60 years after independence, African nations still find it difficult to face a number of challenges, from establishing meaningful democratic institutions to establish social structures centered on the advancement of gender equality. This volume approaches these contemporary African challenges while combating a reflexive and facile Afro-Pessimism.

Autorentext
Tokunbo Aderemi Ayoola, University of Manchester, UK Augustine E. Ayuk, Clayton State University, USA S. U. Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria Myra Ann Houser , Howard University, USA Jackie Mapulanga-Hulston, Curtin Law School, Australia Besi Brillian Muhonja, James Madison University, USA Mickie Mwanzia Koster, University of Texas at Tyler, USA Austin C. Okigbo, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA Consoler T. Teboh, Saint Cloud State University, USA

Inhalt
Introduction: Change and Continuity in Contemporary Africa; Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah PART I: COLONIAL AND NEOCOLONIAL LEGACIES 1. Mau Mau Inventions and Reinventions; Mickie Mwanzia Koster 2. Race and Social Islands in Kenya's Urban Spaces; Brillian Besi Muhonja 3. The Second World War and Africa's Socio-Economic Infrastructures: a Case Study of the Nigerian Railroad System; Tokunbo A. Ayoola 4. The Cold War and the Emergence of Economic Divergences: Africa and Asia Compared; S. U. Fwatshak PART II: TRANSFORMATIONAL MOMENTS IN ECONOMIES AND CULTURES 5. Africa's Debt Burden and HIPC Initiative: Cameroon, from Challenges to Opportunity; Augustine Ayuk 6. The Impact of Family Planning Programs on Poverty Alleviation in Cameroon; Consoler T. Teboh 7. Music and the Politics of Culture in a South African Zulu HIV/AIDS Experience: Implications for 'Post-Apartheid' Discourse; Austin C. Okigbo 8. A Parallel Evolution: The Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law, Apartheid, and American Civil Rights; Myra Ann Houser 9. The Migration of Professionals from Africa: Assessing the Impact of 'Brain Drain' from the Continent; J K Mapulanga-Hulston Conclusion: An Africa that Works; Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah