We trace the formation of the Kadehine, a Mauritanian cultural and political movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, with a focus on aspects of the “political underground” central to the movement’s strategies and organizing principles. As an anthropological history of the Kadehine, we focus on the organizing perspective afforded by its sources (largely interviews and movement literature). These sources emphasize the importance of clandestinity, as well as the influence of New Left ideas. We then develop a concept, “political underground,” describing the importance of clandestinity and its relationship to the radical politics of its time.

In the recent case of Ezuame Mannan v Attorney General and Speaker of Parliament,1the Ghanaian Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision struck down the Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019), on grounds that the parliamentary processes leading to its enactment were unconstitutional. In arriving at this decision, the court strived to define the limits of Parliament’s legislative powers. While some clarity was achieved, difficult contradictions emerged. Prominent among these was the extent to which the constitutional power of judicial review over legislative actions should interfere with the autonomy of Parliament. In this article, I propose that a proper understanding and application of the purposive approach to interpretation offers an effective tool for reconciling these seemingly conflicting constitutional values.

In order for accused persons with disabilities to be able to access justice on an equal basis with others, equality of outcomes is important. However, in the past century, the limited approach to legal aid which focuses on processes has continually been applied by criminal justice system actors in response to legal aid challenges faced by accused persons with disabilities in Kenya. The major dilemma facing this approach is its emphasis on steps to be taken as opposed to the end result or goal. This paper seeks to explain that a shift towards an outcomes approach to legal aid for accused persons with disabilities has the potential of supporting innovation in Kenya’s criminal justice system and help close access to justice gaps that may exist. To achieve this paradigm shift, the African Disability Protocol has been employed as it promotes an integral development of legal aid justice that requires states parties to put in place specific outcomes-based laws for promoting the rights of accused persons in access to justice.

The application by states of economic principles in education has not produced good results in access to education in low-income and less-developed countries. This prompted UNESCO to designate countries with substantial problems of access to education and illiteracy as the E-9 countries, which include Nigeria. Nigeria’s status as an E-9 country indicates the existence of considerable problems in education, and where necessary, statistical evidence will be used to elucidate Nigeria’s E-9 status. This article argues that the nature of the laws and policy mechanisms that control education in Nigeria suggests that the country seems to be responding to the contemporaneous demands of global programmes of action in education that are predicated on economic principles and driven by the tides of globalization instead of to the requirements of international human rights law.

A review of Joel Cabrita’s biography of Regina Gelana Twala.

In Nairobi, water rights emerge not through legal recognition alone but through relationships with infrastructurally powerful actors. Residents must engage with specific individuals across institutional levels who control urban water distribution. This explains neighborhood disparities in water access and why some residents secure better supplies than others. The fragmentation of water control challenges traditional legal and normative frameworks of water rights. Understanding how rights are embedded in everyday socio-material relationships is crucial for comprehending how people establish water access and thereby concretize their right to water in practice.

This study examines the historical evolution of a Companion report detailing the burning of an unnamed man as punishment for assuming the passive role in male–male anal intercourse (liwāṭ). The genesis of this sexual passivity report can be traced back to an earlier incident involving Abū Bakr, in which the apostate al-Fujāʾa al-Salamī (d. 11/632) was executed by being burned alive for multiple offences, including apostasy, betrayal, and the slaughter of Muslims. This study investigates the transformation of the apostasy report into one specifically addressing male sexual passivity, analysing how these two accounts converged over time. It explores both the mechanisms and motivations behind their evolution into a punitive report focused on burning a man for his passive sexual role in liwāṭ. Additionally, it considers potential reasons for the development of this report, including the possibility that the phrase “he was penetrated like a woman” was initially used as a rhetorical insult directed at the apostate al-Fujāʾa, but gradually evolved in later sources into an association with the crime for which an unnamed man was purportedly punished with burning.

The purpose of the South African Competition Act is to resolve the present problems of inequality by emphasizing its multiple goals, which differ from those of other countries. Its objectives broadly contain efficiency, state economic development and consumer welfare. In addition, the ideas of providing opportunities for small businesses and promoting a greater spread of ownership among different groups indicate its goal of favouring or protecting weak trading parties or certain groups of people. To achieve the aim of equity and fairness, South African competition law should be vigorously applied, but the existing substantive provisions may not fulfil the task of moving towards an equal and fair society. A comparative study of competition law may help to discover a proper model and a better solution for the problems of unequal economic power in South Africa.

This study examines the significance of nonhuman actors in writing African history. It asks why things and animals are at the margin of African history. It probes how the intersection of presence and absence manifests in things, and how this can aid historians’ imagination of the past. Finally, it seeks to know how the recognition and integration of things in the historical narrative can help understand the unaccounted past. The article draws from the Yoruba visual and verbal arts, particularly the oriki and Ifa corpus to argue that “things” are important historical sources that are methodologically useful and theoretically relevant.