African Studies

La questione legata all'uso dei due termini "Lybia" e "Africa" possiede diverse sfumature che sarebbe il caso chiarire perché ha differenti prospettive sia storiche sia geografiche. Entrambe le forme contengono elementi di identità e diversità, che possono riferirsi a molteplici documenti ed epoche. Inizialmente, furono gli autori greci a utilizzare il termine Libia (in greco antico Λιβύη, Libýē) per indicare l'intero continente africano allora conosciuto (ovvero la fascia settentrionale a ovest dell'Egitto). Erodoto (V secolo a.C.) nelle sue Storie utilizzava il nome Libia per riferirsi a quella che oggi chiamiamo Africa, distinguendola dall'Europa e dall'Asia. Per i Greci, l'Egitto faceva talvolta da cerniera, ma tutto ciò che si estendeva a occidente del Nilo era Libia. Con l'espansione di Roma, la prospettiva cambiò e si consolidò una duplice terminologia. Il termine Africa per i Romani: i Romani preferirono storicamente il nome Africa (inizialmente riferito al territorio intorno a Cartagine, la provincia d'Africa Proconsolare) per designare prima la regione settentrionale e poi, per estensione, l'intero continente. Nello specifico, la parola derivava dal nome della popolazione locale degli Afri. Il termine Lybia per gli scrittori classici: gli scrittori classici latini (come Virgilio, Orazio o Ovidio) utilizzavano spesso il termine Lybia (o l'aggettivo Lybius), ma principalmente in contesti poetici ed epici, mutuandolo dalla tradizione letteraria greca per dare un tono più elevato ai testi, oppure per indicare in modo specifico la regione della Cirenaica e le zone limitrofe. Il termine Lybia dopo la conquista vandalica del 429: gli Autori dell'epoca tardoantica definivano Lybia l'insieme delle province romane del Nordafrica (Proconsolare, Numidia, Sitifense, parte della Mauretania e Cirenaica), nel contesto del V secolo d.C. (dopo il 429 d.C. con l'arrivo dei Vandali). Non è però stato chiarito di quale contesto si parli, se poetico, politico, sociale o storico. Si tratta di un uso geopolitico tardo, in cui il termine serviva a comprendere l'intera area che era stata governata dai Romani nella sponda occidentale del Mediterraneo, tra Tunisia, Algeria, Marocco e Libia. Il termine Lybia dopo la caduta di Cartagine del 698: gli autori latini e greci, che scrissero dopo il VII secolo, non avevano più una conoscenza diretta del continente africano, considerato che Cartagine cadde nel 698 e i "Romani" da allora persero i contatti con l'intera Africa. La persistenza di termini geografici classici in autori successivi al VII secolo, trova riscontro nella letteratura del Medioevo anche per una carenza di informazioni dirette e più attuali. Dopo la caduta definitiva di Cartagine nel 698 per mano degli Arabi, l'Impero romano d'Oriente (Bizantino) perse l'ultimo avamposto politico e amministrativo formale nell'area ed è per questo motivo che l'uso dei termini Lybia e Africa non scomparve, ma subì una cristallizzazione nei testi degli intellettuali europei. Esistono due dinamiche principali che spiegano questa memoria letteraria dopo il VII secolo.

Ce dossier thématique porte sur la place et le rôle du langage dans le fait religieux 1 . Par langage, nous entendons tout mode d'expression possédant un contenu discursif -le mot est ainsi employé au sens strict et non pas métaphorique (les images, la musique, la danse, etc., ne sont pas pris en considération). Le dossier offre au lecteur les résultats d'enquêtes menées par des anthropologues et des historiens au sujet de modes d'expression vocaux (parole) ou graphiques (écriture) intervenant dans des situations d'ordre religieux dans des univers culturels variés, depuis l'Antiquité (Mésopotamie, Grèce, Chypre) jusqu'à l'époque contemporaine (Birmanie, Inde, Mali). Les différents exemples dont traitent les auteurs ont en commun de s'inscrire dans un cadre rituel ou en rapport avec un tel cadre, ce qui reflète la prévalence de la ritualité dans l'activité religieuse. Notre champ d'investigation recouvre donc pour partie la question du « langage rituel ». Les contributions prolongent une réflexion classique concernant les aspects remarquables, sur le plan du contenu, de la forme comme des conditions d'énonciation, assumés par le langage religieux / rituel. Les travaux en la matière attestent sa spécificité par rapport aux genres discursifs typiques du quotidien (Mauss

Dissertação mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em História, Florianópolis, 2017Os debates historiográficos em torno da transição para o trabalho livre têm explorado as complexidades e ambiguidades dos processos de emancipação. As perspectivas que apostavam na explicação de que a mão de obra escrava foi completamente substituída pelo trabalho assalariado e que o âmbito destas relações de trabalho diferiam muito daquelas relativas à escravidão têm sido sistematicamente rechaçadas, a delimitação dos campos referentes à história do trabalho livre e do trabalho escravo aparece bastante matizada nos trabalhos mais recentes. Outro ponto importante à história do trabalho remete ao caráter Atlântico das questões, ainda que guardem certas especificidades, o pós-emancipação no Brasil, Cuba, Haiti, Estados Unidos e Caribe é repleto de experiências comuns. A liberdade dos libertos foi acompanhada, em muitos casos,...

Africa's maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) outcomes remain far from the SDG 2030 targets. This paper, based on Dr. Diana Nambatya Nsubuga's presentation at the 8th Eastern Africa ReTAC, frames RMNCAH as the defining test of Africa's health sovereignty. It introduces the Africa Health Security and Sovereignty (AHSS) Framework and the AU Champion MNCH Roadmap as continental instruments for resilience, accountability, and measurable impact. The meeting concluded with the unanimous adoption of the AU Champion MNCH Roadmap and the Three Zeros Framework as Africa's blueprint for action.

Este artigo é parte de uma pesquisa de levantamento teórico das contribuições de autoras/es queer racializadas/os, queer decoloniais e interseccionais no contexto global. O caso do continente africano constitui um aspecto desse levantamento e será, aqui, analisado na continuidade de pesquisas anteriormente realizadas a partir um referencial teórico predominantemente anglófono. O foco nas produções oriundas dos contextos anglófonos deve-se à maior familiaridade dessas produções com o referencial teórico queer-em particular, da crítica queer racializada, decolonial e interseccional, 1 que estamos analisando, de modo aprofundado, já há algum tempo, mapeando seus deslocamentos e circulações, particularmente no eixo Sul-Sul. O presente artigo também se coloca na esteira de um trabalho filosófico-teórico recentemente publicado, 2 que analisa diferentes facetas da noção mbembiana de necropolítica e a expande, a partir das reflexões de como Jasbir Puar e Jin Haritaworn, Adi Kuntsman, Silvia Posocco e outras/os. O objetivo desta contribuição é refletir sobre a pertinência das categorias de necropolítica 3 e de necropolítica queer 4 para discutir a 1 Ver, a esse propósito, o texto de Kwame Otu e Adriaan van Klinken, "African Studies

entender cuál es su aporte y su significado en la novela. El método consiste en un análisis hermenéutico literario del texto, centrado en la búsqueda de los puntos de interrelación entre los elementos religiosos y espirituales, y aquellos relativos a la muerte. Para apoyar el análisis, se han presentado algunos conceptos teóricos de relevancia como: el sincretismo religioso, el rito del entierro y la importancia del purgatorio en la religión católica. Luego se ha procedido a analizar, en capítulos separados, por un lado, las creencias espirituales y los elementos religiosos en la novela y sus significancias, y por el otro, las referencias a la muerte y a los muertos. Por último, se ha estudiado la interrelación entre las creencias espirituales y la muerte. El análisis ha dado como conclusión que la espiritualidad y la muerte tienen una evidente interrelación, y que el recurso de incluir elementos que están en el límite entre dos estados o creencias, y que lo amenazan, como el purgatorio, el entierro y la mezcla entre el catolicismo y las creencias populares, sirve de apoyo para dar un mensaje de lucha y rebeldía contra el poder institucional, patriarcal y de clase en Carcoma. Palabras clave: novela española, muerte, espiritualidad, santos, rito del entierro, sincretismo religioso, guerra civil española, Carcoma, Layla Martínez. Syftet med denna artikel är att analysera sambandet mellan andligheten och döden i romanen Carcoma av den spanska författaren Layla Martínez, för att förstå deras betydelse och funktion i romanen. Metoden består av en litterär hermeneutisk analys av texten, med fokus på sökandet efter sambandet mellan de religiösa och andliga elementen och de som är relaterade till döden. För att stödja analysen har flera relevanta teoretiska begrepp presenterats, såsom: religiös synkretism, begravningsriten och skärseldens betydelse i den katolska religionen. Kapitlen analyserar sedan separat först de andliga tro och religiösa elementen i romanen, och sen referenserna till döden och de döda. Slutligen har sambandet mellan andliga tro och döden studerats. Analysen har dragit slutsatsen att andligheten och döden har ett tydligt samband, och att möjligheten att inkludera element som är på gränsen och som hotar gränsen mellan olika stadier eller tro, såsom skärselden, begravningen och blandningen av katolicism och folktro, tjänar till att stödja ett budskap om kamp och uppror mot institutionell, patriarkal och klassbaserad makt i Carcoma.

The exigency and precarious situation of our time have bestowed huge responsibility on creative artistes in the three genres of literature, namely: Poetry, Prose and Drama. This paper dwells more on drama, dramatists and theatricians because of the two dimensional functions of drama, that is, drama as text and drama as performance. All art works, be it drawing, sculpture, creative writing and other vocations, are created for a purpose. Expectedly, such works must meet the yearnings and aspirations of individuals that see them. Therefore, it is important for such art to clearly depict or reflect what it is created for and why such art matters in a disjointed world like ours. Such art should duly reflect our strong points, weaknesses, desires, fears, needs, hopes and finally help resolve troubles of inner life. The work could be about “political change, to comment on an aspect of the society, to convey a specific emotion or, to address psychology, to illustrate another discipline ...”...

Testimonies are invaluable to effective sermon composition and delivery. The testimony is a narrative but strictly speaking the narrative is not always a testimony. Yet, the narrative as a feature of preaching has only recently just begun to be appreciated as a critical component of religious communication. This study locates the (sub)genre of testimony as an obligatory narratives accompaniment which imbues preaching with greater rhetorical and religious powers and argues that it is indeed a carefully structured linguo-religious narrative and deliberately delivered in a religious setting by or of a witness; sometimes it comes in the form of the personal experience of the preacher as well. It is an affirmation of the intervention of God in the testifier's situation. The testimony as a piece of discourse exhibits a coherent pattern having: (a) an opening and a closure (b) plot and (c) character. Seven (7) testimonies deployed by Pastor E.A Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Lagos-Nigeria in the pre-eminent ritual event of the Church, the Holy Ghost Service, HGS, were gathered and analysed for the study. The framework adopted for this study is a blend of the rhetorical approach and discourse analytical method that involved speaker-hearer (or writerreader) orientation, topic development, topic support and meta-discourse. Study findings indicates that such a religious segment as the testimony 'Move' is shaped by a specific communicative function and is considered as a functional unit. Further, this study made attempts to clarify the functional value of the Testimony Move demonstrating that as with the hortatory and persuasive discourse, either in isolation or combined, there will obligatorily be macro-segments (Longacre: 34). The macro-segment of each type, in turn, would be constituted of two feature components: rhetorical and pragmatic in nature.

The Parting Clouds by Ken N. Kamoche is a distinctly Kenyan novel that embodies the major characteristics of East African literature. The introduction explains that the novel reflects Kenya's historical, social, and political realities through themes such as the legacy of colonialism, post-independence challenges, family and community relationships, corruption, and the struggle for African identity. It also incorporates features typical of Kenyan literature, including the use of oral traditions, indigenous cultural values, and the contrast between rural and urban life. Through these elements, the novel offers a critical examination of Kenyan society while affirming the resilience and identity of its people. Overall, the introduction presents the novel as an important example of post-colonial Kenyan literature that mirrors the nation's experiences, aspirations, and struggles.

Before the formation of a strong centralized state of Ethiopia, there have been numerous tinny and fragmented but self and semi-autonomous sultanates/kingdoms ruled either by traditional sultans/sheiks or/and chieftains/kings. Very scanty information is found about the characteristics and statehood existence of these states located outside of the Christian Highland Kingdom of Ethiopia. The only vivid account of information about these kind of sultanates/kingdoms, they have been frequently mentioned either in the chronicles of the Christian Highland kings or by foreign authorities who reached in the country as geographical explorers, travelers, scientific societies, religious missionaries or consuls serving their home country from Ethiopia. No doubt about the existence of these sultanates/kingdoms. However, as described earlier, there is very
scanty information on the extents to which their authority was delimited or stretched as well as the type of economic activities they engaged in, their origin and the unique features they possessed which identified them from neighboring society. There existed also a very warm historical scholastic debate on the overall features of these sultanates/kingdoms throughout the period of ancient and Medieval Ethiopian history which accustomed to differences in historical accounts.
In this study the attempt is not to reconstruct Ethiopian History in general or to produce another vivid account on the Medieval Muslim sultanates that existed in the present day territory of Ethiopia either, rather it is to make an assessment on the historical existence of Harla society by
reviewing the secondary and primary sources available and to make the area one of the centers of tourist destination. In light of this, the major focus and emphasis is limited in linking the nexus between heritage/ history and tourism and preservation of heritage resources for tourism as well as marketing them through tourism. For better clarification, the study also tries to analyze a history of Harla society in a comprehensive way by using the existing primary and secondary sources.

Résumé Exécutif
L'article examine la plausibilité d'une complicité directe ou indirecte des États-Unis dans la déstabilisation de l'Alliance des États du Sahel (AES) qui regroupe le Mali, le Burkina Faso et le Niger — à la suite de la cinglante défaite tactique subie par les forces maliennes et leurs partenaires russes (l'Africa Corps) à Tinzaouatène fin juillet 2024. L'analyse met en balance les technologies de pointe (modélisation prédictive, renseignement électromagnétique) utilisées par la communauté du renseignement américain et les réalités des guerres hybrides sur le terrain.

1. Le détournement de l'aide humanitaire et le rôle de l'USAID
L'article examine d'abord la vulnérabilité structurelle de l'aide internationale au développement (comme celle de l'USAID) dans les zones de conflit contrôlées par des groupes terroristes (tels que le JNIM ou l'État islamique).

Mécanismes de fuite :Les groupes armés imposent des taxes de passage, exigent des frais d'enregistrement aux ONG locales et interceptent le matériel (véhicules, vivres, fournitures médicales).

Précédents historiques : Des organismes de contrôle indépendants (comme le GAO ou le SIGAR) ont documenté des schémas similaires en Afghanistan, où les fonds de reconstruction ont indirectement profité aux Talibans, ainsi qu'en Syrie avec Al-Qaïda.

Conclusion de la section : Bien que l'aide humanitaire soit régulièrement extorquée par des groupes terroristes, cela relève d'une vulnérabilité criminelle sur le terrain plutôt que d'une volonté politique délibérée de Washington d'approvisionner ces réseaux.

2. Le double cadre de la politique américaine : Overt vs Covert
L'analyse démontre la coexistence historique de deux canaux dans la politique étrangère américaine : la diplomatie publique (soumise aux audits et aux lois) et les opérations clandestines menées par les services de renseignement.

Financement officiel de proxies : À travers des programmes comme le CTEF en Syrie et en Irak, le Pentagone finance ouvertement des acteurs non étatiques (les Forces démocratiques syriennes/Peshmergas), en s'affranchissant des objections de ses propres alliés (la Turquie).

Alliances compromises et pragmatisme : En Afghanistan, la CIA a massivement distribué des valises de billets à des seigneurs de guerre locaux impliqués dans le trafic d'héroïne pour obtenir des résultats antiterroristes immédiats.

Plasticité des désignations : Le cas de la Syrie illustre comment les armes fournies par la CIA (opération Timber Sycamore) ont fuité vers Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Qaïda), qui s'est restructuré pour devenir Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Dès que le gouvernement syrien s'est effondré, le Département d'État a retiré HTS de la liste des organisations terroristes pour s'adapter à la nouvelle donne géopolitique.

3. Le cas du Sahel et l'alignement ukrainien
Traditionnellement, la politique américaine au Sahel s'appuyait sur le partenariat avec les États souverains (via le TSCTP créé en 2005) et évitait tout contact avec les mouvements rebelles touaregs (CMA/CSP) en raison des risques de contamination par les réseaux djihadistes. Cependant, l'expulsion des forces occidentales et la création de l'AES, alliée à la Russie, ont bouleversé cette dynamique.

L'intervention ukrainienne : Suite à l'embuscade de Tinzaouatène, le porte-parole du renseignement militaire ukrainien (HUR), Andriy Yusov, a publiquement admis avoir fourni des informations et du soutien tactique aux rebelles, notamment pour l'usage de drones FPV (First-Person View).

Le paradoxe stratégique : L'Ukraine mène une guerre asymétrique globale contre la Russie et considère tout territoire abritant des forces russes comme un front légitime. Ce faisant, le HUR ukrainien a soutenu une coalition de combat incluant le JNIM (Al-Qaïda), contredisant directement la politique officielle de lutte antiterroriste des États-Unis, alors même que l'Ukraine est massivement financée par Washington.

4. Les profils de complicité et le « Triangle Clandestin »
L'article évalue la probabilité de l'implication américaine dans le transfert de renseignements aux insurgés du Sahel via l'Ukraine :

Profil A : Commandement direct (Probabilité faible : 15-25%) : La CIA ne pilote pas directement les opérations au Sahel, car fournir sciemment des renseignements exploitables à une coalition liée à Al-Qaïda violerait les lois fédérales américaines et constituerait un risque politique inacceptable en cas de fuite.

Profil B : Le Triangle Clandestin (Probabilité très élevée : 75-85%) : Ce profil correspond au modèle éprouvé de la guerre par procuration ( look-the-other-way). Les États-Unis partagent massivement leurs données de surveillance globale (images satellites, SIGINT) avec l'Ukraine pour sa défense en Europe. Washington sait pertinemment que le HUR détourne ces ressources et des technologies de drones (guidés par fibre optique) pour frapper les intérêts russes en Afrique, mais choisit délibérément de fermer les yeux. L'Ukraine sert ainsi de « fusible » ou d'intermédiaire, permettant aux États-Unis d'infliger des pertes à la Russie tout en conservant une déniabilité plausible parfaite et une isolation juridique vis-à-vis des groupes terroristes.

5. Le vecteur d'entraînement français
L'article souligne que l'entraînement dispensé par l'OTAN aux troupes ukrainiennes en Allemagne est strictement calibré pour le théâtre d'Europe de l'Est (guerre de tranchées, climat tempéré, boue). En revanche, la probabilité d'une coopération entre le HUR ukrainien et les services secrets français est jugée très élevée. Humiliée par son expulsion du Sahel, la France dispose de bases de données cartographiques uniques, de réseaux de capteurs et de centres d'entraînement au désert (Tchad, Gabon, Djibouti). C'est ce transfert d'expertise environnementale française qui a rendu possibles des opérations d'embuscade complexes en milieu hyperaride.

6. Contre-mesures pour l'AES et rôle de la diaspora
En conclusion, l'auteur propose une feuille de route pour préserver la souveraineté de l'AES face aux menaces asymétriques :

Pour les services de renseignement de l'AES :
  1. Institutionnaliser un Centre de fusion du renseignement unique de l'AES pour éliminer les frontières administratives et partager instantanément les données tactiques entre les unités.
  2. Diversifier les partenariats techniques avec des puissances non occidentales (Russie, Chine, Turquie) pour obtenir des technologies de communication cryptées et des drones de reconnaissance et d'attaque avancés (Bayraktar, Wing Loong).
  3. Développer le Renseignement humain (HUMINT) au sein des communautés nomades frontalières en leur offrant sécurité économique et inclusion civique pour tarir les réseaux d'informateurs étrangers.

Pour la diaspora africaine mondiale :
  1. Créer un Bouclier d'information numérique pour contrer la guerre informationnelle et les narratifs biaisés des médias occidentaux.
  2. Initier un Rapatriement technique direct d'experts (cybersécurité, ingénierie des données, hydrologie, agronomie) pour remplacer les consultants des ONG occidentales.
  3. Financer la Souveraineté économique en investissant directement dans la Banque confédérale de l'AES (BCID-AES) et en soutenant les projets de monnaie sahélienne afin de briser l'arme de l'étranglement financier extérieur.

HdO (Handbuch der Orientalistik-Handbook of Oriental Studies) Contemporary Moroccan Thought. On philosophy, Theology, Society, and Culture, édité par Mohammed Hashas, est un ouvrage courageux et impressionnant. Courageux par son ambition de brasser la pensée marocaine contemporaine dans toute la diversité et hétérogénéité qui la caractérise, à la confluence de réflexions à la fois universalistes et à forte résonnance locale. Impressionnant par la taille de l’ouvrage (830 pages) et le nombre d’auteurs, 33 au total issus de divers horizons, impliqués dans cette vaste entreprise de réflexion, la première du genre au Maroc, et au Maghreb en général.

This paper examines the connections and continuities of the idea of groups in Fanon's work as a mental health professional and as a professional revolutionary. The first part looks at Fanon's sociotherapeutic work at Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in colonial Algeria, including his critique of the failures of sociotherapy (which I prefer to call socio-psychotherapy), arguing that psychiatry must become political. The second part considers his analysis of the Algerian revolution, highlighting the radical changes in consciousness that it has engendered and the pitfalls it faced because 'consciousness needs help' and militants need enlightenment. The idea of group work-including everyone in discussion and breaking down the divisions between 'leaders' (experts) and the 'led'-is aimed at disalienation and enlightenment of individuals, whether in the clinic or in the shack settlement, and can be considered a fundamental element of Fanon's praxis.

African energy infrastructure stands at a pivotal inflection point. Whilst project financing has matured considerably over the past decade, a critical gap persists between achieving financial close and delivering long-term operational performance. This paper proposes an integrated Technical-Bankability Alignment Framework to address the continent's most consequential infrastructure risk challenge.

South Sudan possesses vast fertile land, abundant water resources, livestock wealth, and a young population capable of transforming the country into a major food producer. However, persistent insecurity, displacement, inflation, weak infrastructure, poor agricultural investment, and attacks on rural farmers have discouraged local food production. Many farming communities have abandoned cultivation due to fear of armed attacks, cattle raiding, displacement, and lack of protection. As a result, the country remains heavily dependent on food imports and humanitarian assistance despite its enormous agricultural potential. This article argues that food security in South Sudan cannot be achieved through humanitarian food aid alone. The government must adopt a state-led agricultural transformation strategy by establishing food estates at state level, focusing on cereals, sugarcane, oilseeds, forestry, livestock, fisheries, and irrigation-based production. The paper further argues that the army, youth, graduates, and local communities can be organized into lawful, paid agricultural production and engineering units to support national food production, infrastructure development, and rural stabilization. Drawing lessons from countries such as Vietnam and Rwanda, the article proposes a practical model for achieving food security despite conflict, inflation, and institutional weakness.

During his first term, French President Emmanuel Macron sought to revitalize his country’s diplomatic outreach to countries throughout Africa. Some aspects of this pivot were designed to more directly address the legacy of French colonialism in Francophone countries. He also sensed that the growing stature of non-Western powers like China has given African
counterparts greater latitude to pursue ties amid heightened diplomatic competition among a host of other countries both in Europe and elsewhere. In pursuing this strategy, Macron has sought to promote a vision of French diplomacy with Africa through greater foreign aid and more robust people-to-people ties grounded in a spirit of partnerships between equals.

While Macron’s efforts have created an opening for renewed relationships, this pivot has not been as seamless as he had hoped. Bureaucratic inertia and stovepiping in French foreign policy circles have at times meant that implementation of these policies has lagged. In certain cases, Macron’s own nationalistic appeals during his recent reelection bid have appeared
to undercut his attempts to make amends for France’s troubling colonial history. Meanwhile the French president’s attempts to deepen economic, people-to-people, and security ties in more equitable ways have fallen short of lofty expectations, with past practices proving harder than expected to jettison.
For Macron’s ambitions for French relations with African countries to keep their momentum, the president and his team must take an earnest look at
what has worked well and what can still be improved.

Taking Cameroon as an entry case, to what extent does multilateral security diplomacy provide information on the nature of security actor or object to be secured of the State in Africa and particularly in the Central African region CEMAC? What are the elements that structure and make it possible to materialize the said state identity? The contribution is based on the matrix and graphic analysis of the statements made during the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly between 2010 and 2022 by the State of Cameroon Chief Executive or his representatives. It also mobilises the theory of securitization of the Copenhagen School to, on the one hand, demonstrate and verify the “concrete ways of considering or organizing” the analysis of the securitization of threats in multilateral diplomacy. On the other hand, it aims at demonstrating that the African State, particularly in Central Africa CEMAC, does not yet contribute significantly to the production or supply of the means of security in international relations. Far from being an actor in this area, it continues so far to behave and to be treated “as an object of international relations”.

This study examines how the climate change agenda can be decolonised to ensure fairer representation of the Global South within Low-Carbon Development (LCD) discourse, with specific reference to Nigeria. The study is situated within growing debates concerning climate justice, coloniality,
environmental governance, and the unequal distribution of power within contemporary climate governance frameworks. While Low-Carbon Development has increasingly emerged as a dominant global strategy for addressing climate change, there remains a notable deficit in the participation and influence of Global South countries in climate governance decision-making. Consequently, many Global South states participate primarily by implementing agreed mitigation targets and
governance frameworks rather than by being equally involved in shaping the climate agenda itself.

The study, therefore, interrogates the ideological, epistemological, and institutional obstacles that hinder the decolonisation of climate governance and Low-Carbon Development discourse. A conceptual framework for the analysis was developed, drawing primarily on Bachrach and Baratz’s (1962) two faces of power and Grosfoguel’s conception of decolonisation. The study adopted a qualitative secondary-data approach using theoretical thematic analysis. Three core climate governance documents were analysed: the Paris Agreement; the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on mitigation and Low-Carbon Development; and Nigeria’s Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy (LT-LEDS).

The findings suggest that contemporary climate governance is strongly shaped by technocratic governance frameworks, positivist epistemologies, developmentalist assumptions, and institutional structures that privilege measurable mitigation pathways, scientific expertise, and globally standardised development models. The analysed documents consistently frame climate change in terms of emissions accountability, institutional coordination, policy regulation, and technological transition. While these
approaches provide important mechanisms for climate mitigation and sustainability, the study argues that they may insufficiently engage with historical inequalities, indigenous ecological knowledge systems, and the developmental realities facing many societies in the Global South.

The study further demonstrates that decolonising the climate change agenda requires greater epistemological plurality, stronger inclusion of indigenous and local knowledge systems, and more participatory and context-sensitive approaches to climate governance. It concludes that fairer representation for the Global South requires not only participation within existing governance institutions but also critical engagement with the ideological and institutional assumptions underpinning contemporary climate governance. The study, therefore, recommends greater openness to multiple systems of knowledge production within climate governance and proposes strengthening locally grounded climate research and policy capacity in Nigeria through more inclusive and decolonial approaches.

Although polygamy is common in many parts of the world, most economic analysis of the household focuses on monogamy. We use simple public good games to investigate experimentally theories of household behavior. A unique aspect of our research is that half our sample are polygynous households recruited systematically from villages in rural areas south of Kano, Northern Nigeria, one of the modern heartlands of polygyny. Spouses play two variants of a voluntary contributions game in which endowments are private knowledge, but contributions are public. In one variant, the common pool is split equally. In the other treatment the husband allocates the pool (and wives are forewarned of this). Most partners keep back at least half of their endowment from the common pool, but we find no evidence that polygynous households are less efficient than their monogamous counterparts. We reject a strong form of Bergstrom's model of polygyny in which all wives receive an equal allocation. Senior wives often receive more from their husbands, no matter what their contribution. Thus their return to contributions is higher compared to their junior counterparts. However, the clearest result is that when they control the allocation, polygynous men receive a higher payoff compared to both their wives and their monogamous counterparts.

Do forced male circumcisions have political legitimacy in Kenya that they do not have internationally? This article asks what these acts of public violence tell us about the relationships between moral ethnicity and state formation in Kenya. It examines the place of intermarriage and migration as factors to consider in this violence. Forced male circumcision highlights certain ambivalence towards human rights in Kenya that should not be ignored by observers of African pluralism and constitutional reform. Amid a generalised crisis of masculinity, forced circumcisions raise important questions about human rights processes and different kinds of social authority. This focus on forced circumcision brings to the surface historically layered understandings of citizenship, masculinity, and gender violence.

This paper examines the structural and ideological mechanisms through which Africa's material wealth has been systematically redirected away from African communities. Drawing on African pre-colonial history, political economy, philosophy of education, and the legacies of post-independence leadership, the paper argues that African poverty is not a consequence of cultural or developmental deficiency, but rather the predictable outcome of an engineered architecture of dependency-one constructed through colonialism and maintained through contemporary trade, education, and governance structures. The paper further contends that African traditional systems of knowledge contained sophisticated understandings of law, ecology, and community that were deliberately marginalised by colonial epistemologies. It concludes with a call for a generation of Africans to move beyond reactive critique toward disciplined, knowledge-driven reconstruction of African society.

A recognized and prolific historian of Gabon and Central Africa, Florence Bernault has perhaps published her greatest study to date, Colonial Transactions: Imaginaries, Bodies, and Histories in Gabon. Currently, a Professor of African History at Sciences Po in Paris after spending several years of her illustrious career in the United States at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Bernault has already written extensively on Gabon but Colonial Transactions is her only work dedicated solely to this small, but fascinating Central African nation, the stage she has chosen for exploring imaginaries about witchery and fetishism. Those who specialize in African Studies take away two very essential messages from Bernault's work, two points that will potentially reshape our work in the future. First, Bernault emphasizes that scholars "tend to reflect on the historicity of modern witchcraft by reaching out to precolonial patterns and beliefs" in order to compare them with contemporary ones. However, "by jumping over the colonial moment," Bernault states, we "obscure how colonialism restructured the field of practical and mystical agency" (ix). Her six main chapters attempt to bring us back to that "colonial moment" to see what scholars and their existing studies may have missed in their analyses of shrines, charms, carnal fetishism, the value of people, cannibalism, and eating. Secondly, Bernault brilliantly heeds the call for Afrocentric inquiry without completely ruling out the use of other relevant approaches. Bernault urges us to look "beyond the racial paradigm" (5) in our understanding of notions involving power, transactions, religion, and kinship. She reminds us that prior to the divisive colonial period, Africans and Europeans "worked with compatible and conversant imaginaries, drives, and ideas" (202). The acknowledgement of this fact along with the awareness of the legacies of colonialism lead to a fuller understanding of modern Africa and the "new forms of agency, governance, and power that thrive there" (203). In Chapter One, "A Siren, an Empty Shrine, and a Photograph," the author presents research from her fieldwork in the Ngounié Province and more specifically on the water genie, Marhumi, and her associated tales of origin. It is in relation to Marhumi that Bernault first introduces the concept of puissance, or rather "beliefs in the capacity of people to harm and heal, to 'see' spirits and ancestors and use their divine forces, to produce kin and allies, and to master the

Ibrahim Traoré frequently invokes Thomas Sankara's memory and, in social media and the press, he has been likened to him. Through an analysis of public speeches and addresses by Traoré, this debate piece considers the influences of Sankara's articulation of anti-imperial sovereignty for Burkina Faso. The two leaders align in their rejection of patronage to la Françafrique, the rejections of debt and international development dependency, and insistence on dignity, self-determination and forms of community-driven autarky. The piece develops the concept of formal positivity (positivité formelle) to understand aspects of Traoré's anticolonial discourse which are normatively legitimate in form, posture and historical alignment, including by explicitly refusing sanctions systems and Western-driven security partnerships, and galvanising and building upon collective Burkinabè anger at historical conditions of dependency, patterns of French-supported political and economic domination, and geopolitical humiliations. Sovereignty is a central component within Traoré's anticolonial discourse, though its actualisation is informed by local capacities to transform the economy, sporadically compromised by the practice of displacing blame for internal frictions onto external actors and limited within a global capitalist economic system that explicitly marginalises and excludes Burkinabè expressions of self-determination.

African Christianity has grown faster than almost any other branch of the church, yet its ecological theology has lagged behind, and nowhere is the gap felt more sharply than in a copper-mining town like Chingola on Zambia's Copperbelt, where polluted rivers and stripped woodland sit beside crowded sanctuaries. This article asks a focused question. What can be retrieved, for a contextual ecological theology of the Chingola churches, from recent African eco-theology and its global interlocutors? Rather than inventing a theology from nothing or importing a finished system from elsewhere, it works by retrieval, testing each body of work against three criteria: fidelity to Scripture, fit with the Chingola context, and fruitfulness for the church's practice. It surveys the global interlocutors (Moltmann, McFague, Boff, Francis, Habel, and the environmental-justice tradition), the African center (Conradie, Mugambi, Kaoma, Daneel, and Gitau), and the indigenous and Ubuntu resources of African Traditional Religion, naming in each case both what is usable and where the limits lie. A distinction between contextualisation and contextualism guards throughout against the uncritical aggregation that has weakened some African ecotheology. The article closes by gathering the retrieved materials into a set of building blocks for a systematic and public theology of creation in Chingola.

This article examines divergences and shared opportunities in knowledge management (KM) between African nations and developed economies. Drawing on comparative policy analysis and sectoral evidence, it highlights structural disparities in research capacity, digital infrastructure, and institutional maturity while foregrounding the hybrid knowledge ecosystems that characterize African contexts. Ethiopia's accelerated educational expansion is explored as a case study illustrating how rapid growth can outpace KM systems, thereby constraining knowledge transfer and innovation. The discussion concludes with policy pathways that integrate digital investments, institutional reforms, and indigenous knowledge stewardship to strengthen KM across diverse regions.

Contemporary debates regarding the ethnic and racial identity of ancient Egyptian civilization frequently conflate two analytically distinct variables: phenotypic appearance and symbolic-civilizational identity. This paper argues, using the Deep Symbolic Systems Model (DSSM) as its analytical framework, that phenotypic similarity is a function of geographic proximity and ultraviolet radiation gradients, while civilizational identity is a function of symbolic load-operationalized through the two-dimensional Field Companion Protocol (FCP) scoring instrument. The Nile Valley presents a continuous biological cline from the Mediterranean Delta southward through Upper Egypt, Nubia, and the Horn of Africa. Genomic data from ancient Egyptian mummies (Schuenemann et al., 2017; Nature, 2025) establish that Old Kingdom Egyptians were genetically rooted in North African Neolithic and West Asian ancestry, with negligible sub-Saharan African component. Upper Egyptians-the geographic and symbolic origin point of the pharaonic tradition-carried higher Nilotic ancestry relative to Lower Egyptians, producing darker phenotypes consistent with their higher UV latitude. This gradient confirms, rather than destabilizes, the DSSM argument: the builders of the monuments were Upper Egyptian, their phenotype reflects their latitude, and their symbolic load-12/12 FCP at Old Kingdom-is categorically distinct from the Kushite derivative case (6/12 FCP). The Nubian pyramid tradition, built 600-1,800 years after the Egyptian originals, confirms the directionality of symbolic transfer: Egypt to Kush, not the reverse. A comparative test-the Greek-Italian phenotypic overlapformalizes the negative case: populations may share facial morphology while generating entirely independent civilizational trajectories, invalidating any inference from phenotype to civilizational identity. The paper concludes that phenotype is geography; civilization is symbolic infrastructure; and the two are not the same variable.

This study examines the functionalist approach to translation, placing emphasis on Nord's refinement of skopostheorie through the principle of loyalty. Functionalism originated in Germany in the late 1970s; it ushered in a paradigm shift from equivalence-based linguistic models toward purposedriven translation strategies that prioritise communicative function and cultural context. This article traces the historical development of functionalism, critiques the limitations of traditional equivalence theories, and examines how Nord's ethical framework redefines translator responsibility within intercultural communication. In the discussions, Gen 18.1-19 is employed as a case study to demonstrate the practical application of Nord's approach in Bible translation for a multicultural ecclesial context. The translation brief, source-text analysis, and target-text configuration illustrate how functionalist principles-skopos, intratextual coherence, and loyalty-inform decisions such as explicitation, cultural bridging, and lexical simplification. By integrating theoretical insights with pastoral considerations, this study argues that functionalist translation fosters inclusivity, clarity, and theological integrity, enabling Scripture to function effectively within diverse liturgical contexts.

Este livro convida o leitor a refletir sobre as trajetórias de objetos
museológicos, tendo como ponto de partida a coleção de armas africanas
reunida pelo viajante Mocquerys no século XIX e incorporada ao acervo do
Museu Nacional. A obra propõe uma leitura crítica e sensível sobre os
processos de circulação, apropriação e ressignificação desses artefatos, ilustrando as camadas de memória, poder e silenciamento que marcam sua presença nas instituições museais. Ao recorrer à metodologia da
biografia de objetos, a autora analisa não apenas as dinâmicas de aquisição e exposição, mas também os complexos caminhos percorridos por essas peças, do contexto africano de origem ao espaço museológico, passando pelas redes de comércio e colecionismo. Com uma escrita clara e envolvente, o livro oferece uma contribuição valiosa para os campos
da Museologia, Antropologia, História e Preservação, além de dialogar com
debates contemporâneos sobre decolonização e justiça social nos museus.

Kola nut (Cola cf. nitida) and Safou fruit (Dacryodes edulis) remains have been discovered in eleventh- to fourteenth-century archaeological contexts at Togu Missiri near Ségou in Mali. These remains are evidence of early trade in perishable foodstuffs from the West African forest zone into the Middle Niger region. On the basis of these finds, this paper argues that long-distance trade links were well established by the end of the first millennium AD. It thereby supports the hypothesis that dates the inception of trade between the West African forest zone and the savanna regions to the first millennium AD. The circumstances of the find are discussed, as are the implications for our understanding of the wider exchange network based on the Niger River system in the late first and early second millennium CE.

"On the Origin of the Human Settlement of the Canary Islands"
The origin of the human settlement of the Canary Islands is an open problem that tests the limits of historical knowledge. The aim of this research is to propose an explanatory model that allows us to understand the obscure process by which the archipelago became part of the inhabited world. The first part of this study reviews the archaeological record of the archipelago in order to establish the basic historical references. The second investigates the ethnic organisation of ancient Africa under Roman rule with the intention of revealing the complexity of the possible social contexts of origin of the first settlers of the islands. It explores the network of political, social and economic relations maintained between the Roman authorities and the African gentes, revising the old historiographical paradigms that conceived the links between them in Manichean and simplistic terms. As a result, I propose the hypothesis of an autonomous settlement (without any external intervention) forced by necessity, as the ultimate solution to a historical conjuncture such as to face the colonisation of a territory never contemplated as a habitable world until the 3rd century A.D.

The Nigerian economy has experienced uncommon up-and-down during last decades; "oil -boom" in 1970s and "oil-doom" in 1980s. This sharp fluctuations in economy had very strong influence even in rural society. This paper aims to show current agricultural production system which has experienced rapid economic change since 1970. Field survey was carried out in 1989 at an Igbira village called Ebiya which is located about 20 km east of Okene, Kwara state. At the field survey, the authors laid stress on two points. One is about agricultural production system which was done by questionnaire, and the other is about land use pattern for which the authors had measured the whole farm land of two households. The results of field survey can be summarized as follows. 1) Various crops, both root crops and cereals, are cultivated in Ebiya village, however, cassava has become the most important crop as a cash crop. 2) For land clearance and weeding, farmers are employing agricultural labor. On the contrary, traditional mutual-help-type of work has only little importance in farming. 3) Cultivated land of the two households are about 1.8 ha in extent, which are not so large even compared with the case of southern Nigeria. In both households, househeads and their sons play important role in farming. 4) There are various type of cropping, namely, cropping patterns range from single cropping to four crops combination. But cassava is planted in the largest area. The percentage of area planted cassava to total cultivated land today seems to be much higher than that of 1960s. 5) Basic pattern of annual agricultural work has not changed too much. Planting starts at the beginning of rainy season and harvesting work is done at the end of rainy season for almost all crops. However, the case of cassava is peculiar one. It is planted and harvested in various seasons. Agricultural production system and cultivation system in Ebiya village can be con-

Leibing, A. - Embodied Molecules: Studying medications in troubled times. In: Troubling Natural Categories, Engaging the Medical Anthropology of Margaret Lock. Naomi Adelson, Leslie Butt, and Karina Kielmann (eds.), Montreal: McGill Queens Edt. pp. 168-188, 2013.

This thesis employs a social constructivist framework to analyse how competing narratives and identity politics drive elite polarisation and perpetuate conflict in Ethiopia. Despite its ancient heritage and symbolic status as an uncolonized African state, modern Ethiopia is characterised by profound internal strife. The research focuses on the 1995 constitutional institution of ethnic federalism—a mechanism intended to redress historical grievances, yet frequently implicated in exacerbating societal fragmentation and inter-group tensions.

The study investigates two dominant, antagonistic narratives: one framing Ethiopia as a unified ‘Cradle of Civilisation and Freedom’, and the other as an oppressive ‘Prison of Nations’. It examines how these socially constructed narratives shape elite perceptions, political alliances, and conflict dynamics. Through qualitative methodology—including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and secondary analysis—the research reveals a deeply contested political landscape. While support for a federal structure is unanimous among elites, significant debate persists over its ethnic versus civic orientation, prompting calls for constitutional reform.

A nascent, third narrative emerges, seeking to reconcile Ethiopia’s historical unity with its multicultural reality; however, its state-led articulation risks undermining its authenticity. The findings further indicate profound distrust in existing institutions, notably the ruling Prosperity Party and the National Dialogue Commission, highlighting a critical deficit of inclusive dialogue. The thesis concludes that sustainable peace necessitates genuine, participatory processes to renegotiate a shared national identity. Recommendations include restructuring the national dialogue, constitutional reform to balance autonomy with cohesion, and promoting peace education and media literacy to counter divisive narratives.

Small-scale cross-border trade constitutes a critical component of food systems, livelihoods, and regional integration within the East African Community (EAC). However, persistent Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs), weak utilization of trade facilitation instruments, and limited institutional support continue to constrain traders, particularly women and youth. This study presents baseline evidence from 264 agri-food traders operating at four strategic Tanzanian border posts of Kibirizi, Mutukula, Sirari, and Tunduma. Using structured surveys and qualitative responses, the research assessed trader profiles, traded commodities, border performance, awareness and utilization of Simplified Trade Regime (STR) and Non-Tariff Barrier (NTB) prevalence and NTB reporting mechanisms. Assessment was also made on awareness and existence of Gender Sensitive Facility (GSF), Business Development Services (BDS), and on tools such as Trade Information Desks (TID) and Trade Information Portal (TIP).
Results show that cross border trade is dominated by small-scale women and youth traders, with the age of less than 35 years, accounting for 43%. Female traders on the other hand were dominating the cross border trade in the four borders accounting for 66%. The most traded commodities in the four borders are maize/maize flour (63%) beans (59%), rice (41%) and horticultural produce (49%), reflecting the role as staple foods which is consistent cross-border demand. Soya (25%) is mainly traded in Tunduma border, remains less common but shows emerging market potential linked to animal feed and processing industries. Awareness and utilization of STR, NTB prevalence and NTB reporting mechanisms, and awareness of existence of tools such as TID and TIP, and GSF were generally low. Awareness of small scale cross border traders on existence of STR, NTB reporting mechanisms, TID, TIP and GSF were 29.1-, 28-, 27.2-, 25.2-, and 24.4-%, respectively. The NTB prevalence was high, which were related to fiscal and regulatory, corruption, bribery, and informal payments. Others include market structure and pricing distortions, infrastructure and logistics constraints, information and knowledge gaps, policy uncertainty and export bans, and commodity price fluctuations and market volatility. The Business Development Services was assessed in terms of access to skills training, which was generally low ranging from less than 5% at Kibirizi to 57% at Sirari. With regards to the performance of border posts, the survey indicate that traders experience varying clearance times ranging from several hours to multiple days, depending on the type of goods (perishable vs non-perishable goods), cargo volume, system functionality, and inter-agency coordination.
It is thus concluded that cross border trade is dominated by women and youth, trading mainly maize, rice, and beans, while horticultural produces show growing potential. Despite the strategic importance of these trade flows, persistent prevalence of NTBs, procedural inefficiencies, and institutional gaps, undermine formal participation and limit the benefits of regional integration. Multiple documentation requirements, prolonged clearance times, informal payments, and uncertainties disproportionately affect small-scale and perishable goods cross border traders. In addition, trade facilitation tools such as the STR, NTB reporting mechanisms, TID and TIP, remain underutilized, primarily due to limited awareness, procedural complexity, and inadequate support and training for small-scale cross-border traders. Similarly, BDS access is among major constraints, suggesting that cross border traders receive limited training and restricted access to credit. The GSF is not available in the four border posts and awareness is low among traders and customs officials.
The findings suggest that trade facilitation tools alone are insufficient without capacity building, harmonization of procedures, and strengthened Public–Private Dialogue (PPD). The study recommends targeted awareness campaigns, digital trade information systems, inclusive BDS expansion, and institutional coordination reforms to promote efficient and inclusive agri-food cross border trade.

S an Francisco Körfezi'nin güneyinde konumlanan; ama kendisini doğuran coğrafyanın, medeniyetin değerlerini somutlaştıran geleneksel şehir modelinden belirgin biçimde ayrılan bir kentsel oluşum Silikon Vadisi. Bu yönüyle yalnızca bir yerleşim alanı değil; teknolojinin, sermayenin ve bilgi üretiminin kesişiminde şekillenen yeni bir düzenin mekânsal tezahürü. 20. yüzyılın ikinci yarısına kadar büyük ölçüde kırsal tarım arazilerinden ibaret olan bu bölge, yenilikçi araştırma laboratuvarlarının kurulmasının akabinde dönüşüm sürecine girdi. Sağlanan teşvikler neticesinde dünyanın çeşitli ülkelerinden gelen yazılımcılar, bilim adamları ve yatırımcılar şehrin nüfusunu teşkil etti. Bölgeye adını, ordunun ve uzay programlarının ihtiyaç duyduğu yarı iletkenlerin, silikon yongaların üretildiği şirketlerin burada yoğunlaşması verdi. Devlet destekli araştırma projeleri, üniversite ile sanayi iş birliği ve pek çok yatırımcının faaliyeti sayesinde şehir aşama aşama

Íl est important de mettre en evidence les diffeŕentes manifestations neólithiques exprimeés at ravers les vestiges et les traces mateŕielles laisseés par les groupes humains durant la prehistoire. Dans l'Ahaggar, au Sahara central algeŕien, les sites neólithiques sont abondant, neánmoins les rechercehs scientifiques font defaut. Depuis les premieres fouilles du site d'Amekeni meneés par Gabriel Camps dans les anneés 1960-1970, seuls quelques travaux ont porteś sur le comportement des populations durant la peŕiode climatique de l'Holoceǹe. L'Ahaggar est connu pour ses sites neólithiques de plein air, ses sites d'art rupestre, ses sites contenant des tessons de poterie et des ensembles lithiques, ainsi que pour ses constructions en pierre notamment des monuments funeŕaires et des structures d'habitat.

West Africa and especially Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Ghana have been a place of migration for the Greeks since the late 19th century. Initially it was a few risk-taking European pioneers and later people from Greece and Cyprus who emigrated, mainly after the 1950s.
The migration of the Greeks to West Africa resulted from the political and social conditions that existed in the wider south-eastern Mediterranean, and the consequences of the strategy of the European colonial powers in West Africa. The endeavours of various European powers to broaden their sphere of influence in Africa so as to exploit the maximum physical space led to trade and infrastructure development. Greeks, who emigrated to the British and French colonies in West Africa, took advantage of these conditions and became the protagonists of the economic development of the country. The Greeks have been active in every aspect of the economic and social life of the country up to the present day.

The determination of the primary patrilineal genetic signature associated with the emergence of Semitic languages and the ancient Israelite population remains a subject of intense debate in archaeogenetics. This study critically evaluates two competing hypotheses: the "Levantine-Presumption," which posits Y-haplogroup J1-P58 (J1a2b) as the indigenous Semitic marker, and the "Autochthonous-Continuity" model, which identifies E1b1b1 (specifically subclades E-M215 and E-V68) as the true proto-Semitic lineage. By synthesizing temporal sequencing, autosomal ancestry profiles, and the archaeological record of the Natufian and Neolithic Levant, this paper argues that E1b1b1 is the superior candidate for the original, patrilineal Semitic and Israelite lineage. The evidence demonstrates that E1b1b1 exhibits deep continuity in the Levant predating the Bronze Age by millennia, whereas J1-P58 appears abruptly in the region coincident with Indo-Aryan/Indo-Iranian migrations, lacking the requisite pre-Bronze Age indigenous substrate.

While the haplogroup J1-P58 is frequently conflated with Semitic identity in modern discourse due to its high frequency among contemporary Arab and Jewish populations, a rigorous archaeogenetic analysis suggests this association is largely a result of later demographic shifts rather than deep ancestral roots. This paper posits that haplogroup E1b1b, specifically subclades E-M215 and E-V68, represents the truly autochthonous patrilineage of the region, deeply rooted in the Natufian and pre-Neolithic populations of the Levant and North Africa. By synthesizing ancient DNA (aDNA) data from Natufian contexts (~12,000 BCE) through the Bronze Age Canaanite and Iron Age Israelite periods, this study demonstrates a continuous presence of E1b1b that predates the Bronze Age influxes of Caucasus-and-steppe-derived J1a, R1a, and R1b.

The analysis further examines the genetic profiles of modern Samaritan Cohanim, who, unlike their diasporic counterparts, retain E1b1b lineages consistent with the indigenous Levantine substrate. These findings challenge the "Levantine-Presumption" applied to J1-P58 and re-establish E1b1b as the biological marker of the proto-Semitic speaking communities who developed the earliest Semitic languages in situ, long before the arrival of Indo-European groups that would later adopt and propagate these linguistic traditions.

Part of a larger work: "Collected Papers on Afro-Eurasian Archaeogenetics and the Bota Surname", which is protected by Copyright Law.

Paper for a Festschrift reflecting on our archaeological project in Cape Verde, with special attention to the challenges of finding the material traces of slavery within an early Portuguese colonial setting that was based on the enslavement of people from West Africa.

This study examines the historical validity of the ethnonym “Amazigh” and its alleged continuity with ancient and medieval North African ethnonyms such as Maxyes, Mazices, Mazaces, and related terms found in Greek, Latin, and Arabic sources. Through a critical philological and historiographical analysis of classical authors (Herodotus, Ptolemy, Ammianus Marcellinus, Corippus) as well as medieval Arabic and early modern European texts (Ibn Khaldun, Leo Africanus, Marmol Carvajal, Pufendorf, and others), this research investigates whether the term “Amazigh” functioned as a stable autoethnonym across time.

The findings highlight a consistent absence of the term “Amazigh” (and its plural Imazighen) in ancient and medieval textual corpora, despite the extensive documentation of North African populations under alternative ethnonyms such as Libyens, Mauri, Gétules, Barbar, Sanhaja, and Zenata. The study further demonstrates that terms such as Mazices and Maxyes are used in a localized and non-generic manner in classical sources, undermining claims of a continuous ethnolinguistic equivalence with the modern construct “Amazigh.”

By applying a methodological framework grounded in historical linguistics, source criticism, and the concept of heuristic anachronism, this work argues that the retroactive projection of the modern ethnonym “Amazigh” onto antiquity reflects a process of identity reconstruction rather than historical continuity. It also situates the emergence of “Amazigh” as a generalized identity label within modern intellectual and political reconfigurations of North African historiography.

Ultimately, this study calls for a renewed critical approach to ethnonymic continuity in North African history, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between historical attestations and modern identity formations.

This article advances the notion that African epistemologies can be applied in the process of decolonising theology. The Setswana cultural entity known as kgotla is examined in juxtaposition with communion ecclesiology. The objective is to demonstrate how kgotla and communion
ecclesiology promote and enhance democracy. Drawing on a literature review, both entities are defined, with attention to their roles, procedures, and underlying democratic processes. Kgotla is explored as an institution and as a space of interaction, information, impartation, and inspiration. These five defining features are also applied to communion ecclesiology, leading to a comparative evaluation of kgotla and communion ecclesiology to demonstrate how the two interplay democracy. Democracy is traced within both kgotla and communion ecclesiology, highlighting how each reflects the principles of transparency, dialogue, participation, and
communality. Shared values and virtues emerge as common features of both entities. The article concludes that kgotla, as a cultural construct, and communion ecclesiology, as a theological framework, function together in fostering patriotism, solidarity, and communality.

In the history of European-based classical architecture, the concept of formalism has often been understood as a deviation from canonical form. Until the cultural changes introduced by the Romantic movement in the nineteenth century, the repetition of established formal rules was prevalent in architectural theory and practice. However, the last two hundred years have shown an increasing fascination with the possibility of incorporating the features of "architecture without architects" in the discourse and practice of conventional design, progressively codifying them into theoretical and formal canons. On an urban and territorial scale, the formal characteristics of the so-called informal settlements are currently being systematised and subsequently replicated in design practice. This is exacerbated by market economy and by the broad subject of taste. The aesthetic of spontaneity and the induction of informality have become established architectural concepts, criteria and goals. The differences between the needs of rapidly expanding built territories (in rich or in poor contexts) and those which face mainly punctual adaptations have become clearer, as they often require conflicting approaches. Therefore, the degree of informality enabled in the design process and desired as a design purpose is a key conceptual and practical factor in contemporary spatial planning.

Athens Journal of Architecture,
Volume 9, Issue 4, October 2023
e-ISSN: 2407-9472
DOI: 10.30958/aja

Link to the full edition:
https://www.athensjournals.gr/aja/v9i4

Phillips and Cheney preface an analysis of the ASA’s Graduate Student Paper Prize in a discussion with past Prize winners with a review of the sociological literature on awards and scholarly critiques of the history of African Studies. They find that the Prize has played an important role in amplifying and recognizing the voices of young scholars who have pushed the thematic and theoretical boundaries of the field. But these contributions are attended by limitations that the ASA should remediate as they consider the GSP Prize in relation to efforts to realize anti-colonial and social justice-oriented approaches to knowledge production.

If culture is a veritable instrument of development and language, a carrier of culture, and the relationship between language and culture is like that of two sides of the same coin, then the role of proverb as a metaphorical use of language cannot be overemphasized in any development discourse. This paper examined this invaluable nexus between language and development, with particular emphasis on how the use of proverb and its teachings could help revive moral/cultural values, and thus be used as a veritable instrument of development. This is done by taking as a foil, a content analysis of some of Yoruba proverbs, particularly the proverbs whose subject matter is on the development-related themes like care for others and cooperation, leadership qualities, advice, reproach and punishment, conflict resolution and warning. Keywords: Proverbs, development, culture, language, contemporary Africa

This paper examines the role of proverbs and their use in conflict management and in enhancing peaceful human co-existence. This is achieved through a content analysis of twenty-four(24) randomly selected Yoruba proverbs, and proverbial expressions, with particular reference to the themes of warning, cooperation, and diversity. The paper argues that proverbs are useful in conflict management, and conflict resolution, and in making people have a peace-loving frame of mind. The paper concludes that proverbs and proverbial expressions are, indeed, vital in relationship management. It avers that anybody with a good understanding of proverbs and their implications for peaceful coexistence would appreciate conflicts as an intricate part of existence and harmonious living; and such person(s) would therefore avoid actions and inactions that would promote violence.