African History Commons^™

Black Boys And Their Behavior, Edward Earl Bell

Edward Earl Bell

While societal and cultural expectations bend towards positive schooling experiences, black boys are falling short in terms of graduating from high school—and for that matter—college!

Entanglement: Health, Healing And Society In Africa, Haley Noel

Anthós

As a continent, Africa has been explored, exploited, and largely abandoned by the West. During the colonial era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, foreign powers encountered diverse cultures, superstitions and disease before promptly labeling the entire continent a dangerous and primitive place. For early explorers and colonialists, disease and the threat of ill health is what defined Africa. They overlooked the pre-existing strategies and practices that Africans had adapted to guard against certain diseases, either ignoring them or labeling the misunderstood safety nets as primitive. Also overlooked was the importance of societal organization and communal cooperation among …

From The Ground Up: The Historical Roots Of Umuganda In Rwandan Economic And Political Development, Sarah Bates

MALS Final Projects, 1995-2019

Umuganda, the ritual of communal labor practiced in Rwanda since pre-colonial kingdoms, has a long and varied history of implementation. Once an integral part of the patron-client relationship, umuganda originated as the exchange of cattle for feudal protection; currently, it is a system of mandatory labor being utilized for post-genocide political and economic development. Umuganda has been championed by both past and present presidential administrations as the foundational centerpiece of progress, yet it also served as an instrumental tool in mass participation during the genocide. This paper will focus on the historical roots and transformation of umuganda in order to …

Defining “Third Force” Activity: The South African Truth And Reconciliation Commission And Eugene De Kock, John Grimes

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines claims about a purported “third force,” individuals and organizations that operated in South Africa during the “transitional period,” from 1990 to1994, who aimed to destabilize the country and prevent a democratic election. This paper focuses on the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and testimony contained in the official Amnesty Committee’s transcripts of former Colonel Eugene de Kock. This paper argues that the “third force” was not a designated government agency and former President F.W. de Klerk did not order “third force” violence. This paper further argues that numerous governmental and non-governmental organizations worked collectively to …

Nuremberg Or The South African Trc: A Comparison Of The Retributive And Restorative Models Of Justice, Brendan Gooley

Honors Scholar Theses

A comparison of the effectiveness of the retributive and restorative models of transitional justice, and the strengths and weaknesses of each using the Nuremberg Trials and South African TRC as case studies. Conclusions include prosspects for combining the two models, as well as predictions for what context each system is more appropriate in.

Creating A Nation In Adversity: Advent Of Egyptian Nationalism In British Occupation, Kathryn Louise James

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Nationalism is the process through which the groupings of ethnicity, nationhood, and statehood successfully merge into a nation-state. This study seeks to identify the cause of nationalism in Egypt and its characteristics.

Trauma At Akhetaten (Tell El-Amarna): Interpersonal Violence Or Occupational Hazard, Rebecca Marie Hodgin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The New Kingdom individuals excavated from the site of Akhetaten, modern day Tell el-Amarna in Middle Egypt, exhibit traumatic injuries relating to construction of the new city. This site is important for Egyptological and bioarchaeological interpretations because the city was only occupied for approximately 15 years. The cemetery provides an archaeological instant in history providing information on the individuals who lived, worked, and died at Akhetaten. A total of 233 individuals have been excavated and analyzed to date. The incidence of forearm fractures as chronic ulnae stress fractures instead of parry fractures are indicated by the presence of Schmorl's nodes, …

Exploring Moroccan Identities: The Tension Between Traditional And Modern Cuisine In An Urban Context, Miriam R. Dike

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Hegemony Of English In South African Education, Kelsey E. Figone

Scripps Senior Theses

The South African Constitution recognizes 11 official languages and protects an individual’s right to use their mother-tongue freely. Despite this recognition, the majority of South African schools use English as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT). Learning in English is a struggle for many students who speak indigenous African languages, rather than English, as a mother-tongue, and the educational system is failing its students. This perpetuates inequality between different South African communities in a way that has roots in the divisions of South Africa’s past. An examination of the power of language and South Africa’s experience with colonialism and …

Women And Sisters, Maureen T. Reddy

Maureen T. Reddy

Jean Fagan Yellin's Women and Sisters: The Antislavery Feminists in American Culture, on the iconography of the women's abolitionist movement, is a brilliant example of interdisciplinary thought and study. Crossing the boundaries of history, feminist theory, African American studies, and literary analysis, Yellin illuminates the complex intersections of art and politics in American life. Women and Sisters traces the history of the "Woman and Sister" emblem that the antislavery feminists adopted, examining its permutations in texts both graphic and literary from the 1830s to the 1850s.

They Bleed But They Don’T Die: Towards A Theoretical Canon On Ga-Adangbe Gender Studies, Harry N. K. Odamtten

History

Contemporary African women are often cast as existing below the glass ceiling. African women who are perceived as having overcome this glass threshold are therefore seen and celebrated as exceptional. Against this background, this essay offers conceptual tools with which to examine the lives of historical and contemporary women in Ga traditional society of Ghana, living beyond the glass ceiling. Drawing a distinction between the role of women in the modern nation-state and traditional societies, this study asserts that unlike the situation in modern governance, structures and practices of Ga traditional societies have enabled Ga women to live beyond the …

Human Pelvis And Long Bones Reveal Differential Preservation Of Ancient Population History And Migration Out Of Africa, Lia Betti, Noreen Von Cramon-Taubadel, Stephen J. Lycett

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

One of the main events in the history of our species has been our expansion out of Africa. A clear signature of this expansion has been found on global patterns of neutral genetic variation, whereby a serial founder effect accompanied the colonization of new regions, in turn creating a within-population decrease in neutral genetic diversity with increasing distance from Africa. This same distinctive pattern has also been described for cranial and dental morphological variation in human populations distributed across the globe. Here, we used a dataset of postcranial linear measurements for 30 globally distributed human populations, and a climatic dataset …

Fighting For Recognition: The Role African Americans Played In World Fairs, Andrew R. Valint

Andrew Valint

ABSTRACT OF THESIS Fighting for Recognition The Role African Americans played in World Fairs In the years following the Civil War African Americans were locked in a struggle for equality. Persevering through racism and the institution of Jim Crow laws, African Americans made advancements socially, economically, politically, and educationally. As the U.S. ushered in the dawn of the 20th century, World Fairs became the altar on which blacks could showcase their progress since Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. From the 1889 fair in Paris to Buffalo’s Pan American Exposition of 1901 African Americans fought for a ‘Negro Exhibit’ to factually portray …

New Media And Ethno-Politics In The Guinean Diaspora, Mohamed S. Camara

Security Studies & International Affairs - Daytona Beach

This paper discusses the resurgence of ethno-politics in Guinea in conjunction with the reintroduction of multiparty politics after three decades of single-party and military rule, and the trend’s multilayered repercussion into the Guinean Diaspora of North America. It further examines the principal ways in which ethno-regionalist organisations populating that Diaspora use and misuse new media outlets (web sites,web radio stations, and blogs) in order to promote the political agenda of their respective ethno-political elites. The article scrutinises the deficit of professionalism that characterises the performance of most of those publishing on such web sites and broadcasting on such stations and …

Reconstructing History: An Inter-Generational Perspective On Collective Memories And Constructed Identities In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Heather Randall

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

In the 18 years since the Rwandan genocide, which left approximately 1,000,000 people dead in 100 days, much has changed for Rwandans. This paper will examine the history of the genocide, including the international response to the killings and developments in peace and reconciliation. This paper also examines anthropological data from college-age Rwandese, whose names have been fictionalized, and historical information from older generations who lived through the genocide. I argue that the students represent a significant social change in the history of Rwanda. Their experiences contrast sharply with those of their parents, who grew up in a colonial world …

New Media And Ethno-Politics In The Guinean Diaspora, Mohamed S. Camara

Humanities & Communication - Daytona Beach

This paper discusses the resurgence of ethno-politics in Guinea in conjunction with the reintroduction of multiparty politics after three decades of single-party and military rule, and the trend’s multilayered repercussion into the Guinean Diaspora of North America. It further examines the principal ways in which ethno-regionalist organisations populating that Diaspora use and misuse new media outlets (web sites,web radio stations, and blogs) in order to promote the political agenda of their respective ethno-political elites. The article scrutinises the deficit of professionalism that characterises the performance of most of those publishing on such web sites and broadcasting on such stations and …

“Don't Call Me A Student-Athlete”: The Effect Of Identity Priming On Stereotype Threat For Academically Engaged African American College Athletes, Keith Harrison

Dr. C. Keith Harrison

Academically engaged African American college athletes are most susceptible to stereotype threat in the classroom when the context links their unique status as both scholar and athlete. After completing a measure of academic engagement, African American and White college athletes completed a test of verbal reasoning. To vary stereotype threat, they first indicated their status as a scholar-athlete, an athlete, or as a research participant on the cover page. Compared to the other groups, academically engaged African American college athletes performed poorly on the difficult test items when primed for their athletic identity, but they performed worse on both the …

Coptic Prayer Book Leaves: Overview Of Text, Bronwyn Dorhofer

Gift of the Word

PSU student Bronwyn Dorhofer presents her research on a selection of pages from an 18^th-century prayer book, an Agpeya, written in Bohairic Coptic and Arabic. This manuscript on paper was transcribed for the purpose of hourly prayers and hymns and it is likely that the text would have been read and sung by a Coptic priest in a church setting as part of daily ritual. Cresting the top of each prayer page are hand-drawn archways reflecting the interlaced geometric patterns in Islamic designs.

Dimensions: 19.5 x 13.7 cm Origin: Egypt

Portland State University Library, Special Collections, Mss. …

"Gift Of The Word" Exhibit Catalogue, Katherine Bass, Karena Bennett, Jeffrey Brown, Bronwyn Dorhofer, Normandie Holmes, Denise Loncar, Alexandra Park, Darcie Hart Riedner, Christy Valentine

Gift of the Word

This is the catalogue for the exhibit "Gift of the Word"

Colonialism And Mandates, John C. Hawley

English

Daily life in contemporary African countries must be understood as determined by their status as members of an interlocking network of postcolonies, striving to imagine themselves as related through Pan-Africanism but struggling first to realize themselves as fully functioning nations. Even though Ethiopia and Liberia are generally spoken of as the only countries in Africa that were not colonized, this actually suggests the level of subjugation the rest of the continent did experience. After all, if Italy failed in its attempt to take over Ethiopia in the 1880s, Mussolini succeeded in doing so in 1936; Liberia was, in fact, a …

Abbasid Qur’An Leaf In Kufic Script Description, Jeffrey Brown

Gift of the Word

PSU student Jeff Brown presents his research on a leaf from a Qur’an manuscript in Kufic script. This vellum leaf dates to approximately the turn of the tenth century (early 4^th century AH), the height of the Abbasid dynasty, and may have been produced in one of the great centers of Islamic culture such as Cairo, Damascus, or Kairouan. Kufic script is common to Qur’ans from this era. This page is from Surah 87 (Al-A’la), verses 11-15 [verso], 16-19 [recto], which warns against the perils of a worldly existence that ignores the path to salvation put forth by scripture. …

Ethiopian Scroll, Karena Bennett

Gift of the Word

PSU student Karena Bennett presents her research on the creation and meaning of an Ethiopian magic scroll from the 19^th century. Scrolls such as this were created for individuals, inscribed with specific prayers and then worn as talismans. The text is in Ge’ez, an Ethiopian liturgical language, and the images depict guardian angels and a priest watching over the supplicant. The scroll is made of vellum and was originally a single continuous piece.

Dimensions: 15 x 192 cm

Portland State University Library, Special Collections, Mss 39

Coptic Prayer Book Leaves: Warrior Saint Images, Denise Loncar

Gift of the Word

PSU student Denise Loncar presents her research on a selection of illustrated pages from an 18^th-century Coptic prayer book. The hand-painted images of Christian saints on horseback (St. George, St. Theodore the Eastern, and St. Mercurius) are similar to equestrian representations seen in Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, and Ethiopian iconography, indicating a complex interplay of cultural influences that is also shown by the Coptic, Arabic, and Greek text.

Dimensions: 19.5 x 13.7 cm Origin: Egypt

Portland State University Library, Special Collections, Mss. 40

Withholding Political Authority: Civil Society And People's Power In Zimbabwe, A. Scott Dupree

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relationship of civil society to the state is rarely antagonistic and at most times supportive. The political regime and civil society are taken to be interdependent social structures that interact through hegemonic, supportive and socially constructed dimensions. Given this interdependency, when does civil society challenge authority or does its efforts rise to the level of a people's power revolution? When does it act to dismantle the political regime or seek to reconstruct it? This project attempts to shed light on how civil society mobilizes a people's power capable of challenging political authority through the story of its ongoing struggles …

Anti-Trafficking Legislation In Sub-Saharan Africa: Analyzing The Role Of Coercion And Parental Responsibility, Ruby Andrew, Benjamin N. Lawrance

Fourth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2012

This article discusses the effect of US and international support for local laws to combat child trafficking in sub-Saharan African states. The annual ranking of African anti-trafficking measures, produced by the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (OMCTP) in conjunction with the UN Office on Crime and Drugs, not only provides an important source of data but also creates a powerful incentive for African states to effect legislative change.

We argue that, although the US supports criminalization of traffickers and the OMCTP espouses laws to deter parental inducement to support trafficking activities, the implementation of …

Introduction To "The Americans Are Coming! Dreams Of African American Liberation In Segregationist South Africa", Robert T. Vinson

Arts & Sciences Book Chapters

For more than half a century before World War II, black South Africans and “American Negroes”—a group that included African Americans and black West Indians—established close institutional and personal relationships that laid the necessary groundwork for the successful South African and American antiapartheid movements. Though African Americans suffered under Jim Crow racial discrimination, oppressed Africans saw African Americans as free people who had risen from slavery to success and were role models and potential liberators.

Many African Americans, regarded initially by the South African government as “honorary whites” exempt from segregation, also saw their activities in South Africa as a …

A Bold Promise: Black Readjusters And The Founding Of Virginia State University, Leigh Alexandra Soares

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Race News: How Black Reporters And Readers Shaped The Fight For Racial Justice, 1877--1978, Frederick James Carroll

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Between 1877 and 1978, black reporters, publishers, and readers engaged in a never-ending and ever-shifting protest against American racism. Journalists' militancy oscillated as successive generations of civil rights activists defined anew their relationship with racism and debated the relevance of black radicalism in the fight for racial justice. Journalists achieved their greatest influence when their political perspectives aligned with the views of their employers and readers. Frequent disputes, though, erupted over the scope and meaning of racial justice within the process of reporting the news, compelling some writers to start alternative publications that challenged the assimilationist politics promoted by profit-minded …

Strange Fruit: Images Of African Americans In Advertising Cards And Postcards, 1860-1930, Meghan Brooke Holder

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

I'M Really Just An American: The Archaeological Importance Of The Black Towns In The American West And Late-Nineteenth Century Constructions Of Blackness, Shea Aisha Winsett

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.