the role of diaspora in the homeland development has become a core tenet of national strategies and policies. Against the backdrop of expanding globalization and deepening regional integration, the book presents a thorough study of the changing landscape of state-diaspora relations in Africa, as well as a robust analysis of diaspora engagement policies being pursued across the continent as states seek to extend rights to and extract obligations from their global citizens.

Applied Christian Ethics addresses selected themes in Christian social ethics. The book is divided in three parts. In the first section, “Foundation,” several contributors reveal their Christian realist roots and discuss the prophetic origins and multifarious agenda of social ethics. Thus, the names of Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich come up frequently. In the second section, “Economics and Justice,” the focus turns to the different levels at which economics has significance for social justice. These chapters discuss fair housing at the local level, the dialogue between Christians and Native Americans over property rights at the regional and national levels, and trade and international organization. In the third and final section, “Politics, War, and Peacemaking,” the content ranges from the existential experience of a soldier to that of a veteran of civil rights activism, from theorizing about peacemaking to commenting on the use of drones.

The different facets of American religious life are more thoroughly understood with an awareness of the Evangelical heritage that intersects the different denominational boundaries. Since Evangelicalism is not confined to one religious denomination or group, it has associations with a number of American religious movements such as Fundamentalism, Pentecostalism, the Charismatic Movement, and Revivalism. This study, modeled after the popular Greenwood Denominations in America series, analyzes the people, institutions, and the religious culture of modern American Evangelicals. Divided into three sections the book presents a history of American Evangelicalism, discusses themes and issues in modern American Evangelicalism, and provides a biographical dictionary of modern American Evangelical leaders. The combination of critical narrative and reference will appeal to religion scholars and American culture scholars alike. Separate bibliographies unique to the history section and to the themes and issues section provide valuable resources for further research. Equally helpful is the bibliographic material that completes each entry in the biographical dictionary section of the book. The three part organization makes this an accessible research tool, clearly organized for easy cross referencing.

This handbook explores the central theme of Christian faith from various disciplinary approaches and different contexts of black experience in the United States. The central unifying theme is freedom; an important concept both in American culture and Christianity. African American theology represents a Christian understanding of God's freedom and the good news of God's call for all humankind to enter life-true human identity and moral responsibility-in genuine and just community. Contributors to the volume argue that African American theology highlights how racism and other intersecting forms of oppression complicate the human predicament; and that their eradication requires an expansion of salvation to include the liberation of persons who lack full participation in society and enjoyment of the good (and goods) made possible by that society. The essays in this handbook employ the tools of biblical criticism, history, cultural and social analysis, religious studies, philosophy, and systematic theology, in order to explore and assess the nature and impact of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, immigration, and cultural and moral pluralism in America-as well as the intersections between African American and African diasporan religious thought and life.

This four-volume work provides a detailed, multicultural survey of established as well as "new" American religions and investigates the fascinating interactions between religion and ethnicity, gender, politics, regionalism, ethics, and popular culture. This revised and expanded edition of Religion and American Cultures: Tradition, Diversity, and Popular Expression presents more than 140 essays that address contemporary spiritual practice and culture with a historical perspective. The entries cover virtually every religion in modern-day America as well as the role of religion in various aspects of U.S. culture. Readers will discover that Americans aren't largely Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish anymore, and that the number of popular religious identities is far greater than many would imagine. And although most Americans believe in a higher power, the fastest growing identity in the United States is the "nones"—those Americans who elect "none" when asked about their religious identity—thereby demonstrating how many individuals see their spirituality as something not easily defined or categorized. The first volume explores America's multicultural communities and their religious practices, covering the range of different religions among Anglo-Americans and Euro-Americans as well as spirituality among Latino, African American, Native American, and Asian American communities. The second volume focuses on cultural aspects of religions, addressing topics such as film, Generation X, public sacred spaces, sexuality, and new religious expressions. The new third volume expands the range of topics covered with in-depth essays on additional topics such as interfaith families, religion in prisons, belief in the paranormal, and religion after September 11, 2001. The fourth volume is devoted to complementary primary source documents.

This fresh and invigorating analysis illuminates the often-neglected story of early African American civil rights activism. African American Civil Rights: Early Activism and the Niagara Movement tells a fascinating story, one that is too frequently marginalized. Offering the first full-length, comprehensive sociological analysis of the Niagara Movement, which existed between 1905 and 1910, the book demonstrates that, although short-lived, the movement was far from a failure. Rather, it made the need to annihilate Jim Crow and address the atrocities caused by slavery publicly visible, creating a foundation for more widely celebrated mid-20th-century achievements. This unique study focuses on what author Angela Jones terms black publics, groups of concerned citizens—men and women, alike—who met to shift public opinion. The book explores their pivotal role in initiating the civil rights movement, specifically examining secular organizations, intellectual circles, the secular black press, black honor societies and clubs, and prestigious educational networks. All of these, Jones convincingly demonstrates, were seminal to the development of civil rights protest in the early 20th century.

While the specific focus of this work is African American politics in the 'margins' of the South, this timely work examines minority and ethnic politics in rural America and other democratic societies. More importantly, this study explores the politics of everyone with a racial and ethnically diverse rural root_and how the majority versus minority political competition is played out in society. Unlike most books on national, state, and local governments, African American Politics in Rural America is concerned with theory and political actors_particularly their perceptions, frustrations, and, sometimes, satisfaction with the complex processes of governance at the grassroots level in American politics.