African Studies Commons^™

Dying For Love: Homosexuality In The Middle East, Heather Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Today in the United States, the most frequent references to the Middle East are concerned with the War on Terrorism. However, there is another, hidden battle being waged: the war for human rights on the basis of sexuality. Homosexuality is a crime in many of the Middle Eastern states and is punishable by death in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iran (Ungar 2002). Chronic abuses and horrific incidences such as the 2009 systematic murders of hundreds of “gay” men in Iraq are seldom reported in the international media. Speculation as to why this population is hidden includes the …

Beyond The Brink: Somalia’S Health Crisis, Bryson Brown

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Somalia is approaching a daunting anniversary: in 2011, the country will begin its twentieth consecutive year without an effective centralized government. The fall of the Soviet supported Siad Barre government in 1991 created a power vacuum that was filled by warlords, clans and, most recently, Islamists. Fourteen interim governments have failed to supplant those forces. Health infrastructure and the general health of the population have been devastated as a result. Precious few organizations are still providing health-related services. Unfortunately, recent events suggest that this crisis is going to get worse before it gets better.

An Abundance Of Violence And Scarcity Of Words (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

It is hard to avoid knowing something about the conflict in Darfur. There are divestment movements, student campaigns, actors raising awareness and the ‘genocide olympics’ to remind us of the ongoing conflict. There is also an increasingly ugly exchange in which two sides are talking and neither is listening. This exchange is not between the combatants, as one might expect, but among activists and scholars who disagree on the best way to portray the conflict. While it is difficult to avoid knowing something about the violence in Darfur, finding a deeper analysis that goes beyond the attempts to gain attention …

How Does Foreign Direct Investment Affect Growth In Developing Countries? An Empirical Investigation, E. M. Ekanayake, John R. Ledgerwood

Publications

This paper analyzes the effects of foreign direct investment on the economic growth of developing countries. The study uses annual data on a group of 85 developing countries covering Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean for the period 1980-2007. We explore the hypothesis that foreign direct investment can promote growth in developing countries. We test this hypothesis using panel data series for foreign direct investment, while accounting for regional differences in Asian, African, Latin American, and the Caribbean countries as well as the differences in income levels. While the findings of previous studies are generally mixed, our results …

Deceptive Cultural Practices That Sabotage Hiv/Aids Education In Tanzania And Kenya, Mary Oluga, Susan Kiragu, Mussa K. Mohamed, Shelina Walli

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

In spite of numerous HIV/AIDS‐prevention education efforts, the HIV infection rates in Sub‐Saharan Africa remain high. Exploring and understanding the reasons behind these infection rates is imperative in a bid to offer life skills and moral education that address the root causes of the pandemic. In a recent study concerning effective HIV/AIDS‐prevention education, conducted in Tanzania and Kenya among teacher trainees and their tutors, the notion of mila potofu (defined by educators as ‘deceptive’ cultural practices) emerged as a key reason for educators’ difficulties in teaching HIV/AIDS prevention education in schools and for high HIV infection rates. Since these cultural …

South Sudan: A Fledgling Nation, Alka Jauhari

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

The citizens of south Sudan are rejoicing in the hope of building a new nation after the referendum next year. They are hoping to finally gain independence from the north and thus create an independent and a prosperous south Sudan. However, prosperity of a nation depends on a number of factors which are conspicuously absent in the case of south Sudan. These include existence of a socially cohesive society and a basic social and economic infrastructure. A socially cohesive society is essential to pave the way for a genuine democracy, while the presence of basic infrastructure provides the institutional base …

Sir John Gardner Wilkinson: The Preservation And Pillage Of Ancient Egypt, Megan Ryan

Global Tides

This paper analyzes the debate over the role of John Wilkinson in the development of Egyptology in the late-nineteenth century. Scholars have debated the early importance Wilkinson had during his lifetime. Some argue that Wilkinson’s work was marginalized during his lifetime, and that his research was not fully appreciated until the past twenty years. Here, I demonstrate that Wilkinson’s work formed the foundation for the work of many of his contemporaries. This, coupled with a number of other arguments, indicate that Wilkinson’s work must have been seriously considered among academic circles during his time.

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 …

The Loss Of Egypt’S Children, Cindy Ragab

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Under the fierce rays of the desert sun, in the heat of the summer, young children are forced to remove pests from cotton crops for eleven hours per day, search for recyclable goods among animals and the pungent stench of city dumps, and are sold to elderly male tourists through temporary marriages by their parents. This is the hideous reality for millions of child laborers in Egypt. Child labor is a manifestation of the pains of extreme poverty on the world’s most vulnerable population. Childhood is lost. Children are forced to take on responsibilities that in normal circumstances push adults …

Le Roman Africain : Drame Or Histoire, Bernard Mouralis

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

For a long time, African novelists claimed filiation with realism. But there is in realism a deep contradiction between the will of describing the social world and the will of changing it. From this contradiction, the paper studies : the relation between theatre and novel ; the question of citizenship in the novel ; the place of the novel in front of knowledge and action. The novel shows dynamics and characters living in the time. So, it tends to wander from the principle of knowledge and self-consciousness.

De La Parole Poétique À La Parole Politique Dans Les Oeuvres Théâtrales D’Aimé Césaire Et De Sony Labou Tansi, Virginie Darriet-Féréol

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Aimé Césaire and Sony Labou Tansi wished for acting and voicing for their people both on the political and literary level. By choosing the drama, they presented the language. By creating a new language, a new literature, a new artistic aesthetics, consequently a new trend of thinking, their writing served policy.

Le Théâtre Amateur Marocain. Trajectoire D’Un Théâtre Alternatif, Omar Fertat

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Modern Moroccan theatre was born with non-professional artists and has remained intimately linked to this milieu. Unlike professional playwrights, non-professional artists have never bowed to the demands of political authorities, whether it be the French administration or the local Makhzen. They used this artistic medium as a forum for debate and resistance against the oppressor. This freedom of expression operated not just at the political level but also at the aesthetic level. Since non-professionals were not constrained by the need to please an audience fond of social comedies and melodramas, they could explore more risky avant-garde paths. In spite of …

L’Écriture De La Perte Chez Assia Djebar, Lila Kermas

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This study proposes a reflexion on the feeling of “loss” as a source of literary creation. The different tensions generated by an hybrid identity of a character in a quest, especially in La disparition de la langue française (“disappearance of the French language”) by Assia Djebar ; what matters here is to see how the feeling of crisis and the split reveals itself and how it dissolves in and through (the process of) writing.

Mutations Politiques Et Processus De Légitimation Culturelle : Considérations Sur Le Théâtre Populaire Camerounais, Pierre Fandio

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

All forms of theatre have never been perceived the same way in contemporary Cameroon. Whereas the written theatre relatively received an acceptable treatment from the official instances of recognition, the non-written one has always been excluded. This communication sets out to show how, from this marginalized position and palpably inspired at the same time from the Italian commedia dell’arte, the French vaudeville and the African traditional dramaturgic shape, a new and popular form of theatre came to existence. Thanks to the exceptional capacity of adaptation and innovation of its discourse and thematic, the offer of this “street dramaturgy” rather matches …

La Dramatisation De L’Écriture Chez Sony Labou Tansi, Georges Ngal

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

As an author always articulates his writing with idioms that reflect a specific time period and a given social group, Sony Labou Tansi talks about “tropicalité”, and gives himself the goal to create multiple “tropicalités”.

L’Art De L’« Écrire » Chez Patrick Chamoiseau, Savrina Parevadee Chinien

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In the works of Patrick Chamoiseau, the act of writing is a main, recurrent theme. The narrator, often, tries to define himself through his writings which have their own autonomy in the novel. This character questions his writing and is torn by the dissatisfaction he feels to get close to the “breath” of the creole storyteller : the chasm between orality and writing creates suffering. He, then, advocates l’“écrire”, closer, according to him, to the utterance of the storyteller and free of the “constraints” of an occidental writing, which he considers as stamped by the ideology of the Universal.

Ict Usage In Microfinance Institutions In Uganda, Joseph Kaumba Ssewanyana

The African Journal of Information Systems

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are always often faced with high operating costs to provide financial services to the poor people and Small and Medium Enterprises. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been found to promote the dual objective of microfinance - sustainability and outreach to the poor people. Using a quantitative survey and descriptive research approach, this paper has established the extent to which ICT has been used in the microfinance institutions in Uganda. Despite the barriers, ICT usage in MFIs has been on the rise; and different applications and technologies have been adopted by some MFIs to control costs, create …

The Impact Of Computerisation On Productivity: The Case Of Two State Utility Corporations In Botswana, Ayoku A. Ojedokun, Kgomotso H. Moahi

The African Journal of Information Systems

The study investigated the impact of computer technology on productivity improvement as reflected in the billing process and total quality bills invoiced per month in the Gaborone headquarters of Botswana Power Corporation and Water Utilities Corporation. It examined the input-output relationship with computers as one of the inputs. The other input is labour represented by the Meter Reading Hours and the Supervisory Hours. The study drew on the economic production theory and time series approach to determine the contributions of the inputs to output. The study relied on unpublished information and interviews rather than the use of publicly or commercially …

A Multidisciplinary Conference On The Challenges & Opportunities For Sustainable Development In Ethiopia & The Greater Horn Of Africa

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

Ethnosymbolism And The Dismemberment Of The State In The Horn Of Africa: The Ethiopian Case Of Ethnic Federalism, Assefa Mehretu

International Conference on African Development Archives

The paper has three major objectives. The first is to do a critical review of the current largely antagonistic narratives of ethnic instrumentalism in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa that have ultimately led to the balkanization of the state and caused serious political instability and fratricidal conflicts with traumatic and costly consequences in the region. The second is to do a critical review of the policy of the current Ethiopian government to implement ethno-territorial formations under the rubric of killils (Amharic for territorial enclosures), and to demonstrate how this may seriously vitiate national integration along compatible cultural and economic …

A Study Of The East African Slave Trade In Bagamoyo, Jake Salyers

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of my study was to learn about the east African Slave trade and its relationship to the town of Bagamoyo. Bagamoyo was an important trading town on the coast of Tanzania during the peak of the Arab run slave and ivory trade. Slavery was only abolished in Tanganyika in 1922, so there are still many monuments and memories remaining in the town concerning the slave trade. I had two main methods of collecting information about the town, interviewing the descendants of slaves and slave owners and researching the history of Bagamoyo. I was able to get three different …

The Elusiveness Of Light: The Difficulty With Harnessing The Omnipresent Solar Energy In Africa, Hai-Vu Phan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The world is currently facing an energy crisis. Our dependency on oil and natural gas has led to many global problems, such as OPEC’s oil hikes which have disrupted economies everywhere and caused oil dependent countries to suffer. Our huge consumption of oil has also led to the global warming catastrophe that we currently must combat. The world must find a new energy source soon, or more environmental, political, social, and economic problems will occur. Solar energy’s potential has been recognized for many decades, and its abundant and limitless supply makes it the perfect new form of energy. Solar energy …

A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Social Capital Of Liberian Refugee Women In Ghana, Alice Boateng

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article reports on a mixed methods study of Liberian refugee women at the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana. The study examined the role and impact of social capital on the women's well-being. Three types of social capital - bonding, bridging, and linking - were examined. The study's findings revealed that although the women had some bonding social capital, they possessed very little bridging social capital, and linking social capital was non-existent. These findings suggest that the refugee women may benefit from national and internationalp olicies andp rograms that seek to both strengthen existing and create new sources of social …

From Armchair Reading To Action: Acknowledging Our Role In The Horror Of The Democratic Republic Of The Congo - And Doing Something About It., Shareen Hertel

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Reading Adam Hochschild's extraordinary account of ordinary people caught up in the horrific ravages of a civil war raging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I was struck by how incongruous my own encounter with this suffering is. I read his article over lunch, safe in the comfort of my own home. As a woman, I live largely without fear of the kind of brutal sexual violence that Hochschild opens his article with, as he related the story of a Congolese NGO worker who is herself a victim of multiple rapes.

If They Just Weren't So Rich!, Anja Mihr

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The deadliest war on earth-as it is called-in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will only end when the country's richness fades or is kept under surveillance. Human rights and peace might have a chance if Congo's lucrative diamond, gold or coltan mines were under shared control by non-profit agencies or international organizations with the intention to spread the mines' benefits and wealth among the Congolese people. Wishful thinking? Most likely it is, but what other alternative is there? The country's extraordinary wealth in natural resources is the main reason for the immense corruption, the extermination of entire villages, the …

September Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

The Rape of the Congo. By Adam Hochschild. The New York Review of Books. August 13, 2009.

Natural Resources And Wealth Of The Democratic Republic Of Congo (Drc): Of Benefit To Whom?, Nicola Colbran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When asked to discuss the humanitarian tragedy in the DRC, the question really is where to start? The article by Adam Hochschild discusses some of the most horrific events and experiences imaginable: widespread killings of unarmed civilians, rape, torture and looting, the recruitment of child soldiers, and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. The immediate human response is who is to blame, how did it happen and how can the world apparently do nothing?

Human Rights Law On Trial In The Drc, William Paul Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ongoing tragedy in Eastern Congo contains so many tragic lessons that it should shake to their very foundations all comfortable ideologies about human rights and politics. The atrocities in the DRC should implicate all but have so far resulted in almost limitless impunity. Here, I briefly put human rights law on trial for its role in perpetuating this tragedy.

Academic Leadership Experiences Of Foreign-Born African Immigrants In American Institutions Of Higher Education, Taiwo A. Ande

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose ofthis study was to explore the academic leadership experiences of foreign-born African immigrants who occupied mid- to senior-level positions of leadership in American colleges and universities. The study explored the cha1lenges and opportunities foreign-born African immigrants faced as they aspired and moved through various leadership positions in United States (U.S.) institutions of higher education. Detailed interviews were conducted with six foreign-born African academic leaders who currently or previously occupied academic leadership positions in the United States. Participants were from Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, and they occupied academic positions of directors, departmental chair, and associate provost. Seven themes emerged …