Rooted in struggle
Stories from Translocal Social Movement Learning in Ghana, South Africa, Guatemala and Canada
This book presents the work of the Translocal Learning Network (TLN), a social justice framework fostering non-hierarchical connections and mutual learning between localized social movements across the Global South and Canada. It argues that while local movements are most effective at creating tangible change, they often operate in isolation. The TLN bridges this gap, building solidarity among communities in South Africa, Ghana, and Guatemala confronting interconnected crises of social, economic, and environmental injustice. The chapters are written by the movement partners themselves, offering firsthand accounts of their struggles against state-corporate power, extractive industries, and top-down development models. These narratives detail the violent repression, dispossession, and corruption communities face when defending their land, livelihoods, and rights. Key case studies include the fight against a World Bank dam in Guatemala, the resistance to corporate salt mining in Ghana, the shack dwellers’ movement in South Africa, and opposition to large-scale gold mining in Ghana. Through these stories, common themes emerge: the use of state violence to enable corporate imperialism, the failure of nominal democracies to serve the poor, the silencing of subaltern knowledge, and the disproportionate impact on women. Crucially, the book also highlights the alternatives being built—people-centered, sustainable development visions rooted in self-determination, collective action, and grassroots theorizing. It documents how these diverse movements learn from each other’s strategies and analyses, forging a translocal theory of social movement learning that is essential for building powerful, global solidarities to contest unjust development and advance social and environmental justice.
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Liberalism and its discontents: Social movements in West Africa
USD $ 25.99The engaging and wide-ranging discussions published here explore contemporary political realities in Africa through a ‘social movement’ lens.
Detailing the nuances of social movement politics in 12 West African countries during the 2010-2013 period, they present a chronicle of the socio-political struggles that have taken place in the region. In so doing, this volume answers key questions related to these movements. What logic drives them? What forms do they take? What has been their political impact? Can we speak of a resurgence of social movements? If so, are these a response to the crisis of ‘representative democracy’? Did they give rise to new forms of expression and democratic participation? What challenges do they bring?
Discontent vis-à-vis liberalism in its political and economic dimensions seems to be the trigger of the numerous popular uprisings and protests that occur in the region. In spite of their ambiguities and limitations, these struggles currently seek to remove a double disconnect: that between citizens and the ‘representatives’ and that between the economy and society, between what capital wants and what the people aspire to.
Ndongo Samba Sylla, the editor of this volume, is a Senegalese economist, programme and research manager at the West Africa Office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Author of The Fair Trade Scandal. Marketing poverty to benefit the Rich (translated from French by Pluto Press 2014), he is the editor of “Rethinking Development” (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation 2014). His recent research work deals with the history of the word ‘democracy’.
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Strategic litigation and the struggle for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual equality in Africa
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Strategic litigation and the struggle for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual equality in Africa
USD $ 5.00 USD $ 25.00Price range: USD $ 5.00 through USD $ 25.00There has been a rise in the use of strategic litigation related to seeking equality for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons. Such developments are taking place against the backdrop of active homophobia in Africa. The law and the general public should, argues the author, treat LGB persons in the same way that heterosexuals are treated. In the past two decades,30 strategic cases have been fi led by LGB activists in the Common Law African countries, namely in Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda. While the majority of the cases have been successful, they have not resulted in significant social change in any of the countries. On the contrary, there have been active backlashes, counter-mobilisations, and violence against LGB persons, as well as the further criminalisation of same-sex relations and constitutional prohibitions on same-sex marriages in some of the jurisdictions. The author argues that activists in Common Law Africa have to design LGB strategic litigation in such a way as to fi t within the actual social and political conditions in their countries if strategic litigation is to spur social change.
Adrian Jjuuko is an exceptional scholar. A rare combination of intellectual brilliance, commitment and hard work. The book is born of this. It reflects his incisive analytical skills, anchored in solid knowledge of the law and jurisprudential developments in the field. His ventures into political theory, philosophy, and the social sciences give the analysis additional clarity and empirical grounding.
In Strategic Litigation, Adrian Jjuuko has hugely succeeded in bringing to light pertinent issues regarding LGB rights in the African context today. By making reference to various scholarly works and critical analyses, the author has cleverly driven home the message that progressive decriminalization of LGB relationships and constitutional protection of LGB persons in Common Law Africa should be deliberate steps towards demystifying the erstwhile taboo of LGB persons’ equality and social justice. Yet, Jjuuko throws in a word of caution; societal attitudes towards LGB persons still remain largely negative, as exemplified in pervasive disapproval (including religious) of their rights. This implies that a lot is still required from all stakeholders to demystify and accommodate the social position of the LGB community in Common Law Africa today. Kisito, J. M. (2022). Book Review: Strategic litigation and the struggle for lesbian, gay and bisexual equality in Africa by Adrian Jjuuko. Feminism & Psychology, 32(4), 584-587. https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1177/09593535221104876 (Original work published 2022)
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Decolonization and Afro-Feminism
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Decolonization and Afro-Feminism
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Under-Education in Africa
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Under-Education in Africa
USD $ 22.00Under-Education in Africa: From Colonialism to Neoliberalism is a collection of essays on diverse aspects of educational systems that were written over a period of four and a half decades, written from the point of view of an activist educator.
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Transforming ourselves, Transforming the World: An open conspiracy for social change – Second Edition
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Transforming ourselves, Transforming the World: An open conspiracy for social change – Second Edition
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Insurrectionary Uprisings: A Reader in Revolutionary Nonviolence and Decolonization
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Insurrectionary Uprisings: A Reader in Revolutionary Nonviolence and Decolonization
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Aporias de Moçambique pós-colonial: Estado, Sociedade e Capital
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For the love of the struggle: Memoirs from El Salvador
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For the love of the struggle: Memoirs from El Salvador
USD $ 5.00 USD $ 18.00Price range: USD $ 5.00 through USD $ 18.00From his home in El Salvador, the author shares an intimate personal and political memoir that follows his remarkable journey from the comfort and security of a picturesque New England town to a stirring and heroic engagement in common cause with the struggle for peace and justice in El Salvador. After four years as a Peace Corp worker in northern Liberia beginning in the late 1960’s, followed by a stretch back in the United States as a street worker in the ghettos of North Philadelphia, McKinley finds himself in Central America as an aid worker in 1978. He quickly becomes engulfed by the political violence of the region and engaged with the people and their struggles against five decades of military dictatorship, centuries of poverty and exploitation. The story is marked by terror, adventure and courage, by trials and tragedy redeemed by the beauty and transcendence of people in struggle. Originally based in Guatemala heading up a Catholic relief agency, his commitment to the struggles for change in the country attracts the attention of the military, and his own government, forcing him to leave the country in late 1980. He moves to El Salvador where he begins a gradual incursion into the revolutionary struggle of this country, in a commitment that will last the rest of his life. Interwoven with this personal journey, is the story of Teresa Rivas, her husband Antonio, and their five children, a peasant family It also describes their life after the war, with resettlement in the lowlands of Guazapa where many ex-combatants were building a new life. It explains in detail the gradual emergence of the objective and subjective conditions for revolution in El Salvador, including the difficult choice for the use of violence as the only available option for transformative change in the country. The book also details the challenges of reconstruction after the Peace Accords that end the war in 1992, and the tragedy of opportunities lost during the immediate post-war period in the face of the ongoing resistance of traditional opponents to reform. As the memoir closes, the author reflects on his choice to be in El Salvador over the past 43 years, and the country as he finds it in these changing times; on the family with whom he has shared love and life there; on his continuing relationship with Antonio Rivas and his surviving family; and his gradual reconciliation, from a distance, with the country of his birth.
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