Call for Articles: Sub-Saharan Africa
The Sub-Saharan region as a “crisis region” – a picture mostly conveyed by the local media with their often disadvantageous reporting. Numerous articles associate this region with poverty, corruption, war and disease.
In addition to this image of the “crisis region”, the image of Sub-Saharan Africa as a “region of opportunity” has also emerged in recent years. Sub-Saharan Africa’s enormous wealth of raw materials, the immense investments this region, the brisk economic growth and, last but not least, demographic development make it the continent of the future. In an attempt to secure a corresponding share of these prospects of success for themselves, the conscious perception of African actors at eye level is often missing – for example within the flourishing relationship between China and African countries. An appropriate and realistic picture of Sub-Saharan Africa, its inhabitants and its – not necessarily monetary – wealth is all too rarely conveyed in Europe. The relations between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa are seldom examined from an African perspective. This makes it difficult to get a realistic picture of living conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa in Germany.
Therefore, IFAIR’s Sub-Saharan African Regional Division would like to contribute with a call for articles and contributions to broaden the perspectives on this region in order to counter many a clichéd image of Sub-Saharan Africa. We want to stimulate a balanced discourse on international relations between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa and take a look at cross-regional issues from an alternate perspective.
For this we are looking for young people with a critical view, who give their own perspective of the challenges and problems of the region, but also of the opportunities and strengths as well as the possible future development of Sub-Saharan Africa. Possible topics are for example
– Conflict and Security Issues within Sub-Saharan Africa
– Democracy and Human Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa
– Development and the Future of Sub-Saharan Africa
– Enviromental Policiy Issues and Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa
– Foreign Relations within Sub-Saharan Africa or between Sub-Saharan Africa and the world
Own experiences and research can help to show a differentiated picture, which reflects, according to the diversity of this region, the different facets of the reality of life as well as the relations of Germany and Europe with Sub-Saharan Africa.
Further information can be found in this document.
