From Colonization to Globalization - Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Copyright © 2011 by KWAME NKRUMAH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
EDITORS: Charles Quist-Adade and Frances Chiang
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Articles and Speeches Presented at the Kwame Nkrumah International Conference held at
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Richmond BC Campus, in August 2010.
From Colonization to Globalization
Edited by Charles Quist-Adade, PhD and Frances Chiang, PhD
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, BC, Canada
Correspondence: Address all correspondence to: info@dayspringspublishing.com
5 PREFACE
7 WELCOME ADDRESS AT THE OPENING CEREMONY
Charles Quist-Adade, Conference Co-Organizer & Contributing Editor
12 THE CHARACTER OF KWAME NKRUMAH’S UNITED AFRICA VISION
MOLEFI KETE ASANTE
23 ‘AFRICA MUST UNITE:’ VINDICATING KWAME NKRUMAH AND UNITING
AFRICA AGAINST GLOBAL DESTRUCTION
HENRY KAM KAH
34 RECLAIMING OUR AFRICANNESS IN THE DISAPORIZED CONTEXT: THE
CHALLENGE OF ASSERTING A CRITICAL AFRICAN PERSONALITY
GEORGE J. SEFA DEI
45 FROM NKRUMAH TO NEPAD AND BEYOND: HAS ANYTHING CHANGED?
CATHERINE SCHITTECATTE
60 KWAME NKRUMAH’S MISSION AND VISION FOR AFRICA AND THE WORLD
VINCENT DODOO
71 SOVEREIGNTY AND THE AFRICAN UNION
LEILA J. FARMER
80 PAN-AFRICAN CONFERENCES, 1900 – 1953:
WHAT DID ‘PAN-AFRICANISM’ MEAN?
MARIKA SHERWOOD
94 THE INTELLECTUAL AND POLITICAL LEGACIES OF KWAME NKRUMAH
AMA BINEY
105 FESTIVAL AS AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE:
THE AFRICAN CULTURAL MEMORY YOUTH ARTS FESTIVAL (ACMYAF)
PETER MBAGO WAKHOLI
118 EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS: AFRICA’S SAVING GRACE?
JULIA BERRY
125 FROM THE TEMPLES OF EGYPT TO EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE'S
PAN-AFRICAN UNIVERSITY
JOHN K. MARAH

146 PERSPECTIVES ON AFRICAN DECOLONIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT:
THE CASE OF KENYA
OMOSA MOGAMBI NTABO AND KENNEDY ONKWARE
155 50 YEARS OF KISWAHILI IN REGIONAL
AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
SUSAN CHEBET-CHOGE, M.PHIL
178 FORGING SPACES AND READING ACROSS BOUNDARIES
RASHNA SINGH
184 THE UNITED STATES PEACE CORPS AS A FACET OF
UNITED STATES-GHANA RELATIONS
E. OFORI BEKOE, MA
193 THE EPIPHANY OF UBUNTU IN KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT:
AN AFRICAN WAY
RAMADIMETJA SHIRLEY MOGALE,
199 THE ROLE OF THE DECOLONIZATION COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED
NATIONS ORGANIZATION IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PORTUGUESE
COLONIALISM IN AFRICA: 1961-1974
AURORA ALMADA E SANTOS
210 BEYOND THE IDEOLOGY OF ‘CIVIL WAR’:
THE GLOBAL-HISTORICAL CONSTITUTION OF POLITICAL
VIOLENCE IN SUDAN
ALISON J. AYERS
229 WOMEN AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN WEST AFRICA:
THE CASE OF CADD, A COMMUNITY-BASED GROUP FOCUSING ON
CONSUMPTION ISSUES.
CHARLES BELANGER
239 ENEMIES TO ALLIES?
THE DYNAMICS OF RWANDA-CONGO MILITARY, ECONOMIC AND
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
GREG QUEYRANNE
244 RACIALIZATION OF ASIA, AFRICA AND AMERICAS AND THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE IDEAL IRANIAN CITIZEN: LOCAL AND GLOBAL
REPRESENTATIONS OF COLONIALISM, GEOGRAPHY, CULTURE AND
RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY IN IRANIAN SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS
AMIR MIRFAKHRAIE

PREFACE
Once again, Africa is the site of political
ferment and external power interference.
Recent events in the north of Africa, starting
with Tunisia, then Egypt and leading to the socalled
‘Arab-Spring’ has reinforced the pivotal
role this continent plays in world affairs. On
one hand, it is a marginalized and virtually
ignored continent in world forums, yet on the
other hand, it carries significant weight in the
plans for global dominance and control by
several western and non-western countries. In
almost the same breath that many non-African
nations speak disparagingly about the
continent, they hatch plans to further retain
control of its resources and peoples,
emphasizing its strategic relevance for their
future economic and political survival. Africa, it
seems, is a land of contradictions, so poor and
yet so rich.
THE CONFERENCE
In August 2010, over 120 participants from
four continents, gathered to share ideas and
knowledge about the political and intellectual
legacies of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, especially as it
applies to Africa. It is often said that Kwame
Nkrumah is one of the greatest political leaders
the African continent has ever had, standing on
the same plane as other ‘greats’ like Jomo
Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela. On the
centennial anniversary of his birth, it comes as
no surprise that African leaders and
intellectuals would come together to discuss
his impact and legacy on the African continent,
especially so considering recent global turmoils
and sense of a lack of direction worldwide.
Participants at the conference included the
Temple University Professor, Molefi Kete
Asante, one of the most distinguished
contemporary scholars, as well as the
author/co-author and editor of no less than 70
books and scholarly articles—who provided
the keynote address in celebration of the
conference, together with other scholars of
similar calibre and talent in the context(s) of
Pan-Africanism, post/neo-colonialism and
globalization via a cross-disciplinary, multicentric,
and international perspectives.
The overarching objective of the Kwame
Nkrumah International Conference (KNIC) was
to provide an avenue for the creation and
sharing of knowledge on ways to break Africa’s
cycle of underdevelopment, and proposals for

Thank you all Seema, Farhad, and John for the
kind words.
While I would reserve my thanks to the long list
of helpers and enablers to the closing
ceremony, I cannot resist the temptation to
thank my colleague, Dr. Frances Chiang, who
more than anyone else, helped me in planning
and executing this conference. For the past two
years Dr. Chiang, in a display of extraordinary
patience and dodged determination has stuck
with me through thick and thin, through
moments of despair and disappointments,
frustration and anguish to the logical end.
Frances, I am grateful to you. You are one of the
most dependable and trustworthy persons I
have ever met.
I also think it is important to render special
thanks to the Social Science and Humanities
Research Council of Canada, Kwantlen’s Office
of Research and Scholarship and the Centre for
Academic Growth whose generous grants made
it possible for us to invite our keynote and
plenary speakers. Lastly, I thank my family for
their patience and tolerance. For the past two
From Colonization to Globalization
Welcome Address by Charles Quist-Adade
years they have had more than their fill of my
obsessive pre-occupation and the only string in
my conversational violin—KNIC. Geralda,
Maayaa, Christopher, and Malaika, thank you
for your tolerance and most of all your
encouragement. I am thankful to you.
This conference will probably be the last event
in the year-long series of activities around the
world to commemorate the centenary
anniversary of the birth of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah,
Africa’s Man of the Millennium and perhaps the
most famous pan-Africanist after Marcus
Garvey and W. E. B. Du Bois. It is noteworthy
that the conference is being held at the
confluence of the anniversaries of several
monumental events in Africa, the most
important of which is the fiftieth anniversary of
what is popularly referred to as “The Year of
Africa.”
The year 1960 witnessed a host of events,
including the end of the Mau Mau resistance in
Kenya, mass riots during Charles de Gaulle’s trip
to Algeria, the murder of sixty-nine non-violent
protestors in South Africa’s Sharpeville

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is
Professor, Department of
African American Studies at
Temple University.
Asante has been recognized
as one of the ten most
widely cited African
Americans. In the 1990s,
Black Issues in Higher
Education recognized him
as one of the most
influential leaders in the
decade.
ABSTRACT
I would like to give thanks to the ancestors, according to our tradition,
and to Professor Quist Adade for this invitation. This conference of
outstanding scholars, colleagues, and students will represent a
watershed in the discourse on Nkrumah’s vision and I am pleased to be
a small part of this discourse. My paper examines the prospects and
possibilities of world peace inherent in Nkrumah’s vision of a United
States of Africa. In effect, an Africa, freed from the vestiges of
colonialism in all of its dimensions; economic, philosophical, and
cultural, would lead to stability on the continent and remove it,
especially in its fragmented reality as nation-states, from being a hotly
contested region for international political maneuvers. Nkrumah’s
vision was political but also more than political; it was also cultural and
philosophical, and in his terms, Afro-centric.
This is the meaning of Nkrumah’s proposals for a new African
personality, one loosed from an attachment to European and
American cultural entanglements. Thus, my paper outlines the
practical arguments for the United States of Africa and demonstrates
how the resources of Africa are best preserved by a common external
policy and an integrated continental market. Ultimately, I would like
to re-iterate the Nkrumahist’s vision and announce his advanced
thinking for our era.
THE CHARACTER OF KWAME NKRUMAH’S UNITED AFRICA VISION
MOLEFI KETE ASANTE

Henry Kam Kah
University of Buea, Cameroon
Email: ndangso@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Over fifty years ago the prophetic Kwame Nkrumah called for and
wrote a book titled Africa must Unite. Many self-seeking African
leaders described him as a dreamer of impossibility. A few
decades after his clarion call, some European countries created
the European Union (EU) for their greater unity, collective benefit
and for providing global leadership. Since then, American and
Asian states have also come together, challenges
notwithstanding. Africa is yet to make any meaningful progress
towards a union government in spite of public acknowledgement
of this need by some of its leaders. The foot-dragging approach in
the unification of Africa has given rise to rapid westernisation in
the guise of globalisation to ‘squeeze the hell’ out of the
continent in virtually all domains of existence. In the midst of
these aggressive efforts, Nkrumah’s visionary appeal is more
pertinent and imperative today in the face of a weak African
socio-economic and political base. The time to unite is now and
there is excuse for continuous rhetoric. This paper examines the
salience of Kwame Nkrumah’s clarion call for a United Africa and
why this should be embraced forthwith by the sceptical
leadership and people of Africa both on the continent and in the
diaspora.

George J. Sefa Dei
Sociology and Equity Studies
University of Toronto
george.dei@utoronto.ca
ABSTRACT:
In the annals of African and Black peoples history, and
particularly anti-colonial nationalist politics, Nkrumah remains
in a unique position as a nationalist and anti-colonialist who
pioneered a struggle for Independence for the first Black nation
on the continent. Given the post-colonial challenges facing
African peoples today, African intellectuals today have a
responsibility to revisit some of his pioneering ideas as we seek
to design our own futures. To revisit Nkrumah is more than
about a ‘return to the source’ i.e., Sankofa’. It is also about to
return to the source to listen, learn, and hear that is ‘Sankotie’
and Sankowhe’ (see Aikins 2010). This paper would borrow
from the philosophy and ideas of Nkrumah as we rethink how
African peoples can design their own futures in the area of
schooling and education. I centre the possibilities Pan-African
spirituality as a base/sub structure on which rest the
possibilities of community building. I focus on Pan-African
spirituality as resistance to the disembodiment and
dismemberment in Diasporic contexts. In so doing, I will also
seek to draw connections of Afrocentricity and Pan-African
struggles to highlight the challenge and promise of African
agency.

© DR. CATHERINE SCHITTECATTE
VANCOUVER ISLAND UNIVERSITY,
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Chair of both Political Science and
the Global Studies Program
Prepared for the
Kwame Nkrumah International
Conference
Kwantlen University,
British Columbia
August 19-21, 2010
CATHERINE SCHITTECATTE
INTRODUCTION
Kwame Nkrumah’s foresight lay in his understanding that historical
and global patterns of exploitation would not be easily broken in
post-independence Africa. Given that understanding of Africa’s
situation, many of his policies, from domestic development plans
to Pan-Africanism, were intended to gain not only political but,
most importantly, economic independence for Ghana and the
continent. These views were related to Africa’s position in the
global economy and, in particular, its economic ties to the West.
As such, a second aspect of that vision was the ability of the newly
independent continent to de-link itself from past colonial masters
and new neo-colonial ones. A third related and most significant
component was the strength and feasibility of a unified continent.
The complexity, wealth and foresight of Nkrumah’s analysis of
Africa’s needs leave us a valuable framework with which to
understand the challenges and related solutions for Africa.
The paper explores several questions related to that framework.
As such, after providing some historical background in terms of
Nkrumah’s thinking and policies, the paper seeks to assess ways in
which the global context, foreign interests and related responses
in Africa have changed since his days in office. Where is the
continent today, relative to that analysis and Nkrumah’s related
policy recommendations? Since the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD) was launched in 2001, many have praised
or criticized the extent to which this document would represent a
break with the past. More specifically, the focus is on Sub Saharan
Africa, natural resource exploitation and foreign investments. The
paper begins with a brief discussion of some exogenous and
endogenous factors of underdevelopment and Nkrumah’s position
relative to these. These highlights of Nkrumah’s responses and
visions for the continent are then compared to NEPAD’s process,
objectives and aspirations in the context of potential “new
partners” in African development.
FROM NKRUMAH TO NEPAD AND BEYOND: HAS ANYTHING CHANGED?
CATHERINE SCHITTECATTE

Vincent Dodoo
Department of History and Political
Studies
Social Sciences Faculty, Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science & Technology.
Kumasi, Ghana.
vincentjon2006@yahoo.ca
ABSTRACT
Kwame Nkrumah had a vision not only for Africa but also the
whole world. He foresaw the imminence of a unified world in
which all sectors of society would have no choice but to work
together. His vision and mission then was to prepare Africa for
the task of playing a role in this approaching unified world
society, not as a subordinate continent but as an equal and
dignified member and partner. To achieve this, there was a need
to dismantle the structures of colonialism and put in their place
new structures to support local aspirations in order to promote
development and create a conducive environment, in which the
individual could operate. Nkrumah’s point of departure was the
newly created independent state, Ghana, from where he would
move into Africa and, thereafter, into the world. Nkrumah’s
thinking, therefore, operated at three levels. He began from the
concerns of the individual, moved on to address issues of the subsystemic
which was the state and finally settled on the systemic
which is the continent Africa and thereafter the world. He
recognized the need to create a conducive atmosphere for all
three to function freely in order to attain the desired goal of
equal players in a unified world society. Nkrumah had absorbed
from the teaching of Dr. James Eman Kwegyir Aggrey, as can be
seen later in this paper, the metaphor of the piano with its black
and white keys, together creating harmony and he used that to
demonstrate the potential of the African in the unified world
society.
Keywords: Colonialism, African development and unity, Unified world
society.

LEILA J. FARMER
FARMERL@UVIC.CA
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses way the principle of sovereignty
influenced the ideological framework of the Organization of
African Unity (OAU) and its successor, the African Union
(AU). While both the OAU and the AU represent the
institutionalization of Pan-Africanism, this paper argues that
by entrenching the notion of popular sovereignty in its
constitution and peace and security institutions, the AU has
a greater capacity to achieve the ideals of Pan-Africanism.
SOVEREIGNTY AND THE AFRICAN UNION
LEILA J. FARMER

Marika Sherwood is a founder
member of the Black & Asian
Studies Association & editor of
the BASA Newsletter.
The author of numerous books
and articles on the history of
black peoples in the UK, as
well as on education, she is
honorary senior research
fellow at the Institute of
Commonwealth Studies,
University of London
ABSTRACT
The concerns of Pan-Africanists, their philosophies and politics
naturally depended on the times they were living in .
Nevertheless the call for unity, whether overt or implied has
been there for well over a century. This need was perhaps
easier to espouse when the proposal was for unity against the
imperialist oppressors. Once this was obtained (though it is
quite reasonable to argue that it is still there, in new forms), the
issue became – and is - far more complex and complicated.
Another complication that arose with independence is the
whole issue of ‘nationalism’. After all, the countries of Africa
were created in Berlin by Europeans who ignored existing
empires/kingdoms/polities, languages, traditions, religions,
cultures: how is a new nation to be created from the plethora of
many peoples whose histories vis-à-vis each other were often
‘problematic’? Or, in the name of African unity, should the
boundaries be withdrawn? But then how would you administer
– and whom?
This paper will examine the meaning of ‘pan-Africanism’ as
espoused at the at the 1900 and 1945 Pan-African Conference,
and by the West African National Secretariat, Kwame Nkrumah
and George Padmore, until and including pan-African
conference in Kumasi in 1953.
PAN-AFRICAN CONFERENCES, 1900 – 1953: WHAT DID ‘PAN-AFRICANISM’ MEAN?
MARIKA SHERWOOD

Ama Biney
Paper presented at the
Kwame Nkrumah
International Conference at
Kwantlen Polytechnic from
19 – 21 August 2010
ABSTRACT
AMA BINEY
My paper is entitled: “What are the intellectual and political
legacies of Kwame Nkrumah?” and I wish to speak directly to
this question.
Integral to Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of Pan-Africanism was the
concept of Continental Union Government for Africa. Nkrumah
was one of several leading radical Pan-Africanists of the 1960s
such as Julius Nyerere, Modibo Keita, Patrice Lumumba, and
Sékou Touré. Aside from his passionate commitment to building
and realising Continental unity, Nkrumah’s prolific written work
and speeches contain other equally important bequests. These
intellectual and political legacies are the focus of this article. For
analytical purposes, whilst the two i.e. the intellectual and the
political are inextricably linked, they will be interrogated
separately. They shall be examined in no order of priority. The
objective of this article is to critically examine these legacies and
illustrate their continuing relevance to acute developmental
problems and issues confronting Africans today.

Peter Mbago Wakholi
is a
PhD Candidate at
Murdoch University,
Western Australia
ABSTRACT :
This paper is based on the author’s PhD project, and is
located amongst youth of African migrant descent in
Western Australia. It was an arts-based project through
which young people of African background were involved in
theatrical events as a means of exploring issues relating to
their bicultural socialization and identities. The paper
discusses the methodological application of arts-based
approaches and African-centred pedagogy in the
exploration of African Cultural Memory as a relevant
context for developing African cultural literacy as a pathway
towards bicultural socialization and competence.

JULIA BERRY
The University of Victoria,
Undergraduate Studies
ABSTRACT
This paper considers the emerging political interest in
environment and climate change by African nations. Pollution
and the effects of climate change are trans-boundary and the
effects will be harder felt in different regions of Africa. The
changing climate will test the legitimacy and strength of the
African Union for decades to come. The continent must
balance economic development and social development in a
way that will not be environmental destructive nor exasperate
the current social inequalities. Africa has a rare opportunity to
learn from the developed world’s mistake and be at the
forefront of sustainable development. What’s more, many
solutions for Africa’s poverty and underdevelopment are one
in the same as the opportunities to ensure a prosperous and
sustained future. These solutions, however, will only be
successful if Pan-African regulations and behaviour
constraints are in place and enforced. The world is on the
cusp of a global social movement towards sustainability and
Africa is in the unique position of shaping the global
perception of sustainable development.
INTRODUCTION
EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS: AFRICA’S SAVING GRACE?
JULIA BERRY

By Dr. John K. Marah
AAS Department
SUNY College at Brockport
Brockport, New York 14420
ABSTRACT
A Short History of African Education
This article represents an attempt at a general history of African
education from ancient times to the modem day attempts at
institutionalizing 'Pan-African' education (Marah 1989). As all
general history, emphasis is placed on sweeping, Pan-African
experiences of African people in Africa and the United States of
America; such an effort necessarily leaves out parochial or
particularized interests or subsets of African people's education.
This general historical treatment of African people's education,
as sweeping as it is, has its own merits; it allows us to see Africa
from a global perspective and it affirms that African people's
educations have not always been in the hands of Arabs.
Europeans, and Americans; it substantiates further that African
people themselves have always had unabated interests in their
own educations, from. the temples of Egypt to modem day
popularized educational systems, Furthermore; this Pan-African
treatment of African people's education could motivate a 'few
scholars and students to examine how and where their own
peculiar interests in African people's education fit into the longer
picture. Lastly, as nations begin to gather into larger and larger
economic arid political units (U.S.A., Mexico, and Canada; China,
Hong Kong and Macao; United Western Europe, etc.), African
people must also (begin to) see themselves from a Pan-African
perspective; this is why this attempt is not without merits.

Omosa Mogambi Ntabo 1 and Kennedy
Onkware 2
1. Dept. of Criminology and Social Work
2. Dept. of Peace and Conflict Studies
Masinde Muliro University of Science and
Technology, Kenya
KEY WORDS:
Development, decolonization, modernization,
dependency, independence

Susan Chebet-Choge, M.Phil
susanchoge@gmail.com
Lecturer, Dept of Language and
Literature Education
Masinde Muliro University of Science
& Technology, Kenya
P.O Box, 190, 50100
Kakamega, Kenya
Paper presented at
Kwame Nkrumah International
Conference @ Kwantlen Polytechnic
University, Richmond Campus, Canada.
19-21 August 2010
oge, M.Phil
ABSTRACT
Kiswahili is undoubtedly one of the most developed and
expansively used indigenous African languages nationally and
internationally. At the dawn of African states political
independence, the founding fathers of the nations led by
Kwame Nkrumah considered Kiswahili as an appropriate
language for African states unity. Adoption of Kiswahili as the
universal language of African continent could have gone
along way in realising the dream of the founding fathers of
one people, one nation, one language. However, as history
bears witness, their dream remained just a wish. On the
contrary, Kiswahili, though not accorded Africa continent
political recognition, has continued with its linguistic
conquest and expansion further from its indigenous base in
the East Africa’s coast to various countries in Africa and
beyond. The status and usage of Kiswahili has shifted and
grown with the political, social and economic growth of
nations which use it for various purposes. Currently, it is a
regional language in East African countries where it wears
several hats as a vernacular, national & official language,
lingua franca and a vehicular in various spheres of life.
Internationally, Kiswahili has curved for itself a linguistic
sphere in the field of academia and international
communication. This paper therefore seeks to document and
asses Kiswahili’s participation in the last fifty years in
national, regional and international developments.

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a pedagogical as well as a critical
conundrum. How do we read across cultures without
assuming our own cultural centricity or presuming our own
exceptionalism? How do we read novels from countries or
cultures very different from our own without rendering the
protagonist an ‘Other’ or exiling these works to an
oppositional, ‘outsider’ space which we find impossible to
traverse? In an interview in Diacritics with Leonard Green in
1982, Fredric Jameson points out that undergraduates
never confront a text in all its material freshness but bring
to it a set of "previously acquired and culturally sanctioned
interpretive schemes, of which they are unaware, and
through which they read the texts that are proposed to
them” (73). While the reading of novels is a specialized and
even an elite activity Jameson argues, the ideologies in
which people are trained when they read and interpret
novels are not specialized at all, but rather the working
attitude and forms of the conceptual legitimization of this
society” (73). How might we resist colonizing readings of
literary texts, particularly those of the ‘Third World?’
Nigerian feminist and literary critic Molara Ogundipe-Leslie
writes in the dedication to Moving Beyond Boundaries:
For all the women of the world
through the women of the African diasporas
wherever we are
that we may hold hands in action
across some necessary boundaries.
FORGING SPACES AND READING ACROSS BOUNDARIES
RASHNA SINGH

E. Ofori Bekoe, MA
The College of New Rochelle
Rosa Parks Campus-New York
ebekoe@cnr.edu
ABSTRACT
The Peace Corps, established by the Kennedy Administration,
became an important foreign policy instrument for US-Ghana
relations during the nascent stages of Ghana’s post-independence
democracy. As the first country to be a beneficiary to the program,
President Kwame Nkrumah was initially skeptical of this U.S.
foreign policy, but eventually warmed up to the concept. In this
paper, I will explore some underlying factors that contributed to
the eventual transformation of the Peace Corps into an important
element of bilateral collaboration and partnership for both the
United States and Ghana during the Nkrumah administration. I will
also discuss important formative flashpoints that led to the
inauguration of the program starting from the speech given by John
F. Kennedy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor through the
Cow Palace official proclamation in San Francisco and the ensuing
diversity of trainings that the earlier volunteers participated in. All
these chronological analyses are constructed within a broader
geopolitical purview which emphasizes the realist power
contentions that characterized the Cold War East-West political
dichotomy. The question undergirding this paper, then, is: Was the
Peace Corps a Cold War foreign policy instrument critical to the
execution of United States’ proxy wars with the Soviets or was it a
foreign policy crafted solely for the altruistic purpose of carrying
out humanitarian assistance in Third World nations or was it
intended to serve both?
THE UNITED STATES PEACE CORPS AS A FACET OF UNITED STATES-GHANA RELATIONS
E. OFORI BEKOE

Ramadimetja Shirley
Mogale, PhD student
University of Alberta,
Faculty of Nursing,
Edmonton, Canada
RAMADIMETJA SHIRLEY MOGALE
ABSTRACT
In this presentation, I address my internal conflicts as an
African who left my great continent with the hope of gaining
knowledge at a large North American University. I am now
facing the dilemma of acquiring knowledge of Western origins
as part of a doctoral program in nursing even though I already
possess unique knowledge originating from Africa. I am
investigating the ontological and epistemological stances
regarding nursing practice in Africa as my professional identity
vis-à-vis my African heritage. I am also reflecting on the
development of my knowledge which helped me to recall my
African ways of knowing and learning despite the fact that they
were deemed unscientific.
THE EPIPHANY OF UBUNTU IN KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT: AN AFRICAN WAY
RAMADIMETJA SHIRLEY MOGALE

Aurora Almada e Santos
(auroraalmada@yahoo.com.br) is a
PhD student at the Contemporary
History Institute of the New
University of Lisbon, Portugal.
She is interested in the diplomatic
activity of the national liberation
movements of Portuguese colonies
in the United Nation Organization.
ABSTRACT:
In 1960, the United Nations Organization adopted the
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial
Countries and Peoples, in which was established the right to
self-determination and independence of non-self-governing
territories. In order to implement these principles was created
in 1961 the Special Committee on the Implementation of the
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial
Countries and Peoples, widely known as Decolonization
Committee. Since the beginning of its activities, the
Decolonization Committee elected the Portuguese colonialism
as one of its main concerns. As the Portuguese government,
until 1974, did not recognize its legitimacy, the Committee
turned its attention to the national liberation movements. The
relationship between the Decolonization Committee and the
national liberation movements of Portuguese colonies was
touched by several important moments. The Committee
became a stage in which the national liberation movements
developed a diplomatic struggle against the Portuguese
colonial domination.
THE ROLE OF THE DECOLONIZATION COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION IN
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PORTUGUESE COLONIALISM IN AFRICA: 1961-1974
AURORA ALMADA E SANTOS

Alison J. Ayers is an
Assistant Professor,
Departments of Political
Science, Sociology and
Anthropology,
Simon Fraser University, BC,
Canada;
email: ajayers@sfu.ca
Please do not cite without
written permission from the
author.
ABSTRACT
It is commonplace to characterise political violence and war in Africa as
‘internal’, encapsulated in the apparently neutral term ‘civil war’. As such,
accounts of political violence tend to focus narrowly on the combatants
or insurrectionary forces, failing to recognize or address the extent to
which political violence is historically and globally constituted. The paper
addresses this problematic core assumption through examination of the
case of Sudan, seeking to contribute to a rethinking of protracted political
violence and social crisis in postcolonial Africa. The paper interjects in
such debates through the use and detailed exposition of a distinct
methodological and analytical approach. It interrogates three related
dimensions of explanation which are ignored by orthodox framings of
‘civil war’:
1. the technologies of colonial rule which (re)produced and
politicised multiple fractures in social relations, bequeathing a
fissiparous legacy of racial, religious and ethnic ‘identities’ that
have been mobilised in the context of postcolonial struggles over
power and resources;
2. the major role of geopolitics in fuelling and exacerbating conflicts
within Sudan and the region, particularly through the cold war
and the ‘war on terror’; and
3. Sudan’s terms of incorporation within the capitalist global
economy, which have given rise to a specific character and
dynamics of accumulation, based on primitive accumulation and
dependent primary commodity production.
The paper concludes that political violence and crisis are neither new nor
extraordinary nor internal, but rather, crucial and constitutive dimensions
of Sudan’s neo-colonial condition. As such, to claim that political violence
in Sudan is ‘civil’ or ‘internal’ is to countenance the triumph of ideology
over history.
BEYOND THE IDEOLOGY OF ‘CIVIL WAR’:
THE GLOBAL-HISTORICAL CONSTITUTION OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN SUDAN
ALISON J. AYERS

Charles Belanger is a
Graduate Student, Political
Economy of Development,
University of Toronto, Canada
Charles.belanger@utoronto.ca
Charles.belanger@finca.org
ABSTRACT
Although microfinance in developing countries is mostly used as
a tool to lift poor women out of poverty, it is also increasingly
being used as a medium to involve women into democratization
process at the local level. The strength of Microfinance
Institutions (MFI) as a mobilization medium is that they are able
to reach large number of poor women because of a widely
spread need for financial services. In this study, the author
assesses the relevance of microfinance as a medium to foster
democratization through the case study of CADD (Cercle
d’Autopromotion pour le Développement Durable), a MFI with
which the author had first hand experience. Based in Benin,
CADD regroups 3500 women that are directly involved into the
democratization process. While CADD’s mobilization of women
is unique in that it regroups an unprecedented number of
women in political struggle, this study finds that women’s
involvement into the democratization is not fruitful because of
the very financial and business oriented nature of the MFI.
Acknowledgements:
The author wishes to thank Judith Teichman (University of Toronto),
who’s comments helped to improve the work.
WOMEN AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN WEST AFRICA:
THE CASE OF CADD, A COMMUNITY-BASED GROUP FOCUSING ON CONSUMPTION ISSUES.
CHARLES BELANGER

Since 1994, the eastern regions of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo have been
beset by prolonged instability and violence.
Triggered by the events in neighbouring
Rwanda – specifically, the war that was
launched in 1990 in the north which ended with
the genocide in 1994 – eastern Congo’s
provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu have
suffered greatly at the hands of armed forces,
be they regional armies, rebel surrogates, or
ethnic militias. From 1996 onwards, the
bilateral relationship between the Rwandese
and Congolese governments has played a
critical role in shaping the situation in eastern
Congo. After facilitating the installation of a
friendly regime in Congo, Rwanda and Congo
soon broke ties, creating a bitter and bloody
enmity between the two countries that would
endure for the next 10 years, marked by
military confrontations, the pillaging of the
Congo’s natural resources, and the deaths of
over 6 million people. In an unexpected twist in
regional dynamics, in January 2009, Rwanda
and Congo suddenly normalized their relations,
becoming ostensible allies and jointly
participating in military operations on
Congolese soil, only weeks after being indirectly
at war through the use of proxy rebels. This
development was particularly puzzling,
considering that in international relations
friendly countries can often abruptly become
enemies and go to war. The inverse – unfriendly
countries suddenly becoming allies – typically
takes several years. This paper analyzes the
events that very quickly turned these enemies
into partners and the implications for the Great
Lakes region of Africa, as well as an overview of
Rwanda-Congo bilateral relations since 1996.
Following the cataclysm of the Rwandese
genocide, an estimated 2 million Rwandese
Hutu fled westward into neighbouring Congo
(then named Zaire) as the Tutsi Rwandan
Patriotic Force (RPF) rebels swept into the
capital, Kigali. Among the fleeing refugees were
perpetrators of the genocide, including much of
the Rwandese army and its militias, which were
given safe haven and support by Zaire’s head of
state, Mobutu Sese Seko, souring relations
between the new RPF government in Rwanda
and the old regime in Zaire. In 1996, Rwanda
launched its first of many subsequent invasions
of eastern Zaire/Congo, under the guise of a
local rebellion, using the pretext that the
presence of the Hutu forces directly across the
border was an existential threat to Kigali’s post-

Paper presented at Kwame
Nkrumah International
Conference:
Kwantlen Polytechnic University,
Richmond, British Columbia,
August 19-21, 2010.
© Amir Hossein Mirfakhraie,
2010
Sociology Department, Kwantlen
Polytechnic University, 12666-
72nd Avenue, Surrey, British
Columbia V3W 2M8, Canada.
Email:
amir.mirfakhraie@kwantlen.ca
INTRODUCTION
ABSTRACT
In this paper, I analyze and deconstruct the 2004 and earlier editions
of Iranian school textbooks for how official knowledge about the ideal
Iranian citizen, Africa, Asia and the Americas is constructed and
presented to students. I examine “how [the images and
representations of the ideal Iranian citizen, Africans, Asians and the
inhabitants of the Americas are] composed of different textual
elements and fragments” that, in their discursive formation, present a
coherent and universal view and language about the world to
students (See Thompson, 1996, p. 570). I focus on four main recurring
educational themes of identity politics, diversity, “citizenship” and
development in analyzing how national identity and the ideal citizen
find racialized local and global representations. I provide data on how
school knowledge differentiates between human beings, groups and
nations through the invocation of racialized, nation-centric and
xenophobic discourses. I utilize the tools and insights of antiracism,
transnationalism and poststructuralism to highlight the various forms
of absent and present discourses and categories of otherness that are
employed in simultaneously constructing an image of the ideal citizen
and national identity that ends up dominating and erasing these
various forms of global otherness. In deconstructing the meanings of
texts, I draw upon deconstruction, discourse analysis and qualitative
content analysis.
Keywords:
Iranian School Textbooks; Racialization; Otherness; Colonialism; Discourse;
Religious Diversity; the Ideal Iranian Citizen; Orientalism; Racism