This is an area where we need to be very careful. Presidents, prime ministers, and sometimes all membersof a government, seek to amend a constitution in their own favour even when they come to office through, and because of, the provisions of a constitution which they have sworn to honour. Too often, for example, we have seen presidents seek to lengthen the number of terms they serve, despite the limit laid down in the constitution. This practice is wrong. It cheapens the constitution of the country concerned.

aving demonstrated an acceptance of thesocial and economic status quo

Like many others it was suffering from a severe foreign debt burden, a decrease in foreign aid, and a fall in the price of commodities

At present most of the independent African states are moving in directions which expose us to the dangers of imperialism and neocolonialism.

We have seen, in the example of the United States how the dynamic elements within society understood the need for unity and fought their bitter civil war to maintain the political union that was threatened by the reactionary forces. We have also seen, in the example of the Soviet Union, how the forging of continental unity along with the retention of national sovereignty by the federal states, has achieved a dynamism that has lifted a most backward society into a most powerful unit within a remarkably short space of time. From the examples before us, in Europe and the United States of America, it is therefore patent that we in Africa have the resources, present and potential, for creating the kind of society that we are anxious to build. It is calculated that by the end of this century the population of Africa will probably exceed five hundred millions

Individually, the independent states of Africa, some of thempotentially rich, others poor, can do little for their people.

African unity

House parents provide guidance for their “children” of various ages, race/ethnic identities (usually Black and Latino/a), genders, and sexualities, who come from cities and regions throughout North Amer-ica. In general, a “house” does not signify an actual building; rather, it represents the ways in which its members, who mostly live in various locations, view themselves and interact with each other as a family unit.

First, is notthe shift from a homeward flight to a tendency to fight it out where one is res-ident proof enough that the definition of home has changed? That immigrantsof yesterday have now become indigenous? That were it not for the form of thestate and its definition of indigeneity, yesterday’s immigrants would be today’scitizens?

mainstream nationalists repro-duced the dual legacy of colonialism. This time around, though, they hoped toprivilege indigenous over nonindigenous citizens

I will argue differently from both these schools. The solution does not lie inbringing back the Europeans to address “state collapse,” or even in “recolo-nization” by presumably more benign Africans, as Ali Mazrui once suggested.6Nor does the solution lie in redrawing Africa’s boundaries. For no matter howmuch we redraw boundaries, the political crisis will remain incomprehensibleuntil we address the institutional—political—legacy of colonial rule.

With the growing power of finance capital, how-ever, all boundaries became porous.

The Pan-Africanists believe that state crisis isa crisis of colonial boundaries, because these boundaries were and are artifi-cial—in the African case more so, since they were drawn up with a pencil anda ruler on a map at a conference table in Berlin in the 1880s. Well, what wouldbe genuine boundaries? From this point of view the answer would be that theywould be “natural,” meaning they would not cut through ethnic boundaries. Inother words, the political map of Africa should have followed its cultural map.

nonrevolutionary po-litical violence by breaking from widely held culturalist assumptions in twoways. First, I will argue that the process of state formation generates politicalidentities that are distinct not only from market-based identities but also fromcultural identities. Second, faced with a growing tendency to root causes of vi-olence in cultural difference—now ominously called a clash of civilizations3—I will differentiate between cultural and political identities.

we were convinced that the impact of colonialism on oursocieties was mainly economic. In the decade that followed African politicalindependence, militant nationalist intellectuals focused on the expropriation ofthe native as the great crime of colonialism.

Neil makes fun of Craigand Brian for simply hanging out together.

and helps to manage anxiety and discomfor

You wouldn’t ’cause you’re a faggot.’ However, girls didnot use this word as part of their regular lexicon. The sort of genderedhomophobia that constitutes adolescent masculinity does not constituteadolescent femininity

it is a gendered homophobia.Several students told me that these homophobic insults only applied toboys and not girls.

To call someone gay or fag is like the lowest thing you can callsomeone. Because that’s like saying that you’re nothing.

I argue that the ‘fag’ position is an ‘abject’ position and, as such, is a‘threatening specter’ constituting contemporary American adolescentmasculinity

(1)pointing to the limits of an argument that focuses centrally on homo-phobia, (2) demonstrating that the fag is not only an identity linked tohomosexual boys1but an identity that can temporarily adhere to hetero-sexual boys as well and (3) highlighting the racialized nature of the fag asa disciplinary mechanism

Penetrated men symbolize a masculinity devoid of power,which, in its contradiction, threatens both psychic and social chaos

the splitting of the country."

he costs of anti-colonialism

Chinua Achebe’s many pro-colonial statements, meanwhile, have been virtually airbrushed from memory by anti-colonial ideology.

Millions of people moved closer to areas of more intensive colonial rule, sent their children to colonial schools and hospitals, went beyond the call of duty in positions in colonial governments, reported crimes to colonial police, migrated from non-colonised to colonised areas, fought for colonial armies and par-ticipated in colonial political processes – all relatively voluntary acts.

Such works have found evidence for significant social, economic and political gains under colonialism: expanded education, improved public health, the abolition of slavery, widened employment opportunities, improved administration, the creation of basic infrastructure, female rights, enfranchisement of untouchable or historically excluded communities, fair taxation, access to capital, the generation of historical and cultural knowl-edge, and national identify formation, to mention just a few dimensions.17

‘shared sovereignty’ or ‘neo-trusteeship’, such actions should be called ‘colonialism’ because it would embrace rather than evade the historical record.

Singapore, Belize and Botswana did.

led to improvements in living conditions for most Third World peoples during most episodes of Western colonialism.

The notion that colonialism is always and everywhere a bad thing needs to be rethought in light of the grave human toll of a century of anti-colonial regimes and policies.

rather unscientific justifications for the colonial project

Colonised,non-Westernpopu-lationswereoncenottakenseriouslyasparticipantsindiscussionseither.

Canwecallthecommunicationsofotheranimalslanguage?Canwespeak;mwi_th;_o~_theranimals—and,ifso,how?Ishumanlanguagespiecialhorarealllanguagesspecial?Whatevenislanguage?

ThinkinghaslongbeenperceivedasanactivityforhumanbeingsandJbouthumanbeings.Butthisischanging;animalsareincreasinglybeingconsidered,particularlyinethics,andmorerecentlyinpoliticalphilosophy.

buttherearemanycultureswaitingtobefoundoneverycorner—fromantsandpigeonsandcatstoharesandcows.