EDITORIAL 
THIS ISSUE CONTAINS three articles dealing with globalization. Augustus 
Nuwagaba offers a detailed account of the consequences of globalization 
in Uganda, particularly in relation to poverty. He shows how there cannot 
be equality of trade between unequal partners, one poor and weak, the 
other rich and powerful. Globalization, he believes, is an unstoppable 
force but governments can put in place mechanisms to soften some of 
the worst effects of this process. John Akokpari shows that the biggest 
problem facing Africa is indebtedness to international money-lending 
institutions. The debt crisis is the result factors that are both internal 
and external to African countries. Sceptical of the good faith underlying 
the various external initiatives to provide debt relief to poor countries, 
he believes nevertheless, that African governments have to play their 
part in poverty alleviation. 
Kolawole Owolabi examines the conceptual foundations of 
liberalism, which is, he says, the political philosophy underpinning 
globalization. Liberalism consists of a set of misleading ideas. These 
are on the face of it so attractive, both as moral philosophy and as 
practical prescription, that countries all over the world have seduced 
by them. Yet the attractiveness of liberalism is misleading. It conceals 
the will to world-domination by western powers. The fault lies in the 
naked egoism embedded in liberalism which has led to the catastrophic 
consequences of globalization for the developing world. Owolabi 
believes that liberalism can be reformed if this egotism is replaced with 
a form of communitarianism based on a recognition of the common 
good. It is only when virtue replaces self-interest that liberalism will 
become what it seems. 
Edlyne Anugwom continues with his exploration of the military in 
Nigeria, arguing that ethnicity and the power of the military has 
threatened nascent democracy and civilian rule. Institutionalized 
structures in Nigeria reinforce ethnic divisions within the army and civil 
society, thus enabling the army to play on those very same ethnic
divisions to keep in power. Mechanisms must be adopted to reduce the 
emphasis on ethnicity and the power of the military. 
Two articles deal with education. One by Aaron Sigauke describes the 
work of the Adult Literacy organization of Zimbabwe and the successes 
and obstacles towards increasing adult literacy. The other, by Peter 
Ateykereza, analyses the multiple sociocultural obstacles to the 
education of girls and women in Uganda. A combination of traditional 
cultural practices and the exigencies of contemporary life militate against 
the education of women. 
Tirelo Modie-Moroka and Marie-Antoinette Sossou present an 
article on the treatment of women prisoners in Botswana. They describe 
some of the psychological, physical and economic hardships women 
suffer both inside and outside prison. The situation of poor women, 
they argue, is compounded by their traditionally low status in the 
patriarchy combined with their economic circumstances in the modern 
world and a failure to recognize the specific problems they face as 
women. The authors offer a wealth of ways in which women could be 
rehabilitated while in prison, on order to resume a law-abiding life on 
release. 
This sensitive critique of patriarchal thinking and practice may prove 
a keystone for further reflection on the many ways in which African 
women suffer discrimination, and the social ills that this breeds, not just 
among women and their children, but among men as well. Improving the 
situation of women is not merely a moral aim but one of the few that may 
improve the well-being of African societies as a whole. 
The editor would like to point out that this issue includes a table of 
contents of all articles published in this Journal the last two years. A 
cumulative table of contents for the whole 16 years of publication is 
available. 
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA VOL 16 NO 2 JULY 2001