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African Nations (african + nation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	60%

Selected Abstracts

Public Spaces for National Commemoration: The Case of Emlotheni Memorial, Port Elizabeth

ANTHROPOLOGY & HUMANISM, Issue 1 2003
Birthe Rytter Hansen
This article examines how commemorative projects try to deal with the past in the present in order to make possible the imagination of a united South African nation. It looks at how one commemorative site, Emlotheni Memorial, was intended to act as part of the larger nation-building project in South Africa. Taking up issues of ancestral belief, social space, and recognition, this article examines how residents experienced the memorial as exclusive rather than inclusive. The article argues that the memorial site, rather than providing an opportunity for local residents and other South Africans to participate in building a shared history and identity, instead ended up reproducing the segregated past of South Africa. [source]

Front and Back Covers, Volume 26, Number 3.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 3 2010
June 2010
Front cover caption, volume 26 issue 3 Front cover A Greenpeace activist dressed as Justice protests in front of the Japanese embassy in Buenos Aires. She draws attention to the trial of Toru Suzuki and Junichi Sato, two Greenpeace activists seeking to expose corruption in the Japanese whale meat industry, who are being prosecuted in the Japanese courts for theft and trespass, in a trial that has continued since 2008. Back in 1993, Arne Kalland analyzed the notable success of the Western environmental movement, Greenpeace in particular, in mobilizing public opinion against continued whaling in the northern hemisphere. The key to this success, Kalland argued, lay in the environmentalists' construction of the ,superwhale', an imaginary, mythic creation which displayed numerous positive qualities with which people could closely identify. Environmentalist thinking has now become intertwined with the discourse of animal rights, including the claim that whales are special to the extent that they are entitled to legal rights on a somewhat similar basis to human beings. In this image, the script on the dress, the Japanese emblem of the rising sun, the blindfold and the scales of justice unbalanced by Japanese-caught whale meat all work to signify that the Japanese are entirely out of step with such progressive ideas. In this issue, Adrian Peace argues that the conflicting attitudes of Japan and Australia to whales and on the practice of whaling stem from diverging cultural and historical factors , the most basic among which is that, whilst Australians construe whales as awesome mammals, the Japanese perceive them as mere fish. Back cover FOOTBALL IN AFRICA On 11 June 2010, all eyes will turn to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the start of the 19th FIFA World Cup. The month-long tournament is one of the world's biggest sporting events, and this year will involve 32 teams from all over the world, attracting a worldwide audience of over 3 billion people and involving commercial agreements worth more than US $21 billion. Significantly, this is also the first time the competition has been held on the African continent. On the eve of the tournament, Richard Vokes reflects on the history and meaning of ,the beautiful game' in Africa, on the basis of a case study from southwestern Uganda. Football was introduced to Uganda by early European missionaries, and later gained in popularity as a result of the patronage it received from first colonial, and later post-colonial, state enterprises. However, the game's current mass appeal is a more recent phenomenon, due in large part to the media reforms introduced in Uganda after 1986, and the advent of satellite broadcasting technology. Vokes examines the nature of this new fandom, and of the media environments which have generated it. He argues that whilst certain features of the current craze , in particular, its peculiar fascination for specifically English football , can be seen as an outcome of spectatorship, this does not mean that the phenomenon is superficial. On the contrary, the new interest in football in Uganda has frequently produced unexpected, and in some ways quite profound, social effects. In his editorial Keith Hart uses the occasion of the World Cup to reflect on South Africa's significance for the world, as both the most developed African nation and the chief victim of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. [source]

The Elephant in the Corner?

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2010
Reviewing India-Africa Relations in the New Millennium
As countries of the ,global South' seek to challenge existing uneven architectures of economic, political and institutional power, now under different circumstances to those prevailing during the Cold War, relations between African countries and various ,Rising Powers' have drawn a great deal of academic and public attention. This scrutiny has been heavily tilted towards analysis of China's African activities. This paper aims to partially redress this balance with an introductory review of India's contemporary relations with sub-Saharan Africa. A number of analysts suggest that in the longer term, India may well achieve a more prosperous and stable economy than China, while in the shorter term, its economic and political profile may result in a more productive relationship for many different African countries, sectors and constituencies. But India will also bring its own challenges in its African commercial interactions, bilateral relations and through its part in shaping the multilateral polity and global economy. This paper therefore aims to critically review contemporary India-Africa relations on four broad thematic points. 1Changing geographies of Indo-African relations; 2Trade and foreign direct investment; 3Development cooperation; and 4Geopolitics and diplomacy. India's confidence as a global political and economic actor is apparent in its African diplomacy and economic engagements, but claims to exceptionalism (relative both to Chinese and Western actors) in such relations are not as self-evident as some have asserted. Whether recent shifts in relations between African nations and India will work in the interests of less privileged citizens, workers and consumers in Africa and in India also remain unclear. [source]

The decline of a regional fishing nation: The case of Ghana and West Africa

NATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 1 2004
John Atta-Mills
Abstract Inadequate trade policies, globalization of the fishing industry, dominance of Europe's distant water fleets, declarations of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) by neighbouring West African nations, overfishing and a lack of good governance contributed to the decline of Ghana as a regional fishing nation, a position it had held since the 18th century. The prohibitive cost of access arrangements limited Ghana's access to distant waters. The country's marine environments have been impacted by overexploitation of stocks and the use of destructive methods. Subsistence fishing has become the sole means of survival for many fishers. The decline of the fishing sector has limited the country's ability to meet domestic demand and threatened the economic and food security of many Ghanaians. The article traces the early history of Ghana's fisheries, their gradual decline during the last four decades, and outlines recommendations for policy changes to address the situation and steer the nation on a course towards sustainable fisheries. [source]

Effectiveness of an oral health education programme in primary schools in Zimbabwe after 3.5 years

COMMUNITY DENTISTRY AND ORAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 4 2001
Jo E. Frencken
Abstract , Many medical and dental professionals in African nations believe that school teachers, through attendance of a short workshop, can be trained to provide oral health education. This increases the number of professionals available and is regarded as an important way forward in improving oral health. Objectives: The current study assesses the effectiveness of an oral health education programme administered by schoolteachers in a district in Zimbabwe over a period of 3.5 years. Methods: The experimental group consisted of schools that had sent representatives to a regional workshop on oral health held in 1992. The control group was selected at random from schools not having attended the workshop. A total number of 439 boys and 526 girls were examined in 1992. Follow-up evaluations were carried out in 1993, 1994 and 1996. The dependent variables were plaque accumulation and caries increment in grade 2 and grade 4 children of experimental and control schools. Results: ANOVA test with year of evaluation (1992,94), experiment/control school, age and gender as independent variables showed no statistically significant difference in mean plaque scores in longitudinally examined original grade 2 (P>0.20) and grade 4 children (P=0.06) from experimental and control schools. The mean caries increment score in the experimental and control schools was 0.04 and 0.19, respectively. ANOVA test with fluoride levels and gender as independent variables on caries increment in experimental and control schools did not show a statistically significant difference (P=0.06). Conclusion: The one-time training of teachers in aspects of oral health was ineffective in lowering plaque levels over a period of 3.5 years. Considering the low caries increment observed over the study period, the effect of the oral health programme on caries levels in the study group was inconclusive. [source]