The thesis contributes to the emerging critical perspective on global management education and leadership development in a multi-faceted world. It takes a critical look at leadership, particularly with respect to how this is conceptualised and understood, and also, what are the implications for such epistemological leanings. This is in light of recent criticisms of global management education, and other salient questions of knowledge imperialism and ethnocentrism that arise with respect to how knowledge is created and represented. Furthermore, there are even more pertinent questions of universality and contextual applicability, given the relevant issue of cultural diversity and what many researchers increasingly suggest is the socially constructed nature of leadership. To this end, it has been suggested that there might be a possibility of contextual dissonance between mainstream leadership paradigms and the lived socio-cultural reality of many non-western societies. This is in view of the fact that there are as many definitions of leadership as those who have tried to define it (Stodgill, 1970), such that there is now no one universal ‘truth’ about leadership (Billsberry, 2007) because leadership is a process of reality construction that is grounded in the management of meaning (Smircich and Morgan, 1982), so that it means ‘different things to different people’ (Gill, 2006; p.7). This thesis therefore investigates the contemporary practice of leadership development/leadership education and in particular, questions its application as a management learning intervention in the contexts within which it is deployed. It explores the pertinent question of contextual dissonance and in this, critically examines leadership development as a catalyst for organisational change within the context of a global non-profit organisation, and again, as a tool for management development in the context of a non-western society. Findings indicate the presence of a strong community orientation that is seemingly consistent with the philosophical underpinnings of indigenous community practices in Africa and that reflect a noticeable degree of contextual dissonance between mainstream paradigms of leadership and the lived experiential reality of programme participants in the context understudied i.e. Nigeria. Subsequently, this thesis proposes a model of leadership development that may begin to address this contextual gap; one that although acknowledges the conceptual importance of the mainstream, is fundamentally accommodating of the local knowledge frameworks within which it is deployed. Overall, the research contributes to understandings of Leadership Development in that it uncovers how ‘knowledge’ about leadership is conceptualised within the studied context and it generates new insight into how leadership development as a contemporary practice is constructed within this environment; in particular, how this is negotiated and engaged with relative to that society. Secondly, it advances a model through which contemporary management education interventions may account for the lived socio-cultural reality of the contexts within which they are applied.

This is a study of the production, content, distribution, and reception of different religious films in Zimbabwe, with an emphasis on the audience’s initial reception of the films. Informants’ self-identified religious beliefs and their reception of these selected films are analyzed primarily by using qualitative methods to understand better the interplay between film and religion in Zimbabwe. The films studied in this research are The Jesus Film (1979) created by Campus Crusade for Christ and indigenous, short Jesus films created locally in Zimbabwe in 2012. In order to answer the central research questions of this study, two main approaches are employed: the first is a holistic approach to the analysis of these films. The primary question within this approach is: in what ways do the production, content, and distribution of The Jesus Film and indigenous, short Jesus films affect the reception of the films among informants in Zimbabwe today? The second approach specifically addresses the interchange between the audience members’ self-identified religious beliefs and their reception of the films. There are two central research questions within this approach. First, in what ways may pre-existing perceptions of Jesus shape informants’ responses to and interpretations of Jesus as he is portrayed in The Jesus Film and in indigenous, short Jesus films in Zimbabwe today? Secondly, how might the viewing of these films affect those perceptions of Jesus? Based upon the careful analysis of the original data that emerges from the field work of this research, the conclusion provides a series of answers to these questions, revealing new insights into the interplay of film and religion in Zimbabwe.

Magister Commercii - Mcom (Political Studies) / While they have emerged as global ideals based on the recognition of liberty, dignity and universal rights to 'all individuals' within the global community, human rights have faced numerous criticism and scepticism from the Global South. This research paper argues that such scepticism has had negative impact on the drive for the protection and promotion of human rights and International Human Rights Law in global politics. Given such huge challenges, this research paper points out that, unless the global human rights discourse undergoes significant reform and shift, its Western-centric domination will result into more harm than good in the international community's agenda for human rights protection and promotion. Postcolonial Africa has been at the forefront of the debate on the power-political use of the notion. As such, it has been argued that human rights discourse has influenced relations and policies between the West and the Third World, especially Africa. In this relationship, human rights have been viewed as a strategic tool for powerful states in global politics, to use in their quest to legitimise the case for political change. Furthermore, human rights have also been employed by governments seeking to justify their interference in the domestic affairs of other states, especially the West in the case of postcolonial Africa. It has therefore emerged that the human rights rhetoric/ discourse has been understood by postcolonial Africa as serving to establish a powerful perspective relating to the present and past collective experiences of injustice, exclusion and domination within global politics. Here, the global human rights regimes and Africa seem to be at a crossroads regarding the role of human rights in international politics.

Biyi Bandele est un écrivain d'origine nigériane dont l'œuvre novatrice et très riche reste encore peu connue du milieu universitaire en France. Aucune étude de grande ampleur n'a encore été consacrée à sa production et le présent travail essaie de combler ce grand vide. Cette étude qui s'appuie principalement sur les quatre romans de l'auteur a pour objectif de montrer que Biyi Bandele est un romancier carnavalesque et que tout son effort consiste à s'interroger sur les conditions de vie de ses concitoyens nigérians, la nature du pouvoir politique et ses modes d'exercice et les raisons pour lesquelles la construction d'une vraie nation semble impossible au Nigeria tant d'années après l'indépendance. A travers ces diverses interrogations, Biyi Bandele peint surtout un pays dont l'état de déconfiture et d'anomie est tel qu'il semble inconcevable d'en rendre compte avec les moyens traditionnels du roman réaliste européen. Mais grâce à son exceptionnel talent de conteur, Biyi Bandele réussit à nous faire prendre conscience de cette réalité grâce à une langue riche, et un nouvel art de conter inspiré des traditions yoruba et d'autres éléments de la culture populaire nigériane. / Biyi Bandele is a Nigerian writer whose innovative and very rich writings are still little known by academics in France. No large-scale study has been devoted to his writings yet, and this work tries to make up for this gap. This study which is mainly based on the four novels written by Biyi Bandele aims at showing that he is a Carnivalesque novelist and that all of his effort consists in raising questions about the living conditions of his fellow countrymen, the nature of political power and its functioning, and the reasons why nation-building seems impossible in Nigeria so many years after independence . Through these different questions, Biyi Bandele mainly portrays a country in shambles, in such a state of anomy that one can no longer rely on the means of the Europen realist novel to render its situation. But thanks to his exceptional talent as a storyteller, Biyi Bandele manages to make us become aware of this reality by inventing a rich language and a new way of telling story inspired by yoruba traditions and other elements of Nigerian popular culture.