Newsletter - June 2012
Newsletter - June 2012

Facing the law and not liking it

NAI researcher Anders Sjögren comments on the Kenyan cases before the ICC

The ICC trials in Kenya will take place after the next Kenyan presidential and parliamentary elections in March next year. Two of the accused for crimes against humanity, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, have declared that they will run for the office of president, regardless of the ICC process.
Kenyan politics is highly polarised and the election is a do-or-die affair for the accused. In many ways, it is so for Kenya as a country too. A flawed process may result in a crisis similar to, or worse than, that of 2007-08.

Read full comment on the ICC trial in Kenya by NAI researcher Anders Sjögren

Rethinking gender

– Gender relations should be investigated, not assumed. Policies not corresponding with people´s lives are unlikely to succeed, says former NAI researcher Signe Arnfred.

Signe Arnfred´s book ´Sexuality and Gender Politics in Mozambique` won the Danish KRAKA-award for its contribution to research on gender, culture and kin in Africa.

Her research shows that despite tremendous political changes in Mozambique over the last 50 years – from colonial rule and liberation struggle, through socialist regime and civil war to the contemporary neo-liberal market economy – political views on gender haven´t changed much at all.

– Naturally, the often traumatic transitions are reflected in Mozambican society as a whole. But regarding gender politics there has been more continuity than change, says Signe Arnfred.

Read complete article

Sahel region after Gaddafi

A workshop organised by the Nordic Africa Institute and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) will explore the emerging security challenges in the Sahel region after the fall of Gaddafi. These challenges have become evident in the unclear political situation in Mali over the last few months.
Local political maps are being redrawn, by political and military strongmen who have lost their chief patron. Politically, it is crucial to understand what impact returning mercenary soldiers from the Gaddafi regime will have on the region´s many local armed struggles. Furthermore, what will the consequences be of the influx of arms and ammunition from Libya?

Read invitation to the workshop in Accra, 28-29 June.

NAI at new premises

The Nordic Africa Institute is moving to new premises and from 1 September you will find us at Afrikahuset i Botan  (The Africa house in the Botanical garden), Villavägen 6, Uppsala.
Telephone (from 1/9-2012): +46 (0)18 47 15 200.
The NAI Library is closed for the summer and will open at the new address 1 October.

 

 

Grab or Investment?

NAI researcher Kjell Havnevik will participate in a panel discussing foreign agricultural investments in Africa during Almedalsveckan at Gotland 6 July.  Almedalsveckan is a week full of seminars and panels - attended by many Swedish politicians and policy-makers.

More and better jobs

The 2012 Annual Development Effectiveness Review from the African Development Bank is out. The main points are summarized by the team leader, Simon Mizrahi, in this article published at NAI Forum.
"Africa’s growth is often concentrated in a few sectors and areas, benefiting only part of the population. We need to change the quality of growth, to create more and better jobs and economic opportunities and lift more Africans out of poverty."

Read the full article at NAI Forum

 

Human rights fundamentalism disregards the poor

"Human rights are often the concern of organisations and donors. These concerns do not, however, necessarily reflect the claims of those whose rights have been violated", says Harri Englund, who spoke at the 50th anniversary seminar of the Nordic Africa Institute on 21 May in Helsinki, Finland.
Read the complete article at  the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland's webpage.

Harri Englund is a former NAI-researcher and is currently based at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Cambridge.

 

Africa research on film

Many lectures, seminars and other program activities of the Nordic Africa Institute are recorded on video.
Among the latest films are a public lecture on State Building and Federalism in the Horn of Africa by professor John Markakis, and a public panel debate on Transitional Justice in Post-Conflict Societies.
Also watch the much appreciated film where NAI researcher Kjell Havnevik discusses the concept of food security.