Negotiating various spaces such as the family or society by women was always a difficult terrain for many and a reality of women lives across the globe. The Cooperative Conflict Approach to Gender ...

This work is part of a series of study demonstrating that the Southern African Development Community Standby Force (SADCSF) does not possess the required skill and competence to approach peace operations by Africans despite her claims to Pan-Africanism. Hence, this study questions: How feasible can the SADCSF fund peace operation in the region without external interventions? A descriptive method based on empirical data and literature is pursued. The central theme coming strongly in this study is that the present structure and alignment of the SADC Standby Force cannot guarantee peace operation without external intervention, centred on the argument that the challenges or barriers confronting the force is much complex and sophisticated for the SADC alone.

Post-apartheid South Africa has experienced its largest in-flow of migrants since the start of the crisis in Zimbabwe almost two decades ago from which Zimbabwe has yet to recover. This article aims to analyse the origins of the increased influx of Zimbabweans into South Africa, as well as consider the South African government's response. Following an examination of the origins of the crisis, this article argues that while there are multiple dimensions to the crisis, it is ultimately a crisis of governance. It contends that poor policy decisions have negatively impacted on the economy and supports this with Zimbabwe's scoring in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance since 2000. The article then attributes the mass exodus of Zimbabweans to the governance crisis and describes the mixed nature of Zimbabwean migration into South Africa since 2000. Thereafter, it analyses the South African government's response towards Zimbabwean migration, which was initially slow and influenced by its foreign policy towards Zimbabwe, which failed to recognize a crisis of governance. It concludes that following the 2013 elections, Zimbabwe may yet slide further backwards and fail to stem the tide of migration.

North Africa at present is an arena of new sorts of popular political expressions. The region emerged as the major theatre of the Arab spring, where the persistent mass protests ended up in overthr...

This paper focuses on the role that physical properties play in the production and distribution of illegal drugs. Using the primary examples of cocaine, cannabis, and heroin, the paper argues that there is a causal relationship between the physical properties of a drug and the manner in which it will be produced and distributed. By explicitly borrowing concepts frequently found in studies concerning resource creation and conflict, the paper uses a transdisciplinary conceptual framework with which to examine some of the factors and mechanisms that have helped to shape the contemporary trade in illegal drugs, with specific reference to West Africa. We have further highlighted some of the means and modes of transport now employed by drug smugglers, showing how they can be situated in relation to policing measures and tactics. By taking into account these physical properties, as well as by focusing on the demand for and value of individual drugs – not to mention the risk calculations that frequently inform different patterns and methods of distribution – we argue that a more nuanced approach to drug policing and legislation is not only possible, but necessary. While the role that the physical properties and ascribed value of specific resources play can be used to show how they contribute to conflict patterns, little explicit attention has been given to how these same features may influence the transnational trade in illicit substances. The need for more nuanced understandings are becoming increasingly important, especially in areas such as West and Southern Africa, where the prescriptions of the now failed ‘war on drugs’ found little use or traction, and have failed to adequately reduce the production, distribution, or consumption of various illicit drugs.

This paper examines actions and narratives of war rape survivors of the Second Congo War. The Second Congo War, which officially began in 1998, is an enduring armed struggle that involves more than fighting for mineral resources. It also involves massive attacks against women (i.e. by engaging in the systematic rape of women). The theoretical framework used in this analysis is symbolic convergence theory (SCT). Coined by Bormann [1972. “Fantasy and Rhetorical Vision: The Rhetorical Criticism of Social Reality.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 58: 396–407], SCT postulates that group consciousness is achieved when a group shares emotions, experiences, and stories. SCT regards group cohesion as a result of rhetorical visions by delivering a collective objective through fantasy themes, fantasy types, symbolic cues, and sagas. An important conclusion of this analysis is that, through various forms of symbolic convergence and fantasies, Congolese women are able to cope with the reality of war rape and ‘navigate’ (in the best way they can) in today's society. In other words, SCT helps to explain how rape survivors find ways to mitigate their own suffering.

Ghana's 1992 Constitution is a hybrid arrangement that combines some features of both the US Presidential and British Westminster systems of Government. Having modelled three different constitutions along the lines of both systems since 1960, there emerged the preference for constitutional hybridity in 1992. This was based on the assumption that the best constitution is a mixed system that borrows from the features of the two main systems of government. Nevertheless, after over 20 years of operation, this study shows that Ghana's 1992 Constitution upsets the balance of power between the arms of government, particularly between the executive and legislature and in favour of the former in a manner that undermines constitutionalism. This paper discusses the specific arrangements and provisions of the hybrid constitution and how they facilitate the exercise of unbridled as well as unmitigated executive power. It makes a call for the abolition of the hybrid system and an adherence to either of the two main systems, but not both.

(2011). Africa's Economic Resurgence: Is it Possible? Africa Review: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 17-31.