African Studies Commons^™

Nelson Chamisa V Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa And Others Ccz 42/18 (August 2018), O'Brien Kaaba

SAIPAR Case Review

Zimbabwe held its first post-Mugabe general elections on 30th July 2018. On 3rd August 2018, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) declared Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa as the candidate who received the requisite ‘more than half the number of votes cast’ and declared duly elected President of Zimbabwe. Aggrieved by this development, Nelson Chamisa, the main opposition contender, challenged the validity of the election of Mnangagwa in the Constitutional Court. After hearing the case, the Constitutional Court unanimously: 1) Dismissed the application with costs; and 2) Declared Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa as duly elected President of Zimbabwe.

How Black Lives Matter Has Influenced And Interacted With Global Social Movements, Arelle A. Binning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a chapter-based and member-led organization created out of grief by three queer black women. This thesis examines the international impact of BLM. I conducted telephone interviews with activists and advocacy organizations who have organized activist networks and/or won struggles against institutional racism outside of the United States. These activists are located in Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Australia, India, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Paris. I conclude that BLM has inspired the creation and supported the continued development of organizations advocating for national and transnational social and racial justice on a global scale. BLM in spite …

The Effect Of Foreign Aid On Political Violence: Learning From Case Studies Of Nigeria And Sierra Leone, Charlotte Rohrer

Politics Honors Papers

Policymakers in OECD countries regularly cite reducing political violence as a fundamental purpose of foreign aid. For example, countries such as Pakistan and Iraq have received considerable amounts of aid meant to address the root causes of political violence. This project analyzes quantitative and qualitative evidence to assess whether foreign aid can reduce political violence. The quantitative and qualitative analyses study Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone to focus on regional and country-wide political violence. The study further focuses on aid projects in Sierra Leone and Nigeria as a means to reduce or curb …

Exalted And Debased: Psychological/Sexual Conflict As Bildungsroman In Half Of A Yellow Sun, Anne Lance

Scholars Week

While many still view the Bildungsroman, novels of formation or coming of age stories, as the purview of stuffy formation novels like Dickens’ Great Expectations or Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, there is significant scholarship that suggests a recent revolution in the genre that centers women, people of color, and males in post-colonial or war-torn spaces.

My paper examines Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2006 novel Half of a Yellow Sun as an example of a Bildungsroman through the focalization of one of the main characters, Ugwu, as he endures two psychologically conflicting sexual experiences, one …

Palatable Shades Of Gender: Status Processes At The Intersections Of Race, Gender, And Team Formation, Jasmón L. Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the importance of studying how race and gender influence partner selection processes of team formation. Stratified social systems influence the choice and decision-making behaviors that shape group and team formation (Hechter 1978). By testing Skvoretz’s and Bailey’s (2016) formal theory of team formation choice processes derived from expectation states theory, the dissertation aims to understand how race and gender influence a person’s choice and decision-making with respect to forming a group of problem-solving teammates. Through a quasi-experimental research design, subjects participate in simulated interactive environments in which they can select and personalize self-represented avatars and then choose …

Inked Bodies, Blank Pages; A Study Of Amazigh Tattooing, Hannah Mesouani

Theses and Dissertations

The tradition of Moroccan Amazigh tattooing reflects the values and lived experiences of the communities that partake in this sacred practice. Adorning their fellow women with symbols of protection, tribe alliances and fertility, Amazigh women display their core values on face and body that come to represent their community. The power of these images and the women that wear them have stood the test of time, even in a newly male-dominated, Islamic Morocco that frowns upon body modification and promotes a nationalism that leaves little room for Amazigh tradition. In a corner of the world where literacy rates are low, …

Climate Services Can Support African Farmers' Context-Specific Adaptation Needs At Scale, James Hansen, Catherine Vaughan, Desire Kagabo, Tufa Dinku, Edward Carr, Jana Körner, Robert Zougmoré

Sustainability and Social Justice

We consider the question of what is needed for climate services to support sub-Saharan African farmers' adaptation needs at the scale of the climate challenge. Consistent with an earlier assessment that mutually reinforcing supply-side and demand-side capacity constraints impede the development of effective climate services in Africa, our discussion of strategies for scaling up practices that meet farmers' needs, and opportunities to address long-standing obstacles, is organized around: (a) meeting farmers' climate information needs; (b) supporting access, understanding and use; and (c) co-production of services. A widespread gap between available information and farmers' needs is associated with entrenched seasonal forecast …

Amjambo Africa! (April 2019), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Editorial: Migration ................Page 3

Senegalese Storytelling .......Page 12

Reintegration Of Women Perpetrators In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Terrie Soule

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Women tend to be victims during times of violence. Due to this the breadth of research on women who perpetrate violence is limited. Due to stereotypes women are more often than not seen as peace makers and nurturers, which ignores the fact that women have just as much capability as men to inflict violence. During the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, average citizens, including women, became perpetrators of genocide. As this genocide only occurred in 1994 research on the reintegration of perpetrators is limited. This paper asks the question how are women perpetrators of Genocide being reintegrated into society? …

Evaluating The Impact Of Feed Supplementation On Productive And Reproductive Efficiency In Smallholder Dairy Cattle In Arusha, Tanzania, Hayley Hall

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study was performed to determine if supplementing concentrates and/or minerals significantly affect productive and reproductive efficiency in smallholder dairy cattle in Arusha, Tanzania. The goal was to estimate the necessity and effectiveness of supplementing a forage diet on production and reproduction. Data was collected through interviews of small scale dairy cattle owners in nine regions within and around Arusha. Productive efficiency was measured by milk yield per cow per day. Reproductive efficiency was evaluated by the amount of time to heat resumption after calving and reproductive disease status. This was studied because determining the factors that improve the efficiency …

Empowering Women Through Land: An Analysis Of The Barriers In Accessing Land Rights Within Kisumu County, Kenya, Madison Shaffer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project aims to gain a greater understanding of the current state of women’s land rights in Kisumu County, Kenya. It will discuss current barriers women face in accessing land and how land can impact a woman’s empowerment and in turn, her control over her health. Property rights can provide women with a secure place to live, a place of economic activity and reduce dependence on men. Property ownership can also serve to empower women and “give them greater bargaining power at the household, individual, and community level...increasing agency” (Dworkin,2009). Unfortunately, men have almost always been favored in land rights …

Divorce Experiences: What The 2004 Moudawana Does And Does Not Do For Women In Morocco, Beatrice March

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In 2004, the parliament amended the original Moudawana, or Family Code, from 1958. Among the changes, they altered the laws regarding divorce. The 2004 Moudawana included new provisions for women to obtain divorces in an attempt to create more progressive and equitable laws. The process of divorce, however, is still unequal for men and women. Despite women’s social conditions improving under the 2004 Moudawana, discrimination against women within the Moroccan legal system continues to prevent women from accessing their rights. A complex legal system and general lack of knowledge about the law create an overwhelming experience for women who do …

Humanitarian Assistance In Protracted Emergencies: Rethinking The Role Of Food Aid In Adjumani, Victoria Puglia

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Humanitarian food assistance is incredibly susceptible to funding cuts, which reduces the quantity of food available to refugees. If refugees depend solely on food aid for survival, the implication of reductions is increased food insecurity at a household level. The Government of Uganda champions a self-reliance strategy that has failed to support refugees to the desired extent, especially when food rations are low. This study aims to assess the impact of humanitarian food assistance on the socioeconomic structures of refugee settlements in Adjumani, Uganda to understand the consequences of unstable food aid. The research was conducted over a four-week period. …

Post-Colonial Restructuring Of Human Rights Systems In Morocco, Kristen Hansen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

A surge of academic criticism has followed the NGO corporatization trend (‘NGOization’) of the 1980s. NGOs have been called an extension of neoliberal ideology as they are pressured to depoliticize and corporatize their structures. NGOs have been forced to fit into an international schema of aid work that compromises their ability to bring about impactful change within their own communities. This trend has been cultivated by shrinking neoliberal governments and an intensified reliance on NGOs to fulfill international human rights requirements. This project examines the role of Rabat women’s rights organizations within the context of Morocco as a neoliberal state …

"Root Causes Not Symptoms": Sustainable Organizational Structures, Réseau De Lutte Contre La Faim: The Decision-Making Process In Combatting Systemic Issues, Ambar Deleon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper attempts to understand the basis for how an organization structures itself and their vision. This research draws its focus to the civil society sector in Cameroon, particularly looking at Reseau de Lutte Contre la Faim (RELUFA) and their organizational structure in the battling against systemic issues. The main research question for this study looked at how RELUFA reflects and monitors its performance to keep the organization sustainable in the long-term. For this research the methodology included interviews, observations and secondary resources along with tertiary resources that offered the context for the analytical part of this research. The interviews …

Mind Over (What Doesn’T) Matter: De-Stigmatizing Mental Health From Senegalese Women’S Perspectives, Jenna Marks

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As a matrilocal and collectivist society, Dakar is an urban space where the woman is at the center. With this in mind, it is possible to understand all the pressures women in urban Senegalese society face. Women are the center of the household, thus being responsible for the family, finances, and the social aspect of welcoming visitors. In addition to these factors, women in Senegal also deal with community expectations and responsibilities since there is larger emphasis on the community, rather than the nuclear family in Senegalese society. This paper examines how these two aspects of Senegalese society (matrilocality and …

"It Is Our Own Thing": The Expression Of And Limits To Enculturation At St. Joseph's Anglophone Parish, Kayleigh Kaminski

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Down a small side street in the heart of Yaoundé, Cameroon, St. Joseph’s Anglophone Parish houses worshippers from the Northwest and Southwest regions of the country. Its members bring their cultural traditions to the church in the process of enculturation, and mass is filled with clergy-sanctioned elements of traditional culture, but beyond its walls, people still carry out the traditional practices that are deemed as “non-Christian” by the Church. This study seeks to examine the ways that traditional culture manifests itself both inside and outside St. Joseph’s Anglophone Parish, exploring the ways in which tradition is translated in the church …

Couvrant Les Yeux, Les Oreilles Et La Bouche: How The Musée Royale De Batoufam Preserves Tradition And Culture For Multiple Audiences And Perspectives, Julia Hirsch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Museums are important to study as a way of representing, preserving, and teaching culture. In this study, I wanted to explore how James Clifford’s exhibitionary complex, about the interactions of the viewer, the museum, and the represented culture, applies in the unique case of Musée Royale de Batoufam, a living site museum full of art and rich with tradition. In studying this, I examined the way different audiences use the museum and how the museum can preserve the idea of the coexistence of modernity and tradition, which is integral to Batoufam life, for all audiences. In conducting 20 interviews with …

Like Mother, Like Daughter: The Intergenerational Link Between Mother Activists And Their Daughters In Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, Shana Kleiner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The concept of motherhood is often paired with notions of nurturing and caretaking, but it is rarely seen in the context of activism or social and political change. Thus, by researching the relationship between mother activists and their daughters, this paper delves into the concepts of how motherhood is perceived through a feminist lens, and what it means to be a mother while also performing duties as an activist. The research tackles the questions of whether daughters of mother activists become activists themselves, and how they were affected by their mother’s activism during adolescence, if at all.

A narrative approach …

Understanding Civil Rights In A Democratic South Africa: A Case Study Of Students At Ukzn, Ella Shlonsky

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examines the extent to which the principles and values of human dignity and non-discrimination laid out in the South African Bill of Rights resonate with South African university students. The objective is to understand how university students value or do not value these constitutional principles and how they see these principles being implemented in South African society. I examine both students’ personal views and how they see human rights, human dignity and non-discrimination playing out on campus and their communities. I conducted seven one-on-one semi-structured interviews with university students at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. …