Kuria seers

Africa ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Ruel
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Predictive Ability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
The Past ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Individual Success ◽  
The Military

AbstractIn pre-colonial times ‘seers’, abarooti, played an important role in the political and especially in the military organisation of Kuria, harassed as they were by neigh-bouring Maasai and other Kuria. Seers foretold and in effect planned cattle raids undertaken by warriors, but they also acted more generally to warn of impending events and thus to influence the course of political action. They were distinguished by their more public role from diviners but theirs was not a formal office and it drew upon personal qualities, individual success and local renown. Their predictive ability was identified as ‘dreaming’ (okoroota) but the term is used freely in a metaphorical as well as literal sense. Seers varied considerably in their status and field of influence. The introduced term omonaabi, ‘prophet’, was in use by the 1950s to describe the more outstanding seers of the past, and they were credited with foretelling many of the circumstances that Kuria were later to experience. But by then it was only their prophecies and not they themselves, or their role, that had survived. A short postscript comments on the circumstances and use of these terms in 1990.

scholarly journals The Military Coups in Shadow of Democratization (A Comparative Study of Turkey and Mauritania)

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
EkramBadr El-din ◽  
Mohamed Dit Dah Ould Cheikh
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Establishment ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
The Military

The current study tries to examine the military coups that have occurred in Turkey and Mauritania. These coups differ from the other coups that occurred in the surrounding countries in the phase of democratization as these coups served as a hindrance to the process of democratization in Turkey and Mauritania. The problem of the study revolves around the analysis of the coups that happened in Turkey and Mauritania in the phase of democratic transition. The research is designed to answer the following question: what are the reasons that prompted the military establishment to intervene in political life in the shadow of the process of democratization in Turkey and Mauritania? The study aims at understanding reasons that pushed the military establishment to intervene in the political life. To discuss this phenomenon and achieve the required results, the analytical descriptive approach is adopted for concluding key results that may contribute to understand reasons that pushed the military establishment to intervene in the political life in Turkey and Mauritania in the aftermath democratization occurred in the two countries. The study concluded that the military establishment in both countries engaged in the political action and became ready to militarily intervene in the case of harming its interests and acquisitions. 

Senghor’s Grammatology: The Political Imaginaries of Writing African Languages

2019 ◽  
pp. 123-151
Author(s):  
Tobias Warner
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The Past ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
The Future ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Leopold Sedar Senghor

In the 1950s, linguistic research became privileged terrain for articulating political and aesthetic visions in soon-to-be independent Senegal. The poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal’s eventual first president, made the study of African languages into a source of political and artistic legitimation even as he consecrated French as the language of culture. This chapter traces Senghor’s research on African languages and explores his intellectual rivalry with Cheikh Anta Diop, the progenitor of modern Wolof writing. After independence, polemics over how to write Wolof culminated in the censorship of Ousmane Sembène’s film Ceddo, which was banned for its use of a double letter “d” in its title (a spelling convention that Senghor had made illegal). This chapter explores how debates over writing systems came to figure the stakes of decolonization—who was authorized to speak for the past and who would shape the terms in which the future would be imagined.

Persona and the Modern Republican: Constituting and Deconstituting Republican Ideals in Two Republican Political Ads

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110031
Author(s):  
Grant Cos ◽  
Babak Elahi
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Constitutive Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Action Committee ◽  
The Past ◽  
Action Committee ◽  
Political Ads

Ronald Reagan’s iconic, 1984 advertisement, “Morning in America,” has served as an ideological pole star for Republican identity for the past four decades. More recently, the political action committee, The Lincoln Project, a group of ex-Republicans, produced a number of ads highly critical of President Donald Trump’s administration. One specific ad, “Mourning in America,” uses the form of the original 1984 ad to communicate a set of radically different ideas from the original. This article fuses Black’s second persona and Wander’s third persona to Charland’s idea of constitutive rhetoric to explore how “Morning in America” constitutes a Republican identity via a matrimonial symbolism that connects candidate to a gauzy, constructed community and imagined culture. We argue that the Lincoln Project’s “Mourning in America” deconstitutes the very ideals promulgated in the original ad through a stark funereal symbolism. The implications of this symbolism on the Republican identity are discussed in the conclusion.

Reviving Albert Camus: Nonviolence and Pro-Independence PR Activism in Catalonia

2020 ◽  
pp. 000276422098111
Author(s):  
Jordi Xifra
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Albert Camus ◽  
The Political ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Spanish Society ◽  
The Past ◽  
Separatist Movement ◽  
Activist Groups ◽  
Nationalist Parties

In recent years, the electoral situation in Spain, has been marked by the issue of Catalan independence, which has conditioned the electoral agenda of all parties and the frames of political discourse. Against the idea of a violent movement that the Spanish nationalist parties and government want to transmit to Spanish society about the separatist movement, the nationalist parties’ and Catalan government turn to nonviolent discourse and action. This nonviolent behavior is based on what in the past century was defended by some public intellectuals, such as Albert Camus. Indeed, Camus is our exemplar because he also raises issues that continue to be relevant, especially in advocating principles and methods of nonviolent political action. Furthermore, Camus did so in situations of war and injustice through tactics typical of political communication the of activist groups. This article wants to show how current and how effective the ideas of Camus are today, when it is 60 years since his death, in some national electoral discourses and actions, and serve for activism PR purposes in the political communication frame.

Understanding Integration from Rwanda to Iraq

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Macrae
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Determinants ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Political Responses ◽  
The Relationship

The past decade has seen profound changes in the relationship between humanitarian and political action. The political determinants of humanitarian crises are now acknowledged, so too is their chronicity, and the limits of relief aid as a form of intervention are thus more fully understood. In 1994, in the refugee camps of Goma, Zaire, there was widespread manipulation of aid resources by armed groups implicated in the genocide in Rwanda. This experience highlighted a wider concern that, rather than doing good, emergency aid can fuel violence. The apparent consensus that humanitarian assistance can somehow stand outside politics gave way to calls for tighter linkage between aid and political responses to crises.

Military Institutional Development and Sociopolitical Change: The Bolivian Case

1972 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles D. Corbett
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sociopolitical Change ◽  
American Military ◽  
The Past ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Structural Relationships ◽  
The Military

The Latin American military is a complex institution in a complex society. It probably has always been, but in the past the dynamics acting upon the change versus order equation have allowed new structural relationships to be worked out over extended periods of time, relatively free from ideological passions and exogenous influences. That time has passed. Probably in no other region of the world are military establishments undergoing the degree of institutional selfexamination and mission redefinition as are the armies of Latin America today. They have neither the development-oriented self-confidence of the armies of the “new” nations, nor the threat-oriented Weltanschauung of the military in the established countries. Previously acceptable roles—as moderators in the political process or guarantors of their own image of the country's traditions—are under examination not only in the society at large but in the heart of the military institutions.

scholarly journals CONTEXTOS DE CENSURA ÀS ARTES VISUAIS NO BRASIL: DUAS APROXIMAÇÕES / Visual arts censorship contexts in Brazil: two approaches

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (40) ◽  
pp. 201-215
Author(s):  
Juliana Proenço de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
State Institution ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The Military ◽  
A Current

Esta pesquisa propõe aproximar o “contexto” de censura às artes visuais no Brasil após 2017 ao da ditadura militar (1964–1985). Na ditadura, a censura agia via um órgão estatal oficial, extinto em 1988. Ainda assim, pode-se divisar um "contexto" atual de censura pela profusão de casos ocorridos desde 2017. Se, no passado, censurar era ato exclusivo de funcionários estatais específicos; representantes públicos, privados e até indivíduos censuraram obras de arte nos últimos anos. No curso da análise, surgem indagações sobre o perfil político ou moral da censura nos dois contextos estudados e sobre a capacidade de ambos gerarem autocensura. Argumento comum hoje é o de que a censura não passa de uma “cortina de fumaça” para interesses políticos. Urge cogitar que se lida com algo menos efêmero do que fumaça, cuja dispersão exigirá esforços concretos.Palavras-chave: Censura às artes visuais no Brasil; Ditadura militar; Órgãos estatais de censura; Censura política; Censura moral.Abstract This research proposes to approximate the “context” of censorship to visual arts in Brazil after 2017 to that of the military dictatorship (1964–1985). In the dictatorship, censorship acted via an official state institution, which was extinguished in 1988. Still, one can see a current "context" of censorship by the profusion of cases that have occurred since 2017. If, in the past, censoring was the exclusive act of specific state officials; public and private representatives and even individuals have censored works of art in recent years. In the course of the analysis, questions arise about the political or moral profile of censorship in each of the studied contexts and about the capacity of both to generate self-censorship. A common argument today is that censorship is nothing more than a “smokescreen” for political interests. There is an urgent need to consider dealing with something less ephemeral than smoke, the dispersal of which will require concrete efforts.Keywords: Censorship of visual arts in Brazil; Military dictatorship; State censorship; Political censorship; Moral censorship. 

scholarly journals The Evolution of the Ancient Way of the Warrior: From the Ancient Chronicles to the Tokugawa Period

Asian Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-109
Author(s):  
Maria Paola CULEDDU
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Martial Arts ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Government ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Past ◽  
Tokugawa Period ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Military ◽  
Warrior Class

The term bushidō is widespread today and involves history, philosophy, literature, ­sociology and religion. It is commonly believed to be rooted in the ancient “way” of the bushi or samurai, the Japanese warriors who led the country until modern times. However, even in the past the bushi were seldom represented accurately. Mostly, they were depicted as the authors thought they should be, to fulfil a certain role in society and on the political scene.By taking into account some ancient and pre-modern writings, from the 8th to the 19th centuries, from the ancient chronicles of Japan, war tales, official laws, letters, to martial arts manuals and philosophical essays, and by highlighting some of the bushidō values, this article attempts to answer the questions how and why the representation of the bushi changed from the rise of the warrior class to the end of the military government in the 19th century.

REVISITING ḤAḌAR AND BADŪ IN KUWAIT: CITIZENSHIP, HOUSING, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A DICHOTOMY

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farah Al-Nakib
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
State Building ◽  
State Policies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
Housing Policies ◽  
The Past ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Conflictual Relationship

AbstractKuwait today is 99 percent urbanized. Though hosting a substantial desert population in the past, Kuwait no longer contains any Bedouin who practice a nomadic or pastoral lifestyle. And yet the term badū remains in popular use in Kuwait to designate a group considered sociologically and culturally distinct from the ḥaḍar, or settled urbanites, which in Kuwait's context refers solely to descendants of the pre-oil townspeople. This article explores why these social designations still exist in Kuwait and analyzes the origins of the conflictual relationship between the two groups. I argue that the persistence of the ḥaḍar/badū dichotomy is an outcome of state-building strategies adopted in the early oil years, mainly linked to citizenship and housing policies, that contributed to fixing ḥaḍar and badū as not only socially distinct but also geographically bounded groups. These state policies implemented between the 1950s and 1980s fostered the political integration but social exclusion of the badū. The article examines the lived realities of these incoherent policies as one way of explaining how the badū shifted from being the rulers’ main loyalty base in the early oil decades to becoming their primary opposition today.

The Negative Image of Africa's Military

1968 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-439
Author(s):  
Kenneth W. Grundy
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Direct Involvement ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Leadership ◽  
The Military

The past few years have seen a tremendous increase in the direct involvement of Africa's military men in political affairs. Between January, 1963, and early 1968 there were no less than nineteen successful military coups, military-led secessions, or military actions instrumental in bringing about changes of government in that continent. This total can be augmented by the numerous attempted military coups, mutinies, secessions, and plots that failed to gain power or that were foiled before launching. This increase in the political activities of the military in Africa calls for an assessment of the degree to which Africa's military men are accepted as legitimate national leadership material by Africa's masses and intellectuals.

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