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doi: 10.1080/14725843.2024.2420719pmid: N/A
Thanks to the forces of globalisation and localisation, televangelism has spread across the world and become so revolutionised that there presently exist a variety of televisual genres questionably classified under it. Indeed, the explosion and tropicalisation of televangelism have given birth to a myriad of televisual cultures relatable only nominally to the original American televangelism. This diversity and complexity raise definitional, epistemological and ethical questions, three of which include: what should genuine televangelism be? How ‘televangelical’ are the versions of the concept observed in African neo-Pentecostal and charismatic movements? And how are these African versions subtle perversions or entirely hybrid televisual genres? Using secondary sources and a critical exploration of Christian televisions in Cameroon and Nigeria, this paper attempts answers to the aforementioned under-researched questions. In the first place, the paper makes a brief incursion into the history of televangelism and its importation into Africa. In the second place, it examines how specific Nigerian and Cameroonian neo-Pentecostal movements have sought to revolutionise this televisual genre. In the last instance, the paper shows how specific Cameroonian and Nigerian church leaders’ apparent perversion of the concept has given birth to tele-exorcism which, besides being confused with televangelism, is questionable in a media ethics sense.
doi: 10.1080/14725843.2024.2399677pmid: N/A
The emergence of law and literature as a transdiscipline has unravelled fascinating insights into the role of literary imagination in raising pertinent jurisprudential questions and envisioning alternative legal universes. The literary front can expand legal literacy, humanise the law, and offer perspectives that are otherwise overlooked in conventional jurisprudence. This article explores Petina Gappah’s representation of law and justice in The Book of Memory (2015) and Rotten Row (2016), focussing on how she innovatively deploys politico-aesthetic means to expose ambiguities, ambivalences and inadequacies in Zimbabwe’s legal system. It contends that Gappah uses the literary medium to underline how the exclusion of customary law from the country’s common law system undermines the delivery of justice. Considering that the texts are alive to the limitations of both customary and common law systems, the study argues for a legal pluralism that harnesses the progressive aspects of the two legal cultures. By drawing on Zimbabwe’s humanist philosophy of Unhu, the study places studied texts within a growing decolonial narrative that critiques the coloniality of legal frameworks in formerly colonised nations.
Okorie, Nelson; Olagunju, Tolu
doi: 10.1080/14725843.2024.2415603pmid: N/A
Reality TV, particularly Music Reality Shows (MRSs) like Nigerian Idol, has emerged as a significant dimension of television programming, providing a platform for cultural representation and interactivity. Afrobeats, a music genre that originated in West Africa, has gained global acceptance and recognition in recent years with great influence on the global cultural landscape. This study examined the cultural preferences of viewers towards the use of Afrobeats music in the Nigerian Idol reality TV show. Cultivation theory was adopted as the theoretical framework to investigate the level of viewership of Nigerian Idol among residents of Lagos, Nigeria, and explore their cultural preferences for Afrobeats music. Through a mixed methods approach involving a quantitative survey and focus group discussions (FGD), the study gathered data from residents of Lagos, Nigeria. The results reveal a reduction in viewership of Nigerian Idol compared to previous seasons, indicating shifting audience interests. However, there is a significant cultural preference for Afrobeats music compared to other genres of music, particularly those of foreign origin, among viewers who have encountered the Nigerian Idol. This also confirms the growing influence and acceptance of the fast-rising Afrobeats genre. The findings underscore the role of media, particularly television programmes such as Reality TV Shows, in shaping cultural identity and preferences. The correlation analysis confirms a strong relationship between viewership levels and cultural preferences for Afrobeats music in Nigerian Idol, highlighting the impact of television programming on audience perceptions and tastes for cultural artifacts like music. The study contributes to understanding cultural dynamics in the context of Reality TV Shows, music, and cultural entertainment, emphasizing the need for producers to adapt to evolving audience preferences and embrace digital innovations to sustain viewer interest.
doi: 10.1080/14725843.2024.2415572pmid: N/A
This study dwells on Alago-Eggon relations within the discursive remit of the dialectics of intergroup relations in Nasarawa State, Central Nigeria. Historicizing the patterns, dynamics, shifts and trajectories of their relations over the years, the study found that the two groups have engaged in diverse forms of mutually beneficial and supportive relationships as close geographical and cultural neighbours. The study revealed that the relationship between the groups witnessed a dramatic setback in the 2010s, following primordial contestations for power by their political elites, which plunged the two groups into inter-communal animosity. The study noted that the relationship between the two groups has been largely tense and hostile since the onset of their communal crises, and that has had significant implications for their peaceful coexistence and social cohesion.
doi: 10.1080/14725843.2024.2415587pmid: N/A
Political narrative is an instrument for political actors to construct a shared meaning, and it can be harnessed to harm political opponents. The Italian invaders, the Ethiopian Student Movement, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the Oromo Liberation Front, and the incumbent regime contributed in varying degrees to the Amhara domination narrative. TPLF, in its political manifesto and later in the 1995 FDRE constitution, institutionally crafted an anti-Amhara narrative, reaching a crescendo after Abiy Ahmed assumed office in 2018. Thus, this research article tried to scrutinise and weigh the discourse of institutionally crafted Amhara existential threats. The study employed a qualitative research tradition and an exploratory research design approach that involved a political-economic analysis. The study finds that the century-old Amhara domination narrative, coupled with institutionally supported recurrent mass killings and expulsion, especially in Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, and Amhara regional states, posed a real and perceived existential threat that gave birth to the Amhara Fano armed struggle.
Otundo, Billian Khalayi; Dodounou, Tsevi
doi: 10.1080/14725843.2024.2415591pmid: N/A
Names and labels attributed to persons with albinism (PWA) in East, Central, and West Africa, reflect deeply rooted cultural beliefs, superstitions, and etiological and historical narratives. In these regions, the identity of the black PWA differs by his/her black/white duality – Black but not black, white but not White. Using Labelling and Symbolic Interactionism frameworks, we address three questions: (i) How are PWA named and labelled across East, Central, and West Africa? (ii) How can we categorise the predominant names and labels? (iii) How do these names and labels reflect socio-cultural conceptions, affect behaviour towards PWA, and contribute to the external construction of the identity of PWA? Principal categories emerge: supernatural affiliation, pigmentation, association with economic capital, vegetal and earth affiliations, zoosemic metaphors, and ambiguous/undetermined labels. These categories reflect cultural sentiments ranging from adulation to ostracisation, influencing social behaviour and identity construction. While some cultures regard PWA as celestial entities, others link them to curses or tragedy. Labels that commodify PWA render them targets for exploitation and violence, while vegetal, zoosemic, and ambiguous terminology contribute to alienation and identity crisis. This research demonstrates how cultural constructs of identity through language reinforce stigma and prejudice against PWA, worsening their social marginalisation.
doi: 10.1080/14725843.2024.2415599pmid: N/A
This essay centers on one African woman, Ṭaytu Bǝṭul (1851–1918), and argues that her path to empowerment has a significant African and Ethiopian precedent. African scholars write about how African women have obtained authority through shifting aspects of their identities through the religious, economic and political spheres. The Ethiopian precedent is seen in the lives of historical Ethiopian women like Mǝntǝwwab, Mänän, and Wällätä Petros. Using the relevant primary and secondary sources, I continue to argue that Ṭaytu used the strategies that served these women in the past, such as the prominent position of women in African religions, imperial marriages of her relatives throughout her and her husband’s growing Empire, and her central place in her husband’s inner circle to create, maintain and expand her influence culminating in her governing the nation for years after a series of strokes incapacitated her husband Mǝnilǝk II.
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