The Bantustans in South Africa during the Apartheid era engaged in the extension of their territories, as this entailed increased revenue from the Apartheid regime. The latter aimed to concentrate African populations within these Bantustans, which effectively divided them into ‘ethnic’ groups. The Bantustan project, orchestrated by the regime, sought to implement a ‘divide-and-rule’ strategy. The regime was acutely aware that if the African population were to unite, they could pose significant political and security threats; consequently, it was imperative to maintain divisions through the establishment of ‘ethnically’ segregated Bantustans. This study interrogates how the regime enticed Bantustan leaders with territorial extensions to enforce the pseudo-independence and freedom of Africans within these ethnic enclaves, which received financial backing from the regime. As demonstrated in this study, liberation movements accused Bantustan leaders of collaborating with the regime, thereby branding them as ‘stooges’ of the latter. The Bantustan leaders were neither mere dupes nor entirely independent actors; rather, they were constrained to operate within the politically violent confines of the Apartheid system. Their apprehension towards acting against the regime was driven by self-interest. However, by demanding and accepting territorial extensions, they intensified their subordination to the regime. Utilising primary sources alongside secondary interpretations regarding the Bantustans, this study examines the advantages and disadvantages of territorial extensions. It becomes evident that such collaboration undermined the unity of the African populace in their struggle against Apartheid. This study critiques the management of territorial extensions by both the regime and the Bantustan leaders, focusing specifically on the relationships fostered by these extensions, particularly in relation to the TBVC states.
History (General) and history of Europe, History of Civilization
This article questions the role of philanthropic organisations within the predominant corporate agro-food regime in Egypt, which is promoted as a preferred model of development. From which economic and elite networks do these organisations emerge? How does the production of philanthropic food goods engage chains of relationships between state institutions, security entities, agro-industrial companies, and financial actors? Through the cases of the Egyptian Food Bank and the Misr El Kheir Foundation, the article shows how philanthropic practices contribute to the processes of production and accumulation characterising this corporate regime, and participate in its reconfigurations within the post-2014 power structure. In particular, we hypothesise the formation of philanthrocapitalist monopolistic empires, serving the increasing influence of the military, Gulf investors, and presidential control.
This article studies the Islamic State's only remaining periodical, Al-Naba, identifying the most common tropes and patterns in the periodical's Sub-Saharan Africa coverage, and on Mozambique in particular. The Islamic State's increasingly important coverage of Africa focuses on terror attacks, military campaigns and on the fight against Christianity. However, it also employs more traditional anti-colonial arguments that have been used by other, more accepted, political actors during the struggle for decolonisation. Al-Naba also functions as a 'shamer' of non-African Muslims, to get them to join jihad by pointing to the African successes of the organisation and set these successes up as examples to be followed. In this sense, the article illustrates how African jihadist branches can have global agency.
J. Flowers, K. Hazzouri, M. Gros‐Balthazard
et al.
Significance Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is one of the oldest tree crop species in the world and is a major fruit crop of arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa. We use whole-genome sequence data from a large sample of P. dactylifera and its wild relatives to show that hybridization between date palms and Phoenix theophrasti Grueter—a species endemic to the Eastern Mediterranean—is associated with the diversification of date palm. Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a major fruit crop of arid regions that were domesticated ∼7,000 y ago in the Near or Middle East. This species is cultivated widely in the Middle East and North Africa, and previous population genetic studies have shown genetic differentiation between these regions. We investigated the evolutionary history of P. dactylifera and its wild relatives by resequencing the genomes of date palm varieties and five of its closest relatives. Our results indicate that the North African population has mixed ancestry with components from Middle Eastern P. dactylifera and Phoenix theophrasti, a wild relative endemic to the Eastern Mediterranean. Introgressive hybridization is supported by tests of admixture, reduced subdivision between North African date palm and P. theophrasti, sharing of haplotypes in introgressed regions, and a population model that incorporates gene flow between these populations. Analysis of ancestry proportions indicates that as much as 18% of the genome of North African varieties can be traced to P. theophrasti and a large percentage of loci in this population are segregating for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are fixed in P. theophrasti and absent from date palm in the Middle East. We present a survey of Phoenix remains in the archaeobotanical record which supports a late arrival of date palm to North Africa. Our results suggest that hybridization with P. theophrasti was of central importance in the diversification history of the cultivated date palm.
Webinar series co-hosted by the History Department, University of the Free State, and the Southern Journal for Contemporary History, with speaker Prof Thula Simpson from the University of Pretoria. His earlier research focused on the ANC's liberation struggle, and his first book, Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC's Armed Struggle, was published by Penguin Random House in 2016.
Muhammad Qaiser Alam Khan, Nasira Shaheen, Romesa Qaiser Khan
Objective: To establish efficacy of malaria prevention programs by screening troops returning from UN peacekeeping services in high risk areas in Africa for malarial parasites.
Study Design: Cross sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: Combined Military Hospital, Kharian, from Jan 2017 to Jan 2019.
Methodology: In this cross sectional study, individuals of regiments returning to Pakistan from high risk areas
in Africa were screened for malarial parasites. A total of 1632 samples were analyzed during this time frame.
Informed consent was taken at the individual and institutional level. Blood samples obtained from each participant were tested by both immuno-chromatographic techniques and peripheral blood films.
Results: Total 1632 individuals were screened for malarial parasites. Peripheral blood slides were negative in all
individuals except one. Immuno-chromatographic techniques for detection of malarial parasites were positive in 17 individuals for Plasmodium falciparum antigen. Only one individual had both Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum positivity via both methods. All of them were asymptomatic at the time of screening, had a past history of high grade fever treated with anti-malarial drugs and were admitted for observation and follow up.
Conclusion: Despite the high prevalence of malaria in Africa, the current prevention protocols prove to be highly efficacious in protecting UN peace-keeping forces from infection and lowering mortality rates.
“EVERY LADY TEN FINGERS, EVERY FINGER IS A MEMORY”:
A narrative of the stories and memories of marabaixeiras women and the city of Macapá -AP.
“CADA SEÑORA DIEZ DEDOS, CADA DEDO ES UNA MEMORIA”:
Uma narración de las historias y recuerdos de las mujeres marabaixeiras y la ciudad de Macapá -AP.
Resumo
Este artigo visa apresentar as histórias e memórias de mulheres que fazem parte de uma manifestação cultural afroreligiosa do catolicismo popular da Amazônia que acontece no estado do Amapá: o Marabaixo. A partir de autoras como Maria Odila Leite da Silva Dias, Benedita Celeste de Moraes Pinto, Piedade Lino Videira e Ecléa Bosi juntamente com as narrativas orais de Tia Zezé e Tia Zefa busco realizar uma nova compreensão de uma história que se entrelaça: a história do Marabaixo e a história da cidade de Macapá. Nesse sentido, pelo fortalecimento da história das mulheres na Amazônia e especialmente a história das mulheres do estado do Amapá, utilizo a história oral como metodologia para o um registro das experiências destas mulheres marabaixeiras acionadas a partir de suas memórias que são importantes e decisivas para desmistificar uma narrativa oficial da história da cidade e para contar os outros lados dos processos históricos desta manifestação cultural. Tais narrativas e processos se encontram nas vozes da Tias que nos fazem refletir e entender que a história da cidade está intrinsecamente ligada a história das populações afrodescendentes no estado, contadas e cantadas pelo Marabaixo.
Palavras-chave: Mulheres, memória, marabaixo, Macapá.
Abstract
This article aims to present the stories and memories of women who are part of an Afro-religious cultural manifestation of popular Catholicism in the Amazon that takes place in the state of Amapá: Marabaixo. From authors such as Maria Odila Leite da Silva Dias, Benedita Celeste de Moraes Pinto, Piedade Lino Videira and Ecléa Bosi together with the oral narratives of Tia Zezé and Tia Zefa I seek to realize a new understanding of a story that is intertwined: the history of Marabaixo and the history of the city of Macapá. In this sense, by strengthening the history of women in the Amazon and especially the history of women in the state of Amapá, I use oral history as a methodology for recording the experiences of these marabaixeiras women, triggered by their memories that are important and decisive to demystify an official narrative of the city's history and to tell the other sides of the historical processes of this cultural manifestation. Such narratives and processes are found in the voices of aunts that make us reflect and understand that the history of the city is intrinsically linked to the history of Afro-descendant populations in the state, told and song by Marabaixo.
Keywords: Women, Memory, Marabaixo, Macapá.
Resumen
Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar las historias y memorias de mujeres que forman parte de una manifestación cultural afro-religiosa del catolicismo popular en la Amazonía que se desarrolla en el estado de Amapá: Marabaixo. De autores como Maria Odila Leite da Silva Dias, Benedita Celeste de Moraes Pinto, Piedade Lino Videira y Ecléa Bosi junto con las narrativas orales de Tia Zezé y Tia Zefa busco realizar una nueva comprensión de una historia que se entrelaza: la historia de Marabaixo y la historia de la ciudad de Macapá. En este sentido, al fortalecer la historia de las mujeres en la Amazonía y especialmente la historia de las mujeres en el estado de Amapá, utilizo la historia oral como metodología para registrar las vivencias de estas mujeres marabaixeiras, desencadenadas por sus recuerdos que son importantes y decisivos para desmitificar. una narrativa oficial de la historia de la ciudad y para contar las otras caras de los procesos históricos de esta manifestación cultural. Tales narrativas y procesos se encuentran en las voces de Tías que nos hacen reflexionar y comprender que la historia de la ciudad está intrínsecamente ligada a la historia de las poblaciones afrodescendientes en el estado, contada y cantada por Marabaixo.
Palabras-clave: Mujeres, Memoria, Marabaixo, Macapá.
Waleska Rodrigues de Matos Oliveira Martins, Sérgio Ricardo Oliveira Martins
A representatividade do corpo entra cada vez mais em crise. Há um corpo que se expõe não só como organismo, mas como potência de conexão entre o mundo e a linguagem. Este texto reflete sobre esse corpo e sobre a escrita de autoria feminina na obra As alegrias da maternidade, de Buchi Emecheta, na perspectiva crítica de autoras como Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Ifi Amadiume, Oyèronkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, entre outras, e à luz do conceito de escrevivência de Conceição Evaristo. Em Buchi Emecheta, a inversão discursiva e temática do topoi masculino tem como recorte o contexto do período colonial (a diegese do romance) e o período pós-colonial (anos 1970, contexto da produção da obra). Outras narrativas e discursos literários são considerados na discussão no intuito de construir uma tessitura dos papéis do corpo nas (de)codificações coloniais e pós-coloniais da Nigéria.
The cultivation of rice in Africa dates back more than 3,000 years. Interestingly, African rice is not of the same origin as Asian rice (Oryza sativa L.) but rather is an entirely different species (i.e., Oryza glaberrima Steud.). Here we present a high-quality assembly and annotation of the O. glaberrima genome and detailed analyses of its evolutionary history of domestication and selection. Population genomics analyses of 20 O. glaberrima and 94 Oryza barthii accessions support the hypothesis that O. glaberrima was domesticated in a single region along the Niger river as opposed to noncentric domestication events across Africa. We detected evidence for artificial selection at a genome-wide scale, as well as with a set of O. glaberrima genes orthologous to O. sativa genes that are known to be associated with domestication, thus indicating convergent yet independent selection of a common set of genes during two geographically and culturally distinct domestication processes.
This work has been motivated by the debates concerning the questions and issues of racism in South Africa up to the end of the 1980s. The work analyses the practice of racism from an inter-disciplinary perspective, based on Michel Foucault’s texts. It develops a conceptual and historical framework which itself has been derived and elaborated from that analysis. It covers three hundred years of South African history based to a large extent on primary sources. In critical ways it differs from the standpoint of the dominant Marxist and Liberal accounts of South African historiography until the end of apartheid. It attempts to avoid some of the pitfalls into which analysts from these schools have tended to fall in their contribution to the race-class debate on colonialism, segregation and apartheid in South Africa.
This paper contributes to the study of Tibetan oracles by analyzing a distinctive case of a contemporary Tibetan oracle living in exile in India. The oracular practice and personal history of Lhamo, or ‘Goddess,’ present several unusual features compared to other ethnographic accounts of Tibetan oracles. The ritual of possession is performed behind closed doors hidden from clients, and the medium typically engages in oracular ingestion multiple times during every trance. Her trance sessions also appear orderly and lack an intermediary figure who decodes the oracle’s enigmatic statements. What do these features of her oracular activities illustrate? How do they feature in her life story and relationships to other religious specialists in the area and the surrounding community? This paper outlines my ethnography of Lhamo’s practice and situates it in the context of Tibetan oracles, arguing that Lhamo’s oracular possession, which is a practice of a village oracle often regarded as involving mainly mundane and pragmatic ends, is conspicuously integrated with the soteriological, supramundane orientation of Buddhism.
Introduction: Given the growing burden of venous thromboembolism (VTE) worldwide and the paucity of data from the developing world, the aim of this study was to audit the characteristics, risk factors and length of hospital stay of patients with VTE presenting to a tertiary hospital emergency centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Methods: The study was a retrospective record review of all patients who presented with VTE to a tertiary academic emergency centre in Johannesburg, South Africa from 1 April 2012 to 30 March 2013. Results: Venous thromboembolism was identified in 74 patients; 56 (75.7%) with isolated deep vein thrombosis, 13 (17.6%) with pulmonary embolism and five (6.8%) who had a concurrent deep vein thrombosis with pulmonary embolism. The median age of the patients was 40 years old (range 19–90). The female to male ratio was 2:1. HIV infection, tuberculosis and history of immobilisation were the most common risk factors. The median duration of hospital stay was 14 days (range 4–36). A therapeutic International Normalised Ratio at discharge was only reached in 36.5% of patients. Conclusion: Venous thromboembolism presentation to the emergency centre is not common, but the risks associated with the morbidity and mortality related to it makes it important despite its relative scarcity. The prevalence of HIV infection amongst patients with VTE is concerning – not only related to the frequency of the pathology but also due to HIV not being factored into the common VTE risk stratification scores. Keywords: Venous thromboembolism, Pulmonary embolism, Venous thrombosis, Emergency department, Developing countries
A menudo reducidos a una breve mención en la investigación sobre la Birmania contemporánea, los hechos de 1974 son un episodio muy importante en su historia reciente y en su desarrollo político posterior. Las protestas contra el gobierno, aplastadas con violencia por el ejército, fueron el primer gran aviso de las dificultades de la ‘vía birmana al socialismo’, experimento revolucionario y utópico de corte militarista desarrollado desde 1962, y el precedente de la revolución de 1988 que pondría fin al régimen militar del general Ne Win.
Andy Wai Kan Yeung, Michael Heinrich, Atanas G. Atanasov
et al.
Background: The research into bioactive natural products of medicinal plants has a long tradition, but ethnopharmacology as a well-defined field of research has a relatively short history, only dating back 50 years.Aims: With the fast development of this field and its global importance especially in the fast developing economies of Asia it is timely to assess the most influential articles (as measured by citations) and to identify important drivers and research trends in this field.Methods: Scopus was searched to identify relevant articles which were assessed by all three authors. The 100 most cited articles were identified and analyzed. Bibliometric software (VOSviewer) was utilized to supplement the analysis and to generate a term map that visualized the citation patterns of the 100 articles containing different terms.Results: Forty-four of the 100 articles are reviews. On average, each of the 100 articles had 632 citations and since publication was cited 43 times annually. The four core journals were Journal of Ethnopharmacology (n = 17), Food Chemistry (n = 7), Life Sciences (n = 5), and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (n = 4). Anti-oxidant effects appeared to be a recurring and highly cited topic, whereas the links into drug discovery and neuropharmacology seemed to be less strong. Numerous medicinal plants and functional foods were the foci of research, and the foci shifted when comparing pre-2000 and post-2000 publications (with the later involving a broader spectrum of plants and foods and a wider range of biological effects). Contributions largely came from Asia, and also from the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, besides Europe.Conclusion: We have identified and analyzed the 100 most-cited articles in ethnopharmacology. Within 50 years the field has gained a profile and while conventionally often linked to “traditional knowledge,” drug discovery and some areas of pharmacology, this analysis highlights its emerging importance in the context of disease prevention (food science), but also the development of research driven by the needs and interests of the fast developing economies most notably of Asia.
Károly Kocsis, Judit Molnár Sansum, Lea Kreinin
et al.
The study offers a short geographical overview of migration studies and theories, doing so in the context of the European migration crisis of 2015–2016. It outlines the history of international migrations affecting Europe (immigration, emigration, migration within Europe and between countries) and the demographic effects of such migration on the present European population. It then analyses and examines the global and regional causes of recent migration to Europe (the European Economic Area, EEA), the countries of origin of the migrants, the main routes of migration, and the destination areas in Europe. As far as intercontinental migration is concerned, Europe was characterised by emigration between the 16th and mid-20th centuries (partly in consequence of colonisation) and mainly by immigration thereafter. Immigration has principally affected Western Europe, the more developed part of the continent. In consequence of post-World War II reconstruction, dynamic economic development, local labour shortages, and the decolonisation process, Western Europe received many migrants, initially from the Mediterranean region and subsequently (i.e. after the collapse of communism in 1989–1990) from the post communist European countries. Meanwhile, the core areas of the EEA became the main destination for migrants coming from predominantly Muslim regions in Asia and Africa (SW Asia, Muslim Africa). This decades-old process has recently accelerated and now constitutes mass migration. The global and regional causes of such intercontinental migration in the sending areas are as follows: the population boom, economic backwardness, unemployment, growing poverty, climate change, desertification, negative ecological changes, global political rivalries and local power changes (e.g. the Arab Spring, 2011), growing political instability, wartime destruction, multiple and cumulative crises, general hopelessness and despair.