Counterpoints
ARI recently launched COUNTERPOINTS, a new series which aims to present critical accounts of defining ideas in and about Africa.
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How Rwanda judged its genocide
2nd May 2012Since 2001, the gacaca community courts have been the centrepiece of Rwanda’s justice and reconciliation process. Nearly every adult Rwandan has participated in the trials, but lawyers are banned from any official involvement. ...
Whatever happened to Africa's rapid urbanisation?
15th February 2012It is widely believed that urbanisation is occurring faster in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world, as migrants move from rural to urban settlements. This is a fallacy. While the populations of numerous urban areas are growing rapidly,...
Whodunnit in Southern Africa
7th July 2011Detective fiction has long been popular in Southern Africa. African writers have embraced and adapted detective narratives which have come to perform a variety of aesthetic, social and cultural functions. Thrillers offer complex insights into how a...
Talking gender to Africa
7th July 2011International donors have sought to improve the social, political and economic position of women in Africa through an approach known as “gender”. This donor-driven strategy is failing. The jargon of gender programmes is ambigu...
Voices of disquiet on the Malawian airwaves
7th July 2011Human Rights NGOs are considered vanguards in the struggle against injustice and authoritarianism in Africa. But their narrow focus on civil and political rights neglects widely held economic grievances. In Malawi, an audience-driven radio programme ...
Why Africa can make it big in agriculture
1st July 2010Self-sufficiency in food production is the new mantra of donors and policymakers in Africa. But farmers, large and small, can be much more ambitious. Agriculture is the continent’s most neglected – and important – potential competit...
