New Fractures, Old Wounds: Africa and the Renewal of South Agency

Africa has recently come to the forefront of world politics as part of the emerging South. Its increased prominence in the global discourse as a “new frontier of development” signals the recognition of its economic potential. Indeed, the continent has registered an average 5 per cent annual GDP growth rate over the past decade. However, there is more to the story than that: The rising profile of the African continent also reveals the growing role of a number of its countries in the emergence of a new South agency. It is argued that South–South cooperation is an opportunity. The discussion of the current situation in Africa understood as a continent in all its diversity including sub-Saharan Africa, but also the Maghreb and Egypt, will therefore be placed into this wider context. The renewal of a South agency witnessed over the past decade is somewhat different from the trilateral alliance of Asia–Africa–Latin America formed in the wake of decolonization. Current mega-trends demonstrate that the global South, driven by a number of regional powers, will play a vital role in shaping the twenty-first century. Understanding the complexities of this renewed agency is vital for addressing old wounds that marked the emergence of a South voice in the not-so-distant past.

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The Global Political Economy of Fractured Regions

Global Governance A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations ◽

10.1163/19426720-02403005 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 371-390

Author(s):

Anna Ohanyan

Keyword(s):

Regional Integration ◽

Security Policy ◽

World Politics ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Necessary Condition ◽

The Political ◽

Regional Studies ◽

The Balkans ◽

The Past ◽

Sub Saharan

Abstract Despite ebbs and flows in comparative regional studies over the past few decades, the regional dimension of world politics is gaining sustained attention from scholarly and policymaking communities. Thus far much of the focus has been on regional integration, which is traditionally viewed as a necessary condition for economic development and security provision. This article describes the problem of regional fracture in conflict regions; it delineates the political and economic dimensions of regional fracture; and examines the security implications of each. It examines the problem of fractured regions in Russia’s post-Soviet neighborhoods, the Balkans, and sub-Saharan Africa. The article concludes with implications for security policy as exercised by the West in the post-American world.

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Denouement: World Politics, Systemic Leadership, and Climate Change

10.1093/oso/9780190699680.003.0013 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

William R. Thompson ◽

Leila Zakhirova

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Warming ◽

World Politics ◽

First Century ◽

Modern World ◽

Climate Fluctuations ◽

The Past ◽

Agrarian Economy ◽

Historical Processes

In this final chapter, we conclude by recapitulating our argument and evidence. One goal of this work has been to improve our understanding of the patterns underlying the evolution of world politics over the past one thousand years. How did we get to where we are now? Where and when did the “modern” world begin? How did we shift from a primarily agrarian economy to a primarily industrial one? How did these changes shape world politics? A related goal was to examine more closely the factors that led to the most serious attempts by states to break free of agrarian constraints. We developed an interactive model of the factors that we thought were most likely to be significant. Finally, a third goal was to examine the linkages between the systemic leadership that emerged from these historical processes and the global warming crisis of the twenty-first century. Climate change means that the traditional energy platforms for system leadership—coal, petroleum, and natural gas—have become counterproductive. The ultimate irony is that we thought that the harnessing of carbon fuels made us invulnerable to climate fluctuations, while the exact opposite turns out to be true. The more carbon fuels are consumed, the greater the damage done to the atmosphere. In many respects, the competition for systemic leadership generated this problem. Yet it is unclear whether systemic leadership will be up to the task of resolving it.

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Dengue Virus Infection in Sub-Saharan Africa Between 2010 and 2020: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology ◽

10.3389/fcimb.2021.678945 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Khalid Eltom ◽

Khalid Enan ◽

Abdel Rahim M. El Hussein ◽

Isam M. Elkhidir

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Dengue Virus ◽

Subgroup Analysis ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Denv Infection ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Cochrane Library ◽

The Past ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Infection Markers

Dengue virus (DENV) infection has garnered a global interest in the past few decades. Nevertheless, its epidemiology in certain developing and low-income regions remains poorly understood, due to the absence of comprehensive surveillance and reporting systems. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the prevalence of DENV infection in the population of Sub-Saharan Africa using DENV infection markers, and to track any changes in its prevalence during the past ten years. It was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines, targeting the literature available at MEDLINE/PubMed, ScienceDirect, Cochrane library and Google Scholar. All articles published in English language between January 2010 and June 2020 were screened for eligibility. Random effects model was used to calculate the pooled prevalence of all infection markers. The Inconsistency Index (I2) was used to assess the level of heterogeneity between studies. Subgroup analysis according to country and time-frame of studies was conducted to provide possible explanations to substantial heterogeneity. The critical appraisal tool for prevalence studies designed by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) was used to assess the risk of bias in all included studies. A total of 84 articles, covering 21 countries, were included in this review. Quantitative meta-analysis estimated a pooled IgG prevalence of 25% (95% CI: 21-29%, I2 = 99%), a pooled IgM prevalence of 10% (95% CI: 9-11%, I2 = 98%) and a pooled DENV RNA prevalence of 14% (95% CI: 12-16%, I2 = 99%). Evidence for possible publication bias was also found in all three meta-analyses. Subgroup analysis according to the time of sample collection was performed to closely track the changing prevalence of DENV infection markers between 2010 and 2019. This meta-analysis estimates a high prevalence of DENV infection in Sub-Saharan Africa. More cost-efficient vector control strategies should be designed and implemented in order to adapt to the low-resource nature of this region.

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The impact of African-trained neurosurgeons on sub-Saharan Africa

Neurosurgical FOCUS ◽

10.3171/2019.12.focus19853 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. E4 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Claire Karekezi ◽

Abdeslam El Khamlichi ◽

Abdessamad El Ouahabi ◽

Najia El Abbadi ◽

Semevo Alidegnon Ahokpossi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

National Income ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

World Federation ◽

Neurosurgical Procedures ◽

Ct Scanner ◽

The Past ◽

The World ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

The Impact

OBJECTIVESub-Saharan Africa (SSA) represents 17% of the world’s land, 14% of the population, and 1% of the gross domestic product. Previous reports have indicated that 81/500 African neurosurgeons (16.2%) worked in SSA—i.e., 1 neurosurgeon per 6 million inhabitants. Over the past decades, efforts have been made to improve neurosurgery availability in SSA. In this study, the authors provide an update by means of the polling of neurosurgeons who trained in North Africa and went back to practice in SSA.METHODSNeurosurgeons who had full training at the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) Rabat Training Center (RTC) over the past 16 years were polled with an 18-question survey focused on demographics, practice/case types, and operating room equipment availability.RESULTSData collected from all 21 (100%) WFNS RTC graduates showed that all neurosurgeons returned to work to SSA in 12 different countries, 90% working in low-income and 10% in lower-middle-income countries, defined by the World Bank as a Gross National Income per capita of ≤ US$995 and US$996–$3895, respectively. The cumulative population in the geographical areas in which they practice is 267 million, with a total of 102 neurosurgeons reported, resulting in 1 neurosurgeon per 2.62 million inhabitants. Upon return to SSA, WFNS RTC graduates were employed in public/private hospitals (62%), military hospitals (14.3%), academic centers (14.3%), and private practice (9.5%). The majority reported an even split between spine and cranial and between trauma and elective; 71% performed between 50 and more than 100 neurosurgical procedures/year. Equipment available varied across the cohort. A CT scanner was available to 86%, MRI to 38%, surgical microscope to 33%, endoscope to 19.1%, and neuronavigation to 0%. Three (14.3%) neurosurgeons had access to none of the above.CONCLUSIONSNeurosurgery availability in SSA has significantly improved over the past decade thanks to the dedication of senior African neurosurgeons, organizations, and volunteers who believed in forming the new neurosurgery generation in the same continent where they practice. Challenges include limited resources and the need to continue expanding efforts in local neurosurgery training and continuing medical education. Focus on affordable and low-maintenance technology is needed.

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Green Human Resource Management

10.4018/978-1-6684-3873-2.ch105 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 2103-2120

Author(s):

Richard Afedzie ◽

Richard Brace ◽

Fidelis Quansah ◽

James Attah-Panin

Keyword(s):

Human Resource ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Employee Performance ◽

Vital Role ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Employee Relations ◽

Environmental Responsiveness ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Green Human Resource Management

This chapter explores the vital role of human resource departments in organisations and their contributions towards environmental sustainability in the nations of sub-Saharan Africa. It posits that the role of HR in recruitment, training and development, learning, rewards, employee relations, and appraisal of employee performance should be conducted with environmental sustainability in mind. It affirms that instilling a culture of environmental awareness into every activity of organisations has a great return on productivity, attracting the best talents, and minimizing the harm of environmental degradation. It contends that organisational policies and behaviour on environmental responsiveness should be of greatest priority to the 21st-century businesses in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Imported Plasmodium vivax Malaria in the Russian Federation from Western Sub-Saharan Africa

Journal of Tropical Medicine ◽

10.1155/2019/4610498 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. 1-5 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alla Baranova ◽

Vladimir Sergiev ◽

Lola Morozova ◽

Natalia Turbabina ◽

Evgeny Morozov

Keyword(s):

Plasmodium Vivax ◽

Russian Federation ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

The Past ◽

African People ◽

Western Africa ◽

Plasmodium Vivax Malaria ◽

Imported Cases ◽

The Russian Federation ◽

Sub Saharan

Background. Imported cases of Plasmodium vivax malaria from western Africa are reported annually in the Russian Federation. Infected native African people moving from western Africa for different purposes (students, businessmen, specialists, etc.) or Russian citizens (tourists, diplomats, businessmen, etc.) incubate the pathogen until reaching their Russian destination. Methods. All imported and other confirmed malaria cases and the associated Plasmodium species recorded over the past twenty years throughout the Russian Federation were inventoried. These data were included in the national register. The data of imported malaria cases were analysed according to the species of Plasmodium, case origin, dates of importation, and patient nationality. Results. A total of 267 P. vivax-infected patients who contracted the disease in western Africa were diagnosed in the Russian Federation from 1984 to 2017. Among them, 3 cases had mixed infections (2 with P. vivax + P. falciparum and 1 P. vivax + P. ovale). Conclusion. Our data reveal an existing risk of contracting P. vivax infections in towns of West sub-Saharan Africa despite the absence of local P. vivax infection records.

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Structure of Dark Triad Dirty Dozen Across Eight World Regions

Assessment ◽

10.1177/1073191120922611 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 107319112092261

Author(s):

Radosław Rogoza ◽

Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska ◽

Peter K. Jonason ◽

Jarosław Piotrowski ◽

Keith W. Campbell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Measurement Invariance ◽

Western Europe ◽

Dark Triad ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

The Past ◽

World Regions ◽

Dirty Dozen ◽

The Difference ◽

Sub Saharan

The Dark Triad (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) has garnered intense attention over the past 15 years. We examined the structure of these traits’ measure—the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD)—in a sample of 11,488 participants from three W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., North America, Oceania, Western Europe) and five non-W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., Asia, Middle East, non-Western Europe, South America, sub-Saharan Africa) world regions. The results confirmed the measurement invariance of the DTDD across participants’ sex in all world regions, with men scoring higher than women on all traits (except for psychopathy in Asia, where the difference was not significant). We found evidence for metric (and partial scalar) measurement invariance within and between W.E.I.R.D. and non-W.E.I.R.D. world regions. The results generally support the structure of the DTDD.

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Inscriptions are Texts Too

History in Africa ◽

10.1353/hia.2005.0011 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 32 ◽

pp. 185-197

Author(s):

David Henige

Keyword(s):

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Potential Prey ◽

The Past ◽

Ur Iii ◽

Terra Incognita ◽

Fields Of Study ◽

South Arabia ◽

The World ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Epigraphic Evidence

Epigraphic evidence is a virtualterra incognitafor Africanists; few of our sources have come down to us from the past quite so directly. This is in contrast to many other parts of the world, where dealing with inscriptions falls squarely within historians' purview. Where such evidence exists, it tends to exist in very large quantities. For example, for Ur III dynasty, of circumscribed length and extent (2112-2004 BCE, southern Mesopotamia) at least 50,000 texts have been published and tens of thousands more are known to exist. Even larger numbers exists for what is now India, although admittedly covering both a much larger area and a much longer period of time. One estimate is that more than 90,000 have been discovered. Nearly everything we think we know about the Maya civilization is derived from the numerous stelae that have been discovered there. The same applies to the pre-Islamic political entities in south Arabia. And so on. In contrast, the materials included in the work under review represent almost the entire corpus for sub-Saharan Africa.This embarrassment of riches outside Africa involves another embarrassment as well. Despite heroic efforts, many of these inscriptions—a majority for some areas—are attracting dust rather than scrutiny; as a result many of the interpretations built on the edited and published ones are potential prey to the evidence in those as yet unexamined.The so-called epitaphs of Gao have not wanted for study—study carried out largely by French orientalists looking for sources more congenial to their first fields of study, but harking back to Heinrich Barth, who at least had the excuse of being unaware of the inscriptions. The present work escapes thisfaute de mieuxaspect; its author has been at work on them for nearly forty years and did not come to them from a sense of misplaced desperation.

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Plasmodium falciparum resistance to artemisinin-based combination therapies: A sword of Damocles in the path toward malaria elimination

Parasite ◽

10.1051/parasite/2018021 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 ◽

pp. 24 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Manel Ouji ◽

Jean-Michel Augereau ◽

Lucie Paloque ◽

Françoise Benoit-Vical

Keyword(s):

Plasmodium Falciparum ◽

Multidrug Resistant ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

High Rate ◽

Combination Therapies ◽

Parasite Resistance ◽

The Past ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Treatment Policies ◽

Related Mortality

The use of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), which combine an artemisinin derivative with a partner drug, in the treatment of uncomplicated malaria has largely been responsible for the significant reduction in malaria-related mortality in tropical and subtropical regions. ACTs have also played a significant role in the 18% decline in the incidence of malaria cases from 2010 to 2016. However, this progress is seriously threatened by the reduced clinical efficacy of artemisinins, which is characterised by delayed parasitic clearance and a high rate of recrudescence, as reported in 2008 in Western Cambodia. Resistance to artemisinins has already spread to several countries in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, resistance to partner drugs has been shown in some instances to be facilitated by pre-existing decreased susceptibility to the artemisinin component of the ACT. A major concern is not only the spread of these multidrug-resistant parasites to the rest of Asia but also their possible appearance in Sub-Saharan Africa, the continent most affected by malaria, as has been the case in the past with parasite resistance to other antimalarial treatments. It is therefore essential to understand the acquisition of resistance to artemisinins by Plasmodium falciparum to adapt malaria treatment policies and to propose new therapeutic solutions.

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Ancient genomes reveal complex patterns of population movement, interaction, and replacement in sub-Saharan Africa

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.aaz0183 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (24) ◽

pp. eaaz0183 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ke Wang ◽

Steven Goldstein ◽

Madeleine Bleasdale ◽

Bernard Clist ◽

Koen Bostoen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Southern Africa ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

The Past ◽

Genome Wide ◽

Movement Interaction ◽

Genome Wide Data ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Population Interactions ◽

Eastern And Southern Africa ◽

Complex Trajectories

Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population interactions and dispersals across the continent remain understudied. Here, we report genome-wide data from 20 ancient sub-Saharan African individuals, including the first reported ancient DNA from the DRC, Uganda, and Botswana. These data demonstrate the contraction of diverse, once contiguous hunter-gatherer populations, and suggest the resistance to interaction with incoming pastoralists of delayed-return foragers in aquatic environments. We refine models for the spread of food producers into eastern and southern Africa, demonstrating more complex trajectories of admixture than previously suggested. In Botswana, we show that Bantu ancestry post-dates admixture between pastoralists and foragers, suggesting an earlier spread of pastoralism than farming to southern Africa. Our findings demonstrate how processes of migration and admixture have markedly reshaped the genetic map of sub-Saharan Africa in the past few millennia and highlight the utility of combined archaeological and archaeogenetic approaches.

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