Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Bangura, Abdul Karim / Ifedi, JP Afamefuna (eds.), Conceptualizations of Africa: Perspectives from Sciences and Humanities. (African Studies and Research Forum Series) 423 pp. 2025:2 (Springer, GW) <739-564>
ISBN 978-3-031-74534-8 hard ¥32,952.- (税込) EUR 139.99 *

This book discusses how Africa has been understood and defined across various academic fields. Building on the influential works of Valentin-Yves Mudimbe and more recent studies by Axel Fleisch and Rhiannon Stephens, this book bridges previous limitations by offering a comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis. Each chapter examines the conceptualization of Africa within a specific discipline, balancing local and global perspectives, blending competing viewpoints, and providing suggestions for future research. The book will be essential for students, scholars, and researchers interested in a better understanding of the diverse and complex narratives that shape our knowledge of Africa and its intellectual heritage.

Dadugblor, Stephen Kwame, Deliberating Ghana: Postcolonial Rhetorics, Culture, and Democracy. (Rhetoric & Public Affairs) 234 pp. 2025:5 (Michigan State U. Pr., US) <739-566>
ISBN 978-1-61186-532-5 paper ¥8,305.- (税込) US$ 39.95 *

In the early 2010s electoral disputes in Ghana garnered global attention and raised questions concerning the nature and future of democratic practice in postcolonial countries. In Deliberating Ghana: Postcolonial Rhetorics, Culture, and Democracy Stephen Kwame Dadugblor examines these disputes as they unfolded in Ghana's Supreme Court and in the public domain. Reading a diverse set of materials including courtroom discourse, social media artifacts, documentaries, parliamentary records, and op-eds, Dadugblor theorizes a cultural imaginaries orientation as a viable approach for understanding and decolonizing knowledge of democratic practice frequently tethered to Western epistemologies and conceptions. Organized around four key ideas about deliberation-the notion of speech, the utility of genre, the promises and perils of digital political participation, and the politics of memory-Deliberating Ghana situates rhetorical studies of democracy within African epistemologies, calling attention to how centering the postcolony can contribute to moving beyond well-worn binaries of West/non-West in studies of rhetoric, democracy, and deliberation, and toward decolonial possibilities. It offers fresh perspectives on foregrounding a society's indigenous knowledge and the messiness of its socio-political and rhetorical traditions to intervene in debates about the politics of knowledge production.

Eke, Damian Okaibedi / Wakunuma, Kutoma et al. (eds.), Trustworthy AI: African Perspectives. 185 pp. 2025:2 (Palgrave Macmillan, UK) <739-567>
ISBN 978-3-031-75673-3 hard ¥37,660.- (税込) EUR 159.99 *

This book is an Open Access Publication. The Guidelines for Trustworthy AI developed by the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on AI is a framework that has been developed to promote and achieve the trustworthiness of AI systems. It provides seven ethical principles that can be operationalised in socio-technical systems to realise responsible AI design and deployment. The content of this book is shaped around these principles. In chapter one, the concept of Human Agency and oversight will be described from the lens of a social-cultural understanding of Agency, Autonomy, and oversight including a debate on the place of human rights and power dynamics. Beyond the Trustworthy AI discourse, this book will appeal to the wider AI developers community, civil society, policymakers, ICT and the RRI community. It will also appeal to other subject areas within the Social Sciences and Humanities including; Law and Technology and Digital Culture.

Moreau, Julie, After Equality: LGBT Activism in Argentina and South Africa. (Cambridge Studies in Gender and Politics) 248 pp. 2025:6 (Cambridge U. Pr., UK) <739-569>
ISBN 978-1-009-59300-7 hard ¥25,443.- (税込) GB￡ 90.00 *
ISBN 978-1-009-59301-4 paper ¥8,760.- (税込) GB￡ 30.99 *

After Equality tackles one of the biggest challenges facing LGBT activists in many parts of the world: how to move beyond inclusive legislation to ensure LGBT people can exercise their newly acquired rights. Drawing from in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation with two lesbian organizations in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Cape Town, South Africa, Julie Moreau explores the ways that organizations use identity to make rights useful. Engaging interdisciplinary scholarship and intersectional theory, Moreau develops a novel approach to identity strategizing that explains how activists engage multiple identities to challenge the relationships between identity categories and address the ways interlocking systems of power affect their constituents. By analyzing sexual identity as always constructed through race, class and gender, the book transforms how scholars understand the role of identity in the strategic repertoires of social movement organizations and illuminates dimensions of identity politics that surface in the aftermath of legal inclusion.

Small, Betsy, Before Before: A Story of Discovery and Loss in Sierra Leone. (Law, Meaning, and Violence) 200 pp. 2025:3 (U. Michigan Pr., US) <739-570>
ISBN 978-0-472-07729-8 hard ¥14,553.- (税込) US$ 70.00 *
ISBN 978-0-472-05729-0 paper ¥4,147.- (税込) US$ 19.95

Sierra Leone is often sensationalized as a place of extreme violence and suffering-of blood diamonds, child soldiers, war amputations, and Ebola and now the highly addictive drug Kush. Before Before captures daily life in a different country, one Betsy Small first encountered as a Peace Corps worker between 1984-1987, and then rediscovered when she returned decades later with her daughter. Living in Tokpombu, a remote community of forty rice-farming families, the author faced struggles that changed her forever and witnessed the growing tensions in this rainforest village-between the young and old, between the traditions of oral history and honoring the ancestors valued by the elders and the siren call of the illicit diamond mines faced by the youth. Before Before offers a rare portrait of everyday people, with particular focus on the lives of women and girls, before the brutal war of 1991 tore the country apart. Through Small's account of immersion in another world as she witnessed injustice and was welcomed as a friend, readers are invited to explore the shared ground of our humanity.

Sule, Babayo, Nigerian Political Parties in the Fourth Republic: Evolution, Characteristics and Dynamics of Transformation. 470 pp. 2025:2 (Palgrave Macmillan, UK) <739-571>
ISBN 978-3-031-77109-5 hard ¥32,952.- (税込) EUR 139.99 *

This book examines the changing dynamics of political parties in Nigeria's Fourth Republic. It is a comprehensively study of these parties' development, character and systems in relation to everything from ideology, funding and crises to leadership, civil society, traditional and social media, and electoral politics. The author shows that, while the organisation and institutionalisation of Nigerian political parties remain fragile, they have taken on a new form in the Fourth Republic. The book provides researchers, policymakers and students with insights into the development of Nigeria's politics in light of its colonial legacy and its struggle against the institutionalisation of strong political institutions for democratisation.

Thompson, Daniel K., Smugglers, Speculators, and the City in the Ethiopia-Somalia Borderlands. (African Studies) 220 pp. 2024:12 (Cambridge U. Pr., UK) <739-572>
ISBN 978-1-009-55626-2 hard ¥25,443.- (税込) GB￡ 90.00 *

For a century, the Ethiopian city Jigjiga was known as a dusty hub of cross-border smuggling and a hotbed of rebellion on Ethiopia's eastern frontier. After 2010, it transformed into a post-conflict boomtown, becoming one of Africa's fastest-growing cities and attracting Somali return-migrants from across the globe. This study examines Jigjiga's astonishing transformation through the eyes of its cross-border traders, urban businesspeople, and officials. Daniel K. Thompson follows traders and return-migrants across borders to where their lives collide in the city. Analysing their strategies of mobility and exchange, this study reveals how Ethiopia's federal politics, Euro-American concerns about terrorism, and local business aspirations have intertwined to reshape links between border-making and city-making in the Horn of Africa. To understand this distinctive brand of urbanism, Thompson follows globalized connections and reveals how urbanites in Africa and beyond participate in the "urban borderwork" of constructing, as well as contesting, today's border management regimes.

Whitnah, Meredith, Faith and the Fragility of Justice: Responses to Gender-Based Violence in South Africa. 208 pp. 2025:4 (Rutgers U. Pr., US) <739-332>
ISBN 978-1-9788-3864-2 hard ¥24,948.- (税込) US$ 120.00 *
ISBN 978-1-9788-3863-5 paper ¥7,265.- (税込) US$ 34.95 *

South Africa has repeatedly made international headlines because of its high rates of gender-based violence. In the midst of a wide range of responses to the problem, an important voice has been largely absent. Why are the religious groups that had famously protested the racial violence of apartheid faltering in their response to gendered violence in the democracy? Faith and the Fragility of Justice answers this question through a deep dive into the public discourse of three Protestant Christian organizations that had been adamant about a theological mandate to challenge apartheid, but have varied in their responses to gender-based violence in the democracy. The central argument of the book is that the organizations' theological convictions intersect with their posture toward various social groups to shape their actions. In making this argument, Meredith Whitnah demonstrates that religious beliefs are a central dimension of institutional processes that sustain or challenge social inequality and violence.

Carpenter, Edward H., Blue Helmet: My Year as a UN Peacekeeper in South Sudan. 384 pp. 2025:3 (Potomac Books, US) <739-452>
ISBN 978-1-64012-599-5 hard ¥7,265.- (税込) US$ 34.95 *

Blue Helmet: My Year as a UN Peacekeeper in South Sudan tells the story of a country, a conflict, and the institution of peacekeeping through the eyes of a senior American military officer working on the ground in one of the most dangerous countries on the planet. South Sudan is rich in natural resources, and its fertile soil could make it the breadbasket of East Africa. Yet it remains the poorest and most corrupt country in the region, plagued by disease, famine, and ethnic strife. Abductions, sexual violence, death, and displacement affect tens of thousands of people each year. Edward H. Carpenter pulls readers into his world, allowing them to experience the powerful, poignant realities of being a peacekeeper in South Sudan. In the process, the author reveals how the United Nations really conducts its missions: what it tolerates and how it often falls short of achieving the aims of its charter-equal rights, justice, and economic advancement for all people-with the use of armed forces limited to serving those common interests by keeping the peace and preventing the scourge of war. It is a story that is eye-opening, unsettling, and always compelling. Global leaders may fairly claim that they have done everything they can to help South Sudan help itself: they've dispatched thousands of peacekeepers and provided billions of dollars in aid. So why is the UN still struggling to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians and safeguard the delivery of humanitarian assistance? What could be done better? Bringing the reader to the forefront of action, Blue Helmet answers these questions and raises others about how modern peacekeeping missions are organized and overseen, shedding light on some of the contradictions at the heart of peacekeeping.

Marevesa, Tobias / Mwale, N. / Chireshe, E. et al. (eds.), Religion, Gender, and Sustainable Development in East and Southern Africa. (Sustainable Development Goals Series) 281 pp. 2025:2 (Palgrave Macmillan, UK) <739-106>
ISBN 978-3-031-76087-7 hard ¥35,306.- (税込) EUR 149.99 *

This volume brings to the fore the intersections of religion, gender and sustainable development in 21st century Africa from an interdisciplinary perspective. The volume explores and presents a coherent, research supported argument for the role of religion in promoting gender justice and sustainable development. Contributing authors explicate how the nexus between religion and gender can be utilized as the backdrop for achieving sustainable development in Africa, focusing on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls." Chapters in this volume focus on a variety of topics, including, how African Traditional Religions, Christianity (mainline, AICs, Pentecostalism), Islam, Rastafari, etc., are being used to promote SDG 5 in African countries.