Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Southern African Region (southern + african_region)
Selected AbstractsAn overview of environmental issues in Southern AfricaAFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 2009Michael Bernard Kwesi Darkoh Abstract This paper provides an overview of some of the significant environmental problems in the Southern African region. The key problems highlighted are global warming and climate variability, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, desertification-land degradation, waste and littering, population growth, urbanization, pollution, poverty and health hazards. These problems present a challenge to governments and other players within and outside Southern Africa to seek for long-term solutions by addressing the root causes of these problems. The paper notes that although the environmental problems facing the Southern African region are being tackled at national, regional and international levels, there is more that can be done. At the national level, the different agencies and players, both within and outside government need to strengthen coordination and implementation of key interventions in different sectors in both rural and urban areas. At the African regional and international levels, there is a need to address geopolitical forces and issues that contribute to the underdevelopment of the African region. Among the major issues are poor terms of international trade, political instability, poverty, declining economic performance and international debt. [source] Associational links with home among Zimbabweans in the UK: reflections on long-distance nationalismsGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 2 2009JOANN MCGREGOR Abstract In this article, I provide an overview of the character of associations formed in Britain by Zimbabweans in the context of the mass exodus that gathered pace from the late 1990s. I discuss the politicization of the Zimbabwe diaspora, which infuses many aspects of associational life beyond specifically political organizations, and also emphasize the importance of Zimbabwean church fellowships. I offer an historical explanation for the strength of nationalism expressed in the diaspora and the absence of ,translocal' associations characteristic of other African diaspora groups, such as hometown associations, and explore reasons why burial societies, which have been centrally important for Zimbabwean migrants in other periods and contexts, are less prevalent in Britain. I build my argument on an historical discussion of continuities and changes in the associational forms characteristic of labour migrancy and urbanization within the southern African region. I emphasize the legacies of a strong segregationist settler state, the mobilizations and international solidarities of the protracted struggle for independence, the Christianization of elite African culture in Zimbabwe's cities, and the international politics of the recent multifaceted crisis. My discussion of the associational expression of ,long distance nationalisms' is based on interviews conducted in 2004,5, participation in diaspora meetings and events, and reading of diaspora media and websites. In the article I aim to highlight the specific social histories of association and the political context of diaspora formation, which are essential for understanding the nature of institutions connecting with home, and ideas about home itself. [source] Zoogeography of the southern African ascidian faunaJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 12 2004Carmen Primo Abstract Aim, To describe the biogeography of the ascidian fauna of southern Africa, to compare the results obtained with those reported for other fauna and flora of the same region, and to speculate about the origin of ascidians in the region. Location, Southern Africa extending over 4000 km from Mossâmedes (15° S,12° E) to Inhaca Island (26°30, S,33° E), including Vema Seamount (31°40, S,8 °20, E), Amsterdam-Saint Paul Islands (38° S,77°30, E) and the Tristan-Gough Islands (38° S,12°20, W). Methods, We constructed a presence/absence matrix of 168 species for 26 biogeographical divisions, 21 classical biogeographical regions described by Briggs (Marine zoogeography, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1974) and five provinces within the southern African region. We considered the following limits and divisions into provinces for the southern African region: Namibia, Namaqua, Agulhas and Natal as proposed by Branch et al. (Two oceans. A guide to the marine life of southern Africa, David Philip Publishers, 1994), and the West Wind Drift Islands province (WWD) according to Briggs (Global biogeography, Elsevier Health Sciences, Amsterdam, 1995). To examine the biogeographical structure, species and divisions were classified using cluster analysis (based on UPGMA as the aggregation algorithm) with the Bray,Curtis index of similarity. This classification was combined with MDS ordination. Main conclusions, Four main groups were obtained from the analysis of affinities among species: (1) species present in the WWD, separated by a high percentage of endemisms and a low number of species with a southern African distribution. Moreover, in the light of the species distribution and the results of further analysis, which revealed that they are completely separated and not at all related to the southern African region, it appears that there are no close relationships among the different islands and seamounts of the West Wind Drift Island province. This province was therefore removed from the remaining analyses; (2) species with a wide distribution; (3) species of colder waters present in Namaqua and Agulhas provinces, a transitional temperate area in which gradual mixing and replacement of species negate previous hypotheses on the existence of a marked distributional break at Cape of Good Hope; (4) species of warmer waters related to Natal province. The classification into biogeographical components was dominated by the endemic (47%), Indo-Pacific (25%) and cosmopolitan (13%) components. The analysis of affinities among biogeographical areas separated Namibia from the rest of the southern African provinces and showed that it was related to some extent to the Antarctic region because of the cold-temperate character of the province and the low sampling effort; Namaqua, Agulhas and Natal were grouped together and found to be closely related to the Indo-West Pacific region. In general, our results were consistent with those obtained for other southern African marine invertebrates. The frequency distribution of solitary/colonial strategies among provinces confirmed the domination of colonial organisms in tropical regions and solitary organisms in colder regions. Finally, we speculate that the southern African ascidian fauna mainly comprises Indo-Pacific, Antarctic and eastern Atlantic ascidians. [source] A conservation assessment of the freshwater crabs of southern Africa (Brachyura: Potamonautidae)AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Neil Cumberlidge Abstract Recent taxonomic revisions of the freshwater crabs of southern Africa (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe) allow accurate depictions of their diversity, distribution patterns and conservation status. The southern African region is home to nineteen species of freshwater crabs all belonging to the genus Potamonautes (family Potamonautidae). These crabs show high levels of species endemism (84%) to the southern African region and to the country of South Africa (74%). The conservation status of each species is assessed using the IUCN (2003) Red List criteria, based on detailed compilations of the majority of known specimens. The results indicate that one species should be considered vulnerable, fifteen species least concern and three species data deficient. The results have been utilized by the IUCN for Red Lists, and may prove useful when developing a conservation strategy for southern Africa's endemic freshwater crab fauna. Résumé De récentes révisions de la taxonomie des crabes d'eau douce d'Afrique australe (Afrique du Sud, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibie, Swaziland, Zambie et Zimbabwe) permettent des descriptions précises de leur diversité, de leur schéma de distribution et de leur statut de conservation. L'Afrique australe accueille 19 espèces de crabes d'eau douce qui appartiennent toutes au genre Potamonautes (famille des Potamonautidae). Ces crabes présentent un degréélevé d'endémisme spécifique (84%) pour la région de l'Afrique australe et pour l'Afrique du Sud elle-même (74%). Le statut de conservation de chaque espèce est évalué selon les critères de la Liste rouge de l'UICN (2003), en se basant sur des compilations détaillées de la majorité des spécimens connus. Les résultats montrent qu'une des espèces devrait être considérée comme «vulnérable», 15 autres comme «préoccupation mineure» et trois n'ont que des «données insuffisantes». Les résultats ont été utilisés par l'UICN pour la Liste rouge et peuvent s'avérer utiles pour le développement d'une stratégie de conservation pour la faune des crabes d'eau douce endémiques d'Afrique australe. [source] Martial Law and Military Power in the Construction of the South African State: Jan Smuts and the "Solid Guarantee of Force" 1899,1924JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009JONATHAN HYSLOP This paper seeks to provide a new approach to analysing the crucial period of the building of the South African state between the Boer War and 1924. Drawing on the sociology of Michael Mann, it argues that the construction of networks of military power was of central and partly autonomous importance in giving shape to the new state. It goes on to contend that this generated a legal order which was in many ways shaped by practices which derived from martial law. The paper also asserts that these questions of military power and martial law need to be analysed within a framework which does not limit itself to the boundaries of the South African state itself, but is placed within the wider context of the British Empire and the southern African region. A biographical exploration the role of Jan Smuts as the key leader is used to focus the paper's study of this process of state-making. [source] Geographic distribution and frequency of a taurine Bos taurus and an indicine Bos indicus Y specific allele amongst sub-Saharan African cattle breedsMOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2000O. Hanotte Abstract We report for the first time, and for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, the geographical distribution and the frequency of an indicine and a taurine Y specific allele amongst African cattle breeds. A total of 984 males from 69 indigenous African populations from 22 countries were analysed at the microsatellite locus INRA 124. The taurine allele is probably the oldest one on the continent. However, the taurine and the indicine alleles were present in 291 males (30%), and 693 males (70%), respectively. More particularly, 96% of zebu males (n = 470), 50% of taurine males (n = 263), 29% of sanga males (crossbreed Bos taurus × Bos indicus, n = 263) and 95% of zebu × sanga crossbred males (n = 56) had the indicine allele. The Borgou, a breed classified as zebu × taurine cross showed only the zebu allele (n = 12). The indicine allele dominates today in the Abyssinian region, a large part of the Lake Victoria region and the sahelian belt of West Africa. All the sanga males (n = 64) but only one from the Abyssinian region had the indicine allele. The taurine allele is the commonest only among the sanga breeds of the southern African region and the trypanotolerant taurine breeds of West Africa. In West Africa and in the southern Africa regions, zones of introgression were detected with breeds showing both Y chromosome alleles. Our data also reveal a pattern of male zebu introgression in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, probably originating from the Mozambique coast. The sanga cattle from the Lake Victoria region and the Kuri cattle of Lake Chad, cattle populations surrounded by zebu breeds were, surprisingly, completely devoid of the indicine allele. Human migration, phenotypic preferences by the pastoralists, adaptation to specific habitats and to specific diseases are the main factors explaining the present-day distribution of the alleles in sub-Saharan Africa. [source] | |||||||||||||