This handbook provides an authoritative and comprehensive overview of African population dynamics, variations, causes and consequences, demonstrating the real-world applications of research in policies and programmes. African demography has come of age. Over 50 years, the discipline has grown exponentially in the number of training and research institutions, specialist experts and academic output, all with an aim of addressing the enormous demographic challenges faced by the continent. The book draws on old and emerging analytical tools to explore the relationships between population dynamics and social, economic, cultural and political environments from African perspectives. Key topics include fertility, sexual behaviours, healthcare, ageing, mortality, migration, displacement, the causes and consequences of demographic changes and teaching and research developments in African demography. The Routledge Handbook of African Demography will be an essential resource for students and researchers of African demography, sociology, development and cultural studies.

Representing the work of some of the best-known theorists and researchers in masculinities and feminism in South Africa, this highly original work is comprised of a collection of papers presented at the "From Boys to Men" conference held in January 2005. Based on rich ethnographic studies in South Africa and elsewhere in in the continent, this collection addresses the argument that because South African feminine studies are fraught with problems, boys and men should be included in all research and intervention work studying gender equality and transformation. Chapters examine several issues of the African male psyche, such as varying identifiers of manhood, teenage masculinity, paternal responsibility, and the impact of HIV/AIDS in the region.

During the summer of 2010 Ghana played host to the first ever conference held within Africa to focus solely on the relationship of the African Christian and Islam. The event was led by John Azumah in partnership with the Center of Early African Theology. The conference, chaired by Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja welcomed over 50 participants from across 27 African countries and several denominations. This book is a collection of the papers presented by 22 of the delegates forming a historical survey and thematic assessment of the African Christian and Islam. In addition, key information on the introduction, spread and engagement of Islam and Christianity within 9 African countries is presented. The book closes with Biblical reflections that opened each day of the conference, providing useful examples of Christians reading the Bible in reference to Islam.

Tracing the rise and development of the Ghanaian video film industry between 1985 and 2010, Sensational Movies examines video movies as seismographic devices recording a culture and society in turmoil. This book captures the dynamic process of popular filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination and tracks the interlacing of the medium’s technological, economic, social, cultural, and religious aspects. Stepping into the void left by the defunct state film industry, video movies negotiate the imaginaries deployed by state cinema on the one hand and Christianity on the other. Birgit Meyer analyzes Ghanaian video as a powerful, sensational form. Colliding with the state film industry’s representations of culture, these movies are indebted to religious notions of divination and revelation. Exploring the format of "film as revelation," Meyer unpacks the affinity between cinematic and popular Christian modes of looking and showcases the transgressive potential haunting figurations of the occult. In this brilliant study, Meyer offers a deep, conceptually innovative analysis of the role of visual culture within the politics and aesthetics of religious world making.

"Mothering in the Third Wave is a welcome addition to scholarship on both third-wave feminism and feminist mothering. The volume continues in the tradition of earlier third-wave anthologies in its inclusive and diverse vision of feminisms and feminists, while forging new ground in its focus on third-wave mothers and third-wave practices of mothering. In exploring how the institution of motherhood is shaped by today's political and social realities, Mothering in the Third Wave examines contemporary experiences of feminist mothering while connecting to earlier writing on the subject since the 1970s. Recommended for readers of any generation interested in the complexities of feminist mothering in the twenty-first century." - Astrid Henry, author of Not My Mother's Sister: Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism

Major cities in West Africa - or the so-called mega-cities, with populations of over six million - are exploding with migrants. Lagos is already the home of over ten million, and over the next forty years it is estimated that the populations and functional boundaries of Abidjan, Dakar, Ibadan and Accra will double or triple. Political instability of states, refugees, the associated problems of violence, poverty, insecurity, and the HIV pandemic compound the challenges facing governments and policymakers, and, as if this were not enough, Accra lies on an earthquake belt. This book is the outcome of a seminar held by the Ghana Institute of Architects in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, Accra. Its contributors write on demographic change and the developing world, and the future of Accra within this context. They envisage a shape of the city, and explore how to provide housing and transport, institute modern and meaningful political and educational institutions, and harness ICT and the growing knowledge economy to the benefit of Ghana's citizens and its role in the sub-region.