Africa (Geography) Archives

“Violence in Nigeria: discussion of the statistical evidence for the disproportionate targeting of Christians” by Dennis P. Petri & John Bainbridge

Sep 11, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysAfrica (Geography), Christianity, Human Rights / Civil Rights, Petri, Dennis P.

Makoko Lagos, Nigeria by Collins Okoh (CC BY-SA 4.0) A longstanding debate in the social sciences concerns whether violence in civil conflicts targets specific groups or is indiscriminate. Security scholar Stathis Kalyvas, in his 2006 seminal book The Logic of Violence in Civil War, argues that indiscriminate violence is less likely when actors have high…

“The Housing Plight of Refugees” by Yolanda van der Vyver

Mar 20, 2024Canopy ForumSeriesAfrica (Geography), Ethics, Human Rights / Civil Rights, March 2024, van der Vyver, Yolanda

“Refugee Mother and Child” by dimitrisvetsikas1969 from Pixabay. This essay is part of a virtual conference series “The Roles of Law, Religion and Housing Through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)” sponsored by Canopy Forum and the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. This series features scholars, experts, and…

“Incomplete Communities? Desegregating the City through the Reform of Land Use and Affordable Housing Policies” by Alexander Ehlers

Mar 20, 2024Canopy ForumSeriesAfrica (Geography), Ehlers, Alexander, Ethics, Human Rights / Civil Rights, March 2024

Suburbs of Primrose and Makause in Johannesburg. Maps Data: Google Earth (c) 2015. This essay is part of a virtual conference series “The Roles of Law, Religion and Housing Through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)” sponsored by Canopy Forum and the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. This…

“Participatory Design Produces a Vibrant Dynamic Urban Environment” by Carin Smuts

Mar 20, 2024Canopy ForumSeriesAfrica (Geography), Ethics, Human Rights / Civil Rights, March 2024, Smuts, Carin

“Townscape” by The Digital Artist from Pixabay. This essay is part of a virtual conference series “The Roles of Law, Religion and Housing Through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)” sponsored by Canopy Forum and the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. This series features scholars, experts, and practitioners…

“Death Sentence and Imprisonment under Nigerian Blasphemy Laws” by Georgia du Plessis

Oct 13, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAfrica (Geography), du Plessis, Georgia, Islam, October 2023, Religious Freedom

“Okotie Eboh Street, Lagos, Nigeria” by Obinna Okerekeocha on Unsplash. Blasphemy is the “act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God” and laws upholding blasphemy as a crime fail to respect the human right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu (also known as Deborah Samuel) was…

Law, African Religion, and Environmentalism by Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu

Jul 15, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAfrica (Geography), Christianity, Ethics, Kanu, Ikechukwu Anthony, Religious Freedom

Mazah Hills, Jos, Nigeria. Photo by Victor Salami Oyale (CC BY-SA 4.0). In 2022, I was invited by Harvard Divinity School at Cambridge for a conference titled “Ecological Spiritualities” to present my paper, on African eco-spirituality. While preparing the paper with a focus on the Indigenous experience, I carried out a survey which revealed that, although several…

“Schism and legal disputes over ownership of church buildings in the history of the Nederduitsch Hervormde (Dutch Reformed) Church in South Africa” by Yolanda van der Vyver

May 19, 2023Canopy ForumSeriesAfrica (Geography), Christianity, May 2023, Property Law, van der Vyver, Yolanda

Photo of a church in Iceland by Ludo-Photos (CCO) A virtual conference sponsored by Canopy Forum and the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory (CSLR) featuring scholars, experts and practitioners who will examine issues facing religious congregations, neighborhoods, towns, and cities where houses of worship are falling into disrepair or vacancy. View selected videos and browse all…

Does Religion Speak War; Why Use It As A Means? By Rackel Jackson Agara

Jan 18, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAfrica (Geography), Jackson Agara, Rackel, January 2023, Religious Freedom

Aso Rock in Abujo, Nigeria by Mike Fisher (CC BY-SA 2.0). “War is the greatest plague that afflicts humanity, it destroys states, it destroys families, and even religion…Any scourge is preferable to it,” observed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Many people in the world have used religion to instigate violent conflicts but these religious roots…

“Has Religion Been Fueling the Politics of Conflict in Ethiopia? A Cautionary Tale” by Jon Abbink

Oct 26, 2022Canopy ForumEssaysAbbink, Jon, Africa (Geography), Christianity, Human Rights / Civil Rights, October 2022, Politics

body of water under cloudy sky during sunset by Storiès on Unsplash. Conflict and Religion Is religion a conflict dimension in today’s Ethiopia? Does it have an impact on the ongoing armed confrontations in the country? Some observers think so, but I disagree. Ethiopia, the second-most populated country in Africa, with approximately 112 million people,…

“State and Non-State Violations of Religious Freedom and Implications for National Unity in Nigeria” by Dodeye Uduak Williams

Aug 5, 2022Canopy ForumEssaysAfrica (Geography), August 2022, Politics, Religious Freedom, Williams, Dodeye Uduak

Picture by Faseeh Fawaz on Unsplash. Nigeria is home to about 250 ethnic groups and culturally diverse communities with different religious affiliations, who speak over 500 different languages. The three dominant ethnic groups are the Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. Nigerians practice Christianity, Islam or an indigenous religion. The country is divided almost equally between the…