Hasil untuk "History of Africa"

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This paper examines the current dual political system in Sub-Saharan Africa, where democracy exists side by side with some element of autocracy. It looks at the varying perspectives of history, institutions, judicial, and socio-political factors that all contribute towards influencing regimes’ outcomes across the region. Colonial and post-colonial eras have observed the birth of different state structures, often centralized, exclusionary, and resistant to diverse governance. These structures have played a significant role in nation building. The paper also explores how socio-political factors like international influence, economic backwardness/progress, and grassroots mobilization can play a part in shaping regime outcomes. Consequently, the paper explains the diverse political developments observed across African states, contributing to broader debates on governance, state legitimacy, and democratic transitions in postcolonial contexts.

Jacki O'Neill, Vukosi Marivate, Barbara Glover et al.

This white paper is the output of a multidisciplinary workshop in Nairobi (Nov 2023). Led by a cross-organisational team including Microsoft Research, NEPAD, Lelapa AI, and University of Oxford. The workshop brought together diverse thought-leaders from various sectors and backgrounds to discuss the implications of Generative AI for the future of work in Africa. Discussions centred around four key themes: Macroeconomic Impacts; Jobs, Skills and Labour Markets; Workers' Perspectives and Africa-Centris AI Platforms. The white paper provides an overview of the current state and trends of generative AI and its applications in different domains, as well as the challenges and risks associated with its adoption and regulation. It represents a diverse set of perspectives to create a set of insights and recommendations which aim to encourage debate and collaborative action towards creating a dignified future of work for everyone across Africa.

C. Winkler, H. Heinrichs, S. Ishmam et al.

Green hydrogen is a promising solution within carbon free energy systems with Sub-Saharan Africa being a possibly well-suited candidate for its production. However, green hydrogen in Sub-Saharan Africa is not yet investigated in detail. This work determines the green hydrogen cost-potential for green hydrogen within this region. Therefore, a potential analysis for PV, wind and hydropower, groundwater analysis, and energy systems optimization are conducted. The results are evaluated under local socio-economic factors. Results show that hydrogen costs start at 1.6 EUR/kg in Mauritania with a total potential of ~259 TWh/a under 2 EUR/kg in 2050. Two third of the regions experience groundwater limitations and need desalination at surplus costs of ~1% of hydrogen costs. Socio-economic analysis show, that green hydrogen deployment can be hindered along the Upper Guinea Coast and the African Great Lakes, driven by limited energy access, low labor costs in West Africa, and high labor potential in other regions.

Moritz Fischer

The following case study clarifies how these three different functions of mission are discursively entangled with one another. Mission as a bridge-builder (between people, cultures, and religions of different origin), as a traitor (cooperating with corrupt colonial and imperial powers), and as a victim (finding misery and death on the mission field). Each of these three terms (bridge-builder, traitor, victim) is, to an extent, applicable to the events that took place during the night of 19–20 October 1896 in Akeri on the slopes of Mount Meru (former German East Africa, today Tanzania). Using the concept of entanglement history, I will analyze the death of two young German missionaries of the Lutheran Leipzig Mission, “caught in the crossfire” between the African community to be outreached and the German colonial military. We will see how various symbolic systems collide in the year 1896 at Akeri. The systems are represented by: (1) German Lutheran missions activities; (2) A German colonial and military expedition; and (3) The resistance of African Maasai societies’ leadership. “Akeri 1896” (I will continue to refer to this event specifically as “Akeri 1896” throughout the article) had become in the following 100 years a complex entanglement of metaphoric meanings. The same event can be a placeholder for victory, for defeat, for disaster, for martyrdom, for Christ-centredness (of the missionaries in their own perception), as well as for evil-centredness (the Africans in their perception of the Western foreigners).

Jack Boulton

Over the past few years, the term “toxic masculinity” has entered public debate in Namibia as a way to describe apparently problematic forms of masculine behaviour, particularly in the light of high levels of gender-based violence. Originating in Western discourse, the term itself is difficult as it can stifle meaningful and transformative conversations concerning men. Describing “toxic masculinity” as a trope, and indicating that tropes of violence have been used and politicised before, this article proposes a different way of reading men: via the mask. To do this, the “tropological place” is introduced as a space of intimacy and trust, in which the kinds of masks that men wear become visible. Although the introduction of “toxic masculinity” into debates around masculinities in Namibia should be acknowledged as an important starting point for conversations, this article urges researchers to think beyond it, encouraging more lateral relations with those that we research.

Lydia Boampong Owusu, Abdul-Fatawu Suglo Zakaria, Priscilla Fordjour et al.

Background: Sickle cell disease increases the risks of maternal and foetal complications during pregnancy and delivery. Sickle cell disease refers to a group of inherited haemoglobinopathies that affects about 30 million individuals worldwide. It is more prevalent in the malaria-endemic sub-Saharan Africa, where 85% of total sickle cell patients are born. Hence this study investigated morbidity and pregnancy outcomes in sickle cell disease patients in the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. Methods: This study was conducted at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital located in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional approach was used. Both primary and secondary data were collected. The target population for the study were women with sickle cell disease who delivered at the hospital. A total of 80 postnatal women with sickle cell disease were sampled for the study using Yamane’s formula for calculating sample sizes with a 5% acceptable margin of error. Descriptive statistics and correlations were performed. Results: The study found genotypes SS and SC to be the most prevalent haemoglobinopathies among women. Most of the respondents experienced painful crises, acute chest syndrome, jaundice, severe anaemia, infections, preeclampsia. Foetal outcomes found include prematurity, low birth weight, and birth asphyxia. The study established that the genotype (SS) is very likely to cause adverse foeto-maternal outcomes (r = 0.854, p = 0.010) than the genotypes (SC). Conclusions: Women with sickle cell disease who are pregnant have a higher risk of foeto-maternal morbidity and mortality. It is therefore crucial that these women are cared for by a multidisciplinary health team to improve maternal and foetal outcomes. The study also highlights an increasing need for midwives who have specialized in haematology to be able to provide comprehensive and effective care to all pregnant women with sickle cell disease.

Abdul-Hakeem Omotayo, Mai Gamal, Eman Ehab et al.

Computer vision is a broad field of study that encompasses different tasks (e.g., object detection). Although computer vision is relevant to the African communities in various applications, yet computer vision research is under-explored in the continent and constructs only 0.06% of top-tier publications in the last ten years. In this paper, our goal is to have a better understanding of the computer vision research conducted in Africa and provide pointers on whether there is equity in research or not. We do this through an empirical analysis of the African computer vision publications that are Scopus indexed, where we collect around 63,000 publications over the period 2012-2022. We first study the opportunities available for African institutions to publish in top-tier computer vision venues. We show that African publishing trends in top-tier venues over the years do not exhibit consistent growth, unlike other continents such as North America or Asia. Moreover, we study all computer vision publications beyond top-tier venues in different African regions to find that mainly Northern and Southern Africa are publishing in computer vision with 68.5% and 15.9% of publications, resp. Nonetheless, we highlight that both Eastern and Western Africa are exhibiting a promising increase with the last two years closing the gap with Southern Africa. Additionally, we study the collaboration patterns in these publications to find that most of these exhibit international collaborations rather than African ones. We also show that most of these publications include an African author that is a key contributor as the first or last author. Finally, we present the most recurring keywords in computer vision publications per African region.

Kétévi A. Assamagan, Johan Sebastian Bonilla, Claudio Dib et al.

We summarize the current status of high energy physics (HEP) in Africa, Latin America, and other developing regions

Mercy Nyamewaa Asiedu, Awa Dieng, Abigail Oppong et al.

With growing machine learning (ML) applications in healthcare, there have been calls for fairness in ML to understand and mitigate ethical concerns these systems may pose. Fairness has implications for global health in Africa, which already has inequitable power imbalances between the Global North and South. This paper seeks to explore fairness for global health, with Africa as a case study. We propose fairness attributes for consideration in the African context and delineate where they may come into play in different ML-enabled medical modalities. This work serves as a basis and call for action for furthering research into fairness in global health.

Amanda Poole, Jennifer Ann Riggan

While the 2018 peace declaration between Ethiopia and Eritrea was widely celebrated, Eritrean refugees expressed concern that peace would be destabilising, and their status in Ethiopia would change. Their concerns were shaped by a long history of oscillating imaginaries of how Eritrea “fits” with Ethiopia. Drawing from historical analysis and ethnographic fieldwork leading up to the peace agreement, we explore how these oscillating imaginaries create an uncomfortable and unstable situation for Eritreans in Ethiopia, rendering refugees vulnerable to unpredictable violence. Better understanding the way identity categories have been subject to constant slippage and have been instrumentalised by political elites could help to forge a more peaceful future among Ethiopia’s nationalities and between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Franck Mermier

S. Deser

I describe the early, from the nineteen sixties, history of attempts at quantizing General Relativity.

Nguh Nwei Asanga Fon, Emmanuel Achiri

The crisis in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon that began as a protest by teachers and lawyers trade unions in late 2016 is becoming an intractable conflict which if not addressed risks destabilizing the entire Central African sub-region. Using Zartman’s “ripeness” as a theoretical premise, this paper analyses the evolution of the conflict and proposes dual track diplomacy as a possible solution to break the present deadlock. Given the difficulties for both sides to escalate their way to victory and the growing, unsustainable cost of a prolonged confrontation, the present situation shows significant traces of a mutually hurting stalemate that we propose can be exploited by actors interested in resolution of the conflict. The need for and possible policy implications of pursuing a dual track diplomatic approach is explored here. It is obvious that dual track diplomacy can contribute greatly to bringing a lasting solution to the Anglophone crisis.

Ben Dewar

This paper is a study of the topos of the king burning captives in the Assyrian royal inscriptions. This punishment is notable for both its rarity and its cruelty, being the only time that the royal inscriptions describe violence towards children. I approach this topic in terms of Donald Black’s model of social control, in which the form and severity of social control, including violence, varies in relation to the “social geometry” that separates the parties involved in a dispute or conflict. I argue that in the royal inscriptions burning is inflicted on those that the Assyrians saw as “uncivilized”: peoples inhabiting poorer cities in mountain regions who lacked the infrastructure necessary to stockpile prestige goods, such as precious metals, and were separated at a greater distance from Assyria by “social geometry” than other foreigners. These findings provide a useful insight into Assyrian conceptions of the other and give a better understanding of the variations in the severity of punishments inflicted by the Assyrians on their enemies.

Juan B Gonzalez, Alfonso Sanchez

Climate change perceptions are fundamental for adaptation and environmental policy support. Although Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, little research has focused on how climate change is perceived in the continent. Using random forest methodology, we analyse Afrobarometer data (N = 45,732), joint with climatic data, to explore what shapes climate change perceptions in Africa. We include 5 different dimensions of climate change perceptions: awareness, belief in its human cause, risk perception, need to stop it and self-efficacy. Results indicate that perceived agriculture conditions are crucial for perceiving climate change. Country-level factors and long-term changes in local weather conditions are among the most important predictors. Moreover, education level, access to information, poverty, authoritarian values, and trust in institutions shape individual climate change perceptions. Demographic effects -- including religion -- seem negligible. These findings suggest policymakers and environmental communicators how to frame climate change in Africa to raise awareness, gather public support and induce adaptation.

Simphiwe S. Sithole, Ephias Ruhode

The purpose of the paper is to determine the opportunities and challenges that lead to cloud computing adoption by SMMEs in South Africa by looking at the factors that influence adoption. The TOE framework is used to contextualize the factors that influence cloud computing adoption and evaluate the opportunities and challenges that are presented by cloud computing to SMMEs in South Africa. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data from leaders of SMMEs from all geographical regions and business industries in South Africa. A quantitative research approach was adopted to investigate the objectives, and descriptive analysis was used to evaluate the relationships and present the results. The findings of the study show that relative advantage is an important factor in the consideration of cloud computing adoption by SMMEs, while government and regulatory support is perceived as a barrier. Top management support, which has been previously found by other studies to be a significant factor has been found to be insignificant in this study. The study has revealed that cloud computing presents opportunities to SMMEs and improves their competitiveness.

Vukosi Marivate, Herkulaas MvE Combrink

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2020. Currently, there are no vaccines or treatments that have been approved after clinical trials. Social distancing measures, including travel bans, school closure, and quarantine applied to countries or regions are being used to limit the spread of the disease and the demand on the healthcare infrastructure. The seclusion of groups and individuals has led to limited access to accurate information. To update the public, especially in South Africa, announcements are made by the minister of health daily. These announcements narrate the confirmed COVID-19 cases and include the age, gender, and travel history of people who have tested positive for the disease. Additionally, the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases updates a daily infographic summarising the number of tests performed, confirmed cases, mortality rate, and the regions affected. However, the age of the patient and other nuanced data regarding the transmission is only shared in the daily announcements and not on the updated infographic. To disseminate this information, the Data Science for Social Impact research group at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, has worked on curating and applying publicly available data in a way that is computer-readable so that information can be shared to the public - using both a data repository and a dashboard. Through collaborative practices, a variety of challenges related to publicly available data in South Africa came to the fore. These include shortcomings in the accessibility, integrity, and data management practices between governmental departments and the South African public. In this paper, solutions to these problems will be shared by using a publicly available data repository and dashboard as a case study.

M. B. Hastings

This is a personal history of the Hastings-Michalakis proof of quantum Hall conductance quantization.

Mookgo S. Kgatle

Women play an important role in Pentecostal Christianity, especially in an African context. They are a majority in most local assemblies and contribute a large percentage in terms of the income of such assemblies. Women are active participants in the activities of local assemblies such as prayer, fellowship and catering. The participation of women in general activities has been acknowledged by scholars interested in gender dimensions in Pentecostal leadership. The research gap exists in the representation of women in high structures of Pentecostal leadership. This article uses the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of South Africa, the largest Pentecostal church in South Africa, as a case study to look at women misrepresentations in the leadership structures of Pentecostal Christianity. The study is located in missiology and is a literary analysis that aims to explore problematic aspects or rationale behind the misrepresentations of women in high echelons of leadership in the AFM. The article looks at the best practices that can enhance women representations in Pentecostal leadership. The outcome is that women in the AFM should initiate their own upliftment. Secondly, the AFM should disarm patriarchy. Thirdly, the AFM should rethink the Pauline prohibition of women. Fourthly, the AFM might have to rethink elections in order to drive transformation agenda. Finally, the AFM should learn from prominent leaders like Richard Ngidi who encouraged women to take part in leadership. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article challenges gender inequality that perpetuates the marginalisation of women in Pentecostal leadership. Gender equality is proposed as an effective way to empower women to occupy highest offices in leadership.

John Alexander Arredondo García, Camilo Ramírez Maluendas

In this paper, we chronologically recount several situations that have contributed to the development and formalization of the objects known as imaginary or complex numbers. We will begin by introducing the earliest documented knowing for calculating the square root of a negative quantity, attributed to the Greek mathematician Heron of Alexandria. From there, we will progress through history to explore the formal concept of complex numbers given by William Rowan Hamilton.