African Languages and Societies Commons^™

Coalitions Matter: Citizenship, Women, And Quota Adoption In Africa, Alice J. Kang, Aili Mari Tripp

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

We provide new theory and evidence of the role of domestic women’s coalitions in the adoption of gender quotas. Previous research has shown the importance of women’s movements to policy change. We show that specific types of mobilization, often multiethnic in character, are a more precise way of describing these influences. Using a new dataset of coalitions in 50 countries in Africa (1989–2014), we first examine where coalitions are likely to emerge. Controlling for factors that correlate with their formation, we find that when domestic women’s organizations form a coalition for quotas, governments are more likely to adopt them and …

Y’En A Marre! Hip-Hop Culture And Social Mobilization In Post Colonial Senegal, Lucie Latuner

Anthropology Department Honors Papers

After over fifty years since decolonization, Senegal is seen as a success story in establishing democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. However, due to neocolonialism, Senegal is still far from independent, and its leaders are still working against the interests of their people. Emerging out of a history of anti-imperialist mobilization, young rappers continue a transnational struggle against imperialism in reference to the ideology of revolutionaries before them. These rappers and journalists, drawing on a sense of responsibility to a historical, multigenerational fight, unite to create the movement Y’en a Marre—a movement of civic mobilization to oppose their authoritarian government and fight …

Yurumein - Homeland Study Guide, Andrea E. Leland, Lauren Poluha

Documentary Study Guides

The Garifuna and Carib communities of St Vincent in the Caribbean collaborated with the documentary filmmaker Andrea E. Leland to produce Yurumein – Homeland: The Caribs of St Vincent, an exploration of the historical and spiritual significance of St Vincent and Baliceaux to Garifuna and Carib communities.

This film guide speaks about the history, culture, music, and food of the peoples that were displaced from their home and, through activities addressing the film's content, informs readers about the movement to bring Garifuna/Kalinago culture back to St Vincent and reconnect Garinagu to their homeland.

Through The Yoruba Lens: A Postcolonial Discourse Of Female Circumcision, Jennifer Quichocho

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the Western media attention and the critique of female circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa, few studies consider the local populations' traditions, values, and ideologies. Through the Yoruba Lens: A Postcolonial Discourse of Female Circumcision investigates female circumcision practices from a philosophical, Yoruba traditionalist perspective. African philosophy and religion provides an ideological foundation and helps reveal the postcolonial and feminist theoretical framework that continues the academic debate. Framed by LeCompte and Schensul's notion that "ethnography emphasized discovery; it does not assume answers" (2010: 33), my research draws from literature reviews, quantitative data, and interviews. I will present and investigate three hypotheses …

Parenting Experiences Among Single Southern African Immigrant Mothers In Low Socioeconomic Neighborhoods, Winnie Mhlambi Fuzane

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Empirical studies have shown that single-parent families have been overrepresented in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and the children of these families are more exposed to factors that lead to aggressive behavior. Despite these studies, there is limited literature on the parenting of immigrant mothers that may prevent aggressive behaviors in children. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of single Southern African immigrant mothers in low socioeconomic neighborhoods in California working and raising male children who do not exhibit aggressive behaviors in schools and in the community. Seligman's theory of positive psychology informed this study. Research …

Exploring Ethnic Diversity On Managerial Choices In Nigeria., Henry Odiri Imoni

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In Nigeria, most citizens between the ages of 20-60 believe that ethnicity is the leading cause of discrimination. The central problem addressed in this study was how ethnic diversity influenced managerial choices in Nigeria. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the role of ethnicity in managerial choices in a Nigerian federal traffic management agency to gain an understanding of how ethnicity influenced managers' recruitment, placement, and promotion of employees. Complexity theory and a consideration of African management practices constituted the conceptual framework. Participants were 11 managers who were recruited from a Nigerian government agency using a …

Very Long Engagements: The Persistent Authority Of Bridewealth In A Post-Apartheid South African Community, Michael W. Yarbrough

Publications and Research

This article examines the persistent authority of the customary practice for forming recognized marriages in many South African communities, centered on bridewealth and called “lobola.” Marriage rates have sharply fallen in South Africa, and many South Africans blame this on the difficulty of completing lobola amid intense economic strife. Using in-depth qualitative research from a village in KwaZulu-Natal, where lobola demands are the country’s highest and marriage rates its lowest, I argue that lobola’s authority survives because lay actors, and especially women, have innovated new repertoires of lobola behavior that allow them to pursue emerging needs and desires for marriage …

Investigating The Nigerian Leadership Capability And Its Impact In Development And Society, James E. Conable Nweke

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite Nigeria's abundance of human and natural resources, after 57 years of independence, most Nigerians live in absolute poverty. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the extent to which the Nigerian leadership exercised leadership capability. The primary research question investigated leadership actions that facilitated or undermined development and good governance objectives. This study adopted critical thinking leadership framework, as developed by the author. The primary data used in this study came from Afrobarometer surveys, round 4, 5, and combined data round 6, which is an updated version of independent surveys administered between 1999 and 2016. Also, data …

Productivity And Employee Behavior Change Strategies In Two Nigerian Manufacturing Organizations, Marvel Saturday Ogah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some Nigerian manufacturing organizations suffer significant losses yearly due to a lack of employee commitment and engagement. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to gain understanding of the strategies that leaders in the manufacturing industries in Lagos need to know in order to change employee behavior to achieve increased organizational productivity levels. The conceptual framework that grounded the study was the path-goal theory of leadership. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with a purposeful sample consisting of 24 managerial and non-managerial staff members of 2 manufacturing organizations in Nigeria who have had experience in, and training, and …

Women's Perceptions Of Malaria In The Western Rural Areas Of Sierra Leone, Marcella Davies

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Malaria is one of the leading causes of death for children and women in Sierra Leone. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and understand the lived experiences of women from the rural areas of Sierra Leone regarding malaria. A purposive sample of Krio women from the western rural area, aged 21-55 years, spoke English, and had taken care of someone with malaria described their perceptions and lived experiences with the disease in face-to-face interviews. The research questions were based on the health belief model and focused on knowledge, beliefs, and perceptions about malaria prevention and treatment. Interpretative …

A New President, The Same Anc: Lessons From 2008, Benjamin Hale

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Earlier this month, almost 10 years after the ANC recalled former-president Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma resigned as South African President. Though some may be hopeful about new president Cyril Ramaphosa, there are many reasons to be sceptical or even concerned about the ANC under a Ramaphosa presidency. The removal of two sitting presidents within 10 years by the ruling ANC party sheds light on the continued factionalism within the national liberation movement. Indeed, though Zuma has been dogged by corruption charges throughout his presidency, his removal from office took place in the context of a protracted leadership struggle with Cyril …

Editor's Introduction, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

An overview of African Catholicism. Part Two: Retrospect and Prospect, third issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism. A summary of the work of Bradford Hinze, Mary Gloria Njoku, Matthias Scharer, Mary Sylvia Nwachukwu, and Bernhard Udelhoven. Among the topics considered: African ecclesiology, African wellness and quality of life in Africa, interreligious dialogue in Africa, African Biblical scholarship, witchcraft and the Catholic Church.

Marching Morally Towards Equality: Perspective Of Bishop Richard Allen, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

The African American's struggle for equality is fraught with contributions from men and women of various ilk. Amongst these early abolitionists were naturalist Benjamin Banneker, freeman orator Frederick Douglass, and Bishop Richard Allen, who is the focus of this paper. Through an analysis of primary and secondary sources, the author takes on the persona of the late Bishop speaking to a community of his fellow African Americans as he comments on timely events and characters and advises the listeners on a reasonable course of action.

What We Bring With Us And What We Leave Behind: Six Months In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Virginia Casper, Donna Futterman, Evan Casper-Futterman

Occasional Paper Series

The authors, a family, reflect on their experiences living, volunteering, and going to school in South Africa for six months. They sought to live in a society in which white people were not the majority and to experience the transformation of the new South Africa, not as tourists, but as participants.

Producing "Fabulous": Commodification And Ethnicity In Hair Braiding Salons, Sylviane Ngandu-Kalenga Greensword

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Black women wearing fabulous braids are a striking feature of the Afro-diasporic cultural landscape. However, the braiders and salon owners who enable this aesthetic engineering are seldom acknowledged. This dissertation investigates the experience and role of Caribbean and West and Central African women in the hair braiding industry, a rapidly growing business in the U.S. I address the complexity of these women’s multiple social roles and the multiple consciousness (King, 1988) associated with their demographic characteristics (color, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and immigrant status). The commonalities between the braiders and their mostly African American customers contrast vividly with their perception of …

Lessons From The Field: Culturally Competent Support For Family, Friend And Neighbor Caregivers In Seattle, Mergitu Argo, Hueiling Chan, Christina Malecka

Occasional Paper Series

Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA) and Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC) both have many years of experience working with Seattle/King County's immigrant communities. ReWA and CISC participate in an initiative to support family, friend and neighbor caregivers and promote the value of kith and kin care. They have learned valuable lessons about culturally respectful, empowering, and meaningful support and communication with caregivers. This paper highlights the nine most important factors they have found for creating a culturally inclusive support program for family, friend and neighbor caregivers.

Maps For Sherbro Area, George Tucker Childs

The Sherbro Language and Culture of Sierra Leone

Maps pertaining to Sherbro language and culture.

Man And Land: Competing Ontologies, Colonial Legacies, And The Quest For Food Sovereignty, Savannah Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Land is an ontological reality, which is at the center of different relationships to land. These relationships are situated in and a product of historical and spatial process that have an under lying power geometry. These different understandings of land tenure can create conflict when they intersect with competing interests in the same space. In Cameroon, this is currently the case in the form of large-scale land acquisitions, which often conflict with local communities as multinational corporations and local elites acquire land concessions with facilitation by the government in the name of development. This paper aims to understand this issue …

Who Am I? The Relationship Between Cultural Identity And Globalization Within The Local And Global Intersections, Nir Aish

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The imminent phenomenon of globalization has been mainly explored in academia through the lens of economics and politics. Little attention has been given to the relationship between this phenomenon and culture, and yet the yield of this relationship could be tremendous as culture determines how individuals operate in our growing globalized world. This research project takes place in Bertoua, the capital of the East Region of the Republic of Cameroon. The country is located in Central Africa, and is often referred as “Africa in Miniature” due to its vast cultural and geological diversity. The focus of the study is on …

Community Perception Of The Hiv Vaccine In Western Kenya: Acceptability, Potential Behavior Changes, And Views On Compulsory Vaccination, Deborah Keen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) suppresses the immune system by attacking T cells, leading to the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV affects over 30 million people around the world and 1.6 million people in Kenya. On August 18, 1987, the FDA sanctioned the first human testing of a candidate vaccine for HIV. Currently, multiple HIV vaccines—projected to be on the market in five to ten years—are being tested for efficacy and safety. The goal of this study was to explore opinions related to the HIV vaccine so that there is a guide for future policy development in Western Kenya. …

Cultivating Peace Through Teaching History In Rwandan Secondary Schools: Opportunities And Challenges, Brittany Fried

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Education has the ability to cultivate a Culture of Peace or Violence. In Rwanda, pre-1994 formal education became a tool for inciting violence by presenting a discriminatory and identity-based view of history. In the 23 years since the genocide, the Rwandan government has propagated education that promotes national unity and decreases division amongst students. The 2015 national competence-based curriculum (CBC), which incorporates the holistic idea of Education for a Culture of Peace (ECOP), is one pertinent example. This study addresses: (1) the historical narrative portrayed in the secondary-level national curriculum and how it is taught, and (2) the opportunities and …

Perspectives On Language From Street Produce Vendors In Cape Town: An Examination Of Education, Trading, And Development In The Informal Sector, Hannah Oldham

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Language is vital for the functioning of societies, from education to economic interactions. Language of education presents challenges in Africa due to colonial linguistic legacies and the diversity of indigenous African languages. While education trains learners for work in the formal economy, the South African formal cannot absorb all the available labor. The informal economy therefore provides vital work and income to millions of South Africans and immigrants. Language use in the informal sector was studied, including the education and work traders had before working as street produce vendors.

Six interviews were conducted: two near the Cape Town taxi rank, …

Motivations And Obstacles On The Long Walk To Integration: Determinants Of Six Cape Town Chinese Immigrants’ Political Participation, Yawen Tsao

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Political participation is a fundamental component of democracy. But the level of immigrants’ political participation is generally lower than for people who are perceived as natives. This paper identifies the determinants of six Chinese immigrants’ political participation in Cape Town, part of a group that has a long history of political integration but is still often seen as passive and apolitical. It argues and tests the effect of five main determinants related to the length of residence, interaction with the local Chinese association, socioeconomic background, language ability and prior political experience, and social perceptions. Data comes from interviews conducted with …

"Why Can’T We All Get Along:" An Analysis Of Baka Education, And The Application Of Picture Books In Baka, Kylie Richmond

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research seeks to understand the implementation of mother tongue language education, specifically within the Baka community. Research was conducted in a Baka village called Mintoum over a three week period. By working with a non profit organization, information was gathered in hopes to improve the education of the Baka. Interviews were conducted to better understand, how these booklets affected not only the child’s education but also the parents’ reaction to books in their language. There was also an observation process conducted to see how the application of these booklets took place within a new Baka run preschool program “Chasing …

Caring For Caregivers: Challenges Facing Informal Palliative Caregivers In Western Kenya, Hartlee Johnston

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Chronic illnesses like cancer, HIV, and other non-communicable disease are increasing globally, especially in developing countries, necessitating development of palliative care and symptom management systems. In Kenya, the burden of care for chronically ill patients often falls to unpaid, informal caregivers like family members or friends. Thirty-five current or past informal caregivers from Kisumu, Kenya were interviewed about their experience, challenges they faced, and interventions they felt would be helpful. Major challenges identified included lack of finances for treatment and other living expenses; inadequate, unaffordable, or interrupted medical care; emotional stress exacerbated by juggling many responsibilities, pressure to emotionally support …

Assessing The Successes Of And Challenges Facing Civil Society Organizations In South Africa, In Influencing Gender-Based Violence Policy, Sarah Connolly

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this study is to explore how South African civil society organizations (CSOs) influence government policies that are put into place to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV). The project seeks to determine what strategies for influencing these policies have been the most effective and had the greatest impact, what factors have contributed to the organizations’ successes in influencing these policies, what challenges have been experienced in attempting to influence these policies, and what best practice for civil society actors attempting to influence such policies might be. The research focuses on the experiences of seven women working …

Formalizing Through Finances: A Case Study With Unics, Leah Kellenberger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper seeks to analyze the microfinance industry in Yaoundé, Cameroon through the lens of the microfinance institution UNICS. The main question guiding this study deals with whether or not the UNICS is encouraging a shift to the formal sector through their work with business people. Other questions relating to repayment rates and subsequently economic development also remain pertinent to the information found. In total, it is found that UNICS seeks to encourage formal sector growth through their work with businesspeople in the informal. Repayment rates however do not determine success of any aspect of a customer’s business or encouragement …

Exploring Rwanda's Continuing Education Capacity For Information Communications Technology (Ict) Skills, Li Keen Lim

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As Rwanda strives to become the ICT hub of the region, it will need to develop its greatest asset: its people, in ICT skills. This exploratory study used 30 semi-structured interviews, observation and secondary data from different sources, schools, students and NGOs, to answer a simple question: how does an everyday, working adult Rwandan learn new computers skills for a new computer age? This study found that a wide variety of suppliers fulfil different niches that give prospective students a range of prices, content, schedules, certification, practices, etc., and that demand is increasing for a host of different reasons. It …

When The Health System Fails You: Maternal Care Under Kenya’S 2017 Nurses' Strike, Tessa Coughtrey-Davenport

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study focuses on the 2017 nurses’ strike and how the crippling of the public health system impacted maternal care in Kisumu, Kenya. Kenya has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world, and there have been many efforts to reduce this, such as delivery with a Skilled Birth Attendant and attending antenatal care visits, all of which are centered around a functioning health system. The research team used a combination of interviews with key populations and analysis of service delivery data at local health centers to evaluate the effects of the strike on maternal care. The study …

Language, Race, And Integration: A Comparative Exploration Of The Sub-Saharan Migrant Experience In Morocco, Madeline Davison

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper uses a qualitative approach to explain the divide between local and migrant populations in the Moroccan context. This divide is primarily influenced by “feelings of otherness” and is triggered first and foremost by differences in physical appearance—easily identifiable differences upon first impression. Though inspired by a nearly instantaneous arrangement, this divide is fueled further by an inconsistency of language usage between groups. Because there is a wide variety of migrant experiences in this context, it is important to identify some of the differences between these lived experiences. Upon observation, the question, “What are the fundamental differences between migrants’ …