Promoting Progressive African Thought Leadership

Angebote / Angebote:

This book represents what might be called 'symbolic capital' in the sense that, under the rubric of the Concerned Africans Forum (CAF), it is an attempt to develop a different set of lenses for understanding many of the critical themes that shape South African current public discourse and body of opinion. This kind of capital that the CAF has promoted is not only about how these themes are articulated and expressed from a progressive and critical perspective. It is also, quite crucially, about how the use of this capital can serve to influence debate and understanding as well as the agenda of public discussion, especially as this relates to Africa. The offerings contained in the book have evolved out of the presentations and discussions that the CAF has hosted since its inception. The Forum had its origin in the West's manipulative intrigue in engineering regime change in Libya, together with tendentious and self-serving media coverage ñ both Western and South African - that went with it. The Libyan conflict again demonstrated the consequences of the imbalance in the global power relations. Thus those with preponderant political and military power could take decisions to determine the future of Libya, to the detriment of the Libyan and African peoples. The CAF Open Letter on Libya was very prescient and warned about the dangers that would accompany the social and political trauma of regime change in that country. Other similar open letters or statements also followed on Syria. These have been reproduced at the end of the book. However, it is in the strategic and topical relevance of many other issues addressed in its chapters that the book has added immense value and refreshing perspectives. A sampling of the analytical coverage includes the conflict in Mali and how this plays out across the Sahel region, the changing political landscape in Egypt following the ousting of Mohammed Mursi, the al-Shabaabled attack at a Nairobi shopping mall, the implications of the al-Qaíeda threat in Africa, and the US geo-political agenda in Africa and its militarised impulses. The book also reflects on important topics in the South African setting, such as challenges of nation-building and inequality. This book opens a window to the need for critical vigilance and ongoing reflection about the mounting complexities that come with power-as domination in our extremely fluid continental and global environments.