Article

In this essay, the prophetic text of Isaiah 2:2-5 is interpreted and proposed as a guide to achieving sustainable peace in the contemporary world. The quest for a new world order of peace has characterized different ages of human existence. It is a basic feature in the biblical literature, most especially in the prophetic books. In Isaiah, particularly, one finds a positive thrust towards a future idealized as a return to paradise. Isaiah’s vision of the future of humanity is so optimistic that people have often regarded it as utopian. In the present text, the prophet postulates a new order of economic, social and religious security based on a radical spiritual and moral reorientation. The essay employs critical and contextual approaches in the analysis of the text.

Abstract Media literacy enables people to interpret and make informed judgments as users of digital technology sources, as well as to become producers of media contents in their own right. However, many Nigerian universities are not aware of this literacy or have not included it in their curricula. This study analysed the media-literacy content in curricula of nine select universities in Africa’s most populous nation: Nigeria. Some key findings revealed that: (a) media-literacy courses proper were not on the curricula; (b) media-literacy-related courses, which stood as proxies, accounted for about two per cent of the curricula; and (c) media-literacy-related courses were available to students only as electives. The present research indicates that media-literate students tend to be skilled in accessing information about their health, environment, education and work. They would also be able to evaluate media content critically and to make informed decisions as users of digital technology sources, as well as to becoming producers of media contents in their own right. Based on the accumulated skills of media literacy for contemporary young people, it was recommended that communications programmes redesign their curricula to include media literacy and related courses. Also, communication educators should be more receptive to the importance of media literacy skills in the education of their students.

 Ce texte montre que la réconciliation ne signifie pas l’oubli. Il s’appuie essentiellement sur les chansons de Tiken Jah Fakoly. En effet, selon cet artiste, les victimes et les martyrs doivent se réconcilier avec leurs bourreaux, sans toutefois oublier leurs blessures qui font partie de leur histoire. Vouloir oublier les injustices et les torts subis, c’est décider de rompre avec l’histoire qui est pourtant caractéristique de l’individu et de la société. Le pardon, tant nécessaire pour le vivre-ensemble harmonieux ne sous-entend donc pas une biffure de la mémoire individuelle ou collective. Le choix de Tiken Jah, parmi tant de penseurs pacifistes, contractualistes ou altruistes, pour disséquer la problématique de la réconciliation n’est pas fortuit. Au-delà de tout ce qu’on peut reprocher à ce reggaeman international d’origine ivoirienne, il apparaît ici qu’il s’intéresse aux questions sociopolitiques dont la cohésion sociale et l’unité, corrélatives à la réconciliation.   This text shows that reconciliation does not mean forgetting. It is based essentially on the songs of Tiken Jah Fakoly. In fact, according to this singer, victims and martyrs must make it up with their torturers without forgetting the ill they did to them which is part of their past. Willing to forget the injustice and the wrongdoings undergone, is as if one decides to break with his past. However, the past is an inherent characteristic of human-being and society. Forgiving, which is so necessary for a harmonious living together, is not synonym of for the individual and collective recollection to forget everything. The choice of Tiken Jah Fakoly among so many pacifist thinkers in order to analyze the issue of reconciliation has not been done at random. Beyond, any reproach directed to this international Ivorian reggae music singer, it appears here that he is interested in social and political issues including social cohesion and unity which are in correlation with reconciliation.   

Le reggae est une musique de contestation et de dénonciation de la domination. Depuis sa naissance dans les années 70 en Jamaïque jusqu’à son enracinement dans l’Afrique actuelle, il s’insurge contre l’exploitation de certains peuples par d’autres. L’esclavage, la colonisation, le travail forcé et le néocolonialisme sont ainsi des thèmes caractéristiques de cette musique très politiquement engagée. Tiken Jah Fakoly, reggaeman ivoirien, ne se dérobe pas à cette mission contestataire du reggae. Il est indubitablement la voix africaine la plus engagée contre l’esclavage, la colonisation, la coopération et la mondialisation qui représentent à ses yeux des paradigmes qui expriment la perpétuation de la mainmise de l’Occident sur l’Afrique (Françafrique et Y’en a marre, 2002 ; L’Afrique doit du fric, 2004 ; Pauvre et riche, 2014, etc.). C’est justement cette indignation de Tiken Jah face à la domination de l’Afrique par l’Occident que ce texte vise à analyser. Il s’agit précisément de scruter, à travers la discographie de cette figure de proue du reggae en Afrique, la représentation artistique de la coopération entre l’Afrique et l’Occident. Pour ce faire la problématique suivante s’avère nécessaire : Quelles critiques la discographie de Tiken Jah, et par ricochet l’art, adresse-t-elle à la coopération entre l’Afrique et l’Occident ? En quoi ces critiques sont-elles fondées ? Quelles pourraient être les implications de ces critiques ? La réponse à de telles questions exige un recours aux différents albums de l’artiste, à des ouvrages relatifs à la politique africaine et à l’actualité sociopolitique du continent africain. Reggae is a music of protest and denunciation of domination. Since its birth in the 1970s in Jamaica until its roots in present-day Africa, it rebels against the exploitation of certain peoples by others. Slavery, colonization, forced labor and neo-colonialism are thus characteristic themes of this very politically committed music. Tiken Jah Fakoly, an Ivorian reggaeman, does not shirk this reggae protest mission. He is undoubtedly the African voice most committed to slavery, colonization, cooperation and globalization, which in his view represent paradigms that express the perpetuation of the domination of Africa by the West (Francafrique and Y’en a marre, 2002; L’Afrique doit du fric, 2004, Pauvre et riche, 2014, etc.). It is precisely this indignation of Tiken Jah faced with the domination of Africa by the West that this text aims to analyze. It is precisely to scrutinize, through the discography of this figurehead of reggae in Africa, the artistic representation of the cooperation between Africa and the West. In order to do this, the following problematic is necessary: What criticisms does Tiken Jah’s discography, and indirectly art, address to cooperation between Africa and the West? How are these criticisms based? What might be the implications of these criticisms? The answer to such questions requires the artist’s various albums, books on African politics and the current socio-political situation on the African continent.