71 research outputs found
What is Ailing Africa? Practical Philosophy in Reinventing Africa, by Stephen Onyango Ouma
No full textStephen Onyango Ouma, the author of this book, aims to explore and critique the impact of colonialism and neo-colonialism on Africa while offering practical philosophy to rebuild the continent’s identity and ethics. To achieve this, he employs a multidisciplinary methodology, including critical analysis, social construction and practical philosophy. The results of his analysis are presented in five sections
What is Ailing Africa? Practical Philosophy in Reinventing Africa, by Stephen Onyango Ouma
No full textStephen Onyango Ouma, the author of this book, aims to explore and critique the impact of colonialism and neo-colonialism on Africa while offering practical philosophy to rebuild the continent’s identity and ethics. To achieve this, he employs a multidisciplinary methodology, including critical analysis, social construction and practical philosophy. The results of his analysis are presented in five sections
Supplemental Material - Utilising high-dimensional data in randomised clinical trials: A review of methods and practice
No full textSupplemental Material for Utilising high-dimensional data in randomised clinical trials: A review of methods and practice by Svetlana Cherlin, Theophile Bigirumurame, Michael J Grayling, Jérémie Nsengimana, Luke Ouma, Aida Santaolalla, Fang Wan, S Faye Williamson and James MS Wason in Research Methods in Medicine & Health Sciences.</p
Gothic urbanism in contemporary African fiction
No full textThis project surveys representations of the African city in contemporary Nigerian and South African narratives by focusing on how they employ Gothic techniques as a means of drawing the African urban landscape into being. The texts that comprise my objects of study are South African author Henrietta Rose-Innes's Nineveh (2011), which takes as its setting contemporary Cape Town; Lagoon (2014) by American-Nigerian author Nnedi Okorafor, who sets her tale in present-day Lagos; and Zoo City (2010) by Lauren Beukes, another South African author who locates her narrative in a near-future version of Johannesburg. I find that these fictions are bound by a shared investment in mobilising the apparatus of the Gothic genre to provide readers with a unique imagining of contemporary African urbanity. I argue that the Gothic urbanism which these texts unfold enables the ascendance of generative, anti-dualist modes of reading the contemporary African city that are simultaneously real and imagined, old and new, global and local, dark and light - modes that perform as much a discourse of the past as a dialogue on the future. The study concludes by making some reflections on the future-visions that these Gothic urban-texts elicit, imaginings that I argue engender useful reflection on the relationship between culture and environment, and thus prompt the contemporary reader to consider the global future - and, as such, situate Africa at the forefront of planetary discourse. I suggest that Nineveh, Lagoon and Zoo City produce not simply a Gothic envisioning of Africa's metropolitan centres, but also a budding Gothic aesthetic of the African Anthropocene. In contrast to the 1980's tradition of Gothic writing in Africa, these novels are opening up into the twenty-first century to reflect on the future of the African city - but also on the futures that lie beyond the urban, beyond culture, beyond the human
National and sub-national variation in patterns of febrile case management in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textGiven national healthcare coverage gaps, understanding treatment-seeking behaviour for fever is crucial for the management of childhood illness and to reduce deaths. Here, we conduct a modelling study triangulating household survey data for fever in children under the age of five years with georeferenced public health facility databases (n = 86,442 facilities) in 29 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, to estimate the probability of seeking treatment for fever at public facilities. A Bayesian item response theory framework is used to estimate this probability based on reported fever episodes, treatment choice, residence, and estimated travel-time to the nearest public-sector health facility. Findings show inter- and intra-country variation, with the likelihood of seeking treatment for fever less than 50% in 16 countries. Results highlight the need to invest in public healthcare and related databases. The variation in public sector use illustrates the need to include such modelling in future infectious disease burden estimation. © 2018, The Author(s)
Potential for continued livestock production in the face of population pressure in Ukwala and Hondo divisions, Siaya district, Kenya
No full textDissertationThe thesis is based on a sample survey of 50 farmers
conducted in Siaya District, Kenya, to assess the livestock position of small farmers which has been adversely affected by high population pressure in the District. , The study begins by assessing generally the role of livestock as an agricultural enterprise and the position of livestock in
Africa and Kenya. Then the position of livestock .in Siaya District is examined in detail in accordance with the objec tives of the study.
As an agricultural enterprise, livestock is a signifi- cant contributor to gross domestic product in terms of in come from internal and external markets. It is also a source of food, manure, and ox-power in places where intermediate technology is recommended. Reasons for poor performance of the cattle industry in Africa include diseases, starvation due to-drought and poor grazing management, etc. Reasons
for the lack of full development of the livestock industry
in Kenya include inadequacy of certain basic input supplies and services and widely scattered research developmentefforts
Suggested solutions to the Kenya live- stock problems include establishment of pasture leys, culti vation of fodder crops, and fencing to reduce communal graz-
ing.
stall scale farcers. Eigh population pressure building up in the
District has caused competition for scarce arable land
between cattle and crops. The competition is eliminating cattie, and as such, mixed farming and its numerous bene- fits.
This study has two objectives: (1) to examine whether to integrate the livestock enterprise more closely with a cropping system or accept the trend and ensure an efficient use of arable land without a livestock compo- nent. If (1) indicates a place for livestock, the (2) examines whether emphasis should be placed on milk produc tion, draught animals, er a combination of both, thus essentially involving a choice between grade milk animals and Zebu animals, since only Zebu cattle are used for ox-cultivation.
The analysis uses gross margins to determine three alternative feasible farming systems, namely: (1) two dairy cows and crops; (2) one dairy cow, a team of two oxen and crops; (3) crops alone (no livestock). The dairy enterprise is based on a grade milk animal. Alternatives
(1) and (2) are based on family labour only, but alter- native (3) is based on (a) family labour only and (b) family labour plus a maximum of one casual labourer as required.
Conclusions and recommendations of the study are: (1) if family labour only is employed, livestock should
be kept regardless of whether major emphasis is on dairy- ing (2 cows) or oxen (1 pair + 1 cow mainly for subsis- tence), because cash income is about the same with 2
iii
grade cows or with one grade cow and a pair of oxen, both with crops, and this is all that can be kent on a typical farm under a rotational grass ley system if food needs are met totally from the farm. (2) if a moderate amount of casual labour is hired (total of 61 man-days .per year),
then it would be equally profitable to grow crops alone with in a framework of uncertainty about how best to value milk
to family, provided continuous cropping is compatible with Siaya soils
Potential for continued livestock production in the face of population pressure in Ukwala and Hondo divisions, Siaya district, Kenya
No full textDissertationThe thesis is based on a sample survey of 50 farmers
conducted in Siaya District, Kenya, to assess the livestock position of small farmers which has been adversely affected by high population pressure in the District. , The study begins by assessing generally the role of livestock as an agricultural enterprise and the position of livestock in
Africa and Kenya. Then the position of livestock .in Siaya District is examined in detail in accordance with the objec tives of the study.
As an agricultural enterprise, livestock is a signifi- cant contributor to gross domestic product in terms of in come from internal and external markets. It is also a source of food, manure, and ox-power in places where intermediate technology is recommended. Reasons for poor performance of the cattle industry in Africa include diseases, starvation due to-drought and poor grazing management, etc. Reasons
for the lack of full development of the livestock industry
in Kenya include inadequacy of certain basic input supplies and services and widely scattered research developmentefforts
Suggested solutions to the Kenya live- stock problems include establishment of pasture leys, culti vation of fodder crops, and fencing to reduce communal graz-
ing.
stall scale farcers. Eigh population pressure building up in the
District has caused competition for scarce arable land
between cattle and crops. The competition is eliminating cattie, and as such, mixed farming and its numerous bene- fits.
This study has two objectives: (1) to examine whether to integrate the livestock enterprise more closely with a cropping system or accept the trend and ensure an efficient use of arable land without a livestock compo- nent. If (1) indicates a place for livestock, the (2) examines whether emphasis should be placed on milk produc tion, draught animals, er a combination of both, thus essentially involving a choice between grade milk animals and Zebu animals, since only Zebu cattle are used for ox-cultivation.
The analysis uses gross margins to determine three alternative feasible farming systems, namely: (1) two dairy cows and crops; (2) one dairy cow, a team of two oxen and crops; (3) crops alone (no livestock). The dairy enterprise is based on a grade milk animal. Alternatives
(1) and (2) are based on family labour only, but alter- native (3) is based on (a) family labour only and (b) family labour plus a maximum of one casual labourer as required.
Conclusions and recommendations of the study are: (1) if family labour only is employed, livestock should
be kept regardless of whether major emphasis is on dairy- ing (2 cows) or oxen (1 pair + 1 cow mainly for subsis- tence), because cash income is about the same with 2
iii
grade cows or with one grade cow and a pair of oxen, both with crops, and this is all that can be kent on a typical farm under a rotational grass ley system if food needs are met totally from the farm. (2) if a moderate amount of casual labour is hired (total of 61 man-days .per year),
then it would be equally profitable to grow crops alone with in a framework of uncertainty about how best to value milk
to family, provided continuous cropping is compatible with Siaya soils
All life converges to some centre: alienation and modernity in the early Ayi Kwei Armah
No full textInlcudes bibliographical references.This paper examines representations of existential alienation in two early novels by the Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah. The introductory chapter extrapolates an account of how the representational strategies of existential alienation produce specific effects on the act of self - writing. From there, the paper explores these effects in Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968), arguing that alienation is a valuable heuristic in unlocking the novel’s complex meditation on how abstract, macrohistorical forces like neo - colonialism come to be registered in the most intimate aspects of the subject’s experience of the world. As such, if one restores the historical details of Ghana’s “post-colonial” moment, the novel is redeemed from Chinua Achebe’s assertion that the novel is “sick [...] not with the sickness of Ghana, but the sickness of the human condition”. Representations of alienation have a diagnostic function in The Beautyful Ones . The second chapter examines alienation under the new imaginative terrains of Armah’s Two Thousand Seasons (1973), and articulates the experiments in formal representation in that novel with Armah’s inaugural concern with the possibility of a prognostic appraisal of the alienation so widely thematised in his earlier trilogy. Both studies are undertaken, finally, to explore the ways in which modernity has been received in African literature, and to demonstrate the analytic value of existential alienation in understanding the crises of a specifically African modernity
Proceedings Transborder Library Forum 2007 : bridging the digital divide : crossing all borders = Memorias Foro Transfronterizo de Bibliotecas 2007 : cerrando la brecha digital : cruzando todas las fronteras
No full textIt is with great pleasure that we present this edition of the Proceedings of the Transborder Library Forum (Foro). The 2007 Transborder Library Forum was held at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona in February, 2007. We are pleased that there will be both a print edition and an online edition. Editing has been kept to a minimum to preserve the intent of the author in the language the paper was presented. The theme for the 2007 Foro was Bridging the Digital Divide. Topics ranged from international copyright issues to getting information to students in widely dispersed communities with little or no infrastructure except the Internet. While most attendees and speakers were from the USA and Mexico, we also had some from Uganda, Kenya, Hungary, and the West Indies
The role of social protection in the socioeconomic development of Uganda
No full textThis article examines issues concerning social protection in the context of the socioeconomic development of Uganda. The author emphasises the critical importance of social protection in a situation where the previous support provided by the extended family and kinship systems has broken down. The erosion of traditional forms of social protection has been exacerbated by political turmoil, violence and HIV/AIDS, which have created serious insecurity in the country. Although there is great need for moderm social security schemes to protect the population, in reality only the formal sector is protected through the Provident Fund, which also has its own weaknesses. The author proposes the development of innovative development policies and programmes and a strengthening of traditional forms of social support systems, along with a more comprehensive social insurance scheme
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