Replenishing Milk Sons

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-27
Author(s):  
Konstantina Isidoros
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Nomadic Pastoralism ◽  
Western Sahara

Abstract Since the decolonisation period, the Sahrāwī in the western Sahara Desert, North Africa have experienced very specific sociopolitical transformations relating to their millennia-old specialisation in nomadic pastoralism. This article examines the effects of such transformations on particular forms of making kin out of others – milk kinship. Various political circumstances have obliged the Sahrāwī to restructure their customary principles of organisation, possibly diminishing these practices. I question the effects of the loss of milk kin – particularly of milk sons – and the strains on customary matrilocal relations in the survival pressure on kinship relying solely upon ‘blood’ sons to replace these ‘missing men’.

scholarly journals MIRACLE OR MIRAGE? CRITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY OF ECOLOGICAL MODERNIZATION IN LIGHT OF THE DESERTEC PROJECT

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUIZ ENRIQUE VIEIRA DE SOUZA ◽  
MARCELO FETZ ◽  
ALINA MIKHAILOVNA GILMANOVA CAVALCANTE
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Ecological Modernization ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
International Media ◽  
Solar Thermal Power ◽  
Limited Scope

Abstract This investigation analyzes the Desertec project, which envisioned a transition to “clean energy” through constructing solar thermal power plants in the Sahara Desert and linking Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East via high voltage cables. Despite great enthusiasm in the international media and some sectors of civil society, the project faced so many obstacles that even the consortium which initially fostered the initiative decided to withdraw. This article uses this case to critically assess the theoretical and epistemological assumptions of the theory of ecological modernization, pointing out an alternate research agenda which focuses on unsuccessful projects in this area (failure cases), emphasizing the limited scope of this theory and the teleological postulate which assumes convergence between economic and environmental rationalities.

Nicholas Said

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Bashir Salau
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Middle East ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Insight Into

The two versions of the autobiography that Nicholas Said published offer insight into 19th-century conditions in five continents as well as insight into life as a child, slave, manservant, and teacher. As a child in the 1830s, Said was enslaved in Borno, marched across the Sahara Desert, and passed from hand to hand in North Africa and the Middle East. After serving as a slave in various societies, Said was freed by a Russian aristocrat in the late 1850s after accompanying the aristocrat in question to various parts of Europe. In the 1850s, Said also traveled as a manservant for a European traveler to South and North America. Ultimately he settled in the United States, where he authored two versions of his autobiography, served as a teacher and soldier, got married, and disappeared from sight. This article compares the two versions of the autobiography that Said published, provides an overview of Said’s life, charts the development of scholarly works on Said, and draws attention to the primary sources related to the study of Said and his autobiography.

Extending France’s empire into the desert: Régnauld de Lannoy de Bissy’s feuille 17: Timbouktou

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 381-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kory Olson
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Physical Characteristics ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
French People ◽  
Niger River ◽  
Large Sections

Upon the 1830 landing on the shores of Algeria, France solidified control of coastal territories. Although the French had little initial desire to move into the vast desert interior of North Africa, the so-called scramble for Africa and the glorification of Britain’s Dr. Livingston after his death later in the century inspired many French politicians and scientists to reexamine their own engagement with the continent. As a result, in 1883, Richard de Régnauld de Lannoy de Bissy (Lannoy), working on behalf of the Service géographique de l’armée, published the first thirty-eight of his sixty-three-sheet Carte d’Afrique. Although much of the continent had been visited and documented by Europeans as late as the early 1880s, there remained many blank spaces on French maps. This paper will examine Lannoy’s feuille 17: Timbouktou, which presents one such relatively unknown sector of the Sahara Desert, to the French people. Lannoy documents important physical characteristics such as the flow of the Niger River, large sections of desert, and both present and past caravan routes. However, he also de-legitimizes indigenous claims to the area and presents it as open and ready to accept French control.

scholarly journals Cart-ruts in Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain) volcanoes tops point to Equinoxes, Summer and Winter Solstices

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (13) ◽  
pp. 123-138
Author(s):  
Antonio Arnaiz-Villena ◽  
Marcial Medina ◽  
Valentín Ruiz-del-Valle ◽  
Adrian Lopez-Nares ◽  
Julian Rodriguez-Rodriguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Canary Islands ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Azores Archipelago ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Probability Methods ◽  
European Investment

Cart-ruts have been observed in Mediterranean Basin, Eurasia and Africa. They are rock carved stripes and channels which unexpectedly converge and/or bend, not being useful for transportation use because constant parallelism is not kept. Cart-ruts came first to scholars attention in Malta and Gozo Islands where they are abundant and dated at Bronze or Temple Age of this Archipelago. A big conjoint European investment for Cart-ruts study only got a detailed inventory in several Eurasian and African countries. Age and use of Cart-ruts remains non-discovered: it is admitted that different ages and uses may not be the same for different or even same areas. Azores Archipelago Cart-ruts were left out of this study and we have recently described them at Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain) volcanoes tops and slopes and suggested that they could have been useful for space and time measurements. In the present study, Lanzarote is studied and Mt. Mina and Mt. Guardilama mountains Cart-ruts azimuths points to Summer and Winter Solstices sunrises respectively as measured from Quesera/”Cheeseboard” of Zonzamas, which is a prehistoric Guanche lunisolar calendar. Mt. Tenezara Cart-ruts azimuth is pointing towards Equinoxes sunrises, as observed from Zonzamas prehistoric calendar. Thus, a use for measure time and space could be a function for some Lanzarote Cart-ruts. We explain these findings in a prehistoric Guanche aborigine culture context probably common to Atlantic megalithic Bronze Age and to all Canary Islands having prehistoric inter-navigation, because all have similar rock Iberian-Guanche inscriptions and other common cultural traits. Sahara Desert abandoning by people also influenced Mediterranean and Atlantic culture. Probability that 3 out of 7 studied volcano Cart-ruts point to Solstices and Equinoxes by chance is close to zero as calculated by factorial probability methods. Keywords: Latin, Scripts, Canary Islands, Iberian, Guanche, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Quesera-Cheeseboard, Pyramids, Berber, Africa, Punic, Roman, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Canaria, Calendar, Etruscan, Basque, Cart-ruts, Usko-Mediterranean, Solstice, Equinox, Zonzamas, HLA, Genetics, Sahara. Atchano, Malta

Western Sahara: A frozen conflict

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Chavez-Fregoso ◽  
Nikola Živković
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
High Involvement ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
External Actors ◽  
Frozen Conflict

The conflict in the Western Sahara is one of the oldest and most neglected. It is a conflict that moves yet fails to transform. It includes a number of internal and external traits, a high involvement of external actors and, apparently, no real desire to negotiate, impeding the disputing parties from transforming their initial positions that render this conflict frozen. It is a conflict in which, despite decades of negotiations and the expressed desire to reach a resolution (whether by autonomy, annexation or independence), economic and political interests, identities and the influence of foreign relations seem to obstruct rather than contribute to the conflict transformation. !is article offers arguments that explain the Western Sahara conflict as a frozen one, and argues that acknowledgment of this reality is necessary to enable a conflict transformation that would contribute to the security of the region of North Africa.

A case study for structural and stratigraphical enhancement in the western Sahara desert

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria S. Donati ◽  
Pedro Munoz ◽  
Ali Omar BenGheit ◽  
Lamin Abushaala ◽  
Francisco Ortigosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Western Sahara

scholarly journals Genome Sequences of SAT 2 Foot-and-Mouth Disease Viruses from Egypt and Palestinian Autonomous Territories (Gaza Strip)

2012 ◽  
Vol 86 (16) ◽  
pp. 8901-8902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Begoña Valdazo-González ◽  
Nick J. Knowles ◽  
Jef Hammond ◽  
Donald P. King
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Foot And Mouth Disease ◽  
Mouth Disease ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
Genome Sequences ◽  
Mouth Disease Virus ◽  
Foot And Mouth ◽  
Complete Genomic

Two foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) genome sequences have been determined for isolates collected from recent field outbreaks in North Africa (Egypt) and the Middle East (Palestinian Autonomous Territories). These data represent the first examples of complete genomic sequences for the FMDV SAT 2 topotype VII, which is thought to be endemic in countries immediately to the south of the Sahara desert. Further studies are now urgently required to provide insights into the epidemiological links between these outbreaks and to define the pathogenicity of this emerging lineage.

scholarly journals THE PROBLEM OF CEUTA AND MELILLA IN SPANISH FOREIGN POLICY

2017 ◽  
pp. 66-72
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Cherkasova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Illegal Immigration ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Strategic Objective ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Southern Border ◽  
Sub Saharan

The article is dedicated to one of the most important problems of Spain’s foreign policy, namely the problem of the two Spanish enclaves located on the territory of Morocco - Ceuta and Melilla. The historical and legal provisions form the basis of arguments of the Spanish and Moroccan parts justifying their claim to these disputed territories. A comparison is made between the problems of Ceuta and Melilla and Gibraltar.Particular attention is paid to the question of whether they are covered by NATO’s security guarantee. The author substantiates that Morocco is using the issue of Ceuta and Melilla as a means of pressure on Spain to get benefits in other areas, including trade, immigration, and fishing. Rabat also seeks to force Spain to change its position on the Western Sahara. The current situation of the Spanish cities in the light of their current economic, migratory and political problems is analyzed. It isemphasized that illegal immigration mostly from sub-Saharan countries is one of the main problems of the Spanish-Moroccan relations, complicating the situation in Ceuta and Melilla. This problem is far from being resolved. The main task of the Western countries regarding this issue is the maintenance of stability in the region, which perfectly meets the interests of Spain. Madrid’s efforts are focused primarily on prevention of such development of political and economic situation which would put the country before the need to strengthen its southern border by military means. This strategic objective has become particularly relevant in light of recent events in North Africa.

The Horse and Slave Trade Between the Western Sahara and Senegambia

1993 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-246
Author(s):  
James L. A. Webb
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
North African ◽  
African Slave ◽  
Black African ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Atlantic Slave Trade ◽  
Late Fifteenth

Following the late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century cavalry revolution in Senegambia, the horse and slave trade became a major sector of the desert-edge political economy. Black African states imported horses from North Africa and the western Sahara in exchange for slaves. Over time, under conditions of increasing aridity, the zone of desert horse-breeding was pushed south, and through crossbreeding with the small disease-resistant indigenous horses of the savanna, new breeds were created. Although the savanna remained an epidemiologically hostile environment for the larger and more desirable horses bred in North Africa, in the high desert and along the desert fringe, Black African states continued to import horses in exchange for slaves into the period of French colonial rule.The evidence assembled on the horse trade into northern Senegambia raises the difficult issue of the relative quantitative importance of the Atlantic and Saharan/North African slave trades and calls into question the assumption that the Atlantic slave trade was the larger of the two. Most available evidence concerns the Wolof kingdoms of Waalo and Kajoor. It suggests that the volume of slaves exported north into the desert from Waalo in the late seventeenth century was probably at least ten times as great as the volume of slaves exported into the Atlantic slave trade. For both Waalo and Kajoor, this ratio declined during the first half of the eighteenth century as slave exports into the Atlantic markets increased. The second half of the eighteenth century saw an increase in predatory raiding from the desert which produced an additional flow of north-bound slaves. For Waalo and Kajoor – and probably for the other Black African states of northern Senegambia – the flow of slaves north to Saharan and North African markets probably remained the larger of the two export volumes over the eighteenth century. This northward flow of slaves continued strong after the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade and was only shut down with the imposition of French colonial authority.

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