Panel 38: The Impact of Large-scale Violence on Societal Transformation and Development Perspectives in Africa
Panel organisers: André Du Pisani (Univ. of Namibia, Namibia) and Franz-Wilhelm Heimer (Lisbon Univ. Institute, Portugal)
Please note that this panel has been cancelled (on 28 March) upon request of panel conveners.
Contact: franz.heimer@iscte.pt
| Numerous African countries have been affected by different kinds of largescale violence: from the violence of colonial conquest and domination, and the resistance against that domination, to that linked to post-colonial conflicts over political power, economic benefits, ideological positions, ethnic/regional/religious rivalries and other issues. In several countries such conflicts are going on until today. Such experiences have had, and are still having, profound societal impacts on all levels, the economic as well as the political, that of social structure and demography as well as that of social thinking and the psychic situation of the people. In the countries concerned, these impacts strongly condition the current transformations, and the perspectives of overcoming the negative dynamics that have been their dominant characteristic, or at least an important feature of their situation. Involved, as country coordinators, in a major project on “Reconciliation and Social Conflict in the Aftermath of large-scale Violence in Southern Africa: the cases of Angola and Namibia” initiated in 2006, the panel proposers wish to confront the research findings of their project with those of other colleagues on other countries. Thus, while counting on contributions by some of the researchers linked to their project, they are inviting colleagues interested in the problematic identified above to suggest papers on aspects relevant in this context. |