Contemporary Journal of African Studies

From the Editorial Team

Akosua Adomako Ampofo — 2024-11-30

Introduction to CJAS 11.2 from the editor-in-chief

Resolving Chieftaincy Conflicts through Intercultural Dialogue: The Case of Bawku Interethnic Peace Committee in Northern Ghana

Joshua Awienagua Gariba — 2024-11-30

The local turn in peace-building has emphasised the importance of the involvement of local people in the
restoration of peace after violent conflicts. This encourages conflict parties to embrace interculturadialogue to address differences typically mobilised to escalate latent grievances into large-scale violence. This article contributes to this discussion by mainly
exploring the contribution of the Bawku Interethnic Peace Committee to peaceful co-existence in Bawku, a community in north-eastern Ghana with a traumatized history of chieftaincy conflict. It is based on empirical research conducted among key parties to
the conflict and members of the committee between 2020 and 2021. The paper draws on the intercultural
dialogue concept to analyse and demonstrate how the committee incorporated ethnic inclusion and crosscultural interactions, enabling it to ensure the warring parties directly engage and address latent grievances and prevent violent escalations. The findings show the Bawku Interethnic Peace Committee has strong potential to help preserve peace in Bawku. However, it can only undertake such an exercise satisfactorily provided the state shows strong desire for sustainable peace in Bawku. The paper concludes with an outline for policy and research response, demonstrating how the state can drive the Bawku conflict parties towards an exit from violence.

Farmer-Herder Conflicts as a Clash of Ontologies in North-Central Nigeria

Philip Adah Idachaba — 2024-11-30

Farmer-herder conflicts have become endemic in Nigeria, particularly its north-central region, since 2017. While various disciplines in the humanities, social sciences and even the sciences have given this problem attention, this paper is an attempt to philosophically
understand the issues involved in the crisis. Given the role of the cattle and the farmland to the material survival of the herder and the farmer respectively, discourses on these clashes have been dominated by the perception that they are struggles for material survival couched in religious terms. That is, these clashes have been largely interpreted in materialist terms. However, the distinct philosophical argument thipaper makes is that, the clashes are not just motivated by the inevitability of material survival. Using the social
ontological method of conceptual analysis based on the appeal to what can be coherently conceived, the article shows that: (i) the ontology of the Muslim Fulani herder is fundamentally different from that of the rural farmers in North-Central Nigeria (ii) a major area where this clash of ontology operates is in the centrality of land among the communities of North-Central Nigeria; and
(iii) the clash is further exacerbated by the fact that both ontologies are seemingly incommensurable. In line with these points, the key finding of the study is that, the farmer-herder conflicts in North-Central Nigeria can also be fundamentally described as a clash of
ontologies (worldviews)

On Language attitudes and Language endangerment: The Dompo Language of Ghana in perspective

Esther Desiadenyo Manu-Barfo — 2024-11-30

The Dompo language, spoken in the North-Western part of the Bono Region of Ghana is a highly endangered language. The language has a remaining aged fluent speaker base of about three people, and a few other natives who have some basic knowledge of
its vocabulary. Dompo has lost its vibrancy to the Nafaanra language, whose speakers are believed to have migrated from the neighbouring country of Ivory Coast. Nafaanra is currently not only the language of everyday usage in the Dompo community, but is also the first language of most of the native Dompo people. This paper discusses the results of a survey of 100 local respondents in the Dompo community about their attitudes towards Dompo and their views on the causes of the degeneration of the language. 66
respondents identified as native Dompos while 34 stated that they were Nafaanras. All the native Dompos recounted that while they have a positive attitude towards their language despite its current state, they bemoan its non-transmittal to them by their older
kinsmen. Intermarriages between Dompos and Nafaanras, which further led to the subjugation of the language, emigration of fluent speakers to other communities, lack of interest on the part of the younger generation to learn Dompo, and the language being used as a secret language to tattle about others,c are among some of the reasons given for the decline of the language.

On the Coloniality of News Mobilities and How the World Knows About What Happens in Francophone Africa

Lyn Kouadio — 2024-11-30

The coloniality of the global news industry and its centrality in knowledge production about the Global South remains under-examined. This is especially true in the case of news production about Black Francophone Africa (by which I refer to sub-Saharan Francophone countries formerly colonised by France), which continues to receive limited attention in the academic study of politics in Africa. By posing the question, 'How do we know about what happens in Francophone Africa?' this paper sheds light on the coloniality of production and circulation of news deemed credible about Francophone Africa. It interrogates the implications for knowledge production about this space in African Studies and International Politics.

Dealing with learning uncertainties during COVID19 pandemic. Reflections of alone and unaccompanied refugee children in Uganda

David Okimait — 2024-11-30

This paper explores how alone and unaccompanied refugee children in a Ugandan refugee settlement reflected and dealt with the learning uncertainties that emerged during the coronavirus pandemic in Uganda. In the emergence of COVID-19, these refugee children from South Sudan once again found themselves amidst uncertainty regarding their future, especially their education, as they found themselves out of school for nearly two years due to the pandemic. This disruption was particularly challenging for unaccompanied refugee children who relied heavily on education as a pathway to pursue their life ambitions, and also to provide them
with a sense of stability. Having experienced over five years of their childhoods as refugees in Ugandan settlements, children demonstrated their resilience mechanisms. Notable among these was the ability to be absorbed into foster family systems, and the
manufacture of new relations and re-connection with learning through the Ugandan education system. With such levels of childhood resilience, refugee children revealed that once again they were able to build dreams of a greater life ahead of them, which they
learning through the Ugandan education system. levels of childhood resilience, refugee children revealed that once again they were able to build dreams of a greater life ahead of them, which they believed stretched beyond their refugee status. Further, the children revealed different ways they negotiated their learning uncertainties; while some adapted to self-learning mechanisms and anticipated
that schools would reopen soon, others believed that skipping a class or two was a way of recovering the lost school time.

Who Owns Africa? Neocolonialism, Investment, and the New Scramble

Ebenezer Bosomprah — 2024-11-30

Review of Bekeh Utietiang Ukelina (ed.) Who Owns Africa? Neocolonialism, Investment, and the New Scramble for Africa