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The Struggle for a Second Independence

Sociopolitical Construction of Space in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Extract

The twentieth century in Africa, more than elsewhere in the world, has been an era of startling and unprecedented changes. These changes have been most dramatic with respect to the sociopolitical organization of the continent. While at the beginning of the century, most of Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, had hardly emerged from prefeudal or feudal social formations, the advent of European colonialists, whose avarice for conquest and colonial territories was fueled by the blossoming technological capabilities of the Industrial Revolution and the expansionist market demand of a new and burgeoning capitalist economy in Europe, transformed the face of Africa forever.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

Notes

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6. Michael Wolfers, Politics in the Organization of African Unity (London, 1976).

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15. A.K. Gitonga, "The Meaning and Foundations of Democracy," in W.O. Oyugi and A.K. Gitonga (eds.), Democratic Theory and Practice in Africa (Nairobi, 1987), pp.4-23.

16. United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 1997 (New York), p. 2.