Africa has a large and almost uninterrupted land surface that is isolated from surrounding continents. In the last 20 million years Africa had a variable and increasingly dry climate. As a result... Show moreAfrica has a large and almost uninterrupted land surface that is isolated from surrounding continents. In the last 20 million years Africa had a variable and increasingly dry climate. As a result the Afrotropics have only half as many odonate species as tropical America or Asia. __Relict__ families are scarce and concentrated in five isolated, climatically stable areas: (1) the Cameroon highlands, (2) locally in East Africa, (3) the Cape region, (4) the granitic Seychelles, and especially (5) Madagascar. Most African odonate species, about two-fifths, are restricted to the Central and West African forests. The remainder is found, in three fairly equal parts, in (1) the highlands from Arabia to the Cape, (2) Madagascar and surrounding archipelagos, and (3) open habitats throughout the region. Most mainland species appear related to the relatively diverse fauna of tropical Asia, but have few relatives on Madagascar, suggesting that the modern continental fauna mostly diversified after the arrival of Asian ancestors. Being best adapted to change, Coenagrionidae and Libellulidae are the largest odonate families on Earth. Only in temperate regions, impacted strongly by the ice ages, is their dominance comparable to that in changeable Africa. The climatic influence is further seen in forest species __stranded__ in highlands by forest reduction, savanna species __trapped__ by forest expansion, and overseas colonisation of East Africa by island species. Traditional theory is that speciation took place in habitat fragments created by climatic change, especially in forest refuges, but such refuges seem to conserve old species rather than generate new ones. Abrupt habitat gradients in heterogeneous landscapes may be more important in speciation, especially close to areas where potential ancestors are conserved. The habitat mosaic on the Congo-Zambezi watershed is the best modern example of such an area. Phylogenetic research of various African plants and animals indicate that environmental and dispersal barriers are easily straddled, with savanna species radiating from a forest ancestors and vice versa. Species were eliminated with climatic change, but new ecological space was also constantly created. Such processes must also have lead to the __demise__ of most of Africa__s old odonate diversity and the __rise__ of a rich new fauna. Show less
Spanish influenza remains a touchstone for pandemics. Fear of a coming influenza pandemic has led a number of commentators to draw parallels with the Spanish flu of 1918-1920. However, the... Show moreSpanish influenza remains a touchstone for pandemics. Fear of a coming influenza pandemic has led a number of commentators to draw parallels with the Spanish flu of 1918-1920. However, the majority of observers have chosen to base their findings on data from comparatively accessible North American and Northern European sources, and have excluded African data. This absence of African data has not prevented them from making bold statements about Africa's future. In response to these statements, the present paper draws attention to the social impact of Spanish influenza in Africa, thereby emphasizing the importance of the pandemic for Africa's history in the first half of the 20th century and suggesting further research opportunities. The paper also shows that there is ample material available which would allow for the development of the arguments made by those who choose to exclude African data from their analyses. In particular, the paper uses a sample of material gleaned from the National Archives in Kew to illustrate the course of the Spanish influenza pandemic in three of Britain's West African colonies - Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Nigeria. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
On 15 December 2006 Marloes Janson (Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin) and Dorothea Schulz (Indiana University) convened a workshop titled “Piety, Responsibility, Subjectivity: Reconfigurations of... Show moreOn 15 December 2006 Marloes Janson (Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin) and Dorothea Schulz (Indiana University) convened a workshop titled “Piety, Responsibility, Subjectivity: Reconfigurations of the Moral Economy of Gender Relations in Contemporary Muslim Africa” at the Snoeck Hurgronje Huis, Leiden. The workshop and the subsequent public event were sponsored by ISIM, in cooperation with the Knowledge Centre Religion and Development and ZemZem, Journal for the Middle East, North Africa, and Islam. Show less
In the 1990s a livelihood approach to poverty in Africa emerged, with an emphasis on agency as opposed to structure. Situated in an actor-oriented perspective, the livelihood approach focuses on ... Show moreIn the 1990s a livelihood approach to poverty in Africa emerged, with an emphasis on agency as opposed to structure. Situated in an actor-oriented perspective, the livelihood approach focuses on (poor) individuals and households, aiming at a dynamic and holistic understanding of their actions. This chapter outlines the disciplinary roots of the livelihood approach and its modern articulations. It then argues that a new generation of livelihood studies is needed which politicizes issues of livelihood by putting more emphasis on the analysis of power relations, both on the micro and the meso/macro levels. In addition, the increasing multilocality of African livelihoods, associated with income diversification, multitasking and growing mobility, should be taken into account. The new multilocal networks of African livelihoods could constitute an important undercurrent for the strengthening of African development. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
Boin, M.; Polman, K.; Sommeling, C.M.; Doorn, M.C.A. van 2007
ASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 18 (2007).... Show moreASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 18 (2007). African Studies Centre, Leiden. Show less
Boin, M.; Polman, K.; Sommeling, C.M.; Doorn, M.C.A. van 2007
ASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 20 (2007).... Show moreASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 20 (2007). African Studies Centre, Leiden. Show less
Most research on urban agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa has concentrated on farming by individual urban households, while farming by urban institutions has been largely overlooked. Probably the... Show moreMost research on urban agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa has concentrated on farming by individual urban households, while farming by urban institutions has been largely overlooked. Probably the most prevalent and important type of institutional urban agriculture is school farming, the focus of this paper. The authors examine school farming and school feeding in Nakuru town in Kenya on the basis of a survey among primary and secondary schools carried out in June 2006. A largely structured questionnaire was used to obtain data on school characteristics, school farming activities, and school feeding practices. Moreover, anthropometric data were gathered for all class 1 primary school pupils. The study shows that school farming is very common in Nakuru town. Almost all primary and secondary schools are engaged in flower gardening and tree growing, over half of the schools practise crop cultivation and a number of schools keep some livestock. The majority of crop-cultivating schools also have a school feeding programme. Two 'success stories' demonstrate that schools in Nakuru can reach a high degree of self-sufficiency for their feeding programmes. Factors contributing to this success are the availability of land and water, and external support for school farming. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
The African continent and its people occupy a 'subaltern' position in global politics where voices from the African continent remain on the peripheries of global governance. Since the United... Show moreThe African continent and its people occupy a 'subaltern' position in global politics where voices from the African continent remain on the peripheries of global governance. Since the United Nations Human Rights Council, set up in 1996, is envisaged to be a forum for dialogue on thematic issues on all human rights, Africans need to seize the opportunity to be heard, rather than remaining as a problem to be solved. This paper presents three key arguments that need to be taken into account during the process of the remaking of the world order and re-creation of a new global governance architecture. Firstly, it raises the key issue of the African continent and the African people being perceived as a problem to be solved rather than a voice to be heard within global politics. Secondly, it makes a case for the use of oral history as an ideal medium to bring the voices of the subaltern to the notice of the Human Rights Council and as a key methodology in the current endeavour to understand different situations of human rights violations. In particular, it examines three cases where oral history was utilized to highlight human rights issues, including one instance where oral testimonies led to the crafting of a democratic freedom charter (in South Africa). Thirdly, the paper grapples with the question of whose values and whose voice should underpin the universal human rights discourse and global governance. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
ASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 19 (2007).... Show moreASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 19 (2007). African Studies Centre, Leiden. Show less
Boin, M.; Polman, K.; Sommeling, C.M.; Doorn, M.C.A. van 2007
ASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 17 (2007). African... Show moreASA Online provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the ASC library. Issue 17 (2007). African Studies Centre, Leiden. Show less
Pentecostalism in Africa has developed a special relationship with the night as a time for conducting specific religious activities. Of these, the night vigil is the best known, with its underlying... Show morePentecostalism in Africa has developed a special relationship with the night as a time for conducting specific religious activities. Of these, the night vigil is the best known, with its underlying notions concerning darkness, invisible powers, faith and community. Ghanaian Pentecostals view the night as a kind of landscape where certain spaces and places become important to test the strength of one's personal faith and convictions, because the time after dark produces ambiguities of the good and the bad, or the superior and the inferior, of the spiritual powers that manifest themselves. Participation in Pentecostal night-time activities signals a modernity of Pentecostal beliefs and identities which, by confronting the powers of darkness, bring about a strengthening of the faith that churches and leaders aim to establish in interaction with their following. This contribution focuses on the Ghanaian community in The Hague, The Netherlands. It ventures to sensitize anthropology to the modernity of these forms of Christianity and the way they are becoming active producers of social and spiritual environments - defined here as Pentecostal nightscaping - as testing grounds for the efficacy of their faith. [Journal abstract] Show less
