Africa Spectrum Vol. 43 (2008) 3 Bestellen / Subscription:   Table of Contents (pages) / Inhalt (Seiten)

Articles

Walter Eberlei
Wachsender Einfluss zivilgesellschaftlicher Akteure in afri-kanischen Entwicklungsprozessen / The growing influence of Civil Society actors in African development processes (Abstract) (309-332)

Jeremiah O. Arowosegbe 
The Social Sciences and Knowledge Production in Africa: The Contribution of Claude Ake (Abstract) (333-351)

Rachel Laribee
The China Shop Phenomenon: Trade Supply within the Chinese Diaspora in South Africa (Abstract) (353-370)

Dalila Nadi
Algerien als Endziel von Migrationen – eine vergleichende Studie zu subsaharischen und chinesischen Migranten / Algeria as a Destination of Migrants – A Comparative Study of Sub-Saharan and Chinese Migrants (Abstract) (371-392)

Reports

Henning Melber
China in Africa: A new partner or another imperialist power? (393-402)

Maxi Schoeman
China and Africa: whose challenge and whose oppor-tunity? (403-413)

Nadine Burgschweiger
‘Towards a Vibrant Africa’: The beginning of a new era of Japanese-African partnership? (415-428)

Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya
Crossing boundaries: Africans in South Asia (429-438)

Conference Report

Hélène Le Bail
Les Chinois en Afrique de l’Ouest: au-delà des mythes 14 mai 2008 Agence française de Développement, Paris (439-441)

Book Reviews (443-453)
Authors (459-461)

Articles

Walter Eberlei
Wachsender Einfluss zivilgesellschaftlicher Akteure in afri-kanischen Entwicklungsprozessen / The growing influence of Civil Society actors in African development processes

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Abstract:
During the first decade of the 21st century, development politics in Sub-Saharan Africa is undergoing significant changes: a new role for the state and its growing scope for strategic manoeuvres, remarkable changes in the international aid regime as well as the rise of vibrant civil societies. The article focuses on the latter. The author argues that a new generation of participatory processes has emerged: African civil societies have started entering the macro level of politics. The processes around the Poverty Reduction Strategies demonstrate this. Based on Habermas’ distinction between communicative power and administrative power, prospects and limitations for the interplay between the state and civil society are discussed. Regarding the significance of civil society participation, a mixed picture emerges (three country groups are distinguished). However, the author concludes that the newly evolved voices from civil society and their growing communicative power will play a significant role in future African politics.

Keywords: Civil society, democratisation, poverty reduction, development policy

Jeremiah O. Arowosegbe
The Social Sciences and Knowledge Production in Africa: The Contribution of Claude Ake

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Abstract:
This article examines the strengths and weaknesses of Ake’s contribution to the social sciences and knowledge production in Africa. It discusses the relevance of Ake’s works for adapting the intellectual legacies of Marxist scholarship to understanding the political economy and social history of contemporary Africa. It also highlights the shortcomings noted in his orientation, and dispositions to expatriate knowledge generally, and the Western social science in particular. Given his advocacy of the need to reconstruct existing disciplinary fields following uniquely African critiques and interpretations, the study presents Ake’s works as a corrective intervention to Eurocentrism and advocates the practice of ‘non-hierarchical’ ‘cross-regional’ ‘dialogue’, in which neither the North nor the South is taken as the paradigm against which ‘the other’ is measured and pronounced inadequate.

Keywords:
Knowledge production, endogeneity, social sciences in Africa, post-Marxism, post-colonialism

Rachel Laribee
The China Shop Phenomenon: Trade Supply within the Chinese Diaspora in South Africa

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Abstract:
The recent wave, dating from the mid 1990s, of newcomers within the Chinese Diaspora in South Africa has managed to establish and dominate a line of trade supply all the way from the ports of China to the homes of millions of South Africans. This paper examines the economic environment within which small ‘China shops’ are active, exploring competition within the group of Chinese traders in particular and how the latest wave of Chinese immigrants has affected supply chains and demand within South Africa. A case study in one small South African town demonstrates how the Chinese community utilizes its competitive advantages to maximize the value of its trade. This paper also strives to shatter the notion of a ‘China Inc’, arguing that although Chinese traders in consumer goods may have altered consumer demands within South Africa, above all they compete in an individualistic scramble to gain competitive advantage over other ‘China shops’.

Keywords: China, South Africa, Export, Trade, Competition, Consumer

Dalila Nadi
Algerien als Endziel von Migrationen – eine vergleichende Studie zu subsaharischen und chinesischen Migranten / Algeria as a Destination of Migrants – A Comparative Study of Sub-Saharan and Chinese Migrants

Abstract:
Thanks to current high revenues from the gas and oil sectors the Algerian treasury is well filled. With this capital and the aid of foreign investors, economic and infrastructural problems should be resolved. Primarily China, within the scope of its interests in Africa, is taking part of this process of development for approximately the last eight years. Because of the benevolent attitude of the Algerian state towards the Chinese migrant labourers they already form the biggest group of foreign employees in the country and a counter current to the centuries-old subsaharian migration. Both migrations with the final destination Algeria in the course of the last decade and the reactions of Algerian society thereon will be described in this article. This comparative study deals with this phenomenon, which is until now extensively unexplored. It analyses within the context of Global Area Studies and on the base of multidisciplinary research approaches the development of global migration movements and their translocal and local linka-ges. The aim of this study is to show the range across society and the effect of migration movements in Algeria as well as their potential for the realisation of the planned reform processes for the next years.

Keywords: Algeria, China, migration, immigrant/ migrant workers, international migration