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Scores of research studies have demonstrated that African American men, more than any other men of differing races and ethnicities, are incarcerated at levels today higher than they were just 25 years ago. Other research has demonstrated that the combination of "Rockefeller" drug laws, disparities in sentencing, mandatory minimum sentences, and the inability to pay for qualified counsel all contribute to these high rates of incarceration as well as, in many cases, sentences that are disproportionately long for the crimes committed. What we know less about is the impact on the families of these men once incarceration takes place and this includes their wives, girlfriends, mothers, significant others and their children. This paper is an analysis of all of the aforementioned factors also including fiscal issues, schooling, visitation and the overall "collateral damage" of incarceration on families of incarcerated African American men. The analysis ends with policy proposals for decreasing the debilitation impact of incarceration on African American families in the 21st Century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization is a motor that exports Western ideologies such as liberal democracy, capitalism to Africa, and other parts of the world. Hence, the situation in Africa since the post-colonial era demonstrates a discontent for liberal democracy and its economic option of capitalism. Thus, in this paper, we show that the discontent in Western individualistic ontology is in conflict with traditional African communalistic ontology, and therefore, it is detrimentally hunting the practice of liberal democracy in post-colonial Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]