scholarly journals Courage and Cowardice in the North African Campaign: The Eighth Army and Defeat in the Summer of 1942

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fennell
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Dimension ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
High Level ◽  
Eighth Army

High rates of desertion and surrender during the battles in North Africa in the summer of 1942 were a major factor in Eighth Army’s poor combat performance. At the time, some suggested that these problems were symptomatic of a lack of courage or even of cowardice. There are two broad strands to the conceptualization of courage and cowardice. One focuses on the willingness of the person to fight; the other puts emphasis on how actions express an individual’s ability to cope with fear. Whichever conceptualization is used, high morale motivates the soldier to fight and shields the ordinary recruit from his fear, preventing it from overcoming him in battle. Where morale fails, the soldier is left demotivated and burdened with his terror and, therefore, and is therefore prone to desertion or surrender. Because it is extremely difficult to maintain morale at a continuously high level in an environment governed by chance and managed by humans, all soldiers can find themselves in situations where their actions may be judged as cowardly. Alternatively, if they are properly motivated to fight and prepared by the state and military to deal with the unavoidable fear of combat, all soldiers can be labelled courageous. Accordingly, emotive terms should be avoided when attempting to describe rationally explainable outcomes. The undoubtedly negative connotations attached to cowardice in battle and the positive ones attached to courage are, therefore, arguably unhelpful in understanding Eighth Army’s performance in the summer of 1942 and the human dimension in warfare more generally.

Survey of Islamic Sites

1972 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 5-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antony Hutt
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
The Other ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Way

The main intention of this survey, for which I was awarded the first Libya Fellowship of the Society, was to examine a number of sites in Libya and also in adjacent countries which are either of the same period as the monuments in Ajdabiyah, or have relevance to the development of these monuments.On the way to Libya I visited the related, if somewhat later monuments of Palermo, built in the Arabo-Norman style, but utilizing both workmen and a number of constructional techniques from North Africa. I was fortunate in being guided around the various sites by members of the Ente per i Palazzi e Ville di Sicilia, and was able to use the recent study of Palermo by Mrs D. L. Jones, currently awaiting publication. The architectural details, and many of the designs and patterns involved relate very strongly to the north African forms, and emphasise the fact that the Mediterranean was still much more of a linking than a divisive factor even after the Muslims had lost control of Sicily and some of the other islands.

scholarly journals Identification and Characterization of the Most Common Genetic Variant Responsible for Acephalic Spermatozoa Syndrome in Men Originating from North Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 2187
Author(s):  
Caroline Cazin ◽  
Yasmine Boumerdassi ◽  
Guillaume Martinez ◽  
Selima Fourati Ben Mustapha ◽  
Marjorie Whitfield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Posterior Part ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Variant Filtering ◽  
North African Population ◽  
Sperm Nuclei

Acephalic spermatozoa syndrome (ASS) is a rare but extremely severe type of teratozoospermia, defined by the presence of a majority of headless flagella and a minority of tail-less sperm heads in the ejaculate. Like the other severe monomorphic teratozoospermias, ASS has a strong genetic basis and is most often caused by bi-allelic variants in SUN5 (Sad1 and UNC84 domain-containing 5). Using whole exome sequencing (WES), we investigated a cohort of nine infertile subjects displaying ASS. These subjects were recruited in three centers located in France and Tunisia, but all originated from North Africa. Sperm from subjects carrying candidate genetic variants were subjected to immunofluorescence analysis and transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed on sperm nuclei to assess their chromosomal content. Variant filtering permitted us to identify the same SUN5 homozygous frameshift variant (c.211+1_211+2dup) in 7/9 individuals (78%). SUN5 encodes a protein localized on the posterior part of the nuclear envelope that is necessary for the attachment of the tail to the sperm head. Immunofluorescence assays performed on sperm cells from three mutated subjects revealed a total absence of SUN5, thus demonstrating the deleterious impact of the identified variant on protein expression. Transmission electron microscopy showed a conserved flagellar structure and a slightly decondensed chromatin. FISH did not highlight a higher rate of chromosome aneuploidy in spermatozoa from SUN5 patients compared to controls, indicating that intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) can be proposed for patients carrying the c.211+1_211+2dup variant. These results suggest that the identified SUN5 variant is the main cause of ASS in the North African population. Consequently, a simple and inexpensive genotyping of the 211+1_211+2dup variant could be beneficial for affected men of North African origin before resorting to more exhaustive genetic analyses.

scholarly journals The North African “Extremistan” of the Islamic State Caliphate

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
Adrian Cosmin Basarabă ◽  
Maria-Mihaela Nistor
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
North African ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
The North ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Cellular Matrices

Abstract This article aims at presenting ISIS expansion in North Africa in the first quarter of 2016, with its subsequent implication in the wider framework of Jihadist proliferation worldwide. It can be argued that, while losing real estate in the Middle East, ISIS has started a permanent search for extra-cellular matrices or an ongoing process of de- and reterritorialization. The allegiance and support pledged by other African-based terrorist groups or organizations such as Boko Haram, al-I’tisam of the Koran and Sunnah in Sudan, al-Huda Battalion in Maghreb of Islam, The Soldiers of the Caliphate, al-Ghurabaa, Djamaat Houmat ad-Da’wa as-Salafiya and al-Ansar Battalion in Algeria, Islamic Youth Shura Council, Islamic State Libya (Darnah), in Libya, Jamaat Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, Jund al-Khilafah and Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem in Egypt, Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion, Mujahideen of Tunisia of Kairouan and Jund al-Khilafah in Tunisia and al-Shabaab Jubba Region Cell Bashir Abu Numan in Somalia is an alarming hypothesis of Jihadism reaching “the threshold of inevitability”- syntagm existent in the network theories of David Singh Grewal- turning a whole region, continent of even world into what Nassim Nicholas Taleb would call Extremistan.

scholarly journals (M.A. thesis) Migration schedules by age and characterization of migrants in the micro-regions of Goiás and the Federal District, 1975–1979 and 1986–1990

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto F. L. Amaral
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Federal District ◽  
The State ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
Migrant Population ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
The North ◽  
High Level

Title in Portuguese: Funções de migração por idade e caracterização de migrantes das microrregiões de Goiás e Distrito Federal, 1975-1979 e 1986-1990(Dissertação de Mestrado)(M.A. Thesis)Since the 70’s, the Brazilian Middle-West Region has experienced an important modernization process in agricultural and industrial activities, which has led to an employment retraction and migration flows, especially from rural areas to the major metropolitan cities of the region. In this research the focus of analysis are the State of Goiás and the Federal District, which encompasses Brasília, the capital of Brazil. In order to understand the new population configuration, the region was divided into four sub-areas (micro-region of Goiânia, micro-region of Entorno de Brasília, the Federal District, and a group of 16 micro-regions of Goiás) and the patterns of migration, by age and sex, were estimated for the periods 1975-1979 and 1986-1991. In addition, differences between native and migrant population of each sub-area, according to the participation in the labor force, income, education and type of migration were investigated. The analysis was performed on the basis of the 1980 and 1991 Brazilian Census data.In the intra-state migration, the fluxes between the micro-region of Goiânia and the 16 other micro-regions of Goiás, and between the Federal District and the micro-region of Entorno de Brasília were the most important. In the inter-state migration, the flux from the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and the North region to the 16 micro-regions of Goiás, as well as the flux from Northeast, Southeast and South to the Federal District were significant. But there was a decline in the migration to the Federal District, between 1975-1979 and 1986-1991, while, in the same period, the migration to the Entorno of Brasília increased.The chance of the migrant population in the micro-region of Goiânia and in the Federal District to have worked in the last 12 months prior to census interview was lower than that of the native population. However, those who migrated from the Federal District to the micro-region of Entorno de Brasília had higher chance to have worked in the formal sector than those who did not migrate. Migrants who moved from the micro-region of Entorno de Brasília and the 16 other micro-regions of Goiás to the micro-region of Goiânia had lower wages than the non-migrant population. The lowest level of wages was recorded for the migrants to the 16 other micro-regions of Goiás. Migrants living in the Federal District had high level of education, while those migrants living in the micro-region of Entorno de Brasília had low level of education.In 1986-1990, the micro-regions of Goiânia and Entorno de Brasília, as well as the 16 other micro-regions of Goiás, presented a high percentage of returned migrants. In the same period, a major proportion of migrants to the micro-region of Entorno de Brasília had first moved from Southeast or from the Federal District to others regions. In addition, there was a considerable proportion of migrants with low income who had moved from Northeast to the Federal District and then to the micro-region of the Entorno de Brasília.Future research could focus other areas or regions of Brazil, and could also explore the same kind of analysis, on the basis of the incoming 2000 Brazilian Census, which requires the development of new techniques, as it did not collect information on the city of previous residence, but only on the state of residence.

scholarly journals Reconciling Pan-Arabism and Pan-Africanism: The North African Leadership Dilemma

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Radwa Saad
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Effective Leadership ◽  
The State ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
Pan African ◽  
Pan Africanism ◽  
African Leadership ◽  
Arab Israeli Conflict

The purpose of this research to examine the challenges Arab leaders face in simultaneously adhering to Pan-Arabism and Pan-Africanism and extract conditions in which the two ideologies can be reconciled to produce mutual benefits. This study poses the question: what strategies do North-African leaders deploy to balance their Pan-Arab and Pan-African commitments and what repercussions do these strategies have on the state of Arab-African relations? By drawing on two scenarios where Pan-Arabism and Pan-Africanism conflicted, namely the 1967-1979 Arab-Israeli Conflict and the 2011 Libyan civil war, it will highlight the role leadership can play in mediating such tensions. The study finds that it is only through the decrease of hegemonic pursuits and the increase in effective leadership processes both domestically and regionally that the two ideologies can coexist.

scholarly journals Ceramic finds from the Byzantine fort of Gradina on the island of Žirje

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Karađole ◽  
Igor Borzić
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Main Production ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Area

Repeated excavations of the area of the early Byzantine fort on Žirje, an island in the Šibenik archipelago, resulted in recovery of a substantial amount of movable finds, predominantly pottery. Most finds date to the period of Justinian's reconquista in the mid-6th century when the fort was used, but there are also some artifacts of earlier or later dating (Iron Age, Hellenistic and early Imperial periods; medieval and postmedieval periods) whose presence is explained by continuous strategic importance of the fort position. Late antique material has been analyzed comprehensively in terms of typology. Dating and provenance contexts of the finds have also been determined. Presence of pottery from the main production centers that supplied the eastern Adriatic at the time has been attested. This refers in particular to the north African and Aegean-eastern Mediterranean area providing fine tableware and kitchen pottery, lamps and various forms of amphorae. On the other hand, participation of local workshops in supply of the Byzantine soldiers stationed in Gradina probably relates to prevailing forms of kitchenware.

scholarly journals Observations upon the marine barometer, made during the examina­tion of the coasts of New Holland and New Wales, in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803. By Matthew Flinders, Esq. Com­mander of His Majesty’s Ship Investigator . In a letter to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, K. B. P. R. S. &c. &c. &c

1832 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 230-232
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
South Coast ◽  
The South ◽  
South Side ◽  
The North ◽  
North Side ◽  
Northern Half ◽  
Southern Half ◽  
The Right

The chief circumstance that induced Capt. Flinders to think his observations Upon the marine barometer were worthy of attention, was the coincidence that took place between the rising and falling of the mercury, and the setting in of winds that blew from the sea and from off the land, to which there seemed to be at least as much reference as to the strength of the wind or the state of the atmosphere. Our author’s examination of the coasts of New Holland and the other parts of the Terra Australis, began at Cape Leuwen, and con­tinued eastward along the south coast. His observations, which, on account of their length, we must pass over, show, that a change of wind from the northern half of the compass to any point in the southern half, caused the mercury to rise; and that a contrary change caused it to fall. Also, that the mercury stood considerably higher When the wind came from the south side of east and west, than when, in similar weather, it came from the north side.

Paths of Prayers in Ottoman North Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 295-341
Author(s):  
Deniz Beyazit
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
First Time ◽  
Visual Apparatus

Abstract This article discusses The Met’s unpublished Dalāʾil al-khayrāt—2017.301—(MS New York, TMMA 2017.301), together with a group of comparable manuscripts. The earliest known dated manuscript within the corpus, it introduces several iconographic elements that are new to the Dalāʾil, and which compare with the traditions developing in the Mashriq and the Ottoman world in particular. The article discusses Dalāʾil production in seventeenth-century North Africa and its development in the Ottoman provinces, Tunisia, and/or Algeria. The manuscripts illustrate how an Ottoman visual apparatus—among which the theme of the holy sanctuaries at Mecca and Medina, appearing for the first time in MS New York, TMMA 2017.301—is established for Muhammadan devotion in Maghribī Dalāʾils. The manuscripts belong to the broader historic, social, and artistic contexts of Ottoman North Africa. Our analysis captures the complex dynamics of Ottomanization of the North African provinces of the Ottoman Empire, remaining strongly rooted in their local traditions, while engaging with Ottoman visual idioms.

Decolonization and Migration

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maud S. Mandel
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
North African ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The North ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Colonial Policies ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Jewish Populations ◽  
The Way

This chapter builds on the link between French colonial policies and Muslim–Jewish relations in the metropole by tracing how decolonization throughout North Africa changed the way a diverse set of social actors, including French colonial administrators, international Jewish spokesmen, and a wide range of indigenous nationalist groups conceptualized Jewish belonging throughout the region. It argues that the process led to the emergence of the “North African Jew,” a category to which no individual ascribed but that worked rhetorically to unite the diverse Moroccan, Tunisian, and Algerian Jewish populations into a collective often understood to be in conflict with “North Africans,” “Muslims,” or “Arabs.”

Regional and indigenous identities in the high north: enacting social boundaries

Polar Record ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidsel Saugestad
Keyword(s):  
Coming Out ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
The North ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
Time And Being ◽  
Definition Of

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses two processes of social and cultural mobilisation. The first example is a regional movement, as manifested in social and cultural expressions of a north Norwegian identity that was particularly marked in the 1970s and early 80s. The other is the Saami movement, coming out strongly at about the same time, and being part of a global process of indigenous mobilisation. It is argued that although they are similar in the way they articulate a sense of identity and belonging in contrast to an overarching and encompassing state, they are different in their stated objectives, in their relation to the state and the type of achievements gained. The north Norwegian regional movement strived for inclusion into a wider national cultural tradition, and integration has been achieved by broadening the definition of what is considered Norwegian culture. The objective of the Saami movement was the opposite: to gain recognition as a people with a distinct culture, different from but equal in value with the Norwegian culture. The article is introduced by a theoretical discussion of the issues involved, framing the analysis of communicative strategies.

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