NUMBER 37-38 / 1996

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Leslie BANK is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University, South Africa. He holds the degrees of B.A. and M.A. from the University of Cape Town. He has written extensively on issues of rural change in the former bantustans and is currently completing a Ph.D. on issues of urbanisation in East London, South Africa. He has published in such journals as African Affairs, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, and African Studies.

Lynne BRYDON is a member of the Centre of West African Studies at the University of Birmingham, Britain. She trained as a social anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, Britain, in the early 1970s. Her fieldwork has concentrated on Ghana in general and Avatime in particular. Her research interests include cultural change and gender. She has published: (with Sylvia Chant) Women in the Third World: Gender Issues in Rural and Urban Areas (Edward Elgar, 1989, reprinted 1993); (with Karen Legge) Adjusting Society: The World Bank, the IMF and Ghana (IB Tauris, 1996); and a number of  articles.

Marthinus L. DANEEL was born at Morgenster Mission, Zimbabwe, where his parents served as Dutch Reformed Church missionaries. For more than 30 years he has combined an active ministry and research programme among the Shona African Independent Churches (AICs) in Zimbabwe with academic teaching concerns. He is the founder of several ecumenical AIC and religio-ecological movements. For the past sixteen years he has also been Professor in Missiology at the University of South Africa. His extensive publications on Shona traditional religion and AICs include: The God of the Matopo Hills, 1970; Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches, in 3 vols., 1971, 1974, 1988; African Earthkeepers, Orbis Books, forthcoming, 1997; as well as a novel, Guerrilla Snuff, dealing with the spirituality of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle, and published under the pseudonym Mafuranhunzi Gumbo in 1995.

Peter GESCHIERE is Professor of African Anthropology at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, and Chairman of the African Studies Centre, Leiden. He was born in Nieuwer Amstel, The Netherlands. He studied history and anthropology at the Free University of Amsterdam, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1978 for a thesis published under the title Village Communities and the State: Changing Relations of Authority Among the Maka, S.E. Cameroon (London: Kegan Paul International, 1982). He has taught anthropology at the Free University of Amsterdam, and non-western history at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. His main publications have been: (with Wim van Binsbergen) Old Modes of Production and Capitalist Encroachment: Anthropological Explorations in Africa (London: Kegan Paul International, 1985); (with Piet Konings) Itinéraires d’accumulation au Cameroun (Paris: Karthala 1993); and (with Cyprian Fisiy) Sorcellerie et politique en Afrique: La viande des autres (Paris: Karthala, 1995. An English translation of the last book is forthcoming under the title The Modernity of Witchcraft; Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa (University Press Virginia). At present he is working on a historical study of the German “rubber terror” in southern Cameroon during the first decade of this century.

Doyle G. HATT is an Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, where he teaches anthropology. He received his doctorate in anthropology from the University of California at Los Angeles. He specialises in political anthropology and belief systems. He is currently working on an historical atlas of the Maghrib.

Piet KONINGS is Senior Research Fellow at the African Studies Centre, Leiden. He was born at Posterholt, The Netherlands, and studied sociology of development and African Studies at the University of Ghana and the Catholic University of Brabant at Tilburg, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1977 for a dissertation entitled Trade Unionism and Government Development Strategy in Ghana. He has carried out extensive research on state, labour and trade unionism in Ghana and Cameroon. His most important books are: The State and Rural Class Formation in Ghana (London/Boston: Kegan Paul International, 1986); Labour Resistance in Cameroon (London: James Currey, 1993); and (co-edited with Peter Geschiere) Itinéraires d'accumulation au Cameroun (Paris: Karthala, 1993).

Jean-Michel LABATUT is Senior Program Officer at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada. He has over 20 years of experience in Africa and has made significant contributions to the development of regional research networks on social policy and to the strengthening of social science research capacity in Africa. The holder of a Ph.D. in Sociology of Development from the Université de Montréal, he has taught and lectured in France, Zambia and Canada, at inter alia the University of Ottawa and the Université de Québec à Hull where he taught sociology of development and research methodology. He has conducted research and published papers on urban development, state-civil society relations, land tenure systems, and the informal sector. Since joining IDRC in 1991 he has worked in the Centre's former Urban, Environment and Social Policy programs and is currently working on inter alia the Assessment of Social Policy Reforms and Learning and Communication Systems program initiatives.

Paul NUGENT is a Lecturer in African History and a member of the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS). He holds a B.A. from the University of Cape Town, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from SOAS. He is the author of Big Men, Small Boys and Politics in Ghana: Power, Ideology and the Burden of History, 1982-1994 (London, New York and Accra: Pinter and Asempa, 1995 and 1996); and co‑editor (with A.I. Asiwaju) of African Boundaries: Barriers, Conduits and Opportunities (London and New York: Pinter, 1996).

Jean-Baptiste OUEDRAOGO is Chargé de Recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique/ Institut de Recherche en Sciences Sociales et Humaines, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. He holds a doctorate of the 3rd cycle in ethnology from the Université de Lyons II, France. At the time of compilation of this note he was preparing a thesis for a state doctorate in sociology from the University of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, which was expected to be defended in June 1996. His field of specialisation is the sociology of rural development.

André R.M. PAKOSIE was born at Diitabiki, the residence on the Tapanahoni River of the Paramount Chief of the Ndyuka tribe of Suriname. He is a self-taught historian. Since 1977 he has practised as a herbalist and healer. Since 1991 he has been director-owner of Fytotheek Pakosie, a practice for traditional Maroon medicine, in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He has written extensively on the Maroons of Surinam, his first major work being De dood van Boni (Paramaribo: Offsetdrukkerij Westfoort, 1972), and more recent works being: "Benpenimaunsu, Gaanman der Ndyuka van 1759 tot heden, van Fabi Labi tot Gazon Matodja", Utrecht: Siboga, jrg. 3, nr 1., 1993; and (with C.N. Dubbelaar) Kago Buku: Notes by Captain Kago from Tabiki, Tapanahoni River, Suriname, written in Afaka script, 1993.

Tim QUINLAN is Senior Research Officer at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Durban-Westville, South Africa. He was born in Tanga, Tanzania. A social anthropologist, he received his university education at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, obtaining the degree of M.A. in 1984 and a Ph.D. in 1995. He has during the last eight years been involved in intensive research in Lesotho, and throughout southern Africa, in the fields of political and economic anthropology, environmental management theory and practice, and documentary video film (employing community video methods). He has published a number of papers on chieftaincy, including "The perpetuation of myths: a case study on tribe and chief in South Africa." Journal of Legal Pluralism 27: 79-115.

Donald I. RAY is Professor in the Department of Political Science, The University of Calgary, Canada. He received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Calgary, his M.A. in African Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto. His books include: (with J.E. Torp and L. Denny) Mozambique/Sao Tome and Principe, revised edition (London: Pinter, 1990); Dictionary of African Left: Parties. Movements. Groups (Aldershot: Gower and Dartmouth, 1989); (with R. Premdas) The Western Canada and Papua Secessionist Movements (Kandy: International Centre for Ethnic Studies, 1988); Ghana: Politics. Economics and Society (London and Boulder: Pinter and Lynne Rienner, 1986); and Into the 80's: African Studies (Vancouver: Tantalus, 1981). He has also contributed to a number of books and journals. His current research focuses on chiefs in the contemporary state, especially Ghana but also in comparative perspective.

E. Adriaan B. van ROUVEROY van NIEUWAAL is Senior Research Fellow at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands, and since 1983 part-time Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Leiden. His research has been concerned with matrimonial law, land tenure law, local government, and processes of state formation in West Africa, especially Togo. He has directed several documentary films on subjects of African law ranging from issues in family law, dispute settlement and Islam to the recent developments in relation to democratization in Togo. Since 1987 his main interest has been the relationship between the African state and chieftaincy. He is one of the organizers of the biennial Rencontre Franco-Allemande, and has been the organizer of several international conferences.

Peter SKALNÍK received his university training in African Studies at Charles University, Prague, and Leningrad State University. His doctoral thesis, on the dynamics of early state development in the Voltaic area, was submitted to Charles University in 1973, but for political reasons he was not permitted to defend it. He has taught at universities in many countries, in particular Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands and South Africa. He has conducted fieldwork in the Soviet Union (for brief periods in 1966, 1967 and 1973), Czechoslovakia (intermittently from 1970 to 1976), Northern Ghana (for various periods between 1978 and 1994), and in Franschhoek, Cape Province, South Africa. His research interests include the theory of the state, the history of anthropological theory, especially in Eastern Europe, rural development, especially in Africa, and mountain communities. Among his numerous publications in many languages are: two books co-edited with Henri J.M. Claessen, The Early State (The Hague: Mouton, 1978), and The Study of the State (The Hague: Mouton, 1981); a book edited solely by him, Outwitting the State (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1989); and a book co-edited with R.J. Thornton, An Argonaut from Cracow: Bronislaw Malinowski's Pre-fieldwork Writings. He is presently the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Republic of Lebanon, on secondment from Charles University.

Roger SOUTHALL is Professor of Political Studies at Rhodes University, South Africa. He holds a B.A. from the University of Leeds, an M.A. (Economics) from the University of Manchester, and a Ph.D. awarded in 1975 by the University of Birmingham for a thesis on the cocoa industry of the Gold Coast. He has taught at universities in Uganda, Lesotho, Canada and England. His most recently published book is Imperialism or Solidarity? International Labour and South African Trade Unions, Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 1995.

Trutz von TROTHA is Professor of Sociology at the University of Siegen, Germany. His recent research focuses on violence, war, and the processes of state building and of the disintegration of states. He is author and editor of books about juvenile gang delinquency, crime, law and colonialism, and has published widely in German and international journals. His latest publications include: (edited, with Étienne Le Roy) La Violence et l'État (Paris: l'Harmattan, 1993); Koloniale Herrschaft. Zur soziologischen Theorie der Staatsentstehung am Beispiel des 'Schutzgebietes Togo' (Tübingen: Mohr, 1994); (edited, with Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig) Legitimation von Herrschaft und Recht (Köln, Rüdiger Köppe, 1994); "Ordnungsformen der Gewalt oder Aussichten auf das Ende des staatlichen Gewaltmonopol", Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozial Psychologie 35 (Special Issue on "Politische Institutionen im Wandel", ed. Birgitta Nedelmann): 129-166 (1995). He is one of the organizers of the biennial Rencontres Européennes d'Anthropologie du Droit.

Werner ZIPS, born in Vienna, completed his studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna with a doctoral degree in 1981. He received a second doctoral degree in Anthropology and African studies in 1989. Since 1990 he has been teaching courses in legal anthropology, political anthropology, ethnohistory, and Caribbean and African studies at the Department of Ethnology at the University of Vienna. He has been conducting research in Jamaica since 1984, and more recently in Tanzania and Ghana. He has published numerous articles, and a book, Schwarze Rebellen. Afrikanisch-karibischer Freiheitskampf in Jamaica (1993). He has also directed a film project on the social history of the Maroons of Jamaica, published under the title "Accompong - Black Freedom Fighters of Jamaica". His current research focuses on aspects of legal pluralism in Jamaica and Ghana.  He is editing (with E.A.B. van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal) Sovereignty, Legitimacy and Power in West African Societies: Perspectives of Legal Anthropology (Münster, Hamburg, London: LIT-Verlag, 1997