African Studies Commons^™

Strategies For Reducing Microfinance Loan Default In Low-Income Markets, Patrick Mphaka

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Poor loan repayment causes the decline and failure of some microfinance institutions. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that microfinance (MFI) leaders use to reduce loan default in the base of the pyramid market. The study population included 6 MFI leaders, 12 borrower community-based groups, and 4 staff members of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA Rwanda) who reduced MFI loan default in Rwanda. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 3 MFI leaders, 3 ADRA Rwanda staff members, and 3 members of borrower groups. Data were also collected through focus groups with …

Strategies For Preventing And Mitigating The Effects Of Agro-Food Supply Chain Disruptions, Everjoyce Muzvondiwa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Supply chain disruptions are detrimental to the performance of companies due to the associated loss of profitability and reduced sustainability. In 2016, organizations lost at least $1.2 million in a single supply chain disruption. Guided by the contingency theory of fit, the purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to explore the strategies agribusiness managers use to prevent and mitigate the effects of disruptions in the agro-food supply chains. A total of 5 purposefully-selected agribusiness managers from Harare, Zimbabwe participated in semistructured interviews. Participants were senior agribusiness managers who implemented successful strategies for preventing and mitigating the effects of …

The Role Of Ngos As Intermediaries: Negotiating The Space Between Donors And Community Members, Mara Horn

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

South Africa is considered one of the most unequal countries in the world, even after the fall of the apartheid government in 1994. In order to address the disparities present within the country and the inability of the government to meet the needs of the disadvantaged, NGOs emerged as a possible solution and development alternative. This study aims to understand how NGOs currently operating in Durban, South Africa negotiate their role as intermediaries between donors and community members. Focusing on the perspectives of experts who work for justice-oriented NGOs, each participant’s understanding of their organization’s intermediary position is explored: what …

Spiritual Journeys: A Study Of Ifá /Òrìṣà Practitioners In The United States Initiated In Nigeria, Tony Van Der Meer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to understand the culture of one of the newest branches of traditional Yorùbá Ifá/Òrìṣà practice in the United States from practitioners born in the United States that were initiated in Nigeria, West Africa.The epistemology of the Ifá/Òrìṣà belief system in the United States has been based on the history and influence of Regla de Ocha or Santeria that developed out of Cuban innovation and practice.This is an ethnographic and auto-ethnographic study that pulls from participant observation, field notes, interviews, and photos as data.The central question of this dissertation is what are the challenges and …

Back To Africa In The 21st Century: The Cultural Reconnection Experiences Of African American Women, Marcia Tate Arunga

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the lived experiences of 18 African American women who went to Kenya, East Africa as part of a Cultural Reconnection delegation. A qualitative narrative inquiry method was used for data collection. This was an optimal approach to honoring the authentic voices of African American women. Eighteen African American women shared their stories, revelations, feelings and thoughts on reconnecting in their ancestral homeland of Africa. The literature discussed includes diasporic returns as a subject of study, barriers to the return including the causes of historic trauma, and how Black women as culture bearers …

From Brain Drain To Brain Train – A Transnational Case Analysis Of Nigerian Migrant Health Care Workers, Sheri Adekola

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study involves a micro-analysis of the experience of Nigerian-trained health professionals in Canada and is designed to understand the experiences of these skilled migrants, the impact of their migration, and how further migration might be stimulated or reduced through engagement in transnational activities with workers still in Nigeria. The research questions asked, (a) Which discourses of skill exchange are most meaningful to Nigerian health care workers in Canada? (b) How is this process of value exchange and extraction structured by transnational connectivity? (c) How does this research contribute to current concepts regarding skilled migration?

Framed by the Integrative Model …

Can Sub-Saharan Africa Feed Itself?, Martin K. Van Ittersum, Lenny G. J. Van Bussel, Joost Wolf, Patricio Grassini, Justin Van Wart, Nicolas Guilpart, Lieven Claessens, Hugo De Groot, Keith Wiebe, Daniel Mason-D'Croz, Haishun Yang, Hendrik Boogard, Pepijn A. J. Van Oort, Marloes P. Van Loon, Kazuki Saito, Ochieng Adimo, Samuel Adjei-Nsiah, Alhassane Agali, Abdullahi Bala, Regis Chikowo, Kayuki Kaizzi, Mamoutou Kouressy, Joachim H. J. R. Makoi, Korodjouma Ouattara, Kindie Tesfaye, Kenneth G. Cassman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Although global food demand is expected to increase 60% by 2050 compared with 2005/2007, the rise will be much greater in sub- Saharan Africa (SSA). Indeed, SSA is the region at greatest food security risk because by 2050 its population will increase 2.5-fold and demand for cereals approximately triple, whereas current levels of cereal consumption already depend on substantial imports. At issue is whether SSA can meet this vast increase in cereal demand without greater reliance on cereal imports or major expansion of agricultural area and associated biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. Recent studies indicate that the global increase …

Economic Integration: Formation Of The Economic Organization Of West African States, A Customs Union And Free Trade Area For Regional Development, Andrew H. Ernst

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Manufacturing Consent In The Maghreb: How Mohammed Vi Of Morocco Survived The Arab Spring, David Michael Duke Ii

Dissertations and Theses

The Arab Spring of 2011 revealed stark variation in the durability of different types of authoritarian regimes. Kings and emirs demonstrably outperformed their republican peers. This paper provides a qualitative study of the Moroccan monarchy in order to better explain this pattern. The findings of an original media content analysis support the paper's thesis that Morocco's King Mohammed VI maintained his throne by effectively using a historically derived position of concentrated power and immense wealth to manipulate potential opposition and dominate public discourse. This multi-causal mechanism of manufactured consent helped create and sustain the monarch's domestic legitimacy while alienating his …

Takun J Fought The Gbagba, Zach E J Williams

Capstones

Liberia's most famous rapper has embarked on a quest to save democracy in Africa's oldest republic. This challenge faces Jonathan "Takun J" Koffa after a nine-year reign as the king of HiCo — a local form of Hip Hop music defined by the local patois. A local form of corruption called "Gbagba" makes for a formidable enemy, but Takun J has a plan to defeat it.

Link to capstone project: https://zachjournalism.com/2016/12/12/takun-j-fought-the-gbagba/

The Political Economy Of Conflict In Liberia, Sierra Leone, And Côte D'Ivoire: Foreign Economic Intervention And The Spatial Distribution Of Violent Conflict, Sarai-Anne N. Ikenze

Master's Theses

Between 1989 and 2011, the three neighboring West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire each experienced at least one major civil conflict; and the combined devastation of the conflicts claimed over a million lives, generated millions of refugees, and crippled infrastructure in ways that continue to impact the development of the sub-region today. The occurrence of conflict in the three countries and the fact that they share borders has raised questions about whether the conflicts were caused by domestic factors or were the result of transborder processes of conflict diffusion. This paper will assess the causes of …

The Role Of Liberian Community Organizations In The Integration Of Liberian Immigrants: A Case Study Of Immigrants In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Solomon M. Muin

Capstone Collection

Immigrants that settled in a dominant new culture face challenges during the process of acculturation. Though minority culture is always at the disadvantaged end of acculturation in most cases, most research done on acculturation in the West mostly focused on the impact of immigrants on their societies, or on ways of strengthening integration in the host countries. As this continues, the dominant culture role and importance of the majority culture is what influence most narratives and not much is seeing from the minority culture. Most research on acculturation in the United States, for example, placed more emphasis on the Hispanic …

African American Culture In Historical Art Museums: Remembering A Buried Tragic Past, Lana Sarkisian

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The transparency of reality reflecting in art often represents a false tragedy in African American history because of the lack of preservation and representation due to a predominantly white dominion, ultimately leaving the veracity of their history to consign to oblivion. There is a common thread of forgetfulness with the retrieval of art in today’s society that embodies the African American community. Although artist Fred Wilson does not explicitly assert his assessment to the lack of black representation on account of cultural differences, he vocalizes how African American culture is indoctrinated to the public in a white, supremacist national narrative …

Aiddata Gis International Fellowship: Ghana West-Africa, Jason N. Ready

Sustainability and Social Justice

My internship, or fellowship as it was commonly referred to, was funded by a non-profit organization out of Williamsburg Virginia called AidData. This fellowship took place in in the country of Ghana, West-Africa beginning in May of 2016 and continued for 14 weeks with 40 hours each week. The objective of this internship was to provide in-depth training on the use of geographic Information Systems to Private and Public sectors within the country to allow for increased efficiency, and transparency through data visualization. In accordance with the requirement of Clark Universities GISDE master’s program this paper will delve into the …

Portrait De L’Exclu Dans Le Lys Et Le Flamboyant D’Henri Lopes, Médard Bouazi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The author of Le lys et le flamboyant uses humor, metaphors and adjectives to represent a world in conflict, to show the impossible encounter of otherness (racial and cultural). Our contribution represents an attempt to show that this novel reflects a deep social distress, which is characterized by an environment where characters and speeches unfold a permanent contradiction. This text tries to account for the turmoil that marked the history of Africa through language as exploited by the novelist. Basically, the author makes an excluded character portrait.

Littérature Congolaise : Imaginaire Et Miroir De L’Urgence Sociale, Ngwarsungu Chiwengo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Congolese literature of urgency is the historical conscience which informs the conscience of history, a therapeutic medium which allows the reader to transcend national trauma and to articulate the future. As the foundation of the metadiscourse of Congolese realities, it is the counter-discourse of Western and national cultural domination, the erasure of the national voice, the traumatism of dictatorships, invasions, and political and social conflicts maintained. It therefore condemns theological, political domination and advocates for nationalism, the reconstruction of Congolese identity while affirming Congolese desire to auto-determine their future in a country where truth is extirpated from political euphemisms.

Quelle Modernité Congolaise ? Et Quelle(S) Modalité(S) Pour La Dire ?, Charles Djungu-Simba K

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This study examines literary production in DR Congo especially with regard to the short story genre. This is based on the work of a generation of young writers who conceive their engagement with a literary field still under the sway of their elders as an avenue for self-assertion in a declining society portrayed through characters that find it difficult to carve a place in the sun. Their works showcase uncommon possibilities of expression that harness the virtues of economy and authenticity, suggesting the traits of what Congolese modernity should not be, given that authors seem to be more concerned with …

« Nous Avons Besoin D’Ouvrir Le Pays » : Le Développement Et Le Scénario Clef Du Point De Vue Chrétien Dans L’Espace Social Des Séries Télévisées De Kinshasa, Katrien Pype

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article offers a discussion of “development” rhetoric as expressed in and around television drama in Kinshasa, capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Producers (artists and pastors of Awakening Churches; some individuals are both) contend that their work will transform society, will combat the social and political crisis and will contribute to the development of the nation. Pentecostal christians embrace the melodrama because these television serials emphasize the spiritual development of the individual. I argue that the fictive representation of witchcraft relates to the Pentecostal diagnosis of the crises, and that the narrative emplotment of the TV serials …

Fabulations Ou Imaginaires Vacillants : L’Écriture De Rakotoson Et Raharimanana Entre Histoire, Mémoire Et Urgence Du Social, Ute Fendler

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The two writers from Madagascar, Michèle Rakotoson and Jean-Luc Raharimanana, fill empty memorial spaces by writing texts that vary from autobiographical mode, via the historical one, up to some elements of oral tradition with the objective to create anticipatory texts. The article analyzes the entanglement of references to reality and to fiction drawing on the notion of “fabulation” by Deleuze and of “half-knowledge” by Flahaut.

Urgence Du Social Et Dimension Utopique Du Roman Africain. Une Lecture De Pacte De Sang De Pius Ngandu Nkashama, Kasereka Kavwahirehi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article shows how the urgency of the social in the francophone novel goes with a utopian dimension. It is suggested that if the African novel reveals the flaws and faults of the social and political body that the censorship attempts somehow to hide, if it has the power to dismantle the mechanism of violence, it also has the power to provide the vision of another possible world. Thus, the novel of disillusionment may be secretly the book of enchantment and utopia.