Editorial

Abstract

We close the ninth volume of our journal with a double issue. While we are excited to launch the tenth anniversary volume, we are proudly presenting to our Esteemed Readers the articles of the autumn-winter double of 2015. First, the executive editor of the journal, István Tarrósy gives an overview of Catholic Church Head Pope Francis’ first African tour. It is relevant to think more about the challenges of rapidly changing urban realities – our help this time is Ráhel Czirják’s study, which explains to us the development of slums as one of the symptoms of the ‘urbanization crisis’, using the examples of London and Nairobi. Our Africanist colleague and frequent contributor to the journal, Attila T. Horváth extends this discourse by giving voice to an authentic expert, the Hungarianborn France-resident architect, László Mester (Laszlo Mester de Parajd), who designed numerous buildings in Western Africa. All the time, the central issue is “local knowledge” (wisdom and practice), local experience, and surely local needs. Any local policy is expected to take them as their basis, in particular, when such a complex phenomenon as urbanization is targeted.
György Konkoly-Thege offers his great shots of Ghana in our Photo Report section. Judit Bagi and Tamás Molnár (Thomas Sanglor) author a peculiar piece about the research on dreams and the so-called African Dreaming Root, focussing on the South African ethnic group of the xhosa.
Present-day African conflicts surround us and make us look at the question of security more often. Zsófia Koszta writes about the operations of the European Union in Somalia and the participation of the Hungarian Defence Forces, and with her piece strengthens the interdisciplinary nature of our journal. The present double issue closes with the unmissable Book Reviews section, which contains an analysis of Ildikó Turóczi’s new book on her field experiences in the Cameroonian mountain kingdom, Esu land, by our proofreading editor, András A. Gergely. I wish all our Dear Readers enjoyable reading, together with a successful new year abundant in memorable readings!

Dr. Búr Gábor
editor-in-chief