Rules of Origin (ROO) determine the economic nationality of an imported product. Where margins of trade preferences are higher, ROO tend to be very restrictive and even sometimes dilutes the benefits of such preferences. As the ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations enter a critical phase, the devil of the agreement will be in the detail of the im...

This collection seeks to complement and advance recent studies on regionalism in Africa and the implications that this has for the continent’s development. The two case studies on cross-border micro-regionalism in the borderlands of Mali-Burkina Faso and Niger-Nigeria are part of the work of the West Africa Borders and Integration (WABI). WABI is a research institu...

The vast majority of Muslims in Africa generally do not 'objectify' concepts such as poverty and religion in discussion. Poverty is a situation for 'ordinary' poor people in rural or urban poor areas where people seek to make marginal gains in income to avoid ever-threatening destitution and social disintegration. Most of these 'ordinary' poor people, especially po...

Young women are combatants in contemporary African wars. They also participate in a whole array of different roles. However, by and large, they remain invisible to us. In fact, our “northern” hackneyed views on women’s innate non-participation in war prevent us from seeing specific needs for young women during and in the aftermath of wars. For instance, disarmament...

<p>Contents: To Our Readers: January 2007 / Carin Norberg -- Democracy needs parties, not only democrats. And more women! / Bo Göransson -- Zambia’s 2006 elections: The ethnicization of politics? / Jeremy Gould -- Prospects for credible elections in Nigeria / Jibrin Ibrahim -- Social movements and the democratisation of South African foreign policy / Heidi Hudson -...

Young women are combatants in contemporary African wars. They also participate in a whole array of different roles. However, by and large, they remain invisible to us. In fact, our “northern” hackneyed views on women’s innate non-participation in war prevent us from seeing specific needs for young women during and in the aftermath of wars. For instance, disarmament...

On August 11 Sierra Leone will vote democratically for the second timesince the end of the decade long civil war that raged between 1991 and 2002. Many international observers believe that this election is an important testfor democracy in Sierra Leone. Many Sierra Leoneans call democracy Demare-Crazy and politics politrix.

Rules of Origin (ROO) determine the economic nationality of an imported product. Where margins of trade preferences are higher, ROO tend to be very restrictive and even sometimes dilutes the benefits of such preferences. As the ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations enter a critical phase, the devil of the agreement will be in the detail of the im...

The rebel war in Sierra Leone has been given various characterisations. One of the most commonplace of them brands it a ‘senseless war’. In this study the author examines the views of the Sierra Leoneans themselves on this notion, and through a sociological lens he explores the “youthscape“ of the war. The study also revisits some of the central works on the Sierra...

Also published as: Cyril I. Obi, “Democratizzazione in Nigeria: oltre le ombre del militarismo”, afriche e orienti: rivista di studi ai confine tra Africa mediterraneo e medio oriente, n. 3-4/2006.