Scholars over the years have delved into the discourse of states’ foreign publics engagements in their foreign policy objectives. This analysis is done generally with the western perspective of public diplomacy with recent Asian scholarship evolving. As a result, this study aims to reflect on public diplomacy from an African perspective. Therefore, it analyses how African governments have been engaging their foreign publics (foreign governments and their citizens) to attract foreign aid, tourism, and investments in their nation-building and development trajectory. The article explores African public diplomacy mechanisms such as diasporas, nation branding, cultural diplomacy, and many others. It also digests some of the challenges confronting African governments in their public diplomacy campaigns, like lack of research, human and financial resources, and lack of coherent foreign policy documents. The article’s findings demonstrate that although Africa generally has rich public diplomacy resources, these are not adequately harnessed in most African states’ foreign policy. This situation has led to poor foreign policy implementation by most African governments. The study contributes to the public diplomacy scholarship in general and African public diplomacy in particular, which scholars have underexplored. It concludes that scholars should delve into the exegesis of the rich African public diplomacy currencies.

This article claims that the legacy of European imperialism and colonialism in Africa can be conceptually compared to the legacy of Russian and Soviet imperialism and colonialism in the former USSR republics and the nations of Central and Easter Europe that were under Soviet dominations. Despite the obvious fact that the historical conditions and paths of African nations that were colonized, repressed and ruled by the European empires differ significantly from the experience of the nations of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, that were conquered and colonized by the Russian Empire and later on were subjects to the Soviet rule, it is suggested in this article, that the conceptual lessons drawn from the vast literature dedicated to the studies of the aftermath of colonialism in Africa can enrich the scholarly efforts aimed at understanding the post-soviet spaces and different processes in it. What is meant by “conceptual lessons” is methodological opportunity for a different perspective or even a different lens through which the legacy of the Soviet rule and the current Russian neo-imperial foreign politics can be better understood. Much is written about the European imperialism and its colonial policies, however there is still some reluctance in applying the methodological framework of postcolonial studies to the former Soviet Union and present day Russia. Scholars all over the world studied the colonial legacies that African nations struggled to overcome and there are topics of particular relevance to the study of the post-soviet space: the processes of post-colonial nation building, the roles of new national elites, the ideological choices in foreign policies of newly independent nations, the aftermath of the policies of assimilation, the imperial “ideologies of superiority”, the economic consequences of colonialism, the role of churches and religious organizations in supporting colonial suppression – as conceptual topics, all of them can be studied critically, also in a comparative perspective, to have a much better understanding of the former soviet and current Russian foreign politics and policies.

Regional market integration is crucial in increasing development for emerging economies. However, research has shown that, in the case of developing countries, the process of market integration faces various obstacles. This study aims to analyse the key determinants of successful market integration for developing countries, as well as to investigate under what conditions some countries may benefit more (or less) than others from market integration, particularly in the SADC region. Based on the existing literature on the main debates and theories on regional market integration of developing countries, this study has used the method of process-tracing to investigate the causal relationship between governance and institutions, market integration and development. The analysis based on this study has found that good and sound policies aimed at increasing domestic capabilities deriving from both public and private governance and institutions is vital in determining relative market integration success. The results indicate that the discrepancies found among SADC Member States hinder the process of regional market integration. On this basis, it is recommended that the linkages between the SADC Member States be strengthened through increased levels of coordination and integration.

The Mali Federation may be perceived as one of the first African attempts at regional integration. After the Loi-cadre was enacted in 1959, the French colonies started their path toward independence, and they sought for cooperation. However, both views on the future relationship with the Fifth Republic and internal disputes over power distribution came as their most significant threats. The author analyses the idea and the creation of the Mali Federation, taking into consideration the political and historical factors. The aim of this paper is to present a general overview of one of the first and most important independence movements in West Africa. The federation was to consist initially of 4 states, but eventually, only 2 of them, i.e., French Sudan and Senegal, decided to adopt its constitution. Those two countries shared many similarities with each other; however, the lack of agreement between the parties prevented the effective functioning of the federation as a sovereign state. Although it existed only for two months, the Mali Federation marked the possibilities and the difficulties for the African cooperation and integration processes for the next decades.

Many researchers seek to identify the most common factors that may increase the risk of wars, including civil wars. However, analysing the causes and economic drivers of conflict is receiving increasing attention, especially concerning civil wars in the poorest regions. The main purpose of this article is to present the process of creating armed groups in Darfur, as well as their ideology, internal divisions, stages of conflict and the emergence of these groups. This study attempted to analyse the motives and objectives of Darfuri rebel groups. Using a model created by Spittaels and Hilgert, we explain the relations between events on the ground and the motives and objectives behind the waging of a war, which in future could make it easier to outline the essence of the conflict.

This paper explains how multiple identities have been formed in this highly diversified country through a historical and descriptive approach. The main objective of this paper is to probe the depth of the root causes of instability and civil wars in Sudan and examine the major factors of conflicts in the country since its independence from Britain in 1956. It also aims at explaining the dynamics that are interacting in Sudan’s political scene and perpetuating instability. The paper is based on the hypothesis that Ethnic identities and tribal politics – practised by the ruling elite – hinder stabilisation and democratisation. It notes that the failure of the political elite to create a ‘melting pot’ for the diverse society resulted in a crisis of identity and conflicts and jeopardised national unity. The outcome of this is the secession of the South (in 2011) and the continuation of tensions in other “marginalised areas such as Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile State. The absence of adequate and sound democracy, a lack of rational governance, and equitable socio-economic development aggravated grievances and led to wars in the country’s south, west, and east. The paper believes that it is not only diversity that matters but that many other factors do – notably the failure of the elite to adopt sound policies for properly managing diversity. The paper suggests some sort of consociationalism along with proportional representation to put an end to military interventions and civil wars.

In the face of the new global economic challenges that the whole world is facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to give attention to the crucial role of higher education, which has a significant impact on shaping all the nation’s future as it paves the road for a way out while partaking in rebuilding economic infrastructure and leading the economy to a brighter future. This research paper explains how the theory of effectuation complements the theories of entrepreneurship. It demonstrates how using the appropriate style of entrepreneurial leadership in higher education renders an eminent role in recovery during and post- COVID-19 by creating momentum for innovative change to combat the current economic challenges. The research paper provides a blueprint of the steps required via transformation leadership style to breed adequate culture and lead a healthy professional learning community through adopting and applying the Entrepreneurial University Model.

Live streaming e-commerce (LSE), as a product of the digital era, is a form of e-commerce that uses live streaming as a channel to achieve marketing purposes. Since the launch of the live shopping function on e-commerce platforms in 2016, live e-commerce has grown rapidly. In spite of the pandemic we find ourselves in, the live e-commerce market size has maintained an average annual growth rate of over 200% in the past two years. LSE has not only driven the consumer industry, but has also impacted consumers’ consumption habits in very many ways. It is not surprising that the highest impact of the LSE-driven market has been evidenced in China, which is considered the largest growing economy in the world with a PPP only second to the US. This paper aims to investigate LSE as an upcoming business model, leading to evolving consumer patterns, as well as exploring the motivators of such consumption. The objective of this research is to provide SMEs with recommendations on the developing markets and inputs on how to maximise sales in a pandemic-affected world. In depth interviews were conducted with LSE consumers based in China, to understand their shopping experiences, explore their psyche and motivations behind such consumption. As a result of a qualitative research approach, it was found that the use of streaming anchors act as an external stimuli in LSE which affects consumers’ perceived value. This, in turn, affects consumers’ trust and purchase intentions. The use of utilitarian and hedonic shopping motivations affect consumers’ willingness to engage in an actual purchase and consequent shopping pleasure.

The study deals with China’s trade and Economic cooperation in the Horn of Africa. This research aims to focus on infrastructural development in the region under China’s Belt and Road Initiative framework. Further, the central purpose of this research is to discuss Chinese investment in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia. The research uses a qualitative analysis approach to discuss the research problems and tries to find out core findings. The following question deals with this study, how does China expand its trade and investment in the Horn of Africa? To what extent has China developed ties with the Horn of African countries in the context of BRI projects? As a result, China has developed a strong stance in the Horn of Africa in the context of trade and investment. This study concludes that China has enormous challenges within these countries to manage interstate issues for security purposes that are necessary for the success of infrastructure development and other BRI-related projects.

Innovation is one of the key factors for growth and development in any society. However, there are many factors that can potentially impede innovation capacity. One of them is culture; this study has investigated how some African cultural practices can affect innovation potential. The author has taking into consideration such practices like prostrating, kneeling, bowing to show respect when greeting, and the perception that asking questions / been curious is impolite and disrespectful. Innovation can be triggered by curiosity and the desire to try new things; hence this research is an attempt to understand how intellectual curiosity and creativity can be stifled as a result of excessive adherence to certain cultural practices. The survey design used to collect primary data for the research featured 57 questions with total respondents of 502. Logistic regression was used to measure the predictive power and the degree to which the independent variables affected the target variable. 65% of respondents asserted that they grew up learning to be curious and had the cultural privilege to ask questions around older people. The study shows a positive relationship between growing up curious, asking questions around older people, and being potentially innovative while other cultural practices like showing respect by prostrating, kneeling, bowing, curiosity and not challenging traditional practices shows a negative relationship with innovation potential with the highest negative correlation value. However, this does not suggest that the continuous observance of these practices suppresses people’s innovation potential because correlation does not imply causation. The findings in this study implies that for Africa and Nigeria to become more competitive with respect to innovation potential, it must embrace and prioritize an open culture that eliminates subjugation in any form, one that values curiosity, out of the box thinking and creativity.

This study was conducted with the general objective of investigating GePG users’ perceived support quality using a case study of the GePG system’s end-users. The study was conducted in Tanzania using a cross-sectional research design which employed a sample size of 102 respondents, who were administered a questionnaire survey to collect primary data, which was later analysed using Principal Components’ analysis, Descriptive Statistics, and Pearson’s Correlation. The findings revealed that end-users of the GePG system positively perceived the quality of the GePG system; based on PCA analysis findings, respondents were neutral with the quality of support from the GePG system support team, as they neither agreed nor disagreed, and the study found a negative weak correlation between satisfaction levels with the quality of support from GePG and end-users’ intention to continue using GePG’s payment services. Therefore, the study concluded that despite end-users’ positive perception of the quality of the GePG system based on ease “of use and responsiveness”, end-users of the GePG system were neutral on rating the quality of the support they were receiving from the GePG support team. Thus, the study recommended that to ensure the sustainability of the GePG system, more resources and efforts need to be directed into the support team of the system to clearly understand the end-users’ challenges.

This study wanted to find to what extent are consumers attracted by design or packages of the products when buying them. The objective of this study is to find out the impact of product design on consumer decision. The study was done by collecting data from questionnaires and interviews and they were then analyzed by using percentage distribution tables and later presented in graphical illustrations. The researcher gave the below recommendation in order for companies to succeed as they need to make sure that they care about their customers’ satisfaction before thinking of only making profits or gaining from them. From this, as product design is one of the big factors that attracts customers to buying companies products, it is very important to care about it and work really hard to accomplish this as a company.