The silences in the NGO discourse: the role and future of NGOs in Africa

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	The silences in the NGO discourse: the role and future of NGOs in Africa
Author:	Shivji, Issa G.
Year:	2006
Periodical:	Africa Development: A Quarterly Journal of CODESRIA (ISSN 0850-3907)
Volume:	31
Issue:	4
Pages:	22-51
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	NGO imperialism globalization Economics, Commerce Non-governmental organizations
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/24483875
Abstract:	This paper critically examines the role and future of the NGO in Africa. It argues that the role of NGOs in Africa cannot be understood without a clear characterization of the current historical moment. It depicts Africa at the crossroads of the defeat of the national project and the rehabilitation of the imperial project. In order to demonstrate the antithesis between the national and the imperial projects so as to identify the place and role of NGOs in it, the paper first reiterates the history of Africa's enslavement from the first contacts with the Europeans five centuries ago through the slave trade to colonialism and now globalization. It locates the rise, prominence and privileging of the NGO sector in the womb of the neoliberal offensive whose aim is as much ideological as economic and political. The NGO discourse, or more correctly, the nondiscourse, is predicated on the philosophical and political premises of neoliberalism/globalization paradigm. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract, edited]