Political and social thought in Africa / Helmi Sharawy ; with an introduction by Samir Amin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shaʻrāwī, Ḥilmī, author.

Amin, Samir, author of introduction, etc.

Series:

Codesria book series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Africa--Intellectual life.

Africa.

Africa--Politics and government.

Africa--Social conditions.

Africa--Civilization.

Africa--Relations--Arab countries.

Arab countries--Relations--Africa.

Arab countries.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (258 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Dakar, [Senegal] : CODESRIA, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The essays collected together in this book reflect the author s varied experiences in the realms of politics and social struggle; he notes that they cannot be separated from his other experiences in his country, Egypt, over the years. These experiences extend from popular culture or folklore, through the wider political world of African liberation politics, to the Committee for the Defence of National Culture. This book is like a long trip through African culture from the 1950s to the beginning of the 21st century. These essays will most likely provoke a lot of memories, sweet and bitter; with maybe the bitter ones as the more lasting. The author notes that it appears as if the only relationship that seems to have mattered, for a long time, for the Egyptians with the rest of Africa was the river Nile, which joins the country to ten other countries, while a vast desert stands in-between. Such separation ignores the ancient relations between Pharaonic Egypt and the rest of Africa, and the role of Egypt in supporting many liberation movements on the continent. The author has set himself some tough questions in this book: Is it legitimate today to use race to sub-divide the African continent? Can this, moreover, be simply done as if race is ahistorical or an idealistic concept of identities? Or are we going to talk about Arabism in Egypt, Libya or Maghreb as if it were an identity gained with the advent of the Arabs, implying that these were lands with no people a sort of No Man s Land ? Or was this a fragile space that could not confront the invading empire? Or will Arabism equate with Bantuism or negroism sometimes, and Hausa and Swahili cultures at other times? These are the types of issues that Helmi Sharawy examines in this very important book. Experiences that inform this book began with the author s first encounter in March 1956, with some African youths who were in Cairo for higher studies or as representatives of liberation movements with whom he worked as an intermediary with the Egyptian national state, which work left on him an everlasting impression."

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Contents

Preface

Introduction. The Alternative to the Neoliberal System of Globalisation and Militarism

The Alternative: Social Progress, Democratisation and Negotiated Interdependence

Combining the Expansion of Social Movements and the Rebuilding of the Political Citizen

The Collective Imperialism of the Triad, the Hegemonic Offensive of the United States and the Militarisation of Globalisation

Elements for a Popular Counter-strategy

PART 1 - Times of Confrontation

1. Arab-African Relations from Liberation to Globalisation

The Spread of the Arab Islamic Empire

Phases of Modern Identity Building

From Liberation to Solidarity

The Spirit of Liberation Loses its Heat

2. Mohammad Fayek: African Memories of the July Revolution

The Climate that Imposed Egypt's Outreach Towards Africa

The July Revolution's Concepts of Africa: The Identity and the Strategy

Institutionalizing the Egyptian Action in Africa

The African Policies of Egypt, and the Relations with the Liberation Movements

Some Final Remarks: An Open Conclusion

3. Abdel Malek Ouda: Egyptian Nationalism and Africa

I

II

4. Mehdi Ben Barka: From Bandung to Havana

5. Israel: A Sub-imperialist Power in the Third World

The Concept of Sub-imperialism in Relation to Israel

A Distorted Development Strengthened by the Imperialist Powers

Israel's Foreign Relations Follow an Imperialist Pattern

Israel's Development in the Seventies

Conclusion

PART 2 - Times of Interactions

6. The Heritage of African Language Manuscripts Written in Arabic Characters (Ajami)

The Framework for Interest in Ajami Manuscripts

Study Plan

Some Remarks on the Chosen Texts

7. E.W. Blyden: The Modern African Voyage to Egypt and the Levant.

Blyden's Cultural Background and Assessment of African Culture

Blyden's Intellectual Voyage between the African, Pharaonic and Arab-Islamic Cultures

Blyden's Voyage to Egypt and the Levant

8. Mahmood Mamdani: A Rebel from Dar es Salaam

The Ideological Foundation

The Leap Forward

Social Politics: The Citizen and the Subject

Confronting Media Terrorism on Darfur

The Cultural Debate: Good Muslim, Bad Muslim

9. The Sudanese Issue: The View from the South

A Method for Approaching the Sudanese Question

The Roots of the Problem: The Alienation, 1947-1972

A Chance for Trust Building, Lost, 1972-1983

Why was the Chance Lost in the 1970s?

Vision of a New Sudan

The Decline?

What Led to Such a Deterioration of the Situation?

The Naivasha Agreement

10. African Renaissance in the Experience of the New Anti-apartheid Regime

Introduction

Part One: The Renaissance Projects in Africa after Liberation

The Challenges of the New Project in South Africa

Post-apartheid South Africa

Part Two: The Ideological World of Thabo Mbeki

Who is the African?

A New Nation

The Pillars of the Project

South Africa and the African Continent

South Africa and the World

PART 3 - Times of Ideas

11. Culture and Intellectuals: Challenging Globalisation

First: The Interaction Phase

Second: The Cold War and the National Liberation State

Third: In the Context of Globalisation

12. Frantz Fanon and the African Revolution Revisited at the Time of Globalisation

Unchanged Agenda

From Colonialism to Imperialism

Violence and Liberation

Alienation and Presence

Which Social Analysis?

The African Revolution and Fanon's Dialectics in a New World

Fanon in the Arab World

Conclusion.

13. Re-reading Amilcar Cabral: National Culture and Identity in the Age of Globalisation

Cabral's Stance on Culture and Identity

The Challenges of Globalization and the State of National Liberation

Some African and Arab Issues Treated in the Light of Cabral's Thinking

14. The End of Anthropology - The African Debate on the Universality of Social Research and Its 'Indigenisation': An Essay Dedicated to Archie Mafeje

A Special Relationship with Archie Mafeje

The End of Anthropology

Reconstructing the Old Concepts

15. Samir Amin: Coming Late to the Arab World

Circumstances of Absence and Presence

Amin's Presence in the Maghreb (North Africa)

Amin's Presence in the Mashrek

Institutional Presence

Samir Amin's Arabic Literature

16. Not an Autobiography of the Author

III

IV

V

VI

VII

Bibliography

Back cover.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9782869786134

2869786131

OCLC:

905690352