African Languages and Societies Commons^™

A Case Study Of Primary Healthcare Services In Isu, Nigeria, Raymond Ogu. Chimezie

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Access to primary medical care and prevention services in Nigeria is limited, especially in rural areas, despite national and international efforts to improve health service delivery. Using a conceptual framework developed by Penchansky and Thomas, this case study explored the perceptions of community residents and healthcare providers regarding residents' access to primary healthcare services in the rural area of Isu. Using a community-based research approach, semistructured interviews and focus groups were conducted with 27 participants, including government healthcare administrators, nurses and midwives, traditional healers, and residents. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi's 7-step method for qualitative data analysis. Key findings included …

The Bandi Of Northwestern Liberia: A Study Of Change And Continuityin Bandi Society To 1964, Samuel Benedict Ngovo

Dissertations

Relying on oral accounts and archival and published sources, this dissertation employed interdisciplinary methodology to examine change and continuity in traditional Bandi systems to 1964. It focuses on traditional Bandi social, religious, economic and political systems that changed and those that persisted as a result of contacts with neighboring ethnic groups, Islam, Christianity, and the Liberian state.

The Bandi of northwestern Liberia are divided into six subgroups. Nevertheless, the six subgroups of Bandi share common traditional values. The Bandi people belong to the Mande-linguistic group and share common traditional values with neighboring Mande speakers such as the Loma and Mende. …

Effects Of Solids Loadings And Particle Size Distribution On Siphon Ceramic Candle Filters, Danielle Renzi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the rural areas of Madagascar only 29% of the population has access to clean water and 10% has access to improved sanitation. It has been estimated that environmental risk factors, such as inadequate access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation, are responsible for 94% of the diarrheal disease burden. This study was focused on testing a point-of-use technology called the Tulip filter, which is a siphon ceramic candle filter impregnated with silver. The purpose is to assess its feasibility for implementation in rural regions of Madagascar through a laboratory study performed at the University of South Florida.

The …

Small Flowerings Of Unhu: The Survival Of Community In Tsitsi Dangarembga's Novels, Dana Rine

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the presence of unhu, a process of becoming and remaining human through community ties, in Tsitsi Dangarembga‟s Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not. Dangarembga interrogates corrupt versions of community by creating positive examples of unhu that alternatively foster community building. Utilizing ecocritical, utopian, and postcolonial methodologies, this thesis postulates that these novels stress the importance of retaining a traditional concept like unhu while also acknowledging the need to adjust it over time to ensure its vitality. Both novels depict the creativity and resilience of unhu amid toxic surroundings.

Adolescence Is An Ocean: A Biocultural Investigation Of Youth Food Consumption In Tanzania, Elizabeth J. Danforth

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates adolescents' relationships with food and other community and household members' perceptions of youth and their food consumption to understand the multifactorial dynamic processes which create nutritional outcomes among urban and rural youth in central Tanzania. Youth are an important and demographically large population in developing countries. The identities created during this distinct stage of cultural production can be reflected in youths' food consumption and relationships with food. Nutrition likely affects how youth transition through a variety of states, including their growth and development stages, primary to secondary to higher education, child to parent, or unemployed to employed. …

A Comparison Of The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, And Child And Adolescent Taxon Scale: Predictive Utility And Cross Cultural Generalizability, Micheal Bruce Lister

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) is a widely utilized measure for estimating the risk of violent reoffending among forensic populations. However, completing the VRAG can be a lengthy process as it requires entering scores from a second test, the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), which must be administered separately and requires hours to complete. In order to reduce scoring time, the authors of the VRAG have developed a brief checklist, the Child and Adolescent Taxon Scale (CATS), which can be used in place of the PCL-R as a more efficient method of assessing psychopathy (Quinsey et al., 2004). Previous research …

The Features Of The Voice Of African American Tradition: An Analysis Of African American Rhetoric For The Influence Of The Call Response Technique, Laura Venezia

Communication Studies

This project explicates the nature of the rhetorical strategies, especially the call response, used by various African American artists and orators (Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and Public Enemy). The techniques include the interplay of repetition and heightening emotion provided especially through 1. using the “call response” directly, 2. announcing jeremiad warnings and rallying cries, and 3. using potent images to arouse emotions—the objective correlative.

Before It Rains, Veronica O. Parkman

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not parish but have everlasting life." Contemporary Christian literature is becoming first choice in public libraries and bookstores throughout the country. From novels about end-time prophesy to autobiographies of world-renowned pastors, works written for and about Christians have reached an all-time high. Before it Rains is indeed, according to the scriptural definition of salvation found in the King James Version of the bible, a contemporary Christian novel; the characters must go through the biblical process of accepting Jesus Christ as their …

The Impact Of Stakeholder Collaboration On Effectiveness Of Health Program Implementation In Ghana, Samuel Kwami Agbanu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Healthcare providers increasingly recognize the importance of collaboration among stakeholders in cost-effective healthcare delivery. While collaborative relationships offer great advantages, little research has addressed their relevance in an international development aid context, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The region is a major recipient of international development support, yet health indicators on HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and child and maternal mortality indicate the health of the region is among the weakest worldwide. This sequential mixed method, descriptive study of a USAID-funded community health program in Ghana examined the nature of collaboration among six stakeholders and impact of this collaboration on effectiveness of program …

Toward A Grounded Theory On The Management Of Orphanages In South Africa And Zimbabwe, Anna Siyavora

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of orphaned children in many parts of Africa is increasing as their parents die from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The research problem addressed in this qualitative study was lack of understanding by others about how the managers of orphanages in 2 African countries -- South Africa and Zimbabwe - were responding to the emotional and social needs of these orphans. The purpose of this study was to develop an orphanage management theory or model that could replicate the African kinship environment in the orphanages under study. Nurturing leadership theory provided the conceptual …

"In My Heart I Had A Feeling Of Doing It": A Case Study Of The Lost Boys Of Sudan And Christianity, Kathryn Snyder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While members of the southern Sudanese Dinka tribe converted to Christianity in large numbers in the early 1990s, the Lost Boys, a largely Dinka group of young men who were separated from their families during the Sudanese civil war in the late 1980s, had a distinct conversion experience in refugees camps. Using first-person interviews and participant observation with a group of Lost Boys resettled in Denver, and historical and ethnographic data, this research seeks to explain why the Lost Boys converted to Christianity and the role that it played in their identity in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, and …

William Shakespeare And Chinua Achebe: A Study Of Character And The Supernatural, Kenneth N. Usongo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how Shakespeare and Achebe use supernatural devices such as prophecies, dreams, beliefs, divinations and others to create complex characters. Even though these features are indicative of the preponderance of the belief in the supernatural by some people of the Elizabethan, Jacobean and traditional Igbo societies, Shakespeare and Achebe primarily use the supernatural to represent the states of mind of their protagonists.

Through an essentially New Historicist approach to the study of character and the supernatural in the tragedies and novels of Shakespeare and Achebe respectively, I argue that both writers, besides using supernatural features to explore the …

Laying Bare The Sins Of The Father: Exploring White Fathers In Post-Apartheid Literature, Casey M. Reck

CMC Senior Theses

This Thesis is an exploration of white fathers in three post-apartheid novels: Mark Behr's The Smell of Apples, Nadine Gordimer's The House Gun, and J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace. By examining the link between private white hegemonic masculinity and the apartheid government, the Thesis analyzes the transitional process as these men try to adopt less authoritative identities.

Stressful Life Events And Interpersonal, Religious, And Spiritual Changes, Paul Murdock

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Survivors of stressful life events and traumatic experiences often report positive psychological changes “...as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances” (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004, p. 1). Three often reported areas of growth include having a greater appreciation for life in general, new priorities, and an increased significance placed on interpersonal, spiritual or religious issues. Despite reports of positive changes, the literature on stress-related growth (SRG) is inconclusive as to whether SRG is an illusion or represents actual change. For example, no studies to date appear to use longitudinal data, objective indictors, or behavioral measures of change. …

Patterns And Challenges Of Parenting School-Age Children Among Selected Sub-Saharan African Immigrant Parents In Southwest Michigan: A Multiple-Case Study, Israel M. Kafeero

Dissertations

Problem. Parenting among immigrants presents unique challenges to parents whose cultural orientation is different from the host culture. Because of the meager research literature on immigrant families in the USA, little is known about the phenomenon of parenting among sub-Saharan African immigrant parents. This study investigated the patterns related to the parenting practices of selected sub-Saharan African immigrant parents, how they conduct corrective discipline to their children, and the challenges they face rearing children in Southwest Michigan.

Method. Qualitative research methods including interviews, observations, focus group discussions, and artifact collection were used in this dissertation to generate data. A snowball …

Family Literacy And Digital Literacies : A Redefined Approach To Examining Social Practices Of An African-American Family, Tisha Yvette Lewis

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract

Translating The Transatlantic : West African Literary Approaches To African American Identity, Kelly Opal Secovnie

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

My dissertation, Translating the Transatlantic: West African Literary Approaches to African American Identity, takes a literary-historical approach to the question of Anglophone West African conceptions of African American identity, an often overlooked topic. It represents an important intervention in the fields of African diaspora and African literary studies, both of which continue to suffer from a US-centric view of Africa, and supplements work done in postcolonial theory and cultural studies to include West African conceptions of cultural translation. My project also examines numerous plays by Ghanaian and Nigerian playwrights to understand the ways that African American characters and culture are …

Negotiating Multiple Identities:The Experiences Of African-Ancestral Lesbians, Damaliah D. Gibson

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Leadership And The Politics Of Religious Conflict In Northern Nigeria, Clement Kagoma

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Northern Nigeria has become a boiling point lately where Christians and Muslims kill each other in the name of God. Within the last four years, over 10,000 people had lost their lives. This research seeks to investigate the relationship between political leadership and the causes of religious conflict in Northern Nigeria. Using the survey method 150 questionnaires were sent to different parts of northern Nigeria and 40 to Nigerians living in the United States. 117 questionnaires were analyzed at the end with 99 coming from Nigeria. The results revealed that there is a significant relationship between political leadership and religious …

La Polygamie Vue Et Vecue Dans Une Si Longue Lettre Par Mariama Ba Et Xala! Par Ousmane Sembene Simone, Simone A. Feaster-Armour

MALS Final Projects, 1995-2019

Le dictionnaire Larousse donne cinq definitions pour le mot ' mariage'; dans ce cadre nous n' avons pas besoin que deux. La premiere definition illustre l' acte individuel qui devient !'institution sociale: "Acte solennel par lequel un homme et une femme etablissent entre eux une union dont les conditions, les effets et la dissolution sont regis par les disposi-tions juridiques en vigueur dans leur pays." (Larousse 628) La deuxieme definition, "combinaison, reunion de plusieurs choses, organismes, etc.,'' exprime parfaitement les influences culturelles extemes qui s' imposent sur les maries dans n' importe quel pays ou culture. (628) Dans cette dissertation, …

The Segregated Distribution Of Middle Class African American Households In The Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, Jay L. Newberry

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This research analyzes the residential distribution of middle-class African American households in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area to determine if the "middle class" status affords them greater integration with the dominant white group. Using 1990 and 2000 census income data for white and black households in the Pittsburgh MSA, lower, middle, and upper class categories were created in both groups for comparison against the black middle class category via five segregation indices. This research found that, although the African American households experience varying degrees of segregation by class, all are highly segregated from the white group with middle class African American …

Islam "Saint-Ified": A Description Of Islamic Saint-Worship Practiced By Middle Atlas Berbers, Alaina Cates

Honors Theses

Man has ever invaded, pushing aside previous owners to claim possession. Thus history tells us: of nations conquered, peoples displaced, and foreigners that become inhabitants, who will in tum be conquered, displaced, and replaced. In this telling of history, however, a position exists for those whose story knows no previous inhabitants. These people are called indigenous. The shore of North Africa is a vast land that has known countless invasions and times of foreign rule. It has also known the continuation of a single people group, indigenous to its soil for as long as history can recall. These people are …

Photography In Madagascar: Magical Realism As An Ambiguous Space, Talhy Stotzer

Theses : Honours

The visual component of this project consists of a photographic representation of my experience in a Vezo fishing village on the southwest coast of Madagascar. In the exegesis, magical realism provides a theoretical framework to describe both the use of the photographic medium and the content of my images. Away from both the rigid narratives of modernity and its realist perspective and from the sceptical nihilism of extreme postmodemity, magical realism allows for an ambiguous space in which expression and subjectivity are interconnected with empirical reality. Moreover, this concept which acknowledges a plurality of small and, sometimes contradictory, narratives to …

'The Aids Is Coming And There Is Nowhere To Run...': Culture, Gender, And The Politics Of Kisongo Maasai Women And Girls' Vulnerability To Hiv/Aids (Immune Deficiency, Tanzania), V. Corey Wright

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis outlines the research findings and implications for practice generated from the, “A Gender Issue: Reducing the Vulnerability of Kisongo Maasai Girls to HIV/AIDS” project, which was a participatory action research (PAR) study in collaboration with the Kisongo Maasai in Northern Tanzania. The objectives of the study were to explore the factors that may contribute to girls’ vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, and develop a culturally-specific framework that may contribute to effective design and administration of program and policy-level interventions. The findings of this study illustrate the ‘politics of health’ that determine girls’ vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. It presents a cultural analysis …

Cultural-Competency Training For School-Based Mental Health Service Providers, Natasha Lian Smith

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Literature on cultural competence has primarily developed in the fields of counseling psychology and counselor education. The field of school psychology has responded to the increased focus of cultural competency by providing recommended skills needed to provide psychological services in schools to diverse individuals and groups. Currently, research in effective cultural competency training has primarily focused on graduate training programs. This study extends the literature on cultural competency training by developing a training model that is appropriate for professionals who are already working in the field. This study first evaluated the impact of a needs assessment on the preparation of …

African American Art In The Marketplace: The Path To Inclusion, Quashelle Fannie Curtis

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Cross Racial Preferences In Viewing Sexually Explicit Material: A Comparison Between African-American And Caucasian Males, Boyd Randal Horton

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated that extent to which the race of actors in an erotic video affected sexual arousal in African-American and Caucasian heterosexual males. It was hypothesized that the two racial groups would be significantly more sexually aroused while watching their respective homoethnic erotic video. The hypothesis was grounded in the modeling effects of Bandura's Social Leaning Theory (1977), the Matching Hypothesis (1982) and worldview differences between African-Americans and Caucasians (Baldwin and Bell, 1985). Thirty-four African-American and Caucasian males were shown homoethnic and non-homoethnic erotic videos while penile circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and self-report ratings of sexual …

African Film: A Dynamic Medium For A High School French Class Cultural Curriculum, Denise Elizabeth Dunn Barstow-Girel

MA TESOL Collection

Culture can be an integral part of the French foreign language class when students learn French language and Francophone culture through a content-based approach using the medium of African films. Founded on the pedagogical value of a thematic study of issues aimed at raising linguistic, cultural, and global awareness in adolescent, fourth or fifth year high school French students, I developed this cultural curriculum focused on Francophone African culture. While learning the French language, students will gain knowledge of West African cultures including historical aspects, and the role of the French language in this region.

Survey Of Nigerian University Student Affairs Services: A Comparison Of Students' Perceived Service Importance And The Students' Level Of Satisfaction, Michael Adewale Adeniyi

Dissertations

Problem. Nigerian university student-affairs serviceshave been characterized by negative campus activism, violent demonstrations, and the destruction of lives and properties, the result of which led to the closing down of many Nigerian universities. Thus far, little empirical data exist regarding the student personnel servicesavailable to students at Nigerian universities, the importance of student-affairs services, or the level of student satisfaction with these services.

Methods. A quantitative survey methodology was used to assess 35 student-affairs services. A developed and validated survey instrument, the Student ServicesQuestionnaire (SSQ), was administered to collect data from currently registered undergraduate and graduate students of …

"The World Adrift In Emptiness": Crossing The Abyss Of Transition In Four Tragedies By Wole Soyinka, Michael H. Lake

Masters Theses

1986 Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, Nigerian dramatist, poet, essayist and novelist, names the Yoruba god, Ogun, as his tragic muse for ritual theatre in "The Fourth Stage," his early artistic manifesto. In this essay Soyinka maintains that in contrast to Dionysus, Nietzsche's hero in The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, Ogun balances within himself elements that could be described as Dionysian, Apollonian, and Promethean. Archetypally, Ogun thus constitutes a destructive-creative unity which overcomes the dyad of good-versus-evil of Europe's Christian civilization.

For this reason, Soyinka upholds Ogun not only as a natural patron of tragedy …