Monthly Archives: July 2010
Naming Colonialism: History and Collective Memory in the Congo, 1870-1960, Book Review
Central Africa Map 1925
[Photo credit: cod_gabriel]
The following H-Africa Book Review points to an interesting book which uses a very different way of looking at colonial history in the Congo.
About the book
Osumaka Likaka.  Naming Colonialism: History and Collective Memory in the Congo, 1870-1960.  Madison  University of Wisconsin Press, 2009. xii + 220 pp.  $26.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-299-23364-8.
Reviewed by Curtis Keim (Moravian College), Published on H-Africa (July, 2010), Commissioned by Brett L. Shadle
How to get a copy
Naming Colonialism: History and Collective Memory in the Congo, 1870-1960 (Africa and the Diaspora)
Review: Names as Sources of Colonial History
In this book, Osumaka Likaka proposes and demonstrates a method for exploring the ideas and actions of Congolese villagers during the colonial era. Historians have explored texts left by colonizers, but villagers did not leave texts. They did, however, leave mnemonics of their experiences in the names they gave to individual colonists. When analyzed carefully, such names as Mundele Nioka (White Man Who Is a Snake), Pole-Pole (Go Slow), and Sikoti (Whip) become commentaries on individual colonizers and on the colonial experience. Likaka has collected hundreds of Central African names for Europeans and has investigated their meanings through dictionaries, interviews, and texts. His book explores the meanings of names in three periods: the precolonial, early colonial, and high colonial eras.
In the precolonial period, names were more than simple markers of individuality. Rather, Congolese names usually derived from specific contexts, such as a family’s situation at the time of a birth (e.g., ”there is a God”), the circumstances of birth and qualities of a baby (e.g., “unripe” for a premature birth, a name signifying birth order, or a name to chase evil spirits), and historic names and events (e.g., the name of a powerful ancestor, family, or king). Not only did these names signify social individuality, but they also situated an individual within the social world. Thus names could also be used to help integrate foreigners into village life, often following an incorporation ritual, such as blood exchange. The violence of the colonial conquest and Free State period (to 1908) is reflected in the fact that names of this era tend to emphasize violent acts: Whip, Gun, Push, Push the Beasts, Defecator, and, of course, Breaker of Rocks (Bulla Matari) for Henry Stanley. A few names show respect, such as those for some Catholic missionaries, for hard workers, or fair administrators, but the majority signify extreme disruption and force.
Under Belgian rule after 1908, more administrators came to Congo and more Africans were in contact with Europeans. High taxes and fines forced Africans to participate in the colonial system while low and fluctuating prices for agricultural products bred economic insecurity. Names, says Likaka, provide better insight than scholarly analysis into both the resulting disruption of village life and the rural contestation of the colonial system. Names such as Rush-Rush, Big Troublemaker, Arbitrary Arrest, Witch, Cannibal, Red Pepper, and Venomous Snake are comments on the colonial situation and on how colonial administrators were understood. The meaning of names could change as circumstances changed so that a name could be interpreted in one way at first and come to mean something entirely different as a colonial career progressed. Moreover, names could carry purposefully ambiguous meanings. Likaka illustrates this possibility with Monganga na Mabele, a Lingala name given to a prospector. Taken one way the name would be Earth Doctor or Earth Healer, but taken another, it would be Earth Sorcerer or Earth Polluter. Thus the violence implied in names is sometimes revealed only by village-level investigation.
One particularly revealing section of the book deals with the treatment of women by government officials, including the practice of having a ménagère, a young African woman who ran the household and provided “services … beyond the call of such duties,” and that of chiefs providing women to agents who were traveling (p. 114). These types of customs promoted abuse of African women by agents and chiefs, and some names (e.g., Womanizer, Chaser of Women, and He Who Loves Mother) reflect such “predatory sexual conduct” (p. 118).
Likaka frequently emphasizes that names represent “surreptitious forms of protest” (e.g., p. 160). He notes that through naming ”Congolese kept some measure of cultural autonomy that accurately identified and gave face to their oppressors and exploiters” (p. 159). Yet names themselves were not always surreptitious; often villagers gave two names to Europeans, one surreptitious and one public. The public name, usually a praise name, often served as a tool of negotiation between villagers and individual administrators. It could, for example, show that villagers were willing to comply with colonial policies deemed to be fair and thus signal to an administrator that he ought to treat villagers well. For his part, an administrator might “mediate paternalistic dominance” (through appropriation of his praise name (p. 161). By trying to live up to his name he could emphasize the benefits of colonialism and cooperation. Thus investigation of praise names shows how villagers participated in the construction of the colonial world and explains ”how colonial officials negotiated the boundaries of the colonial world at the village level rather than unilaterally imposing them” (p. 145).
Other administrators used terror in their negotiations with villagers. They therefore embraced violent names in their efforts to collect taxes, recruit labor, expand cash crop farming, and destroy traditional religious symbols. Likaka gives the example of Tshoma-Tshoma (He Who Burns People), a tax collector of the 1930s whose name and reputation were coercive weapons that substituted for actual corporal punishment. Yet as time passed threats of violence and actual violence could not maintain the colonial order. Thus, Likaka concludes, “the expression of accusations of suffering through cultural forms not only sapped the authority and prestige of tax collectors, agricultural officers, and territorial administrators but also tormented their consciences” (p. 156).
Likaka’s work goes significantly beyond what we already know–that Africans were not passive victims of colonial exploitation–by providing many concrete examples of ways in which Congolese villagers negotiated the colonial experience. This book will be most helpful to those scholars who want deeper insight into the Central African colonial world and those who plan to explore naming practices as a research method. Undergraduate students and general readers will find the book challenging, but I especially recommend to them chapter 2, ”Colonialism and the Village World,” which provides an excellent overview of the impact of colonialism on Central African village life.
Citation: Curtis Keim. Review of Likaka, Osumaka, _Naming Colonialism: History and Collective Memory in the Congo, 1870-1960_.
H-Africa, H-Net Reviews. July, 2010.
URL:Â http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=26350
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
African Market Women: Seven Life Stories from Ghana, Book Review
Woman Trader In Accra's Makola Market, Ghana
[Photo credit: transaid images]
Ghana life
I came across a book review today of a book that looks really interesting. Gracia Clark writes African Market Women from many years experience living in Ghana. African Market Women: Seven Life Stories from Ghana is a sequel to her first book Onions Are My Husband: Survival and Accumulation by West African Market Women. However, unlike the earlier work it is presented in the market women’s own words.
Buy a copy
African Market Women: Seven Life Stories from Ghana
Onions Are My Husband: Survival and Accumulation by West African Market Women
For anyone who has spent time in West Africa these two books will be of great interest.
Gracia Clark.  African Market Women: Seven Life Stories from Ghana. Bloomington  Indiana University Press, 2010.  265 pp.  $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-35417-4; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-22154-4.
Reviewed by Sara Berry (Johns Hopkins University)
Published on H-Africa (July, 2010)
Commissioned by Brett L. Shadle
Little by Little: Life Histories of African Market Women
Gracia Clark is an anthropologist whose ethnographic research and writings center on the lives of women traders in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city and capital of the historic Asante Region. Since she first began working in Kumasi in the late 1970s, Clark has carried out several extended periods of ethnographic research in and around Kumasi’s vast Central Market, observing women’s activities, sharing their surroundings, and following them on trading journeys to the countryside around Kumasi, and to markets, towns, and cities in other regions of Ghana. In journal articles and, now, two monographs, Clark has produced richly detailed accounts of the women’s business practices, their daily lives, and the economy, society, and political world in which they live and work. In addition to intensive ethnographic observation and analysis, she brings a historical perspective to her work–tracing continuities and changes over time in economic conditions, government policies, and city life in Kumasi, and discussing their significance for market women’s lives.
Clark’s first book, Onions Are My Husband: Survival and Accumulation by West African Market Women (1994), is a meticulously detailed description and analysis of women’s business practices, market conditions, traders’ social and familial relationships, and the place of Kumasi Central Market in the regional economy of central and southern Ghana in the early 1980s, when Clark did her fieldwork. Dominating wholesale trade in staple foodstuffs in Central Market and the surrounding region, Kumasi’s women traders built their own system of market governance–organized in associations of women who trade in a particular commodity, elect their own “market queen,” and meet as needed to exchange commercial information, resolve disputes, and debate strategies for coping with official interventions or with crises, such as a collapse in prices, a fire, or a change in government policy. Approaching fieldwork as a learning experience, Clark positioned herself as a student, her informants and research assistants as teachers. Realizing during the early stages of her fieldwork that traders often responded to her as they would to a small child, she incorporated her social position into her research methods. As time passed, “I began to be entrusted with tasks appropriate to a five-year-old–watching the stall for theft or playing with the baby. Then I was promoted to eight- or nine-year-old status, capable of making ordinary retail sales and purchases and carrying complex messages.”[1] Based on this extended process of learning and social maturation, Clark developed a deep, experiential understanding of Asante society and the market economy that lies at the center of the women traders’ lives. African Market Women builds on this understanding.
Soon after Onions Are My Husband was published, Clark returned to Kumasi for further research on market women’s life histories. Reconnecting with some of the women she had known through her earlier research and getting acquainted with others, she asked for volunteers who would be willing to narrate the stories of their lives and have her record them. Seeking uninterrupted reflections from each of her informants, she altered her research methods from the earlier study. Instead of conversing with and observing women in the marketplace and on trading journeys, she invited volunteers to visit her lodgings, one at a time, thereby removing them from the noise and distractions of the market, and recorded their narratives as they told them, interrupting as infrequently as possible, and only to ask the speaker to clarify or expand on a point. The result is African Market Women, a collection of autobiographical narratives told by the women in Twi, transcribed and translated by Clark and two Ghanaian assistants, and reproduced in the book with short chapter introductions and minimal editing by Clark, plus an introduction and a conclusion. In the introduction, Clark provides a brief overview of the history of Kumasi Central Market and the position and importance of women traders there, and describes in detail the methods she used in eliciting, recording, and producing the women’s narratives. In the conclusion, she reflects on the collected stories, pointing out some of their common themes, but concluding that what is most valuable about them are their idiosyncracies. “Privileging their individuality focuses … on the interpretive insights for which in-depth interviewing has the most advantages…. Rooted in multiple contradictory connections … they … illuminate … social cleavages, [but] they do so by also partly bridging them” (p. 218).
The narratives themselves share a central focus on the women’s work as traders–detailing business strategies and practices, describing market conditions at different points in time, and recalling contingent events that opened new business opportunities or destroyed a trader’s capital. Most women interspersed their accounts with reflections on their families and, less frequently, other topics, such as biblical allusions, government policies, or the puberty ceremonies that their families had held for them in their youth. For the most part, the narratives are not arranged in chronological order or by theme, but move from one topic to another, sometimes within a single paragraph, often returning repeatedly to a particular theme, connecting it to various topics, circling back to offer explanations, or make judgmental comments on particular actions or associates described at an earlier point in the story. After commenting on skills required to trade in a particular commodity, a woman might go on to discuss her own business successes or misfortunes, describe her relations with a “mother” or “sister” who had helped her with her trade, detail her experiences with a former husband, or reflect on the way prices or standards of living had changed since she was young.
As Clark emphasizes in her conclusion, the narratives do not provide systematic accounts of changing market conditions, trading practices, or stages in a woman’s life course, but do help to illuminate the kinds of connections market women make between one theme and others, and the ways in which they explain the causes, or weigh the morality, of seemingly disparate activities and behaviors. Unfailingly realistic, they do not waste energy hoping for miracles. “Slow but steady progress, kakrakakra (literally, little by little),” as one elderly trader put it, is the key to business and personal success (p. 229). It is also a useful guideline for reading this book. Because Clark has chosen to give us the women’s narratives largely in their own words, African Market Women does not immediately engage the reader in a compelling plot or hold her attention by using its ethnographic evidence to unravel an analytical puzzle. Rather, its strengths lie in the understated manner with which it brings the reader into Clark’s conversations with her informants and the texture of their take on the circumstances and events of their lives. The book may be read as both a scholarly study and a collection of primary sources: accessible to a general reader, and likely to be of  particular interest to students and scholars seeking knowledge about Ghana, women’s studies, and/or African social history and economic life.
For readers who are already familiar with Clark’s first book, African Market Women will be a welcome and rewarding companion volume.
Note
[1]. Gracia Clark, Onions Are My Husband: Survival and Accumulation by West African Market Women (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 22.
Citation: Sara Berry. Review of Clark, Gracia, African Market Women:Â Seven Life Stories from Ghana. H-Africa, H-Net Reviews. July, 2010.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=30817This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License.
Bio Energy and Poverty in Kenya: Attitude, Actors and Activities Report
Bioenergy in Kenya
A new Kenyan bioenergy report, Bio Energy and Poverty in Kenya: Attitude, Actors and Activities,  is published by PISCES which is a five year initiative funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID). It is working in partnership with Kenya, India, Sri Lanka and Tanzania to provide policy makers with new information and approaches that they can apply to unlock the potential of bioenergy to improve energy access and livelihoods in poor communities. One of PISCES main objectives is information dissemination on issues related to biofuels and bioenergy and the impacts these have in different communities.
This report, presents the findings of socio-economic baseline surveys carried out in the Eastern Africa office of Practical Action Consulting in Kenya in 2008. The report was part of a broader baseline study carried out across the respective PISCES countries to help provide a better understanding of the current issues relating to bioenergy use, access and delivery at the community level. The discussions looked at the key interrelated issues of food, water and energy security in relation to bioenergy at the household level.
At the end of the report are a number of recommendations. Here is the general statement:
The research findings strongly indicate that drought leading to scarcity of food, waterand fuel is a major problem in the research regions. This means that however wellintended, any intervention that does not take into consideration peoples’ basic needsespecially food, is unlikely to succeed. In regions such as Mandera, for example,where scarcity of food and famine is a constant threat to the survival of families, theresearchers found that interventions in bioenergy can only be relevant if they go hand in hand with other basic unmet needs such as food and water.
You can download a pdf of the Bio Energy and Poverty in Kenya: Attitude, Actors and Activities report.
Suggested Books
- Bioenergy Options for a Cleaner Environment: in Developed and Developing Countries
- Bioenergy Development: Issues and Impacts for Poverty and Natural Resource Management (Agriculture and Rural Development)
Other Africa environment books
Call for Book Concept Papers : The Global Financial Crisis and Africa, Issues and Challenges
Africa in the world
[Photo credit: BlatantWorld.com]
The following call for book proposals is a great opportunity for African scholars. Please read the advert carefully and send proposals together with the required information directly to: taconceptpapers2@gmail.com
The Global Financial Crisis and Africa: Issues and Challenges
Four interrelated crises are mutually reinforcing each other: climate change, the energy crisis, the food crisis and the financial and economic crisis. But of these, the consequence of the global financial meltdown presents significant challenges for African countries, reversing the gains in economic performance and management made since the beginning of the new millennium. Although the crisis, progeny of the US mortgage industry came up gradually since Summer 2007, it went through a new phase of acceleration and development in early Fall 2008. This crisis has since spread beyond the US and the developed countries to Africa, a continent pervasive with weak institutions of governance and uncoordinated policy responses to the crisis.
The call for concept papers for an edited Book Project hopes to address the implication of globalisation of the financial crisis to Africa. It also seeks to identify divergent policy responses from African countries, regional organisations and international institutions in ensuring that the crisis does not develop into a humanitarian crisis. Although African countries have reactive identities regarding impact and policy responses to the crisis, the continent is far from being monolithic.
Sub- Themes
Proposals are welcomed from the following sub-themes:
i. The globalisation of economic and financial crisis in Africa
ii. The synergy between climate change, food crisis, energy crisis and the financial and economic crisis
iii. The role of institutions in stemming the tide of the financial and economic crisis in Africa
iv. Financial and economic crisis and peace and security challenges in Africa
v. Income re-distribution and pro-poor policies during financial and economic crisis
vi. Diasporas, remittances, brain drain or brain gain during the financial and economic crisis
vii. Images, media presentation and representation of the economic and financial crisis
viii. Gender and the economic and financial crisis
ix. The role of Asian drivers in mitigating the financial and economic crisis in Africa
x. Impact and responses from rentier states, enclave economies, mono-crop economies and diversified economies
xi. Country case studies on the global and economic financial meltdownProposals should include the contributor’s name, affiliation, and contact details (including email address) as well as book sub-theme, abstract and paper title (maximum 500 words).
Proposals should be sent to: taconceptpapers2@gmail.com
Deadlines and timetable
31st August 2010 Deadline for submitting the book proposal
31st September 2010 Notification about acceptance/decline of the proposal
31st November 2010 Deadline for submitting the papers
15th January 2010 Deadline for submitting revised papers
4th March 2011 Publishing of selected papers in an edited volumeFor further information, email: Terhemba Ambe-Uva
Lecturer/Coordinator, Department of International
Studies, National Open University of Nigeria
PMB 80067 Victoria Island, Lagos.
mneuter@gmail.com
Suggested Books (US)
The Global Economic Crisis: Impact on Sub-Saharan Africa and Global Policy Responses
Global Economic Prospects 2010: Crisis, Finance, and Growth
Innovation of the Week : Providing an agricultural answer to the call of nature
Guest post by Danielle Nierenberg http://www.nourishingtheplanet.org
It’s hard to believe, but an estimated 2.6 billion people in the developing world—nearly a third of the global population—still lack access to basic sanitation services. This presents a significant hygiene risk, especially in densely populated urban areas and slums where contaminated drinking water can spread disease rapidly. Every year, some 1.5 million children die from diarrhea caused by poor sanitation and hygiene. It is in these crowded cities, too, that food security is weakened by the lack of clean, nutrient-rich soil as well as growing space available for local families.
But there is an inexpensive solution to both problems. A recent innovation, called the Peepoo, is a disposable bag that can be used once as a toilet and then buried in the ground. Urea crystals in the bag kill off disease-producing pathogens and break down the waste into fertilizer, simultaneously eliminating the sanitation risk and providing a benefit for urban gardens. After successful test runs in Kenya and India, the bags will be mass produced this summer and sold for U.S. 2–3 cents each, making them more accessible to those who will benefit from them the most.
In post-earthquake Haiti, where many poor and homeless residents are forced to live in garbage heaps and to relieve themselves wherever they can find privacy,SOIL/SOL, a non-profit working to improve soil and convert waste into a resource, is partnering with Oxfam GB to build indoor dry toilets for 25 families as well as four public dry toilets. The project will establish a waste composting site to convert dry waste into fertilizer and nutrient-rich soil that can then be used to grow vegetables in rooftop gardens and backyards.
In Malawi, Stacia and Kristof Nordin’s permaculture project (which Nourishing the Planet co-director Danielle Nierenberg visited during her tour of Africa) uses a composting toilet to fertilize the crops. Although these units can be expensive to purchase and install, one company, Rigel Technology, manufactures a toilet that costs just US$30 and separates solid from fluid waste, converting it into fertilizer. The Indian non-profit Sulabh International also promotes community units that convert methane from waste into biogas for cooking.
On a larger scale, wetlands outside of Calcutta, India, process some 600 million liters of raw sewage delivered from the city every day in 300 fish-producing ponds. These wetlands produce 13,000 tons of fish annually for consumption by the city’s 12 million inhabitants. They also serve as an environmentally sound waste treatment center, with hyacinths, algal blooms, and fish disposing of the waste, while also providing a home for migrating birds and an important source of local food for the population of Calcutta. (See also “Fish Production Reaches a Record.â€)
Aside from cost and installation, the main obstacles to using human waste to fertilize crops are cultural and behavioral.UNICEF notes in an online case study that a government-run program in India provided 33 families in the village of Bahtarai with latrines near their houses. But the majority of villagers still preferred to use the fields as toilets, as they were accustomed to doing their whole lives. “It is not enough just to construct the toilets,†said Gaurav Dwivedi, Collector and Bilaspur District Magistrate. “We have to change the thinking of people so that they are amenable to using the toilets.â€
Suggested Books (US)
- Toilets That Make Compost: Low-Cost, Sanitary Toilets That Produce Valuable Compost for Crops in an African Context
- Social Perspectives on the Sanitation Challenge
Why Monetary Policy is Irrelevant in African South of the Sahara
The following paper is one of the Development Viewpoint series from the CDPR. It takes a different point of view to most of the IMF documents you’ll find on SocioLingo Africa. (see Africa IMF Reports)
The Centre for Development Policy and Research is pleased to announce the publication of Development Viewpoint #53 “Why Monetary Policy Is Irrelevant in Africa South of the Saharaâ€. The author, John Weeks, Professorial Research Associate, CDPR, argues that the IMF is mistaken in emphasising the reliance on monetary policies in this region because few countries have viable domestic markets for government bonds or commercial banking sectors interested in lending for private-sector investment. As a result, central banks often have to offer high rates of interest on government bonds to induce banks to buy them. Thus, a significant share of the public budget is diverted into debt servicing that ends up fattening banking profits.
Download a pdf of the document:Â http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/file59766.pdf
CDPR’s other thought-provoking, diversified Development Viewpoints are available on http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/
The Centre for Development Policy and Research draws on the broad range of development expertise at the School of Oriental and African Studies to engage in innovative policy-oriented research and training on crucial development issues.
Suggested Books (US)
- Policies to Promote Competitiveness in Manufacturing in Sub-Saharan Africa (Development Centre Seminars)
- The Political Economy of Africa
African Authors wanted for Cultural Sociology Encyclopedia
The following call for authors for a new encyclopedia should be of interest to African scholars who are involved in cultural sociology.
Please respond to Lisbeth Rogers culturalsociology@golsonmedia.com if you are interested.
SAGE Publications are inviting academic editorial contributors to a new reference work:
Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An Encyclopedia.The four volumes include:
Volume 1: Middle East
Volume 2: Africa
Volume 3: East Asia
Volume 4: West, Central, and South Asia
In our age of globalization and multiculturalism, it has never been more important for Americans to understand and appreciate foreign cultures-how people live, love, and learn in areas of the world unfamiliar to most U.S. students and the general public. The Cultural Sociology encyclopedia takes a step forward toward presenting concise information with historical and contemporary coverage of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, as four volumes of area studies illuminate the powerful influence of culture on society.
Each title comprises approximately 200 articles organized chronologically and alphabetically, addressing such academic disciplines as sociology, political science, women’s studies, business, history, religion, law, health, education, economics, and geography. It is the intent of the encyclopedia to convey what daily life was/is like for people in these regions. Each article ranges from 600 to 3,000 words. We are now making assignments due October 1, 2010.
This comprehensive project will be published by SAGE Reference in 2012 and will be marketed to academic and public libraries as a print and digital product available to students via the library’s electronic services. The General Editor, who will be reviewing each submission to the project, is Dr. Orlando Patterson at Harvard University.
If you are interested in contributing to this cutting-edge reference, it is a unique opportunity to contribute to the contemporary literature, redefining sociological issues in today’s terms. Moreover, it can be a notable publication addition to your CV/resume and broaden your publishing credits. SAGE Publications offers an honorarium ranging from SAGE book credits for smaller articles up to a free set of the printed product or access to the online product for contributions totaling 10,000 words or more.
The list of available articles is already prepared, and as a next step we will e-mail you the Article List (Excel file) from which you can select topics that best fit your expertise and interests. Additionally, Style and Submission Guidelines will be provided that detail article specifications.
If you would like to contribute to building a truly outstanding reference with the Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An Encyclopedia, please provide a brief summary of your academic/publishing credentials specific to the region to Lisbeth Rogers culturalsociology@golsonmedia.com Author Manager at Golson Media.
Suggested Books (US)
(pre-order)Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellowships 2011-2012
The following is a Fellowship Opportunity for scholars who already hold a doctorate. It should be of interest to African scholars and includes travel. Please apply directly to the advertiser fellowships@wilsoncenter.org for more information and note the application deadline of October 1 2010.
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellowships 2011-2012
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is announcing the opening of its 2011-2012 Fellowship competition.  The Center awards approximately 20-25 academic year residential fellowships to individuals from any country with outstanding project proposals on national and/or international issues.  Topics and scholarship should relate to key public policy challenges or provide the historical and/or cultural framework to illuminate policy issues of contemporary importance.
Applicants must hold a doctorate or have equivalent professional experience.
Fellows are provided stipends (which include round trip travel), private offices, Windows based personal computers, loan privileges with the Library of Congress, and part-time research assistants.
For more information and application guidelines please contact the Center at: Tel: 202-691-4170; Fax: 202-691-4001
E mail:Â fellowships@wilsoncenter.org
You can apply online or download the application from the Center’s website:  http://www.wilsoncenter.org/fellowships.
Application deadline: October 1, 2010
Kim Conner
Fellowship Specialist
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC Â 20004-3027
phone: 202-691-4214; fax: 202-691-4001
kim.conner@wilsoncenter.org
Africa IMF Reports : Ivory Coast 2010
Abidjan Ivory Coast
[Photo credit:Â abdallahh]
IMF reports for Côte d’Ivoire 2010
Country Report No. 10/228: Côte d’Ivoire
Second Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility, Request for Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria, and Financing Assurances Review – Staff Report; Staff Statement; Press Release on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Côte d’Ivoire
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24071.0Press Release
IMF Executive Board Completes Second Review Under Côte d’Ivoire’s Three-Year Credit Facility, Approves US$53.5 Million Disbursement
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10284.htmCountry Report No. 10/115: Côte d’Ivoire
Enhanced Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative – Request for Additional Interim Assistance; and Press Release
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=23855.0Press Release
IMF Executive Board Approved Additional Interim Assistance Request Under the Enhanced HIPC Initiative for Côte d’Ivoire
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10128.htm
Statement of the IMF Mission at the Conclusion of its Visit to Côte d’Ivoire
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10105.htmIMF Policy Paper
Côte d’Ivoire-Assessment Letter for the International Financial Community
Summary: This letter provides an assessment of recent macroeconomic developments in Côte d’Ivoire and an update on the discussions of Fund staff with the Côte d’Ivoire authorities on macroeconomic policies and structural reforms that could form the basis for the authorities’ request for a new arrangement supported by the International Monetary Fund.
http://www.imf.org/external/pp/longres.aspx?id=4425
All information from http://www.imf.org
Suggested Book (US)
Africa IMF Reports : Burundi 2010
Gitega, Burundi
[Photo credit: d_proffer]
IMF Reports for Burundi 2010
Country Report No. 10/313: Burundi
2010 Article IV Consultation and Fourth Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria – Staff Report; Staff Supplement; Public Information Notice and Press Release on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Burundi
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24268.0Country Report No. 10/312: Burundi
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper – Second Implementation Report
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24267.0Country’s Policy Intentions Documents — Burundi
Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding, July 7, 2010
http://www.imf.org/External/NP/LOI/2010/bdi/070710.pdfPublic Information Notice
IMF Executive Board Concludes 2010 Article IV Consultation for the Republic of Burundi
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pn/2010/pn10125.htmPress Release
Statement at the Conclusion of an IMF Staff Mission to Burundi
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10226.htmCountry Report No. 10/75: Burundi
Third Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility – Staff Report and Press Release
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=23732.0Country’s Policy Intentions Documents — Burundi
Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding, January 21, 2010
http://www.imf.org/External/NP/LOI/2010/bdi/012110.pdfPress Release
IMF Executive Board Completes Third Review Under ECF Arrangement for Burundi and Approves Disbursement of US$10 Million
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr1040.htmWorking Paper No. 09/11
How Can Burundi Raise Its Growth Rate?The Impact of Civil Conflicts and State Intervention on Burundi’s Growth Performance
Author/Editor: Basdevant, Olivier
Summary: Over the last thirty years Burundi’s low economic growth has led to a significant decline in per capita GDP. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on supply-side constraints that prevented Burundi’s economy from growing faster. Lack of investment, civil conflict, economic inefficiencies, state intervention in the economy, and regulatory restrictions explain a large part of the weak growth performance for the last thirty years.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=22556.0
All information from http://www.imf.org
Suggested Books (US)
- Burundi: The Biography of a Small African Country (Columbia/Hurst)
- The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960-2000 (Country Case Study Series) (Volume 2)
- Breaking the Cycle: A Strategy for Conflict-sensitive Rural Growth in Burundi (World Bank Working Papers)
Africa IMF Reports : Guinea Bissau 2010
IMF reports for Guinea Bissau 2010
Country Report No. 10/382: Guinea-Bissau
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper-Second Annual Progress Report
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24535.0Country Report No. 10/380: Guinea-Bissau
Enhanced Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries-Completion Point Document and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24533.0Country Report No. 10/379: Guinea-Bissau
First Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility and Financing Assurances Review-Staff Report; Staff Statement; Press Release on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Guinea-Bissau
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24532.0Country Report No. 10/381: Guinea-Bissau
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper-Second Annual Progress Report-Joint Staff Advisory Note
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24534.0IMF Survey: IMF. World Bank Back $1.2 Billion Debt Relief for Guinea-Bissau
The IMF and the World Bank decide to support $1.2 billion in debt relief for Guinea-Bissau. The move will cut the West African country’s external debt by 87 percent and help normalize relations with external creditors, while sending a positive signal to donors and potential investors.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2010/car121710a.htmPress Release
IMF and World Bank Announce US$1.2 Billion in Debt Relief for Guinea-Bissau
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10498.htmCountry’s Policy Intentions Documents — Guinea-Bissau
Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding, November 16, 2010
http://www.imf.org/External/NP/LOI/2010/gnb/111610.pdf
Press ReleaseIMF Executive Board Completes First Review Under Extended Credit Facility for Guinea-Bissau and Approves US$3.71 Million Disbursement
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10492.htmPress Release
Statement at the end of an IMF Mission to Guinea-Bissau
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10364.htmPress Release
IMF Concludes Staff Visit to Guinea-Bissau
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10257.htm
All information from http://www.imf.org. Reports will be added as published.
Suggested Books (US)
- Guinea-Bissau: Statistical Appendix (IMF Country Report)
- Conflict, Livelihoods, and Poverty in Guinea-Bissau (World Bank Working Papers)
Africa IMF Reports : Sierra Leone 2010
IMF reports for Sierra Leone 2010
Country Report No. 10/370: Sierra Leone: 2010
Article IV Consultation and First Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility, Request for Modification of Performance Criterion, and Financing Assurances Review-Staff Report; Public Information Notice and Press Release on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Sierra Leone
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24518.0
Country Report No. 10/371: Sierra Leone
Ex Post Assessment of Longer-Term Program Engagement
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24519.0
Country’s Policy Intentions Documents — Sierra Leone
Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding, January 1, 2010
http://www.imf.org/External/NP/LOI/2010/sle/111710.pdf
Public Information Notice
IMF Executive Board Concludes 2010 Article IV Consultation with Sierra Leone
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pn/2010/pn10156.htm
Press Release
IMF Executive Board Completes First Review Under ECF Arrangement with Sierra Leone and Approves US$6.83 Million Disbursement
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10474.htm
Transcript of a Press Conference by African Finance Ministers at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Annual Meetings (includes Sierra Leone)
http://www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2010/tr101010.htm
Press Release
Statement at the Conclusion of an IMF Mission to Sierra Leone
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10348.htm
Country’s Policy Intentions Documents — Sierra Leone
Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding, May 18, 2010
http://www.imf.org/External/NP/LOI/2010/sle/051810.pdf
Country Report No. 10/176: Sierra Leone
Sixth Review Under the Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility, Request for Waiver for Nonobservance of a Performance Criterion, Request for a Three-Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility, and
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=23985.0
Press Release
IMF Executive Board Completes Sixth Review Under Sierra-Leone’s ECF, and Approves a New three-year ECF
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10228.htm
Press Release
Statement at the Conclusion of an IMF Mission to Sierra Leone
http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10109.htm
All information from http://www.imf.org
Suggested Books
- Sierra Leone (Bradt Travel Guide)
- Sierra Leone (Cultures of the World)
- Africa and IMF Conditionality: The Unevenness of Compliance, 1983-2000 (African Studies)
