Argues that developing countries, given their extreme economic vulnerability, are likely to be better served by maintaining flexible exchange rate regimes. Using the econometric analysis of the current balance of payments of Nigeria and Ghana, this book examines the features common to the economic position of developing countries (such as recurring deficits and continual increases in external debt). 182pp, UK. ASHGATE PUBLISHERS.

At independence, Cameroon and Nigeria adhered to the OAU principle of 'uti possedetis juris' by inheriting the colonial administrative borders whose delineation in some parts was either imperfect or not demarcated or both. The two countries tried to correct these anomalies. But such efforts were later thwarted by incessant geo-strategic reckoning, dilatory, and diversionary tactics in the '70s and '80s that persisted and resurfaced in the '90s. On two occasions, the border conflict almost boiled over to a full-scale war. First, in May 1981 when there was the exchange of fire between Cameroonian and Nigerian coast guards and second, in February 1994 when Nigeria marched her troops into Cameroons Bakassi Peninsula. Elsewhere in Africa, border incidents like these have often degenerated into war. But Cameroon and Nigeria together with the international community managed these protracted incidents from escalating into war. This book examines the part played by the disputing parties; the mediation, conciliatory and adjudicatory role of third parties; regional and international organisations, in the process of the resolution of the border dispute. 236pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

There is currently no comprehensive study of the status of security sector governance in West Africa. Many efforts to understand governance of the security sector in Africa have been directed either at individual countries or at providing a general analysis of the state and security in Africa. This book is intended to contribute to confidence and peace-building through developing a better understanding of the challenges of security sector governance and generating practical policy recommendations based on work conducted by West African experts. It analyses the nature of security sector governance in each of the 16 West African states, provides an assessment of the effectiveness of governance mechanisms, in particular relating to democratic oversight of the security sector, and takes into account the regional and international dimensions to the issue. 412pp, GERMANY. LIT VERLAG.

Reveals the hard economic realities of our favourite sweet. This vivid and gripping exploration of the reasons behind farmer poverty includes the human stories of the producers and traders at the heart of the West African industry. In doing so, Orla Ryan shows how only a tiny fraction of the cash we pay for a chocolate bar actually makes it back to the farmers, and how Fair trade makes very little difference on the ground. 176pp, UK. ZED BOOKS.

An examination of the linkages between civil society, good governance, and regional security in West Africa providing an in depth study into how civil society in the region has fared in promoting good governance and democratic peace. Index, refs, notes, xii, 383pp, NIGERIA. VANTAGE, 9788000398

2003 Paperback

A study of conflict and post conflict reconstruction in West Africa discussing issues such as child soldiers, the dynamics of civil war, state and social disintegration, and multilateral agencies and post conflict peace. Sierra Leone and Liberia are studied in particular detail. Notes, refs, x, 225pp, NIGERIA. COLLEGE PRESS (NIGERIA), 9782194271

An ethnographic study of the concepts of ageing, time and reproduction in rural Gambia. Researched over three years, the author uses demographic data and anthrological understanding offer new perspectives on the concepts of time as shaped by women's conjugal lives. Index, refs, app, tables, figs, xx, 396pp, USA. CHICAGO U P, 0226058522

Collection of essays critically interrogates the internal dimensions of the identity and citizenship crises at the root of the political crises of states in West Africa, and considers the steps that have been taken thus far to address them. It shows how the progressive alienation of ordinary people from the state, coupled with factors of historical identity and post-colonial citizenship are at the heart of the political crisis and conflicts in the region; and argues that these matters must be addressed if West African states are to achieve democratic nationhood. 235pp, SENEGAL. CODESRIA.

Based on experience with refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia in Guinea, this is a cry from the heart to an ailing humanity to take stock of its situation and take remedial action. 4 b/w ill, xi, 205pp, UK. BLOOZOO.

A study analysing democratic transition in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia. The author looks at corruption, the rise of the military, the appropriation of gender politics and human rights in the deepening divide between the state and civil society. Bib, notes, viii, 79pp, SENEGAL. CODESRIA, 2869781229

The 1960s was a pivotal decade in African history. The author looks at the political and ideological battles take marked those years and traces the impact of Sekou Toure, Kwame Nkrumah, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Felix Houphouet Boigny, Modibo Keita and William V.S. Tubman. This study emphasises the leadership qualities of these men and looks at issues of ego, ideology, political history, personal circumstances and foreign influences, rather than the inner workings of each state. Index, notes, xiii, 177pp, UK. PALGRAVE, 1403965498

Seventeen essays on three themes: understanding the dynamics of land tenure - recognising local rights: new approaches - linking local & national legal systems, with perspectives on Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal. Case studies by West Africans offering new ways of understanding land tenure in the region. Index, bib, charts & tables, map, UK and USA. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS, 0852554192

Explores the extent to which elections as a vehicle of democracy have enhanced both the economic performace and the well-being of citizens in several West African states. Many essays in the collection also pay attention to the current debates on globalisation and West African peripheral economic position and, as a result, vulnerability to global economic trends. Contributors include scholars from Africa, Europe, Canada and the US, all of whom, in addition to being prominent experts on Africa, also specialise in the specific countries they cover. 478pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS.

The Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the ECOWAS states of West Africa envisages co-operation between the two sides with the aim of enhancing investment and private sector development in the ECOWAS region. This study explores the options available to ECOWAS states for promoting, protecting and guaranteeing flows of domestic and foreign direct investment, in the context of the ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreements, so that development gains are realised in these economies. 71pp, UK. COMMONWEALTH SECRETARIAT.

New in paperback. Looks closely at the Sudan Interior Mission, an evangelical Christian mission that has taken a tenuous hold in a predominantly Hausa Muslim area on the southern fringe of Niger. Based on sustained fieldwork, personal interviews, and archival research, it gives a unique glimpse into an important dimension of religious life in Africa. Cooper's involvement in a violent religious riot provides a useful backdrop for introducing other themes and concerns such as Bible translation, medical outreach, public preaching, tensions between English-speaking and French-speaking missionaries, and the Christian mission's changing views of Islam. Index, bib, maps, 480pp, USA. INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Explores the problems and challenges of disruptive conflicts and conflict management in West Africa. Based on a robust analysis of a large stock of theoretical and empirical studies on the nature of the state in Africa and the incidents of state failure, fragmentation and collapse, the author argues that a major explanation of state weakness in Africa is the lack of the imperatives of good governance - itself rooted in the trajectory of the emergence of these states. Using the recent internal wars and ongoing conflicts in some West African states such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Cote d'Ivoire as case studies, he demonstrates the use of inappropriate methods of conflict management exacerbates these conflicts and the crisis of the nation-state in Africa. 352pp, UK. ADONIS & ABBEY.

Forged out of a long, often contradictory, always contested trajectory of state formation, dissolution, and recomposition that has been accompanied at different stages by widespread population movements, the West African sub-region has, inevitably, grappled with a wide range of core, enduring governance questions. These questions have contributed, to one degree or another, to the making and character of contemporary state systems, as well as the political cultures underpinning them. This synthesis report is a quick and easily digestible summary of some of the key developments in West Africa which had a direct bearing on governance in the subregion during 2006. IN ENGLISH & FRENCH. 68pp, SENEGAL. CODESRIA.

The broad objective of the study is to appraise the readiness of West African countries to provide health care in post-conflict environments. It is particularly concerned with the building of sustainable national and regional human, material and institutional capacity in order to confront specific health problems induced by conflict. 215pp, NIGERIA. UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC.

The end of the Cold War has been characterised by a wave of violent civil wars that have produced unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and suffering. Although mostly intra-state, these conflicts have spread across borders and threatened international peace and security through mass refugee flow, proliferation of light arms and the rise of local mercenary groups. One of the most affected areas is the West African sub-region which has been home to some of Africa's most brutal and intractable conflicts for more than a decade. Kabia locates these operations within an expanded post-Cold War conceptualisation of humanitarian intervention and examines the organisation's capacity in protecting civilians at risk in civil conflicts and facilitating the processes of peacemaking and post-war peace-building aimed at preventing a relapse into conflict. By using the empirical case of ECOWAS, this book examines the challenges posed by complex political emergencies (CPEs) to humanitarian intervention. 234pp, UK. ASHGATE.

Challenges previous assumptions about institutions, social capital, and the nature of the African state by investigating the history of political and economic change in villages on either side of the Ghana/Cote d'Ivoire border. Prior to European colonial rule, these Akan villages had very similar political and cultural institutions. By the late 1990s, however, Lauren M. MacLean found puzzling differences in the informal institutions of reciprocity and indigenous notions of citizenship. MacLean argues that divergent histories of state formation not only shape how villagers help each other but also influence how local groups and communities define citizenship and then choose to engage with the state on an everyday basis. She examines the historical construction of the state role in mediating risk at the local level across three policy areas: political administration, social service delivery, and agriculture. 304pp, UK. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Examines regional economic integration in West Africa within the context of the institutional evolution of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It uses the tools of the New Institutional Economics School (NIE) to explore the origins and development of the most recent ECOWAS Treaty. Particular attention is given to the interface between domestic legal arrangements and the success of open markets at the regional and international levels. 190pp, UK. ASHGATE.

The revolutionary political upheavals in Africa in the early 1990s continue to have an impact almost two decades later. Drawing on original interviews, this book argues we must look to the defining period of transition, and the workings of the transition governments, to understand how politics in these countries changed since the fall of dictatorial one-party states. Transition governments leave legacies with respect to the relevant political players and their strategies, the institutions of government, and the nature of the political agenda. These legacies are apparent in Benin, which successfully transitioned to democracy, as well as Togo, which failed to democratize. 224pp, UK. PALGRAVE.

Why did Africans bring their most intimate domestic disputes to the newly created native courts in the period after 1905? And what do these disputes tell us about everyday life and social change? To answer these questions, Roberts uses all 2,062 civil disputes heard at the provincial level native courts for four districts between 1905 and 1912. He concludes that changes in social relations occurring at a time of accelerated change associated with colonial conquest and the end of slavery interacted with institutional changes, namely the creation of the new native courts, to produce discernible patterns of litigation. Moreover, these patterns of litigation point to trouble spots in African society, thus providing a lens into the most ordinary aspects of daily life. 336pp, USA. HEINEMANN USA.

ISS Monograph number 118, analyses the complex threats to a fragile peace in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea and on the stalemate in Cote d'Ivoire. Notes, 80pp, SOUTH AFRICA. INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES.

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). 36pp, SWEDEN. NORDIC AFRICA INSTITUTE.

Details the progress, challenges faced, and potential of the project intended to create a West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) between Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Given the trend towards regionalization of economic ties across the world, especially after the successful launch of the euro, a detailed analysis of the WAMZ is needed. 288pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

Since the end of the Cold War, Africa has seen a dramatic rise in new political and religious phenomena, including an eviscerated privatised state, neoliberal NGOs, Pentecostalism, a resurgence in accusations of witchcraft, a culture of scamming and fraud, and, in some countries, a nearly universal wish to emigrate. Drawing on fieldwork in Togo, Charles Piot argues that a novel cultural politics is remaking one of the world's poorest regions and new critical tools are required to make sense of this moment. In a country where playing the U.S. State Department's green card lottery is a national pastime and the preponderance of cyber-cafes and Western Union branches signals a widespread desire to connect to the rest of the world, this book that the cultural and political terrain that underlies postcolonial theory has shifted. 216pp, USA. CHICAGO U P.

Analysis of the world of open air marketplaces of West Africa Clark studies specifically the market women of Kumasi Central Market, Ghana. Concentrates on the key social forces that generate, maintain and continually reshape shifting market dynamics. Index, refs, tables, graphs, b/w photography, maps, xxiv, 464pp, USA. CHICAGO UNIVERSITY PRESS 0226107809

A synthesis of 3000 years history: the western Bantu, agriculture, metalurgy, colonialism and conquest. Maps, index, bib, notes, 428pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS, 085255074X

If political freedom is growing, economic security is not. These seven essays focus on Senegal, Ivory Coast, Burkina, Nigeria, with some regional surveys. Some bib stats and refs, mostly in French (and 1 essay in English), FRANCE. KARTHALA, 2845860129

ISS Monograph number 116. Focuses on the factors behind the demand for weapons ion Sierra Leone and Liberia to determine whether proliferation can be stemmed or slowed. Bib, notes, 106pp, SOUTH AFRICA. INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES.

Through a number of case studies from the West African Sahel, this book links and explores natural resources management from the perspectives of three distinct but interrelated spheres (politics, property and production) and within a broad and empirically based political ecology. Maps, tables, figs, notes, refs, 333pp, SWEDEN. NORDIC AFRICA INSTITUTE.

In recent decades, Africa's poverty-driven artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector has attracted significant donor aid. The majority of initiatives, however, have been undertaken without careful analysis of target communities; consequently, there has been minimal improve-ment overall in a rapidly-expanding industry. This book aims to facilitate a radical change in the way in which policies and support services are implemented for ASM by underscoring the importance of improving understanding of the industry's population and industry dynamics. Focusing upon the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the book raises important questions concerning the general approach taken to deliver support for ASM, and presents findings from community-based research, a key to strengthening industry policy and assistance. 320pp, UK. ITDG PUBLISHING.

Challenges the distinction between tradition and modernity by tracing the movement and mutation of the powerful Talensi god and ancestor shrine, Tongnaab, from the savanna of northern Ghana through the forests and coastal plains of the south. Using a wide range of written, oral, and iconographic sources, Allman and Parker uncover the historical dynamics of cross-cultural religious belief and practice. They reveal how Tongnaab has been intertwined with many themes and events in West African history--the slave trade, colonial conquest and rule, capitalist agriculture and mining, labour migration, shifting ethnicities, the production of ethnographic knowledge, and the political projects that brought about the modern nation state. 272pp, USA. INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS.

A selection of essays presented at a conference in Ngaoundere, Cameroon in 1993. They deal with the transformation of female identities in Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal and discuss whether women's associations work to overcome male domination. Articles are written in either English or French. Index, bib, notes, map, 243pp, SWEDEN. NORDIC AFRICA INSTITUTE, 9171064036

New in paperback. Over the last several decades, historians have conducted extensive research into contact between the United States and West Africa during the era of the transatlantic trade. Yet we still understand relatively little about more recent relations between the two nations. This multidisciplinary volume presents the most comprehensive analysis of the US-West African relationship to date, filling a significant gap in the literature by examining the social, cultural, political, and economic bonds that have, in recent years, drawn these two world regions into increasingly closer contact. Index, 476pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER PRESS.

Now in paperback for the first time, this is a study of history and religion, presenting "not only an admirable portrait of Cerno Bokar, mystic and teacher, and one of the outstanding figures in the historical and doctrinal development of West African Sufism, but also a penetrating insight into the religious experience." (F. Abiola Irele). Index, bib, map, 213pp, UK. HURST & Co. PUBLISHERS.

Short discussion paper which looks at the structural framework of the West African economy and assess its potential in its historical context, as a region of high population density and prolonged military rule. Bib, 34pp, SENEGAL,.

A comprehensive assessment of the resulting mix of setbacks and progress West Africa has experienced during its decade of conflicts. The authors provide a context for understanding the region's security dilemmas, highlighting the link between failures of economic development, governance, and democracy and military insecurity. Index, bib, notes, maps, xvi, 448pp, USA. LYNNE RIENNER, 1588262847

Highlights the necessity for taking preventive measures in the form of peace building as a sustainable and long-term solution to conflicts in West Africa, with a special focus on the Mano River Union countries. Given the often intractable and inter-related nature of conflicts in this region, it argues for the need to revisit the existing mechanisms of conflict resolution in the sub-region with a view to canvassing a stronger case for stakeholders towards adopting the peace-building strategy as a more practical and sustainable way of avoiding wars in the sub-region. 116pp, SENEGAL. CODESRIA.

Focusing primarily on The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, this research project identifies the areas of law that affect the lives of women in West Africa and determines the impact of such laws. 311pp, GHANA. SEDCO PUBLISHING.

A study of legal issues affecting women in West Africa, looking at how women cope. The contributors bring perspectives from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia and discuss topics such as parenting, fostering, adoption and domestic employment. BNS, 230pp, GHANA. SEDCO PUBLISHING LTD.