African Studies Commons^™

Holistic Integrated Youth-Centered Development: Need For Change Of Focus, Yared Mammo

International Conference on African Development Archives

Today, the world knows Ethiopia for its abject poverty, war, drought and severe HIV/AIDS prevalence. For these problems, many causes can be mentioned. Some of these are poor or underutilization of the available resources, Lack of good governance, lack of vision, lack of determination and commitment, absence of transparency and accountability. Equally, the inability to use the youth as a key development tool is the formidable cause for remaining in abject poverty. Due to these various reasons, we could not actualize this potential (youth) in to reality (for fighting poverty and achieving sustainable development). In developing countries like Ethiopia, the …

Perspectives On Food Crop Production For Combating Famine In Ethiopia, Brhane Gebrekidan

International Conference on African Development Archives

Feeding the ever-growing Ethiopian population with the continuously shrinking land holdings and nutrient depleted soils is going to be very difficult to say the least. The realistic option under the current Ethiopian scenario is to increase the food productivity per unit of land. The science and the technological options available to realize higher productivity than what the average Ethiopian farmer gets are widely available both locally and internationally. Assuming that all of the non-technical institutional and policy issues bearing on solving the famine problem in Ethiopia are addressed adequately, my perspective focuses on the technological options to curtail famine and …

Conceptualising Famine In Ethiopia, Getnet Alemu

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper attempts to explain the nature of recurrent famine, not just as a result of a series of adventitious effects, but more importantly as the unintended outcome of an exclusionary growth model. This adventitious effects matter a great deal, but their impact can only be understood in the light of the inherent weakness of the growth model, which impoverished the peasantry and hence generated their vulnerability to famine.

An Economic Analysis Of Fiscal Federalism In Ethiopia, Abu Girma Moges

International Conference on African Development Archives

Fiscal federalism is a process of redistribution of fiscal decision-making power in an effort to improve the performance of the public sector in resource mobilization, efficient resource allocation and in the process enabling the economy achieve fast and sustainable economic growth. This paper addresses the economic rationale, implications and concerns of pursuing fiscal federalism in a poor country and in a political environment of ethnic federalism. The main findings suggest that when fiscal decentralization is exercised with high horizontal and vertical imbalances, it fails to diversify public output in line with the preferences and priorities of local population and to …

Papers Of The Second International Conference On Development Studies In Ethiopia, Sisay Asefa

International Conference on African Development Archives

Introductory remarks of the Second International Conference on Development Studies in Ethiopia, July 11-12, 2003, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

An Alternative View To The “Africa Dummy”, Paulos Gutema

International Conference on African Development Archives

For the last four decades the pace of economic growth in African countries remained too slow or stagnant. This problem is analyzed by first developing a framework that focus on growth process of indigent economy, where deferring current consumption is hardly possible, and by relaxing the usual assumption of unfailing market condition. The analytic result suggests that the degree and direction of effects of factors of market failure make a difference in nations' level of income per capita as well as its rate of growth. On this ground, the poor economic performance observed in the region can be well attributed …

Market Incentives, Farmers’ Response And A Policy Dilemma: A Case Study On Expansion Of Chat Production As A Cash Crop In The Eastern Ethiopian Highlands.\, Tesfaye Lemma Tefera, Johann Kirsten, Sylvain Perret

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper discusses the reasons for and effects of the dramatic expansion of chat production as a cash crop in the Hararghe Highlands of Ethiopia. Despite the Ministry of Agriculture’s deliberate attempt to marginalize and openly discourage chat production, farmers continue shifting their scarce resources to chat production. Using data generated by a rural livelihood survey from 197 randomly selected households, economic and non-economic factors contributing to the expansion of chat production are identified and its food and nutritional security impact was analyzed. The case study confirms once more again the power of market incentives in encouraging agricultural activity of …

Environment Stress And Increased Vulnerability To Impoverishment And Survival In Ethiopia: A Synthesis, Tesfaye Teklu

International Conference on African Development Archives

At the core of this short paper is explaining the persistence of environment-induced famine conditions in rural Ethiopia. To start with, there are important empirical findings that set the context. First, poverty is Ethiopia is widespread and deep (MEDaC, 1999; MFDE, 2002). Officially reported poverty head-count measure based on the 1995 nationally representative consumption survey, for example, shows that 45.5 percent of the Ethiopian population could not afford costs of privately provisioned basic needs (MEDaC, 1999). The high-order poverty estimates also point poverty is deep and unequal among the poor.

Macroeconomic Development And Private Sector Performance In Ethiopia: The 1990’S Experience, Melesse Minale

International Conference on African Development Archives

After the downfall of the military government in 1991, the transitional government of Ethiopia committed itself to implement the stabilization and structural adjustment program with the help of the IMF and the World Bank. The objective of the program was to remove cost-price distortions, improve market related incentives, promote private enterprises and exports, and liberalize the economy and to reduce the role of the public sector in the economy. The a private led competitive economy operating under a free market and prudent fiscal and monetary policy environments was optimistically expected to emerge from this. The practical experience of the last …

The Political Personality Of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Aubrey Immelman, Adam Beatty

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant information regarding President Mugabe was extracted from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals.

Mugabe’s primary personality …

Black Polar, Françoise Naudillon

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

We would like to present some examples of the French Mystery Novel as it is being written by sub-Saharan and Maghrebin authors, as Yasmina Khadra, an author from Algeria. After outlining a history of the genre itself, we will follow a few of the thematic trails taken up by the authors in question. We would like to call specific attention to the strategies of transformation, appropriation and transmutation being used on an already well defined and respected genre whose roots lie in a completely different cultural background (European and North American).

The Impacts Of Migration On Establishment Of Social Capital And Environmental Degradation In Kibwezi, Kenya, Eveily Freeman

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Telecommunications Reform In Southern Africa: The Role Of The Southern African Development Community, Patricia K. Mccormick

Communication Faculty Research Publications

This article examines telecommunications reform and related infrastructure and service developments in Southern African states. In focusing on this region, the article analyses the role of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the different associations and commissions it has created to develop the telecommunications sector and facilitate reform, which is essential to promote network efficiencies and extend the infrastructure to rural areas. As a regional organisation, SADC is poised to promote restructuring of the telecommunications sector in its 14 member states, as it seeks to achieve complementary national and regional programs and promote sustainable development and economic growth through …

Educational Decision-Making, Gender, And The Question Of Sustainable Development In Rural Kenya, Nathan Ziegler

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

No. 11: Regionalizing International Migration: Lessons For Sadc, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

Research on unauthorised migration to South Africa has addressed a range of issues surrounding the effects of current immigration policy on migrants, and the impact migrants have on South Africa’s society and economy (DHA 1997: section 1.4.6). One finding that is particularly relevant to a discussion of regional labour migration regimes is that current South African immigration policy does not account for labour migrants who retain a social and domestic base in their countries of origin. Another is that most unauthorised migrants are temporary or contract workers who seek employment in industries—such as construction—that depend increasingly on this kind of …

No. 29: The New Brain Drain From Zimbabwe, Daniel S. Tevara, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

All the signs point to the existence of a growing exodus of skilled Zimbabweans from the country. Although the precise dimensions and impacts of this “brain drain” have yet to be determined, the Zimbabwean government has recently sought to stem the tide with various policy measures. The education and health sectors appear to be the hardest hit although professionals in other sectors have also been leaving in numbers.

The Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) has undertaken a multi-country study of the brain drain within and from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). SAMP’s primary contribution is to examine the skills …

No. 28:Changing Attitudes To Immigration And Refugee Policy In Botswana, Eugene Campbell, Johan Oucho

Southern African Migration Programme

For the last two decades, Botswana has had the reputation as a “country of immigration,” based on the large-scale import of skilled expatriates from Africa, Asia and the West. Successive census reports and immigration data, as well as previous SAMP surveys undertaken in the late 1990s, confirm the appropriateness of the designation. The SAMP surveys concentrated on three themes: (a) the attitudes and migration behaviour of skilled foreigners in the country; (b) the attitudes of Batswana towards cross-border migration to South Africa; and (c) the emigration potential of skilled Batswana. The surveys highlighted the tolerant and generally welcoming attitude prevailing …

Justice For A Genocide?, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

In Rwanda today it is considered poor manners to cry at funerals. Public grieving for the death of a single person is thought to minimize the grief people felt after the genocide when many people lost entire families. That genocide was eight years ago and to date little has been done to bring the perpetrators to justice. The newly established gacaca courts are meant to rectify this situation and assess the guilt or innocence of some of the tens of thousands of people now held in Rwandan jails.

Tracking Down The Marrons: Archaeo-Geography Of Marronage In The Caribbean, E. Kofi Agorsah

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the Maroons escaped from enslavement into unknown and inaccessible environments, they relied on their mental maps developed through sequential exploration of those environments to establish and defend their settlements. Initially they would take advantage of the knowledge of the areas surrounding the plantations from which they escaped, explore them thoroughly and then, at the appropriate time, link their escape routes and locations to those mental maps that they had acquired. That knowledge would have helped them to develop networks of familiar pathways and landmarks along, and around which, they arranged their settlements. This paper suggests that knowledge of such …

The Peace And Security Council Of The African Union: The Known Unknowns, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

The protocol establishing the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AUPSC Protocol) will likely come into force in 2004 and will serve as the continent's first continent-wide, regional, collective security system. This article examines how African states chose to evolve the African Union regional collective security system. Particular attention is devoted to the concept of conflict management through military intervention in the AUPSC Protocol and relevant constitutive acts of African regional organizations. The first section analyzes key provisions of the Protocol. The second section contemplates the impact of the Protocol once it enters into force and the main …

Feathers And Hair, Farideh Dayanim Goldin

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Plucking chickens the kosher way is quite an art. According to the laws of kashrut) a chicken should not be cooked or even brought close to a source of heat until it is kashered-bled, salted, and rinsed. The use of fire to sear feathers or hot water to loosen quills is absolutely forbidden. Poultry processors today use the force of air to pluck feathers for kosher markets; but when I lived in Iran, during the '60s and '70s, this job had to be done manually.

Political Leadership And The Quest For Unity And Development In Africa, Thierno Thiam

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Ethnic Federalism: Its Promise And Pitfalls For Africa, Alemante G. Selassie

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Self-Sufficiency Ecological Stress And Rural Poverty In Kibwezi Division Kenya, James Fitzsimmons

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Trends. The Paradise Hotel Bombing: Trouble In Judicial Paradise, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discussed the bombing of the Kenyan Hotel Paradise in November 2002, and the detention of suspects.

L'Incipit Dans L'Œuvre D'Ahmadou Kourouma, Sélom Komlan Gbanou

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The literary work can develop an internal identity as a particular mark. Several African writers incorporate into their novels indications of culture that derive from verbal arts. This method gives to the writing a particular aesthetic in between two cultures, creating in the writing an individuality of certain writers such as Ahmadou Kourouma. For him the question is not only to distort the French language to express his Malinke identity, but also to develop a method of incipit that belongs to verbal art.

L'Enfance Échouée Comme Source De Drame Dans En Attendant Le Vote Des Betes Sauvages, Kasongo M. Kapanga

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

En attendant le vote des betes sauvages can be read as a discursive analysis of the problematic of the ruling class identity. In reality, who are the African rulers whose poor governance has pushed the continent to the brink of bankruptcy? Everything can be traced back to that childhood which, in the case of this elite, has resulted in paralysis. Analysis uncovers failed childhood immobilized in an ideology of servitude.

Jeux De Miroirs : Kourouma L'Interprete?, Justin K. Bisanswa

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Critics have often tended to show how Ahmadou Kourouma has expressed the disillusionment of the African "suns of the independences," ''tropicalized" the French language by bending its syntax to fit that of Malinke, and produced novels for "occidental importation" on the basis of oral texts. From a standpoint of sociopragmatics, in contradistinction, I would like to detail the internal specificity of Kourouma's fictional text by its means of production by analyzing it with respect to its cycle of production in terms of strategies, the writer's itinerary, its placement at the center of the literary field, etc. In addition, I will …

Créativité Esthétique Et Enrichissement Du Français Dans La Prose Romanesque D'Ahmadou Kourouma, Gerard Marie Noumssi, Rodolphine Sylvie Wamba

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

It becomes clear that Ahmadou Kourouma's literary work is marked by the predominance of authentically African techniques of expression (semantax). With this in mind, the present study tries to analyse its linguistic manifestations as techniques of aesthetic creativity and of the enrichment of the French language through the writing of novels. This is why we have serialized and described the expressive neologies in the corpus of our study while pointing out their stylistic effects: the Negro-African imagery. Still in the same perspective the strategies identified and analyzed help to illustrate a narrative polyphony resulting from highly oralized contexts with the …

L'Espace Scriptural Chez Kourouma Ou La Tragicomédie Du Roman, Jean Ouédraogo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Ahmadou Koruouma's fiction transcends the traditional limits of the novelistic genre. This explains, in part, the irritation of both the French and the African establishments following the appearance of his first novel, Les soleils des independances, in which both writing and language enhance the subversive effect. The banning and subsequent disappearance of Kourouma's play, Tougnatigui ou le Diseur de verite and the dramatic adaptations of his first two novels call for an appreciation of his entire work from a dramaturgical perspective. In this study, we shall analyse the constitutive elements of the intergeneric qualities underlying Kourouma's writing. To this end, …