scholarly journals "I Am Black and Beautiful": A Black African Reading of Song of Songs 1:5-7 as a Protest Song

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Robert Kuloba Wabyanga

Adamo's article on Ebed-Melech's protest brings fresh insight into my earlier article on Song of Songs 1:5-7, prompting me to reread the text as a protest song (essay) against the racial stigmata that continue to bedevil black people in the world. The current article, using hermeneutics of appropriation, maintains the meaning of שְׁחוֹרָה as a black person, who in the Song of Songs protests against the racism, which transformed her status to that of a socioeconomic other. The study is informed by the contemporary and historical contexts of racial injustices and stigma suffered by Blacks for 'being' while Black. The essay investigates this question: In which ways does Adamo's reading of Jer 38:1-17 influence an African reading of Song 1:5-7 as a protest against racism? The article employs African Biblical Hermeneutics, as part of a creative and literary art in the protests against racism, to read the biblical text as our story-a divine story, which in the language of Adamo, has inherent divine power that can empower oppressed black people.

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-172
Author(s):  
Zukiswa Majali ◽  
Jan K. Coetzee ◽  
Asta Rau

Hair for African Black people has always had meaning. In the past, elaborate hairstyles communicated their status, identity, and place within the larger society. In present day society, hair continues to be a significant part of being an African Black person. Especially for women, who attach a number of different meanings to hair. This study casts more light on young African Black women’s everyday perceptions of hair and uncovers the meanings they attach to hair and beauty. This is done by looking at how the intersections of race, gender, and class impact on their everyday perceptions and experiences of hair. The literature indicates that the hair preferences and choices of Black African women tend to emulate Western notions of beauty. This is due to a great extent to the historical link between Black hair and “bad” hair associated with old slave days. But, the narratives of participants contradict this normative discourse in many ways and provide new insights on hair — insights that reflect and motivate antiracist aesthetics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-176
Author(s):  
Jeanne-Marie Jackson

This article theorizes the Zimbabwean writer Stanlake Samkange’s turn from the novel to philosophy as an effort to circumvent the representational pressure exerted by African cultural traumatization. In breaking with the novel form to coauthor a philosophical treatise called Hunhuism or Ubuntuism in the same year as Zimbabwe achieves independence (1980), Samkange advances a comportment-based, deontological alternative to the psychic or subjective model of personhood that anchors trauma theory. Revisiting the progression from his most achieved novel, The Mourned One, to Hunhuism or Ubuntuism thus offers fresh insight into the range of options available to independence-era writers for representing the relationship between African individuality and collectivity. At the same time, it suggests a complementary and overlooked relationship between novelistic and philosophical forms in an African context.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. eabe7999
Author(s):  
Klaas Yperman ◽  
Jie Wang ◽  
Dominique Eeckhout ◽  
Joanna Winkler ◽  
Lam Dai Vu ◽  
...  

Eukaryotic cells rely on endocytosis to regulate their plasma membrane proteome and lipidome. Most eukaryotic groups, except fungi and animals, have retained the evolutionary ancient TSET complex as an endocytic regulator. Unlike other coatomer complexes, structural insight into TSET is lacking. Here, we reveal the molecular architecture of plant TSET [TPLATE complex (TPC)] using an integrative structural approach. We identify crucial roles for specific TSET subunits in complex assembly and membrane interaction. Our data therefore generate fresh insight into the differences between the hexameric TSET in Dictyostelium and the octameric TPC in plants. Structural elucidation of this ancient adaptor complex represents the missing piece in the coatomer puzzle and vastly advances our functional as well as evolutionary insight into the process of endocytosis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Bryan ◽  
Elizabeth L. Martin ◽  
Aleksandra Pac ◽  
Andrew D. Gilbert ◽  
Feodor Y. Ogrin

AbstractBiological cilia generate fluid movement within viscosity-dominated environments using beating motions that break time-reversal symmetry. This creates a metachronal wave, which enhances flow efficiency. Artificially mimicking this behaviour could improve microfluidic point-of-care devices, since viscosity-dominated fluid dynamics impede fluid flow and mixing of reagents, limiting potential for multiplexing diagnostic tests. However, current biomimicry schemes require either variation in the hydrodynamic response across a cilia array or a complex magnetic anisotropy configuration to synchronise the actuation sequence with the driving field. Here, we show that simple modifications to the structural design introduce phase differences between individual actuators, leading to the spontaneous formation of metachronal waves. This generates flow speeds of up to 16 μm/s as far as 675 μm above the actuator plane. By introducing metachronal waves through lithographic structuring, large scale manufacture becomes feasible. Additionally, by demonstrating that metachronal waves emerge from non-uniformity in internal structural mechanics, we offer fresh insight into the mechanics of cilia coordination.


1993 ◽  
Vol 309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seshadri Ramaswami

AbstractA laser based non-destructive technique has been used to study the morphology of sputterdeposited aluminum alloy films. The data emanating from the Therma-wave Imager that makes use of this principle, has been correlated with reflectivity, grain size and micro-roughness of the film. In addition, through the use of a case study, this paper demonstrates the utility of this application as an in-line monitor in an integrated circuit fabrication line.


2021 ◽  
pp. 079160352110684
Author(s):  
Patti O’Malley

The multiracial family and the existence of mixed race children have come to be a regular feature of Irish familial life. Yet, nation-building discourses have promulgated notions of ethnic and religious homogeneity with Irish identity being racialised exclusively as white. Moreover, to date, there has been a dearth of academic scholarship related to racial mixedness in the Irish context. Through in-depth interviews, this paper sets out, therefore, to provide empirical insight into the lives of fifteen black (African) – white (Irish) mixed race young people (aged 4 to 18) with a particular focus on their experiences of racialised exclusion. Indeed, findings suggest that, as in other majority white national contexts, the black-white mixed race young people are racialised as black in the Irish public domain and as such, are positioned as ‘racialised outsiders’. In fact, their narrative accounts shed light on everyday encounters saturated by ‘us-them’ racial constructs based on phenotype. Thus, these young people, who are not fully recognised as mixed race Irish citizens, are effectively deprived of a space in which to articulate their belonging within the existing statist (i.e. inside/outside) framework.


The Library ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-224
Author(s):  
Conor Leahy

Abstract This article introduces a copy of The Woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer (1561) formerly belonging to the writer, cleric, limner, and book-collector Stephan Batman (c. 1542–1584). The volume is currently held at the Guildhall Library (SR 2.3.3), and contains Batman’s annotations and manicules throughout the text. It also features a 28-line poem in Batman’s hand, a short booklist of medieval chronicles, and five line drawings. The book thus offers a fresh insight into the reading practices of one of the most industrious English antiquaries of the sixteenth century, and sheds new light on Chaucer’s sixteenth-century reception.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-222
Author(s):  
Raoof Mir

Most literature on Mumbai-based Muslim tele-Islamicist Zakir Naik offers an organizational, biographical and ideological profile. This approach has concealed the symbolic significance attached to Naik by his audiences. This paper attempts to explore not only who and what Naik is, but how and where he is located. By incorporating ethnographic and cultural studies approaches, this paper offers fresh insight into Naik and his methods of communicating religion. Taking Srinagar, a city in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, as an ethnographic site, this paper explores how Muslim individuals or groups interpret Naik in relation to their religious worldviews. The articulation of Islam by Zakir Naik through media platforms such as television and social media has contributed to a religious trend in Kashmir, in which people have discovered new ways to think about themselves and to participate in discourses about religion that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.


Parasitology ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 665-675
Author(s):  
J.G. Howard

The following brief survey considers various manoeuvres which can be applied to manipulate the immune response to parasitic infectionsin vivo. The examples quoted largely concern malaria, babesiosis, schistosomiasis and leishmaniasis, predominantly in inbred mouse strains. Since my own relevant research experience has been restricted to leishmaniasis, this will receive undue emphasis, although it does illustrate particularly well points I wish to stress. The types of intervention described do not all provide the precision of interpretation with which they are sometimes credited. Thus, effects of immunosuppression or T-cell depletion alone can usually only implicate the specific immune response (in its broad sense) in shaping the natural history and outcome of an infection or in underlying the effect of prophylactic immunization. Nevertheless, more precise delineation of lymphocyte subset involvement can be obtained by cell replacement studies in some of these models or by exclusion of antibody. The outcomes of these approaches have been (or are) predictable in most cases. More fascinating, however, are the various instances which will be stressed where totally unpredicted and contrary observations have been made which led (or may lead) to fresh insight into the disease. These serendipitous findings illustrate at the same time the value of applying the manoeuvres, even though they imply that the logical immunologist cannot yet always outsmart the parasite by design.


1981 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-180
Author(s):  
B. I. Roots

Macromolecular markers for glial cells have been sought for a variety of reasons. One of the earliest was the need for a means of assessing the purity of cell and subcellular fractions prepared from nervous tissue. While there is still a requirement for this kind of tool, emphasis has shifted towards seeking information on biochemical differentiation among cells and their functional interactions. A brief general review will be made of glial markers and two of these, 2′,3′-cyclic nucleotide 3′-phosphohydrolase (CNP) and glutamine synthetase (GS), will be considered in detail. Until recently studies of markers have been concentrated on the higher vertebrates and those on lower vertebrates and invertebrates have hardly begun. However, such comparative studies may lead to fresh insight into old problems. For example, CNP has long been regarded as a marker for myelin and oligodendrocytes but it has not been possible to attribute a functional role to it and its relation to myelination has remained obscure. The finding that it is present in the glia of a moth Manduca sexta which lacks myelin provides a stimulus for a fresh approach to the problem. Another example is provided by studies on GS. This enzyme is found in astrocyte feet and preliminary results indicate that it is localized also in the perineurial glia of Aplysia ganglia. These results lead to a reconsideration of the perennial question of the possible role of astrocyte feet in barrier mechanisms. Extension of comparative studies may not only raise new questions but also provide some answers.


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