"You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness." (Thomas Sankara)
Last weekend, a very special journey came to an end. It took me from Cape Town via many places in Namibia, Zambia and Tanzania to the Musichimi Health Centre in Eastern Uganda. While I had travelled all these countries before, I had never done so with the responsibility to deliver a much needed ambulance vehicle.
TIM ZAJONTZ, St Andrews Africa Summit Review 3/2017
“The TAZARA of today is no longer what it used to be”, explains Robert (name altered) to me. I met him at a railway crossing not far from Ishitu in Zambia’s Northern Province. He has been working for the bi-national railway corporation for 25 years. We both gaze at the remains of a derailed cargo train. Robert reports that derailments have become more frequent in recent years, just like month-long non-payments of salaries to the 2,797 TAZARA employees. Yet, he also remembers the glory days of the “Uhuru Railway” – the Freedom Railway. Continue reading “From the freedom struggle to a fight for economic survival – the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA)”
TIM ZAJONTZ, St Andrews Africa Summit Review 1/2017
The recent scenes of students clashing with riot police and private security forces on heavily securitised South African university campuses are emblematic for a nation in a desperate search for political orientation. They are also a pressing reminder of how fragile the post-apartheid political consensus to overcome a society built on coercion and violence actually is. It is the so called ‘born frees’, the generation of young South Africans that was born in a democratic republic, who most manifestly expose the country’s severe vulnerabilities: a blatant lack of moral leadership and governance failures that, if unaltered, allow for serious doubts about the survival of the ‘Rainbow Nation’s’ social contract. Continue reading “The demise of the post-apartheid consensus and South Africa’s search for leadership”
In der Reihe “Interkulturelle Wochen” lädt der Freundeskreis Uganda am Sonntagzur Vorführung des Films “Miners Shot Down” in die Rätsche ein.
GEISLINGER ZEITUNG
Der Emmy-prämierte Dokumentarfilm “Miners Shot Down”, den der Freundeskreis Uganda in der Veranstaltungsreihe “Interkulturelle Wochen” am Sonntag um 19.30 Uhr in der Geislinger Rätsche zeigt, handelt vom Streik für bessere Löhne in Südafrikas größter Platin-Mine. Er ist als Marikana-Massaker in die Geschichtsbücher eingegangen, der das Land am Kap für immer veränderte. Continue reading “Streben nach Gerechtigkeit endet in Blutbad”
Abstract
The purpose of this article is a theoretical one, namely to make the case for a critical-reflectivist approach to the study of regionalism in Africa and beyond. We argue that contemporary changes in the global political economy require political economists to reconsider how we study regional processes and actors. The article provides insights into the sociology of the field of study by recounting its evolution, reviewing key debates and tracing the dominance of rationalist theories on regional integration and regionalism. Subsequently, the article questions the ontological premises of state-centrism and market logics in conventional regional theorization that does not take account of the complexities and multidimensionality of regions and regional processes. Traditional approaches to regionalism fail to do justice to regional manifestations and the repercussions of Africa’s changing transnational relations as well as to crucial dynamics within regional civil societies. In this respect, the analytical value of both Robert W. Cox’s World Order Approach (WOA) and the New Regionalism(s) Approach (NRA) for challenging the theoretical hegemony in the field of study is elaborated on. The theoretical framework proposed in this article points to neglected dimensions of regionalization and stresses both structural factors as well as the myriad of regional actors and their respective regional strategies as drivers of the changing nature of developing regionalisms in Africa. The authors’ claim that regionalism is everything but a ‘states only’ domain is substantiated by the proposed conceptualization of regional civil society, a persistent analytical ‘blind spot’ in the study of regionalism. Drawing eclectically on the WOA and the NRA, the article provides a theoretical ‘entry-point’ for the analytical incorporation of regional civil societies into the political economy of African regionalisms. The article concludes by arguing that analytical and theoretical sensitivity to potentially transformative societal actors and processes at the regional level becomes increasingly relevant in the context of shared experiences of neoliberal globalization/regionalization as well as of Africa’s new ‘partnerships’ with emerging powers.
Abstract
This article assesses the potential of civil society in the region of southern Africa to act as a catalyst for transformation towards broader inclusivity and a people-centred approach to regional integration and socio-economic development. This is done through an empirical case study which focuses on four regional civil society organisations (CSOs), namely the Council of NGOs (CNGO) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Southern African Trade Union Co-ordination Council (SATUCC), the Economic Justice Network (EJN) of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa (FOCCISA), and the Southern African People’s Solidarity Network (SAPSN). We found that the organisations are constrained by a lack of financial autonomy, and dependency on donor funding. Capacity is further hampered because the CSOs are managed by a small number of professional activists. Moreover, the organisations’ representativeness and legitimacy among the regional populace is limited. There are also important ideological and strategic differences between them, and a lack of effective (strategic) co-ordination has so far inhibited the creation of a broader, transformative regional civil society alliance. Yet we could also identify an awareness of the necessity to strengthen organisational capacity, to increase popular support and to enhance collaboration, using a strategy that combines the technocratic development of an alternative regionalism and meaningfully incorporates social movements and grassroots initiatives. Furthermore, there is evidence that regional civil society plays an increasingly important role in articulating popular contestation to neoliberal modes of governance in southern Africa, as well as in linking localised, nationalised and regionalised struggles in the region. Finally, the dynamics of regional civil society investigated here show that regionalism is anything but a ‘states only’ domain. Civil society regionalisation constitutes a crucial feature of the southern African region. Regional civil society as a force for transformation is constrained and must overcome some serious challenges, yet it remains a possibility.
Es ist allein dem Geislinger Kleinstadtleben und der dazugehörigen Jeder-hilft-jedem-Mentalität zu verdanken, dass aus einer Schüler-Initiative der gemeinnützige Verein Freundeskreis Uganda e.V. entstand. Heute zählt der Afrika-Verein knapp 100 Mitglieder, leistet Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe und fördert den interkulturellen Dialog.
koi – Das neue Geislinger Stadtmagazin, Ausgabe 62, Juli 2015 Continue reading “koi stellt vor: Freundeskreis Uganda e.V.”
Zu einem interkulturellen Training hat jüngst der Freundeskreis Uganda geladen. Eine bunte Truppe von 25 Teilnehmern traf sich dazu in Sankt Johannes.
Geislinger Zeitung
Was ist Kultur? Und welche Auswirkungen hat sie auf unser Zusammenleben? Welche Prozesse gehen in uns vor, wenn wir fremde Kulturen und Menschen wahrnehmen? Mit diesen und weiteren Fragen beschäftigten sich die Teilnehmer des Treffens in der Krypta von Sankt Johannes. Gekommen waren neben in Geislingen lebenden Flüchtlingen und Mitgliedern des Geislinger Arbeitskreises Asyl auch Vertreter aus Kommunalpolitik und Verwaltung. “Derzeit redet das ganze Land pausenlos über Asylsuchende und die Auswirkungen der anhaltenden Flüchtlingswellen. Dabei wird viel zu selten miteinander statt übereinander geredet. Zu verstehen, was uns trennt und verbindet, ist aber die Voraussetzung für gutes Zusammenleben”, erläuterte der Vorsitzende des Freundeskreises Uganda, Tim Zajontz, die Initiative seines Vereins. Continue reading “Kultur verstehen und voneinander lernen”
Am Freitagabend kamen 200 Gäste in der Geislinger Seemühle zusammen, um eine Lokalgröße zu feiern: Martin “Hansa” Wachter wurde 50.
TIM ZAJONTZ, Geislinger Zeitung
Es gibt wohl nur wenige Geislinger, die eine solch unterschiedliche Festgemeinde zu ihrem 50. Geburtstag versammeln können. Unter den zum Teil von weit her angereisten Partygästen waren Junge wie Junggebliebene, Lokalpolitiker und Punks. Alle kamen, um die ersten 50 Jahre eines alternativen, nicht immer leichten Lebenswegs zu würdigen. Continue reading “50 Jahr, buntes Haar”
Die Europapolitik war in Uhingen Thema einer Podiumsdiskussion, welche die SPD organisiert hat. Die Redner forderten Solidarität und Wachstum.
DANIEL GRUPP, Neue Württembergische Zeitung
UHINGEN. “Perspektiven für Europa” suchte der SPD-Kreisverband im Rahmen einer Podiumsdiskussion zur Europawahl im Uditorium in Uhingen. Vor etwa 25 Zuhörern befassten sich die Gesprächsteilnehmern mit der Finanzkrise und den Folgen, die sich daraus ergeben. Aber auch die Behandlung der Flüchtlinge, die nach Europa kommen und die Demokratiedefizite der Europäischen Union wurden besprochen. Continue reading ““Sparpolitik auf Gedeih und Verderb””