Introduction

Abstract

The main objective of this edited collection is to provide a deeper understanding of sociocultural processes in various parts of the African continent in the context of mediated processes of globalization. In this introductory chapter I focus on the book’s contributions to such an understanding of these processes. Further, I offer an outline of the volume. In terms of the book’s contributions to a deeper understanding of the sociocultural processes in various geographies of contemporary Africa, five of them stand out and, as such, I elaborate on them briefly. To begin with, all the contributors to the volume foreground the agency of Africans. For example, in her discussion of the evolution of language education policies in East Africa, Esther Lisanza shows the agency of states in this region in shaping this process. Such foregrounding of African agency is also evident in the chapter by Wisdom Tettey, which critically examines cybersexu-ality activities of Ghanaian youth in the context of the emergence of Internet services and the state’s adoption of neoliberal economic policies.