This article takes interest in solidarity as sovereign responsibility. Sovereign responsibility is a nonproductive form of care that emerges at the interface of order defined by a privileging of economy and a general economy defined by a return to order of life lost to death. It is this return that unveils the existence and operations of a general economy that order presupposes. The article locates its discussion of sovereign responsibility at two levels of relationality. Firstly, it situates its deliberations concerning (...) sovereign responsibility in the family and among kin. Here it argues that as a form of solidarity, sovereign responsibility positions relations among kin as those of neighbours. Secondly, it shows that the question of the neighbour extends beyond kinship relations and into the realm of extra-kinship relations where others and strangers appear as neighbours. The overall argument of the article is that sovereign responsibility holds potential to facilitate an Afrocentred and counter-hegemonic response to the modern experience of alienation.Contribution: The modern experience of alienation, as well as how it can be challenged, are of interest to this article. The article recognises that numerous attempts have been made to try and address this problematic of alienation in modernity. What it claims has not been done is to engage that problem by taking Africa as an idea, and not just geography, seriously. (shrink)

This article reflects on how the contemporary relationship between movement and space can be reversed so that movement regains priority over space in the experience of life. Its key argument is that movement has potential to take priority over space but only via the logic of the gift. The logic of the gift has potential to undermine the privilege colonial modernity accords to space over movement because its conception of exchange challenges exchange as a construct of economic logic central to (...) the experience of modernity. The article focuses on the gift as is found in the work of John Milbank and the African religious archive. It tries to show that along with Milbank’s imagination of the gift, the gift as a construct of the African religious archive stands to contribute in the fight against the continuing alienation brought about by the project of modernity. This is because it imagines the sacred dimension primarily via the terrain of the family. Contribution: This article contributes to a reading of capitalism via the logic of the gift as a construct of the African religious archive and does so by borrowing from the work of theologians. In doing so, it tries to present a different way of thinking about gift giving in relation to the African religious expression, which has until the recent past been dominated by anthropologists. (shrink)

This article employs an internal logics approach, developed in a recent work by Sher Ali Tareen, to the study of the Barelwi school in South Africa. This approach ties metaphysics to practice. Specifically, the article addresses some works of the school’s founder, Ahmad Raza Khan, as translated by South African Islamic scholar Abdul Hadi Qadiri, in the light of this approach. It then extrapolates the insights of this approach to a recent article by Sepetla Molapo, which highlights the importance (...) of appreciating the metaphysical role of ancestors in any academic approach to understanding traditional African worldviews and African self-concept. Taken together, the article suggests that the internal logics approach is helpful in bringing to the surface the crucial, but often obscured, metaphysical presuppositions concerning the nature of time-presuppositions that inform not only the worldview of the object being studied, but, equally, the often different ones that shape the perspective of the researcher. Contribution: This article wishes to underscore the importance of metaphysical considerations in the study of religion, advocating an approach that highlights such considerations and examining some of its broader academic implications. While it specifically focuses on a theological contestation in Islam, it extends the implications of this contestation to the academic study of traditional African worldviews and to world religions more generally. (shrink)

Este estudio pretende poner de manifiesto la situación de desigualdad de la mujer frente al hombre, a la luz de la teoría del patriarcado que explica la constricción estructural sobre la mujer en la organización familiar, y social, y la manera en que se entienden e interpretan las relaciones sociales a la luz de la teoría de las representaciones de género. Acotamos al contexto español de las últimas décadas, aun cuando se haga alguna incursión en datos a otros niveles que (...) nos ubiquen en la dimensión del problema, y en segundo término acotaremos a uno de los aspectos en los que se pone de manifiesto esta desigualdad: el desigual acceso a cotas de poder político de hombres y mujeres.Realizaremos, así, un análisis comparativo en el tiempo y en el espacio de la situación de la mujer española respecto de las relaciones de poder en la política y de cómo se reparte desigualmente la presencia de hombres y de mujeres en los puestos decisionales relacionados con la esfera pública, con el poder político e institucional y con la “calidad” de la presencia de la mujer en las organizaciones.Aquest estudi pretén posar de manifest la situació de desigualtat de la dona enfront l’home, a la llum de la teoria del patriarcat que palesa la constricció estructural sobre la dona a l‘organització familiar, i social, i la forma d’entendre i interpretar les relacions socials a la llum de la teoria de les representacions de gènere. Acotem al context espanyol de les darreres dècades, encara que es faci alguna incursió amb dades a d’altres nivells que ens ubiquin en la dimensió del problema, i en segon terme acotarem a un dels aspectes en els que es palesa aquesta desigualtat, el diferent accés a cotes de poder polític de dones i homes.Realitzarem, així, una anàlisi comparativa en el temps i en l’espai de la situació de la dona espanyola respecte de les relacions de poder a la política i de com es reparteix desigualment la presència d’homes i de dones als llocs de decisió relacionats amb l’esfera pública, amb el poder polític i institucional i amb la “qualitat” de la presència de la dona a les organitzacions. (shrink)